story of the Sixth Patriarch, Wing Nung, when, after he left his teacher, Hung Ren, to... After his teacher, Hung Ren, had transmitted the robe and the bowl to him as a young man, know the story of the sixth ancestor, Hui Nong. It's the story of a young man who, upon hearing someone in China, of course this is in the Tang Dynasty in China, when

[01:18]

He heard someone chanting the Diamond Sutra and immediately opened his mind to reality. So he went to the... Someone told him that he should go see the Fifth Patriarch at his monastery in the mountains. So the Fifth Patriarch, I mean, Hui Nung, got somebody to take care of his old mother and traveled to see the fifth patriarch and study with him. And the fifth patriarch realized that this was a very unusual boy, a young man, and transmitted the Dharma to him. and told him to run away because there were people who wouldn't like the fact that he had done this.

[02:34]

So maybe I should just tell you the whole story. So the Hung Ren received, who's the fifth patriarch, received Yang Huineng and had an interview with him when he arrived at the monastery. And he said, where are you from? And Huineng said, well, I'm from the south of China. Apparently, in those days, the north of China was the sophisticated area of China, and the south was kind of like the jungle. And the fifth patriarch said, how can a young monkey

[03:38]

And the white monk said, well, you and I may be different, but there's no difference in our Buddha nature. And the Fifth Patriarch realized that this was an unusual fellow. And so he had him go working in the kitchen, pounding rice. And he stayed in the kitchen pounding rice the whole time he was in the monastery. And he was also considered to be illiterate, couldn't read. And the fifth patriarch was getting old and he wanted to pass his lineage down to somebody. And he knew it was time and so a contest.

[04:53]

He said, whoever can give me a gatha or a poem expressing their understanding, I want everybody to give me a poem expressing their understanding. And we'll see who actually expresses it in the most correct way, who reveals their best understanding. And that person will be my successor. But he thought, well, what use is it for me to write this gatha since we know that the head monk is far superior in understanding to any of us. The head monk was quite an older man who had very good understanding.

[05:54]

And he trained all the monks. But the head monk also doubted his own understanding. You know, it just put everybody on edge, right? So the head monk, thought and thought and thought. And finally he came up with a poem that he said to himself, well, if I submit this and the fifth patriarch likes it, then he'll give me the robe and the bowl. But if he doesn't like it, then I'll be rejected. So I'll just write it on the wall. So he wrote his gatha on the wall. And he says, if there If the patriarch likes it, and he says, this is really it, then I'll say, well, I did it.

[06:58]

So, Head Monk wrote his gatha on the wall, something like, the body is the bodhi tree, and the mirror, on a stand, moment by moment, wipe the dust, keep it clean so that no dust alights. It's a very good poem, actually, about keeping the mirror of the mind always clean. But when Hui Nung saw the poem, he said, there's something missing. And so he said, I too want to write a poem. So he asked somebody to write it down for him because he couldn't write.

[08:04]

He was literate. So he wrote his poem, and his poem said, Originally, there is no Bodhi tree or any mirror, bright mirror. Since everything is void from the beginning, what is there to wipe? So, when the fifth patriarch saw this poem, he said, who did this? And so, Hui Nang said, oh, I did it. And he said, well, this other poem is much better, the first one. And then he erased the second one. And he did this in order to not embarrass the head monk. And also, because he felt that if people realized that this little, young, illiterate guy, who actually had never really practiced, was going to be his Dharma successor, they would all revolt.

[09:21]

There would be a big chaos in the monastery. They would hurt him, actually. He was more afraid of them doing harm to him. In the middle of the night, he had a young Hui Nung come to him and he gave him the Dharma transmission. I handed him the robe, Bodhidharma's robe and bowl. I said, I'm going to row you across the river and you should go and hide yourself for 15 years before you come out again. and just mature your understanding. So he rode Huy Nhung across the river in the middle of the night. This all took place in the middle of the night. And he took off.

[10:29]

And in the morning, when the monks heard about it, they were all in a kind of uproar. And one monk took out after him. This was actually a guy who was a general. He'd been a general in the army, Chinese army, Tang dynasty. And he was a powerful man, and he ran after him. And finally, he caught up with Way-Nung. And Way-Nung said, what do you want? He put the robe and the bowl on the rock. He said, I've come after the robe and the bowl. So Way-Nung put the robe and the bowl on the rock. And he said, the robe and the bowl are symbols of the Dharma. If you want them, you can have them, and please take them back with you."

[11:32]

And so, this Hui Ming was his name. He went for the robe and the bowl, and as soon as he touched them, he realized that he couldn't pick them up. He had this big realization that of what he'd actually, what his life was actually about at that moment. And so then he said to the... Hui Nung, please forgive me for trying to take this from you. He said, I realize now that these things can't be taken. And please give me some guidance. Please help me through."

[12:36]

And at that point, Hui Nung said, let's sit down. So they sat down and he said, cross your legs and we'll just sit Zazen for a while. And then he said, now that your mind is calm, without thinking good or without thinking bad, what is your original face at this moment? And Huimin had a big realization. So the koan starts here. where Hui Ming is chasing Hui Neng and catching up with him. And Hui Neng tells him, at this moment, without thinking good or evil, good or bad, what is your original face?

[13:56]

And then Hui Ming said, well, you're really my teacher now. Please, let me follow you. And Hui Ning said, no, you should go back to the monastery. Go back to the monastery and practice. I'm not ready to be your teacher. This is rather significant, too. Even though he had the robe and the bowl, he was still a young man who had great potential. But he wasn't ready, really, to be anybody's teacher. The Fifth Patriarch had told him to go away for 15 years and just mature his understanding without teaching. We don't have the luxury of doing that these days. But in those days, it was easier. So the point of the koan revolves around this point.

[15:13]

Without thinking good or bad, what is your original face at this moment? It's... You can say it in various ways. Where is that place? Where is that still place? opposites are reconciled, where all antagonisms are reconciled. Find that place in your own mind where there is neither good nor bad, right or wrong.

[16:24]

and the great potential of just waiting to see, just seeing clearly, being ready for everything. So Master Mumon has a poem. First he has a comment. He says, it must be said that the sixth ancestor forgets himself completely in taking action here. He is like a kindly grandmother who puts a fresh lychee, sweet fruit, that peels a fresh lychee and removes the seed and puts it into your mouth.

[17:58]

Then you only need to swallow it down. So he's kind of, Mo Man is describing, you know, it's like he did this so well, so beautifully, like an old grandmother, scolding a child, or helping a child, helping a naughty child, without hurting anybody. Very skillful. And then Mumon's verse, he says, it can't be described, it can't be pictured. It can't be praised enough. Stop groping for it. The original face has nowhere to hide. When the world is destroyed, it is not destroyed. So his verse, he's talking about original face. He says, it can't be described. It can't be pictured. It can't be praised enough. Stop groping for it.

[19:01]

It's right there in front of your nose. The original face has nowhere to hide. When the world is destroyed, it is not destroyed. And then the question is, why is it not destroyed? to remember what our original intention, what our original intention is.

[20:04]

When we do bodhisattva ceremony, which we just did, we renew our, we acknowledge our karma. and renew our intention. So we should know, what is our original intention? Here, Hui Ming forgot what his original intention was. And he thought that his original, he forgot his original intention and started chasing Hui Nong. What he should have was the robe and the bowl. He thought that he would have something that way. And when he went to reach for it, he realized it didn't mean anything. It was just a robe and a bowl.

[21:07]

Just symbols of the Dharma. His original intention was to understand the Dharma, to understand his original nature. It's important to realize what our original intention is. When we come to practice, our original intention is to understand Dharma, to realize our original face, to see it very clearly. That's all. Anything else becomes a kind of sidetrack. So it's important for us to continually renew what our intentions are, to continually establish our intentions.

[22:16]

Sometimes we may get tired of practicing. We say, is this all there is? Zazen, just zazen, and over and over and over. That's when we start forgetting what our original intention is. So each one of us needs to ask ourselves, Am I practicing? What is this zazen? What is my original nature? What is Buddha nature? What is original face?

[23:21]

Does it come and go? When all things perish, will it still be around? What is the rock bottom of this life? And how can we realize it? Do you have any questions? Yeah.

[24:48]

You have to be able to see Safeway as your original face. When you analyze Safeway as your original face, no problem. Play it safe. What about your face before your grandparents? Your original face before your grandparents were born? See your face before your grandparents' face. What does that mean? It means when you go to the Safeway to realize the Safeway is yourself. You are Safeway. You are also your grandparents.

[25:50]

If I ask, what is my original face, my next question is, is it mine? Is there a separate? Yeah. Is there a separate me? Is there a separate face? Original face is that which doesn't come or go. And yet everything comes and goes on it. It's not describable. So we can only throw out little vignettes. With what face can you find your original hand? My original face. Let go of your discriminating mind.

[27:00]

Yes? Is there a concept in Buddhism of pride in the way that Christianity talks about pride? I've been thinking a lot about false pride. Arrogance and pride lead us to a fall. And what would be the Buddhist equivalent? Same thing. Yeah, that's not Buddhist or Christian or... it's just common sense. Pride and arrogance are very unstable emotions.

[28:00]

But I was thinking too that sometimes it comes from you with... also the other side of it is a great appreciation. Yeah. That's appreciation. Sometimes we say we should have pride in something, right? Take pride in what you do. People say that. I think that's... It's dangerous, you know, but we have to feel good about it. You know, it's nice to feel good about what we're doing, in that sense, pride. But there's a kind of pride which is just ego or arrogance. And a kind of pride which separates us from and sets us

[29:11]

a certain level. It makes us rise to a certain level. And that kind of pride is dangerous, egotistical. So, I wouldn't ever say be proud of what you do, I would say feel good about what you do. You know, something like that. That's a dangerous word. Dangerous term. I spend much of my time in the realm of discrimination and having views about things. And then sometimes I take a rest and just rest. And from that point of view of rest, the views kind of come across the stage and they're not so juicy and embodied.

[30:17]

But they're there. And so what is the, from the point of view of rest, what is a beneficial attitude to take towards those first views? Yeah. Well, first of all, it's important to identify them as views. And often, you know, as soon as we take a side and then stand on it and then go lunge forward, we're locked into our view. So I think it's important to sit back and just realize that these are views. And often we just put our foot, you know,

[31:18]

into something and then we can't get out. So, just to realize what I'm going to say or what I'm thinking is just a point of view. And it's also important, I think, to think about the other side of the view that we're taking, which sometimes is not that easy. The other side of the view gives us a way of realizing that this is just a view, even though we may dislike the other side. I don't know how to express it exactly, but it's one of the hardest things to do, really hard to do. So one thing I think is important is not to be attached too much to results.

[32:42]

When we get attached to results, then views become entangle us and then we hold on. So there's a kind of way of letting things take care of themselves and turning and going with it so that without having to do something, everything works very well. That's the only way I can express it. And it's very vague. It's really vague and intuitive. But it's like letting go of things, but at the same time tracking things.

[33:46]

Letting go and following. Letting go and following. It's like your So without pushing something, to just let things go and track them and follow them. And then at the right moment, because there's no attachment to anything, you can do something just at the right moment. And everything and all things will come to you. things work out for the best. I don't know if they work out for the best. They all work out. Best is a view.

[34:46]

They all work out the way they work out. But leading and turning the Dharma and letting the Dharma turn you is the secret of practice. So, sometimes we push, turn the dharma, or we turn things, you know. And sometimes things turn us. And we have to always be aware. Am I turning too hard? Or am I allowing myself to be turned? to know, you know, we're like a door that goes, this is a revolving door, maybe. And sometimes it's going this way, sometimes it's going this way. And when we're turning it, then things will turn with us. But there's also a tide that goes the other way and pulls us along.

[35:55]

And we have to be able to go along with things as well as to turn things. And if we can't let go of our views, then we can't turn with things. And if we're just turning with things, then we're just being carried along. So we have to be able to do both. We have to be able to turn and be turned, but without being attached to views or results. This is called giving up ego. In other words, you're turning it over, you go to the process of Dharma. Sometimes, lately, I feel very humble by things that are happening in my life. It's a wonderful experience to me. And then if I try to tell somebody about it, and I use the word humble, it feels so pretentious.

[36:59]

I wish there was a better word. Something happens that confuses me. Yeah, but it's a good, actually it's a good word. Because it's humble means there's something over your head. You're not the highest thing in the world. There's something in the world that's higher than you are. And even though they may think that way, I think people should get used to using the word in the right way. Understanding the word in the right way. Humility. So I understand what you mean. Does Buddha nature exist?

[38:27]

Is that a view? It's a question. What's the question? Does Buddha nature exist? No. Good. Maybe. Thank you very much.

[38:55]

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