I vow to teach the truth and not to target others' words. Good morning. Good morning. When I look around and look at your bodies and faces, I can tell that you've been sitting pretty strongly. There's a lot of concentration, a lot of seriousness. we get beyond just dreaming and same buddha nature with our own eyes.

[02:05]

very much stresses the point that it's impossible to really do this practice without a strong faith in Buddha nature. There is basic reality. of all of this, our delusion. And now it points to the flower. You see this, people today see this flower How do we see the Buddha nature in the flower?

[03:23]

How do we see our own face in the flower's face? How do we get beyond our dreams? In the heart. The Buddhists have various techniques for absorption in meditation.

[04:26]

They use various techniques for getting into absorption, which consists of sometimes various colors and various objects. isolating themselves with the object and with the color, they could be absorbed, the amount of tension could be absorbed, and they would reach the various jhanic states of concentration. If you look at a flower, if you just isolate yourself with the flower, and you just put your whole attention on the flower, you can reach absorption with flower. Flower can be a means of finding absorption into a state of oneness with the flower.

[05:37]

And the reason that we can find that absorption, that state of oneness with the flower is because our nature is already one with the flower. But it doesn't have to be a flower. It can be a bowl of cereal or fruit. a spoon, or a cloth, or a mudra, or the wall, not breath. Today, this morning, I want to

[06:41]

I'll continue with the case, but from a different commentary. This case of nonsense peony flower is also treated as a case in the Book of Serenity, which is Shoyu Roku. The case I read yesterday was from the Hikkigan Roku, the Blue Cliff Roku. This is the Shoyo Roku, the Book of Serenity, which was compiled by Master Wansong. And it's also a collection of 100 koans. And the koans often overlap between the various collections. The movement also has a collection of 48 koans, and some of those stories overlap, but it's interesting to see these cases from the point of view of the various commentators, because no koan has exactly the same

[08:04]

Koan has some ambiguity and can be seen from various points of view, various angles. One commentator may find a certain flavor and another a different flavor, even though they point to the same thing. So this is case 91 in the Book of Serenity. I'll show you. And Master Wansong compiled this record. But he compiled it using Master Tiantong Hongzi's verses. I won't go into too much detail. detail about who these people are. I'm just going to give you the case.

[09:11]

Ah, Nansin's Peony. Now, in the introduction, the introduction is quite different. Guansang's introduction says, Yangshan, who is his son, takes a dream for reality. Nansin points to wakefulness as unreal. If one knows that wakefulness and dreaming are fundamentally non-existent, for the first time, one will believe that reality and reality are absolute. But tell me, what kind of eye does this person have? And in the case, of course, Officer Liu Geng, of yesterday, said to Nansen, teaching Master Tseng Chau was quite extraordinary.

[10:15]

He was able to say, heaven and earth have the same root. Myriad things are one body. Nansen pointed to a peony in the garden and said, people today see this flower as in a dream. Of course, he was talking about Riku himself, saying, I think that you see this in a dream. Even though you understand very well what Sengchaya was saying, you're not experiencing it. You don't have experience. You need both sides. You need to understand something, but you also need to satsazen. You need to experience this for yourself.

[11:16]

So, Master Wansong, I'm going to read his commentary. He says, well, it's also on the case, Liu Geng, who is Riku, every time Thomas Cleary translates these things, he finds some new way of referring the names of his people. The English-speaking world is just beginning to find out how to express Chinese language. And so it's evolving. So he used different, he spelled it differently in the book when he translated the book over. Anyway, I like to use the Japanese because it's more familiar.

[12:21]

Riku, of the Tang Dynasty, who styled Jingxiao, He was a man of Wu Prefecture. In his official career, he reached the post of Inspector of Xie Suan, and also was a member of the Supreme Court. He first asked Nan Sen, I raised a goose in a bottle, and it gradually grew too big to get out. Now, without damaging the bottle and injuring the goose, how would you get it out? Nan Sen called him. Riku? Riku said, yes. Nansen said, it's out. And Riku was awakened at this point. I raised a goose in a bottle and it grew so big, I can't get it out without killing the goose and breaking the bottle.

[13:22]

That's gone. There are a number of cases that are just like this, where one calls and the other answers. I talked about that recently. One master calls, Well, there's the one case of when the teacher would call the disciple. Every day he called his disciple to him. And when the disciple came, he would say, what is it? And finally, after 20 years, So Lu Geng concentrated on the nature of inner reality, pursuing the treatises of Zen Chao.

[14:53]

And when he came to the seventh section of the treatise, Nirvana Has No Name, that's the name of Zen Chao's treatise. You can read that treatise as a matter of fact. I have it in the book of Zen Chao's. Nirvana Has No Name, On Wondrous Existence, where it says, quote from what he says, the mysterious way is an ineffable enlightenment. Enlightenment is in merging with reality. Merging with reality involves seeing existence and non-existence as equal. And when you see them equally, then others and self are not two. Therefore, heaven, earth, and I have the same root. The myriad things and I are one body. Being the same as me, they're no longer existent or nonexistent. If they were different from me, that would oppose communication.

[15:59]

Therefore, neither going out nor being within, the way subsists in between." Tsukiyoshi used to talk about this like this. talk about is and is not, and things either are or they're not, but instead in Zen, it's not quite. Yes, but not quite. If you try to pin something down to is or is not, Because if something is, yes, but not quite. And if something isn't, true, but not quite. So when you try to grasp anything and hold it in front of you,

[17:07]

Matter of fact, when you grasp it, it's gone. And when you open your hand, it's there. If we really want to see things as they are, we have to see them in this way. Trying to hold something is dreaming. If you try to hold something, it's dreaming. If you let it go, then it's there. But you can't pin it down. having great freedom.

[18:23]

None of us want to be pinned down, right? Because it's not realistic. Therefore we all want freedom. Because freedom is realistic. But things are not what they seem to be. Things seem to be real. Yes, but not quite. Things seem to be unreal. Yes, but not quite. It falls in between. Dead or alive. Are you alive? Yes, but not quite. Are you dead? No, but not quite.

[19:28]

So, he says, therefore, neither going out nor being within, the way subsists in between. Liu Gang quoted these two lines as being wonderful. He hardly realized that this indeed is talking about a dream. Even so, even someone as great as Master Shih Tzu, that's Sekito, was vastly awakened to the way, I told you about this yesterday, while reading the treatises of Zheng Chao. When he reached the 17th section on penetrating the ages, quote, the ultimate man is empty and hollow, He has no form, yet of the myriad things there is none that is not his own making. Who can understand myriad things as one's self, only a sage?" Then Sekheto said, "'A sage has no self, yet there is nothing that is not himself.'"

[20:43]

Then he wrote the Sangha of God, a merging of difference and sameness. So people can actually be enlightened through study, through reading the passage of a book. You can get enlightened. Dogon was very adamant about this. In several of his fascicles in Ciobo Genso, he talks about eating the painting of a rice There's an old saying, you can't eat a painting of a rice cake, you have to eat the cake. But Dogon says, yes, you can eat the painting of a rice cake, which will nourish you.

[21:49]

Meaning, yes, you can find great understanding and come to understanding through study. the second principle, or you shouldn't think that the second principle is inferior to the first principle. In Zen, the first principle is always considered the way. But the second principle can become the first principle.

[22:53]

The painting of a rice cake can become the first principle. In other words, even a dream has its own reality. And one can even be enlightened within a dream. And Dogen has another fancicle which he calls explaining a dream within a dream. You know, in this introduction, it says, Yangshan takes a dream for reality, and nonsense points to wakefulness as unreal. That's backwards, right? If you say, I don't know how Yangshan got into this, but Yangshan takes a dream for reality.

[24:08]

Well, that's perverse. And nonsense points to wakefulness as unreal. These guys are saying something backwards. These guys are backwards. But this is just his way of speaking, right? He's coming from the other side. If one knows that wakefulness and dreaming are fundamentally non-existent, for the first time, one will believe unreality and reality are absolute. In other words, one has not stopped. in the duality of real and unreal, or the dream and the reality. We have to be very careful when we talk about dreaming and wakefulness. If you say, this is dreaming and this is wakefulness, that may be right.

[25:16]

You must also be able to see that wakefulness is just another dream and that reality resides within this dream. Nevertheless, this is a dream and this is wakefulness. This is why you can't judge zazen. There's no way to make a judgment on zazen other than through your effort. You can make a judgment on your effort, but you can't make a judgment on the quality of Zazen. You know, some people say, some of the old treatises on Zazen talk about clearing the mind of thoughts. But that's not Dogon Zazen. who said, in meditation, you should clear the mind of thoughts.

[26:31]

And also, the Sixth Patriarch criticized people who said, you should clear the mind of thoughts. He called them people who are, I don't remember what he called them exactly. Corpses or something. without any thought arising. In Dogen's Azen, there's nothing to be eliminated and there's nothing to be judged, even though there's some effort to be made. So, no matter how much worry about the thoughts in your mind.

[27:35]

People are always saying, I'm altering my Zazen and there's nothing but thoughts going on all the time. And only one moment of clarity. This is like trying to divide into dreams and clarity. Our effort is to be awake. But within that wakefulness is dreams and clarity. That wakefulness includes dream life and clarity. So, the main thing is to be awake to, this is a dream. This is clarity. But not to make the judgment of, while I was dreaming, I should have had clarity.

[28:38]

Or while I had clarity, I should have been dreaming. The main thing is to understand, oh, this is a dream. Oh, this is a clarity. This is clarity within my dream. and this is dreaming within my dream. Or, this is clarity within my clarity, and this is dreaming within my clarity. However you want to say it. The main thing is that there's someone who never sleeps. And so Master Wansong goes on to say, if you say the meaning of the teachings is the ultimate principle, why did Buddha still hold up the flower?

[29:58]

Why did the patriarch Bodhidharma still come from the West? Nonsense answered used the grip of a patch-robed monk. In other words, If you can get it by the teaching, why did Buddha hold up the flower? Why did Bodhidharma govern the West? Why did these people bring a teaching which is outside of the scriptures? He brought out the sickness for him and broke up the nest. In other words, he brought out the sickness means he showed him where the problem was. He showed Riku where the problem was and broke up his nest. Pointing to a flower in the garden, he called the attention of the officer to it and said, people these days see this flower like in a dream.

[30:59]

It was like leading him to a 100,000 foot high cliff and giving him a push, causing his root of life to break off. If he just pushed him over on the level ground, he wouldn't even understand by the time the future Maitreya Buddha is born on Earth. But he took him up way up his height, 100,000 feet high, and pushed him over. And broke off everything. If he just kind of pushed him over the ground, he'd be pushing him over forever. This is one of the problems we have in Zen practice. How far do you push somebody? A teacher has to be very sensitive to students. And it causes problems.

[32:02]

Some people, some teachers are very rough. The teachers are very gentle, but in their gentleness, they're persuasive and persistent. But it's tricky. How far you can push somebody, and knowing when to apply the pressure. So the national teacher, Shan Yuan Dong, held up his whisk and said, actually, I don't know why he said that, Buddha said this in the Diamond Sutra, all compounded things are like dreams, illusions, bubbles, reflections.

[33:03]

This is what it says in the Diamond Sutra. But he attributes this to Master Teacher Shan. And then he says, Tian Tong just goes into the dream and produces a dreamland. Now Tian Tong, as I said, Tong Zi, is the one who has the pole. expressive poem on the case. And Wansong apparently built up the cases in his commentary around Wansong's poem. So I'll read you Wansong's poem. Wansong's dream poem. Wansong just goes into the dream and produces a dreamland. This is his dreamland. The shining through detachment and subtlety, the root of creation.

[34:07]

Appearing and disappearing in profusion, you see the gate. Letting the spirit roam outside of time, what question could there be? Setting eyes before the body, you know ineffable being. When the tiger roars, blowing on the cliff starts, Glowing on the cliff starts, moaning. When the dragon howls, moving clouds o'er the cave are dark. Nansen breaks up the dream of people of the time, wanting knowledge of the magnificent honored one to be." Well, then he, in one song, comments on the poem and says, "'In Master of St. Charles, Jewel Treasury Treatise, in a section on the wonder of the body of subject and object, it says, and this is really obscure, it says, its emergence is subtle, its entry unattached.

[35:17]

Knowing the non-attachment of entry, outside objects have nothing to rely on. Knowing the subtlety of emergence, the inner mind doesn't do anything. When there are no doings in the mind, views cannot move it. As outside objects have no basis, myriad existences cannot bind." If you don't think about it, you get it. My interpretation is Objects have no root. Thoughts, objects, creation, everything in creation has no root. Things come into being and appear and disappear. And their root is, they do have a root, their root is buddhanature.

[36:22]

But buddhanature is ineffable. In other words, it can't be explained. grasped and has no special form. But all these forms are the forms of this formless form. Therefore, they're ungraspable. This is the line, the root of creation, shining through detachment and subtlety is the root of creation. Appearing and disappearing in profusion, you see the gate. A gate is like where you enter. But in Zen, the gate is a gate of no gate, a mumonkan. Mumonkan means gate of no gate.

[37:23]

In other words, where is the entrance if there's No special gate. Every place is a gate. You can enter anywhere. You don't have to go to some special place to enter. There's a gate, but there's no special gate. So Tiantang eulogizes nonsense, penetrating the illumining subject an object, which is the root of creation. Appearing and disappearing in profusion, the gate is seen. The double gate of the subtlety of emerging and the non-attachment of entry is seen. Just one gate divides inside and outside. In reality, there are no walls in the ten directions, no gates in the four quarters."

[38:23]

A little complicated. But there's some added sayings which might make some sense. I'll let you see from a different point of view. Shining through detachment and subtlety, the root of creation. And his comment is, walking, I come to where the stream ends. What is the stream? The stream is the continual cycle of samsara. Walking, I come to where the street ends. That's called nirvana. Appearing and disappearing in profusion, you see the gate. And his comment is, sitting, I watch when the clouds rise. So the first one is like shining through detachment and subtlety. The root of creation is without illusions.

[39:24]

And appearing and disappearing in profusion, you see the gate is like in the midst of the dream world. One of the commentators always say about this case, that they all agree, is that Rikku is seeing, trying to see from the point of view of But what he doesn't understand yet is in the midst of the dream world. He doesn't see both sides. He's caught up in all things are one. Isn't that wonderful? But it's also wonderful that

[40:29]

The One is all things. The early Buddhists tried to escape into, all things are one. Mahayana is rather bad to do. One is all things. In other words, we have to take care of every little thing. The gate of no-gate means that you can enter the gate through activity on each moment. That nirvana is right here in each moment's activity. Each thing is buddhanature. So, if we want to see buddhanature, we have to see buddhanature in everything. take care of each thing as Buddha nature.

[41:35]

And when we think about how to harmonize with each other, we have to get beyond our dream of who we think we are, who we think each other is, and get down to the Buddha nature of each person. If we address each other as Buddha nature, then we don't have the problem of personality. Personality is always a problem. We do have a problem of personality, but we're not caught by it. Even though I don't like so-and-so, I still honor the Buddha nature. or by address Buddha nature.

[42:41]

That's how we practice. We address each other as Buddha nature, not just as Joe and Mary. Even though we address each other as Joe and Mary, we address each other as Buddha nature, as Joe and Mary. That way you don't get lost in the dream. So he says, sitting and watch when the clouds rise, clouds are dreams, in the midst of the dream world. And then, letting the spirit roam outside of time, you could also say outside of existence, because when you speak of time, you also, time means existence.

[44:04]

What question could there be? Heaven and earth have the same root. Setting the eyes before the body, you know, ineffable being. That's the poem. The myriad things are one body. The root of the body and the body produce the myriad things in heaven and earth, like mist rising in a dragon house, like wind stirring in the tiger bars. When there is some cause, there must be response. Therefore, the bunch of flowers in the garden shows the flowers of spring in the sky everywhere. That's nicely said. That's like seeing clearly that one thing causes another. When the dragon roars, clouds gather. That's an old saying. It means the play of the world, the play of cause and effect.

[45:20]

When the play of cause and effect is in action, when one thing happens, there must be a response to it. I think we should see that clearly. And when he says, therefore, the bunch of flowers in the garden shows the flowers of spring in the sky everywhere, that's like in the other case, when you're saying the iron flower blooms, the iron tree blooms. It's like from Buddha nature, everything comes into existence. I have talked of a dream. First, there is someone who doesn't sleep. I mentioned that. Who is the one that doesn't sleep? Then there is sleep. Because of not awakening from sleep, there are dreams. By dreams, scenes are seen.

[46:22]

Based on these scenes, you see the existence of another body applying discernment within the scenes. In other words, there's scenes within scenes. Dreams are dreams, scenes within scenes. If you know the one who never sleeps, so many complications would be erased at one stroke. Do you want to know the compassionate, honored one to be? If you don't search out the root, source, this time, wait. He has a nice little comment on this. Not Zen breaks up the dreams of people of the time, and in an added saying he says, just when it would be good to sleep talk. I just do want to say that I think it's very important to see beyond people's faults, or what we consider people's faults, or what we consider our likes and dislikes.

[48:34]

and not go beneath the surface of what we perceive. And actually, if we go deeply enough and recognize Buddha nature in someone who we don't like, That person may also see it in themselves. Recognize it in themselves. Just a comment.

[49:38]

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