I am about to taste the truth of God's authority. In Dogen Zenji's Gakudo Yojinshu, he says it's necessary, in order to practice, it's necessary to have a right teacher. And he describes a teacher as someone who doesn't have emotional entanglements or intellectual entanglements and is not necessarily a scholar, but who knows how to combine understanding and practice.

[01:28]

And he's always criticizing people who just have intellectual understanding or scholarly understanding. And he always emphasizes practice, as we know. So a good teacher is always necessary for students, otherwise they don't know which way to go and don't know how to even if they have some understanding, don't know how to go about practice in a day-to-day, day-by-day way.

[02:46]

So a good teacher is someone who knows how to... He also describes a good teacher as someone who is like a woodworker. who, when he sees it, chooses a piece of... wants to make some sculpture, sees the form in the wood, knows how to see the form in the wood, and bring out the form that's in the wood, or in the material. A good teacher, you know, doesn't try to make everyone look like Barbie dolls, or look like Wimpy or something, but brings out the quality, can recognize and bring out the quality of each student to its utmost, or help the student to do that for themselves, actually.

[03:58]

And I think that always the way of a good teacher is to help people understand how to set their own limitations for practice. The most important thing about practice, I think, is knowing how to create a framework and a limitation for our activity so that we know how to practice. Quite often, we talk about unlimited freedom. We say that when you drop your ego, then you have universal activity.

[05:07]

Your activity is one with the universe. But the dangerous thing about that is that we think that it means that you also can do anything you want. But in order to have a sense of practice, a sense of what you're doing as practice, it's necessary to delineate a limitation around your life. And that limitation gives you some way to, some walls to reflect your light.

[06:08]

You know, if you have a light bulb or a candle, and you go into a, you go down to the beach, or out in the middle of the desert, that little candle is just going to be this nothing. But if you go into the closet or into a small room, the candle lights up everything. So in order for our candle to light up everything around us, we have to draw some limitation. Otherwise, we can't really see our reflection back. And we're really groping in the dark. So to practice within a limitation makes our activity real, gives our activity some reality.

[07:12]

And within the limitation that we define, we know what we're doing and we don't get lost so easily. So A good teacher is someone who knows how to help a student to define limitations and to create a framework within which to practice. I remember in Zen Mind Beginner's Mind, Suzuki Roshi talked about giving your, if you want to control your horse or cow, you give them a wide pasture to roam in. I think we have to be careful of that statement. That's something that he said in a certain circumstance, you know, to make a point.

[08:18]

If you try to control something by hanging on to it, too tightly, you don't end up controlling anything. You just end up losing what you have. So to give some wide pasture is good for older students who know what they're doing. But a new student, I say new meaning four or five years, or up to 10 years, maybe, depending on the understanding of the student, should have very close kind of practice. The first thing we have to do is to learn how to control ourself. If you don't know how to control yourself, there's no way you can practice.

[09:20]

And Zen practice is always associated with discipline. We always have to avoid rigidity. The problem with discipline is that it can easily turn into rigidity. But someone who is well-trained Their practice doesn't turn into rigidity. They have lots of flexibility within their framework and can even extend their framework. But first, we have to have a small framework. And as we become more able, we extend our framework. And at some point, you can go anywhere you like without losing yourself. And in this particular practice that we have, you set the limitation.

[10:27]

Residents, people who live here, have to abide by the limitations that we set up for residents. But people who aren't residents define their own limitations. But you should define your limitations. If you're a practicing student and you don't abide by the residence rules, then you should define your own limitations. And that's the most essential thing in practice. If when you define your limitation, it means that Whatever you do fits into the framework of your life, and you don't do things so arbitrarily. When our life is just arbitrary, the circumstances don't add up to anything.

[11:34]

So to have meaningful activity, which we call practice, we set certain standards and we set limitations so that we always know what we're doing. And what we're doing adds up to the whole of our life. Each part of our life covers the whole of our life when we're engaged in that activity. So when you're When you set up limitations or create your room, so to speak, your space, which can be large or small, whatever activity you happen to be doing at any one time,

[12:41]

is part of your whole life and affects every other part. And everything that you do reflects back onto you and so you can study yourself. But only within that limitation is it possible. So a good teacher is someone who can help people to do that. So a teacher is called a bridge. It's one way of talking about a teacher is a bridge. And one famous example is Joshu. Joshu lived in a place called Joshu. And he gets his name from the place where he lived.

[13:45]

They didn't name the place after him, but, you know, it's like, they called people after the places where they lived, quite often. And Zen masters always called after the names of the mountains that they lived on. So when we talk about Tozan, actually Tozan is the name of the mountain where Tozan lived. Tozan Ryokai lived. His name is Ryokai, but we call him Tozan. In China, there were several famous bridges and One of the bridges, one of the famous bridges was the Joshu Bridge, Zhaozhou Bridge. And then there was the Tendai Bridge. And one other bridge, can't remember the name of it.

[14:49]

But these were very famous bridges, and they happened to be where there were famous Zen masters. and our famous Buddhists' teachers. So there's a kind of pun on the bridge of Joshu, because Joshu was a famous bridge in the town of... Joshu was a famous teacher called the bridge. And there was a very famous bridge in Joshu, the town of Joshu, which is also a very famous bridge. So there's a case, you know, in the Blue Cliff record about Joshu's bridge. And one day a monk came to Joshu and he said, I came to see the famous bridge at Joshu, but all I see is some stepping stones.

[15:58]

The bridges, you know, were not necessarily made like we see bridges today, but were made of big stones that were put in the river. He said, all I see is some stepping stones. He's putting down Joshu, actually. And Joshu says, you see the stones, but you don't see the bridge. And so the monk takes Joshu's line and bites, and he says, what is the bridge? He says, Joshu says, donkeys cross and horses cross. It lets donkeys cross and it lets horses cross. This is a very famous answer of Joshu.

[17:04]

Joshu is very plain. And one of the things that we appreciate about Joshu is very plain kind of answers, very plain kind of practice and plain way of dealing with people. Different teachers have different methods or different ways of handling students, dealing with students. And sometimes, you know, Rinzai is very famous for his shouting. And Tokusan is very famous for his big stick. And these are very spectacular means of dealing with the situation. But Joshu just uses his mouth. Joshu is famous for just using his mouth in a very plain way.

[18:07]

And this is very much appreciated by everybody. that without having to resort to anything special, he can just say what he means in a very ordinary manner. Suzuki Roshi, I think, admired him a lot and was very much like him in that just his usual way of speaking was his way of teaching. And so people don't recognize that so readily. I think when we go to find a teacher, or we expect something very dazzling or spectacular or unusual, but the sign of the very best teachers is just maybe you don't recognize them at all. Very plain. and very unspectacular.

[19:11]

There's also the famous story of Tokusan and Ryutan. Ryutan became Tokusan's teacher, but Tokusan is famous for his big stick, actually, which he used a lot. He was at one time a scholar and he was a very adept scholar. He was famous for his understanding of the Diamond Sutra and he even wrote a commentary on the Diamond Sutra. he got very angry because he heard that there were these Zen people who were dominating the Buddhist field at the time.

[20:19]

And he was going to go and teach them a lesson. So when Tokusan, he set out with sutras on his shoulder in a bag. And he came to this place where there was a woman, a very famous woman selling, she had a little tea shop. And she sold these little cookies, little tea cakes. And tea cakes, the name of these tea cakes also is a kind of pun. Besides meaning tea cake, it means something like mind refresher. And Tuck's son said, can I have some of these, some of your tea cakes, some of your mind refreshers? She said, what are you carrying on your back there?

[21:22]

He said, well, I'm a very famous scholar of the time of sutra, and I have, these are my commentaries. And she says, well, you can have some of my tea cakes, but first I want to ask you a question. And if you can answer my question, I'll give you, you can have the tea cakes. And if not, you'll have to go on your way." And he was a little surprised. He says, with what, since you know so much about the Diamond Sutra, when you eat these tea cakes, with what mind will you eat them? Past mind, present mind, or future mind? And he was completely stunned. and couldn't answer. You know, the Diamond Sutra, a famous passage in the Diamond Sutra says, past mind, future mind, and present mind cannot be grasped.

[22:27]

So for Togsang, this was a big blow. written, was so famous and arrogant about his, famous for his commentary and arrogant about his understanding, and he couldn't even answer this lady's question. So he said, there must be somebody around here in this area who's a teaching these people something. So he said, is there some Zen master around here? And she said, well, about five miles from here is Lungtang, Ryutang. Ryutang, the name Ryutang means dragon pond or dragon pool. So, he says, I'll go visit him. So, defeated as he was, he went over to meet Lungtan, and I went, Ryutan.

[23:36]

Lungtan is a Chinese name. And when he got to Ryutan, he says, are you Ryutan? He said, yes, I am. Ryutan said, yes, I am. He says, then Tokusan says, I don't see any dragon pond. I don't see any dragon or any deep pond." And Ryutang said, you see perfectly with your eyes. This statement, you see perfectly, just as you see. is very good actually, very good statement. Here's this little old man with nothing special about him. His name is Dragon, Deep Dragon Palm. But yet he's just this little old man with nothing special about him at all.

[24:42]

Just very plain. No, nothing shining out. And Tokusan at that point becomes impressed with him. And he says, can I stay here? And Ryutan says, yes, you can stay here. And so they talk all night about Buddhism. And Tokusan really gets a lot of respect for Ryutan. And then it gets late and Tokusan gets up to leave and to go to his room. And he lifts up the blind and he sees that it's dark outside. He says to Ryutan, do you have a light so I can see my way back to my room?

[25:48]

And Ryutan says, yes, and he lights a lantern for him, a kind of paper light, actually, and he hands it to Tokusan. And as soon as he hands it to Tokusan, he blows it out, and everything's pitch dark. And at that point, Tokusan has this great realization. It's not his final realization, but it's really his turning point where he had some tremendous understanding. But after his tremendous understanding, he had to practice for 30 more years just to develop himself from that point of understanding. So we always admire someone like Ryuta and someone like Joshu who are just very plain in their way.

[27:11]

But they bring understanding and practice together perfectly. It's well known, you know, that when practice and understanding are brought together perfectly, and we look at ourself through the eyes of enlightenment, we're just very plain people. When we have True insight, true enlightenment. We can see ourselves as very plain people. So if you have some inflated idea of yourself, teacher will always bring you down to size.

[28:27]

Actually, teacher should always show you just exactly what size you are. That's maybe the purpose of a teacher, is to show you just how much you weigh, and how big you are, how tall you are, how much you weigh, and how much space you take up. And you should be satisfied with it. As Dogen said when he came back from China, he said, what did you bring back? What wonderful thing did you bring back from China? And he said, well, all I know is that my nose is horizontal. My eyes go this way. My nose goes this way. My eyes go this way. But we should know that.

[29:31]

If you don't know anything else, we should know that. We should know that the nose goes this way. The eyes go this way. Do you have any questions? I wish you could say just a little bit more about how being a student's mirror or showing the student exactly what size he or she is, how that helps the student.

[30:51]

How that helps the student? It doesn't help. Helps the student what? To do what? what it does for the student? Well, the main thing, you know, is that we need to know what and who we are. That's the main thing, is to know what and who we are. That's what our practice is about. It's like that's one side and then the other side is dropping off body and mind. Same thing. Just different names for the same thing. You know, it's just a different name for the same thing. Dropping off body and mind means unmasking.

[31:53]

And looking at how much you weigh and how tall you are. Same thing, just a different way of saying it. I don't like to use the same old terms all the time. When I look out of my eyes, they're perfectly circular, and I can't see my nose at all. Well, yeah, I guess I can. You can't see your teeth anyway. Even, I mean, as a thing to say, that's a very peculiar thing to say. Well, I think that's very, it's something we need to think about.

[33:00]

You know, the eyes, not only can't, you know, see down here, but the eyes can't see themselves. What's important? The eyes don't see themselves, so how do you know yourself? You know? You really... The eyes see, but they don't see themselves. Your eyes will never see each other. This eye will never see this eye. And both eyes will never see themselves. You can look in a mirror, but it's not the same thing. that's looking at a reflection of the eyes, but the eyes can never see themselves. So, you know, that's... We can only have an idea about our eyes, but yet we feel that our eyes are very close to us.

[34:03]

You know, what we see through our eyes is very close. But our eyes don't see our eyes. They don't see themselves. I've thought about that too. The only way really to know that your eyes are horizontal and your nose is vertical is to either look in a mirror or trust that you look like everybody else. So it's not as simple as it sounds. No, it's not. So to experience something directly, we can talk about experiencing directly, but what do we experience directly and how do we do that?

[35:27]

How do we experience something directly? So much of what we experience is transformed into ideas. And we have an idea about our eyes, but when we look, we know. When we just see, when eyes just see, then there's some directly knowing. But if we start to think about our eyes seeing, that's a whole other thing. It's an idea we have about what we see and what sees. So, what we actually know and what we think we know are really two different things.

[36:32]

We can have an idea about what we know, But directly experiencing is quite different. Directly knowing. When Dogen says, the eyes go this way and the nose goes this way, he's saying that much is so. What he's really saying is there's not much that we know we can know unless we know it directly. Everything else is an idea. So to really experience something directly is what we call how we

[37:36]

make our effort to practice. So that's why practice always has a limitation. When you have the limitation, you don't, your mind doesn't tend to speculate or create ideas about things. It's not wrong to do that, but the purpose of practice in its strict sense is to help you to experience directly. That's why in a monastic practice you don't read newspapers, you don't hear the radio, you're completely cut off from the world. And you don't have difficult thinking jobs.

[38:46]

You just try to experience, you put in a position where you can just try to experience everything directly. It's not that there's anything wrong with thinking, but in order to experience directly, we have to lay down that emphasis. So that whatever we do, we're not always creating the image of it in our mind. That's why Zazen, in its most concentrated form, there's no thought, there's no images, there's no imagining, no creating something with your mind. Just direct experience, directly being it. beyond thinking. So when we sit Zazen, we say, don't think.

[39:50]

How do you not think? Don't think. Even though there are thoughts, we're not thinking thoughts directly. We're not creating thoughts. Thoughts are there, but we're not trying to create thoughts. But when there's no thinking and just stillness, and concentration, it's directly being it. And then the other side is when we start moving out into the world, we start thinking again and creating images and creating a whole world through our mind. We create the images, we create the world through our mind.

[40:56]

But when we cut that off, we are the universe, we are the world, or whatever it is that we are. We are what we are. So that's why it's necessary to have a narrow field, and then as you become, have more understanding and have more discipline, you can widen your field. So training is important. of the student. How does the teacher do anything different than oppose one viewpoint to another?

[41:59]

How does the teacher set things up so that the student has direct experience? The teacher doesn't take a dualistic standpoint of opposing one viewpoint over another. The teacher doesn't take any special viewpoint. The teacher is free from viewpoints, from any special viewpoint. And when the student comes up with some special point of view, the teacher tries to point it out to him one way or another. But the student doesn't always see what the teacher is trying to point out. And maybe the teacher doesn't have the means to help everybody.

[43:01]

Even though donkeys and horses cross, some are horses and some are donkeys. But nevertheless, you know, It's not really, the teacher can only be there. You know, you can't, teacher can't chase everybody around. Teacher can just be there, and it's a kind of bridge. And you know, at some point, some little thing will happen and the student will see what they've been doing, or see where they're off, or get something, some understanding. But the main thing is to keep the student from falling into dualistic thinking. And sometimes a student never understands about their dualistic thinking.

[44:11]

Usually, and quite often a student will, when something, when they get to the point of understanding their dualistic way of thinking, they get angry and fall back into this creating the world in the image of their anger. The teacher doesn't, you know, can't do anything. The best thing the teacher can do is to be himself and to be as practiced as hard and as virtuously as possible. That's the main thing for the teacher. Not to go around teaching people, but to be as virtuous and dedicated and honest as possible.

[45:17]

And then, uh, sometimes, some day the teacher turns around and bumps into somebody, and they get some, uh, understanding from it. Well, I guess... So how does the student set up the situation with the teacher so that he or she can penetrate their own thought world? The student asks for instruction over and over. You know, Choshu stayed with his teacher for 40 years.

[46:31]

Zen practice is endless, you know, and teacher-student relationship is endless. And it should go on and on. Without looking for something special, you know, The main thing is the relationship and how it goes on and on. Not that someday you'll understand. We understand more and more. As we practice, the more intensely we practice, the more we understand. So the point is, there's nothing that you can have. You can't have it, but you can only be it. That's the point. You cannot have it. You can only be it. So if we want to have it, that's just an idea. They're just creating some idea of enlightenment.

[47:42]

The only way you can have it is to be it. That's the whole point. And if you want to be it, that's the question. How can I be it? As long as you're being it, that's good. But when you step outside of it, as soon as you step outside, then you're someplace else. So how to be it, how to always be what we call practicing. 24 hours a day. How do you do that? So that's the koan, that's your question. How can I be practicing 24 hours a day? How can I be it 24 hours a day? And do all the things that I have to do?

[48:45]

How can I be it? 24 hours a day without any hindrance, without finding any hindrance in my life. How can I live my life 24 hours a day with absolutely no hindrance? singing.

[49:40]

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