This morning I'm going to talk about a very well-known koan. Someone asked me about it last week, so I thought I would talk about it today. And also, well, this koan is case number 46 from the Mumon-Khan. And it's called Proceeding from the Top of a 100-Foot Pole. How do you proceed from the top of a 100-foot pole? And it sort of follows on what I talked about last week, which was how does one who has died the great death Or what is it like for one who has died a great death to come back to life again?

[01:04]

So Sekiso Osho There was a Six or seven Sekiso, so we don't know exactly which Sekiso this was but It doesn't really matter so much Sekiso Asked How can you proceed on further from the top of a hundred-foot pole? Another eminent teacher of old said, You who sit on the top of a hundred-foot pole, although you have entered the way, you are not yet genuine. Proceed on from the top of the pole and you will show your whole body in ten directions. Then Master Mumon has a comment and he says, If you go on further and turn your body about... I don't like that. If you go on... If you go further, knowing how to turn your body about, no place is left where you were not the master.

[02:16]

But even so, tell me, how will you go on further from the top 100-foot pole? And then he has a verse, and the verse says, he darkens the third eye of insight and clings to the first mark on the scale. Even though one may sacrifice one's life, it is only a blind person leading the blind. I think that in the eastern part of the world, that way, This is a common phrase. How do you step off from the top of a 100-foot pole? It's just like a well-known, common saying. But for us, it's a very special Zen koan.

[03:20]

And it refers to As a koan, basically, it refers to one who has reached an enlightened state, which is like the top of the 100-foot pole. Once you have reached the top of the 100-foot pole in your great kensho, how do you proceed another step? How do you walk off that step, that top of that pole? But it also, coming down a little bit, it also has to do with wherever we're stuck, wherever we have fear, wherever we have complacency,

[04:26]

in our, just our normal everyday life. How do we get beyond ourself? Today, we have, we're sitting all day, some of us, And there will be some people who have sat for a long, long time, old Zen students, who will feel that this is not so difficult and find themselves in difficulty. And I say, how come I'm having this difficulty? I shouldn't be having this difficulty. This is their hundred foot pole.

[05:30]

How do they step off the hundred foot pole and just feel comfortable with their difficulty? Not as if it's something strange or something they shouldn't have. And someone who is new will say, how can we continue doing this? If I knew that it was going to be like this, I never would have come here. This is their hundred foot pole. How do you step off of that hundred foot pole and just be where you are? Letting go of a desire to run away. and just being where you are, moment after moment, with what you have. We always admire very much, or I always admire, the effort of beginners.

[06:48]

Someone who allows themselves to enter into this long practice without knowing exactly what will happen and seeing it through. It's quite wonderful. It's stepping off into the dark, stepping off the edge of the cliff and just finding your way. So in the case of someone who has great enlightenment, it's pretty easy, you know, to just be complacent and enjoy yourself. Shakyamuni Buddha actually could have just enjoyed his deep samadhi. And there was some choice he had, I think, between whether he should just enjoy his deep samadhi without making the effort to communicate or help people, and whether he should actually do that, let go of his seclusion and enter the world.

[08:18]

So for a person who has reached deep samadhi, reached deep realization, it's necessary to step off, step out of your privacy, your enjoyment, personal enjoyment, and enter into the dusts of the world. So basically, this is what he's talking about, but it applies really to all of our activity. How can you proceed on further from the top of a hundred foot pole? You who sit on the top of a hundred foot pole, although you have entered the way, you are not yet genuine. Proceed from the top of the pole and you will show your whole body in the ten directions.

[09:31]

One who has reached enlightenment has realization that the whole body is the universe. We say at one or alone. At one and alone. which are two sides of the same phrase. Alone means basically at one with, but it also means singular or isolated. And we use the term alone to mean isolated, but basically it means at one with. there is only this one body. And if through our experience of Zazen and our study of Buddhism, we know that there is no abiding self.

[10:44]

But there is a self. Even though there is no abiding self, we will never be lost in the universe. You can't get lost in the universe because you can only get lost in yourself. So when you take a step off the hundred foot pole, you cannot get lost. but you have to have some deep trust. In zazen, we always come to a place where we don't know how to proceed further. If you sit sasheen,

[11:52]

you will come to a place where you don't know how to proceed any further. And yet, you have to proceed. You can't go back. And you can't stay where you are. And you can't go forward. There are times when we come to this place and we just have to take a step into the unknown with deep trust. So when we get to that place to just take another breath And we're still alive.

[12:58]

And we take another breath. And we're still alive. Our life is still continuing. And instead of closing down, we go through the little pinhole and open up. Stepping off the hundred foot pole is like totally opening, totally opening yourself. Being wide open to what is present. Not holding back, not shrinking down. but to meet what's in front of us.

[14:03]

We find that when we get into a certain position, it's hard to let go of a position that we enjoy or that we like. or in the course of years, we get into a high position. It's very difficult to let go of our high position and do something else. This is like getting up to the top of the 100 foot pole. If you're used to being treated very well, very nicely because of your position, it's difficult to have that indulgence taken away. And when someone else takes our position, it's very difficult to not feel envious or left out.

[15:20]

we must step off the pole and find our true way, which has nothing to do with feeling comfortable, being indulged, or having some position. It's very good, actually, to let ourselves go back to no place special, And in Mopan's comment, he says, if you go on, I don't like the way this is translated, so I have to make my own translation. When you know how to turn your body about, no place is left where you are not in control, the master or the mistress.

[16:28]

When you know how to turn your body about means whatever situation you meet, you know how to turn. You don't get stuck in any situation. This is accomplishment in Zen. Whoever you meet, you can deal with, even if you can't deal with that person. you can do something. You don't get stuck or caught. And whatever situation you encounter, you don't get stuck or caught because you're not attached to anything. And you're free to move. This is what it means by turning. Turning means free to move. and knowing, having the ability to move and turn within the situation and also to turn the situation and to be turned by the situation.

[17:38]

This is stepping off the pole because if you hang on to who you are, some idea of who you are, you don't have the space to turn. You have to let go of everything. Sometimes someone will come to me and say, oh, are you the abbot? And I say, yes, I'm the abbot, but I cannot respond as the abbot. I have to respond as nobody, even though I'm still the abbot. I have to respond as nobody special. Otherwise, I don't have any room to turn or to respond or to find the standing point with anyone. One cannot stick to position or titles or

[18:51]

an idea of how things should be. Master Joshu was very adept at being able to turn. And he lived to be 120 years old. Maybe because he was so good at letting go. If you have some high position, you should also be able to clean the toilets and wash the dishes and give authority to other people. If you can't do that, then you're stuck. So we get stuck in our fears.

[20:00]

Fear is one of the most difficult places. I think we can, if you look at the problems we have, mostly they come down to some kind of fear. Some afraid of something. And when you get down to the bottom, mostly it's fear of losing our life. We're all afraid of losing our life. That's why it's so important to allow ourself to die once. Allow ourself to come down to the bottom. at least one time, in order to really find our life, to find our true life.

[21:04]

So, as I was saying last week, Zazen In Zazen, we can do that. We can allow ourselves to die and come back to life. And not just come back to life, the dying itself is great life. Even if the breath stops, We call it death. But birth and death are two sides of life. Like night and day. Night and day are two sides of daytime or two sides of nighttime.

[22:16]

We shouldn't be fooled by that illusion. And at the same time, we should keep eating, sleeping, and living this life in this situation. But each moment is an opportunity, a great opportunity to free ourselves So in another sense, moment by moment, we step off the pole. Moment by moment, we let go of our fixed idea. Moment by moment, we step into a totally new life. And whatever is presented, we can respond to.

[23:39]

And we have space to turn. Then Mumon has a verse. He says, he darkens the third eye of insight and clings to the first mark on the scale. Sticking to the third eye is like the eye of oneness. It's not a real eye, it's just a way of speaking. The eye of non-duality. When you're stuck on top of the pole, the eye of non-duality is obscured. And by clinging to the first mark on the scale, the first mark on the scale means clinging to the place that you thought was right.

[24:47]

And clinging on, holding on for dear life, or just feeling that this is, you know, as far as it goes. In the Lotus Sutra, there's a chapter where Shakyamuni is talking to 500 arhats, or he's talking to a great assembly of arhats, and he's explaining that what he's taught so far is not the total teaching, and that the place where these arhats had come to is not the final place. But just a kind of expedient, he's been giving them expedient means in order to bring them up. But there's a further place to go. There's further practice. And the arhats were incensed. 500 arhats got up and left the assembly because they felt that they had it.

[25:59]

They thought, well, this is nirvana. So no matter where we are in our practice, there's always a further place to go. And when we have realization and enlightenment, to not cling to that. What's next? Okay, that's fine. What's next? Now what? And to be able to go back and forth and step anywhere. and take on any task that's in front of us. I think that for a Zen student, No matter how long we've been practicing, or what our position, or what our understanding, we're always servants.

[27:09]

We're always serving the assembly, whatever that means. Either this assembly, or the assembly of the world. And that understanding should always let us be a touchstone for where we are and what our practice is. And keep us from holding to some special place. And then he says in his verse, even though that person may sacrifice their life, that person is only a blind one leading the blind. In other words, if you don't, if one clings and doesn't step off, then even though they may have years and years of practice and even be a teacher, it's just like the blind leading the blind.

[28:24]

There's another sense of blindness as well, on the other side, which means one who is motivated totally by Buddha nature is blind. This blindness is the blindness which sees perfectly, not imperfectly, not partial seeing. A total seeing things as they really are is called blindness. So you can see it in that sense as well. It means not being led by human eyes, but being seen through dharma eyes.

[29:31]

So as the Sixth Ancestor says, Sixth Patriarch, non-attachment is our practice. Not being caught by some special idea or even being caught by practice in some special way, but letting go of our accomplishments moment by moment. Sometimes people come who, we have many accomplished people in this Sangha, and when we have accomplishment, it's very difficult. It can be very difficult to let go of our accomplishment and not have the recognition, not be recognized for our accomplishments. When we come to the zendo, we actually are nobody.

[30:55]

We leave all that outside. And so, we're just a bunch of nobodies. That's wonderful. It should be a great relief. It isn't always. Some residue, you know, remains. Don't they know I'm so-and-so? When we don't have any attachment to our accomplishments, then everyone feels like they recognize your accomplishments. our abilities will come forth.

[31:56]

And often, usually in the monastic, as I said last week, in the monastic tradition, when someone has ability in some field, we put them someplace else where they don't have ability to give them something to deal with, something wonderful to deal with. being recognized for their ability and having to do something they can't do very well. It's really good for us all to do things that we can't do very well. So when a master chef comes to Tassajara, they don't work in the kitchen. Sometimes they do, which is not so good. A wonderful French chef should not work in the kitchen.

[33:03]

We get all this attention for our ego, which is a big mistake. So how do we step off the 100 foot pole? Not just in some circumstances, but moment by moment. How do we let go of ourselves moment by moment? Acknowledging our accomplishments, acknowledging who we are, and at the same time letting go. This is actually Suzuki Roshi's Beginner's Mind. The essence of Beginner's Mind is, moment by moment, to start all over again.

[34:09]

As the sixth patriarch says, don't add up the accomplishments of your life in a sequence. It's just this moment, this moment, this moment. The only way to sit zazen today is this moment, this moment, this moment. Let go of your idea about what's ahead. If you think ahead, you'll be miserable. If you think, when will they ring the bell, you're already lost.

[35:14]

You can't get beyond right now. Don't go beyond right now. One breath at a time. Nothing, no thoughts, no special thoughts to think about except posture and breath. And any accomplishment is just compost. Put the compost around the roots. And any comparing. Don't compare yourself to others. This person next to me sits so still, and I'm just always wiggling around.

[36:33]

That person is having their problem, even though they're sitting still. You're having your problem, even though you're wiggling around. Don't compare. You don't know what's going on. The person that's sitting very still thinks, I'm always moving around so much, I wonder if people are getting mad at me. This happens all the time. A person sits very still and thinks, I'm moving around so much, I hope people don't think I'm bothering them. So you don't know what's going on with each one of us. Everyone has their own private, their own personal drama. everyone is encouraging everyone else. It looks like we're all isolated together, but actually everyone is encouraging everyone else.

[37:38]

And the beginners practice, people who are new to practice, are a great encouragement to everyone. This is something that you should understand. The beginners help, actually help the older members, and the older members encourage the new member. It works both ways. Everyone is exactly the same. And there's no advanced practice. People think, well, there must be some advanced practice, especially if you do this for 30 years or something. There is no advanced practice. Advanced practice is beginner's practice. If you can stay as a beginner, moment by moment, that's the most advanced practice there is.

[38:40]

That's the hardest thing to do. It's easy to accumulate It's hard to let go.

[38:58]

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