I vow to change the truth. Case number 40 in the Mumonkan is called Isan's tipping over a water bottle. When Isan Osho was with Yakujo, he was the tenzo or head cook of the monastery. Yakujo wanted to choose a master from Mount Dai-i. So he called together all the monks and told them that anyone who could answer his question in an outstanding manner would be chosen. Then he took a water bottle and stood it on the floor and said, you may not call this a water bottle.

[01:07]

What do you call it? The head monk said, cannot be called a wooden stump. Hyakujo asked Isan his opinion. And Isan turned over the water bottle with his foot and went out. Hyakujo said, the head monk loses. And Isan was named as the founder of the new monastery. Mumon, in his comment, says, Isan displayed great spirit in his action, but he could not cut himself free from Hyakujo's apron strings. He preferred the heavier task to the lighter one. Why was he like that, huh? He took off his headband to wear the iron yoke. And then Mumon has a verse, and the verse says, tossing bamboo baskets and ladles away, he made a glorious dash and swept all before him. Hyakujo's barrier cannot stop his advance.

[02:10]

Thousands of Buddhas come forth from the tips of his feet. Yakujo, as we know, is a very famous Zen master. This is in the 8th century in China. And Isan became a very famous Zen master. And Isan and his disciple Ikkyo, their names bear the They're together, they're in the name of the Higyo school of Zen, which was one of the five schools of Zen. So these teachers studied with each other. Hyakujo was twice Isan's age. And Hyakujo died when I think he was 94. And Isan stayed with him all that time.

[03:15]

40, 20 years maybe. And one day when Isan was a young student of Hyakujo's, he was sitting Zazen in a dark, some place, dark hall, maybe the Maybe the zendo, but it doesn't seem like the zendo. Anyway, there was a heater or a furnace where he was, and he'd been sitting there a long time. And Hyakujo, his teacher, came by and he said, who is this sitting here? And he said, it's Isan. Actually, his name was Rieyu. Isan is the name of the mountain where he was a teacher eventually.

[04:18]

So before that he was called Rieyu. And he said, Rieyu, why don't you stir up the coals in the furnace? So Rieyu got down and started to stir up the coals in the furnace. And he said, I'm sorry, but there's nothing left. There's no fire left. So Hyakujo came over to the furnace, opened the little door and raked around the coals. And he found a little ember, which he brought out. And he said, what's this? And of course, Rieyu had a deep experience practiced with each other. One is a teacher and the other is a student.

[05:22]

Even though they're both masters, one is the teacher and the other is the student. So this story has a little background to it. One day, there was an old hermit who came to Hyakujo. And this hermit was kind of well known for certain abilities. He had a very good ability to tell, to discern people's personalities. to understand who they were and what their capabilities were. And also he had the kind of ability to know what kind of place is good for building a monastery.

[06:32]

So one day he came to Hyakujo and he said, I've discovered this wonderful mountain for a monastery. And I think it would be good if you took advantage of this mountain. You can train as many as 1,500 monks on this mountain. And Hyakujo said, well, do you think I should go? Maybe I'll do it myself. And the hermit said, no, not you. I don't think you should go because your nature is thin and frail, whereas this mountain is wide and hefty.

[07:38]

You and the mountain wouldn't go together. So Hyakujo said, well, maybe one of my students should do it. So the hermit said, yeah, maybe so. Let's look at your students. So Hyakujo brought in the head monk. And the hermit tested the head monk. He asked the head monk to clear his throat and take a few steps. And the hermit said, no, he won't do. And then he called in the tenzo, the head cook, Rieyu. And as soon as Rieyu walked in the door, the hermit said, this is the one.

[08:40]

So Hyakujo asked Rieyu to go to this mountain. Actually, it turned out to be Mount Isan. And word of this got around the monastery, and the head monk came up to Hyakujo, and he said, hey, wait a minute, you know, what about me? Don't you think I deserve to, you know, here I am, the head monk, and you're asking the Tenzo to do Hakujo said, well, we'll have some kind of, not a contest, but a trial to see who has the better understanding. Actually, Hakujo felt that Rieyu had the better understanding anyway, but he wanted to put it to the test.

[09:45]

head monk. So he placed a water bottle on the ground and he said to these two monks, without naming this a water bottle, what would you call it? And so the head monk said, Well, I wouldn't call it a wooden stump. Water bottle in those times, there are different kinds of water bottles, but they did have a kind of water bottle that was like a gourd. And you see it sometimes in old prints. And sometimes made out of wood. So his answer is not off the wall. So he said, I wouldn't call it, you couldn't call it, I wouldn't call it a wooden stump or a wooden sandal.

[10:58]

There are different translations for this. Well, his answer is not so bad, actually, except that it's, he's not, he's kind of skirting around the edges. He's not facing it head on. Not a bad answer, but not so deep. So Isan walks up to the water bottle and pushes it over with his foot and walks out the door, or walks off. There are many famous paintings of this incident, or some. So this is the gist of the koan, right here. What would you call it? What is it? This is another version of, what is it?

[11:59]

If you say, this is a water bottle, you ignore its true nature. And if you say, it isn't a water bottle, you ignore the fact of its existence. So, what is it? What is anything? Everything must be questioned in this way. For true understanding, everything must be questioned in this way. So, Isan's response is always greatly appreciated. going beyond positive and negative, bottle or no bottle, idea or no idea, real and temporal.

[13:23]

With his great courage, he just goes right through. immediately responding. This is not responding with an idea, but Isan, because of where he was and who he was, this was correct action. Sometimes We feel that if we do something a little crazy, it's a Zen response. But Isan's response was not just some wild or crazy response. This was truly meeting with the situation. Inevitable, true meeting with the situation.

[14:32]

And each one of us must have this kind of response to things, not premeditated, not some fancy idea. In order to know what is this water bottle, Isan has to know what is himself. Through and through. This is the point. Because Isan knows who he is, through and through, he knows what is this. No problem. So this is the point of Zen practice, to know who is this and what is this?

[15:58]

So this is our big natural koan, which each one of us has. What is this? We call it But what is it? We take the fact of life for granted so easily. We take for granted our situation so easily. We see things and we name them. So everything has a name. And when it has a name, then we say, oh, I know what that is. And we fool ourselves into thinking because something has a name that we know what it is.

[17:04]

We say, oh, there's Joe. Oh, I know who he is. Or you may say, I'm John. I know who I am, but it's not the same. Nevertheless, you're Joe and I'm John, and this fact cannot be denied. Nevertheless, So Mu Man has a comment, and he says, Isan displayed great spirit in his action, but he could not cut himself free from Hyakujo's apron strings.

[18:09]

He preferred the heavier task to the lighter one. Why was he like that? He took off his headband to wear the iron yoke. Esan displayed great spirit in his action, but he couldn't cut himself off from Hyakujo's apron strings. Well, Esan, of course, was the Tenzo in the monastery, and Hyakujo wanted him to be the abbot on this new mountain, to start a monastery on this new mountain. So, this is, you know, couldn't cut the apron strings. He still has to follow after old Islan, or old Thiago Jo. This is a kind of, you know, play on ideas. On the one hand, it's a kind of backhanded compliment.

[19:13]

He preferred the heavier task to the lighter one. The lighter one is just being Tenzo in the monastery, which actually is not light at all. But compared to starting a new monastery on a mountain, it's a light task. Starting the monastery on a mountain, that's a heavy task. Big responsibility. Why was he like that? He took off his headband to bear the iron yoke. Headband is how you keep your hair or sweat from the top of your head if you don't have hair, which monks don't have. It keeps the perspiration from coming down on your face when you're cooking in the kitchen. So he took off the headband to bear the iron yoke. The iron yoke is like knowing that you're going to spend the rest of your life doing this a difficult task. And then Mumon in his verse says, tossing bamboo baskets and ladles away, that's like getting out of the kitchen, he made a glorious dash and swept all before him.

[20:27]

The glorious dash is like turning over the bottle. Hyakujo's barrier cannot stop his advance. Thousands of Buddhas come forth from the tips of his feet. which means that after he was on the mountain, of course, he had many disciples. But when he went to the mountain, he didn't do anything. Yakujo sent him to the mountain, and for eight years, all he did was sit Zazen by himself and eat nuts and berries and scrounge around for shelter and food. And his friends were the squirrels and the birds. And the legend has it that after eight years, he decided that he was a little tired of this.

[21:29]

And he would go down the mountain and a tiger came along. Apparently they had lots of tigers there in China at the time. But a tiger came along. pulled on his sleeve, tugged on his sleeve. So he decided he'd stay a little longer. And then three monks came the next day and started practicing with him. And then before long, he had a monastery of 1,500 monks. Very famous monk. And the head monk, his name was Korin. There's an interesting story about Korin, the head monk. Korin apparently also became one of the most famous Zen masters at the time.

[22:32]

Even though Khorin lost the contest, it didn't mean that he was not a good teacher, good monk. And he also went on a mountain, but by himself. And he was up on a mountain by himself for many years. And one day, a scholar went to visit him and talk to him. And so he went up there on the mountain and he said to Korin, I'm surprised that you don't have any attendants with you. Usually a master like that would have some attendants. Korin said, oh, I have some attendants.

[23:35]

And so he called out to his attendants. Can't remember the terms he used, but he called out to his attendants, and two tigers came out from the back of the hut. And the scholar was rather taken aback by that. Korin talked to the tigers, and the tigers just kind of laid down at his feet, very like little pussycats. This is, of course, a kind of legend. The two tigers' names mean something like big emptiness and little emptiness. These were his companions. So this kind of story, you know, spirals out from this kind of understanding. Do you have any questions?

[24:44]

I understand why. Where is the story that shows that his son was still attached to Yakujo's ignorance? Oh, well, because it's just a way of speaking. It's just a manner of speaking. It means that he's still stuck with Yakujo. It means that he's taken on the task of bearing the lineage. Those are the apron strings. It means that, you know, Isa, Hyakujo transmitted Dharma to him, which means that he's carrying on the tradition and the lineage. So it's not apron strings in the sense of not being able to leave the office?

[26:14]

No, it's not that. That's why I say it's a kind of backhanded compliment. Dolly. It seems as if the hermit is a very key figure in the story. Yeah, because you had some great respect for his opinion. That's right. Yeah. goes. He has a name, but I didn't think the name was important here, so I didn't remember it. He's not a well-known figure or anything like that, but Hyakujo seemed to have a lot of faith in his spinning. But he's not a monk? It's hard to say. One translation says he was a layperson.

[27:16]

Another one says he was an old hermit. I prefer that he's an old hermit, but he could be a layperson also. So I'm a little hesitant to identify him so closely. But someone with some extraordinary ability to do certain things. So, Hyakujo trusted him to do that. You know, in the East, in China and Korea, and I think in Japan, when they build a monastery, there are certain factors that go into choosing a site and the direction and And many things, you know, that I don't know what they are, but many factors that are considered.

[28:22]

And there are certain people that have this ability to discern, you know, what those factors are, to sense that about a place. You know, here we see Indians, American Indians, have that ability, you know, to choose a right place. And sometimes We do too. We say, oh, this is an auspicious place, or a power spot, or something like that. And also the ability to discern certain people's abilities. So what happens to the head monk whose understanding is not quite deep enough? What happened to him? I just told you. He went and he... became one of the famous Zen masters at the time. And he had two tigers as his companions. He probably did other things, but I don't know what they are.

[29:26]

I think that was when the plane was going over. Oh, you didn't get that? Yeah. Yeah. became a very famous Zen master of his time. You know, people's ability matures at different times, because Isan, Isan was more mature than Korin at the time. But later, Koh-Rin became mature. And... It doesn't mean that Koh-Rin was a bad monk, you know. One of the commentators says, the thing I don't like about this story is the fact of the contest.

[30:31]

You know, one won and the other lost. But... In a sense, this is life. It's not a matter of winning or losing, but this seat is here, but we can't put another seat here, because this seat is here. Your seat is over there. While you're sitting on it, we can't put somebody else on it. Everything becomes selected in some way. And this was Hyakujo's way of selecting. There are other ways of selecting, but selecting has to be done some way or another. So, one way of selecting is to have a contest.

[31:37]

I thought it was fairly fair. because it gave the head monk an opportunity to prove himself, because actually he contested it. So we had the contest. It's an interesting image in most stories about the two monks that when they wanted to prepare the iron yoke, to go carrying the lineage and going out and helping the world and bringing their understanding to the world. But then the story goes to where they both just go off and hang out with nature and themselves for some lengthy period of time. There's a little bit of a contradiction there. Well, it looks like a contradiction because we get kind of attached to a certain

[32:39]

It's easy to get attached to what an iron yoke is. This is an iron yoke that's very flexible, flexible iron. You know, when someone is given authority, say dharma transmission, in the usual context, say in China or Japan or something like that, then it's most appropriate for that person to go off by themselves and practice by themselves for 8 or 10 years or 15 years. Quite often the teacher will say, now you have it. Go off by yourself for 15 years. Don't show yourself around for 10 years or 15 years. Just go and mature your understanding and yourself. The fifth patriarch said, go away and come back after a long time.

[33:40]

Don't show yourself until after a long time. And this is a very traditional way. And it's a very luxurious way. In America, we don't have that luxury of sending our teachers off for 15 years or 10 years. As soon as we get them, we say, this is where you stay and do your thing. There's something about an inner process, too. Oh, absolutely. So to say, go and start this monastery, doesn't mean that you should go do something. The monastery has to start from this person's inner understanding. And if he goes and does something, that's not so good. It has to happen. And this is a difficult, difficult spot, you know. If somebody goes off and starts doing something, there's something not so... it's a little too something about that.

[34:51]

It has to come out of the person's being. They shouldn't gather people around, you know. and say, well, I'm going to do this, you know, let's do this. Let's build some great place. But by just sitting on top of the mountain with the birds and without asking for something to happen, something happens. If nothing happens, okay. But when it starts to happen, then you help it to happen. In other words, what causes something to happen has to be very deep, not just some shallow idea about how it should be. So actually, without any idea about how it should be, Isan just sat there for eight years. So if someone goes to start a place,

[35:58]

My feeling is they shouldn't have any help and they should just sit. If you go out to start your own place, just go out and sit. Don't even think about starting your own place. Just do your practice and something will happen. So I feel a little apprehensive actually about Zen Center. You know, people keep saying, well, we should send somebody out to start a place, you know, blah, blah. And then we should support him a little bit. But I don't feel completely comfortable with that. I feel, yes, go off, but I'm not asking you to do anything. A true person will know what to do.

[37:03]

And the first thing you do is you just do your practice. And the thing that will make something happen is your utter sincerity in knowing what you're doing by yourself. But if you try to make something happen, it may happen for a while. But I'm not so sure that it will work. Going on with what you're saying, it seems to me that the whole story is a wonderful situational story. Yeah, it's a good situation. It appears at first as if it's about people's abilities, but everybody has a kind of, it's all, it's very circumstantial. And the abbot thinks that he can go off and start, would like to go off and do it himself, but he's corrected. That's right. It's not that moment. That's right.

[38:13]

And so that it's more of a story about the whole rising and falling of circumstance and people being available for that. Right time and right place and right circumstances. It's not that the head monk was bad or not a good monk, but just because he was head monk doesn't mean that he was the one that should do it. That was his complaint, right? Just the same thing with Sixth Patriarch. This kind of story kind of echoes that a little bit. The head monk felt that he should be the sixth patriarch. But the fifth patriarch gave the transmission to this young novice who wasn't even a monk.

[39:14]

He was just a layman, just a nobody. Later on, He came back, and when he presented himself, after 15 years, he wandered into a monastery, and because he didn't try to do anything, but because of who he was, people started recognizing who he was. And then he became ordained. He asked to be ordained. And then he began to teach. Anyway, this is the way I feel about it myself, and I've always felt that here, that I just sit zazen.

[40:27]

And I've always felt that. I just sit zazen. And people come, they come, if they go, they go. It's not a good deal. And that's what we're all doing. We're all just sitting as I sit. People come and people go. And the power of our practice just depends on our sincerity. You talk about acting without doing. You talk about person who finds a monastery. Can you name that knowing and tell me where it comes from? I can't tell you where it comes from, but when you have it, you know it.

[42:01]

Can you name it? I'm sorry. It has no name. Well, if it has no name, I might walk past it without recognizing it. Well, tentatively, we can call it here. He's Tireless!

[43:06]

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