I vow to chase the truth of the Messiah's words. Well, let's sit for five minutes. Let's get some talking energy. I'll give these out at the end, maybe? Yeah. Well, tonight we wanted to cover, this is a section of the lineage from Yueshan to Dongshan, or Yakusan again, through Tozan Ryokai. But first, a couple matters of business. Did anyone write koans? What do you have?

[01:02]

Oh, you guys are bad. Really? That's it? I have one. How should we do this? You want to read yours? Go right here on the wall. And then go right here on the wall. Well, I will read it. Does anyone else have a koan that they wrote? A koan? I have a koan I'm reading. Well, you can come in. Now don't write on the wall. This is another in a series of things that come to my attention that I call inadvertent Zen, but I'm labeling this one not so inadvertent Zen. The interior life is often stupid.

[02:05]

Its egotism blinds and deafens it. Its imagination spins out our ignorant tails, fascinated. It fancies that the western wind blows on the self and the leaves fall at the feet of the self for a reason and people are watching. A mind risks real ignorance for the sometimes paltry prize of an imagination enriched. The trick of reason is to get the imagination to seize the actual world, if only from time to time. And this is from An American Childhood by Annie Diller. I'm sure a lot of you know. Can you read it again? The interior life is often stupid. Its egotism blinds it and deafens it. Its imagination spins out ignorant tales, fascinated.

[03:12]

It fancies that the western wind blows on itself and leaves fall at the feet of the self for a reason, and people are watching. A mind risks real ignorance for the sometimes paltry price of an imagination enriched. The trick of reason is to get the imagination to seize the actual world, if only from time to time. Others? Alan, what was the assignment? The assignment was to write a poem or you know, some version of the poem, which everyone was supposed to do. Is there anyone else? You had a poem last time. Oh, the one that I told you? Right, yeah. Oh, okay.

[04:13]

top of the mountain, there is no mountain. And does that come from your mind? It's something I found out. That's pretty good. I had a story I'll share with you. I think about it a lot. Some of you were probably even there when it happened. At the end of Rohatsu Sashin, Sojin Sensei was greeting the students as they were leaving the zendo. When Tom Lomax bowed from the waist to meet his teacher, Mel pointed to Suzuki Roshi's calligraphy over the door and said, Zamai o Zamai. Without a moment's hesitation, Tom replied, King of Samadhi. He bowed deeply and went out into the afternoon light. You might have had to have been there, I'm not sure. It was a very powerful exchange.

[05:31]

Usually we don't say anything to each other when we leave the Zen Dome. Anyway, well that's one bit of old business. Well, I have one. Oh, you do? I talked to two friends today and I said to the first one, well, how are you? And he said, well, my 13-year-old daughter tried to commit suicide yesterday, and she's suffering from life. It's not her parents. She's just suffering from life. And I came home and talked to my roommate, and I said, how are you? And she said, well, my 87-year-old friend is suffering. She's dying of tuberculosis, and she's dying a painful death. How is the girl who tried to commit suicide?

[07:01]

She's in the hospital. She's gonna live? It's up to her. Well, I spent part of the day, um... I gave a talk to a peace group at Apple. computers today and it was so strange to be in this kind of beautiful high-tech campus and have people extremely curious about what was going on in Burma and trying to convey to them the, you know, some sense of reality of bombs falling and people's lives being at stake from such a distance. It's really hard to comprehend this suffering that's everywhere. Can I ask a question?

[08:05]

What were the two words that Namal said to the other person? Zammai o Zammai, which means King of Samadhi. It means... What it means... That's the calligraphy from the wall as you go out? Right above the door. He just pointed up to it. And it means, it's sort of, it's... There's several different ways of saying one practice samadhi, which is what our practice is. It's the same as just the practice of encountering your empty mind. You know, it's just this one simple practice. And I think that's the implication of that calligraphy. Speaking of Zazen... I'm sorry I missed last week.

[09:06]

But I have a couple of lighter things that I recall. One is, at the end of Sashin, here about five, four years ago, five years ago, six years ago, sitting on my Zafu, my rocket to enlightenment fizzles, I guess I'll have to walk. And the other is not actually, not from my head, but Bertie Worcester's. Anyone know the Jeeves stories? Puget Wood House? Very funny. And you'd have to be there to see him deliver the line. But Bertie's an English aristocrat who's always getting into trouble. And his gentleman's gentleman, Jeeves, is always getting him out of trouble. And he's telling Jeeves about some, the plight of one relative or another, and then says thoughtfully, Birdie says, life is full of suffering, but then there you have it.

[10:28]

That's more of the... Right, she paraphrases Bucky Robbins. We were talking, I guess the time before last, we were talking about wall gazing. And Guélan was going to find the calligraphy. Did you actually go to IBS and do this? No. Three o'clock in the morning I couldn't sleep. And got it. So I didn't have to go. I'll write it down. Yeah, please. I just want to say, whoever wrote this month's newsletter, or all the different editions, it was really wonderful. It was like, I can't believe this, all this comedy, all this, you know, and a great lecture, and all that.

[11:29]

I'll tell Lori, she'll be, as editor, she'll be happy to hear. Oh, while you're setting that up, I also come across a magazine article of a picture. Here is a ticket in Canton. There's the little Pagoda of Stupa. Underneath is Huynh's hair, where he finally became a priest after many years of wandering. And behind it, this big tree was planted there. 25 years before Bodhidharma's arrival to Canton. And someone predicted about Huineng's appearance, or coming into this life.

[12:36]

This was some hundred years ago. And that was the first Bodhi tree that was ever planted in China, transplanted from India. This is in Canton? Canton, yes. So, if you'd like to look at it, pass it around. The tree is about 100-some years, 170-some years before Huinan was born. So it's about 400, it's like 1,500 years old. It's like 1,500 years old. It's a redwood tree. I also brought along a map to give you some idea of what is happening. These red dots, I hope you can see. This down here is Canton where the tree is and also where Bodhidharma arrived in China. That's Canton City. And then he traveled up to Nanjing. That is the emperor where he had the conversation. That's the Yangtze River.

[13:37]

South of that was that. One country, yes. And then north is the Wei. South I can't remember the name of the dynasty. That's the Wu emperor where they talked. So Bodhidharma left there. to go to Shaolin, the temple Shaolin then sat for nine years. And that's where that red dot was. And then also this way down here is where Hui Neng was born. He grew up there. and then he went up to study with the Fifth Patriarch, which is way up here. He was referred to as a barbarian. He's referred to himself as a barbarian. No, the Fifth Patriarch referred to him as a barbarian from the South. Uh-huh. Okay. There's something I want to say about that, too. In the discourse, the Fifth Patriarch asked, where are you from? He said, I'm from Canton. from Guangdong, Lingnan, Lingnan means south of the mountain here, that's what Canton is.

[14:44]

I think, that's my interpretation, that the fifth patriarch seeing who, really saw who Huinan was, so he gave him shit and said, how can Cantonese people attain Buddhahood? I think that's where it comes, it's really a really sharp put-down. So Huineng studied here with a faith patriarch and then got the rope and the bow and fled by himself down south. And he came to this little town there and joined a monastery. which was consequently burned down because people were chasing him. And he escaped there with his life. And he wandered around here with all the hunters until he finally came back down to Canton where the tree and the pagoda is. And that's where he heard the monks talking about the wind and the flag.

[15:46]

And in that way, he was very opposite, very different, exactly opposite of the fifth patriarch. You mentioned about him being snotty, but I looked at the language, that's really respectful. I meant it facetiously, actually. I wasn't serious about that. That was really a kind of a common, in vernacular, really kind of humble. So it's very different from the Fifth Patriarch. Yeah. So anyway, that is where he finally wound up, back in Canton there. When you read these discourses in Chinese, are you reading the language that they were written in? Yes. Really? Easily? Is it an archaic language? Yes, it's archaic. It's very, very brief and short. And there are different versions. Yes, there's a number of different versions. So, what was the question here is bi, guan, bi.

[18:02]

Bi, guan, bi is the wall, and guan is to observe and really watch, scrutinize. I'll come back to that a little bit later. But what is also a synonym to this word is miàn bī, which is much more commonly used. Miàn means facing the wall. Or the other word is here, zuò cǎn, zǎ zǎn, sit zǎn. And this guān is very interesting. What kept me up all night was this guān. This is also the first word in the Heart Sutra, in the Chinese version of the Heart Sutra, which has 260 characters, and that's the very first word, guan. And this is the first five words of the Heart Sutra, guan zi zai pu sa.

[19:03]

And of course in English, we take that to say, guan yi pu sa, that is the... Yeah, I can't pronounce it, too long. Right, right. That also, of course, is one translation of these five words. However, if one takes it literally, it means one watching or observing self, being, bodhisattva. So, in other words, you start off, the Heart Sutra starts saying watching your own heart. through your heart, not your eyes, or watching your own self, your own Bodhisattva self. And in short, that's what, that's also Guan Yin Pusa. Yeah, that's the very beginning of how I knew the Kanji's I was. Right.

[20:06]

Kanji's I was. So I'm just... And that also, it means Avalokiteshvara, all five? Yes, that's also... No, not literally, it doesn't. But people take it as to mean that, as another translation or interpretation of that. Well, there's two translations of Canon or Guanyin. One of them is the hearer of the cries of the world, and the other translation means one who observes. And I think that's the one that's being used there. Yeah, you add a world in here, that is the hero of the crisis, the Bodhisattva who does that. That's great. Does that denote compassion as we understand it? Oh yes, absolutely, yes.

[21:09]

That's the one Bodhisattva most commonly. You see her in China and him in Japan, everywhere. I have a question about the pagoda. Is there a significance of the seven grooves? Yes, I was going to ask you folks that. That's a seven. I didn't learn anything about seven from Frank Tribe's class. But I read in the, there's an article about all the religious structures in Canton. The seven layers, meaning the seven steps, seven steps of enlightenment. That's another school. How does it get to five when they get to Japan? Huh? Five? Yeah. Japan is smaller, so they get a smaller number. Well, I have to do a little bit more research on that.

[22:10]

It may not mean seven steps, but it means seven something. Right. Well, it's quite possible. With all the Taoism that's mixed in, there's lots of numerology. I have a book at home. Sometimes people might want to take a look at it. It's quite amusing. It's called The List of Lists. And it starts with one. and then all these, and all these things, just about Buddhism. You know, and then how many two factors, two, number two things you have, and then three, and it goes up to, what, you know, 84,000, actually, I think. There's some gaps there. Thank you very much, that's really... Can I ask one question? What were the five words again? Why did you interpret the five beginning words? Well, the first one is observing to watch or scrutinize. Ji meaning, the second one is self.

[23:13]

The third is being. And zi zai, those two together means... Like when you're ill, you're not zi zai. So when you're really free of pain, free to be yourself, like when the shoe fits, you don't know it's there. like when you don't know you're there, that kind of meaning. It's the kind of extreme freedom and free from pain and just, you're doing well, you're doing good. And then the last two, Pu Sa is Bodhisattva. So observing the natural self or the one self? There are many ways of interpreting that. One is looking into the Bodhisattva, the bodhisattva inside yourself, your own bodhisattva, or looking into your heart, is another way of interpreting that.

[24:17]

Or simply, how do we say? Well, before we start looking at more of these ancestors, last week some people were asking about the Blue Cliff Record, and about koans in general. And I just wanted to let you know, I didn't think of it last week, and I was working with this book this week. If you want to read something that'll sort of put you on at least a track of how to read them, or what kind of function they are, I recommend Zen Dust. by Isshun Yura Roshi or actually there's another volume called the Zen Koan which is contained within Zen Dust and they're both in our library here. This is Zen Dust But actually, the section directly on koans is quite brief.

[25:22]

It's only about 60 pages. And it has a section of history, and then describes the various types of koans. And it's very readable, and very to the point, I think. The title, Zen Dust, sort of echoes those two verses from Platform Sutra that we were reading and that Mel lectured on last Sunday. The introduction says, all words about Zen being but dust to be gotten rid of, or from a deeper standpoint, having no existence at all. So it's a good title. It's an interesting title, particularly for a book that is about this whole system of koans, which we don't use so much in our school, but it's interesting to know about. Issue, I-S-S-H-U-M-U-R-A, M-I-U-R-A.

[26:25]

So both Zen-Koan and Zen-Dust, either one has what you want, and they're both in the library here. Well, tonight, depending on how much we get through, there'll be a lot of stories, a lot of dates. Well, not so many dates. A lot of stories, a lot of names and places that will probably be impossible to keep straight. And I wouldn't worry about it. too much. You can always go back and look at some of the sources and the thing is more I think just to get a feeling for these kinds of stories and a feeling for even more than the kinds of stories to me a feeling of how people related to each other and and see what comes up in you as you're as you're thinking about them and listening to them. I mean I remembered many of the shapes of and uh... substance of the stories without the details and uh... it was actually refreshing to me to have to do the studying because it brought back some of the details some of this great kind of uh... strange flavor of Zen.

[27:40]

So I'll sort of start with uh... Nueishan. We've got through uh... We got through Huineng and Seigen and Sekito last time, is that right? I think that's right. I mean, such as it was getting through them. Ueshan, or Yakusan, again, his dates were about 751 to 834. And he was ordained a priest at the age of 17, and for many years he studied the scriptures and sort of an ascetic discipline and the rules of monastic life, but he came to feel that something was missing, some kind of freedom beyond these kind of formulas of the law. So he called on Master Shuto Sekito, and said, I have only a rough knowledge of the three vehicles and the twelve branches of the scriptural teaching.

[28:44]

The three vehicles, I think maybe Meili talked about them, the Shravaka vehicle, the vehicle of the hearers, the Pracheka Buddhas, the vehicle of the individual practitioner who seeks enlightenment for him or herself, and the Bodhisattva vehicle, and the twelve branches of the scriptural teaching are just the various components of the Mahayana canon. So he says, I have only a rough knowledge of the three vehicles and the twelve branches of the scriptural teaching, but I hear in the South that there is a teaching about pointing directly at the mind and seeing its essence. This is beyond my understanding and I humbly beseech you to teach me. Chito said, being just so won't do. Not being so won't do either. Being just so or not being just so won't do at all. So what can you do?

[29:46]

So the Ueshansu had a total loss for words. And Shito said, your affinity is not here, meaning you're not going to get it here. Go visit Great Master Matsu's place for a while. And the story is, the words that we use, Matsu and Shito were said to divide the world between them. And yet they were completely free from any sense of rivalry, cooperating quite generously to bring each other's students to enlightenment, even though they were, when we look back at it now, well, one was one lineage in one school and the other was the other, but they didn't see it like that. So following this suggestion, he went to see Master Matsu and asked the same question. This is one of my favorite answers. Matsu said, sometimes I make him raise his eyebrows and blink his eyes.

[30:50]

Sometimes I don't make him raise his eyebrows and blink his eyes. Sometimes it is really he who is raising his eyebrows and blinking his eyes. At other times, it is not really he who is raising his eyebrows and blinking his eyes. So what about you? At this, Nuweishan saw eye-to-eye with Matsu and was greatly enlightened. He bowed deeply to the Master, who asked, What truth have you seen that you bow? Nuweishan said, When I was with Shito, I was like a mosquito climbing up an iron ox." Which means he wasn't likely to be able to draw blood. I was like a mosquito climbing up an iron ox. Matsu said, you have realized the truth. Guard it well. Your teacher, however, is Shuto, which is very nice.

[31:56]

So Ruishan stayed with Master Matsu for three years. And one day Matsu asked him, so how do you see things these days? And Ruishan said, having shed my skin completely, there is only one true reality. Matsu responded, Since you have come to such a realization, you should gird your loins and live on a mountain, wherever may be fitting." Which means it's time for you to go out and teach. Uesha said, who am I to presume to live on a mountain? And Matsu told him, otherwise there is no constant going without stopping, no constant staying without going. You may want to help, yet there will be no help. And though you try to act, there will be nothing done. So you should make a boat. Don't stay here." And he sent him off.

[33:01]

So Yueshan left Matsu and returned to Shito. He wasn't quite ready to go up and live on a mountain yet by himself. So back with Shito, one day Shito saw him absorbed in meditation and asked, what are you doing there? He said, I'm not doing anything. Shatoh said, if so, you are sitting in idleness. Ueshaan responded, sitting in idleness is doing something. You say you're not doing anything, Shatoh pursued, but what is that anything which you are not doing? Yueshan's answer was, even the ancient sages don't know. So Shito praised him. At this point his teachers were quite happy with him. He praised him with a verse that expresses the feeling of these two monks just practicing every day, practicing in enlightenment together.

[34:12]

And this is the This is the verse. Though we've been living in the same place, I do not know his name. This is Ceto's verse about Vaisnava. Though we've been living in the same place, I do not know his name. As the wheel turns, we go along with the flow of nature, being just so. Even the eminent sages of old don't know him. So how could ordinary people expect to understand? Though we've been living in the same place, I do not know his name. As the wheel turns, we go along with the flow of nature being just so. Even the eminent sages of old don't know him. How could ordinary people expect to understand? Ellen, what is being just so mean? Well, my feeling is it means much the same as going along with the flow of nature.

[35:39]

But maybe somebody else has a thought. Read the line once again. Though we've been living in the same place, I do not know his name. As the wheel turns, we go along with the flow of nature, being just so. It also sounds to me like nothing special. Or nothing extra. Nothing extra. Nothing extra seems to. Doesn't it just want to make you talk like that? That makes me want to say, well, it seems like it's far beyond and yet right here. Well, it's really hard, you know, I mean, I've been writing up these notes, and it's really hard to avoid sort of slipping into that language.

[36:53]

I mean, there's quite enough of it in the stuff that I was writing from. But it's more just, yeah, I think it's, it has this, to me it has this kind of everyday character, being just so, just being oneself. completely, with nothing extra, and appreciating each other. It's really nice to... I like a lot of these stories, and this one in particular, because it began with a student and teacher meeting and not communicating the truth to each other. The student not understanding. And here you come to the whole story and You get the first line, we've been living in the same place. You know, we've been, we are occupying the same place in the world now.

[37:58]

It's really, it's pretty nice. Actually, here's my favorite story, evacuation. It had been a long while since he had given a lecture. And the head monk came to him saying, the congregation of monks wish you would preach a sermon. So Yueshan said, ring the bell. The head monk banged away at the bell and all the monks assembled in the dharma hall. And when they were assembled there, Yueshan went back to his room. The head monk followed him and said, Master, you were going to give a talk. The monks were all ready. Why didn't you say anything to them? And Yueshan said, there are sutra priests for the sutras, shastra priests, which is commentary for the shastras, vinaya priests for the vinaya, which is monastic rules.

[39:00]

So why do you bother this old monk? And he said, He's a Zen priest, and if you wanted a Zen talk, that's what you just got. I just see them all ringing the bell, and they all come to the Dharma hall, and they're waiting there, and he sees them, he turns around, and he goes back to his room. But while he disapproved of sutra study for his monks, striving to get them to see their own minds through meditation, it's worth noting that much of the solitary time that he spent on the mountain was studying the sutras, particularly Avatamsaka Sutra, and the Mahaparinirvana Sutra, and the Lotus Sutra. So, again, we have this juxtaposition of the teaching being one thing, but that it's rooted in the Dharma as well, that there's some study that's called for, which is what we're doing.

[40:16]

So, one evening the master, Huishan, went on top of the mountain. As the clouds suddenly parted, the moon appeared. Yueshan laughed a great laugh, whose sound carried as far as Ryo, some ninety miles to the east. Inhabitants of the district thought it had come from a house to the east, and the following morning they set out to investigate the sound, finally coming to Mount Yue, which is Yueshan. The monks explained, oh, last night the master had a great laugh on the mountaintop. And then the prefect of the district presented Yueshan with the following poem. He has chosen a lonely dwelling and is content with a rustic life. Year after year he goes to greet no one. He sees no one off. Once he climbed straight to the top of a lone peak and laughed a great laugh as the moon broke through the clouds. When Yueshan was about to die, he called out in a very loud voice, the dharma hall is falling down.

[41:30]

The dharma hall is falling down. And so all the monks rushed in to hold up the pillars. And the master clapped his hands and laughed. You don't get my meaning at all. And then he died. There are many more stories about all these teachers. I had to cull through a lot of them. There's a number of different versions of the Chinese record and then the Japanese record. Going through enough books, you start to see, well, this bunch of stories come from this place and this bunch of stories come from that place. But it's nice because in these different books, they all get told or translated in a slightly different way. It's kind of enjoyable to dig them out. So Yuesheng had two important heirs, Dharma brothers, and actually

[42:36]

As far as I could tell, they were real brothers as well. Yunyan, who we recite as Ungan Danjo, and Dawu, or Dogo, who was the older brother. you might remember him, some of you might have heard Mel Lecher read the case, Dawu's Condolence Call, where he goes with a young monk to visit somebody who died, and that young monk keeps asking him, is he alive or dead? And he says, I won't say. That's that Dawu. And he was sharp. Anyway, there are relatively few stories about Yun Yan, even though he serves as a carrier of our line, transmitting the dharma to Tozan.

[43:37]

And actually, many of the stories are discussions between Yun Yan and Da Wu. Da Wu was a little older than Yun Yan, and encouraged him to come study with Yue Shan after the death of Yun Yan's original teacher, who was Master Baijong, or Yakujo, who he studied with for 20 years without getting enlightenment. He really plugged away at it. Actually, the legends say that for 40 years he didn't even lie down to sleep. I mean, he was plugging away so hard that he just sat there. It's not to say he didn't sleep sitting up, which some of us have seen or experienced. But, you know, not to lie down is hard. I knew that was his problem. Well, that couldn't have been.

[44:39]

There's often an implication that Yun Yin was a little slow, particularly in comparison with his brother's wit. That could be it, I don't know. I don't feel like I'm getting any sharper to tell you the truth. Yueshan questioned him, Yueshan, his teacher, questioned him again and again, encouraging him to see his own light, and he never does seem to get it. And in fact, when I was reading the transmission of the light, which I think there were copies of his story, and somebody can check me on this, not now, but next week. As I read it, this is a book of enlightenment stories, actually. And that's what, I guess the first handout I did was from this. And in every one that I read, there is an enlightenment experience and a transmission, a transmission of the Dharma.

[45:42]

And in this one, I didn't find it. It's implied. It certainly implied that he was enlightened and that the Dharma was transmitted to him, but the story of his actual enlightenment, I couldn't find it. In my reading, I went through it a number of times thinking, well, this can't be right. I must be missing it. So if somebody wants to check me on this, I would appreciate it. I mean, maybe I just missed it. But it doesn't seem to be there, which I thought was pretty interesting. But that's not to say he wasn't an enlightened teacher. But nevertheless, he often seems to get bested in these dharma discussions. One of my favorites of which is in the Blue Cliff Record, and it's also found in the Book of Serenity. I don't know if I've mentioned that. Is it there? It's another

[46:47]

colon collection, which is more often kind of connected with, I think, with the Soto school. And it's very nice. This is a very nice translation by Thomas Cleary. And it has a sort of gentler feel overall. which sort of fits with its name, the Book of Serenity. Anyway, it's the same case. Sometimes you find some of the same cases in the Blue Cliff Record. There's a couple of major Koan collections, the Blue Cliff Record, the Gateless Gate or the Gateless Barrier, the Book of Serenity, and then there's other shorter ones. And sometimes you'll find some of these same cases, these same stories appearing, several of them. So this one is in Case 54 of the Book of Serenity. Yunyen asked Tawu, what does the Bodhisattva of Great Compassion do with so many hands and eyes?

[47:58]

Have you ever seen those images of Avalokiteshvara? There were some great ones in the Tibet exhibit, I think, with just hundreds of arms and an eye in each hand. So what does the Bodhisattva of Great Compassion do with so many hands and eyes? Dawu said, it's like someone reaching back for the pillow in the middle of the night. Nyonyan said, I understand. Dawu said, well, how do you understand? Nyonyan said, all over the body is hands and eyes. Da Wu said, well, you've said a lot there, but you only got 80%. So Yun Yan said, well, what would you say, elder brother? Da Wu said, Da Wu said, throughout the body is hands and eyes.

[49:03]

What do you think that means? Well, I think it's just sibling rivalry. One was going superficial, the other one was going for deep. Just to kind of one-up him, I mean, it's the same thing. You think so? Yeah, one's doing the whole guy. To me, it sounds like the difference, the second one is saying, within and without our hands and eyes. Anyone else? For me, yeah, the first one's like there's someone there possessing hands and eyes and the other one is just embodying all that without separation. I think that's pretty much the conventional, that's the orthodox reading of that. What's the reformed?

[50:10]

I often think of it like someone reaching back for the pillow in the middle of the night. It's really, it's wonderful. Or just a pillow during Sazen. No, it's different because you can find it. You know where it is. It's a mystery. It's, you know, it's removed. But you know it's there. But you can't find it. But you make a move. That's right. The initial move is usually wrong. When? When you're trying to find that pillow. I'm just talking about my experience. It's not that you're very conscious of what you're doing. In the night, when you straighten your pillow, you just do it.

[51:12]

You don't think about it. You just do it. It's an act of compassion. You just do it. There's no thought, no consequences. There's no trace afterwards. You just do it. Then you go back to sleep. Then you go back to sleep. It's like reaching down and scratching your knee. You don't think about it. You just do it. Yeah, I think of it actually... I know just where the pillow is. Sure. In the middle of the night. I mean, so much so I don't remember doing it. But also, and then I watch Sylvie doing it. I watch her adjust. I mean, I get to see her sleep more than I get to see me or anyone else. Thank God. she does exactly what she needs to do to make herself comfortable and then just goes right back to sleep. I would think if I had so many hands though, I mean sometimes like two of them I don't know what to do with.

[52:19]

So late in life, Yun Yan was taken ill. and asked the head monk to prepare a vegetarian feast for a certain elder monk who was departing the next day. But on the following day, when they had the feast, no one left. And that night he died. It's really... We're moving ahead here to Tungshan. It's hard to know where to start. Tungshan is Tozan Ryokai, and really one of the sort of key people. You know, when we do the lineage chant on Wednesdays and Fridays and Saturdays, there are places where the Doshi bows.

[53:22]

when the doshis go down and actually do a full bow. So those are the places where the particular key teachers. So the huineng is one, and the next one after that is dengsha, or dozang. That's right, isn't it? Yeah. And then there's a big gap I think, until you get to Dogon, which, next week. That's when you get to catch your breath. Right. So, it's hard to know where to start with him, because his recorded sayings are pretty large. Excuse me, does the Doshi just bow three times? No, the Doshi bows at Nagarjuna, And Vasubandhu, Vasubandhu, Bodhidharma, Huineng, Tozan, and then, and actually they bow at the beginning for the Buddhists leading up to Shakyamuni Buddha, and then we sort of stay through, stay bowing towards the end through

[54:45]

from Dogen to the end. So is that nine times? No. No, not that many. But it doesn't get breathless. Right. And then bow again for Suzuki Roshi. At Tassajara, in the last couple of years, they've been doing the whole, there's a temple lineage There's a lot of different ways of looking at the lineage. Each person, when you have lay ordination, say, you get a document called the Kecchamiyaku bloodline, which starts at Shakyamuni Buddha, and then goes down to the Indian ancestors, and then it divides up into the Soto line and the Rinzai line, which come together again at Dogen, who had transmission from both sides. And then it goes down through Suzuki Roshi and here through Mel.

[55:55]

So at Tassahara, actually, lately they've been chanting, we stop at Khezan. And they go on to do all of the ancestors through Suzuki Roshi, which is quite nice, but it means you have to pick up your book. Did you learn that? Anyway, we're going to get through this. As a boy, Deng Xian was drawn to... Oh, I know what I'm going to say. I really recommend this. This is the record of Deng Xian, translated by Bill Powell, and this is probably in our library also, or you can borrow it from me, and it's probably still in print.

[57:02]

His sayings are very pithy and really worth checking out. Anyway, you can look at that sometime. As a boy, Deng Shan was drawn to Buddhadharma and he studied with a teacher and he was studying the Heart Sutra. When he came to the sentence, no eyes, there's no eyes, no ears, no nose, no tongue, etc. He ran his hand across his face and said, but I have eyes, ears, nose and tongue. Why does the sutra say there aren't any? And his teacher, this was an unusual remark, and his teacher was quite astonished that this young boy would ask this and said, I'm not your teacher," and encouraged him to go study with the Chan master, Ling Mo, who might be able to field questions like this more effectively.

[58:08]

And he went to study with Ling Mo and was ordained at the age of 21, and then sort of began his travels to meet the great teachers of his age. So the first one he went to call on Nanchuan. And it happened that a vegetarian meal was being prepared for an offering on the anniversary of Nanchuan's teacher, Matsu, on the anniversary of his death. So Nanchuan asked his disciples, tomorrow we will offer food to the late master Matsu. Do you think he will come? When no one entered, Dungsan came forward and said, he will wait for a companion to come. Nansuan commented, although this man is young, he's qualified for training. Dungsan replied, the venerable sir should not oppress a good man by regarding him as a worthless fellow.

[59:13]

And actually he didn't stay around there. But I don't think out of any disrespect, he kept traveling. He went to study with Guishan, another of Master Matsu's heirs. And one day, this is a long story which I've sort of condensed. One day he asked Guishan to explain about inanimate objects expounding the Dharma. And the full story actually is in the Transmission of Light, the section that you have. Kueshan's reply, which quotes the Avatamsaka Sutra, was beyond Jungshan's understanding. So, in this fashion that we've seen before, Kueshan said, well, you should go study with Jungshan. And he asked the same question of Jungshan. And Yunrin replied in much the same manner, citing another sutra, citing the Amitabha Sutra, which says that streams, birds, trees, and groves all chant Buddha and Dharma.

[60:31]

With these words, Tungshan was awakened and recited this gatha, the following lines. How wonderful, how very wonderful, The teaching of the inanimate is inconceivable. If you listen with your ears, you won't understand. Hearing with your eyes, then you know it. How wonderful, how very wonderful. The teaching of the inanimate is inconceivable. If you listen with your ears, you won't understand it. Hearing with your eyes, then you know it. But this was still not his full enlightenment. He studied with Yunyen and prepared to continue his journeying. As they parted, Yunyen said, after this separation, it will be difficult for us to meet again. Tungshan said, it will be difficult for us not to meet.

[61:36]

But after your death, if someone asked me to describe you, what should I answer? And Yunyen said, just this one is. And Tungshan remained silent for a long while because he was still carrying some doubts, some doubts about his understanding. And Yunyen said, you should be very careful in carrying on this business. So then Tungshan left. In coming to a river and seeing his reflection, suddenly all his doubts were clarified, and he offered this famous verse, Don't seek from others, or you'll be estranged from yourself. As I go alone, I meet him everywhere. He is what I am now, but I am not what he is. One must understand in this way to merge with suchness."

[62:40]

We read that again. This is his verse talking about his own understanding and paying homage to his teacher. Don't seek from others or you'll be estranged from yourself. As I go alone, I meet him everywhere. He is what I am now, but I am not what he is. one must understand in this way to merge with suchness. So this is just the beginning of Jungshan's record. And actually during the practice period that's coming up in May, I think that Mel is going to do a class that's going to combine teaching us about Jungshan's most famous teaching, the gatha of the five ranks. I think he's going to teach that in the context of maybe the last, the koan from the end of Genjo Koan, which we're going to read for next week.

[63:53]

So actually we'll have some basis for looking at that. And also Mel's been talking about starting to recite which I handed out. We may do that once a week, which is a text that it resembles the Sandokai, but actually it's even more complex. I realized that I wasn't even going to try to get into it. It's too much to tackle, but I really recommend that you take a look at it. It's quite beautiful, and I'd be happy to talk about it. with you, I've been trying to study it a little lately and have some sense of what it's about, because the imagery is very startling. You know, I find it helpful, the lines in it, I can't remember much of the content, but you are not it, it's actually you, is a very nice comment, another way of, which for me is a little bit easier to enter than

[65:04]

He is then different than he is what I am now, but I am not what he is. Yeah, it's the same. I think there's a fuller context for it in the course of the Jewel Mary Somati. That's right, and so it's a little, for me, it's easier. Anyway, I recommend you looking at those things, and they'll be, actually all of it, the five ranks and stuff will be available before that class. But I thought maybe I'd read a couple more koans, since we have a few minutes, and then maybe take some last questions. This actually, this is soon afterwards, after Yun Yan had died. They were really good at paying respect to their former teachers. So the master Because the master was conducting a memorial feast for Yunyan, a monk asked, What teaching did you receive while you were at Yunyan's place?

[66:12]

The master said, Although I was there, I didn't receive any teaching. Since you didn't actually receive any teaching, why are you conducting this memorial? asked the monk. Why should I turn my back on him? replied the master. If you began by meeting Nanchuan, Why do you now conduct a memorial feast for Yunyen?" It is not my former master's virtue or Buddha-dharma that I esteem, only that he did not make exhaustive explanations for me," replied the master. Only that he did not make exhaustive explanations for me. Since you are conducting this memorial feast for the former master, do you agree with him or not?" asked the monk. The master said, he's very patient with this guy, the master said, I agree with half and don't agree with half. The monk asked, why don't you agree completely? The master said, if I agreed completely, then I would be ungrateful to my former master.

[67:19]

You know, I think that is a really good kind of summary of the struggles one has with one's teacher. That's true. of the frustrations, you know, why won't you give me an exhaustive answer? As well as the appreciation. You know, we're just always stuck with that. We just want to be taught and we know that if we are, we won't stand it. Right. And it won't be helpful. That's right. It's really, it's one of my favorites. I discovered, well I'll read you another one that's one of my favorites for a different reason. This one, I just enjoy this one. When the master was at Le Tsan, he met the head monk, Chu, who said, how amazing, how amazing the realm of the Buddha and the realm of the past, how unimaginable.

[68:23]

Accordingly, the master said, I don't inquire about the realm of the Buddha, or the realm of the past. Rather, what kind of person is he who talks thus about the realm of the Buddha and the realm of the past? When, after a long time, Chu had not responded, the Master said, Why don't you answer more quickly? Chu said, Such aggressiveness will not do. You haven't even answered what you were asked, so how can you say that such aggressiveness will not do? said the Master. Chu did not respond. The master said, The Buddha and the path are both nothing more than names. Why don't you quote some teaching? What would a teaching say, asked Chu. When you've gotten the meaning, forget the words, said the master. By still depending on teachings, you sicken the mind, said Chu. But how great is the sickness of the one who talks about the realm of the Buddha and the realm of the path, said the master.

[69:24]

Again, Chu did not reply. The next day, he suddenly passed away. At that time, the master came to be known as, quote, the one who questions head monks to death. You should give this to whoever the head student will be. This is one that I... I'll just read one more of these. This is one that I found last night that I hadn't Never noticed before. When the master took his leave, Nanchuan said, make a thorough study of Buddha Dharma and broadly benefit the world. The master said, I have no question about studying the Buddha Dharma, but what is it to broadly benefit the world? Nanchuan said, not to disregard a single being. That's really, it's wrong stuff. So I just wanted to read you about Dongshan's death.

[70:29]

Dongshan shaved his head and bathed and put on fresh robes. He said farewell to his disciples and he passed away. The monks wailed long and bitterly in their grief. And suddenly the master opened his eyes and said, the hearts of homeless monks should not be dependent on things. This is true practice. What use is there in grieving when troublesome life comes to rest in death? So he ordered the head monk to prepare, in one translation they call it a fool's feast, and in another translation, which I found a little more helpful, a stupidity purifying feast. So he ordered the head monk to prepare a fool's feast, intending to rebuke the assembly for their attachment to him. But their demonstrations of affection continued, and he postponed his death for seven years.

[71:34]

I'm sorry, seven days, seven days. Well, that's right. What's time to a pig? On the last day he entered the dining hall and after taking food he said, I am all right. When I am about to leave, you should all keep quiet. He returned to his quarters to bathe and then sitting cross-legged, passed away. So that's pretty good. I wish people would be neat like that and give you a few more days to clean themselves. It's really an amazing thing. In a number of these stories, they have the space in their desk to bathe and put on clean clothes and just meet it face to face really calmly.

[72:38]

It's something that we would wish for all of our friends and family and ourselves. Well, also they seem to know when they go. Right. That's right. They see right away. Yeah, you know. They can predict. I saw this thing on TV about this Indonesian shaman. He was 108 years old. And he said, I'm going to die at the next full moon. And everybody knew he was right and they got ready, the whole village got ready for his death and everything. He did. I would think that if you lived a life with eyes on all your hands, inside and out, you would know that. maybe I mean maybe with the kind of awareness that right with with that awareness throughout your whole body you would probably know and they weren't distracted by they weren't pulled away by external things well this has been a little excursion through

[74:05]

through some of the lineage and I can't claim that it was particularly deep on my part as far as talking about the understanding of these things, but just really to give you a feeling for some of these stories and a feeling for some of these teachers as people and for the way they related to each other. And it's a nice model. I remember hearing those stories for the first time myself and it really gave me a great feeling for, it reminded me about why I wanted to practice and, you know, sort of put some urgency into it. And I think that throughout this particular class we've had the Mahayana Sutras, which are the basis, they're really the foundation and the ground for all of this.

[75:13]

And now we're going to jump ahead from, this is about 900, we're going to jump ahead about 300 years which is a big jump in time, actually, to Dogen, where the foundation for Dogen is both the sutras and all of these stories, that they're completely integrated for him. And we have the development of something that very closely resembles the practice that we're doing. It's very much the practice that we're doing. So, we have our work. We have our work cut out in practice and

[76:24]

both we and Meili have our work cut out to do Dogen in one week. I'd be happy to talk about any of this stuff with people and to share any of the resources that I've found out in studying it. I'm available for talking about this stuff as much as I understand it, any time, at least pointing you to where it is. And that's probably enough for tonight, but I want to hear those things. to bring in any kind of poetry that either found or made.

[77:28]

And also, if you have questions that you're working with, it would be nice to hear, if you want to, to share the questions that you work with and share how materials in this class might be somewhat related to your question. Yeah, that's a good idea. Okay, thank you.

[77:54]

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