during a practice period which ended a week or so ago. Our Shuso head student, Alexandra, idea of the koan of Tozon's no-cold-no-heat to study and present her understanding, which she did very well. Today I'm going to comment on the same koans with a little different emphasis. Tozans, no cold and no heat, is an example All the commentators use this koan as an example of Master Tozon's teaching, his epitome of his teaching, which is expressed in what we call the Five Physicians or Five Ranks of the Absolute and the Relative.

[01:29]

I like to think maybe of essence and function. I like essence and function. I think it's easier to understand what is the essential and what is the function of the essential. What is essence and what is function? Sometimes we think absolute and relative are like two different things. So they are not two different things because relative is the function of the absolute, or how the absolute expresses itself, how emptiness expresses itself as form. So this is what Master Tozan is always presenting to us, in one way or another. And of course he has these five positions, which are like phases of the in which he expresses the different functions of the different aspects of the essence of the function.

[02:48]

So it can sound very complicated, but I'm going to present it in a very simple way that we can relate to it as our own practice, because that is exactly what it's about. So here's the case. Master Tozon lived in the 9th century, more or less, and was the founder of the Soto school. of the introduction of this case, the words which command the universe are obeyed throughout the ages. The spirit able to quell the tiger and the rhino amazes even thousands of the holy ones.

[03:57]

His words are immaculate. His spirit prevails everywhere. If you want to go through With your advanced training, you must enter the great master's forge. So tell me, who could ever show such a spirit?" See the following. So I'm going to talk a little bit about this introduction. Of course, he's talking about Master Tozan. This is Master Engo, or Mastecho, talking about Master Tozan. And the words which command the universe are obeyed throughout the ages. In other words, Tozan's words are so fundamental that no one can argue with them. They're like, he's expressing the law of the universe. You can argue with him all you want. The spirit able to quell the tiger and the rhino amazes even thousands of the holy ones. No matter who approaches Master Tozan, he cannot be overwhelmed.

[05:03]

His words are matchless. His spirit prevails everywhere. So, if you want to go through with your advanced training, you must enter the Great Master's forge. In other words, you have to go through the narrow door of understanding Tozan's meaning. Now, what is advanced training? We rarely talk about advanced training, although some people do. In our school, advanced training means how to begin, how to stay at the beginning. One has gone through all the stages of training. The most advanced training is to start at the beginning. So, there's no need to go through so much if you just stay there. This is like, you know, as Suzuki Roshi used to say, most spiritual or religious teaching is how to take a path which goes that way.

[06:28]

But in our practice, our path goes this way. So there's really no place to go. Some people think that if you study a lot, you'll have advanced training. Or if you collect a lot of information from various practices, you'll have advanced training. But really, advanced training is to stay with one thing, as Master Dogen says, and penetrate one thing thoroughly. If you can stay with one thing and penetrate that one thing thoroughly, and open up the passageway to that one thing, everything will be revealed. This is why Soto Zen practice is so simple. People wonder, well, why aren't you doing other things besides just sitting in Zazen and chanting a few dumb

[07:36]

Why do you do the same thing over and over and over again? So here he says, you must enter the great master's forge. It's usually translated as hammer and tongs. With a hammer. So here's the main subject. This is what it's all about. A monk said to Master Tozan, cold and heat descend upon us. Right? How can we avoid them? Tozan said, why don't you go where there is no cold and no heat? And the monk said, where is the place where there is no cold and heat?

[08:45]

And Tozan said, when it's cold, let it be so cold that it kills you. When hot, let it be so hot that it kills you. Now, there's another way of saying this. This is a rather dramatic statement, which is sometimes this Killing is sometimes used in Zen parlance. When you meet the Buddha, kill the Buddha. People say, oh my goodness, we should never kill the Buddha. That's not what it means. If you take things literally, you can understand Zen. To kill the Buddha means don't put another head on top of your own. Don't substitute some idea of Buddha for your own understanding or for your own essence.

[09:48]

So, another way of saying this is, when cold, be cold through and through. When hot, be hot thoroughly through and through. Just be cold. Just be hot. That's what killing means. Don't produce a self. Don't discriminate. Zazen is, when the cold kills you, when the cold descends on you, let it kill you. When heat descends on you, let it kill you. Which means, come to life.

[11:02]

When you let the cold kill you, you come to life. When you let the heat kill you, you come to life, real life, true life, undivided life. It's only cold when we think about hot. It's only hot when we think about cold. Cold and heat are opposite to each other. To let the cold kill you, to let the heat kill you, is to unify heat and cold. So there's no such thing as heat and no such thing as cold. Except that cold is nothing but cold. Heat is nothing but heat. As soon as there's an opposite, it's called suffering. So this is why Zen is always talking about non-duality. Radical non-duality.

[12:08]

radical non-discrimination. So as Zen students, we all know this. Right? Yeah. Even though we know it, it's hard to do. Even though we know, it's, how do we experience this? How do we experience this reality? This truth? So when we think of Master Tozan's five positions, he presents it to us as, I'm going to use these terms, essence of function. The first position is just essence with very little bit of function. The second position is just function. is essence and function non-discriminated, totally unified.

[13:17]

The fourth one is the perfection of functioning. And the fifth one is the perfection of essence and function without even thinking about it, with no effort at all. That's the perfection of the essence of Zen. So, Master Tozan uses the five circles of dark and light to illustrate function and essence. Essence and function. Essence is like the dark side of the moon. Function is like the light side of the moon. So, he uses five circles. The first circle is all dark, with a little bit of light. This is called Zazen, in our practice.

[14:21]

When I ride my bicycle to the Zendo in the morning, and it's all dark, no traffic, nothing moving, and then I come to the Zendo and sit, Zazen, it's just all dark. And that's total absorption in essence. Total absorption in essence. Very little function. Then, as I get up, do my vows, chant the sutra, walk out of the door, it's all light. And essence is forgotten. It's just function. We're just functioning in the world. So these are the two fundamental aspects of essence and function as expressed in these two diagrams. So when essence is prominent in that way, function is there, but it's hidden.

[15:29]

It's like the other side of the moon. We only see the dark, in the phase of the moon, When it's all dark, it's like a new moon, just a little sliver of light. But the light is completely there, it's just hidden. And when the moon is completely lit up by the sun, this is all functioning. And we don't think about the essence, but there's a little darkness to which The dark is the other side of the moon. Then the third circle is coming from within the essence, where essence and function are totally balanced. This is how we should act in the world. So that function, essence is

[16:31]

We know the essence is there, but we're just totally functioning, so that all of our activity is expressing Buddha nature. All of our activity is expressing the essence. These are the three fundamental aspects, the foundation of our practice. the essence, the function, and the oneness of essence and function. The other two are expressing the maturity of practice. In the maturity of practice, the function, the circle, is all bright, and it's totally functioning. But it's functioning as our maturity. So this is the bodhisattva's practice.

[17:35]

Everything we do is totally about practice. All of our activity is totally about practice. So we are always aware of mindfulness and practice and the precepts and helping expressing our vows. And it's like, the way it's described, you know, it's like perfection of practice. So it's all outward activity. Saving all beings, so to speak. but it's outward activity based on the essence. You know that the essence is there in whatever you're doing, even though it's not obvious.

[18:41]

But the essence is expressed through our conscious practice. Buddha nature is expressed through our conscious practice, and we know what we're doing. In the fifth rank, or symbol, it's all dark, again. But this is called the perfection of essence and function, where you don't even have to think about practice. There's no such thing as practice. It's just a little of your life, little by little. But everything that the master... that's just called masterful. or mistressful, or whatever you want to call it. It's unselfconscious practice. The fourth rank is conscious practice. This is, I wouldn't say unconscious practice, but it's not conscious of practicing.

[19:49]

It's simply living your life because your life is so embedded in practice that whatever you do, Suzuki Ryoshi taught us to practice with the fifth rank. He started with the fifth rank. He didn't have so much use, he didn't think so much of precepts. He said, if you're totally practicing, precepts will take care of themselves. But he was not correct. He was not totally right. the 5th rank in his practice. And the 4th rank. He epitomized the 4th and 5th rank. But because he was a priest and he was teaching us, he was epitomizing the 4th rank. But in his actual life, it was the 5th rank. Because we just watched what he did.

[20:52]

Sitting down, standing up, eating, That was where his real practice was. That was where he really trained us. Without training us. This is called perfection of training. The perfection of a teacher who trains without training. Who teaches without teaching. Just by being present. And with that maturity. So, simply presented those who chose unsigned positions. And this case is considered the epitome of Toa Zang's Five Ranks teaching. When cold, let the cold completely kill you. When it's hot, let the hot heat completely kill you. This is how you avoid cold and heat. You avoid cold and heat by totally being cold and totally being hot.

[21:57]

There's no other way to sit soundly than to be totally cold and totally hot. As soon as you prefer to have whatever is happening be different, you fall into suffering. So this case is really about Shakyamuni Buddha's statement. The only thing I teach is suffering and the alleviation of suffering. That's what Shakyamuni says. I only teach two things, suffering and the alleviation of suffering, if we want to use those terms. satisfactoriness, or whatever you want to call suffering. Many names. So this is exactly what this is about. How do you avoid suffering? The monk could have said, how do I get out of suffering?

[23:04]

And Tozan could have said, when suffering, be totally suffering. Let the suffering kill you. So you can't avoid anything. So Zen practice is about not avoiding anything. You can't run away. As soon as you run away, whatever it is that you're running away from is much faster than you are. And will always catch you. So you have to stand your ground and face whatever it is. And be with whatever it is. Then you have the freedom to move. And you have the freedom to be yourself. So, let the cold kill you.

[24:08]

Let the heat kill you. It means having the freedom to be yourself, totally, without being dominated by anything. So in Zazen, cold and heat are, you know, Basically, cold and heat stands for birth and death. That's the real meaning, cold and heat. Those are just terms that are used to represent birth and death. You could say heat means birth, and cold means death. How do you escape from sickness, birth, death, the whole round? So, how do you be yourself on each moment?

[25:09]

What is myself? So, these questions just keep going deeper and deeper. It's not on the surface. It just keeps going deeper and deeper and deeper. Well, what is this self? Who is it that's cold? Who is it that's hot? What is alive is what is dead. Tarzan could have said, well, why don't you enter nirvana? That's what's interesting. That's the place of no cold and no heat.

[26:16]

So how to be thoroughly cold? How to be thoroughly hot? You can be thoroughly cold as long as you don't think about, wouldn't it be better to be hot? You can be thoroughly hot if you don't think about, wouldn't it be better to be cold? Because when you're sitting in Zazen, you have the pain in your legs sometimes, or your back, or your head, or whatever. Wouldn't it be better if it wasn't there? Wouldn't it be better if it was nice? And then it turns into suffering. So, to be one with pain, So how do we do that? You can't figure it out. There's no formula for figuring it out. As soon as you try to figure it out, it just gets worse.

[27:21]

Praying doesn't help. Shifting doesn't help. Nothing helps. So this is about how to let go of self. But what is self? How do I let go of self? What is this self that I'm letting go of? Even though there's the body and the mind and so forth, the self is different than that. The self inhabits the body and the mind and takes over.

[28:23]

So a minimum of self is necessary. But the problem is that the self becomes so overwhelming that it becomes the master of the body and mind. How do we let go? Just let things be. Then you can be comfortable. You can actually be comfortable. Even though there's this sensation of what we call pain, it's just a sensation. As soon as we don't like it, it becomes suffering. As soon as we like it, it becomes suffering. If we like it too much, immediately it changes. And as soon as it changes, we don't like that.

[29:24]

So, it's in between liking and not liking. Our life actually falls, true life, falls in between liking and not liking. In between wanting and not wanting. of no suffering. You fall into one side or the other. It's very hard to stay in that space. Sometimes it's called running across the edge of the knife or the sword without falling.

[30:28]

So Master Sancho has a verse about this case. He says, a helping hand, but still a thousand thousand cliff. So I give him a helping hand. He says, hey, you know, This is it. But for the monk, it's still a thousand foot cliff. He can't quite... He doesn't get it yet. And then, he says, shou and hen, no arbitrary distinction here. So in those five positions, shou is like the essence, and hen is like the function, or what's apparent. So, Master Setu says, show on him no arbitrary distinction here. In other words, this is Tozan's third rank, the third position.

[31:39]

There's no distinction between essence and function. When there's no difference between essence and function, that's called being right on. So, the third position, essence and function, perfectly, you can't say which is which. This is where we should be all the time. And this is called upright. Upright sitting. Not leaning to one side or the other. Subject and object unified. He says, the ancient emerald palace shines in bright moonlight. Clever Conroe climbs the steps and finds it empty. If you were at the Juso ceremony, you probably remember all those words.

[32:41]

You might. The ancient emerald palace is like the place of the fifth rank, the fifth position. It shines in bright moonlight. Clever Conroe. There are various stories about who Conroe is. One story says that Conroe was the man that owned the dog. And another story says Conroe was the dog. So our story says Conroe was the dog. I like that. Clever Conroe was just a very clever dog. And he was chasing a hare, and they ran so fast that they both collapsed and died. So, that's the story. But it's used here as Calibra Conroe climbs the steps to the Antler Palace and finds it empty.

[33:47]

And the commentator says, well, what is empty? Poor guy. He finally found what he was looking for, but he didn't know what he was looking for. And so, he was disappointed. It's like people sit thousands, and they say, I'm just bored. It's just so boring. They enter the Emerald Palace, but they say, it's just boring. Boring. Our life goes step-by-step and moves like a movie. And so, because it moves, one action moves smoothly into the next. It looks like it's continuous. And it has that kind of continuity. But actually it's step-by-step. One moment at a time. One move at a time. One discrete move at a time.

[34:49]

But the discrete moves are so connected that it looks like it's like a movie. But every once in a while there's a break, and there's the blank screen. And nobody knows what to do, because the continuity is broken. So in our practice, we break the continuity on purpose. And everybody's speechless. Fortunately. It's called the speechless practice of breaking the continuity. And then we start our life all over again, from the beginning, even though there are traces of the past which we can't, which we have to deal with. So, Clever Conlow finds the steps

[35:52]

So this is like depicting, epitomizing the monk. The monk is Conrao, and he's climbing the steps, chasing the rabbit, but when he gets there, he doesn't get it. Chongzang gives him a little, a good bone, but he doesn't know how to chew it. So do you have any questions? Do you have any questions? Yeah. We're talking about essence. Some people say no essence. Send them around. What do you say? I say no essence.

[37:04]

Well. That's advanced practice. Sorry. What do you mean by no essence? When you go to look for the bottom or the substrata, it just keeps going. Where does it keep going? Who keeps going? What keeps going? One moment after another. I know, but something keeps going. Moments keep going, but... What? Who keeps going in the moments? I don't know. Okay. Is anything essential? I don't think so. There's nothing that is essential. What about nothing?

[38:06]

That's just a word. No thing. Nothing means no thing. No thing is essential. But, um, what is supporting you? I'm not sure. Find out. That's called essence. Do you think we have any other questions? No. So why do you think Siddhisthira Rishis is wrong to not emphasize the precepts? Maybe I haven't heard this story yet. Oh, OK. Yeah, he did emphasize the precepts.

[39:09]

One precept is act like Buddha. Act as Buddha as you act as your essential self, which is Buddha. He didn't say you shouldn't practice precepts, but he did say if you practice precepts just by rote, as ruled by rote, that's heresy. It's a little bit of a strict way of saying something, you know, heresy. That's very radical, right? So if you practice precepts just in a dualistic way, that's heretical. So he was concerned people would get caught up in the idea and not just naturally.

[40:11]

Yes, because he called it dead precepts. Living precepts is how you actually act out your life in reality. Because you can't just follow rules because it's like the essence is like loss. Because the spirit and the What do you call it? The letter and the spirit, right? So the spirit of the law is, you know, which comes up against most of the Supreme Court judges' idea about the law. Some of them like to practice the letter without the spirit, and some of them like to practice So precepts are like that. There's the letter, the reality, and the spirit.

[41:16]

And the spirit is called literally precepts. So that was his way of talking about precepts. Yeah. I'm still a bit confused about the fourth and the fifth. The fourth is when the essence Fourth is totally functioning. It is the perfection of functioning. Fifth is the perfection of essence and function. Well, the difference is when it's totally functioning, as in a conscious way. The fifth is totally functioning in just a natural way.

[42:19]

Yeah. So you can't tell essence from function. Okay?

[42:32]

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