This morning I'm going to talk about case number 12 in the collection called Mumon Kan, the gateless gate. And this case is called Zui Gan Calling Master. Chinese, his name is Zhu Yan, but it's easier to say Zui Gan, which is Japanese, Japanization of the Chinese name. You can say Zhu Yan, Zhu Yan. So this, of course, the cases in the Mumonkan have no introduction. They just start out. So the case goes like this.

[01:05]

I've talked about this before, and I know that many of you know this case. The priest, Juyen, called master to himself every day. and answered himself, yes. They didn't say yes, he said, yes. Then he would say, be aware, and reply, okay. Don't be deceived by others. No, I won't. So he's talking to himself. And then Master Wu Min has a comment, and he says, Old Zhu Yan buys himself and sells himself. He brings forth lots of angel faces and demon masks and plays with them.

[02:07]

Why? Look, one kind calls, one kind answers. One kind is aware, one kind will not be deceived by others. If you still cling to understanding, you're in trouble. If you try to imitate Juyen, your discernment is altogether that of a fox. And then in his verse, he says, students of the way do not know truth. They only know their deluded consciousness up to now. This is the source of endless birth and death. The fool calls it the original self. So, old Zhu Yan, every day, would have this dialogue with himself. In the commentary, Wu Men says, devil masks, angel masks, going back and forth.

[03:17]

This could be, he doesn't necessarily mean devil and angel, he's simply talking about taking on different aspects of yourself in order to dialogue with yourself. So he puts on one face to ask a question, then he puts on another face to answer it. So here we have not multiple personalities, different aspects of one personality. One is the inquirer, the other is the one who answers. But who is it that inquires and who is it that answers? That's the point. Who's asking and who's answering? And so,

[04:21]

First, he calls master. So, that's an interesting way to address yourself. Do you ever address yourself as master? Or mistress? So what is this master? There's a koan, who is the master or who is the mistress? So every day he would call master and then he would answer yes. So It's like, you know, we say sentient beings and Buddhas are not two.

[05:27]

That's a very fundamental understanding in our practice. Sentient beings and Buddhas are not two. So we're half sentient being and half Buddha. or we're a sentient being, let's say, ordinary being and Buddha. We're half ordinary being and half Buddha. But actually we're all Buddha and all ordinary being. But we don't realize this fact. Enlightenment is realizing this fact. that this ordinary being is also Buddha, and Buddha is also this ordinary being. So when we address Buddha, when we address ourself, we address ourself as Buddha.

[06:31]

Sometimes we address ourself as Joe, or Mel, or something like that. People say, what should I call you? How should I address you? And I say, well, just call me Mel. Then some people say, well, I thought I was supposed to address you as Roshi or Buddha or something like that. So I will always, if people ask me, how do I address you? I say, well, just call me whatever you like. I can't tell you how to address me. I'm not going to give you a title to address me by. If you want to, you can call me whatever you like. I don't care. I will respond to whichever way you address me. So, but the honorific means Buddha. When we have a dialogue, when we have dokasan,

[07:39]

you come into the doksan room and bow, and you're bowing to Buddha. And because you expect to have a dialogue that comes from being Buddha. You're having a dialogue which is between Buddha and Buddha, not necessarily between Mel and Joe, although that's also there. So we come from the highest place where we are. When we have dinner and we're talking, or casually talking, it's Mel and Joe. That's okay. But in the dialogue room, it's not the same.

[08:50]

It's Buddha and Buddha. And so we address each other as Buddha and that focuses our attention on what we're supposed to be dealing with. So, Zuligan, when he says, Master, this is Zuligan talking to Buddha, addressing Buddha. But he's not addressing some Buddha somewhere. He's addressing himself as Buddha. He's calling up his Buddha, his Buddha nature. He's saying, Master, He's not saying Zui Gan. So then he says, beware or be aware.

[10:03]

I think beware is a contraction of be aware. Interesting. So be aware. Aware of what? And then he replied, yes, be aware. So focus, remember where your focus is. Remember what you're about. Remember what you're really doing. There's so many distractions for us to be pulled away to pull us away, to attract our attention from the main subject. So if we have continuous practice, the main subject is Buddha.

[11:04]

But Buddha, you know, is not just in some one place. Buddha is everywhere. In order to realize Buddha everywhere, we have to realize Buddha in ourself. We have to always maintain our composure as Buddha. Then we can recognize Buddha everywhere and relate to the Buddha within each person and each existence. Yesterday, I went to a shuso ceremony at Page Street at the Zen Center.

[12:09]

And I don't know, most of you have been to a shuso ceremony, many of you haven't, but during a practice period, the shuso, which is the head student, at the end of the practice period a dialogue, formal public dialogue with each member of the practice period. And this is a kind of challenging question, should be a kind of challenging question to test the understanding of the shuso. So people ask all kinds of questions And the shuso has to know where to stand in order to respond to each person. If the shuso is not firmly seated as Buddha, then the shuso gets pulled off by people's questions, and then pretty soon they're lost.

[13:17]

So shuso has to always stay seated as Buddha. seated within their Buddha nature, so that whatever response they have comes from that place, then they never get lost. Or if they're lost, they know, oh, I got pulled off my seat, and then they can come back. So that's being aware. It's a difficult, tricky situation. to always, to be truly yourself. Not just coming, spinning things out of your head, but whatever your response is, it comes from the center of your being. So that's how we test a person. Where is your response coming from?

[14:24]

And this goes for our whole life, day by day, moment by moment. Where is our response coming from? Where do we live? It comes from where we live. You cannot fake it. So this kind of test is very revealing. and you can't have anything in your mind because your response has to come from someplace which is behind your mind or deeper than your thinking, your ideas. Sometimes the response doesn't make any sense or you wonder about it, but when you think about it, there's something very powerful that connects and goes beyond sometimes our logical way of thinking.

[15:31]

So when we say master or mistress, depending on how you want to address yourself, this is, we're addressing big mind. Small mind is addressing big mind. Both are important. both the one who asks the question, which is our small mind, and the one who we address the question to, which is our big mind. And big mind says, don't be fooled by things. Don't fool yourself. The only thing that we can be fooled by is our own mind. You know, if we know where we come from and we come from our deepest place, we will not be fooled by things.

[16:58]

Or you can allow yourself to be fooled by things. If you want to fool me, I'll be fooled by you. That's okay. So there's a, in this case of Zui Gan, Zhu Yan, there is, this is called self-mastery. And this self-mastery is called the samadhi of self-mastery.

[17:59]

Practice is no special state of mind. We often think, well, what is the state of mind of a Zen master or a Zen student? It's no special state of mind. It's simply taking up what's there and then letting it go. to have the open hand which accepts and which also lets go. Is that so? Okay. This is called the samadhi of self-mastery because you cling to nothing and yet you respond to everything. You cling to nothing and yet you respond to everything.

[19:20]

So this is called Jishu Zamai. Suzuki Roshi used to always say, when you are not attached to things, then you're the boss wherever you are. You are the boss. He used that word. He didn't use the word master. He just said, you are the boss wherever you are. This is the same thing. But the boss of who? The boss of you. Not you bossing everybody around. but it means that you have self-mastery in every situation, even when it comes time to die. That's the true test. When you're scared of something, when you really get kind of frightened by things,

[20:42]

then how do you find your composure? Who do you address at that point? So Muhammad says, old Julian buys himself and sells himself. That's just a kind of dialogue, referring to his dialogue. He brings forth lots of angel faces and demon masks and plays with them. Why? Why does he do this? Look, one kind calls, one kind answers. One kind is aware, one kind will not be deceived by others. If you still cling to understanding, you're in trouble.

[21:45]

I'm not sure that I like that exactly. I would say if you cling to some special state of mind, you're in trouble. But clinging to understanding, that's also okay. I think what he means by clinging to understanding is when you think you have the answer and then you cling to that and you don't have any flexibility. So we have to be very careful what we cling to as the truth or the right idea. But not clinging to any state of mind as a special state of mind is most important. In Zazen, we think about, well, what's the right state of mind, correct state of mind?

[22:53]

And we think, well, no thinking. Empty mind, nothing. And we try to achieve that special state of mind. And then when our mind is full of thoughts, we think, well, this is not the right state of mind. This is not Zazen state of mind. So we're clinging to our idea about what is the right state of mind. There is no right state of mind. Right state of mind is no special state of mind. When we're thinking, when thoughts are filling our mind, that's simply thoughts filling the mind. When there are no thoughts in the mind, there's simply no thoughts in the mind, and we think one is better than the other. What's really best is not to worry about it, not to worry about which is best, because you're simply making value judgments

[23:54]

If you think, this is no thinking, that's a thought. You can't get away from it. And even if you do, oh, no thoughts, this is the right state of mind. The next moment, unaware, your mind's full of thoughts. So simply to Be aware, awareness of thoughts, awareness of every state of mind moment by moment. And the states of mind are continuously changing moment to moment. Every moment is a different state of mind. There's nothing to cling to, nothing to hang on to. It doesn't mean there isn't direction. There is direction. Just because there's no special state of mind doesn't mean there's no direction or no idea of how to do something.

[25:13]

But the main thing is not whether there are thoughts or no thoughts. The main thing is whether you're clinging to your state of mind or not. or attached to some idea of what is right and what is wrong, or what is good and what is bad. Simply let everything come and go. It's the open hand. So he says, if you still cling to understanding, you're in trouble, or to some special state of mind, some particular state of mind. So then he says, if you try to imitate Ju Yen, your discernment is altogether that of a fox. So, you know, the legend of foxes is, in the legend of foxes, foxes will take various shapes.

[26:30]

Fox will become some woman's husband, or some man's wife, or something like that. And, you know, tricky, tricky. Doesn't work, though. So, So to be inspired by the spirit of Zuigan is correct, but not to try to copy Zuigan's method. But if Zuigan's method comes from your own understanding, from your own source, then it's your own. Sometimes we give a talk, and the talk is about somebody else's idea. But it's only valid if it's also your own idea and the source is coming from you and you're using the idea to illustrate your own understanding.

[27:36]

So then Mumon says, students of the way do not know the truth. They only know their own deluded consciousness up to now. When we talk about consciousness in Buddhism, there are eight levels of consciousness, and the seventh is called the ego. And when we talk about consciousness, diluted consciousness, we're talking about the seventh level of consciousness, which is ego consciousness. or self-consciousness, or false self-consciousness. The self thinks, the seventh consciousness, which is the ego, thinks that it's it. But it's a delusion. So he says, this is the source of endless births and deaths, or suffering, is what he means.

[28:47]

the continuous rising and falling of self. One moment elated, the next moment depressed. One moment happy, the next moment unhappy. One moment free as the bird, the next moment suffering terribly. This is the cycle of birth and death, which is caused by clinging the seventh consciousness, which is called manas, or self-consciousness, continually creating a false self, which suffers. So instead of addressing Buddha and letting Buddha lead, the seventh consciousness or self-consciousness takes Buddha's place and tries to lead and causes a lot of problems.

[30:00]

That's why we talk about ego as being a big problem. Because instead of getting, turning over, turning yourself over to your better self, bigger self, we rely on our smaller self. So 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. And the fool calls it the original self or the real self. The mistake and self. So this is practice, continuous practice of turning ourself over to our better nature, so to speak, our true nature, so to speak, continually coming back to it.

[31:20]

When we sit in zazen, the mind is always wandering. We don't judge the wandering mind. We just simply, when we see that, we just let go and come back and address our big mind. We bring our attention back to big mind over and over again. That's what zazen's about, continually letting go of the small mind and bringing our attention back to big mind over and over and over again, 1,000 times during 40 minutes of zazen, if you remember. If you don't remember, then I won't say it's not zazen, but what is zazen is letting go and bringing your attention back to big mind over and over and over again.

[32:21]

And even though we do it over and over and over again, We're never always there. There's always a problem. So that's the human condition, is that there's always this problem. But if we take up the problem and address it and understand it, we can have continuous practice. Now this is the nice thing about monastic practice, is that there's nothing else to do. But in our lay practice lives, we get very caught up in all these problems. So it's harder, but it's possible. It's quite possible.

[33:24]

In every situation that we meet, where do we put our attention? Where do we come from? Where are we? How do we address the situations that we meet? And from what place? Where are we coming from? So it's great practice. And it makes life more fun if you do it that way. Because even though life is very serious, it takes the edge off. because we become less self-concerned. When we give ourself over to practice, we're not so self-concerned. But when ego takes precedence, then it's just self-interest. And that's what causes so much of our own suffering, is our own self-interest, self-preoccupation.

[34:32]

and we let go of our self-preoccupation and just practice 24 hours a day, you'd let go of that burden. And that's how you let go of suffering. Sounds simple. It's not simple or complex, and it's not hard or easy. And sometimes it's all of those. Thank you. It's not simple. It's not complex. Sometimes it's a little exhausting. And I'm sort of curious what you have to say about that. Sometimes that place of letting go and being in Buddha nature, feeling it, that sense of peace or whatever anybody wants to call it, sometimes going there or being there, there's a sense of sort of

[35:35]

almost getting energetic, and then other times there's a sense of being at the same place and feeling that peace, but being very ... feeling exhausted, but both places feeling that sense of peace, but it's almost like sometimes going from small mind to big mind, there's some ... it's more ... it's easier and more energetic, and sometimes It's kind of running out of gas. You're there and you're there, but it's kind of... When you are totally in big mind, you can't run out of gas. You only run out of gas... It's only the ego that runs out of gas. Big mind doesn't run out of gas. Because it's not your gas. When you're totally open, then you draw energy, and energy just runs through you.

[36:42]

But that's openness. When we're closed, we get very tired. But when we're open, energy just runs through. So you may think this is big mind, but it may not be. But at the same time, we have to be careful. This is big mind, this is small mind. Be careful not to get into some kind of, let's see now, is this big mind or is this small? Be careful about that borderline. Big mind, small mind is there with big mind. Big mind is there with small mind. Main thing is, don't be selfish. or self-centered. But the more you can let go of self-preoccupation, the less tired you feel. Well, sometimes there's sleep deprivation and you just want to sleep.

[38:03]

Yeah, we all need sleep. Right, that's different. Yeah, very different. I was very sleepy this morning because I had a little sleep deprivation. That's not the same thing. There are various reasons why we get tired, other than what I was talking about. Thank you. Next Saturday, at the same time, we're going to celebrate Buddha's birthday. So you're all invited to come and pour sweet tea over the baby Buddha and have a celebration with flowers and a little talk for the children and for the grown-up children as well. And It's a very nice celebration.

[39:09]

So I just want to remind you of that and invite everyone to come. Yes? Is it like really Buddha's birthday and which birthday or is it like... We just make it up. But it's like when the baby was born or is it like when he got... When the baby was born. When the baby was born. 5,000 – no, 2,500 and something, depending on who it is. Who's counting?

[39:39]

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