It looks like we might have some very warm days for sashimi. Already this early it's getting warm. As this is the first day, more people will join us as Sesshin goes on. And I noticed that there's, although we're sitting quite still and very well, there's It will take a while for our minds and bodies to calm down, to really settle into Sashin.

[01:11]

As Sashin progresses, the feeling in the Zenda will become more and more still and calm. So, even though there may be, you may have some problems that have come into the Zendo with you, as Sesshin goes on, and we become more and more immersed, and our samadhi becomes deeper, you'll become much more calm and still. So that's what I would like us to strive for. I want to talk about something that I've talked about before.

[02:25]

So please don't be discouraged if you've heard me talk about this before. I wanted to talk about these four characters, Dao Wu, Lung Tan, the old woman, and Da Shan. These are the Chinese names because these lives took place in China. There are also Japanese names which we usually use, Japanese names are Daowu, I mean Dogo, Dogo for Daowu, Ryutan for Luntan, and Tokusan for Dashan.

[03:28]

So you probably, if you, most of our reading in the past about the old masters was using their Japanese names. But in the last few years, because the translations are more from the Chinese, the translators use Chinese names, so it can be very confusing and difficult to keep straight the old masters and their names. the old masters and the old mistresses. Actually, in this case, there's an old woman who is very pivotal to Dashaun's enlightenment. These four, Daowu, Lungtan and the old woman are all instrumental in Dasan's enlightenment.

[04:42]

So I want to first talk about Dao Wu and his student Lungtan and then about Lungtan and his student Dasan. As I told you, I've told you this story many times. Da Shan was a master during the ninth century in China, and he had a student, Leung Ton. But Leung Ton, he knew Leung Ton when he was a small boy and recognized something extraordinary about Leung Ton, even when he was a boy.

[05:47]

Something about his seriousness and his ability to grasp reality. and the way he took care of things. So when Lung Tan was a boy, Doshan took an interest in him and invited his family to live in a house that belonged to the temple or to the monastery. And the family was very poor and they used to make little cakes for a living. The whole family, as Chinese families tend to do, all worked together toward making a living for the family. And these little cakes were called mind refreshers, as they still are today.

[06:54]

So out of gratitude, for what Dao Wu did for the family and for his friendship to Lungton. The family, through Lungton, used to send over 10 little cakes every day to Dao Wu. And when Dao Wu would receive the 10 little cakes, he would always give one back to Leung Ton. And he would say, this is for your posterity. And one day Leung Ton said to himself, I wonder if there's some hidden meaning in when Da Wu gives me back one little cake every day.

[07:59]

and says, this is for your posterity. I think I'll ask him about it. So he asked Da Wu about it. And Da Wu said, is there anything wrong with me giving back to you that which already came from you or which originally belonged to you? And at that point, Lung Tan had a very nice understanding. He understood his teacher's intention and he also understood something about what Zen practice is about. So he studied with, after a while he became a monk, even though he was quite young, studying with his teacher, Dao Wu, in the monastery.

[09:01]

In China, in those days, it was not uncommon for young boys to become monks, novices. They couldn't really be ordained until they were 18 or 20 or something like that. But they could be novices in the temple and live in the temple and practice. And then when they got older, they become ordained. As a matter of fact, Dao Wu, when he was 14, wanted to become a monk, which his parents didn't want him to do at all. And so he stopped eating until they let him go. So Dao Wu became Lung Tan's teacher in the monastery, and Lung Tan studied with him for quite a few years. But he thought to himself one day, that I had been studying with Lung Tan for quite a long time, but he's never really taught me anything.

[10:14]

It's a little strange. I've been there, hanging around, doing all this stuff, sitting in Zazen, But Lungton's never really taught me anything. I think I'll ask him about it. So he went to Lungton and he said, I've been here in the monastery for three or four years, whatever it was, but I've never really received any teaching from you. And Da Wu looked very surprised. He said, Gee, that's strange. He said, when you serve me tea, don't I accept it and drink it? And when you serve me food, don't I eat it? And when you bow to me, don't I bow back to you? He said, I've been teaching you the fundamental thing all along.

[11:21]

What more do you want? And at that point, Lungtang had a very deep realization about his own mind and his teacher's mind and the fundamental way. So later, when Lungtan grew up and became a teacher in his own right, he had his own monastery and became rather well-known. As a matter of fact, he was known as well-known Ryutan, well-known Lungtan.

[12:26]

And there was a teacher, a monk named Darshan, who was very learned in the Diamond Sutra, in the Prajnaparamita. But he was a Vinaya monk, he was not a Zen monk. And matter of fact, he had a big resentment against the Zen teachers because the Zen teachers were teaching sudden enlightenment and the fact that one could have realization in one lifetime, whereas the old way of thinking was that it took many, many lifetimes to become enlightened. And what were these Zen monks doing, talking about seeing into one's own nature?

[13:39]

And all of a sudden, without having to go through all these lifetimes of practice first, I can understand his feeling. It's understandable. so he was he was very powerful kind of person and very dynamic and He used to lecture on the Diamond Sutra, and he was well-known lecturer But his understanding was Book learning And I Lungtang's understanding was his own. So he packed up all of his commentaries to the Diamond Sutra, put them on his back, and set out to challenge the Zen world.

[14:55]

And so on his way, it's not clear whether he was going to visit Lung Tan or just going out to find somebody. It's not really clear. But anyway, on the road, he stopped in a little bakery. And inside the little bakery was this old woman. And he saw that she had these little cakes called mind refreshers. And he thought, well, that's what I want. And so she knew what he wanted. But she said, what is that you're carrying on your back anyway? And he said, these are my commentaries. Not his own commentaries, but commentaries of famous commentators. on the Diamond Sutra.

[16:02]

I'm a famous lecturer on the Diamond Sutra myself. And implying that if she wanted a lecture on the Diamond Sutra, he would certainly give her one. And she said, oh, that's very interesting. She said, I'll tell you what. I'll ask you, I want to ask you a question. And if you can answer my question, you can have some mind refreshers. Otherwise, you'll have to pay for them." So he said, fine, ask me. And she said, well, in my understanding of the Diamond Sutra, he didn't expect that. She said, in my understanding of the Diamond Sutra, it says, past mind future mind and present mind cannot be grasped. With what mind will you eat these mind refreshers?"

[17:04]

And he was completely stumped. He had really come up against a wall. She really pulled the rug right out from under him. And he was very embarrassed and dejected. My feeling, I was talking about this during my last session last week and it occurred to me that maybe this was Lung Tan's mother. It seems to fit together. Maybe, you know, Lung Tan's mother was living at the base of the mountain and her son was living at the top of the mountain and it was still the family business. And so He said to her, she said, well, what are you doing anyway? Where are you going? He says, well, I was looking for either I was looking for Lungton or I was looking for a Zen master so I could beat him up.

[18:11]

And she says, well, Lungton, my son Lungton lives up on the top of the mountain in his monastery. about five miles from here, five li. That's Chinese measurement, five li from here. And she said, why don't you go see him? He said, all right. So he took his, put his pack on his back and went up to see Lungtan. Lungtan means, the characters for the name, dragon pond or dragon Dragon is lung, or ryu, and tan is like a deep pool, very deep, clear pool. Dragons live in water. They live in deep ponds and deep pools, and they're always associated with water.

[19:20]

Tigers live in the mountains and in the forest. So sometimes they say it's like the tiger in the forest and the dragon in the water. This is their home. So when Darshan met Lungtang, Lungtang was just a very ordinary old man, ordinary looking person. He didn't have any special visible characteristics. He just looked like some ordinary, maybe like a peasant or something. And Darshan was not very impressed when he saw him. And he said, this is the famous Longtan? He said, I don't see any dragon or any pond. And Lungthang said, what you see is Lungthang.

[20:32]

What you see directly is Lungthang. So this is kind of also a little bit of a hint. What you directly see is Lungthang. What he's referring to is directly seeing. What Dushan's problem is, is that because of his learning, he can't, he's not able to see directly. It's not that there's something wrong with learning, but when you have some idea about something, you can't see directly, necessarily, because the idea comes in between yourself and what you see. So Dashan's problem is that he always had some idea in front of him.

[21:35]

He always had some idea in front of him about what he was seeing, rather than just seeing. So he went to Lungtang to help to help him see directly, but he didn't necessarily know that that's why he was going to Lungton. He thought that he was going to Lungton in order to show him something. He didn't realize that he was going to Lungton in order to be able to see. So, he stayed with Lungton for a while. And he came, actually, he was kind of humbled. When he got to Lungtan, he was actually kind of humbled. And he began to see who Lungtan really was.

[22:43]

And he got to a point where he was just about ready. to see, studying with Leung Tong. And one day, or one night, it was just between, you know, just as it was getting dark, and he was having this long talk with Leung Tong, and Leung Tong was getting a little bit tired of talking about whatever it was. And Da Shan, Lung Tan said to him, I think it's time for you to go home, or back to your place. But I think you'll need some light to find your way.

[23:48]

So he took a lantern or a candle. They used to make paper candles that were impregnated with wax. So, Lungtan lit the candle and handed it to Dasan. It was very, by that time, it was very dark outside. And as soon as Dasan took the candle, Lungtan went, blew out the candle. And everything was completely pitch dark. There was no light anywhere. Everything was gone. And at that point, Dasan dropped everything. Everything dropped away from Dasan. His whole life was, everything in the world was pitch black. And this was Dasan's big realization.

[24:57]

experience. This is sometimes called pecking and tapping. When the chick is ready to come out of the shell, there's a tap, [...] tap. And the mother bird goes tap, tap, tap on the outside. This is not with chickens, but some birds do that. Tap, tap, tap, tap, and help show the bird the point, the chick the point. So it's called pecking and tapping from inside and outside, just at the right moment. If the mother panic taps too early or too late, it won't work.

[25:59]

So it has to be just right, just the right moment. This was just the right moment. And very likely, Rutan wasn't planning to do it. He was just giving him the light. But then, it just occurred to him to just go, He didn't think about it. It just... like that. So it was a kind of spontaneous act and a total surprise for Dascham. So... This story of Ryutan blowing up the lamp or the light, a very famous Zen story.

[27:10]

The next day, Dashan took all of his sutra commentaries and burned them, very gleefully burned them all. And he felt very liberated, which he was. All preconceptions had dropped from his mind. All points of view had dropped away. Any opinion had dropped away. He was just left with his clear light, which permeated the darkness. When everything became completely dark, he could see his light, which illuminated everywhere. But, and then Darshan left Rita and

[28:18]

But later he came back and studied with Vuitton for 30 years. And this is a very significant part of the story, because this pitch blackness is only one side of enlightenment. To have this kind of experience is necessary. for enlightenment, to have everything drop away and realize the no-self of yourself. But the other side is, after this realization, to This kind of realization leaves you like a baby.

[29:28]

This is an experience of being reborn as a baby. And then you have to learn to live your life as a new person. In Christianity, they're born-again Christians. And in Buddhism, actually, they're born-again something. Born again, no self-ness. Reborn. We say new, whoever you are. Renewed, actually. Not born again, because in Buddhism, no one is ever really born. back to the source and refining your life after enlightenment.

[30:33]

So the commentators always use this story as, they always say, well, Rutan, I mean Darshan, was a little too hasty in leaving Ryutong after his realization. He should have stuck around and not been so arrogant by leaving. Sometimes we have some big realization and we think, well, this is it. And then we leave. and lose ourself in the world. And it all kind of fritters away. Sometimes we think, if I only get enlightened, I'll always be enlightened.

[31:39]

And that's the end of it. And so we kind of want something. We want this enlightenment. But actually, you can have some enlightenment experience. Unless you cultivate after enlightenment, you lose it. You lose your understanding. So this kind of experience is very necessary. But on the other hand, it's not the end. It's only a beginning. Any kind of realization or enlightenment experience is only a beginning. for the rest of your life. Because you cannot stay in the baby stage. You can't stay in the newborn stage. Although we keep coming back to beginner's mind.

[32:43]

Beginner's mind is to have realization moment by moment. In stories, we always talk about great realization experience. And so it seems like once you have a great realization experience that you're totally enlightened and that experience lasts you for the rest of your life and you don't have to do anything. But in real life, it doesn't work like that. If you have a great realization, it can be the foundation for how you conduct your life within realization. But we have to continue to have realization moment by moment. You can't rest on your laurels.

[33:47]

You can't have a realization experience and then go out and do whatever you want and say, I was enlightened once and so that means that whatever I do is right or comes from correct understanding. That's not so. Moment after moment, we have to have enlightenment experience, which means dropping everything and renewing a beginner's mind. So Dushan's experience is very good. We should all experience utter darkness where everything is the same. Back to the beginning of life

[34:51]

But every day, we should have an enlightenment experience. Every hour, we should have an enlightenment experience. And our life should be enlightenment experience, moment after moment. Nothing special. Once you have that experience, nothing special. When there's something that you really want, becomes very special. But then when you get it, even though you take care of it and appreciate it, it's not so special anymore. It's hard to keep it special. It just becomes usual. The special becomes usual. But it's very special looking to someone who doesn't have it. So, how do we make our life special moment after moment, even though it's very ordinary?

[36:10]

The ordinary is very special, and the special is very ordinary. Although, It's wonderful to have a big experience. It's necessary that our experience be how to make the usual extraordinary and the extraordinary usual. This is beginner's mind practice. Not trying to do something extraordinary, but realizing the extraordinariness of our ordinariness.

[37:23]

So after Darshan's enlightenment experience, came back, he left, did some stupid things, and then he came back and studied with Lungtan for another 30 years and became a very famous Zen master himself. Darshan is famous for his big stick. He was a kind of severe person. And some people used to talk about Rinzai's shout and Dasan's big stick. So Dasan would always say, I'll give you 30 blows whether you're right or wrong. If you answer right, 30 blows. If you answer wrong, 30 blows. What will you do? So these folks are all in the lineage of Sekito.

[38:43]

Dao Wu was Sekito's student, also a student of Baso. And there are a lot of famous Zen masters in this lineage. So I want to familiarize you with some of these people in that lineage. And there are many good stories about them.

[39:21]

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