Good evening. Good evening. Did everybody bring their copy of the text that we're going to study? If you don't have the sheet, you won't know what's going on. Did anybody bring a pencil or a pen? Because we have to write things down. So Ron asked if we could study a case from the Shoryo Roku, the Book of Serenity, a collection of 100 koans. So I'm going to talk about this text as compared to other collections of koans. We have the most popular collection of koans, Mu Man Khan and the Blue Cliff Record.

[01:06]

Mu Man Khan was collected by Mu Man, whose name means gateless gate. So the collection is called the gateless gate, no gate, Mu Man, and a collection of 48 koans. And come on. Oh, I can't hear. Yeah. Is that better? Yes. So in Muman's collection of 48 koans, there's no introduction. Muman just jumps right in, presents the case and has and talks about it in various ways. In that booklet record, which is a collection by Setso, Japanese name over the Chinese. That's a collection of 100 koans where there's an introduction and a presentation of the case and talking about it and a commentary by

[02:14]

I can't remember his name, but anyway, there's a commentary by somebody else. So if you read the columns, you'll understand that in the Book of Serenity, which is a collection of 100 columns. One home juror who also wrote those wonderful practice instructions that we comment on a lot cultivating the empty field. So he belongs to the school, which is the Soto school. And the other collections of koans belong to more like the Rinzai school.

[03:35]

But the Soto school, you know, we study those koans as well. But the Shoyo Roku, the Book of Serenity, is mostly studied by the Soto school. And the Soto school tends to be more subtle. I guess that's a good word. Subtle meaning refined. And the allusions are to literature and various colloquialisms that were popular in that time in ancient China in the Tang Dynasty. So it's much more and the commentaries are somewhat more literary.

[04:36]

So some people say that you can't really understand the Shoryuken unless you understand Tang Dynasty Chinese literature. But I don't think that's true. It's not necessarily true. Because we can interpret what they're saying. So if you open your. I'll talk about how. These columns are pretty much constructed. The fundamental structure.

[05:42]

If you look at the introduction, it begins with a word introduction. Newton and sweeps the ground is the title. Right. Yes. So Newton sweeps the ground. So there's an introduction by a monk called Wansong. And then there's the case. The case is what this koan is about. And then under that is called commentary. The commentary is by Wansong. And then, in the beginning, we were living there. There's a lot of commentary here. Lots of commentary. Continue to come to the verse. The verse is like the E-R-S-E. It's on the left.

[06:44]

And the verse is in italics. So the verse is by Tianzong. Tianzong is the same as One, one shi shogaku, or one shiru. Now, he's the person who actually collected the hundred koans. And one song is the commentator on the verse and on the case. Well, after the words, there's a commentary. And that's also like one song. So we have a lot to say here. And then there are added things to the case. And these are, you know, these are the added things to the actual case.

[07:47]

And then there are added things to the verse of one song. a little complex, but once you get the idea, you'll see it's not so complicated. But it is complex. There's a lot going on. So if you think back to the beginning, the fundamental structure was of the verse and the case. That's the father-mother structure. The case comes before the verse. And then the verse is Wansong's verse, where he's, you know, this verse is expressing the meaning of the case. But in order to really get the meaning of the case, Wansong is doing this commentary. So, Wang Fang gives us the introduction and the commentary, and all the commentaries.

[08:56]

And in this particular case, there are many characters. A lot of people are saying something, adding their two cents to the case. And Ni Yan and Dan Lin are the two actors in the case. Seems like a play, but I'll explain that next. I'll just read the case. As Yun-Yan was sleeping in the ground, Dai-Wu said, too busy. And Yun-Yan said, you should know there is none who is not busy. And then Dai-Wu said, if so, then there is a second one. and held up the broom and says, which one is this? It would probably help if you knew something about Chinese literature, but it's not necessary.

[10:01]

So then there are many commentators. I'm going to ask you, I'm going to tell you who the commentators are. Zui Du, Hu Zong, if you want to write these down, you don't have to write them down if you don't want to. These are all participants in this case. So, the way I see this case is, it's like a play. Before the curtain opens is the introduction.

[11:07]

The cast of the characters are all there, waiting for the curtain to open. So, Wansong steps in front of the curtain and makes an introduction. And he says, having shed illusion and a revelment, Having shed both illusion and enlightenment, having cut off body and ordinary, I'm sorry, holy and ordinary, although there are not so many things, setting up host and guest and distinguishing noble and mean is a special house. It's not that there is no giving jobs, handing out assignments, or assessment of ability, but how do you understand siblings with the same breath, And joining branches. So if you studied the five ranks and toes on, you will have a better understanding of how this case unfolds.

[12:11]

A lot of the understanding here is based on those on five positions. So. Having shed illusion and enlightenment. Usually we think that if we shed illusion that we have enlightenment. But that's some kind of a good understanding, but it's not perfect understanding. Perfect understanding is to go beyond both illusion and enlightenment. Because illusion and enlightenment are two sides of the same coin.

[13:14]

Within delusion, we practice enlightenment within delusion, and we practice delusion within enlightenment. So he said, having shed illusion and enlightenment, having cut off holy and ordinary, in other words, those two dualities, going beyond the duality of holy and ordinary, enlightenment and illusion, or delusion. You should know that there's one who in, I'm sorry, although there are not so many things, setting up host and guest, and distinguishing between noble and mean is a special house. But the special house is the house of Toza. setting up host and guest. If you've studied the five positions, host and guest means absolute and relative.

[14:21]

So in this introduction, he's talking about the absolute and the relative over and over again in different ways. He's talking about it as illusion and enlightenment, holy and ordinary, not-so-many-things, setting up host and guest. Host is absolute, guest is relative. These are terms, all terms, that are used in Poisson's explanation of the five positions. So, and distinguishing noble and mean. So, noble is the essence and means in particular. So, although there are not so many things, setting up hosting guests and distinguishing noble and mean is a special house that has to build on.

[15:24]

It's not that there is no giving jobs, handing out assignments, I would say, or assessment of ability. But how do you understand siblings with the same breadth and adjoining branches? So he's talking about Yunnan and Dawu. So he gives us the introduction. He's telling what this is all about, actually. This play is based on this stuff. And then the curtain opens. So do you have any questions? before we open the curtain. Yes? Are you saying that Yunyan and Dao were siblings? Siblings? Yes, the Dama brothers. Spiritual siblings. The Dama brothers. Yeah, they're not. They didn't come from the same mother, but they did come from the same father.

[16:28]

So how do you understand siblings with the same breath and adjoining branches? Both the same and different, right? One and two. So adjoining is meaning like two, not... Adjoining is like two, yeah. But giving out on the basis of ability is also two. Yes, that's discrimination. Yeah. So we're talking about discrimination, non-discrimination. All the stuff we always talk about is all in here, all condensed. So then, it's all condensed in this introduction and then it's all opened up in the play. Everything that's being talked about in the introduction is being opened up in the play. So, current Milton's, here's the case.

[17:37]

As Yun-Yun was sweeping the ground. So we have somebody there called Yun-Yan who is sweeping the ground. These are very famous Zen masters of the Tang Dynasty. Tao Wu and Yun-Yan. And they're kind of like the middle ground. the most famous figures that were, you know, the pillars. But they're the middle ground, which is very interesting. You know, Dao Lu and Mu Lian, and Tao San, and so forth. So, as Yunnan was competing ground, Dao Lu, his brother, came along, walked along, and he said, Oh, you're too busy. You're giving me kind of a challenge, you know.

[18:39]

That's the way they used to talk to each other sometimes. They'd say, what are you doing, you know, and say, you're too busy. And one of them said, you should know there's one who is not busy. So the question, who is it that's not But there's one who's not busy. And Darwin said, if so, then there must be a second moon. Moon is like a second... two fundamental things instead of one. There must be something fundamental besides the fundamental. So, that broom that held up the broom, and he said, which one is this?

[19:40]

Is this the absolute or is this the relative? Who's doing that? Who's lifting up the broom? OK, so Wansong has a commentary. So the koan actually is, which one is this? That's the essence of the koan. Which one is this? Is this absolute? Is this the essence or the function? Rather than say absolute and relative, it's better to say essence and function. then you get it more, better, more better. Is this the essence or is this the function that's raising the broom?

[20:43]

So, function, in essence, is like good in nature. Function is everyday activity. So, Ransom's commentary, he says, That will blow down on you, John. In other words, it will be a problem. And then we have Fu Huo coming into the picture as a comparison. Like Fu Huo urging on Fu Jian. You don't know what that's about, neither do I. But, as it is said, without upset, there's no solution. Without struggle, there is no expression. So, this is what these two guys were talking about. Fu Huao, you know. So, when you... This sounds correct, doesn't it?

[21:47]

Without upset, without something going on, then nothing happens. So, this is like, he's comparing Fuglo and Fuglo who said, without upset, there's no solution. And without struggle, there's no expression. So this is Daru coming down on. And here is Union was sweeping the ground. Daru casually tested him. you should know there is one who isn't busy. Good people, as you eat, boil tea, saw and sweep, you should recognize the one not busy. Then you will realize the union of mundane reality and enlightened reality. But in the Dongshan progression, this is, Dongshan is Tozan.

[22:54]

Dongshan is Douzhan's Chinese name, because he is Chinese. The Dongshan progression is the five ranks, the five positions of Antiquity and Relative, or Essence and Function, or Prince and Minister. Then you will realize the meaning of mundane reality and enlightened reality. In the Fraction Progression, this is called simultaneous inclusion. Naturally, not wasting any time. Darwin immediately saw the open seam and he said, if so, there is a second moon. So, to say, suggesting a second moon means there is a duality. Two moons means there is a duality. How are two moons, one moon?

[24:02]

This is the same breath adjoining branches. What? In Norman Fox, that I listen to, he said that what the two moons comes from is that in China, if you rub your eyeballs, it creates an image of two, you know, two things. to flashes, and the question is, well, are they really there or not? Yes. Well, yeah. Are you seeing cross-eyed or not? Yeah. So Darwin really saw the open scene. In other words, he saw the possibility that The open scene would be, is it one or two? And you could open that up. This would be like cloth, like if you saw the back side of a cloth and you could see where it was attached.

[25:07]

Yeah, you could see the seam. Whereas in the front it might look like all one thing. Yeah. So Dao immediately saw the open scene and said, if so, there's a second room. In other words, Zui Du, now I'm introducing another person called Zui Du, who's making a comment. Zui Du sort of has an alternative, almost might have been let past. He's kind of a critic, you know, saying, giving his two cents worth. It almost, it almost pessed him up. people would set up a reality body as apart from the physical body. Reality body is essence and physical body is function.

[26:12]

So that's basically what this case is about. Is there an essence body as opposed to a functional body? We have to understand that essence and function. Essence is what everything is. Essence is the essence of everything. And function is the expression of the essence as has what we perceive of as the world we live in. That's the function. The function and the essence is to produce a world that looks like it has no essence. People get fooled. This is what it's all about. It's about not being fooled by thinking that function

[27:18]

is different than essence and essence is different than function or that there are actually two moons the moon of essence and the moon of function so which moon is this when I raise the broom? is this essence or is this function? so the two old men feared that people would set up a reality body which is essence as a part from the physical body, which is function. Because national teacher Huizhong said to a Chan traveler, so here's the traveler and another commentator called Huizhong. The national teacher Huizhong said to a Chan traveler from the south, for us here the buddha nature is completely unborn and undying.

[28:19]

Your Buddha nature in the South there is half born and half dying, half unborn and half undying. So he's comparing, he's saying to this traveler, we don't see any difference between the essence and function, but there in the South you guys think there's an essence and a function which are separate. And the traveler said, how do you distinguish the supreme function? And the teacher said, here we say body and mind are one suchness. There's nothing outside of mind. Therefore, it's completely unborn and undying. Even the South say body is impermanent, while the spiritual nature is permanent. There it's half-born, half-dying, half-unborn, and half-undying. When you get here, you must realize there is a time to turn around to the Father.

[29:31]

That's what I said before. I said, not mother, but Father. Because he says so in the text. But it's an interesting statement about Father. I don't know if, you know, I'm glad he translated this. He's a very good translator. He understands Chinese really well. And, you know, the top translator in many ways. But we also, you know, he also had his own ways of talking about things. But I think that's an interesting statement. So do you understand what this paragraph has been saying? Yeah. As we read on, I was hoping that I could get this answered without asking, but I don't understand the sentence, without upset there is no solution, without struggle. I don't know what that's referring to in this yet.

[30:36]

I think it's referring to Tao and union. Unless they do some work, some serious work, which doesn't seem like serious work, but it is, the essence of their understanding won't come out. They have to do a little grappling in order to bring out the Dharma. Huh? Well, upset. Upset, yeah. In order to bring out the drama. Has nothing to do with the fact that the North and the South have a different slant on things? Well, you know, I don't know which North and which South you're talking about, but it's just two different places. I think you just have to think of it as two different places.

[31:39]

rather than north of something or south of something. I don't think that's important. What's important is, in one place, they think of it this way instead of this way. And each are equally as wise? Who is? And each of them. No, they're not. No? I don't think so. No. He's saying, in our understanding, essence and function are one thing. And in your understanding, they're two things. So that's not the same. Let's go on. Let's see what they say. Let me just go back a little bit. The teacher says here, we say body and mind are one suchness. That's our understanding. There's nothing outside of mind. When he says mind, nothing outside of mind doesn't mean our brain. Nothing outside of big mind. Essence of mind. So there's nothing outside of essence of mind, which is nothing outside of Buddha nature.

[32:41]

So when he says nothing outside of mind, it doesn't mean outside of my brain or a little small mind. It's part of a big mind. Suzuki Roshi always used to say that you should always be focused on big mind, which includes everything. Your mind should be big enough to include everything. So that's big mind. discriminating mind. So in this house the body is impermanent while the spiritual nature is permanent. It's half born, half dying. Half unborn, half undying. When you get here you must realize there's a time to turn around to the following which I think would mean not separate. Do you think that there is a spiritual essence and a mundane essence?

[33:45]

This is called the Srenika heresy in Buddhism. Srenika heresy is like the holdover from Hinduism, and most religions, which says that there is a spiritual body which transmigrates through lifetime after lifetime, and inhabits a body, and then discards the body, but keeps going, and sometimes it's about this big, or, you know, they have various ways of describing it, but in Buddhism that's not the case. We don't say that there is a spiritual body which continues and finds more embodiments. But Buddhism does talk about reincarnation.

[34:48]

Yeah, it does talk about reincarnation, but even so, it's not talking about an entity which is indestructible. The entity is called a soul. In Buddhism there is no permanent soul which transmigrates. So what gets reincarnated? I can't tell you because I don't believe in it. Reincarnation means, if you look at the word, karne means meat. So it means the meat is reproduced. Why? Because what is reborn is not the physical body. There are many different theories about rebirth, but what is reborn is not the physical body.

[35:52]

It's not like you will all be raised to heaven in this body and no one will stand by the side of God and all that. That's not Buddhism. nothingness permanent, then why do we talk about rebirth rather than just birth? That's fine. Go ahead, that's fine. You're talking about birth. But the use of the word rebirth implies that there's something that is continuing. That is. But it's not continuing. It's like It's rebirth. It's not rebirth of a certain person. It's like, if there's one essence, everything that appears is a rebirth. And, but, so it's not exactly, it's an old Indian tradition, you know.

[37:00]

I'm sorry, it's an old Indian tradition. And there are various different ways of talking about it. I could talk about it more, but then I would be digressing from what I'm talking about here. So that's for another conversation. OK. So Union then held up the broom, because Union is the sweeper, right? Union held up the broom and asked, Which moon is this? This expression originally comes from the heroic march scripture. That's the Surangama Sutra. It's translated as heroic march scripture, the Surangama Sutra. And there are also three moons, or a thousand moons, you know. But here are two moons. Like the second moon, who will say it is the moon?

[38:04]

Who will deny it? So for Manjushri, now here we introduce Manjushri for his comment. For Manjushri, only one moon is real. In between, there is naturally nothing that is or is not the moon. Daowu, who is the antagonist in this case, immediately stopped. According to one version, Daowu brushed out his sleeves and left, I say, completely exposed. But tell me, is it Yunyan exposing Daowu, or is it Daowu exposing Yunyan? Those who have clear eyes try to check it out. So it gets more, you know, getting down to, like, and it sounds like, well, wait a minute, what are they talking about?

[39:05]

Well, in other words, who's right in this case? You know, Dawu is coming down on Nyunyan, and Nyunyan holds up and he says, what Nyunyan is this? So he's challenging Dawu. Dawu challenges Nyunyan first, and then Nyunyan challenges Dawu. So who's right? That's kind of what they're talking about. Well, Zhuang Cha, now here we're introducing Zhuang Cha and his comment. Zhuang Cha said, indeed, this is the second moon. This old fellow has correction fluid in his mouth. This is a very modern statement. This is clearly tongue-in-cheeky. This author has corrections in his novel. But it's probably something like that in Chinese.

[40:09]

A sharp sword on his tongue. And then Chongqing, another guy, says, what if he had the broom turned on him and shaken in his face? Swacha then stopped. Varosha, another guy, said, ah, these two old guys don't know good from bad. Well, is that a criticism or a compliment? It could just be an observation. Yeah, it could be an observation. But, you know, so what? It's got to have more punch than that. So is it saying they don't make the distinction? They're too smart to make the distinction between good and bad? Well, yeah. Well, whether they're too smart or not, it's or they're not falling into discrimination.

[41:11]

Yeah. Yeah. So everybody's trying not to fall into discrimination. It's all dancing around, like, who's going to fall into discrimination? And, what if they don't? So this fellow Yun-Yun, bound hand and foot, how long has he been dead? So Yun-Yun, of course, is the one with the broom, right? And so this is a kind of like He doesn't really mean that. It's a way of saying something. He can't really demonstrate reality. But I say, I wouldn't say that this wouldn't make it in the school of Dashan, but really it still wouldn't get in the school of Dongshan.

[42:21]

Dongshan, remember in Tozan, it's about the five ranks. is demonstrating. Darshan was the fellow who met... Darshan was the guy who was the scholar of the Diamond Sutra. And he wanted to go and find out He was very skeptical about Zen. So he wanted to meet some Zen masters and defeat them with his knowledge of the Diamond Sutra. So as he's going on his round, He stops by a little refreshment counter set up by this middle-aged woman.

[43:27]

Maybe she was old. Old woman. And she had these little cakes. And these little cakes were called something like mind refreshers. And she saw Darshan with his stuff on his back. He said, what are you carrying there on your back? So Duscha, he wanted to stop by and see if he could get one of those cakes. And he said, what are you carrying there on your back? And he said, those are copies of the Diamond Sutra. I read it 300 times, and I know everything about it. And she said, oh, well, can you answer a question for me? And he said, sure. What is it? And she said, well, the Diamond Sutra says, past, neither past, future nor present can be grasped.

[44:31]

With what mind will you eat this cake? And he was stumped. Totally stumped. And then he started talking to her a little bit, you know, and she said, well, if you want to meet a Zen master, you go up the hill, and you will, the mountain up there, and there's a teacher named Lungtang. Lungtang means dragon pond. So he went up the mountain, and here he encountered this little old guy, you know, in his work clothes. doing, hurling around or something, he said, well, could you tell me where Lungtan is? And Lungtan said, well, this is it, you know, what you see here is what you get. And so Darshan said, well, hmm. And so they started talking, and they talked way into the night.

[45:35]

And Darshan finally understood what Lungtan was about, and he was convinced. And so, it was night time, and Lungtan said, well, time for you to go to bed, you know, but your hut is outside, and it's very dark. So, Lungtan lit a lantern up, and as he was handing it to Dushan, he went, blew out the light, and everything was in total blackness. And Dashan woke up. He had a great enlightening experience. And the next day he went out and burned all of his commentaries. And he became a great Zen master who was very strict. They talked about Dashan's stick. He beat everybody up. He did 30 blows. If you're right, dirty bloods if you're wrong.

[46:38]

That's called non-discrimination. So, Dashan said, it's okay. So I would say, I wouldn't say this wouldn't make it in the school of Dashan, but really it still wouldn't yet in the school of Dongshan or Tozang. Taodong school, Tozang and Sozang. Sozang was Dongshan, or Tozang's. Sozang was Tozang's student, who also made commentaries on the five ranks. So they both were known for this. The Soto school is a samurai school in Japan.

[47:44]

It became the Soto school. We're going to have about three minutes of stretching and no talking and stay here. Unless you have to go to the bathroom. So, is this reaching everybody? It's difficult, you know, but the main thing is just to keep your mind open. So now he introduces Shui Feng as a commentator.

[48:53]

Well, Shui Feng was traveling. He went to Tuzi three times and climbed up to Ganshan nine times. This is very famous. Suzuki Gersh used to talk about this a lot, that Shui Feng some other Zen students at that time, they traveled three times to Dongshan and to Tuzi three times and to Dongshan nine times. That may not sound like much, but if you've ever been to China, China is nothing but mountains, and to get to Tozan nine times was like unbelievable to travel that far from where they were to study with Tozan nine times and with Tuzin three times.

[50:01]

I don't know how those people ever traveled very far at all in China at that time during the Tang Dynasty. They didn't have any money. They were monks. They didn't have anything. Well, you know, they wanted to study with the best teachers. So they made that, what it's talking about is making it that effort. Making that effort to actually study with the best teachers. Now, to take a drive or take a train or fly or something. Yeah. I mean, I can't tell you exactly where they went after they saw him.

[51:09]

So one day, as he was cleaning rents. OK. This is what I found. This is a famous story. When Shui Feng was traveling, he went to Tuesday three times and climbed up to Dongshan nine times. Shan means mountain. So Dongshan is Dong Mountain. They made the people. They call people after the mountain. Yes. I think it means East Mountain. I don't know. Maybe. Are you. So Monday, as he was cleaning rice, Dongshan asked him. So Shui Feng actually used to travel around to various monasteries with a big mixing spoon. And he would serve as tenzo at these monasteries. So he had a reputation of being a really good cook. So he would invite me maybe to come to these monasteries. Or he would just travel on his own.

[52:12]

But he was well known that way. So one day as he was cleaning rice at Dongshan's place, Dongshan asked him, Are you cleaning the grit? Are you cleaning the grit? I'm sorry. Are you cleaning the grit? Getting rid of the rice? or cleaning the rust, getting rid of the grit. That's an interesting statement. We tend to sort out a subject as against a background. But rarely do we see the background as as important as the foreground. Zhuifeng said, brick and rice are gone at once. Dongshan said, what will the community eat? And Zhuifeng then turned over the bowl.

[53:14]

And Dongshan said, you've got it all right, but you need to see someone else before you realize it. That's a pretty famous story. getting the grip and the rest are gone at once. What does that mean? Sun Tzu and Chang King succeeded to Sui Fong. In other words, Sui Fong became their teacher. Lu Ruosheng succeeded to Yang Tu. All of them came from Darshan's gate. In other words, Darshan was the teacher. They were all children and grandchildren of Darshan. Therefore, one puts down and one uplifts.

[54:17]

Their words go against, but their meanings accord. Now, both strings, Damshan and Yuman, now Yuman is introduced as alongside a dog-shed, were equally active. How could they be superior or inferior? Yetman also said that Butler, seeing the maid, takes care. That's a great statement, but nobody knows what it means. Well, we'll find out what it means. And then there's Bao Fu, you know, putting his two cents in. Bao Fu said, is like Union is the one with the broom, remember? Union is a lot like someone pushing a cart through mud, working hard every day of his way, every step of the way. These two old adepts also succeeded this way from. Their speech and character naturally concur.

[55:19]

What they mean to say is that Union couldn't use the shaking of the broom to cut off complications. They still don't realize that there are thorns in the mud. This is a commonplace statement. Beware of the thorns in the mud because mud can seem very soft and soothing when you step in it if you're not squeamish. But beware of the thorns in the mud. Beware of the little traps. No matter, you have to be very careful how you say something or express it. So, as Wan Song unfolded this story, before he had finished reciting it, he unconsciously let out a laugh and said, Yun Yan and Dao Wu were illustrating the active conditions of the Dongshan Congression. In other words, they were demonstrating the five positions of Dongshan.

[56:23]

I don't want to go through that now. because it's too much. But maybe I will. Dongshan, in his Five Positions, talks about the five aspects of the conditioned and the unconditioned. How the unconditioned is expressed as conditioned, and how the conditioned is expressed as unconditioned. And there are five different positions that illustrate this understanding. Form is emptiness. Emptiness is form. Those are the first two. And then the essence being expressed through the function. And then just total integration, and then absolute integration.

[57:34]

But I can't explain it all now, it's too much. But this is what he's talking about. As Wang San unfolded the story, before he had finished reciting it, he unconsciously let out a laugh and said, Nguyen and Dao Wu were illustrating the active conditions of the Dongshan progression. In other words, form is emptiness and emptiness is form. As for the other bunch of those guys, all their mouths consumed the gold, but none cleared the straits for him. Fortunately, there is Tian Tong who comes to the rescue, pulling out the sword. Pulling out the sword, that's interesting. It's kind of like the sword in the stone. It's thought, intuitive, easy. But unless you have the right condition, the right stuff, you can't pull it out. Only the chosen one. Well, yes, in that case.

[58:38]

But in this case, it's the enlightened one. Is the sword a conjuicery? No, I don't think so. Maybe. Pulled out, the sword. You know, the sixth ancestor, when he was being chased by the general after he left the monastery with the rope, the bow, he put the rope, he knew there were people chasing him, so he put the rope and the bow down and he said to this Huiyi, who was the general, he said, the rope and the bow are just a symbol of the transmission. If you want to pick him up, go ahead. But when you tried, you couldn't pick him up. So that feeling. So here's Tian Tong. Tian Tong, his poem, which expresses the understanding.

[59:42]

So he says, marveling temporarily, Nguyen Nguyen comprehends the gateway. Realizing the function as is appropriate, thou wilt then rest. What did I say? Rest. It's a typo. Rest. It says tests in the Virgin Mary. It's rest. Well, maybe it's just reading the function is an appropriate value then. In the book, it says, yes, that's what I thought. Now he's testing.

[60:46]

Now he's doing some testing here. I think Rick rest is a typo. I think it's rest. Really? Well, that's what it says in the book. Darwin then rests. Realizing the function as is appropriate, then Darwin rests. The snake handler, an elephant bone crag, a hole. That's the end. moon rabbit with a snow candle around its elephant bone fang. The doings of childhood seem shameful when you're old. That's a great sentence. Okay, so, Wong Tsung has a commentary on this poem. And now, what I do, the poem has four lines, right? So, one, two, three, four. And then I find the line in the commentary that corresponds to the line in the poem.

[61:53]

But it does. I mean, it does that. Like the first line, borrow me temporarily, no one comprehends the gateway. So that corresponds to, if you discuss this matter, it is like sparks, like lightning. Moon-Yeon lifted it, the boom, up to show the man. And then that's the second line of the poem. Realizing the function is as appropriate, Da-Woo then rests. Chang-Ping shakes it right in his face. Though the uses are different, he returned, alike, to change and extinction. The Dongshan progression, that is the five ranks, therefore, esteems the shift of potential and revolution of state. Completely turning around.

[62:56]

On Xuefeng Mountain, there is an elephant bone crag. Xuefeng once instructed his congregation. There's a koan. This is a koan in the Buddha presence. On South Mountain, there is a turtledove snake. You people should watch out for it carefully. This is the third line. Women screw down the staff before they get to the plate. With this notch, the butler, who's the maid, takes care. She's a little thick, but the shift refers to don't forget to prepare two major five ranks of Tozan. One is the kind of theoretical, the other is the practical. And what we mean when we study the practical, I mean the theoretical, but this is the practical. The first rank is called the shift or orientation.

[64:08]

It's shifting from ordinary life to life of practice. That's called the shift. That's the first one. Which I call turning on. You call what? Turning on. In other words, turning on. You shift from ordinary life to practice life. And then the second one is called service or submission to the practice. And I call that tuning in. And then there is the third one, which is called achievement or virtue or confirmation. And that's what I call dropping out. The fourth one is collective achievement.

[65:11]

And I call that do your thing. And then the fifth one is called absolute achievement. That's called far out. Cool. Cool. Groovy. Groovy. So, the fourth line is, the bullies of childhood seem shameful when you're old. Nyunda, even up till now, is still under the awning. That is why Khyentung won't let him go, saying, the snake handler on the elephant don't die. The bullies of childhood seem shameful when you're old. Shengmou, another guy, said, this verse has a way of searching out people's shortcomings and helping their strengths.

[66:15]

Here, Tian Tong and Shengmou, and then, Minmin. But today, I'm overturning the decision. Don't you see how Tian Tong's line about the snake handling praises Minmin? great function of his whole potential not coming down from the clouds. Why is it like this? Putting down and upholding both rests with oneself. Who else do killing and reviving depend on?" So here's the added sayings to the case. And Jungian was shrinking the ground. That's the statement, right? Novices and workmen don't have the strength. So this is about a year and a half.

[67:19]

Novices and workmen don't have the strength. And Dao Wun said, too busy. I need an army who picks a fight. Jungian said, you should know there's one who isn't busy. Too bad. The story has become dualistic. Why has it become dualistic? Because, he's just saying, there's one who isn't busy. There's one who is busy and there's another one who isn't busy. That's dualistic, right? So, if so, Da Wu said, if so, there's a second moon. Only two moons? There's hundreds, thousands, millions. You can't held up the broom and say, which moon is this? He appears from within the Crystal Palace. The Crystal Palace needs enlightenment. Darwin then stopped. It's all unspoken. This one child said, this is precisely the second moment.

[68:26]

When one person transmits a falsehood, ten thousand people translate it as truth. Murdoch said, when the butler sees the maid, he takes care. Following the error, he beats the strainer. And then, there are added sayings to the verse. Remember the verse? So, 10th on the verse. Borrowing temporarily from the Heroic Martian Sutra, borrowing temporarily, he comprehends the gateway. Given birth on the spot, realizing the function as is appropriate, then he rests. Rests, not tests. Passing away on the spot.

[69:27]

The snake handler of elephant bone crab, if you want to speak of others, The dooms of childhood seem shameful when you're old. First, manage yourself. So that's the case. And the commentary, the things that, you know, you study a lot and then you get a feeling for what's going on here. Chinese, especially the Tang dynasty, They always speak poetically. They don't necessarily talk the way we do, like, you know, prosaically. They speak poetically. And so in order to really get the gist of what they're saying, you have to kind of get into a whole poetic mood or intuitive mood. You can't just, you know, you have to let your intuition bring this stuff up. And the more you do that, you begin to see the connections.

[70:32]

Having studied their ancestors for a long time, I kind of get the connections when I study the caves. That's why the Shogyo Roku, this book, is very interesting to me because these connections kind of go pop, [...] you know. And that makes it interesting. But if you're just getting it for the first time and you're not familiar with these people, with these ancestors, it's really difficult. The grammar is difficult. I mean, there are references back to things that aren't clear, and there's at least one sentence that isn't an actual sentence. It's hard to follow because of that. So I think what you have to do is really study it. And when the more you study it, the more it comes together.

[71:37]

And even the sentence that isn't a sentence, I think it's not OK. We always want everything to come out right or even. The sentence should have a subject and an object and all that. But it's not always that way. I remember a long time ago when I first started studying, started practicing, I got a book that was produced in China, but it was all in English, and it was a translation of the Chinese Zen study of the Patriarchs, and the language You know, it didn't make English sense, but it did. But you had to turn things around and kind of re-translate it into English.

[72:40]

But the way it was written was the way the Chinese think. It was a Chinese translator thinking in Chinese. And so you get the feeling of how the Chinese think. If you put it all into regular English, you lose it. You really lose a lot by putting it into normal English. And Suzuki Roshi was that way too, you know, like he would often speak the way he would think in Japanese. And so it didn't, you know, sound funny. And so we wanted to edit his talks, you know, to make sure that you don't kind of edit all that out. which is hard because you want him to be speaking good English that you can understand. But it has to be, you know, leave some of that Japanese thinking, the way he thinks, and the way the Chinese think is important.

[73:50]

So that's why, you know, like Clary, when he translated this, he says, the essential stuff, you know, so that people could get what's going on. And it's an incredible book, incredible translating. Translating all that stuff, you know, is pretty amazing, actually, to have it come out as well as it's come out. So I wouldn't quibble with a few sentences that are, you know, and a few things that seem you should be able to get it, you know, without worrying about what... you can't get what somebody said because they're all, you know, everybody's saying something from a different point of view, all these commentators, and you should be able to get it, even if you don't understand a few things. I wouldn't dream equivalent or correlate. I'm just... but I do feel lost in a lot of things.

[74:52]

Of course. Well, you know, you're just getting it for the first time. And that's to be expected. I wouldn't expect everybody to get it at all the first time. To me, this is just an exposition. And we're just kind of looking at the movie, you know, whether we understand it or not. Could I give an example of something that you mentioned that I found... It was like it really came out of left field. And it was very striking, but I really didn't understand it. Oh, here we go. Just before the verse, the last paragraph in the commentary before the verse. And it turns to the last couple of sentences itself. It says, as for that other bunch of old guys, all their mouths consumed the gold, but none cleared the straits for them.

[75:54]

Fortunately, is it? Well, that's, okay, so that's the sentence that threw me off. I'm thinking, what goal? We haven't talked about goal before. And then also, but none clears the streets for him. For who? Which one of them are they talking about when they say him? Well, union. Union is the one that's challenged. So all these guys have wonderful things to say. They all, everybody's right. But they still have, you know, You have to clear the straits yourself. That's what it's about. Of course they haven't cleared the straits. You have to do that. They're leaving something up for you to do. It's all about you. Every koan is about you. It's the story of you. What about consuming all that gold? Well, it's there. You have to mine it. So, the koan, if we go back, is about which moon is this.

[77:07]

If you keep in mind what the koan is about, then everything is related to what moon is this. Everything is related to that key phrase, what moon is this. So you are And you have to answer, which one is this? That's what it's about. You say, when we get this for the first time, we need to study it. How do you study something like that? What is your process? I read it over, I read it, and then something clicks with me and I make notes. So the margins are full of notes. To me, the book is not complete unless it has all my notes in the margin.

[78:15]

So this is my contribution, my response. to the case, is to write my commentary, my comments, on the margins. And I don't feel that it's complete unless I write all my comments on the margins. And so that helps me to think about it. And then when I say, oh yeah, that means this, oh yeah, and little by little I put it all together. And there's a lot of intuition that connects things. You can't just connect it by, you know, mental exertion. There also has to be intuition that kind of makes everything click together. So then I, you know,

[79:17]

I've been studying this stuff for years. I did this in San Francisco when I was abbot and with people. So I got a lot of experience doing this. And then, you know, doing this again now, I put more stuff in the margins that I didn't realize then, you know. So I just keep, it just keeps getting more and more. Interesting. Is it typical that different brochures will extract different meanings from? Well, yes. There are various ways of understanding. But really, in this case, there's only one way of understanding it. Which one is this?

[80:19]

Is this the essence of the function? There are many cases like that. Many, many cases. So when you read and study more cases, you realize this is one example. There are other examples of the same thing. But this is a good one. When I look at the koan alone, leaving aside the commentaries and so on, it seems similar to many other koans in that, in fact, this is one of the simplest kind of things that I remember, that you have the guy sweeping, so he's doing perhaps something that is already a unified activity, we can assume, and then somebody else is coming in, Doing the upsetting a little bit to say well There's a little bit extra something here.

[81:25]

You're a little too is and then this sets off a thing where this original person Presumably pretty enlightened is then saying No, you're looking at this busy aspect of Inside so to speak there's this other thing and then the other guy says oh aren't you making a separation if you're doing that and then Union comes back with a perfect answer which is It's not a question really. It's like here. It is as if to say no. I'm not making separation Here's the action. Here's this thing you are I'm putting it to you. Are you going to say this is one or the other? And perhaps the answer is, well, it's both, or it's neither, or something like that. So as if to say, each one is responding to the other.

[82:28]

And the end thing is not really a question in the sense that, oh, that's the broom of the absolute, or the broom of the relative, or something. But it's just that each of them is giving the appropriate thing, and this could go on forever with other... Yeah, well they're both, together they're bringing out the dharma. It's not like one is defeating the other and the other, they're both bringing, together they're bringing out the dharma. That's a really important aspect. It's not like one wins Well, which is it? Because it seems to me that there's not a problem once he's done that. It's like, hey, no problem. It's all all here. Right. But that has to be not just an idea.

[83:28]

I understand. Yeah. Yeah. So that is all this investigation that goes on. Well, it's just an idea. And so like these guys are all discussing it. They're making, producing gold, but they're not answering the question. But it reminds me of our Shosan ceremonies, because sometimes, often they don't get this elaborate, but sometimes it could be like that, and say, whoops, you're catching air, whoops, maybe you're a little, no, I'll come back with this. That's right, Laurie had this case. This case? When she was... she's up. Maybe. I'm sure. I don't remember giving anybody a case from the Shoryu Roku, but maybe so. She did.

[84:31]

She did? Yeah, that's right. Yeah, that's interesting. I think she had studied this at some point. On the internet, Rev went through all 100 of them, and he asked each of the students who were in that class to write a poem for each one. He was all through on the 100th anniversary, and I think Lori did the one before. Are you satisfied? Yeah. Yeah. What's next? What's next? I don't know what's next, but I'm thinking of maybe studying Keizan. Keizan Senshi, the fourth ancestor from Dogan.

[85:38]

transmission of light. Those are, you know, they are like koans and you can do one every time. So I think you're doing that. So I'll give you the material.

[86:03]

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