Well, what we always keep coming back to is the difficulty of how to express our practice in our daily life. And what it comes down to is how do we stay with the root and not get lost in the branches and leaves? Or when we're involved with a whole tree, how do we keep from getting lost? So today, I'm going to talk about case number 12 in the Munan Khan.

[01:12]

Most of you are familiar with this case, and I've talked about it before. There's no end to it. This case number 12 is about Zui Gan. Zui Gan was a student of Ganto, who lived in the 9th century in Tang Dynasty, China. His Chinese name actually is Zhu Yan. But Zuigan, Japanese transliteration is more familiar to us. So I call him Zuigan. Famous case of Zuigan calls master. The priest Zuigan called master, called master to himself every day.

[02:22]

and answered himself, yes. Then he would say, be aware. And reply, okay. And then he would say, don't be deceived by anyone. Actually, don't be deceived by others. Not anyone, but others. And then he would say, okay, I won't, or no, I won't. So this is Zui Gan's dialogue with himself. Mono-dio-log. And then Mu Mang has a comment. And he says, old Zuigan buys himself and sells himself.

[03:27]

He brings forth lots of angel faces and demon masks and plays with them. Why, look, one kind calls, one kind answers. One kind is aware and one kind will not be deceived by others. If you still cling to understanding, you're in trouble. If you try to imitate Zui Gan, your discernment is altogether that of a fox. And then, Master Mumon has a verse, and he says, Students of the Way do not know the truth. They only know their deluded consciousness up to now. This is the source of endless birth and death. the full cause of the original Self. So this is an interesting dialogue.

[04:42]

Usually, when we think about dropping the Self, we don't think about addressing the self. The image that we have when we hear, let go of the self, drop body and mind, is to actually do away with something. But here, Master Zui Gon takes the initiative the positive way. and is always encountering and addressing, not escaping, not letting go of something exactly, but taking hold. In our life, the way to take care of our practice is to take hold of it.

[05:56]

take hold of what's in front of us, to address what's in front of us, to be one with what's in front of us. We say, without picking and choosing, that makes it more complex, a little more difficult. How do you take hold without picking and choosing, and at the same time, not be attached to anything? So, Zui Gon divides himself in two, it looks like. Looks like the ultimate duality. When people walk down the street talking to themselves, we wonder about them.

[06:58]

But, if you think about it, we're always, each one of us is always mumbling to ourselves something. If we could open up each one of our heads, we'd see that we're always mumbling something to ourselves. But we're not necessarily addressing ourselves. Who are we addressing? And what are we addressing? When we talk to each other, what are we addressing? Ultimately, what are we addressing? Or who is it? So, in a sense, this is a case of, who is it? Every day, Zui Gon would call, Master. So, who is Master?

[08:06]

Who's he talking to? And, who's talking to who? When we address ourself, What self are we addressing? In the commentary, Master Murmat says, Old Zuigan puts on devil masks, angel masks, and devil masks. So then he says, Be aware. This is how he talks to himself. Be aware. Be aware means wake up. Be awake.

[09:08]

Don't allow the mind to wander around. In Zazen, when we sit Zazen, we're supposed to put our attention on posture and breathing. But what actually happens is that the mind wanders around. And when we catch the mind wandering around, we pull it back. And we wake up for a moment, or a few moments, and then the mind starts wandering around again. And then we catch that, and we say, wake up! Maybe not say it, but try it. Wake up. And this coming back to ourself is waking up.

[10:15]

Coming back to the present is waking up. This is it. This is the present moment and the present eternal moment. Last week, or last time, I talked about continuous time and discontinuous time. Discontinuous time is the way we count time. 1 o'clock, 2 o'clock, 3 o'clock, discrete moments of time. But actually, that's just a made-up device. There's also continuous time, which is time of the no beginning and no end present, which is always just present, just presence.

[11:28]

So we have both of these times, continuous time and discontinuous time. But what we're mostly aware of is discontinuous time. which is the root, the branches and leaves of our life. And continuous time, which is the root. And when we say to be in the present, or wake up to the present, it means continuous time. That time in which is just now. Any moment is just now. And not necessarily defined by the characteristics of consciousness, which invents our world.

[12:43]

Conscious mind is continually inventing our world, continually inventing the world of discontinuous time. So when Surya Gan says, be aware, be awake, he means be awake to reality, wake to reality. realize that a dream is a dream. Sometimes we say enlightenment means being enlightened about delusion. It means being enlightened about what is a dream and what is not a dream. So when he says, be aware, he means be aware of this is a dream, this is not a dream.

[13:58]

So then he says, don't be deceived by others. It doesn't necessarily mean so much other people or something outside of ourselves, but our own delusions, our own thoughts, our own disconnectedness, our own separateness. Don't be deluded by these things. Don't be deluded by shining bowls and glittering glass. Stay with the fundamental. Stay with the root. And then he says, OK, I will. So

[15:07]

No one ever talks to themselves like this, but apparently Zunigan would start his talks like this. I'm not sure that he actually went around mumbling to himself all the time, but he would give a taisho in this way. And then he would use that for his talk. But nobody knows for sure. Maybe he did go around mumbling and stood himself up all day. If you have a koan which is like Mu, it's the same thing. What Mu means is wake up to reality. So if you have a koan which is Mu, whatever you are involved with is Mu.

[16:10]

wake up to the reality of this situation, moment after moment. Justice. So this kind of practice is called shikantaza. This is the practice of Soto Zen, more or less, called shikantaza. It means to just do, or just doing. So our life has two aspects. One is what we do with a motive, and the other is what we do without a motive. What we do with a motive is called a goal-oriented life or activity. And we want to accomplish something. We go from A to B and accomplish something.

[17:17]

The other aspect of our life, of our activity, is just being. It has nothing to do with accomplishment. It has to do with manifestation. Manifesting and expressing reality. And this aspect doesn't come or go. In the first aspect of our activity, there's coming and going. But in the second, there's no coming or going. It's simply expressing and manifesting our true nature. So in our activity, both of these aspects are present. And you can't really divide them because the one is based on the other. Our activity

[18:27]

is based on stillness. And stillness is the expression of, or activity is the expression of stillness. But you can't have one without the other. But we usually get caught in our activity. so that we don't recognize the basis or the root of our activity, which is stillness, which does not go or come, come or go, but is always present as the source of everything. So, to practice Shikantaza means to always be aware of the goalless side of our life, the non-accomplished side of our life, just expressing true nature.

[19:54]

If in our activity, our busy activity, if we're always rooted in stillness, always rooted in, as Suzuki Roshi used to say, non-gaining mind, then we know what our life is, and we always know where we are. And we always know, even in our confusion, what to do. And when there's no activity, we just rest in ourself. People who don't have this awareness don't know what to do when they're not busy. If there's a moment of silence or a moment of stopping, a gap, people look for some way to start moving again.

[21:07]

But it's not necessary. If we're continually involved in a big mind, continually resting in big mind throughout our activity. When our activity stops, we just enjoy ourself. We just enjoy our true self. So even though we may have confusion or difficulties or big problems, when we're resting in big mind, we're never really lost. And this samadhi of Shikantaza called Jijuyu Zamai, self-joyous or self-fulfilling samadhi, which

[22:29]

means that no matter what is happening, we're always at one with ourself. So when Zui Gan calls out, Master, he's talking, he's addressing the deepest part of himself. Who is the Master? Or who is the Mistress? He's talking to Buddha nature. Buddha nature is talking to Buddha nature. His active self is talking to his deeper self. And they're not two things. It's like a dialogue between two fingers, but the two fingers belong to the same hand. So fundamentally, this is how we practice in our daily life.

[23:46]

We can think of various tricks, like keep coming back to your breath. It's not exactly a trick, but it's a device. And it's not exactly a technique. But fundamentally, to be trusting, actually, to have faith in and trust your unconditioned nature. So that through all of the changes of discontinuous time, nothing has really happened. I know that, I don't want to say that again, but when I say nothing has happened, it doesn't mean that things haven't changed.

[24:51]

But even though things are constantly changing, we're always in the same place. So old Zuigan buys himself and sells himself. That's just a way of talking about his dialogue with himself. He brings forth lots of angel faces and demon masks and plays with them. Demon masks and angel faces are the changing aspects of ourselves, states of mind.

[25:54]

We're putting on one face, and then we put on another. Some angelic aspect of ourself comes out, and then some demonic aspect of ourself presents itself. And these masks that we have are continually changing, changing them all the time, presenting various aspects of ourself. We like to present our best face, mostly. Most people are like that. When we address each other or confront each other, we usually like to express our best face, you know, our most intelligent aspect or our most beautiful or pretty aspect. But we don't often present our worst aspect.

[27:04]

Sometimes we do. I know one person who presents his worst aspect all the time and constantly saying what he did wrong and how bad he is and so forth. It's a kind of egotistical trip to do that. But at the same time, It allows everybody to feel okay about themselves. You know, when one person is being a clown or acting out the bad side of themselves, it gives everybody some relief and some recognition, actually. And that person does it for everyone. You don't have to do it yourself. It's too bad. Actually, someone who can really present themselves, their bad side as well as their good side, you know, you trust that person. I always trust that person. Someone who is always just talking about their good side, you kind of wonder, you know.

[28:12]

Each one of us has half good and half bad. I don't know what the proportions are. I'll just say half and half. But we can go either way. And we do. And no matter how good you get, you still have a bad side. And vice versa. In the historical times, there was a question in Buddhism as to whether or not there were some people that didn't have Buddha nature. And that was a real question. There were some people who were so devoid of any human aspect that there was some question, does every human being have Buddha nature? So that was a question. And then in the Nirvana Sutra, there was this passage that said, all sentient beings, without exception, have Buddha nature.

[29:26]

And so that settled the question. People used to rely on the sutras a lot, because the sutras were the word of Buddha. And it wasn't until later that people realized that these sutras were made up by somebody else. But nevertheless, it's strange, though, that people would have to rely on the sutra to settle that question. We should know. But there are some people, when you look at them, their actions, you wonder. But it's true that if we thought that There were some people that didn't have buddhanature, even if they didn't, it would not be such a good situation. So that means everyone can be safe, find some salvation for themselves.

[30:35]

It's possible, no matter what condition they're in. So he plays with these angel faces and demon faces, just like we do. But he's very conscious and aware. Oh, this is the angel face. Oh, this is the demon face. Don't be fooled by the angel face and don't be fooled by the demon face. What is the original face? How does one find the original face? Because the demon face and the angel face are superimposed on the original face. That's why they're called masks. So when we see each other,

[31:43]

Do we present our mask or do we present our original face? How do we find our original face? What do we feel comfortable with? So this is a question for all of us. Then he says, look, one kind calls, one kind answers. One kind is aware, and one kind will not be deceived by others. If you still cling to understanding, you're in trouble. Cling to understanding means clinging to any particular understanding. If you cling to some particular state of mind, When we practice Zen, often we think there's some particular state of mind, which is the Zen mind, maybe called enlightenment.

[32:59]

But there's no particular state of mind that we seek. States of mind are continually changing, constantly flowing. is only this flow. There is no stable state of mind in consciousness. Then he says, if you try to imitate Zui Gon, your discernment is altogether that of a fox. So you can't imitate him either. you have to find your own way of expressing, which may be the same, but it has to be your own. If you tell a story, you can't just tell a story. The story has to be your own story, even though it's just a story that you heard.

[34:04]

States of mind. States of mind which are continually changing makes it almost impossible to grasp who we are. As soon as we take hold of who we are, it's somebody else. We're already in another state. So the past mind cannot be grasped, future mind cannot be grasped, and present mind cannot be grasped or held on to. But what is it that is itself in this continually changing, flowing thing that we call me? Where do we take hold of it?

[35:10]

You know, we say there are eight consciousnesses, eight aspects of consciousness. Five sense consciousnesses and mind consciousness, discriminating mental consciousness. And then there's the seventh consciousness and the eighth consciousness, and the eighth consciousness is alaya-vijnana, which from which all of the seeds of our actions are stored and continually are sprouting to produce habit energy. But the seventh consciousness is called the ego. In Buddhism, the ego has been isolated. It's been found and isolated and defined. And this seventh consciousness is called ego consciousness, self-consciousness, consciousness which sees this collection of physical and psychic energy as a self, which is the root of our problems.

[36:45]

But we grab onto that as myself. And until we can let go of this delusive consciousness, we can't find our own freedom. Because our own freedom means that we realize there's no self. So it's very hard to let go of that. Because if we do, then we'll feel that we've lost something. So we cling very tightly to this ego. our sense of self and continually keep suffering the sufferings attributed to the ego. So what Buddhism is about is finding the source of suffering and letting go of it.

[37:53]

So it's important to find our original self, our original face, as they say, and let go of this false self called the ego, this seventh consciousness, and then have some freedom in our life. So this is what Zuligan is doing. He says, don't be deceived by any of these egotistical aspects of your mind. That's what he means by don't be deceived by others. Others means, can be called sentient beings. But you know, in the Platform Sutra, Huineng, When he's talking about how to save sentient beings from violence, he says, sentient beings doesn't mean those people out there.

[39:19]

Sentient beings means the sentient beings within your own mind. We have to save the sentient beings within our own mind, the delusive mind, the avaricious mind, and so forth. all the defiled aspects of our character, which obscure our original mind. In our everyday practice, as in Zazen, to let go of seventh consciousness and let original mind manifest. It's always there. So that's why it's important to sit Zazen, because Zazen is

[40:29]

best way to recognize ourself. So in his verse he says, students of the way do not know the truth. They only know the deluded consciousness, their own deluded consciousness up to now. Deluded consciousness means the seventh consciousness. ego consciousness. That's all they know. And they take it for the self. And this is the source of endless birth and death. And the fool calls it the original self. Just to be open without assuming anything. Without being partial to anything.

[41:38]

To act a little bit like a frog. Yuki Roshi used to talk about the frog just sitting on the rock, very still, enjoying his true nature, without any thought or desire or partiality. And then a fly comes along, right in line with his tongue. And as soon as the fly hits that spot right in front, the tongue goes... Gets the fly. And he goes... And if he likes it... And if he doesn't like it...

[42:35]

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