I love to taste the truth of that authoritative word. Morning. I think it was two weeks ago when I talked about case number two in the book with Rickard, Zhou Xu's The Way is Not Difficult, where he quotes this first paragraph of the Xin Xin Ming, the believing mind. Can you hear me? Is that better? Better? Worse? Talk a little louder?

[01:02]

Okay. How's this? You can't tell when you say, how's this, and you're silent. You can't tell when you're silent. Okay, how's that? How's that? Goldilocks. Three bears. Okay, take it or leave it. It's okay, it's good. So I think it was two weeks ago that I talked about Joshu's case, the second case in the Blue Cliff record. Joshu's The Real Way is not difficult.

[02:06]

It only imports choice and attachment. And then which of course is the first opening paragraph of the Xin Xin Ming, which is a poem of the third ancestor in China, in the Tang Dynasty, about choice and attachment and clarity. Then last week was Buddha's birthday, And I mentioned the baby Buddha, the legend of the baby Buddha, purported to have taken seven steps after he was born, faced it four directions, one at a time, and declared,

[03:13]

Below the heavens and above the earth, I am the only holy one. I am the holy one. I alone am the holy one." Which, of course, is a controversial statement, if you don't understand it. So, as you may or may not know, there are three other cases in the Blue Cliff Record that are very similar to this case, and so the one I'm going to talk about next combines both of these subjects. This is called Joshu's I alone am holy throughout heaven and earth." So, I'll read the introduction, which, okay, when you have not yet penetrated it, it is like silver mountains and iron cliffs, or like, you know, something impenetrable.

[04:35]

When you have penetrated it, you find you yourself are the silver mountains and iron If you ask how to do it, I would say that if you attain realization in the exercise of ki, you will occupy the pinnacle of attainment and will allow not even the holy ones to spy on you. If you cannot do this, see and study the ancients' doings as follows. And then there's the main case. A monk said to Joshu, it is said The real way is not difficult. It only abhors choice and attachment. Now what are non-choice and non-attachment? Joshua said, I alone am holy throughout heaven and earth. The monk said, it is still choice and attachment. These monks are always trying to pin him down. Joshua said, you country bumpkin.

[05:41]

What are choice and attachment? Where are choice and attachment? And the monk was speechless. Usually, Joshu is very kind, kindliness, very cool, very They say Joshu's words are like jewels, you know, very plain, very simple and ordinary, and yet they always hit the mark. But in this case, he's kind of bawling out the monk. What is a country bumpkin? Well, they're country bumpkins who don't live in the country. they can live anywhere, but they live in a very narrow space which is full of opinions and discrimination.

[06:47]

That's what he means by country bumpkin, whose education only goes so far, and who's not willing to listen to anything above what they think is the truth. And they're not open to hearing anything. So we know that there are a lot of these people around. I may be one of them myself. Who knows? Who knows who we are? So, the monk said to Joshu, it is said, the real way is not difficult, this is the poem, right, the beginning of the poem, it only abhors choice and attachment. Now, so he's asking Joshu, okay, so what is non-choice and what is non-attachment? That's a good question. What is non-choice? What is non-attachment? You know, we're always choosing something.

[07:52]

Moment by moment, we have to choose. We do this, or we do that. We go this way, or we go that way. We accept this, or we reject that. Often, when we accept something, we reject something else. This is called discrimination. We live in the world of discrimination. So when we say, what is choice and non-choice, we're saying, what is discrimination and non-discrimination in the same sense? Discriminate means to divide, to set up one thing against another. So this is the world of comparative values. choice and attachment are based on comparative values. So when choice and attachment, when we use choice and attachment, we are becoming, when we're discriminating, we're becoming victims or partial to choice and attachment.

[09:14]

And so when we talk about choice and attachment, we're talking about partiality, my part, your part, this part, that part. But partiality means something partial to myself, partial to my own way of thinking, my own desires, or the way I would like things to go. How do we become attached? What is it that is attached? What is it that seeks something? Desire, of course, is the basis of attachment, and there's a whole litany of steps that create an attachment clinging and so forth.

[10:20]

But we go through those steps so fast that you don't even see them. We just see something and we want it. So, we have our senses. We see something, we feel something, we smell something, we taste something, we hear something, and so forth. And each one of these senses is a kind of mouth. Buddha Dasa puts it very nicely. He says, each one of these senses is a way to eat something. We're hungry for what we see. We're hungry for what we hear. So we want to feed the senses. And we keep feeding the senses over and over again. and we're always looking for some good food for the senses, you know, music for the ears, wonderful images for the eyes and so forth, wonderful tastes for the mouth.

[11:34]

So when we think about eating, we think about the mouth usually, but actually we're eating with our eyes, we're eating with our ears, and with our nose, and so forth. So these are the sense gates. And really, when we think, well, who am I? Who's doing this? It's the sense gates and consciousness, the sense gates visualize, so to speak, and consciousness separates, discriminates the various sensory inputs. See, this is hearing, this is seeing, and so forth. And then the imagination creates a world out of our sensory input. So we really live in our imagination.

[12:38]

The world of choice and attachment is the world of imagination. If we have no sensory input, it's a very different world. So our sensory input is designed to interact with the world around us, and we actually create that world. It's interesting, did you ever read this book called, say, Botany of Desire? We tend to think that we're dominating the plant world, but actually the plant world is interacting with us in such a way that we create the plant world around us. we create the dogs and animals around us as well. Dogs, I don't think, there are very few wild dogs left because they've been so cultivated over such a long period of time that we have interactive human-dog and other animal combinations.

[14:01]

So the dogs become humanized. Sometimes people say, do dogs have consciousness? Well, you know, the dog's always asking for something, right? If he didn't have consciousness, he wouldn't be asking for something. And they relate and become humanized, actually, and we become animalized. We're already animals. Anyway. So this interaction with our senses in the world and this creative process through our imagination is all in the realm of picking, choosing and discrimination. We take care of the plants because they benefit us and they're actually influencing us to take care of them. Whatever it is that we latch onto, has us. Whatever we take up also has us, because if I'm holding this book, this book has me.

[15:07]

I can't get away until I put it down, do something with it, you know. But even that's, you know, whatever attracts my attention has me. So this is all the realm of choice, attachment, and discriminating mind. So in Buddhism we say non-attachment is the basis. Sixth Ancestors said non-attachment is the basis because attachment is loss of freedom. How do we find our freedom within a world of attachments? you're attached to your family, you're attached to your work, you're attached to your automobile, you're attached to all these ... your clothes, your money, you know. When we think about all of the sustaining elements of our life, it's enormous, it's enormous.

[16:12]

When I think about all of the activities, I think about this sometimes, whenever I make a sandwich, I think about all the activities that go into making the sandwich, and the pacing up and down, the going to the refrigerator, the going to the sink, the opening the drawer and taking out the knife, and then you take a tomato and you slice the bread, and each one of those activities takes action, a lot of movements. I didn't count the number of movements, because it's impossible, but there are a lot, just in order to do this one act. So our mind is continually discriminating, continually attaching. So the monk says, well, what is non-choice, non-attachment? Joshu says, I alone am holy throughout the earth. There's another extended comment.

[17:23]

I think it's Nyozen Senzaki's comment. He says, what a country bumpkin. How can the only self revered unconditionally in heaven and earth be relative. He's kind of expressing Joshu's meaning. How can that be relative? So Joshu says, I alone, alone and holy. Holy is a word that I believe etymologically means whole. Even though Bodhidharma says to the emperor, vast emptiness, nothing holy, that's a kind of puzzling statement, but I think nothing holy means nothing, there's no one particular thing that's holy. That's the object of holiness.

[18:26]

I alone, I'm alone means as I said last week and before, two different meanings. Alone means at one. So it can mean loneliness, which means separated and solitary, or it can mean totally inclusive. So it has a double meaning, solitary and alone, and at the same time all-inclusive. So this is our life. Solitary and alone can be construed as discriminating, discriminated, and at one with is non-discriminated. So we have discrimination on the one hand and non-discrimination on the other.

[19:34]

So where is Joshua in this? In the first koan, Joshua spoke to the assembly and said, The real way is not difficult. It only abhors choice and attachment. With but a single word, there may arise choice and attachment, or there may arise clarity. So clarity would be all at one. Choice and attachment would be solitary or discriminated. And then he says, this old monk doesn't have that clarity. In other words, this old monk is not clinging to clarity, not attached to oneness, and he's not attached to discrimination.

[20:41]

So this is very important because when we talk about discrimination, we think there should not be any discrimination. You should not be attached to anything. But that's a dualistic statement that just simply falls into duality. It's just one side. The other side is we cannot help being attached. We cannot help discriminating. So life is a koan. This is not just a koan in the head, this is about our life, right? So in this second koan, the first one, then Joshi says, do you appreciate the meaning of this or not?

[21:53]

And then the monk asked, if you do not have that clarity, what do you appreciate? And Joshu said, I don't know that either. And the monk said, if you don't know that, how can you say you do not have it, that clarity? Joshu said, asking the question is good enough. Now, make your vows and retire. In other words, you don't get, you don't know what you're talking about. He's not on the same level as Joshu. He's still on the level of duality, trying to figure it out. When Joshu is above discrimination and non-discrimination, Joshu can freely go from discrimination to non-discrimination. He can freely go from picking and choosing to letting go. This is Joshu's freedom. You may wonder about this. You know, we say that ... Suzuki Roshi liked to say, we're half Buddha and half ordinary person.

[23:13]

When we talk about discrimination, we're talking about ordinary person. When we're talking about non-discrimination, we're talking about Buddhas, the life of Buddha. So, which are we? Ordinary person or Buddha? Are we discriminating mind or are we non-discriminating mind? Since Buddha includes ordinary person and ordinary person includes Buddha, which is How does Buddha interact in the world? If Buddha stays in the realm of non-discrimination, then it's not true non-discrimination. So this is Buddha's discrimination. Or ordinary discrimination is where we get caught.

[24:20]

With Buddha's discrimination, we don't get caught because we're not discriminating on the basis of ego. When you make a choice, where does it come from? What's the basis of our picking and choosing? Sometimes, in the Zen-do, There'll be new people, and if you happen to be an experienced person and you're alert as to who's around you, when you see someone needs something, you respond without even thinking. This is Buddhist discrimination, Buddhist choice. you let go of what you're doing and just take care of this person.

[25:24]

When you see a need, you just let go of what you're doing and respond. That's Buddha's choice. But when we see something that we like and we get hungry for it because our imagination is creating a desire, that's your choice. So, we may pick and choose on the basis of my desire, or we can pick and choose on the basis of Buddha's activity. We have that choice. Do you want to say something? I think from that perspective, when Joshu says to the monk, just make your vows and retire, He's not, from one point of view, he's saying, you know, I'm here, you're there.

[26:30]

But from the other point of view, I think he's saying, this is how you do it. Just make your vows and retire. And you'll be, you're there. Yeah, I think that's right. Yeah. I like that. That's good. And then this one, he said, you country bumpkin. Where are choice and attachment? There's a third one. A monk asked Joshu, you so often quote the words, the real way is not difficult. It only abhors choice and attachment. Isn't that your choice? Isn't that your point of attachment? Joshu said, A man asked me the same question once before, and five years later I still have found no justification for it.

[27:42]

Isn't that your point of attachment? There's another translation. Isn't that a cliché for people nowadays? Isn't this a kind of safe nest for you? And then there's another one. A monk said to Joshu, the real way is not difficult. It only abhors choice and attachment. If you say a word, there are choice and attachment. How then can you go about helping someone? Joshu said, why don't you quote it to the end? Quote it to the end. Quote the poem to the end. The monk said, I only have this much in mind. And Joshu said, you know, the real way is not difficult, it only abhors choice and attachment. So, for Joshu, choice and attachment and non-choice and attachment come from the same place.

[29:00]

It's interesting, we have two eyes, but we see as if we had one, but even so. And our body is one whole piece, but we have two arms, two hands, two legs, and so forth. So it's two and yet one. Everything is in pairs. This side and that side, but really it's one side. There's a. At the end of one of Setso's verses he says, facing you, he, meaning Joshu, stands silent on a single leg.

[30:25]

So, what's a single leg? Two legs or one leg? Two is one, one is two. So how do we free ourself from our discriminating mind? And at the same time, know how to discriminate. And how do we free ourselves from falling into the bounds of choice and attachment? at the same time, making choices, and having attachment. We have to be careful.

[31:28]

If you say, I have no attachment, or if you think, I must not have any attachments, you will drive yourself crazy. Within attachment, we have to find our freedom the non-attachment of attachment, non-attachment with an attachment. How do we find our freedom in this life of attachment? I mean, we're attached to the earth. Every time you take a step, there's attachment. And you depend on everything around you. Only, Jogin says, drop body and mind. Only when we can drop body and mind can we walk freely through the world of attachment, within attachment.

[32:31]

So how do we let go and walk and find lightness? Well, I can't answer that. But you had a question. I was thinking about... I'm still puzzled about the koan that you're talking about today. He says the statement that seems very... that seems full of attachment on the surface, because he says, I alone am holy above heaven and earth. on the surface solely about me and I'm the best, or it could be interpreted that way. It could be, yes. So, I don't know how to express it, but it seems like in that statement of complete, it could go either way.

[33:44]

It's like a statement that could go either way. I would say, I like to think that he's expressing both at the same time. Because, you know, if you're too holy, it's not so good. So, you need to be very careful. You know, we want to get so holy, you know, it doesn't work. Because there's always the other side. You know, we're half good and half bad. So, just two sides, you know. Just like everything else, it has two sides. Just like your left hand and your right hand, you know. And matter of fact, the left hand is unholy and the right hand is holy, according to the way most civilizations think.

[34:47]

I have a couple of thoughts. I'm thinking about this division of Buddha-ness and ordinariness and all of the other ways you've been describing it. And the first image is half as if this side is one way and this side is the other way. But maybe it's more as if we took a small bowl and took a dropper and measured out a It's just making that division in order for our mind to think in a certain way. But don't hang on to that. Don't be attached to that. And the other thing is that the statement about being alone and holy reminds me very much of something someone has been amused to say about himself for many years now. And he lives this too.

[35:56]

He gives you a long-sighted smile and he says, Nothing's good enough for me. When you want something else. When you can't free yourself. Or... when it becomes suffering even before you know it. You know, according to some early Buddhist ways of thinking, pleasure itself is a form of suffering. Attachment, you know, we say attachment to what you want, attachment to what you don't want.

[37:06]

We think of attachment as what we want, but actually it's also what we don't want. We become attached to what we don't want, just the same as attached to what we do want. So, I remember when I first started practicing, and with my painful legs and all that, and Sri Guruji would say, you people are all attached to the pain. No, I'm not attached to the pain, I don't want it! That's the attachment. soon as you don't want it, then you're attached. It's like, you don't know you're attached with a string on your neck to the pole, you know, until you start to walk away, and then boom! So, you might think about, well, how much attachment do I have?

[38:19]

How do I deal with that? And is it okay or not okay? Does it stop me from ... Does it hook me or does it free me? Or do I really want to be free? This is the problem. Freedom is not necessarily something we want. Real freedom is difficult to handle. Very difficult. But when you phrase it as how much attachment is too much, I think maybe that's not quite I'm not too attached.

[39:24]

You know what I mean? It's not an amount, but a quality of not rigidness. But it's impossible not to be attached. Well... You're always suffering all the time. Yes. That's why attachment is such a big subject. Because it's possible to not be attached, but I would say it's not possible. But you'd be in a kind of separation chamber. Remember that boy that lived in the bubble? He couldn't do nothing he could deal with. So, I would say, big attachment is big Buddha.

[40:26]

Is another way of saying this, maybe, to say not to be attached to our attachment? You could say that. you alone are the holy one in the heaven and the earth. Yes, that's right. Each one is ... you're not talking about just himself, Martha. An ordinary person is talking about just himself. But Buddha's talking about each one is the holy one. That's right, that's a good point.

[41:31]

Each one. I think also the point that I took away from the tiger's cave, which we studied about a year ago now, is that the important thing is you can't see that they aren't us. Yes. The great way is much bigger than these likes and dislikes that inevitably arise because, you know, that's our human life. That's the human path that we have to walk. There's that image of the ox walking around and around us. That's what we have to do here. Right. But that's not who we really are. That's a good point. Yeah. Okay? Be as I am.

[42:31]

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