I vow to taste the truth of the Tantras. Well, tonight will be the last class, as far as we know, and we didn't touch on everything, although during Sashin I talked a little bit about the Sixth Ancestor's passing into Parinirvana. So I thought that I would just cover a few interesting episodes in the life of the ancestor. And so, you know, this is, if you've ever read the Zen notes printed by the

[01:02]

The First Zen Institute is one of the oldest, maybe the oldest Zen group in America, in New York. And their teacher was Soke-yan Sasaki. And Soke-yan came to America before the Second World War. became a teacher there and he married Ruth Fuller Sasaki who was a Buddhist scholar and he died I think in 1941 but he's a wonderful really good teacher And he gave a series of lectures on the Platform Sutra.

[02:05]

He lectured on the whole Platform Sutra. And his commentaries were recorded in their Zen notes. Have you ever read Zen notes? So I thought that I would read you a couple of episodes with his commentaries. So this one, I can't, I couldn't find it in my book actually. I don't know, I know it's there, but it's not necessary to read, to look it up in your book. I'll just read it to you. This one is about Master, Chan Master Hsing Su, who we know as Seigen Yoshi. Seigen, and Nangaku were the two leading disciples of the Sixth Patriarch.

[03:09]

Nangaku Eijo, that's his Japanese name, is the figurehead for the Rinzai school, and Seigen Gyoshi, or Sing Su, is the patriarch of the Soto school. And there are five schools of Zen in China. The five petals, the five flowers of Zen, five petals of Zen in China. And the two surviving schools are the Rinzai and Soto. And they're both descended from the sixth ancestor. And Seigen we consider the ancestor of the Soto lineage. So we chant his name in our, every morning. Say again, Gyoshi Daiyosho.

[04:11]

So Chan Master Hsing Su was a native of An Cheng in Chi Chau. His family name was Li Yu. Having heard of the fame of the teaching of Cao Chi, he came directly to pay homage to the master. He asked, what shall I practice to avoid falling into the conventional stages of Buddhism? The master said, what is it that you have been practicing? And he replied, I have never cared for any practice, even that which leads to the highest wisdom. The way it's usually translated is, I haven't even been practicing the Four Noble Truths. That's the usual translation. The master said, then, into what conventional stages have you fallen? And he replied, since I have never followed any practice, even that which leads to the highest wisdom, into what stages could I fall? The master profoundly acknowledged his understanding and appointed him head of the assembly of monks.

[05:17]

One day the master said to him, Go now and convert people. Do not let the teaching expire." Having attained the dharma, Xing Su returned to Qichao and stayed on Qingyuan Mountain carrying out his mission. So Sokeian says, this is the record of the sixth patriarch of Zen in China whose name is Huineng. Huineng lived in the 7th and 8th centuries during the Tang dynasty and was the originator of the southern school of Zen. There was also a northern school. Its center was in Luoyang, a great city on the south shore of the Yellow River. At Luoyang, the river suddenly changes its course to the north in a hairpin turn. The center of the southern school was about 80 miles from Canton in Guangxi province. In this school, the Chinese abandoned the scholastic and pedantic form of Buddhism and found a simplified Buddhism which they expressed in their own terms. In this school, a student attained suddenly through his own immediate experience.

[06:20]

Chan master Xing Xu was a native of Ancheng in Qichao. Just reading these Chinese names, I think you will be annoyed. But to have a record for your notebooks, I must explain them carefully. I shall not give this type of lecture again in my lifetime. Qichao is a mountain district that borders southern China on the south part of the Yangtze River. In ancient days, this was a very cultivated part of China. His family name was Liu. His family name was Liu.

[07:29]

Before he became a monk, he must have studied Buddhism for a long time. So, having heard of the fame of the teaching of Cao Chi, Cao Chi is the territory in which the sixth patriarch had his temple. The prairie mountains of Cao Chi are washed with rivers and streams. In the summertime, the region is very hot. In Japanese, Cao Chi is Soke. This is my name, given to me by my teacher, Soke-yan. But I am not he, so do not make a mistake. He came directly. At that time, there were no streetcars or trains. The monks traveled from one corner of that vast country to the other on foot. sometimes walking three or four years. Without money, begging for food, and sleeping under trees by the roadside, they searched for masters. Buddhism was of the highest culture, and the temples were its universities. Today, a young person wanting to study at Yale comes from the West by train, but a young person in China wanting culture had to travel far.

[08:38]

From Chi Chau to Cao Chi is about 200 miles. This is not very far if you drive your automobile. But if you walk, it's some distance. To pay homage to the master. The Chinese students still follow this style of homage. With incense in their hands, they salute as I salute the Buddha. Here in America, the minister offers his hand. How do you do? When I first saw Ruth St. Dennis teaching her students the profound Buddhist salute, what he means by that is this. I asked her why she bent her hands to her forehead, and she said, because it's so beautiful. I did not tell her it means to embrace the feet of the Buddha. And the Buddha did not wear stockings. I'm sure they smelled like cheese. When you bow like this, it means the Buddha's feet are in your palms and you're raising the Buddha in your palms.

[09:51]

That's why you hold your hands like this. Some people go like this. That's a common emotion. You used to say, you people go like this, and Buddha goes... So in those days there was no sense of time. That's a great statement. In those days there was no sense of time. There was some sense of time, but not the way we order our time. Imagine living in a time with a very little sense of time, just days pass. People came from a distance, put on their robes, washed their hands and feet, spread their mats, and bowed. He finally put a question to the master.

[10:55]

No monk would immediately ask a question. he would retire for two or three months. Then, if he saw an opportunity, he would ask the master something. What shall I practice to avoid falling into the conventional stages of Buddhism? From the Buddhist time to that of the sixth ancestor, Buddhist monks practiced many contrivances. Since then, these contrivances multiplied to the point that there was produced a pedantic form of Buddhism. Students were reading 5,048 volumes of sutras, an enormous task and too much for any one lifetime. These days, they are printed in small types so they can be put into one bookcase. I have them here in my house and have not read even half of them. The Buddha had no books to read. He was meditating, as were his disciples. Occasionally, the Buddha gave them a talk, and once a month at full moon, the monks would confess their faults. Then the Buddha would give them instructions, The old style of Buddhism came back again, untangled by philosophy.

[12:00]

It is now called the Zen school. The master said, what is it that you have been practicing? The master examined the young monk. Do you practice commandments, or do you observe a metaphysical type of Buddhism, or do you practice symbolic Buddhism? What kind of Buddhism have you been studying? In symbolic Buddhism, everything in the world is a symbol. And all the sentient beings have a meaning. For example, the sun in the sky, the center of the solar system, is the center of production. Therefore, it is of the female gender and is called Tathagatagarbha, the holy womb. The male element, the invisible moon, then covers the female. This is a wonderful system. Wonderful. This is talking about tantric Buddhism. Your mind extends to the outer world and does not return to your own experience, your own consciousness. This is the Buddhism of the extrovert.

[13:01]

The metaphysical school uses the technical terms of philosophy. The Zen school, however, does not use symbols or terms of philosophy. We attain reality immediately. The sixth patriarch, testing Xing Si, to see if he had the nature of a real Zen monk. Tested him to see if he had the nature of a real Zen monk. Perhaps he had tried some kind of practice. He replied, I have never cared for any practice, even that which leads to the highest wisdom. According to Buddhism, there are 10 stages to the highest enlightenment, from first to last. This is called the 10 bhumis of the Bodhisattva. But this monk said he never cared for the highest enlightenment. Well, if you were the child of a millionaire, you would probably say you never cared for money. Hsing Hsu had attained the real state of nirvana, so there was no Buddhism left for him. He did not want to speak of it in philosophical terms.

[14:04]

What was his attitude? I don't give a fig for the highest wisdom. The sound of his words was as if he never cared for Buddhism. He had passed through all the conventional stages and did not care for conventional Buddhism anymore. He had his own wisdom, his own religion, but he was a monk, and he had already shaved his head, joined his hands, and burned incense. So he paid homage to the patriarch and stayed for a few months before asking his question. He cared so much for Buddhism that he passed through all those measures. This is fine for someone who is really enlightened, but is not to be copied by someone who isn't. Anyone who wishes to be religious must attain this stage. A true person never cares for religion. You must pass this stage once. Otherwise, you will fall into agnosticism and not attain a true religion.

[15:08]

The master said, then into what conventional stages have you fallen? And he replied, since I have never followed any practice, even that which leads to the highest wisdom, into what stage could I fall? If there is no stage, I wonder, how could I fall into a stage? The words are very simple, but the meaning is very deep. When I was seriously observing about 250 commandments in my youth, you must not kill, steal, drink wine, et cetera, I looked into nature and found that there were no commandments. Now I know there are. If you walk through Central Park on a cold night with nothing on, you will have pneumonia by the next morning. If you walk into a fire, you will burn. If you're in the ocean hanging on to a piece of wood, do you think you can hang on forever? You will finally fall asleep and sink, and you will not come back again. Experience is a wonderful thing. It is how we understand the law of nature.

[16:12]

Nature has wonderful laws, but no commandments. If you violate the law, the punishment comes immediately. In society, we must have laws to preserve social order. Laws are necessary. It is the same in the monastery. In your labor unions, the men drop the work from their hands at six o'clock and go home. It is the union law. I observed the commandments carefully. in the monastery because if I had not, I would have been thrown out. I thought there must be some other way to understand the truth of the commandments, so I turned to nature and did not fall into conventional stages. But I understood them. I worked hard for a long, long time. Today, I do not blame anyone for anything. I came to the ocean, to the ground of all freedoms. This is not the ground of so-called abandonment. It is understanding the nature of human life. So I can sympathize with those men and women who are violating conventional stages without knowing what they're doing.

[17:18]

This is a profound problem. One must attain freedom through Buddhism. Through this old master, one can come to the field of freedom without violating the conventional law. So the master profoundly acknowledged Hsing Hsu's attainment. When a Zen master grants his acknowledgement to the student, he does not say yes or no. It is in silence. It is in his decision. And he does not say, fine, very good, 100%, here's your diploma. No. And appointed him head of the assembly of monks. After about a year, he made him superintendent of the monks. One day the master said to him, Go now and convert people. Now your studies are over. Thank you very much. It is very hard when a Zen master says this. The master will not pay him any salary to teach in school. The disciple will go somewhere and strive. If he cannot make converts, he will not eat.

[18:21]

Sometimes he gives up being a monk and goes into the fields, and nature gives him a grant. But if his nature is not to accept anything, he will lose his robe. To be ordained is not from the teacher. It is from the Buddha, or as we say, from nature. It is not good to pay a monk one penny. Do not let the teaching expire. Altogether, it has been 128 generations. We still hold the torch, but it is very dangerous now. It is like a single candle before a storm. Having attained the Dharma, Hsing Hsu returned to Qichao and stayed on Qingyuan Mountain, carrying out his mission. He and another teacher, Nanyue, that's Nangaku Eijo, Nanyue Huaijiong, became the main figures of the Zen school. So it's kind of an interesting commentary. I just wanted to ask, what are the ten buddhas and where can I find them?

[19:31]

Ten Bhumis. What? Oh, Rinzai. The Ten Bhumis, you can find in Mahayana Buddhist literature, but there's a book called the Bodhisattva... Well, they are in the Avatamsaka Sutra. Yeah, they're outlined in the Avatamsaka Sutra. What about the other thing you talked about, too? You know, the books up there. These are all... I can't remember which one. Mm-hmm. What do you think he was talking about? Thinking about people transgressing? Oh. Oh, yeah, yeah. That part seemed a little obscure, but he said, today I do not blame anyone for anything.

[20:39]

I came to the ocean, to the ground of real freedom. That means, you know, he found his mind. And this is not the ground of so-called abandonment. It is understanding the nature of human life. So I can sympathize with those men and women who are violating conventional stages without knowing what they are doing. Well, he had, it's like, he's saying, I think that he went through, you know, a kind of anti-conventional revolt. And so he can understand. But he came out with understanding. And so he had a lot of sympathy for people who do that, but they don't come out with enlightenment.

[21:49]

They're just lost. So he had a lot of sympathy for that. It's like if you live for ten years in the drug culture and you studied, you know, you gave up, you dropped out, you know, and led a life of drifting and so forth. And then you came to some place where you were given the opportunity to really find your essence of mind. Then you'd have a lot of sympathy for all those people who had done that, but hadn't found their essence of mind. I can sympathize with him because I did that myself.

[23:05]

You know, I went through drug culture and the jazz world and, you know, beat Nick and seeing so many people die and just get ruined, you know. And coming to Zen Center, was like finding a real haven. And so that's why I have so much sympathy for lay people, you know, so much feeling for lay practice in providing some way for people to practice and to be open to that Buddha went through all of these practices and then after he goes through all these practices he says, well these aren't really necessary, you know.

[24:11]

Right, yeah, I know what you're saying. I always wondered, well maybe they're not, but like you went through them. It's easy to say after you go, oh yeah, it's not necessary. a well-known Japanese Zen master in the 18th century. What was his name? You know, the one who's always saying, do you hear that dog barking? Banke. Banke, yeah. Banke, you know, always telling people, you don't have, I went through it, but you don't have to go through it. I can tell you about it. You don't have to go through all this thing. I'll just, you know, just listen to the dog bark. Who's hearing that? Who's hearing? What is it that hears the dog bark? But, you know, Banke didn't leave any disciples.

[25:16]

No successors, right? So a lot of times a teacher will say, well, have gone through all kinds of stuff, you know, before they come out. enlightened. And then they say, well, you don't have to do this, you know, just my experience can, you know, just listen to my experience and do this, and that's enough. But actually, everybody has to go through their own thing. It kind of reminds me of even the simple example of parents and children, you know, parents have gone through painful experiences themselves, and they tell their kids, like my mother always told me, you know, she'd never call men, she'd let them call you, when I was much younger. Yeah, I have. Because she knew what that would be like. Right. It's the same kind of thing, like I couldn't hear her and I had to find out painfully myself. Yeah, see, parents are always trying to protect their children. And sometimes it's not good to do that. Yeah. Everybody has to, and it's very tough for parents to know their children are going to have to experience all this pain and stuff.

[26:25]

Did you agree that you don't have to go through all these ascetic practices? No, you don't have to go through it. Right. It's like people are poor, and then they strive real hard to get wealthy, and then they accumulate a lot of money, so their children won't have to You know, work hard for your money. And the children don't have to work hard for their money. They don't know what to do in their life. You know? Some of the people that are most miserable that I have encountered are the children of rich parents who cannot find their identity because everything is given to them and they never had to work for anything. So, if you don't have to work for anything, what are you going to do? You have to find some meaning in your life.

[27:30]

And they can't find it. They're just wandering all over trying to find some meaning in their life. It's pathetic. So it's a real disservice to leave children a lot of money. But it is. Because there's no reason for them, there's nothing to fight for. Nothing to struggle with. Of course, that's a struggle in itself, but it's not a good one. Difficult. And in a way, that's what Buddha had. That's exactly what Buddha had. He had everything. And he had no meaning in his life, because he didn't have to struggle for anything. And so, because he had no meaning in his life, he had to go out and find out what the meaning of life was. And he had to put himself through the most excruciating kinds of practices. And if you read certain texts, certain Pali texts about Buddha's six years as an ascetic, it relays how he would eat one grain of rice a day.

[28:42]

He joined the ascetics and practiced with them. And he would lay down in piles of shit and have people pee on him and shit on him. Really, that's what the texts relate. And he did every kind of practice to humiliate himself and just to find out what all these feelings are, you know, and to get himself down to the lowest kind of situation. So, it was hard on him being a rich kid. It's really true. It's really true. I knew these two brothers I met a long time ago. They were these two brothers who, the only two remaining out of four, back in the early 70s.

[29:45]

They each inherited $400,000 from their father. And they led a fast life, you know, women and cars. And eventually, two of them killed themselves driving sports cars. And the remaining two, one spent all his money, he was a bum basically, just living wherever he could live without an alcoholic. And the other one was smart enough to save some money and have a trailer. But every day he would go to the bar and drink about five or six drinks at home. He was very bitter. He just hated life because he had no more money. The other one still enjoyed life, but they were both rats. because they inherited this money and never had to do anything with their life. Yep. Well, people come to me quite frequently who are in this position and really have a hard time dealing with their life because

[30:50]

It's not anything they have to do. Nothing you have to do. So, it's all up to choice. And choice is just arbitrary according to your feelings. Can you tell him to give all the money away as I said? Well, yeah, but you know... Then what? Then they have to work for it. Well, that's a good idea. I'll remember that. Well, the only thing you have to do is what you want to do. So there's nothing directing you except your own desires. Sometimes you can find something, sometimes people do find something to do. Sometimes people become philanthropists or find something to do. But I'm not saying it's always the case, but it's often the case.

[32:01]

Often the case. And one of the problems we have is poor kids killing each other in the street. But one of the biggest problems is the problems of rich kids. You know, one of our biggest problems in society is problems of rich kids and not knowing... I mean, being given everything and just being completely lost in society. Completely lost. I was wondering if... It's sort of simplistic, but what Buddha was saying was you can find your suffering in whatever situation you're in. You don't have to create it by starving yourself or, you know, going through those kinds of things. If you actually look at the situation you're in, you can find enough suffering to want to stop suffering.

[33:07]

Yes. And so all these, you know, this situation you're talking about with people who have... That's right. Well, the middle way, right? You can find your... All right, so Buddha... You know, he had the suffering, actually, of being a rich kid. And then he went all the way over to the other side and had the suffering of being nobody. You know, being the lowest kind of person. And then he found the middle way, you know. He decided the best way was the middle way. Not to get off to one side or the other. But to not be caught by anything. not to be caught by extremes. Yeah, in a way. I mean, just as you were saying that, I thought, well, and I said this, you know, well, he was a rich kid, pretending he was poor or pretending he was, you know, something else. And again, you know, maybe it's in the circumstances you're in, you know, rather than trying to say, well, I'm going to go... I mean, it's just sort of... Yeah, the real way is to find, to look at the suffering that you already have and to deal with that.

[34:19]

Buddha didn't pretend to be a poor kid. He left his will. He never went back to it. But he had grown up that way, so he couldn't. Yeah. It's interesting that Buddha, the rich kid, sits under a tree, eventually, and talks of suffering. Christ, the poor kid, hangs on a cross and talks of paradise. Buddha also talks about nirvana. Yeah. Yeah, they both talk about both, I think. But I like that analogy. He knew that, but he didn't want to do that. He did not want to do that. As a matter of fact, his mother became a nun, finally.

[35:24]

So what he did, instead of his parents wooing him back, he wooed his family into the sangha. And some of the first disciples were family members. He was there, though. He was there, yeah. Well, that's right. It's always there, but as you know... Well, I think it makes it harder. Supposing you're going to give up smoking. Say, I'm going to give up smoking. Then you have a pack of cigarettes there. I guess coming from my background, you know, having anything or having less now than I had when my father had more, it's kind of like you can always think of, well, daddy's there and if I ever get in a jam, he'll help me out, you know.

[36:38]

Yeah. One with the, he also left his wife and child, too, and I kind of wondered what what that has to say to us, or what that said within that culture, or what? Well, I don't know what it says. One thing it says is that in order to Well, it said that he gave up everything. That's what it says. That he left nothing. I mean, he left himself with nothing in order to try to understand what it was that life is about. And I don't know what his relationship was with his wife.

[37:38]

But in those days, you know, What we think of romantic love, you know, when we think of wife and children, we think of romantic love. Some people say it's only in the last 400 years that romantic love has taken on the meaning that it has today. And in India, you know, children are given to each other birth, or 12 years old, or they get married when they're about 12 years old. And it's not, I mean, it's just, it has nothing to do with romantic love or feeling or anything. It's strictly business, you know. So I have no idea what his feelings were for his wife, for his family, you know.

[38:41]

We don't know all those things. So I think that as far as his wife and the family goes, that all belonged to the old life. It was all part of the old life. That's my feeling. And he felt that he needed to get away from everything and to really find out what was going on. It's interesting that in the story of Buddha's life, He was protected from ever seeing anybody dead. He was protected from ever seeing anybody sick. And he was protected from ever seeing... Who was the third one? Old age. Old age, right. Old age, sickness and death, right? They wouldn't let him see me. And so... Then one day he snuck out of the palace and he looked around and he saw this old person and he wondered what that was.

[39:58]

He'd never seen anybody like that. Then he snuck out the next day and he saw a sick person. What's that? Then he saw a dead person. What's that? This of course is kind of mythological. I wonder if anything like that would ever happen, but it could. But, in another way, he was so protected from life that he'd never seen these things. That's a lot of protection. I mean, you can imagine, you know. He must have just been bursting to get out of the house. If he was protected from these things, how would he even know to question? Right. How would he raise the question? He saw them inadvertently. So, you know, I think when his patron was taking him through the city, you know, one day he happened to see this person.

[41:03]

What's that? You know. I think that's the story. So then he got real curious. you know, and he started growing up and getting older and figuring things out. And he must have been too, you know, having all this luxury and, you know, everything thrown at him. He must have really been anxious to, he must have felt really suffocated by it all, by this indulgent parents, you know. But also, in Indian culture, there was this tradition, it wasn't called marriage, but a tradition of four stages of life. And the fourth stage is a big sannyasin. So even though that was usually, which was becoming a renunciation, a sort of forest, forest will it, even though that was usually, people would often do that actually.

[42:12]

The fourth stage. Yeah, like a householder. It was still there. Whereas in this society, it's just sort of, what, you know? The fourth person he saw was an ascetic. That's right. And so he did see a fourth person, which was an ascetic. And who's that? And so he decided to become an ascetic and investigate the other three. During the student talks last practice period, when most of us arrived at that time, I would say at least half the people said that their experience with drugs was a major reason that led to being here.

[43:13]

And many of us maybe didn't say it, but could have. Oh yes, that's I think the leading home in the modern day. in a sense, you know, like you get out of the house and you get into the music and drug culture or what, you know, you leave home and you leave society. And you wander around and you try and figure out what life is about. And you try all these things, you know. And then hopefully you come out the other side. It's interesting because I've used all those things. I used all those things. And then when my son someday is going to come and say, what's pot like?

[44:34]

Or he'll be using something. What am I going to say? I'm not going to say that, what your dad says. I don't know what I'm going to say. Should he experience it? way to talk with us right now. Yeah, that's probably right. I went through a lot of that, you know, the drug and alcohol culture in the 70s, but somehow I ended up in Alaska, I told you that. And I had a group of friends up there, and by the time I left, most of them were alcoholics. Yeah. And I went back in the 80s, you know, to visit, and they were still alcoholics. So they went through that, but they didn't come out. They didn't come out. That's the problem, yeah. So maybe I have to give them a guided tour.

[45:37]

sort of generic, but, I mean, it seems like too preposterous, you know, like somebody said, okay, so let's see, we're gonna make this guy, like, rich, you know, and married, and I don't know, you know, we're never gonna take him away from it all, and, you know. Take him away from it all? Well, I mean, you know, he's gonna leave all that, and he's gonna become an ascetic, and, uh, and like, it's like a Hollywood script, you know, and I'm just wondering, are there other translations, or, or like, views of his life conflict or don't necessarily agree on all the points. No, they all agree. Each book has its own view, but generally they agree on the points because it's mythological already. It's a myth. But myth doesn't mean untrue. Myth means that something happened, and the myth embodies the meaning.

[47:15]

So whether the facts are straight or not is one thing, but scholars are always trying to prove the facts. But that's like trying to find the life of a frog by dissecting it. You have to kill it, you know, and then you say, see, it has no life. But the myth is where the life is. There's meaning in the story, you know. And what happened, nobody knows, 2,500 and some years ago. But, you know, it's an archetypal story. And that's where the meaning is, is in the archetype. It's kind of interesting, I was just reading there's a new translation at the Morrow Library,

[48:23]

way in there is really pretty bad. And it's very startling in a way to read it, and some of the mythology around his life. So it's kind of neat to read that and try to figure out what relevance that has to today and to our own practice. That mythology that comes from a different kind of time and land. set of values. I'd recommend looking at that. It's called, I think it's called, The Awakened One or The Life of the Buddha. It has a blue cover. It's a new book that just came out this year, I think. So there are quite a few books on The Life of the Buddha, all of which have a little different perspective. Thich Nhat Hanh wrote one recently called Awekham.

[49:38]

Old Path, White Cloud? Yeah, Old Path, White Cloud, which has his slant. Well, let me read you another little story with commentary, okay? That one seemed to be pretty good. There was a monk who recited for the master a gatha of Chan master Wo Lun. And here's Wo Lun's gatha. Wo Lun has a gift. He can make a hundred thoughts cease at once. When he faces the outer world, no mind arises. His enlightened wisdom grows day by day. Having heard this, the master said, This gata still does not illuminate the bottom of the mind.

[50:39]

If one practiced meditation according to this gata, he would only be binding himself with more ropes. The master thereupon presented a gata of his own. Huineng has no such gift. He does not make a hundred thoughts cease at once. When he faces the outer world, many minds arise in him. How is his enlightened wisdom to grow? So, Sogyalan has this commentary. Zen, in the ocean of Buddhism, is a school or sect that covers the main principles of Buddhism. Zen, having developed in China, took on the element of Taoism, which no one could deny. These two songs express the front and back of Buddhism, like the two sides of a claw. There was a monk who recited for the master, Agatha, of Chan master, Wo Lun. Wo Lun was a famous Zen master, not of the Bodhidharma sect.

[51:40]

After Bodhidharma, there were about three kinds of Buddhism, Tiantai, Shingon, and Zen. The monk was reciting a song made by Wo Lun. Wo Lun has a gift. He can make a hundred thoughts cease at once. When he faces the outer world, no mind arises. His enlightened wisdom grows day by day. When he meditates, all his thoughts disappear. Then he can see his intrinsic consciousness as a mirror. When you have a mirror, you must wash it with bon ami and scrub it clean. It does too say that. But here, you run around, go to the library, go to the university, and put more things into your mind. In the end, you go to the insane asylum. In the end, you go to the insane asylum like those Siberian peasants with so many clothes on that the clothes stick to their skins.

[52:42]

The clothing cannot be removed without the skin coming off as well. The sages of the past did not do this. First, they cleaned up their minds. Some say to me, but so Kheon, this will make me stupid. Better be stupid than wise. That's a great line. You know, in Soto Zen, you're supposed to be a little bit stupid. Don't brag. So he says, the sages of the past did not do this. First they cleaned up their minds. Some say to me, but it's okay, this will make me stupid.

[53:45]

Better be stupid than wise. This song is a song of another school of Zen, a Hinayanistic school. The song meaning the poem, right? It's the song of the Hinayana school. There is no Mahayana in it. So the song of the Hinayana school is no thoughts arise, right? Just cut off thoughts. That's Hinayana school. There is no Mahayana in it. To suppress all thoughts and present no mind to the world is only one side of Buddhism. Buddhism is a two-fold religion, like a handkerchief. You said that in the last talk. One side cannot be separated from the other. The Buddha explained one side and transmitted the other to Mahakasyapa. So he explained one side, which is the Hinayana side, but he gave the other side to Mahakasyapa.

[55:07]

So, according to Zen school, Mahakasyapa was the first ancestor after Buddha, from the Mahayana lineage. When we study his teachings, we see that the Buddha had concealed another side, like the father who tells his children not to eat candy, But in his mind, he says, you can have a little. That is so true. Someone asked the Buddha why he had not taught the other side, and he said, it does not bring merit, just as there is no merit in showing a child candy, even though you have some. Having heard this, the master said, this gatha still does not illuminate the bottom of the mind. If one practiced meditation according to this gatha, he would only be binding himself with more ropes. The sixth ancestor is saying, Wolun's song is half the truth and not all of it. When Buddhism was carried into the Western world, the Pali scriptures from Ceylon were carried into this hemisphere.

[56:10]

They were Hinayana Buddhism. So Buddhist scholars thought that Buddhism was entirely negative. So that's what a lot of people think about Buddhism. The Mahayana scriptures have only been in the Western world I mean, it's available in the Western world to the public for about a whole 25 years. When I was first studying Buddhism, you could not find very much to read. When I first came to Zen Center, the library was about this big. And the Pali scriptures were what most Westerners had studied in the 20th century. And so they thought Buddhism was all very nihilistic. This was their error. Before King Kanishka, the Indian king of the first century AD, there were no Mahayana commentaries.

[57:17]

The commentaries that came out of King Kanishka's great assembly of 500 leading monks were not exactly complete. They emphasized Buddha's Buddhism, which placed emphasis on negative aspects, suppressing part of the teaching. To eradicate one's disturbed view of the world, eradicate notions. Then a new and natural life will arise. When you have an ache in your stomach, you must clean it out. Then you can eat again. So you must clean up your mind to correct your distorted view of the world. The positive aspect will then come naturally. It is not necessary to teach it. But if I were a teacher, I would teach my students one thing. What I stand upon, I must know very clearly. If today I try this, and tomorrow I try something else, I, as a teacher, am not teaching my children the true way. If I were a general of an army, I would be clear as to the outcome. I would not be able to command and ask this army to enter the fire of battle.

[58:24]

In ordinary life, teachers do not see children dying, but in war we see that and the death of soldiers. Politicians must also have a substantial realization in their minds. If the politician has no philosophy, no straight view, and his mind is in a dream, everyone will suffer terribly. The sixth patriarch did not close his eye or his mind. He kept them open. His wisdom grew day by day, but he did not tell you everything. The master thereupon presented a gatha of his own. Huineng has no such gift. He does not make a hundred thoughts cease at once. When he faces the outer world, many minds arise in him. How is his enlightened wisdom to grow? This completes the front and the back of Buddhism. Hinayana and Mahayana are just its two names. we say that Zen practice is Mahayana, Hinayana practice with a Mahayana mind. That's what Suzuki Roshi used to say, Hinayana practice with a Mahayana mind.

[59:29]

So we have both sides completing the practice. So people say, well, is your practice Mahayana? I say, yes. It's also Hinayana practice. And originally when our service, our service actually includes, should include, the echo for the arhats. There's an echo for the arhats which we used to use, but which Bhikkhu Roshi omitted to from the service. I do it in Berkeley, but we don't do it here. The echo for the 16 arhats, which is usually done at noon service.

[60:30]

So we always pay respect to the arhats and their practice. and the Hinayana side of our practice of Buddhism. So-called Hinayana, I mean, it's just, you know. So this completes the front and the back of Buddhism. Hinayana and Mahayana are just two, it's two names. You could say the Buddha's Buddhism is Hinayana. The Buddha's Buddhism is Hinayana. The Buddha was an arhat. And the Buddhism of the Bodhisattva is Mahayana. And as a lay person, you must study both sides. As a monk, you must also study both sides. You must go to the top of the mountain and then come down again. So do not think that Buddhism is just negative without the positive aspect. So the negative aspect is, you know, Hinayana always emphasizes

[61:36]

and is the analytical side of Buddhism. It takes everything apart. It takes all the skandhas and the dharmas and analyzes everything in its minutest sense and said there's nothing there. In the end, there's nothing there. So that looks nihilistic. Mahayana Buddhism embraces everything. It's the positive side which is the unifying factor of life. So one is the analytical and the other is the embracing. So Mahayana Buddhism says everything is one. And Hinayana side says, one is everything.

[62:44]

So there's an interesting koan. A monk said to a Zen master, when I and you and you and I are enlightened, what shall we do? The Zen master said, we shall like skylarks descend from the zenith of the world to the earth. The monk said, where shall we go then? The Zen master said, I will go into the bush. You had better go to the village. Into the bush means go off by yourself, sit under a tree. Go to the village means go into the busy marketplace. When we have studied Buddhism and meditated to find enlightenment and the reality of the entire world and we have been from the top of the mountain, then what shall we do?

[63:52]

One will go to the village and the other will go to the mountaintop. Niwa Roshi and Noiri Roshi were the disciples of somebody, can't remember his name, but they were destined to become two of the prominent Soto Zen teachers in Japan. And Niwa Roshi became the abbot of Eheji, the last abbot of Eheji. He just died last year. I went over to visit him, and he died. And Noiri Roshi was the Reikus, the scholar who knows more about Dogen than anybody else in Japan, and he's still alive.

[64:54]

Rev wants to go and study with him next year. But the teacher said, one of you go to the be the face to the public and the other one be the recluse and the scholar. And so that's what they did. That's interesting. So enlightenment is not only for monks, but for everyone. And you will choose, according to your nature, whether you will be a farmer butcher, merchant, fisherman, fisherperson, or monk. So do not think that the monk's life is the highest position and the layperson's the lowest position. That is erroneous. We must discover reality first. Then we, in the actuality of the world, can choose.

[65:55]

I will carry people from the foot of the mountain to the top and from the top to the foot. You will carry people from the foot of the mountain to the ocean. To understand human life, if you wish to live substantially and honestly, you must understand the two sides of the world, the actual side and the real side. On the actual side, you have black, gold, and vermilion. But this is not the real world we are living in. We are living in a world where there is no color at all. It is the world of reality. From this world, you are carried back into this actual temporal state. Then you know what it is, and it will not disturb you Nothingness must be attained once, thoroughly and truly, in your own experience. How to attain it is the problem. There is no one particular way. There are many ways, but you must attain it once. Why would arhats be associated with the yama?

[67:11]

Well, because the arhat was the ideal of the monk, the monk whose goal was to become enlightened. what happened in the process of the early sangha was that the monks became an elite group and arhatship became the highest ideal and it didn't include it became a kind of self-centered practice which didn't include salvation for others besides the arhats so it became a kind of cliquish club for enlightened arhats. And it was called Hina, which means little, the narrow way.

[68:21]

And the Mahayana was a reaction, seems to have been a reaction, against the very narrow practice of the arhat, whose idea was enlightenment. where the Bodhisattva ideal became more prominent through the Maha Sangha and the ideal was the salvation of everyone and so the Bodhisattva said, I don't care about enlightenment, I'm much more interested in saving beings, which doesn't mean they didn't care about Hinayana practice implies a kind of self-centered, selfish practice for yourself alone. I'll get mine and I'm not too worried about you. Whereas Mahayana practice was more inclusive and

[69:31]

implies a bigger, wider maturity, whereas the Hinayana practice is more athletic, not athletic, but virtuistic, you know, the virtuoso practice, right? So it's like watching great athletes But Buddhism can't be for performers. It has to be for everybody sitting in the stadium also has to participate. And so Mahayana grew out of that. It's not just the arhats. Buddhism doesn't belong just to the arhats. Somebody else had their hand up. Well, it's a funny thing when you think about it.

[70:43]

Like, I remember, the first time I learned about the Bodhisattva ideal, it was this very literal image of Avalokiteshvara turning around before entering Nirvana, and then, you know, kind of, he or she, here's the world, you know, we want some help. But the idea that I had was that, you know, Avalokiteshvara was right there, basically enlightened anyways. And it's very difficult to put others before you, until you don't give a thing about enlightenment, you see. And the person who said that was... had done... It wasn't just an idea, otherwise we're struggling. We aren't really putting people on the path. Yeah, I understand what you're saying. But the fact is that as soon as you give up the... the idea of putting enlightenment before saving beings, then you have enlightenment. So, it's, you know, to say I, you know, put others, save others before my own enlightenment, that's enlightenment, so.

[71:53]

Now there's a couple of interesting stories in Soto Zen and Evil Japan about the Arhat I don't know if you've read those. No, I haven't, but I keep meaning to someday. Do you know one of them? Yeah, one of the dreams where the Arhats appeared to him. Khezan's dreams, right? Yeah, and Dogen, supposedly, he was performing a ceremony for the 16 Arhats and they manifested. So anyway, it's just interesting that that was included. Yeah, so it's not that the Arhats are really bad. or that actual Arhat, you know Buddha was the Arhat, the great Arhat. Also one of the things about Mahayana was that the Mahayana belief or understanding is that you don't have to stop at the Arhat stage but that everyone has the Buddha

[73:03]

than as a Buddha and not just as an arhat. And that's why the 16 arhats left the assembly. Remember we talked about that? Not the 500 arhats. In the Lotus Sutra, Buddha is saying that you guys have expedient teachings. You think that what you have, even though I said that the arhat ideal is enlightenment, still there's someplace else to go. It's not the end. It's still, you know, my experience is like, this is a resting place, but it's like the cafeteria, the cafe on the road. You stop here for coffee, but you have to keep going. And they said, what? We've already got, you know. I heard they had heart attacks, actually. So they all had a heart attack? Five hundred heart attacks, you had a heart attack? The Suzuki race, you know, the old road to Tassajara, God, there was an old road to Tassajara.

[74:21]

Before they built this freeway that bypassed Gilroy. You know, now it only takes three hours to get to Tassajara. ten years ago it took four or five hours because you had to go through Gilroy and you had to go through all these little towns you know but now the freeway just goes zip and so there was a place called the Buzz Inn a coffee shop called the Buzz Inn a truck stop and so whenever we'd come to Hazara we'd always stop at the Buzz Inn you know in Suzuka you should stop there you know the truck drivers and like you know and just joke with them But he's talking about the buzz-in, you know, he said, well, you know, when you go to Tassajar you have to stop at the buzz-in and you get a cup of coffee, you know, and cheese sandwich or something like that, but then you have to get up again and continue on down the road. You can't, buzz-in is not a place where you can stop, it's just a resting place.

[75:22]

So the arhat ideal became less of an ideal, and the bodhisattva ideal became the dominant one. And now, arhat, I mean, Hinayana, there's no Hinayana school anymore. I mean, Theravada is the school of the elders, which is the last of the so-called Hinayana But I don't think the Theravadins are really Hinayanaists exactly. I think that Buddhism has changed so much in the last couple hundred years that I think Hinayana is an attitude. It's not a school. So a person can be a Zen student, still be a Hinayanaist, or be a Jodo Shinshu would still be Hinayanaist, depending on their attitudes.

[76:32]

But I think that the Thai monks and people from Southeast Asia know that the world of Buddhism considers them Hinayana monks, and I think they don't like that so much. I remember this Thai woman saying, oh, you know, we're Hinayana. And I thought, well, you know, she was saying it from a place of, you know, so what are you going to do about it? Well, our practice does have those two sides, Hinayana and Mahayana. This monastic practice is kind of Hinayana practice, in a way.

[77:41]

And then encompassing the world, you know, is the Mahayana side. So we have both sides. And when we go to the Zendo in the morning, it's Hinayana practice. And when we come out into the world, it's Mahayana practice. When we go into Zen, it's also Mahayana practice. But both sides are there in zazen. You know, you make a big effort to keep the mind clear, and at the same time the mind floods with thoughts, and you can't, you know, you're not bothered by it. Thank you for reminding me that I loaned you the books. On the way out, you just put them up here.

[78:48]

So I hope you have your books. And I have a little list, as they say, of Gilbert and Sullivan. You know the Gilbert and Sullivan twins? They're so wonderful. When I was a lad, I served a term as office boy to an attorney's firm. I cleaned up the windows and I swept the floor, the hall, and I never thought of thinking for myself at all. I thought so little they rewarded me by making me the ruler of the Queen's Navy. I thought so little they rewarded me by making me the ruler of the Queen's Navy. And I go, so don't think too much. If you want to get ahead. Well, I did have the list. I took it off the wall. It was on the wall and I took it off the wall.

[79:51]

So now it's off the wall. Anyway, just bring the books. I don't need to list. You just return the books. And if anybody wants to keep one, what can I say? May I have your attention?

[80:43]

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