I love to taste the truth of the doctor's words. Good morning. Good morning. This morning I want to present a case number five from the Blue Cliff Record and discuss it a bit. Case number five is called Seppo's Grain of Rice. Seppo, or Chinese name, was Shui Feng, who was one of the prominent teachers in the Tang Dynasty in China.

[01:07]

So, Master Ngo introduces the subject, and in his introduction he says, To guard and maintain the essential teachings of Buddhadharma must be the vocation of the noble soul. That person does not blink when killing someone and then that someone may be instantly enlightened. Hence, he observes and acts simultaneously and holds fast and lets go without restraint. He sees that essence and phenomenon are not two, that expediency and reality run parallel. He often rejects the first principle and adopts the second. This is because to cut through the complications too abruptly causes the beginner to lose his or her footing.

[02:16]

A day like yesterday, that could not be avoided. Again, a day like today, his transgressions fill the heavens. If you are clear-sighted, however, you cannot blame him. If otherwise, you put yourself in the tiger's mouth. You lose your life instantly. Now see the following. The main subject. Setbo addressed the assembly and said, All the great world, if I pick it up with my fingertips, is found to be like a grain of rice. I throw it in front of your face, but you do not see it. Beat the drum, tell the monks to come out and go to work and search for it. And then Setso has a verse. He says, the ox head disappearing, the horse head appears. No dust on the mirror of the patriarch, Soke.

[03:21]

You beat the drum and search for it in vain. For whom do the spring flowers bloom? That's a very famous line in Zen, for whom do the spring flowers bloom? So to go back to Ngo's introduction, he says, to guard and maintain the essential teaching of Buddhadharma, must be the vocation of the noble soul. He's talking about Seppo here, the teacher. This is the vocation of the monk or the priest or the teacher. Sometimes people wonder and they say, isn't it strange to be a professional

[04:30]

or professional priest. Professional sounds like some kind of job in the world. Professional doesn't quite fit. It sort of fits, but it doesn't quite fit. But this is the monk's or the priest's or the teacher's task. is to guard and maintain. Guard means to make sure that the dharma doesn't get distorted and doesn't get perverted and maintains... it's maintained on a high level. And maintained means that someone is always taken care of passing the Dharma from one to another, and maintaining the practice.

[05:40]

So, guarding and maintaining, that is very important. Someone has to do that. so that everyone can practice. And then he says, he does not blink when killing someone, instead of killing a man or a woman. And then the man may be instantly enlightened. So killing doesn't mean the usual kind of killing, of course. It means cutting through ego. Until you're dead, you can't be enlightened. So, when the ego is laid down, when body and mind are dropped off, so to speak, then there's an opening.

[07:01]

And when there's an opening, there is enlightenment. There is the opportunity for enlightenment. So a teacher should be able to help a student to drop body and mind, to give some opening for enlightenment. teacher's task. But a teacher can't do it for someone, although the teacher can help. So actually, we're all self-enlightened. Although sometimes it looks like the teacher enlightens the student. But the teacher is a kind of catalyst but the student enlightens the student or enlightenment comes all by itself but whether suddenly or slowly so we talk about killing and we also talk about killing buddha

[08:29]

necessary to kill Buddha, which means some idea that you have about Buddha, or some idea that you have about enlightenment. Some old saying, don't put another head on top of your own head, don't stick some Buddha head on top of your head, or some enlightenment idea in your behind your eyes. Enlightenment, in order to experience enlightenment, you must get rid of the idea of enlightenment, even though the idea of enlightenment is what is necessary to have. The idea of Buddha is necessary to have, but In order to experience Buddha, we have to get rid of the idea of Buddha.

[09:38]

So it's very hard to see reality. This is what this koan is about. Pretty hard to see reality, and yet, because of our idea, and yet, it's important to have, necessary to have our idea. at the same time. So, he says, hence, he observes and acts simultaneously, at the same time, observes and acts at the same time, without hesitancy or without discursive thinking. and holds fast and lets go without restraint. Holding fast means taking all your ideas away. Taking away your idea of enlightenment, taking away your idea of Buddha, taking away your understanding of everything.

[10:47]

And letting go means granting your idea, granting your understanding. So these are two methods, two aspects of teaching. A teacher sometimes takes everything away and there you're standing with nothing. Sometimes grants and then you have a lot of support, a lot of crutches, a lot of furniture to lounge around on. So, he sees that essence and phenomenon are not two. He realizes, he sees with his own eyes that essence of things and phenomenon are not two things. A grain of rice is the whole universe.

[11:59]

that expedience and reality run parallel. He often rejects the first principle and adopts the second. So first principle means reality. When everything is taken away, you are standing in reality. But it's hard to stand in. So directly understandable, without any gap, or without any expediency, or without any intermediary. The second principle is explanation, study, lecture. This is called mistake on purpose. So, he sees that essence and phenomenon.

[13:12]

He often rejects the first principle and adopts the second. So, the first principle, of course, is most important, that we actually see reality with our own eyes. The second principle is that we have some explanation of it, like a picture, a painting. So sometimes he just puts aside the first principle and presents the second principle. This is because to cut through the complications too abruptly causes the beginner to lose her footing. In other words, if you take everything away like you're supposed to, it's too abrupt and doesn't help. Even though you may find yourself completely naked sometimes, you won't understand it.

[14:19]

So the teacher has these methods and education and gives talks and is very kind. This is the granting way, the second principle. overlook the first principle. The first principle of teaching is Zazen. That is taking off your clothes, all of them, mental clothes, and just abiding in the first principle. That's Zazen. That's why we say Zazen itself is enlightenment. It may not be realization. You may not realize it. It is enlightenment. Enlightened activity is taking out all of the connecting tissue that compartmentalizes our thinking and discriminates the world.

[15:38]

So real zazen is to stop discriminating mind, to stop discriminating thinking. so that the universe resumes to its true nature of being one piece. So first principle is to realize that the universe is one piece. not just to explain it. So Zazen and work practice are both first principle. In work, you actually engage the universe as yourself. This is why

[16:45]

Zen practice or Zen training, we have very simple kinds of tasks. In simple kinds of tasks, we don't have to think too much. We don't have to get carried away with discriminative thinking, although discriminative thinking is also the first principle. The second principle is also an aspect of the first principle. Only when you understand the first principle. So he said, a day like yesterday, that cannot be avoided. A day like yesterday means I explained all day yesterday about Buddhism. But it couldn't be avoided. His transgressions or my transgressions fill the heavens.

[17:52]

Same thing, just two. Same following up. One transgression after another. If you are clear-sighted, however, you cannot blame him. In other words, if you really see, you can't blame him for doing this. This is his kindness and his compassion. And it's called making a mistake on purpose. As Suzuki Roshi used to say, we make a mistake on purpose. We explain something that can't be explained. But we know that that's what we're doing. If you don't understand, then you put yourself in the tiger's mouth. and you will lose your life instantly, which is not a bad thing.

[18:58]

This kind of killing means killing in order to bring to life. So, simultaneously killing and bringing to life. This is a monjushri sword. It goes both ways. In order to cut this way, you have to go back this way and cut. So it cuts both ways. It both kills and brings to life. So here's the main subject. Master Seppo addressed the assembly and he said, The whole great world, if I pick it up with my fingertips, is found to be like a grain of rice. I throw it in front of you, but you don't see it. Beat the drum and tell the monks to come out and go to work and search for it.

[20:04]

Beating the drum is calling the students together. Go out and look around for it. But no matter how much you look around for it, you won't see it because it's the most obvious thing that there is. This is the problem. It's not that it's obscure. First principle is not obscure. Reality is not obscure. It's just that it's so obvious that we can't see it. This is a big problem. We're always passing over, you know. Always walking past or walking around or trampling the flowers, so to speak. Looking for it. Everyone is actually looking for it, whether we know it or not. We're all looking for reality. Reality

[21:07]

is very hard to maintain, because we live in a dream world, and we're constantly dreaming. We don't think we're dreaming. We think that when we go to sleep, we have dreams. But there are sleeping dreams, which we recognize as dreams, but a waking dream is going on all the time. Whether that's good or bad, I don't know. But it obscures reality. Bare reality. Dreaming is a kind of reality, of course. But reality is the particular

[22:17]

and the essence. We see the particular all the time, but do we see the essence? When we look at a flower, do we say, I see the flower, but what do we see? Do we see the essence of the flower? What is flower essence? we can distill the flower, smell it, and say, ah, that's the essence. Sometimes we do that. Perfume. In Buddhism, Buddhist mythology, there's a realm, a Buddha realm, where, I think it's the realm of Akshobhya, where the people that live there don't eat, but they smell perfume all the time.

[23:29]

And the perfume, the essence, is their nourishment. So, you know, science, I think, tries to do the same thing. Science is trying to get to the essence. So science keeps dissecting Scientists keep dissecting phenomena in order to get to the essence. But is it necessary to keep dissecting? Do you have to dissect a frog to get to the essence of frogness? To let the frog jump into your hand? jump out of your hand, maybe, to observe essence of frog. Because if you take, if you open, you can find out certain things about how a frog works by dissecting the frog, but you can't get to the essence of frogness by dissecting a frog.

[24:43]

Everything is revealed just as it is. essence, essential, the essential essence of everything is revealed, just as it is, right in front of us, all the time. So, a grain of rice, we say, well, a grain of rice is part of the universe. But actually, a grain of rice is the whole universe. So Seppo throws down the rice and he says, what is it? All the great world, if I pick it up with my fingertips, is like a grain of rice.

[25:57]

Well, it is a grain of rice. The whole universe is a grain of rice. Matter of fact, the whole universe is my nose. Because my nose is no nose, and my eyes are no eyes, and my ears are no ears. And this no is the essence. No ears is the whole universe. Setso, in his verse, says, the ox head disappearing, the horse head appears. Ox head and horse head are kind of like dreams or fantasies.

[27:05]

One follows another. After the horse head appears, the ox head appears. One thought follows another. Continuous, momentary thoughts follow each other. Ideas and thoughts and fantasy. dream. Our mind is dreaming. One dream follows the other, continuously. And then he says, but there is no dust on the mirror of the patriarch Soke. He is referring to Daikon Eno, the sixth patriarch. His name is also Soke. His temple is Soke. and his famous poem in the Platform Sutra about there is no, not only is there no dust on the mirrors, there is no mirror for the dust to light on.

[28:12]

This is essence of reality. What we see is no special thing. All the dust in this universe is no special thing. It's all one piece, continually changing and creating forms. The various myriad faces of one thing. And he says, you beat the drum and search for it in vain. For whom do the spring flowers bloom? If we look around too much, try to find it, we never find it.

[29:18]

But if we just look at what's in front of us, there it is. That's what you're saying. If you want to know reality, just open your eyes. But even though we look, it's not the same as seeing. Who do the flowers bloom for? Well, they just bloom for themselves. They just bloom, not for anybody in particular. If I love the flowers, they bloom for me. Do you have any questions?

[30:42]

Ah, yes. that binds us and compartmentalizes the world.

[32:14]

We create our own reality. So whatever situation we're in, we create our own reality from it, from the elements. So it's true that there are certain extenuating circumstances that are hard to bear. Nevertheless, the world is both the place of suffering, the origin of suffering, and it's also nirvana. These are the so-called paradoxical aspects.

[33:19]

So, samsara, or this world of suffering, is also nirvana, or the world of liberation. is only possible in the world of samsara. And samsara is only possible in the realm of nirvana. So, what we call our suffering, the world of suffering, is also the world of nirvana, depending on our attitude. And by attitude, I mean how we see clearly, or how we see not clearly. Because nirvana doesn't exclude suffering, but encompasses suffering.

[34:30]

So that suffering and nirvana are not two different things. What occurs to me is what you're talking about in terms of mind is what a lot of brain researchers refer to as left brain. I'm kind of interested in research on the brain and not in the glory. But the left brain is also what I believe has evolved last and perhaps distinguishes us most from other species. But, so that, I think what happens to a lot of the students that are sent in is letting go of that, or periodically, the thoughts and so on that come up by way of what the researchers call a brain.

[35:37]

But there's a great deal more across the brain than one brain. I think it becomes very complex in terms But I just was struck with that because it is the source of both our... I'm sorry. It's a very complex experience. Our discriminating faculty is troublesome, but it's also some purpose. You know, in order to have clarity, it's not necessary to stop thinking. It's just that it's important to realize that discriminating mind by itself obscures reality.

[36:42]

If someone said it's enlightenment, then what makes enlightenment important? What makes it important? Well, just if you want to taste reality. If you don't think reality is important, it's okay. I guess I thought that Zazen was, in some people's minds, a way to achieve enlightenment, as well as a way of, a lack of a better way of being right with yourself and the world. That is, in some people's minds, true. And maybe that brings us to a little, I don't know. Zazen is not really a means to attain enlightenment.

[37:48]

It's a way of expressing enlightenment or allowing enlightenment to be expressed. It's not a practice to attain anything. If it's to attain anything, it's to attain myself. So it's just resuming to our original nature. Of all the forms around you?

[38:54]

Is that what you're saying? How do I relate to all these forms? Yeah, I actually thought it was a mirror. So how do you explain it? Yeah. Well, of course, you know, we use mirror in various ways as a metaphor. But when Hsinchu who was the Fifth Patriarch's main disciple, wrote his gatha on the wall. He said, there is a mirror on a stand, and the dust is constantly alighting, and you should keep wiping the dust all the time. And then, Hui Nung came along and wrote his little gatha. He said, there is no mirror. There's nothing from the beginning. Where is there a place for the dust to alight? Okay, so both of those are valid.

[40:04]

The mirror, even though there is a mirror, the dust is landing on, it's a no mirror. Even though we wipe the dust, we clean up, What we're cleaning up is a no-thing. This is the oneness of duality and the duality of oneness. So if you fall into one side or the other, even if you fall into the side where everything is empty, that's still dualistic. So non-duality has to include duality. Otherwise, we wouldn't be walking around thinking and doing things, right? But the stuff that we do is all empty at the same time.

[41:08]

Something is nothing and nothing is something. And you can understand this mentally But the way to experience it is through Zazen, through your actual perception. That's why I said you don't really see things as they are. But don't we still have kind of a bias towards the Absolute? Well, some do and some don't. Some have a bias toward the Absolute, some have a bias toward the relative. He won the poetry contest. That's right. That's why this poem is not necessarily so good. I'm sorry? This poem is not necessarily so good. Even though these poems are quoted a lot, there's some feeling that they're not really too good.

[42:15]

Well, it wouldn't have been very good without the other poem. That's right. Well, because often we give more weight to wisdom than compassion. Wisdom is to see things clearly, and compassion is to act out of humanness. So both of them have to go together all the time. Compassion is to be able to act out of wisdom moment by moment with your surroundings and with everything you meet.

[43:23]

So even though When somebody dies, we cry, but there's no reason to. But we do it anyway, out of compassion. From the point of view of wisdom, there's no reason to cry, frankly. But out of compassion, we do. So, both of them are very important. Both sides are equally important. Yes? You said that a grain of rice is the whole universe. No, I said a grain of rice is the whole universe. I have some problems with that because Even when one says a grain of rice, it seems like you're delineating a very partial part of the universe.

[44:37]

That's right. So we have to be able to delineate partial parts of the universe. That's not wrong. A grain of rice is a grain of rice. A grain of rice is suchness. But it's a grain of rice. It is the whole universe expressed as a grain of rice. This is the expression of essence. Essence expresses itself as things. But things are only momentary expressions. When there is a grain of rice, if that is the whole universe, Where is the ground? Where is the cloud? The cloud is also the whole universe. The ground is also the whole universe. Just because the grain of rice is the whole universe doesn't mean the ground isn't the whole universe.

[45:41]

So our tendency is to think that because this is, that this isn't. That's our tendency. So if this one is right, that means this one is wrong. That's duality. Thinking that because this is right, then this has got to be wrong. It's also a problem with hole. If you have one hole, how can you have other holes? That's right. You have only one hole. That's right. That's right. That's because you think this hole is really a part. Why do we have waking dreams? Well, that's a good question. I'll look it up in the encyclopedia. Well, the function of the mind, thinking mind, is to continue to think. And that's its function. And it can't stop. It's just like breathing.

[46:54]

You know, it's like saying, why do we breathe? Well, we don't breathe. Breathing does us. Breathing brings us. So we don't really consciously breathe. Although sometimes we pay attention to our breathing. And sometimes we try to control our breathing. But almost all the time, breathing is just breathing. It's just universal activity, frankly. It's not something we have to try to do or try to stop doing. It just goes. But we say, I breathe. We also say, I think. But actually the mind is always churning stuff out and we do have, there is, our volition has some control over that. We direct our thinking and sometimes thinking just bursts forth and then we go with it, you know.

[47:56]

And so there's a lot of interplay between volitional thinking and non-volitional thinking. When you sit zazen, you realize how much non-volitional thinking goes on in your mind, in your thinking mind. So even though you are not thinking of something volitionally, the mind is always creating thoughts. So dreaming is... by saying dreaming, you're saying... Well, when I say dream, I don't mean dream like in the sleep. Just thinking is dreaming. Just the very act of thinking is dreaming. So we say, well, and then we fulfill our dreams. And sometimes we don't fulfill our dreams. So when we don't fulfill our dreams, it's called daydreaming. When we do fulfill our dreams, it's called thinking. because we dream something and then we fulfill it.

[49:01]

Say, I'm going to have lunch at 12 o'clock. That's a dream. We call it a thought, either way. And then we fulfill this dream and actualize it. How do we discriminate among these dreams? Well, how do you mean by discriminate? to eat, but others are not. Right, so there are basic functions, and then there are functions with which we unfold our life, so to speak. And that's why we usually have some rules as to how to you know, millions and billions of rules and categories, you know.

[50:11]

So we put life in all these categories. And we have schools, and we have vocations, we have, you know, all kinds, and we have to decide, what is it that I'm doing? That's a big, big thing. What? That's the thing that we really have to figure out about our life, and we don't always figure that out. And sometimes we figure it out at the end. Oh, God, if I don't leave! I have a question about, a comment also about what you said at the beginning about guarding. Oh, yeah. Waking dream that we live in.

[51:16]

Right. So how do you organize our waking, our dreams, so that we can direct it toward reality? So that dream and reality come together. Parallel. The second principle, the second principle you can call dream, in a sense. And first principle is They both run parallel. When dream and purpose, or when dream and reality are doing the same thing, then second principle and first principle are the same. So it's what am I committed to doing? What's my intention? It keeps coming back to, what is my intention?

[52:20]

And that tells you what to do. Are they exclusive thinking and being in reality? No, they're not exclusive. That's what I said. When they come together, then they're one thing. Two aspects. When I say reality, I'm thinking and not thinking. Can you be present in being imprinted with reality through thinking? imprinted, I would say expressed. Let reality be expressed.

[53:20]

By reality I mean the essence and the function are the same. But function is non-dualistic activity. The function of reality, of essence of reality, is non-dualistic activity, which can also include duality or discrimination. So it can include thinking? Oh, it has to, of course. It's not like you have to eliminate something out of your life. What you eliminate is the delusion. Well, how do I eliminate a delusion? Recognize it. You recognize, you know what you're doing. It seems to me that, you know, if you say that the rise is the whole universe, the sky is the whole universe, the ground is the whole universe, it seems like, to me, that you're saying in a temporal sense the progression from the whole universe appearing as a grain of rice, as the ground, as the sky.

[54:46]

I can't I don't think that this is what you intend to say, but it's, how do I, I can understand a kind of conceptual thing that at the moment that I am, that is my experience, a grain of rice is my experience, that that is the whole universe. If that's what you mean to say, then I understand it, but other than that, I thought there's Then you have all these discrete objects which are moments in time. Rice, ground, cloud. Would that be a clear, seen clearly to say that rice is the whole universe and ground is the whole universe and clouds are the whole universe?

[55:48]

And you are clouds. And you are a grain of rice. Time. What do you mean? Positions, I mean. Positions. Positions? Well, jobs, yeah. Whatever. Some, yeah, some position. From the position that you have, which you may call a job. Oh, okay. From that, from the position where we are, our dharma spot, we should learn to relate to everything in a non-dualistic way.

[56:56]

Yeah. And we rotate these positions. Sometimes you're the cook. Sometimes you're the... cleaning the zental floor. Sometimes you're... is that what you mean by jobs? Well, I was even thinking... first I was thinking about... about Sochi. And how, like, if you practice every day, most days here, like, I guess Tuesday through Friday, you would do Sochi. And we do this in our lives, like there's just, you know, we wash dishes and so on and so forth, and we do these things only to do them again, you know. No, we never do them again. This is important. That's the very essence, is that we never repeat anything. Okay. So how would you say what it is that we do? What it is that we do is that, although you have a purpose for doing something, which is your dream, what you're actually doing is what you're doing.

[58:06]

So your dream is, I am washing the dishes to get them done. But what you're actually doing is just this. You and the dish. Even though there's a dish and there's you, you are the dish and the dish is you. You're not doing the dishes just to get the dishes done. Just in order to do something else. The whole universe is right here as I wash dish. And there's nothing next. Yes, I... I understand that. What I'm trying to say is that's true in that moment. Yes, right, in that moment. Okay. But for the practitioner then, even though part of the practice is being present,

[59:19]

Part of the reality is that there will very likely, after this moment, there will be another this moment, right? And to me that's part of the learning or the teaching. The understanding. The understanding. Is that this, just this moment, this moment, this moment, this moment for its own sake, But this moment, every time we say, this moment, it seems like a different moment. But we always say, this moment, every time. Ten years ago, he said, this moment. So, is that the same or different? Is Zen at this moment?

[60:22]

At this moment, yes. Zen is at this moment. Just this. Is that the same or different? That's the koan. You don't have to answer it right away. But you should answer it. in your activity. That's where the answers should take place. Your response should take place right in the activity. So activity has a dual thing. One is you're trying to accomplish something. The other thing is there's just doing. Just doing is all that's happening. Beyond your dreams. It's an activity in total stillness.

[61:37]

Kings are numberless.

[62:07]

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