which is called The Invitation of the Ancestor to Eastern India. This case And if you keep that in mind, it will unravel itself for you. So, Mon Song introduces and he says, the state before the beginning of time, a turtle heads for the fire, heads for the fire.

[01:08]

The one phrase specially transmitted outside of doctrine, the lip of a mortar, bears flowers. Now tell me, is there any accepting and upholding, reading and reciting in this? And then he presents the case. A Raja of an East Indian country invited the 27th Buddhist ancestor, Prajnatara, to a feast. The Raja asked him, why don't you read scriptures? The patriarch said, this poor wayfarer doesn't dwell in the realms of the body or mind when breathing in, doesn't get involved in myriad circumstances when breathing out. I always reiterate such a scripture. And then Wansong has a commentary, and he says, the 27th ancestor was first called Keyura as a boy, and later he became Prajnathara.

[02:34]

As it came to pass that the 26th ancestor Punyamitra, was riding by in a chariot together with a king of eastern India, who was known as the Resolute, the ancestor asked the boy, can you remember things of the past? The boy, Kayura, replied, I remember that eons ago I lived in the same place as you, master. You were expounding Maha Prajna, great wisdom, and I was upholding the most profound scripture. I have been awaiting you here to assist you in the true teaching." The ancestor said to the Raja, this is not one of the lesser holy ones, this is the bodily reflection of Mahastamaprapta, the one who has arrived at great power. The Raja had a boy get into the chariot, took him to the palace and made offerings to him.

[03:37]

When the boy put on monastic robes, And had his head shaved, the ancestor drew on the connection with the prajna, or wisdom scripture, to have him named Prajnatara, Jewel of Wisdom. The Lian court took Bodhidharma to be Avalokiteśvara. In India, they considered his teacher, Prajnatara, to be Mahasthamaprapta. Only Amitabha Buddha hasn't come down here to earth so far." A long pause. Feng Gan talks too much. Later, as it happened that the royal family provided for an assembly, the Honorable Prajnatara presided. This old fellow displayed wonders and fooled the crowd. At that time, he should have been knocked over to cut off the complications. If we wait for the question, why the honored one doesn't read scriptures, after all, it can't be let go.

[04:45]

And this old fellow, Prajnatara, had no signs of greatness either. He took a gourd horse dipper and flipped it over once. The Raja bowed and respected that. What does he know? I say the king of a nation comforted one grain of another's rice. The reverend lost 10,000 years provisions. He only knew his iron spine held up the sky. He didn't realize his brain had fallen to the ground. If you want to help him up, only Tian Tong can do this. And his verse says, that's what's next. That's how he introduces Tian Tong's verse. So we will go back. to the beginning, the introduction. The state before the beginning of time. That just means unthinkable times ago.

[05:48]

A turtle heads for the fire. So in his comment in the back, Clary seems to think that a turtle heads for the fire means something unthinkable, or a paradox, because turtles, excuse me, head for water, right? Yeah. That's right. Yes, it is. has to do with maybe original face or primal truth. A turtle heads for the fire. The one phrase specially transmitted outside of doctrine, the lip of a mortar bears flowers.

[06:58]

The phrase transmitted outside of doctrine is something attributed to Bodhidharma. Zen is that old phrase, transmission outside of the scriptures. It's attributed to Bodhidharma. I think that's what this is referring to. The one phrase specially transmitted outside of doctrine is reality. In other words, so that also points out what this case is about. There is no Zen scripture. No special Zen scripture. Zen is something that's transmitted outside of scriptures.

[08:00]

In the time of Bodhidharma, in China, there were many schools of Buddhism. And each one of the schools was organized around one of the scriptures. And by the 6th century, in China, there were was flooded with scriptures from India. And not only were they flooded with scriptures from India, but they were also producing their own, which were passed off as scriptures from India. And many of them were contradictory. People would read one scripture, because all the scriptures were supposed to have been, strictly speaking, spoken by the Buddha. And they didn't start writing down the Buddha's words until 400 years or so after he died.

[09:03]

But the Chinese, consider the scriptures as the gospel of Buddha. Very much in some ways like fundamentalists consider the scriptures, the Bible, as the word of God. And then along comes Bodhidharma, and said this teaching that I am passing on is outside of the scriptures.

[10:06]

So the one phrase especially transmitted outside of the scripture, outside of doctrine, the lip of a mortar bears flowers. flowers, whatever mortar is, a mortar and pestle. I think that's what this kind of mortar is. People plant flowers in mortars, but they don't grow out of mortars. Now tell me, is there any accepting and upholding, reading and reciting in this? You know, at the end of a scripture, it often says, you should read, you should accept, uphold, read and recite this scripture. This is what it says at the end of most Mahayana scriptures. The Diamond Sutra says that.

[11:14]

As a matter of fact, the Diamond Sutra continually says, you know, it names all kinds of wonderful things to do, but reciting one phrase of this scripture brings more merit than all these other things. So that's what this sentence is referring to. Now tell me, is there any accepting, upholding, reading and reciting in this? So this introduction is get preparing us for the case by the first part, maybe turning things upside down and hinting about Bodhidharma's transmission outside of the scriptures and giving us some hints

[12:28]

bits and phrases to point this out. Do you have a question? Do you understand this? And so the turtle has this kind of mystique about it. But I don't know if there's any connection between that and this.

[13:40]

In the back of the book, originally I think Cleary had a lot of footnotes. But if they were included in the book, it would have made the book too big. And so there's a short list of footnotes, starting with page 430. And so this one, The Raja of an East Indian country invited the 27th Buddhist ancestor Prajnatara to a feast.

[15:06]

Now Prajnatara, as it will explain later, was the teacher of Bodhidharma. He was the ancestor before Bodhidharma, and he was Bodhidharma's teacher. And he was an old man by the time he was Bodhidharma's teacher, I think. Anyway, so the Raja asked him sometime during the feast, I guess they were sitting next to each other, he said, why don't you read scriptures? I don't know what this means. Why don't you read them now? Or why don't you ever read Why don't you read them to us? Or why don't you ever read scriptures? I don't know, it could be either way. Why don't you read scriptures? At any rate, the ancestors said, this poor wayfarer, which is the way

[16:07]

His poor wayfarer doesn't dwell in the realms of the body or mind when breathing in." In other words, not attached to the body or mind. When breathing in, I'm not attached to body or mind. Doesn't dwell in, I think, doesn't literally mean doesn't dwell in, that means is not attached. sense of it is, and doesn't get involved in myriad circumstances when breathing out. So, not attached with in and not attached without. Doesn't get involved or attached. I always reiterate such a scripture, hundreds, thousands, millions of scrolls. He's preaching the Dharma.

[17:22]

No need to. It's not no need to read scriptures or recite them, but the true scripture is always being written. Each one of us actually is writing our own scripture, our own sutra. The life of a Zen student is a sutra. So every Zen student is preaching the Dharma unawares. Either aware or unaware. Continuously. So, if you have any questions, go along.

[18:28]

There's a footnote there, where I get a question. Why can't you read sutras? And this footnote says, Chinese? Yeah, that's Wang Chun's footnotes after that question. Okay, can you say what it is again? Without establishing merit and receiving rewards, I cannot rest or eat well. I don't have the peace of mind to eat and rest well. The preceding lecture in eulogy was an unlimited excellent cause.

[20:03]

Oh, whoever receives a salary without service is uneasy in sleeping and eating. In other words, if you don't earn what you do, you don't feel easy about it. What does that have to do with not reading scriptures? Well, do you think he's earning his keep? It has to do with... If you only recite scriptures, then you may be doing something, but it's not your own work. Right? Your own work. You don't feel easy about just mouthing someone else's words. So... You have to do your own work. And that's the real scripture.

[21:21]

It seems to me this is one of those typical ironic comments where Wong Tsung is saying, look at Prajnaparamita. He's called before the emperor and he's not producing. He recites the Eucharist all the time, and more than earning his keep. It looks like he's not reciting. It looks like he's not earning his keep. He's making a joke. He's making jokes, yeah. Kind of a joke. Now I have to tell Tom's father about... About the same added thing? Yeah, about Tom's father. Constantly evolving.

[22:33]

Thus sutra. Constantly evolving. Thus. The. Such. Such sutra. Such a sutra. Yeah. So that would be for, oh I always, I see. Instead of I always reiterate. Uh huh, yes. Constantly evolving such a scripture. Yeah, I think that's better. Yeah. I like that better. Anybody have a pencil? No. When I write down, I'm going to stay there.

[23:45]

I think that goes with the next line, which is 100,000 million. That means it's constantly evolving endlessly. Yeah. Yeah. All right. structure so I mean does one case follow another and yeah

[25:03]

Although no one has said that it has that kind of structure, I've noticed myself that these early cases, the first four or five cases, seem to have a very similar kind of structure to talk about the same thing. But I don't know if it follows in clumps or in divisions. It might be staying at home or something. Maybe, yeah. I haven't studied the book all the way through. So I've been studying it for the past two years and gotten to the 25th case. So, in order to go on, okay, so where was, oh yes, so Raja of the eastern country, eastern

[27:03]

Prajnatara to a feast. And the Raja asked him, why don't you read the scriptures? And the patriarch said, this poor wayfarer doesn't dwell in the realms of body and mind when breathing in, doesn't get involved in various circumstances when breathing out. I always constantly, I'm always constantly evolving. This is constantly evolving. This is like a constantly evolving sutra. or like a citra, which is constantly evolving endlessly. So the 27th ancestor was first called Kaira, as a boy. That's Prajnatara. As it came to pass that the 26th, this is a kind of mythology of the ancestors. As it came to pass that the 26th ancestor, Punyamitra, who came before him, was riding by in a chariot together with the king of eastern India, who was known as the Resolute.

[28:11]

The ancestor asked the boy, he stopped and said, this is an unusual looking child. And he stopped and said, can you remember things of the past? This happens often when you read, as you remember when we a caisson's book, often the last, the former ancestor will meet the next one on the road. This happened between the fourth and fifth ancestors and with several others. They see the boy on the road and ask him a question about who he is. But I think the road, you know, it's put into a kind of story, but The road may be like the path, actually. So anyway, he says, can you remember things of the past?

[29:14]

And the boy Kiyura replied, I remember that aeons ago, the state before the beginning of time? Aeons ago, I lived in the same place as you, master. This is what Shakyamuni Buddha said, too. But no. Anyway, I'll think of his name. I remember eons ago, remember he lived, he was with his Buddha and he put down his hair so the Buddha could walk across. I remember that eons ago I lived in the same place as you, Master. You were expounding Mahaprajna, great wisdom, and I was upholding the most profound scripture.

[30:19]

I was upholding the most profound scripture, which I guess that's what he means. But I don't know what he means by I was upholding. I have been awaiting you here to assist you in the true teaching. So maybe what he means, he says, you are expounding the Mahaprajna, great wisdom. And I was upholding the most profound scripture. I have been awaiting you here to assist you in the true teaching. And the patriarch said to the Raja, this is not one of the lesser holy ones. This is a bodily reflection of Mahasthamaprapta, the one who has arrived at great power. Mahasthamaprapta, there's a footnote about it. 432. Yeah.

[31:28]

A trans-historical bodhisattva, traditionally the guardian of Amitabha Buddha's wisdom, is Avalokiteshvara is the guardian of Amitabha Buddha's compassion. Amitabha Buddha is usually depicted having in his crown a little figure of Avalokiteshvara. Because Amitabha is the Buddha and I'm pretty sure Avalokiteshvara is the guardian of Amitabha.

[32:31]

So Amitabha is the big one and Avalokiteshvara is the little one. His head supposedly split because he was trying to save so many people. His head split into many. And Amitabha put his back together and on the top of his head he always carried the image of Amitabha. Maybe so. I won't dispute that. Maybe he's the other way around. But anyway, Avalokiteshvara is the guardian of Amitabha Buddha's compassion. And Mahasattva Prapta is the guardian of his wisdom. Wisdom and compassion are the two wings or wheels of enlightenment.

[33:33]

So the guardians of wisdom and compassion represent the eternal potential to complete enlightenment. So then the Raja had the boy get into the chariot and took him to the palace and made offerings to him. When the boy put on monastic robes and had his head shaved, the patriarch drew the connection with the prajna, or wisdom scripture, that he was talking about, to heaven in prajna-tara, which means jewel of wisdom. So the Iliya court took Bodhidharma to be Avalokiteshvara. So, Prajnatara... Punya Mitra took Prajnatara to be Mahasamapratna.

[34:50]

And in here it says, The Leon court took Bodhidharma to be Avalokiteshvara, the other side. And when you read the story of Bodhidharma and the emperor, after Bodhidharma left, his priest said to the emperor, you know who that was? That was Avalokiteshvara. that you were talking to. So that's that reference. The Liang court, Emperor Wu, Liang's court, took Bodhidharma to be Avalokiteshvara. In India, they considered his teacher, Prajnatara, to be Mahasthamaprapta. So those are Bodhidharma and Prajnatara are with Compassion and wisdom, or the protectors of compassion and wisdom, is what this thing is saying.

[35:58]

Only Amitabha Buddha, only Amitabha Buddha hasn't come down here to earth for a long, so far. In other words, the protectors are there, but Amitabha hasn't arrived yet. And then, a long pause, and Fingon talks too much. So there is a Fingon talks too much footnote. I don't know if I'm pronouncing that right, but lu ki yun che. How do you say that? Qui che? It's an old name.

[37:02]

He invited Feng Gan to be abbot of a certain monastery. But Feng Gan didn't consent. He said, I don't want to do that. And Lu then asked who he should honor as a teacher. Then Ghan told him that Hanshan and Shite, two famous eccentrics, were manifestations of the eternal enlightened beings, Manjushri and Samantabhadra. All these Bodhisattvas are getting in here tonight. Lu, therefore, went and bowed to them. When they asked, why? Why are you bowing to me? Why are you bowing to us? He related to them what Fingon had said. They laughed and said, Fingon talks too much. Why don't you go bow to him?

[38:04]

Don't you know he's Amitabha Buddha? So that's what he did. So, only Amitabha, only, see, the Ayyadhara court took Bodhidharma to be Avalokiteshvara, and in India they considered his teacher, Prajnaparamita, to be Mahasthamaprakta. Only Amitabha Buddha hasn't come down here to earth so far. Thank God. Thanks too much. Later, as it happened, that the royal family provided for an assembly, so that's, now we're, he's talking about the story, the setting of this story. Later, as it happened that the royal family provided for an assembly, the honored Prajnatara presided. This old fellow displayed wonders and fooled the crowd.

[39:08]

People thought he was somebody. At that time, he should have been knocked over to cut off the complications. If we wait for the question, why the honored one doesn't read scriptures, after all, it can't be let go. And this old fellow, Prajnatara, had no signs of greatness, either. Just an ordinary old man. He took a gourd horse dipper. I guess that's something that you... gourd horse dipper. So you dip it in water and give it to the horse. Yeah. I guess you do that. But why you do that? Why you need to do that? You just have a water trough, right? Or if you're on the road, you know. Yeah, okay. A bored horse dipper. It's a different shape of a horse. Flip it over once.

[40:12]

Yeah, he is. He turned things upside down. And the Raja bowed in respect. What does he know? I say, the king of a nation coveted one grain of another's rice. He wanted something. The reverend lost 10,000 years' provisions. In other words, he couldn't answer. He didn't. He couldn't. I guess. What do you think that means? He lost 10,000 years provisions. He manifested that wisdom that he accumulated over 10,000 years just by not believing that. Right. He demonstrated that he didn't have it. Right. And he only knew his iron spine held up the sky. Well, maybe Zazieh, or his true... He only had the fundamental thing.

[41:55]

He only knew what the fundamental thing was, poor guy. He didn't realize his brain had fallen to the ground. disparagingly as a compliment. If you want to help him up, aha, only Tianpeng can do it. So his verse says, a cloud rhino gazes at the moon, its light engulfing radiance. A wood horse romps in spring, swift and unbridled. Under the eyebrows, a pair of cold blue eyes. How can reading scriptures reach the piercing of oxide?

[43:01]

The clear mind produces vast aeons. Heroic power smashes the double enclosure. In the subtle round mouth of the pivot turns the spiritual works. Hanschan forgot the road by which he came. and Chitte led him back by the hand. Do you know about Hanshan and Chitte? They were two Zen eccentric men, sometimes pictured with brooms. Being, you know, completely unbound by anything. Drifting in rags. And every once in a while they appear and make fun of the monks. You know, they'll come in.

[44:04]

Either the monks will meet them on the road or they'll come into the monastery. that whenever they're encountered, they always turn everybody upside down and laugh and run off. So here's the commentary. The opening two lines eulogize not dwelling in the realms of body or mind. not involved in myriad circumstances. That was referring to the case, those words, the case. According to the analysis of the canonical teachings, this is the Abhidhamma, five clusters of form, sensation, conception, conditioning, and consciousness, those are the five skandhas, form, feelings, perception,

[45:13]

Meaning, eye, ear, sound, smell, form, nose, tongue, taste, body, feeling, mind, feeling. In other words, the five senses, the five sense consciousnesses, and the five sense objects, six, excuse me, is 18 altogether, the 18 realms. These are called the three groups. So this is basic Buddhism. The Honored One, Prajnaparamita, just brought up the head and tail, implicitly including what's in between. So he's saying, not dwelling in the realms of body and mind, and not involved in myriad The Sanskrit word Agapana means breathing.

[46:36]

Breathing out and breathing in. And there are six methods involved with this. Counting. You know about that. Following the breath. Stopping. We don't do that. That probably is one breathing, I think that's one breathing method associated with Buddhist practice at some point, at some time. Inhale again, and one method of following breath is to exhale and find that bottom of the breath, pause, and then inhale again. So I think that pause at the bottom of the breath, you can call that stopping. And contemplating, and then contemplating I think is more like being aware of.

[47:41]

And returning is coming back when wandering and purification. So the details are, as in the Great Treatise on Cessation and Contemplation by the master of Tiantai, whose name is Jur-I, Tiantai. Tiantai is Japanese Tendai, Tiantai, Tiantai. And Jur-I was the master of Tiantai in China. And he wrote, Tiantai Buddhism is a school of Buddhism which includes all the methods of practice and enumerates all the methods of practice in Buddhism. scholastic school, but also a kind of practice school.

[48:57]

And Dogen actually studied Tientai Buddhism in Japan when he was a young monk. So those whose preparation is not sufficient should not fail to be acquainted with this. In other words, you should learn these things if you want to understand Buddhism. Guishan, whose Japanese name is Ison, Guishan's admonitions say, if you have not yet embraced the principles of the teachings, you have no basis to attain understanding of the mystic path." That's the way he clearly translates that word, mystic.

[50:00]

So you should know the principles, even if you put studies in. The Jewel Mine Treatise of Seng Chau is beautiful. A priceless jewel is hidden within the pit of the clusters of being. The clusters of being is like the five skandhas, right? So the jewel is hidden within the clusters of being. And when you will find the spiritual light shining alone, when will you find the spiritual light shining alone, far transcending the senses? So here, he's kind of saying, you should study the scriptures. You should understand all this stuff. You should understand what the masters of the past are talking about through the scriptures.

[51:02]

So it's interesting that he's not putting this down. And But he's saying you have to go beyond it. You have to understand what other people have understood, and then create your own scripture. Master Uman uses this case. Seng Chao was Kumarajiva's disciple, who wrote one of the outstanding Chinese scholars. He didn't want to marry the emperor's daughter, and if you refused to do what the emperor says, he has to chop your head off.

[52:14]

So he didn't want to marry the emperor's daughter. And the king said, well, I'm going to have to chop your head off. He said, well, just give me a little while more to write my, finish my writings, my translations and writings. And then he wrote a poem, something like, you know, the knife going through the neck is just like the spring breeze blowing. So, here is where... Did he get his head chopped off? Yeah. Sad. So, the next lines are directly related to the verse, okay?

[53:16]

So where Tian Tong says is related to the first two lines of the verse. Tian Tong says, a cloud rhino gazes at the moon, its light engulfing radiance. And then he says, for that particular line, in an ancient song, it says that the rhino grew his horn while gazing at the pattern of the moon. Good works are to be treasured, but in the final analysis, they tend toward feelings and thoughts based on literary content. They should be treasured. We should definitely treasure the scriptures. But in the end, they tend toward thoughts and feelings based on literary content. So what you end up talking about is words. Discussion is usually about words.

[54:18]

It ends up going over and over about words, and words become a subject instead of, you know, this. Case 24 is about the rhinoceros fan. Actually, you know, this word, the rhino, the cloud rhino, is about this line, actually. The teacher asks the attendant, will you bring me the rhinoceros fan? The rhinoceros fan has this painting of a cloud rhino gazing at the moon. Will you bring me the rhinoceros fan? And the attendant says, the fan is broken. He says, well, then bring me the rhinoceros. Do you understand me? Do you understand me?

[55:19]

And then he got his head chopped off, right? Yeah, well the attendant got his head chopped off. We should all have our heads chopped off. And our brains will fall off. The part where he's saying, you should understand, you know. Which part is that? Well, in the paragraph in the proceeding, when he's describing how the Amidarma, you know, you should understand about the five scents. Yes. You should understand about it. And you're saying, he's sort of saying, yeah, you should prepare yourself for practice by knowing this stuff.

[56:24]

But that, it seems like a direct contradiction to what I understand that. In some sense, he may be reacting to this earlier attitude. So, what I'm asking, because it's important to me, I think it's important for us, you know, should we spend time understanding Buddha's scriptures, or should we just hold our feet still? Sometimes you should spend your whole time studying Buddha's scriptures. And sometimes you should put it all aside and just sit.

[57:24]

So, you know, Dogen says this, and then he says this, and then he says this, right? All responding to a certain situation and a certain circumstance, right? So you have to understand that. When he says, no need to offer other things, no need to prostrate, doesn't mean that you should not do those things. He's talking in an extreme way about the fundamental thing is to sit. Even if you don't do all those other things, the fundamental thing is to sit. He doesn't say you shouldn't do those things. It just sounds like he's saying that. No need, no need. No need means you can do away with everything else. It doesn't mean, you know, you can live on matzahs in the desert.

[58:28]

But it doesn't mean, you know, at the appropriate time you should have peas and carrots. And then after you have some confidence, then you should study. And then when you study, you understand why you're sitting. It helps to verify your practice. It's not like you read scriptures to learn something that you don't know. The scriptures reveal to you what you already know. opens you up to understand it. So scriptures and Zazen go together.

[59:30]

If you don't understand Buddhism, Buddhadharma, then your Zazen is kind of dry. And if you don't, if you're only understand scriptures and don't sit, you don't have a practice. So, they go together. And Duggan also says that you should really honor and study the scriptures. In some places, you should not do that. Don't study the old cases. But he does it all the time. I mean, he's supposed to learn in person. You can imagine. Before he was 19, it was said that he'd studied the 12 Tripitaka three times. I don't know if that's true, but when you read Dogen, he's always holding up something as an example.

[60:38]

And he has so much knowledge of Buddhism and Zen, And in one fascicle, he's given us ten examples. But where do these examples come from? He doesn't study Buddhism. If you're a doctor, you go to college, and you go to medical school, and you study all these things. And then when you get out, You practice case by case using your own understanding. But all the things that you studied bring out your understanding. They stimulate your understanding so that you know how to deal with it. Some people just go by the book. They're not very good doctors. A good doctor is one who has studied all the stuff, but has the intuition to know what's going on with the patient, how to cure the patient.

[61:46]

That's what comes through intuition, coupled with learning. So, why should it be different in Buddhism? Who invented the case itself here? Who invented the case? Well, the case comes from a legend about what happened, right? It's a story. So there's a little story about what happened, which is fairly common, you know, in the Tang Dynasty. And then the master, takes the case and makes a poem on it to bring out the meaning in a poetic way. And then the commentator creates an introduction and the introduction is to, he wants to explicate it further for people.

[63:02]

So he makes an introduction on the case and then He comments on the case, and then brings out the poem of the first teacher, and then comments on that. starts there, and it goes no further than that. So I'm wondering why. Right. So that's why you need the commentary. To open it up. Open up the meaning. Or go beyond it. Or go beyond it. But at least to open the meaning. Because on the surface it looks like a criticism. He warns you right away about the turtle heading toward the fire.

[64:07]

Yeah. Yeah. He warns you right away about the turtle heading toward the fire. What does he mean by that? About tearing up the sutras. I've sold years, but I'm obviously getting better. What's the scientist's name who was in the wheelchair?

[65:12]

So he was having this talk about how the earth was created, and this woman said, it's turtles all the way through. So good words are to be treasured, but in the final analysis, they tend toward feelings and thoughts based on literary content. That takes care of the first line. A wooden horse romps in spring. That's the second line. Swift and unbridled. This eulogizes breathing out, not involved in myriad circumstances. One might say that skillful action has no tracks. So skillful action has no track. No track's, Tozan calls it the bird's path.

[66:35]

Well, yes, I'm back at Dipper here. This is the wooden horse. The word what? Horse? Wooden horse. Oh yeah. Roams in the spring. Yeah. Lasting still. It's not going anywhere. He roams in the spring by staying still. The wooden horse roams in the spring by staying still. Or playing in the spring, enjoying the spring, by staying still. Oh, that's good. Is that for Chinese? Yeah, I think, yeah. Well, if he's wooden, he wouldn't move. He wouldn't do it? He wouldn't do it. So, under the eyebrows, this is the third line, under the eyebrows a pair of cold eyes.

[67:40]

Lu Opu said, one who has only understood himself and has not yet clarified the eye of objective reality is someone who has only one eye. If you want both eyes to be perfectly clear, You must not dwell in the realms of the body and mind, and not get involved in myriad circumstances. And to realize this, you must hang sun and moon high in the shadowless forest. Implicitly discern the spring and autumn on the budless branches. That's a famous line. Hanging the sun and moon have to have something to block the sun, right?

[68:46]

Well, what if there was no light at all? Well, if there's moon and sun, we're up high. You know, if the moon and sun are up high, shining down on the shadowless forest, The blue eyes are unusual among Indians. Indians, Chinese. But the Lothian army is called the blue-eyed one, barbarian. Maybe all this has something to do with not getting involved in various circumstances.

[69:57]

It says, if you want both eyes to be perfectly clear, Don't dwell on mind and body. Don't get involved in myriad circumstances. If you're going to worry about whether shadows are formed by the moon and sun, or worry about whether you can see spring and autumn in budless branches. I mean, budless branches are the winter branches. So what I'm sort of saying is, and the sun casts a shadow is getting involved in myriad circumstances. What is getting involved? To be dependent upon causes and conditions, whether it's spring or autumn. Because in some sense, whether there's a shadow also depends upon the time.

[71:04]

Moon and Sun are high overhead. There is no shadow. I know there's no shadow. Well, I think you're getting at it. It makes me think of the Sandokai. And Athena said the shadowless forest is completely dark. I was thinking that the shadowless forest might be emptiness and what he's asking us to do to realize this, you must hang sun and moon. It's like, that's an active sort of image. So it's like we bring discriminating awareness or we bring the world of form into this world of formlessness. And we do it actively, sort of allowing both to arise together. You know, you can't just go into emptiness, and you can't just stay in the world of form. That sounds good.

[72:47]

Well, under the eyebrows, a pair of cold blue eyes. That's like seeing things clearly. Cold means without emotion or not made partial by blue eyes. One who has only understood himself, I don't know if that's the best translation, and not yet clarified the eye of objective reality, is someone who has only one eye. So if you want both eyes to be perfectly clear, you must not dwell in the realms of body or mind, and not yet involved in myriad circumstances. So here he's talking about not being caught by either feelings or circumstances, which he said before, dwelling in the realm of body and mind or in circumstances.

[74:04]

If you want both eyes to be clear, we shouldn't get caught in subject and object in that discrepancy. So to realize this, you must hang the sun and the moon high in the shadowless forest. Shadowless forest also has the feeling of transparency. When there's no shadow, it means there's no self. That's often used as a way of talking about no self. to be in the realm where you don't cast a shadow means there's no self-blocking or light. I struggle often with these kinds of phrases.

[75:07]

And right now it seems like the question blowing around in my head is, What is this non-involvement in circumstance? And what does that look like? And how is that possible? And it seems so far from my interest, even. Yes, very far from your interest. And so it looks like, what is going on, right? Often. Yeah. So, just keep feeding those. Implicitly discerning spring and autumn on the edge of those branches, even though there are no buds, you know that it's like there's a phrase, Japanese people

[76:15]

during winter, everything is covered with snow, but the implication is that in spring, everything will burst into new life. So that's actually what winter means in Japan. It's kind of dormancy, but it's implied. That dormancy and that snow and bloodlessness implies life potential, the potentiality, yes. own view or screen or whatever.

[77:19]

So not being involved is maybe not, you know, you shouldn't take that literally. Not being involved means not attached, is what it literally means. And not imposing on. Yeah, that's right. Within circumstances, not to impose on or not to be. Not to stand in the light, or in the way of the light, but be transparent. Is there also some notion of trusting the natural world? Oh, yeah. So breathing out, not being involved in married circumstances. attached to body and mind, breathing out, not being attached to circumstances, means not getting in the way and allowing the way to unfold itself as you.

[78:59]

Another way to look at it is sort of It doesn't mean being passive. I mean, if you're sitting there and there's an oncoming train, you don't just sit there passively and let the train run over. But you don't sit there and think, oh my God, the train's going to hit me. Should I jump to the left or the right? What should I do? And get so worried that the train hits you. But you should do whatever. You should just discern the circumstances and do what's appropriate. And conceivably there could be a set of circumstances when the appropriate thing for you to do is to sit there and let the train hit you. Right. But you need to just see what the situation is and discern what the appropriate action is and do it without getting caught up in all this kind of prior emotion that you bring to the situation. Well, that's right. So that's preconceptions.

[80:00]

assumptions, to just be open to each moment. That's right. Could there ever be an appropriate time when it would be okay to let the train continue? Well, there was this man that it happened to not long ago. He didn't think the train was going to stop. He thought the train was going to stop, though. And the train just kept going. Yeah. But I don't think that it's appropriate to do that. But she's just using that as an extreme example. No, I know, but I was using it in the way she was. Well, Gandhi used it. Gandhi let that happen. I mean, not to train, but he let people beat him up and he didn't resist them. That was one of his practices.

[81:04]

That's right, you know, the man in Tiananmen Square who was standing in front of the tank, you know, and he wasn't backing down. He had his head chopped off too, right? So sometimes it's appropriate. I mean, you know, anything can be appropriate at the right, given the right circumstances. So the third line, how can reading scriptures, that's actually the fourth line, how can reading scriptures reach the piercing of oxide?

[82:23]

This is like the mosquito biting the iron bull. You've heard that before. This is like a mosquito trying to bite an iron bull. You can't pierce the hide. So how can a scripture reach the piercing of oxhide? Chongqing said, what fault is there in the eye? In the Heroic March scripture, which is, I think, the Surangama Sutra, it says, now as you look over this assembly of sages using the eyes to look around, Those eyes see everywhere, just like a mirror in which there is no special discrimination. This is like the great mirror of wisdom. If you miss it here, as Yawashon said, you must even perish through oxide. I say, after all, he had the adamantine eye.

[83:28]

It's nine o'clock. And this goes on. We'll get out of the first ones, and it'll be case number Dizong, planting the fields. Number 12. Is that 12? Yes. But not next time, the time after. We still have a long way to go on this case.

[84:25]

@Text_v004
@Score_JJ