I vow to taste the truth of the Tathagata's words. Good morning. Our speaker this morning is going to be Ross Blum, who, as most of you know, has been a member of the Zen Center for many years and is one of our closest leaders. Thank you, Marty. Good morning. Good morning, all. Good morning. Nice to see you here. Well, things change. Old Plum Mountain is the name of this temple. And the plum trees that resided here for many years before Berkeley Zen Center acquired the property flourished and gave us plums to taste. And I had the privilege of living here

[01:02]

During what may have been a very sweet time in that plum tree's life, I used to stick my hand out of the guest window, which is right above the community porch there, which used to be the old guest room, and pluck plums and eat them, and they were very nice and sweet. I thought I had arrived in heaven to be able to. I came from the East Coast, and the idea of picking fresh fruit from my room was just too good to be true. And now looking out those three windows, there's a clear view of the building and just a memory of the tree. Today I would like to talk about the five ranks or positions that the founder or co-founder of the Soto School of Zen that we follow created or put together as a system to look at while we practice and examining our practice.

[02:16]

The founder, the main sort of inspiration of the founder of the Soto School in China, in Tang China, Dongshan Liangche and we refer to him in his Japanese name mostly Tozan and he had a number of disciples and one of his disciples name was Sozan so the name of the school which was created many years later looking back on that period of time in this particular style the teaching the people who decided these things put those two guys And instead of calling it Toe So, the teacher and disciple, they inverted it because it sounded better. So, So Toe is the name of the school. And the disciple, Sozan, worked intimately with his teacher and helped to develop this system called the Five Positions or Five Ranks.

[03:23]

He received Dharma transmission from him, but his lineage died out. So we have the name of the school, and we have this particular teaching, but we don't have the living heirs from that particular line. The line that survived was by another disciple by the name of Ungo Doyo. And when I learned about this, I realized the importance of Sangha practice, that there are a number of people who practice together to support the practice, and some people stick out a little bit more than others. Some names will be written in lineage papers and will be recited during the liturgy. And there are a lot of people who keep this practice going and have been keeping it going for centuries. So it's nice to honor all these people. And we have a Founders Ceremony once a month, and we talk about all the cooperating founders, both hidden and revealed, who made this practice place possible.

[04:37]

It's nice to reflect on those people. Could you hand me one of those sutra books? Thanks, pal. On Saturday, we recite a poem by Tozan called The Jewel Mirror of Samadhi. And in it, there is a section, which doesn't make any sense at all, which I hope to be able to explain a little bit. And if you have any questions, Bring them forward. In the illumination hexagram, apparent and real interact. Piled up, they become three. The permutations make five. What that's referring to is the

[05:49]

Yixing in China. When Zen traveled throughout the different countries of Asia, it attempted to assimilate and borrow and blend into the prevailing culture of the time, so it didn't stick out so much. And that's actually a big part of our practice, is blending in. So I can't really comment too much. I can't comment on the I Ching, but I don't know about it. I know there are people that toss the I Ching coins and derive guidance for that. But Tozan used these aspects of understanding and extremes to explain what goes on in our practice. And these hexagrams are unbroken lines and solid – unbroken lines and broken lines together in a particular configuration. And that's the Yixing. And there's a rendering of that in front of the Abbott's office there in the patio you can look at.

[06:57]

Something that's a little bit easier for us to understand and see are the depictions in these circles here, which a friend of mine drew for me and for us, these five ranks or positions of practice. And these five positions or aspects of practice are the interaction of extremes or opposites. there is the active side which is the yang side and the passive side which is the yin side. The active side of yang can be seen as sort of the relative world when we're actually kind of out doing things and picking and choosing and discriminating, and the passive side or the yin side is a side of stillness. You can't have just one thing, strictly speaking.

[08:01]

There's always things in relationship to one another. So our life is always in relationship. I feel good, but that's only relative to feeling bad. I feel happy relative to feeling sad. I feel loving relative to feeling hateful or lack of hate. So there's one comes forward, the other one is back or is receding. When we come to practice, we're talking and thinking a lot about vexations, things that are troubling us, things that are discouraging, cause us worry. So what we do in practice is to try to find our peace within the worry that comes up in our life. quite naturally we want to get rid of wary, we want to get rid of vexations.

[09:01]

But truly to penetrate the practice we have to embrace it and really be with it. And we realize that vexations are no different than samsara, no different than enlightenment. So you have these two sides which appear to be opposites. vexations or troubles and enlightenment and being awake. And we strive for being awake and we want to get rid of these vexations. Last week, Shohaku Okamura was talking about his teacher's teaching about the atmosphere and that we're here on the earth and we're looking up through this very thin line or veil and not being able to see beyond that. and that's our karma is being caught by that sort of veil or web and in practice we're able to see beyond that and we're still sitting here on the ground, we're still in the midst of suffering.

[10:07]

We don't talk too much about the five ranks because Soja Roshi and a number of teachers are very leery of people getting caught into a stepladder practice, that they want to get one thing and then they want to get better, this, [...] to get somewhere. And that's a natural order of events when we come to practice of wanting to get something. I certainly did and do from time to time still. And when I remember that, I realize that these positions are not fixed. They're just places that we find ourselves. And we at any moment can go from one to another and back again. Though as our practice deepens, we become more aware of these particular positions and are at peace with them and accepting that, oh, I'm caught by my vexations again, for instance. So in the first rank or position at the very top, The literal translation is off-center within the center, the off-center being the dark area and that's the world of vexation and the center is the white area or clear area which is the area of enlightenment or wakefulness.

[11:42]

if you will, looking behind the curtain and seeing that there's more there or going beyond that line of atmosphere. So we get a glimpse of that, that there's some wisdom or enlightenment or stillness within our vexations and troubles. It gives us hope. It gives us a sense that there's actually more going on here than what appeared before us and before me for so many years. And by the depiction of the circle, we get to see that it's all of one piece, that there's a world of form, the world of discrimination within emptiness, within that ground of just being. And what the Buddha said, that all things are enlightened or are awaking with me at this moment. the alleged comment or expression he made when he had his enlightenment experience.

[12:50]

So we get a little glimpse of stillness or wakefulness or something that's beyond our typical vexations that are causing us so much difficulty. Naturally, we want more and we focus on that little bit of enlightenment. I want to get more of that because that feels good. Feels good to other people. Feels good to me. It's what I've been reading about. I'm paying my dues every month. It's what I want to keep going for. And we forget about the vexations because we're so focused on just this enlightenment and just this little bit of wakefulness. So there's really a clear sense of self. There's a clear sense of a gaining idea. Which is okay, because this is a stage in our practice when we're pretty self-conscious. We are self-conscious when we decide to come here at 10.15 on a Saturday morning to hear a talk and have tea with friends when we could be doing lots of other things.

[13:58]

But when we get a glimpse of being awake or that there's something more going on, we realize that there's a lot of ground to cover. Dogen Zenji, the founder of Soto Zen in Japan, I'm paraphrasing, said something to the effect of, before you start practicing, you think you know a lot and you can get it pretty easily. And then once you get your feet wet in practice, you realize that it's a vast amount of practice that needs to be undertaken to really plumb the depths of what the Buddha taught. So when we get this little glimpse, we realize, wow, there's a lot here, and to carry on. The next position is called the center within the off-center.

[15:05]

vexation within wisdom. And lastly, emptiness within form. So at this stage or position of awareness or practice, we've had some more awareness and wakefulness to our life and the cause and conditions of our life. Maybe a little bit more peace of mind because we've experienced some stillness or tranquility. and yet there's still a little bit of vexation to deal with. So the, whereas at the beginning stages we were so focused on getting more enlightenment experiences, now we're focusing on getting rid of that little bit of vexation. And this is kind of like a purification practice that many people undertake because it becomes so consumed that, oh my God, look, I've been such a bad person.

[16:15]

I've seen now that the things that I've done that have caused myself harm, caused other people harm, caused my business harm, what have you, that it becomes, at worst, it could become sort of destructive and you tend not to move on in your practice. So at this place it's really good to have, throughout the whole practice relationship, it's good to have teachers and friends to confide in because it's very easy to get a little bit off balance or off kilter at this point. So we have Bodhisattva ceremony once a month and we avow our karma and we make an intention to wake up. and make public, at least to ourselves, by reciting the liturgy associated with the ceremony, that we have these vexations still.

[17:18]

This practice is likened to the Arhat practice of the Theravada school, where the students are focused on purification practices. And this is a really good practice to keep in mind, because we're constantly getting tainted and vexations are constantly coming up and we get an opportunity to see them and to work with them and to try to purify ourselves. As you could imagine, this is still very dualistic thinking, but it's a positive dualistic thinking because it's a self-reflection practice. In the third position, with the circle and the little dot there, is called literally coming in the center or manifesting in the midst of essence.

[18:27]

In this case, form is form and emptiness is emptiness. They're seen as distinct and clear. And while this is two-dimensional, it can be likened to being like a sphere, a three-dimensional thing in that we actually are sitting here as three-dimensional beings, and we have this vexation or sort of a collection of concerns, but they're held at bay. They're inside us, so to speak. And we sit in this position, called Zazen and the Cosmic Mudra, and we're actually holding these vexations inside. Now, it's not repressing them, and I like to remind people that this is just a model of what's actually going on, okay? It's not a literal thing that you, quantifiable that you can weigh, but it's just a model and a way of speaking. But we're holding our vexations inside, and we see them clearly for what they are.

[19:34]

He says it's vexation. This is me. This is karma. And then it's surrounded by this white area, which is the area of enlightenment or awakefulness or wisdom, if you will. The wisdom of actually seeing these vexations for what they are. They're no longer manifesting outward. They're just there. This is a pivot in this so-called progression in practice. So we've gone from very self-centered, kind of dualistic, focusing on enlightenment experiences, focusing on getting rid of vexations to this still place of just sitting upright. And this is a position or place that is associated with dropping body and mind. Just being perfectly present, an idea of self and other drop away in that moment.

[20:44]

Many years ago, there was a practice period here and Rebecca Maiano was the shuso. And Baica made cookies for the tea treat during Sashin. And these cookies looked like these five ranks. The bottom was a white cookie, and then there was a dark jam. And then the top wafer had cutouts, so you would see more or less jam. No jam on this one, and a lot of jam here. So when the offering came to the person in Sashin, they got to pick and choose how much vexation or wisdom they wanted. So Sojourner Roshi picked the middle cookie, the one right in the middle there. I think it was a good balance between the two. I never talked to him about it, but I don't know if he was conscious of it, but that's really an important place in our practice, is to actually sit upright and see our vexations.

[22:00]

Because at that point, then we have the opportunity to either move forward, so to speak, and go deeper in our practice, or sometimes it gets a little scary seeing these vexations and we fall out of practice or we stumble and have a difficult time carrying on. So it's a really important sort of fulcrum in our practice. So in the fourth rank, which literally could be a blank space, but for the sake of explanation, there's a line to show that circle. is called Arrival with Dual Aspects, of course, of wisdom and vexation. And this is a position of arriving. I have arrived. It's a place of just being. It's, in a sense, a dead space.

[23:02]

We're not doing anything. We've just arrived. The Buddha sitting up on the eucalyptus stump there is just being, and it's a dead place. Dead not as far as opposite of life and some kind of, you know, pulsating blood, but dead as far as a static place. So with the so-called removal of vexations, because things are interrelated, there's also the removal of wisdom. So that's dead state, nothing is actually existing, if you will. Because you can't have one without the other. It's humorously said that nobody's home.

[24:04]

there's nobody there to actually experience these vexations or wisdoms. And in this very dead or still place, because there's no vexations and no wisdom, that emptiness is not different than form and form is not different than emptiness. Everything is interpenetrable and going back and forth. So looking at it one way, it's a very mixed up place because there's nothing to hold on to. But this is the root wisdom that the Buddha discovered. There's no sentient beings, there's nobody to save. And some people stop practicing at this point.

[25:10]

There's a term called samadhi freaks, people who are just very much into the sort of the bliss and groove of just being still and feeling that kind of energy. But in our practice of Bodhisattva practice, we have to get off the eucalyptus stump and we have to manifest what we've learned. The Buddha was, according to legend, when he had his enlightenment experience and saw all this, he didn't want to go out and teach. The story goes that he felt it was too profound a teaching, and nobody would understand it. And then the tradition arose that he would be asked three times, and then he would come forth with a teaching. But initially, I think he had a difficult time with it. As we all do, if we have some kind of realization to try to share that with somebody, it's very difficult because it's a very personal thing.

[26:13]

And yet we try to do that still. So this fifth rank or position literally is called the perfection on both counts. It's acquired wisdom. And it's returning to the marketplace. It's being in the world. And it's really the hallmark of our practice here at Berkley Zen Center, which is a lay practice and being in the world, working, living with families, voting or not voting, all the various things that we do. The Jhulmira Samadhi ends with practice hidden, function secretly, like a fool, like an idiot.

[27:28]

Just to do this continuously is called the host within the host. Sojo Roshi once described this fifth position as an old-time practitioner off in the corner with his or her kind of nose dripping that people kind of notice peripherally, but they don't really draw a lot of attention, but they're steeped in a lot of wisdom and compassion. They don't stick out so much. So it's still a stretch for me to try to figure out what is a host within the host, but in my attempt to try to explain this, there are wisdom and vexation, relative and absolute, host and guest.

[28:48]

These are various words that are used to So host within the host is the so-called highest or deepest realization. And as you notice, the dark space is vexation and the circle is completely filled with vexation. So when we turn to the marketplace, we're completely in vexation. When we're at peace marches, When we're dealing with co-workers or bosses or any of these situations that arise that completely fill us with vexation, it can be extremely discouraging. For myself, I found that discouragement when I've been thinking about how good it could be. the opposite of this vexation that actually things could be lighter and freer and more compassionate and all that.

[29:54]

Well, that's thinking mind, that's gaining idea, that's these opposites which tend to not reconcile so easily. So how do we balance our intention with the reality that's in front of us? and to be a host within the host or to literally be vexed by the vexations. I don't know the philosophical terms and logic so well or the study, but there's something about that study where they say, well, two negatives make a positive, two so-called negatives make a positive. And the closest I ever came to understanding that is when my teacher in New York used to talk about anger. And that sometimes when you encounter a person who's angry or there's some kind of dissonance between you and the other person, sometimes in some moments, if you express anger back without any gaining idea, but just meet that anger,

[31:16]

those two so-called negatives create a positive, but as Suzuki said, not always so. So how do we discern when to maybe bring forth anger, so-called righteous anger, and when do we bring a smile and offer something that looks opposite? And I'm not here to tell you when to do that, it seems like there's something to my old teacher's teaching and what was being depicted here in the five ranks or positions. So I think when we reflect on these five positions or things that come up in our consciousness, we can see pretty clearly that we go back and forth and we have moments of utter frustration and utter enlightenment and all the grades in between.

[32:41]

And next time you have a cookie, think about how much jam is in there and which one to pick. We have a few minutes for questions or discussion. Malcolm? Thank you, Ross. I was thinking about in Zazen, I often hear people say, and the surgeon said it himself, when he sits, he gives himself Zazen instruction. I don't know specifically and I do this myself, I can remind myself, what is Sāsana? Sit in this form, put the attention on the breathing, lift myself up a little bit in the sternum, things like that. And I also remember one time Raul saying, when there was a discussion about desire and practicing with desire, he said, he asks himself two questions.

[33:44]

What is this thing that's desired and who is it that desires? So what I'm wondering is, Tozan's five ranks, is there a kind of verbalization that one could practice when some vexation arises? You might become aware there's vexation. What could you do to talk yourself through an appropriate response to that arising of vexation? Is that a clear question? Yeah. I don't know if my response will be so clear. I find myself laughing a lot of late and my laughter is a response to my vexations and my conditioning and hindrances that have caused me some degree of pain and suffering. But I don't think about laughing in Zazen. So when the vexations arise and when I'm sitting, I

[34:47]

I return to my breath and posture. It seems that's the simplest and easiest thing to do. And the questions of who is it that is desiring or who is vexed and all that, that question doesn't arise so much for me, though I think about it. when I was looking at the scroll, when I was preparing my notes, I was thinking about how the first two positions up toward the top feel physically like it's up here in my head. And then it drops down in the middle and then it goes down deeper to the earth.

[35:55]

And I, um, have faith that the physical act of sitting upright and working through the vexations and enlightenment desires and moving down, maintaining that central fulcrum of upright sitting and going down is where it's at. I don't know if that answers your question, but it just It just feels right. When I hung the scroll up, I noticed that there's a sixth circle here, which is this halo around Kuan Yin. I can't say any more. Is that around what you were asking? To practice Tozan's five ranks is to practice Tozan.

[37:00]

Well, ultimately it has to be that way. You know, it's a mistake on purpose that he created this thing. And I think one reason why it's not talked about so much as I started earlier, that people tend to think of gaining ideas and using it as a tool. Like, I want to get this, I want to get this, I want to get this. But fundamentally it's coming back to Zazen and examining what's going on in our mind. Like, what stage is this? Am I focusing on vexations? Am I focusing on enlightenment? Am I off the cushion? We're doing a fifth position thing here. I think about that, not only in Zazen, but a lot, because it's not just when we're on the cushion, it's actually when we're off the cushion and relating to people and things that this stuff arises. So, yeah. Sorry, yeah.

[38:03]

Sorry, I can't be any more clear. Marty? Thank you, Ross. The thing that I was thinking about is in the last circle, it strikes me that there's no wisdom there at all, because there's no white in it. But even though these aren't supposed to be ranks, that seems like that's kind of the end. I don't really understand what that would mean and why that would be some kind of ideal at all to act without wisdom. And I think the example you gave of anger appropriately used, it seems like what makes it appropriate is the wisdom to sort of understand, to have a perspective on it. And so that seems more like maybe the middle one or something, what would it really mean to just, I mean, what my, what immediately strikes me is it's just doing whatever you feel like doing, you know, and not sort of thinking about is this appropriate at this moment, and that just seems wrong.

[39:17]

Yeah, that's right, that's wrong. Well, that's a good question. I think a lot of people fall into that trap at some point when they're doing Zen practice. They think, well, anything goes. It seems like whatever you do, it's all right. And my second question to my teacher in New York was, well, it seems like in Zen, there's this thing where you just come forward. You just kind of go for it. You just know what to do. And he sort of smiled and nodded his head. He says, yes, and also knowing when to take a step back. So in our preset practice, of following the guidelines that lay down for the Bodhisattva, we learn to step forward and step back, but there's a context or framework for what's appropriate. And while it doesn't appear that there's any so-called wisdom in the fifth rank, if we have a sense of wisdom

[40:19]

And you can check this out with other people, okay? But this is my sense of it. I encourage everybody to check this out with people you have confidence in around these matters, because it's very slippery. If there's an idea or a sense of wisdom and enlightenment, then we're going to still be on top of the mountain. And truly to be wise, is to be in the marketplace, is to be in the world with people and things and mixing it up. And like the old gal in the corner with her nose dripping, that's kind of invisible. There's a lot of wisdom there, but it's not seen as wisdom by our conventional sense of the word, that the sense of someone who's very wise is kind of like puffed up, right? And that my experience has been some of the most wise people I've ever encountered are not even practicing Zazen.

[41:29]

They're just like letter carriers or just average people on the street, but they manifest a certain wisdom, but it looks like within a realm of just kind of ordinariness. And that's That's kind of how I see that. So even though we don't see that, I think it's there. I didn't plan this, but the Quan Yin here in this sort of sixth circle, it seems to speak to that. It's actually very dark and kind of hard to see. But she comes forward and helps us. The question in the back, one more. Jordan, hi, thanks for coming. That's right, yeah.

[43:30]

Well, you know, in our meal chant there's a line about, you know, may our life, I'm paraphrasing it because I spaced it, but something to the effect of, you know, we should be like a lotus in muddy water. So there's all this mud which is our life and Well, thank you for your attention and really good questions. I hope that some satisfactoriness has come from all that, and if not, I apologize.

[44:10]

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