Well, last Thursday, at the end of the class that we had, talking about Master Ruijin, Tendon Yojo, I read a poem of Sozon. Tozon's disciple, Sozon. And people were curious about the poem, so I said that I'd maybe talk about it today. So, I will. And this is the poem that I read. Master Tsao Shan, truly called Tso Tsan.

[01:08]

He who says, or one who says, that a dragon is singing in the dry woods is one who truly sees the Tao. The skull has no consciousness but wisdom's eye begins to shine in it If joy and consciousness should be eliminated, then fluctuation and communication would cease. Those who deny this do not understand that purity is in the impure. Tendon Yojo, the quality of his life seemed to come out in Kazan's commentary around the fact of purity and impurity. So that's why I was referring to this poem.

[02:16]

But this poem comes out of another case. So I'll present this whole thing to you. Not the whole thing, but enough of it so that we get some background as to why this Cao Shan created this poem and what it's related to. So there was a monk who asked Master Xiang Yan, what is the Tao? What is the way? And Master Xiang Yan answered, in the dry woods, a dragon is singing. The monk said that he did not understand. And Xiang Yan then said, the eye is in the skull.

[03:26]

Sometime later, the monk asked Master Xueshuang what he thought of the statement. In the dry woods, a dragon is singing. And Master Xueshuang answered, there is still joy there. The monk again asked, what is the meaning of the eyes in the skull? Xueshuang replied, there is still consciousness there. Master Caoshan Sozom, hearing of this, composed a poem, which reads, He who says that a dragon is singing in the dry woods is he who truly sees the Tao. The skull has no consciousness, but wisdom's eye begins to shine in it. If joy and consciousness should be eliminated, then fluctuation and communication would cease. Those who deny this do not understand that purity is impure.

[04:31]

After hearing this, the monk asked the master, Master Sozon, what does it mean in the dry woods a dragon is seen? The master said, consanguinity never ceases. If you're not familiar with that word, I'll explain it later. The monk asked, what about the eye that is in the skull? The master replied, it can never be dried up completely. The monk went on. I wonder whether there is anyone who can hear this. The master said, there is no one in the entire universe, a world who does not hear this. The monk continued. I don't know what kind of composition the dragon song is. The master answered. I also do not know what kind of composition the dragon song is. But all those who hear it lose their life. It's a wonderful case that doesn't need any explanation.

[05:49]

But I will. I'm done. I will commence to I don't know anything about it. Dragon song. In Japanese it's Ryuugin. Ryuugin. Ryu means dragon. And gin must be song or sermon. More like a sermon, but a song. sometimes called the roar of a dragon. So it has these connotations. The roar of a dragon is Buddha's big voice. It's also characterized as the mysterious sound of the wind in the trees.

[07:08]

And in this case, the mysterious sound of the wind blowing through a dead tree or the dried-up forest. When he says the dry woods, that can also mean a dead tree. So the monk asked Master Xiang Yan, what is the Tao? What is the way? What is? Ah, we know what that means, of course. That's a good question. Many monks ask this question. Matter of fact, when you come to see a teacher for the first time, a good question is, what is the way? What is the Tao? Please instruct me. Sometimes people say, I don't... I come to... I have come to Dokusan, but I don't know what to say, which is fine. But one thing that a person can say when they come to Dokusan for the first time is, what is the way?

[08:18]

Please instruct me. And then you have something to deal with. And it doesn't have to be the first time. It can be the 500th time. So, what is the Tao? And Master Xiang Yan answered, in the dry woods a dragon is singing. The monk said that he didn't understand. I don't understand. And Xiang Yan then said, he gave him another answer, that the eye is in the skull. Skull means like the whole world. The eye is in skull. Dry woods means the whole universe.

[09:27]

It means dry woods or dead tree means total life. These words don't mean what they seem to mean. So, dead tree or dry woods is a very key term here. In order to talk about this subject, you can't say it directly. This is the way the old teachers expressed it. They used metaphors to reach non-dualistic expression. So, in the dry woods,

[10:34]

A dragon is singing. The mysterious sound of the wind blowing through the dead trees. So also, a dead tree, you know, it's like clay, maybe. In the West, we use the term clay, or dust. And wind is maybe like breath, life breath. In Jewish tradition, Ruach means life breath, not just breathing. like Buddha nature.

[11:48]

So dry woods is maybe like in the dust or clay. Something comes to life. Clay and dust come to life. But this dry And Dragon Song is like the breeze. It makes a sound. It's kind of a wonderful metaphor. Everything wakes up. So the monk said, I don't understand your metaphor. And Xiangyan then said, the eye is in the skull. So he's saying it in a different way. wind, and the skull is like the whole world.

[13:03]

So, sometime later, the mug asked Master Xueshuang what he thought of the statement, in the dry woods a dragon is singing, and Master Xueshuang answered, there is still joy there. Still joy is the function of reugen. But joy, you know, also has various meanings. Joy is like what our life is about, unfortunately, or fortunately. What is true joy? The big question. We may say, but all those people are not enjoying their lives or life. So another meaning, the Southern Master gave him another meaning for in the dry woods a dragon is singing and Master Hsueh-Chuang said, there is still joy there.

[14:19]

The monk again asked, what is the meaning of the eyes that are in the skull? And Hsueh-Chuang according to Buddhism, the one thing that is continuous in our life. According to Buddhadharma, there is continuous life, and actually this is what this case is about. This whole case is about continuous life. Not that something continues, but there is continuous life. Not that objects remain, but life itself is continuous.

[15:25]

So he said, there is still consciousness there. So Master Cao Shan, hearing of this composed a poem. The word in here doesn't mean in or out. In the dry woods a dragon is singing doesn't mean in something or as opposed to outside of something. In means something like the eternal present which is continuous life, the continuous life of the eternal present, which is independent of circumstances and yet is the root of circumstances. Master Cao Shan, I'll read the poem again.

[16:39]

He says, he, or one, who says that a dragon is singing in the dry woods is one who truly sees the Tao. The skull has no consciousness, but wisdom's eye begins to shine in it. If joy and consciousness should be eliminated, then fluctuation and communication would cease. Those who deny this do not understand that purity is in the impure. Dogen says, none but a dead tree can deliver a Ryugen, or a dragon sermon. Only a dead tree is dead trees.

[17:42]

Mountains, rivers, all things are dead trees. And when we studied Master Tozon, this was his question. Someone said, do inanimate objects preach the Dharma? Someone was saying, inanimate objects preach the Dharma. Is that true? That was his question. His teachers always told him, rocks, trees, fences, tiles, all things are preaching the Dharma continuously without end. All things are, all these dead inanimate things, dead trees like an inanimate object,

[18:49]

all these inanimate objects, like human beings, are constantly preaching the Dragon Sermon. But if you try to preach it, that's not it. But the words that are coming out are it. After hearing this, the monk asked Master Sozang, what does it mean in the dry woods a dragon is singing? Here he gets a third opportunity. The master said, consanguinity never ceases. Sanguin means blood, like in Spanish sangre. And consanguinity means blood connection. family connection.

[19:55]

In Buddhadharma it means like master and disciple or the lineage, which is called blood lineage. But here it means this, but it also means affinity. or ultimately continuous life. So he says, it means consanguinity never ceases, continuous life never ceases. So it has a kind of double meaning, you know, like continuous life and the life of the continuity of Buddhadharma through ancestral lineage has a double meaning.

[21:02]

So the monk asked, Well, what about the eye that's in the skull? And Master Sozon replied, It can never be dried up completely. The light of the eyes What is the light of the eyes? Who is the true master? Who is this? This source, he says, this source can never be dried up completely. Even though it becomes bone-dry, it can never... there's no end to it. Dogen says, like, the ocean... it's like the ocean completely drying up, and yet... not completely.

[22:10]

Even though something is gone, something else replaces it. It's like the sermon of... A peach tree is when the blossoms or when the buds are just ready to pop. That kind of plump aliveness is the Ryugin of a plum tree or a peach tree. I have a bow tree. years, ten years, I don't know how long, but recently it got sick, you know, so I cut off all the leaves, and it looked like a dead tree, but now it's singing, it's

[23:25]

and the new leaves are just coming up. It's quite a marvelous sermon that it's preaching. I remember one time being at Green Gulch for a practice period and I was taking a walk in the garden just before a lecture And they have these wonderful young trees. And this one tree was so perfect. I was just so struck by the perfection of this very young tree that I think it had just rained, you know, just like now. shrubs are singing continuously and very strongly.

[24:40]

Even in a drought they do the same thing, but now it really comes forth. But can we hear it? That's the next question. So the monk went on and He says, I wonder whether there is anyone who can hear this. Ryūgen. The master said, there is no one in the entire world who does not hear it. And the monk continued, I don't know what kind of composition the Dragon Song is. The master answered, I also do not know what kind of composition the Dragon Song is. This is like Bodhi Dharmas. I don't know. Who are you?

[25:42]

I don't know. I don't know what kind of song this is, but all those who hear it lose their life. Ordinarily, we don't necessarily recognize the real gift because it's so everywhere. We say the most obvious thing is the thing that we miss. I think that's true. You know, in order to understand the sky, You don't notice the sky until a bird flies through it. Or you don't notice the deep silence until a bird peeps.

[26:47]

Kyozan. didn't see his mind until he was sweeping one day and a stone hit a piece of bamboo and then his mind opened up. So sometimes we need something to wake us up. Some little thing speaks to us. Dogen has a comment on this. It never dries up completely. He says, it's bone dry. but it's never spent.

[28:04]

The great ocean is bone dry, but it's never spent. A pillar becomes great with child, and a stone lantern meets a stone lantern. So the reason I am talking about this is because we were talking about purity and impurity. The tree and the dragon and the eyeball and the skull are one piece.

[29:10]

And the dragon song and the tree are one piece. The bird and the sky are one piece. You can't separate the pure from the impure. You can't separate true nature from mundane nature. the fluctuation and communication would cease if joy and consciousness should be eliminated. But those who deny this do not understand that purity is in the impure. But we have to be very careful, because if you feel, well, there's no impurity, or there's no defilement, then I can just do whatever I want. This is a kind of big mistake.

[30:11]

If people may feel that if you become a Zen student, you don't have to pay attention to what's pure and impure and what's right and wrong. That's a dualistic mistake. So someone would say, what if I do kill someone? What does it matter? There's no pure or impure. So this kind of understanding is on a higher level There are many levels, at least three levels of how understanding behavior and understanding precepts.

[31:18]

To say, don't kill, you can take it literally, don't kill, or you can take it in the sense of, there's no birth and death. Both are correct. There is no birth and death, but don't kill. In the Diamond Sutra, it comes to the conclusion there are no sentient beings to be saved, yet we must save them all. It's like filling the well with snow. Foolish, wise people filling the well with snow.

[32:27]

Even though you don't think I can save anyone, your effort is to save all sentient beings. Even though sentient beings, there are no sentient beings in ultimate reality. So even though ultimate reality is the basis of our life, this world of animate and inanimate objects is where we have our life, and we have to pay attention. We have to pay attention to how we treat each other and our surroundings. And that's precepts.

[33:37]

Each moment we have to decide how to do something according to the rules of ultimate reality and the rules of mundane reality. Do you have any questions? You said there were three levels. Oh, yeah. The third level is how you act given the other two. In other words, you're the center of the sandwich. your life takes place in the center of the sandwich. So, we can say Hinayana way is to observe the precept literally.

[34:49]

Don't kill means just don't kill things willfully. But realistically, there's no way that we cannot kill things in that sense. Because whatever we do, this is the world where everything kills everything else and devours it. So everything is being eaten by everything else, frankly. Rust eats iron. Worms eat people. Everything is eating everything else. self-sustaining culinary delight. Well, then on the ultimate side, there's no right or wrong, no good and bad, no sentient beings. They're just ever-changing phenomena.

[36:02]

But the fact is that human beings live in this world of limitation. And in between the realization of ultimate reality and the limitation of human life, We each want to take care of, each one of us has some responsibility because this is where we are. And we treat each other like ourself. So in order, we realize that everyone wants to live and everyone wants to be happy and everyone wants to do their best. So in order for us to do that, we all have to cooperate. So we have rules of cooperation and we take them seriously.

[37:09]

And so within the understanding of ultimate reality and mundane reality, we have to decide what to do, given those two aspects of our life. And we have to decide. So real precepts are decided on each moment, given the ultimate understanding and the mundane understanding. We have to make a decision how to do something on each moment. So that's bodhisattva precepts. Bodhisattva precepts is given the rules, high and low, what you do. So it's not like rules or something that you break or don't break. It's like you use the rules to support your understanding. And you can't follow life by rote completely.

[38:17]

You have to make decisions. How will I do this? how I do this, according to what's really right. So, it's harder to live our existence through Bodhisattva precepts in some way, because it puts more responsibility on our ability to assess a situation. If you just follow the rules by road, then it's pretty simple. You may, you know, you don't have to think so much. But life is very complex. So in a way it's easier for someone in a very limited situation to follow rules by road because they don't come across so many different situations.

[39:19]

So what is the ultimate reality has to be weighed with what is the mundane reality. And you have to take both of those into consideration when you make a decision. So we do have rules and we should follow the rules because the rules are kind of based on that. But in any law, you have the spirit of the law and the letter of the law. So Bodhisattva way is following the spirit of the law and understanding the letter of the law. In the commentary, it talks about a subtle awareness that's likened to the sentient beings, and that is different than sense consciousness or consciousness of thought, which is usually likened to sentient beings.

[40:50]

So, this subtle awareness that's like the Usually we don't think of rocks as having consciousness. So it seems to be a different kind of consciousness that's being evoked or addressed. Because what we usually talk, think of consciousness, when you refer to the continuity of consciousness, What we usually think of consciousness is actually very discontinuous. Yes, that's right. It's conditioned by objects, by thoughts, by dreams. So, could you say something about that? Well, yeah, here consciousness means... There are various levels of consciousness. And in Buddhism we talk about 8 levels of consciousness.

[42:01]

I don't want to go through all the levels, but 7th level is ego consciousness. And Buddhists say that the 7th and 8th levels of consciousness are what are continuous. 7th level of consciousness is individual consciousness, ego consciousness. And 8th level of consciousness, which is storehouse, or alaya vijnana, which is universal, more universal consciousness. Although it informs the individual, it is not attached to the individual. And this is more like continuous consciousness. which is the active energy which is reborn.

[43:05]

So, how things are reborn, nobody knows, for sure. But if you look at nature, you can get some feeling for how life continually perpetuates itself. So when we say inanimate, in this sense, inanimate is a non-dualistic, used as a non-dualistic term, which includes everything. You can say all of our life is inanimate. All of us are inanimate objects. But we say that in a non-dualistic way. It just means that it's earth and spirit or earth and dragon and dead trees. But we also say everything is animate.

[44:14]

Rocks and trees and tiles and rubble is all animate. You can say it either way, as long as you're not being dualistic. Because one includes the other. So, the language of the old teachers seems funny because it's... they're using... always use these wonderful dualistic terms in a non-dualistic sense. So, if you remember that, then you can catch on to what things are... the meaning of things when they're stated. You always remember that. When something sounds a little funny, oh, I think they're using that term in a non-dualistic way. Otherwise you fall into a rage. Because it violates your sense of logic. When people start to read the Blue Cliff Record, you know, ahhh!

[45:22]

But if you realize that all these terms are used in a non-dualistic way, then you can start to enjoy it. This hasn't lasted for so long for no reason. So, your consciousness wants to understand, right? Wants to understand. So, if you look at the record, you can't understand it's an insult. Yeah, the ego consciousness wants to divide and conquer. And when ego lets go, then the oceans come together as one thing.

[46:27]

The waters come together as one thing. I guess you could call it ego. I was just thinking dualistic, our discriminating mind, wants to fall into sides, you know, black and white, into creating dualities. But the dualistic mind doesn't allow for the non-duality of the dualities. Our mind is originally non-dual, but we discriminate it, means compartmentalize it, which is okay. We have to do that. We have to have all kinds of tiles and rubble

[47:32]

things, but at the same time, we have to realize that the discriminated world is one thing. So what all the cases are talking about is the discriminated world is one thing, and the one thing is the discriminated world. But we only want to have the discrimination. It's hard for us to allow ourselves to put it back together. I think of the use of the word still in the poem as a way to think about this word that seems to have mostly a time dimension. I'm not really interested in this day, yesterday, this now, tomorrow, it's there. But there's a way to think about it in terms of quiet and constancy, which seems different and more like what you seem to be saying.

[48:34]

Oh, yeah. The word still, it's very, yeah, still has that quality. And there's some very good stories about that. A good dialogue between the 17th and the 18th ancestor about that word. Maybe I'll talk about that sometime. That's right. Who else wants to say something? What is the Tao way of treating snails, mosquitoes, and ants? Snails, mosquitoes, and ants?

[49:35]

Well, that's a good one. I always take a little ant powder, which you can get at Ace Hardware in the olden days. We didn't have all these sprays, you know. All we had was ant powder. And you put a little bit of ant powder, not very much, and then a few ants come, and some of them sacrifice themselves, and the others just go away. It's a great deterrent. People come up, tell me a lot of other things, and that's fine. And then I feel very sorry for the ants, and I acknowledge the fact Then I'm sorry I had to do this. Snails I put in the neighbor's yard. Tell the whole truth.

[50:49]

Oh, there's something called Deadline and it's very effective. You get around the bed and a few snails come and that's it. A few snails get caught in it but the rest don't come back. They go to the neighbor's yard by themselves. It's kind of like the bad roach motel. They see that it's so bad there that they don't check in and they never come back? That's the roach motel. They check in, but they don't check out. Well, I think that, you know, we've been through the insect problem. And Tassajara, where the flies get to be really bad, you know, and it's a matter of survival for you or for the flies.

[51:57]

And so, when it gets to be a matter of survival, you really have to think about it, about, you know, It's easy to talk about things when you don't have such a big problem. But when you have a big problem, then all of our idealism really comes up in our face. And sometimes you have to do something which you don't feel like doing. But there's only, you know, very little you can do. And this came up at Tassajara. And we finally decided, yes, we have to get rid of the flies and capture them in big bottles and lure them into the big bottles and then burn them and chant the Heart Sutra.

[53:03]

And you may feel, well, if I was there, I'd just carry a flyswatter or a fan or something. But once you're there, you run for the big bottle. The big jar. So, this is like, don't kill. And yet, you know, life cannot be killed because it just keeps coming back through the buds. It just keeps re-rooting itself. But on the other hand, it doesn't mean we should just kill everything wantonly. But we have to kill things carefully. We have to take life carefully and discriminately. I mean, what are you going to eat for lunch?

[54:18]

You may say, well, this is a vegetable. That's a banana's life that you're taking. Taking the life of a banana? Or are you taking the life of rice grains? Each one of them is alive, and they stay alive for a long time. Well, everything is sentient. You can't get away from it. The whole universe is sentient. They're little organisms. And then there are littler organisms. But, you know, we identify life with ourselves.

[55:24]

We use ourselves as a standard. And we say, I have consciousness. And so, you know, there are other forms of life that have lower consciousness, which is an assumption, because they don't move the same way you move, or think, or whatever. But yet, everything has life. And to think that you can live without transforming life with delusion. So we do the best we can. The rule of thumb is we do the best we can. We really make an effort not to kill unnecessarily, but we're always killing something. Even scratching my nose, I'm killing and something's dying and something else is coming to life. It's two-sided.

[56:25]

But we have to live our life within a reason. That's precepts. To live our life abiding by precepts means killing within reason and being very careful and not killing something unnecessarily or transforming something unnecessarily. Because even though everything wants to live, we still eat our banana. We still eat our oranges and our lettuce.

[57:32]

Matter of fact, we grow our lettuce, you know, and we make beautiful lettuce heads and then we cut them down and we eat them. It's okay, because even though the lettuces are screaming, you can't hear it. But we know that they do not like it, that they go along with it. So there is a certain cruelty that's inherent in life. But we try to make it as easy as possible, hopefully, you know, compassionate. Because we don't want to suffer, so we don't want other beings to suffer either.

[58:35]

But it can't be helped. Thanks for watching.

[59:10]

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