Morning. This morning, can you hear me? Yes. This morning I'm going to comment on case number 61 from the Blue Cliff record. It's called Fuketsu's One Particle of Dust. So I'll read the introduction with a pointer, as it's called, and then the case, and then Secho's verse. Master Engo introduces, and he says,

[01:00]

Setting up the Dharma banner and establishing the Dharma teaching, such is the task of the teacher of profound attainment. Distinguishing a dragon from a snake, the true from the false, that is what the mature master must do. Now, let's put aside for a moment how to wield the life-giving sword and the death-dealing blade, and how to administer blows with a stick, Tell me, what does the one who occupies the heartland say? And here's the main subject. Fuketsu said to the assembly, the monks, if one particle of dust is raised, the state will come into being. If no particle of dust is raised, the state will perish. Setjo, at a later date, holding up his staff, said to his disciples, is there anyone among you who will live with him and die with him?

[02:10]

And then Setjo's verse says, let the elders knit their brows as they will. For the moment, let the state be established. Where are the wise state's people, the venerable generals? The cool breeze blows and I nod to myself. So this needs some explanation. Fuketsu was a Dharma teacher in the Tang Dynasty in China. So that's where this drama takes place. So Ango, in his introduction, begins by saying, setting up the Dharma banner and establishing the Dharma teaching, such is the task of the teacher of profound attainment.

[03:14]

Setting up the Dharma banner takes a little explanation. In India, in ancient times, the philosophers and spiritual teachers would contest each other. They'd have contests to see whose teaching seemed to prove the true one. A kind of Dharma battle, maybe. So, they would set up a flag on a pole called the flagpole, in this case, the dorm of banner. And then they would have dialogue, and the one who lost would become the disciple of the one who won. Maybe, maybe not.

[04:18]

That's the story. And so there is another case, a very well-known case concerning this Dharma banner between Mahakasyapa and Ananda. As you may know, Ananda was the Buddha's cousin and supposedly had memorized all of the Buddha's teaching. That's the story. Anyway, he's known for his great accurate memory. And Mahakasyapa was, seems to have been, according to Zen lineage, the first, the major disciple of Shakyamuni Buddha. So they knew each other very well. And when they had the first council after the Buddha's decease to establish what his teaching was, they asked Ananda to come, or they wanted to ask Ananda to come because of his memory, but because he had not yet had realization, he had memorized all the Buddha's

[05:43]

apparently, teachings, but actually hadn't experienced the real meaning. So he couldn't come to the council, because the council was the council of Arhats, who had understood, experienced Buddhist teaching. So Mahakasyapa had to enlighten him. So Ananda one time asked Mahakasyapa, he said, Mahakasyapa, although Shakyamuni, our teacher, gave you the robe, the golden robe and the bowl as a sign of his transmission, what else did he give you? What secret teaching did he transmit to you besides those two articles?

[06:45]

And Mahakasyapa said, Ananda. Ananda said, yeah. And Mahakasyapa said, take down the flagpole at the gate. Knock down the flagpole at the gate. And Ananda had a realization. And he could attend the conference. I won't tell you what he realized. But you can guess, can't you? He was dependent on his erudition rather than on his intuitive understanding. So, Engo introduces and he says, setting up the Dharma banner and establishing the Dharma teaching, such is the task of a teacher of profound attainment. So, if you set up your teaching establishment, then you set up the Dharma banner.

[07:56]

And you set up your shingle. It says, Zen taught here. Uh-oh. So distinguishing a dragon from a snake, distinguishing the true from the false, that is what the true master must do. In other words, one who sets up this situation must be able to distinguish the dragon from the snake. In other words, the genuine student from someone who seems genuine, but when push comes to shove, backs out. And that's the snake. And then must distinguish the true from the false. Same thing. So that is what the mature master must do, to be able to know who is who, who are the true students and who are the flaky students, who may be the true students.

[09:11]

It's hard to tell. It's hard to tell between a dragon and a snake. Sometimes the dragons are snakes and sometimes the snakes are dragons. So a discerning teacher has to have the eye to help the snakes. to become dragons, and help the dragons to become snakes, if they're too dragon-like. So, a dragon may become rather arrogant and say, I am a dragon. Now, let's put aside for a moment how to wield the life-giving sword and the death-dealing blade and how to administer blows with a stick. These are all kind of methods. They're not methodical, but they're means, teaching means.

[10:18]

So, the sword, Manjushri's sword, or the sword that cuts through, but also it's the sword that gives life and takes life. So, there's something called letting go and holding fast. When a teacher lets go, that's called granting. I've talked about this many times before. you acknowledge the student and encourage the student with kind words and so forth. That's one aspect of letting go. Holding fast is you always say no. You acknowledge nothing and you keep driving the student to despair. So these are attitudes of the teacher, and it's not necessarily purposeful. It's just the way the teacher just simply responds to certain aspects of the student's behavior and understanding.

[11:30]

And of course administering blows with a stick is to wake people up. So the teacher has to know how to use the stick in the right way. Tokusan, of course, was famous for 30 blows if you give the right answer, 30 blows if you don't give the right answer. Whatever you do, it's 30 blows. So that's rather extreme. Master Rinzai used to give a lot of blows to the students. Master Joshu never used a stick, but they say his golden words made up for not using a stick. He didn't need to resort to those means. But some students respond to that very well, others don't. So, and there's some really good stories about that, but we don't have time for that.

[12:40]

But the student should not run away. This is one way of testing the student, actually, whether they're able to withstand the trials of the teacher or when they run away. So, he says, putting aside for a moment how to wield the life-giving sword and the destiny-giving blade and how to administer blows with a stick, just forget that for now. Tell me, what does the one who occupies the heartland, what does he say? Occupying the heartland means having dominion over his Buddha field, so to speak.

[13:49]

Each Buddha has a Buddha field, which is the field of their influence, so to speak. So each one of us actually has a field of influence, even though we may not think we do, we may feel. I don't have any influence over anything, but actually you do. Everyone, each one of us has, through our behavior and our attitudes and the way we relate has influence over our field. So a Buddha has far-reaching influence over what's called the Buddha field. So I would say a Bodhisattva has a Bodhisattva field and wherever you are, you influence the dynamic of the situation.

[14:57]

if you feel, I have no influence over anything that has influence on your surroundings. So we can't help but influence our surroundings and make our surroundings what they are. So although we have to be careful because we may blame others, when we don't see how we create a situation for how our situation relates to us. Anyway, so this is the introduction. So in the introduction he's talking about the teacher setting up the Dharma banner and just being able to distinguish between true students and shoppers, what I'll call shoppers, people who go from one practice to another and try and get something to put in their basket.

[16:04]

And then he talks about the various methods, but he says, put that aside. What does this person say? What is it that this person has to offer? And so he said, see the following as an example. And here is the main subject. Fuketsu said to the assembled monks, if one particle of dust is raised, the state will come into being. If no particle of dust is raised, the state will perish. So raising a particle of dust means bringing something into existence. You can relate that to your practice. If you step into the zindo, sit down in the cushion,

[17:15]

and cross your legs and pay attention to what you're doing. That's raising a particle of dust and the whole practice comes into being. If you don't do that, nothing will happen. So that's not picking up a particle of dust, nothing happens. So, what should you do? Should you pick up a particle of dust or not pick up a particle of dust? But here, he's talking about setting up a practice place. He says, if one particle of dust is raised, the state will come into being. So the state here means a practice place, sitting at the door of heaven, right? And a place to practice. So, who is foolish enough to do something like this?

[18:19]

That's what he's saying. So, if no particle of dust is raised, the state will perish. You can see it either way. You can say, well, don't do something as foolish as raising up a place to practice. And then on the other hand, he's saying, but if you don't, nothing happens. So, and then he, this says Setso, who was the commentator at a later time, holding up his staff said to his disciples, is there anyone among you who will live with him and die with him? In other words, who will create this place? Who will go along with whoever it is that's creating this place to practice this monastery or this establishing this place? So then Setso in his verse says, let the elders knit their brows as they will.

[19:36]

For the moment, let the state be established. Let the elders knit their brows as they will. The elders are like, you know, if you raise up, there are ways, several ways of thinking about this. Some people will think it's better not to establish a practice place. It's better to just live in the woods and just forget about, you know, maybe just everyone should have their own individual practice. Why, you know, why go to all the trouble of bringing people together and establishing a formal kind of situation for people?

[20:39]

That's a good question. People often have that question. Why not, you know, why not just be a loose association or something like that? So these are the elders that are knitting their brows and saying, Well, is this really a good idea? And then he says, but for the moment, let the state be established. Let's make this mistake. I'll take responsibility for it. Probably a good idea. Maybe a good idea. Even if it's not a good idea, let's do it anyway. So then he says, Where are the wise states people? He says statesmen, but I say state people. The venerable generals. That means, where are the people who really help do this, right?

[21:47]

And then he says, the cool breeze blows, and I nod to myself. So cool breeze is like taking personal responsibility. It's like, okay, I'm okay with this. Even though people may criticize, there may be judgment, it may not work. It doesn't matter whether it works or not. This is just what I feel I have to do. And then I nod to myself. which indicates a kind of confidence. Whether it's a good idea or not, whether there's doubt on all sides or not, or support or whatever, because I feel this confidence, I'll do it. So that's kind of like the gist of that. So, it's very interesting.

[22:52]

How does one set up such an institution or is institution a good idea? When I was at AHAG, they had the 750th anniversary of Dogen's birth. I think it was his birth. A lot of people from Europe and America came and they had this special set up for Europeans and Americans and I was asked to give a talk. And in my talk I said, I just hope that in America we don't create institutions like this. They still love me.

[24:00]

I don't know if they really understood what I was saying. I said we don't want to set up a bureaucracy. I hope in America that we don't set up a bureaucracy. Zen in America right now is a little bit like what it was in the Tang Dynasty in China with individual teachers having small groups of students all spread around China, and then traveling back and forth to different teachers. There were teachers who had several thousand students in big monasteries, but mostly it was smaller establishments that were more intimate. To me, that kind of small establishments, practice places, where the teachers and the students can have more intimate practice together, works much better than institutions and bureaucracies.

[25:21]

As soon as you start having a lot of institutions, then you have a bureaucracy, and the bureaucracy tends to take over. and then people become more concerned with the establishment than with the students. So that's what I was referring to. In Japan, the establishment is far more important than the students, I think. So I myself would like to have a Zen practice in America be mostly small practice places with good teachers.

[26:22]

And in 1995, we set up the Soto Zen Buddhist Association in order to relate to our Japanese counterparts mainly, but also to organize the Zen teachers, Soto Zen teachers in America. And that organization is actually starting to work now. But I just hope it doesn't someday become a bureaucracy. So we did establish it so that in the incorporation papers it says the purpose is to help each other to practice and not to, something like not to create some big establishment, but simply keep it on a level where there's mutual help and not

[27:32]

in order to have some interactions and not creating something unwieldy. So, that's not easy. everybody's too busy anyway. So, you know, this question, this case really addresses, I think, all of our questions, a lot of our questions about how we are creating this Zen practice in America. How will that happen? How will it stay in bounds and not be watered down in some way and not be, you know, there's always this problem of not enough, you know.

[28:53]

The main thing we do is Zazen, but some people will eventually think that's not enough. And then we start introducing all kinds of other practices in order to broaden our practices and enrich our practices, enrich what we're doing. But actually, enriching, not a good idea. We want to maintain a poor practice. not a rich practice, an enriched practice, but a practice of, as Dogen says, to focus on one thing and practice that one thing thoroughly. to just practice one thing thoroughly, to see one thing through thoroughly.

[30:02]

And as soon as you start adding things, then you lose your concentration on that one thing. So our practice actually is very spare and sparse. There's a wonderful kind of koan, to listen to the dragon singing in a withered tree, the dragon song in a withered tree, to get down to the very bottom of our life. So Zen practice really is continuously giving up. And when we keep adding things, it's the opposite.

[31:07]

So how do we establish something? I think that when I established this zendo, the only thing I wanted to do was allow people to set up a place where people could sit zazen and be there every day and not get pulled around by this or pulled around by that. The hardest thing is to stay in the middle, stay where you are, to stay with your practice. Boring, boring practice. It seems like boring, but actually it's boring. So, and people will criticize this kind of practice, you know, it's too sparse and too bare.

[32:21]

It's actually Hinayana practice. But it's Mahayana Hinayana, big mind, small, big mind, narrow practice. So, if you raise the speck of dust, you have all kinds of problems. That's what he's saying. These people, you know, they're saying, you know, you better be careful. In that poem, he says, let the elders knit their brows as they will. You better be careful. That's true. But that shouldn't stop you from doing something. But when you do something, you have to see it through.

[33:26]

And seeing it through, doing this one thing and seeing it through, brings everything in your life to the forefront. And then you see what the thread is. That is the most important thing. That is a continuous thread that runs through. There's not this genuine. So I think I'll stop there. And if you have any questions, I just wanted to thank you for making the foolish mistake of raising the dust.

[34:41]

Thank you. You're welcome. If you don't raise the particles of dust, if you don't make the place, doesn't that deny the existence of one of the free refugees? Oh yeah, sure. Yeah, it allows for Sangha. Not just the refuges, but the three legs of the pot. Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha. So establishing a place allows for the Sangha to practice together. I guess I'm thinking, why would anybody Oh, well, you know, originally, in India, the holy men didn't have Sangha practice, and they just wandered, and the original Buddhists did that too, until at some point, during the monsoon season, they gathered in Viharas.

[35:56]

And saga practice grew out of that. I think there were, like you were describing in China or U.S. now, there were little sagas in ancient India. But then there were all these teachers that had their own turf, and there's some really texts that describe how they would have their groups and then, as you were saying, they would fight against each other. But that's not what I actually wanted to ask about. Did you want to say something about that? No, go ahead. Okay, this is just your talk raised lots of I guess the one that I'll mention was from earlier in your talk when you were reading the part about let's put aside the stick, the use of the stick.

[37:08]

You made some comment about teachers sometimes affirming and supporting and sometimes driving the student to despair. see who runs away. I wanted to tell an experience that made me remember from Zen Center, San Francisco Zen Center in the 70s when we had students walking around with a stick and administering it without the recipient volunteering. They'd just come and if they see you nodding they'd go, okay, bam. That used to make me so mad. I remember when I first started practicing, I felt so bad about myself that I thought, go ahead, beat me up. But then as I got a little enlightenment, about six months in, or whatever, I used to really consider that very, very, very unacceptable to me, that somebody would come along and hit me.

[38:20]

And I had these Baroque fantasies. I mean, I'm just telling the world this now. I've never told anybody. Somebody would come along and dare to try to beat me without my giving them permission. I would just turn around and say, I'm going to kill you. Anyway, the point that I want to make is that there's a problem with that. student trusting the teacher even if they drive you to despair that we are especially conditioned to notice in America and that is that teachers can be abusive and students shouldn't get the idea that they should just receive that and not run away. Yeah, this is all true. I knew you'd agree. But this is not what that's talking about. I was talking about the teacher and the student, not the student and the student. No, no, even teachers can do that.

[39:22]

I understand. I understand. But I thought that you were enlightened in the beginning when you said, it was okay to beat me up. No. Then you became deluded by saying, you can't do that. Anyway. But when I say to despair, I didn't mean despair really. I meant driving at somebody, you know, to bring out something from them, to bring out a real response. I'm in accord with what you actually meant. I guess I would say that, I don't know, in a public conversation. I understand. That's the devil's advocate. side sort of like, well, what about this, right? I understand. That's true. So actually, you know, they did that for a little while, but then they stopped doing that. And you had to ask for the stick.

[40:24]

Yeah. So, yeah, that's what they, you know, they stopped doing that. The teacher sometimes gives a stick without somebody asking for it, but not the student. Shouldn't do that. So you either trust your teacher or you don't. You know, if you don't trust them, go. That's what I say. But if you trust, then there's this, can be this tension that is vital. Ellen? Well, I'd just like to Yes. I think it's a matter of supporting the particle dust.

[41:50]

And that's the way you personalize it. Well, we all have, that's right, we all have circumstances in which we have to decide to do something, raise something or not raise something. Yeah, so it runs out to the personal as well. Right, which is my understanding of how, that's a way to engage with the koan. It's not an idea about a system necessarily, it's about what does one do. Right, that's right. But it also has to do with how, specifically in that sense, how you decide to engage in your practice. Should I raise this particle of dust, which means engage in the practice and see it through? That's how you separate the snakes from the dragons. But it's also, you know, if you see your whole body-mind as the nation, that's also so.

[43:35]

But, you know, and he says, where are the generals? So these are the supporters, right? Well, it's like General Blipper in terms of generals. We have 30 seconds, but I just want to say that I was thinking about raising a particle of dust and what you said about the elders knitting their brows. Maybe they knit their brows because if you raise the particle of dust and establish the practice place, then there's the danger of it becoming institutionalized. And somehow, in the middle of the chanting, it died.

[44:42]

We were all chanting, and somebody forgot the words, and then other people faltered, and then it just got silent. It just all stopped. That's right. And then it started up again. But it was very interesting, because it was so strong, and everybody was saying the words, and we were going along, and even the Makuya stopped. But also, well maybe that's enough. Raising the particle dust, creating the situation, may be more harmful than actually not doing it.

[45:49]

Yeah, so there's always that possibility. Take the risk, yeah, that's right.

[45:59]

@Text_v004
@Score_JJ