I'd like to introduce our shuso for this practice period. Kano Kenshin, Generous Nightingale, Manifest Heart-Mind, Catherine Cascade, her teacher is Ho San, and Sanaki. Can you hear me OK in the back? Is the volume all right? It needs to be up. How's that? OK. Sounds a little echoey to me. Yeah, maybe down a little bit. Yeah. So as the practice period approached, I was very keen to get my koan. I kept asking Hozon, is it time yet? And partly I, you know, I wanted a good bit of time to study it and sit with it and find my way with it, but Really, the bottom line was that I was just curious, kind of like a little kid wanting to know what they're going to get for their birthday.

[01:10]

So when the time was right, Hosan gave me the koan, and now it's time to open it up. It's Case 55 from the Blue Cliff Record, Daowoo's Condolence Call, Alive or Dead. And I will read it aloud. I'll read first the pointer, then the case, and then the capping verse. So here's the pointer. Secure and intimate with the whole of reality, one obtains realization right there. In contact with the flow, able to turn things around, one assumes responsibility directly. As for cutting off confusion in the light of a stone-struck spark or a flash of lightning, or towering up like a mile-high wall where one occupies the tiger's head and takes the tiger's tail, this I leave aside for the moment.

[02:27]

Is there a way to help people by letting out a continuous path or not. To test, I cite this. Look. So this is the case. This is Dao Wu's condolence call. Dao Wu and Jian Yuan went to a house to make a condolence call. Yuan hit the coffin and said, alive or dead? Wu said, I won't say alive. and I won't say dead. Yuan said, why won't you say? Wu said, I won't say. Halfway back, as they were returning, Yuan said, tell me right away, teacher. If you don't tell me, I'll hit you. Wu said, you may hit me, but I won't say. And Yuan then hit him. Later, Da Wu passed on. He died. Yuan went to Shi Shuang, who was Dao Wu's successor, and brought up the foregoing story.

[03:36]

Shuang said, I won't say alive, and I won't say dead. Yuan said, why won't you say? Shuang said, I won't say. I won't say. And these words, these words, Yuan had an insight. One day, Yuan took a hoe into the teaching hall and crossed back and forth from east to west and west to east. So he's still in the teaching hall with Shi Shuang, who is Gao Wu's successor. He's still practicing there. Shuang said, what are you doing? Yuan said, I'm looking for relics of our late master. Shuang said, vast waves spread far and wide. foaming billows flood the skies. What relics of our late master are you looking for?" Xuato added a comment saying, heavens, heavens.

[04:40]

Yuan said, this is just where I should apply effort. Fu of Taiyuan said, the late master's relics are still present. So that was the case. And here's the capping verse. Hares and horses have horns. Cows and goats have none. It is quite infinitesimal. It piles up mountain high. The golden relic exists. It still exists now. Foaming waves wash the sky. Where can you put it? No, nowhere. The single sandal returned to India and is lost forever. So there's another capping verse I'd like to read you.

[05:44]

It's a more modern one. In addition to being found in the Blue Cliff Record, this koan is one of the 300 koans that Dogen brought from China to Japan when he came back in the 13th century. And there's a translation of them called the True Dharma Eye in which Daido Luri gives his own 21st century commentary and capping verses. His memorial card is on the altar. He died just, what, two weeks ago. Not quite two weeks ago. So this capping verse is from a 21st century Zen master, and I think it's really very accessible for us. Daido's capping verse is,

[06:44]

In birth, not an atom is added. In death, not a particle is lost. Therefore, life is called the unborn. Death is called the unextinguished. So for me, that's very fresh and direct. In birth, not an atom is added. In death, not a particle is lost. Therefore, life is called the unborn. Death is called the unextinguished. So in addition to finding this really fresh expression of the koan, I was curious about its roots, about where it came from.

[07:57]

Dawu lived over a thousand years ago, and I was curious about him. So I went looking for Dawu in the library. I went seeking Dawu's relics in the library. And I found a number of stories in which he appears. And it's kind of amazing to me that these stories have survived such a long time, and they're dialogues often. And what really was noteworthy in a lot of these stories is that either Da Wu or somebody else, usually Da Wu, refuses to speak. when they're asked a question or they're asked to explain something, they refuse to speak. And this reminded me of the stories about the Buddha refusing to respond to questions that he thought were not suitable to be addressed, or at least addressed with words.

[09:05]

So there's one of these One of these stories that I'd like to read to you, because I think it really says a lot about what's going on with Da Wu, and it's a dialogue between Da Wu and his teacher, Yao Shan. Yao Shan entered the hall and addressed the monks, saying, I have a single phrase that I've never said to anyone. Da Wu stood up and said, I follow you. A monk asked Yaoshan, how is Yaoshan's one phrase spoken? Yaoshan said, without words. Dawu said, it's already spoken. It's already spoken. So Dawu was really following along in the

[10:08]

the teaching and the teaching style of his master, his teacher. And I think they're both pointing to understanding of something outside language, understanding something not with words, and not with the mind that makes language, that tries to nail things down with the right word, alive or dead. black or white, this or that. Slice and dice. Get it right. Not that mind. Not the way that we try to grasp things with language. He says it's already spoken. It's already there. It's already expressed. It's already communicated. This isn't about withholding or being cagey or making riddles, but about pointing to something that's already obvious, already right there, completely right there, manifest right in front of you.

[11:24]

Suzuki Roshi said that talking about the Dharma is like making a mistake on purpose, because we can't ever really get it. get it quite all right. But we try. I mean, I don't care trying. I'm hoping that I'm not going to make too bad a mistake. But in this case, Da Wu declined to do that. He wasn't willing to do that. He was doing something else. And what we see in Jian Yuan was that even though Da Wu, in not speaking, was pointing to what was already spoken, for Qian Yuan, we feel his frustration. You know, he experienced this as though it perhaps was withholding, withholding something.

[12:32]

We feel his frustration and the urgency of it, the kind of, The urgency of his mind that wanted to understand. The urgency of his Bodhi mind, his Bodhi Chitta. Tell me, teacher, right now, or I'll hit you. You know, I almost see him grabbing Dawu. Tell me or I'll hit you. That was a terrible thing to do, really. serious transgression to hit your teacher, and he didn't care. It was like a matter of life and death to him. You know, we use that expression, it's a matter of life and death, not meaning that it literally is, but, whoa, that's, it has that much urgency, it's that important. And it was that important to Jim, and that's what, that urgency

[13:39]

was the energy with which he hit his teacher. That energy of his seeking Bodhi mind. He wanted to understand. So, Dogen calls life and death the great matter. The issue that all Buddhists must seek to understand. The most important issue for all Buddhists. A matter of the utmost urgency. life and death itself, understanding that, penetrating that. And as I mentioned, this koan is included in the collection of 300 koans that he brought from China to Japan. And he mentions it in a number of other places in his writings, in the Pure Standards for the Zen Community and the extensive record. It also is the basis for the arising of two of his especially well-known fascicles, Shoji and Zenki.

[14:47]

Shoji means life and death. Sometimes it's translated as birth and death. Life and death, birth and death, they have a little bit different flavor. Life, no life. Life and death. Birth and death, more that sense of beginning and ending. And then what he brings forward is life and death all one word. Like an email address. All lowercase, no spaces. Life and death, life and death, life and death. Going out. On and on. not beginning, not ending, a whole life and death, a flow, a flow of life and death that is life itself, that is the life of Buddha.

[15:59]

Zenki, Zenki is about undivided activity and manifestation right here, right now. This. Fully manifesting, fully manifesting that flow in an instant, in a one-pointed moment of existence. All there, every bit of it. each manifestation actualizing the whole flow. So I had an experience in my own life that is somewhat like the story in this koan of Dao Wu's condolence call. It happened about 20 some years ago, about 24 years ago.

[17:05]

And I was looking for my friend George, who had not shown up for an appointment that we had. And that was strange. And so I went looking for him. And when I found him, I found that the reason he hadn't showed up for the appointment is that he had died. I found him dead. And it was quite shocking. It's shocking to find a dead body. It's shocking to come in contact with a coffin, like Jen Yuan did, that shocked him into pounding. Alive or dead, whoa. And what I did, what I found myself doing, Not thinking about it.

[18:08]

But my response was to put my hands on George's body and just pat all over him. Like a police officer patting down a suspect looking for hidden weapons or drugs. Pat him all over. What is this? What is this? What's going on here? George? I found George, but no, not George. I did find George, but there's nothing here that's not George. There's not an atom or a particle that's missing, but whoa, what happened here? Trying to find out with my hands, trying to find out what is this? What is it? What's going on here?

[19:10]

Where is George? What's happening? And it was very concrete, my effort to take this in. Very concrete. But at the same time, I felt like I had felt as a kid, lying on my back in the backyard at night, looking up into the stars and into the sky and trying to get my head around infinite space. You know, this goes on forever. How could it go on forever? There must be an end. But if there's an end, what's after that? And probably most of you did that, too. I think it's a common thing to do. Feeling as a kid, like if I keep trying to get my head around this, it's just going to explode.

[20:18]

It's just going to blast apart because I can't do it. It won't fit inside my head. And there was that feeling as I sat there with my hands on whatever my hands were on. I'm trying to take it in right here, and to so much, so much. And in that moment, or those moments while I was doing that, those were some of the most acutely alive moments of my life. It was a time when I was as acutely alive, as acutely alert, I was paying attention with every atom I had. And I remember it in that way. That kind of total, being totally there. For once, I was all there.

[21:22]

I don't know if George was all there, but something was all there. I was all there. And I couldn't say, really, much about it except that it was all there. I was all there. So I really appreciate the compassionate tone of the pointer here. Secure and intimate with the whole of reality one obtains realization right there in contact with the flow able to turn things around, one assumes responsibility directly. Is there a way to help people by letting out a continuous path or not? So, those questions, what is a continuous path?

[22:29]

How do you let it out? How do I let it out? And what is it to assume responsibility directly? These were the questions that were helping me to find my way through this koan. I found that there were several continuous paths, and they were kind of braided together in the koan as it goes on. There was that continuous flow of living and dying and manifestation that I talked about before, that Dogen talks about in Shoji and Zenki. In Regi Daito's verse, I would like to read you another more contemporary poem

[23:33]

It's by Uchiyama Roshi. It's called Life and Death, and I think it puts it out there very, very clearly also. Water isn't formed by being ladled into a bucket. Simply, the water of the whole universe has been ladled into a bucket. The water does not disappear because it has been scattered over the ground. It is only that the water of the whole universe has been emptied into the whole universe. Life is not born because a person is born. The life of the whole universe has been ladled into the hardened idea called I. Life does not disappear because a person dies. Simply, the life of the whole universe has been poured out of this hardened idea of I back into the universe.

[24:34]

So another continuous path that I saw weaving through here was the path of Chen Yuan's practice. The path that took him from that initial encounter with Dao Wu, where he pounds and Dao Wu won't say, to the next encounter with Shi Shuang, where he asks the question again, and Xu Shuang responds, and he has a realization, all the way into the zendo, where he's carrying his hoe, searching for the relics. There's a part of the story that appears in the commentaries, and actually in the rendering of this koan in the Dogen's 300-koan collection. It's about what happened to Qianyuan in between the first and the second encounter. And what happened was that he happened to hear someone reciting the Avalokiteshvara chapter of the Lotus Sutra.

[25:49]

And this is a chapter that talks about all the transformations of Avalokiteshvara, all the different forms in which Avalokiteshvara, the bodhisattva of compassion, can appear. And they're all different forms. If the person who is suffering is in a fiery pit, Avalokiteshvara appears and puts out the fire and takes him out of the fiery pit. If it's a fish suffering in a net, Avalokiteshvara frees the fish from the net. Avalokiteshvara, compassion appearing in all these different forms. And Gen Yuan realizes that Avalokiteshvara appeared for him in the form of Dawu, his teacher, that didn't give him an easy answer, that fired up his energy of Bodhi mind seeking to understand and kept him going.

[26:58]

There were like 35 years between the first and the second encounters. All that time. Qian Yuan practicing with this. And then he begins to have a realization when he hears this. And he asks the same question again. It sounds like the same question, but it's really not the same question because he's not the same Qian Yuan. He's testing, or at least I think that's part of what he's doing. And the answer comes back from Sri Svan, and it is fresh and alive, and he has a realization at that time. And then he keeps on ho-ho-hoing, searching for the relics. And there's that continuous path of the Dharma. that is flowing from Yaoshang, who wouldn't say, through Dawu, who recognized that it was already spoken, through Xueshuang, who voiced it in the same words, but in a way that was still so alive that Chen Yuan could

[28:22]

could finally see it, could finally have a realization of what was right there the whole time. So I hope I have at least, do I have like about five minutes for questions? You have ten minutes for questions. Great, okay. Since anybody have any questions, any comments, anything you'd like to bring forward? Elizabeth? This thing about letting out the path to help people. I see Genuine go from panic to secure intimacy with the whole reality. And also, I think the relic thing, always touching base. Even with the original panic, the relics. Ah, my teacher. But what about the letting out and helping others, have you? Has the Zhenyuan gotten there or is it all about Zhenyuan being the other to be helped and all?

[29:32]

I think it's both of those things. It's the whole works, the whole life and death, the whole continuous path constantly manifesting in Zhenyuan, in Dawu, in Shishuang, He's our relic, I guess. Yeah. Sorry. The only problem at some point seemed to be the hard eye that was standing in the way of seeing some truth. I don't feel satisfied with that explanation. And I'm looking at you. I don't know if you're really there. You're just like a hard you over there.

[30:37]

When you touched George's body, something was missing, seems to me. You were very alive, but he wasn't. He was dead. Are you alive? Are you alive now? Yes. Yes, I am. And I think you're pointing to something that's really, really important and that I didn't touch on and I didn't go into. I'm glad to have the chance to do it now. I love the part in Dido's verse, he says, in birth not an atom is added, in death not a particle is lost. In birth not an atom is added. When George was coming into being in the emptiness of his mother's womb, not a particle or an atom was added.

[31:48]

What became George? was what she ate, what she drank, and if the earth did not nourish her adequately, it came out of her own body. There's an old saying, for every child a tooth, that's because if the mother wasn't getting enough calcium to make the teeth in the fetus, the calcium came out of her own teeth, and then she lost those teeth. That's where the atoms came from, nothing added. And yet, Something happened that was more than the atoms and the particles. And then at the time that George died, there was something else going on as well. All the atoms and the particles were still there. This is a condolence call. In a house where there's a coffin in the living room, there is sorrow.

[32:49]

because we're people and we have a feeling for those selves that mysteriously and I think perhaps this is the deepest mystery mysteriously manifest and have life and then that changes and there's something that has no beginning that's unborn something that has no end that's unextinguished life goes on that's something people say sometimes when they're grieving well my loved one is gone but life goes on and there's usually a lump in the throat that says that and that's true and that's a part of a part of what's being pointed to here but there's also condolence with the sorrow, with the dolor, with the sadness because we are in relationship with each other, we care about each other and you could say that the I is hardened, that the I is also soft and warm and connected.

[34:14]

didn't live in a time when Buddhist priests were in the business of doing funerals. That's not why he went. He went because he was connected to the bereaved in this household. And what we do is, in the presence of this enormity and this sadness, we don't do it alone. We come together. We make a condolence call. We have the dolor together, the suffering together. Does that address it a bit? You've blown away the wisdom of not an atom appears and not an atom disappears. I just don't receive that, but I receive Condolences.

[35:22]

My heart goes out to you. Well, I'm thinking about this business about not a particle added, not a particle removed. My picture of it is that that particular bucket of water, well, not bucket, The water has been moved. It's a little literal, but it makes sense to me. The other thing is, to be even more literal, I've read that various people have done the exercise of weighing a body before and after death. I'm sure you've heard of it. And it weighs ever so slightly less after it's died. So something seems to have moved. Maybe there's some on the scale.

[36:24]

I won't say. What do you make it to me? when I, you know, I vaguely remember koans, and I don't always remember which ones go together, but this image of him going into the, let's call it the zendo, with a hoe. What do you make of that? Of the hoe? Yeah, there's something about that. Yeah, what do you make of that? Does he, I mean, is he, well, why don't you just say what you make of it, I won't give you. What I make of it is all tangled up in language and perhaps doesn't hold up when it comes to translation. But the word cultivation is one that I have heard a great deal in relation to what Chinese Zen monks do.

[37:35]

They're cultivating the mind, cultivating self-awareness. cultivation. And there's a wonderful book called Cultivating the Empty Field, and that's what it's about. It's about cultivating emptiness in the self. That may sell that book a bit short or misrepresented in some ways, but that's one way to say what that book is about. So that's what came to mind for me around that image of the hoe in the Zen Dojo. Cultivating emptiness and finding the relics of the teacher in that way.

[38:36]

Like cultivating with a hoe in your garden rocks or roots or something. Does that? Well, you know, it seems to me like it's a bit of, a lot of times in Kwan, somebody's making a mistake, kind of deliberately, and they're sort of looking to be set straight. So it seems to me like a bit of a, you know, a Zen mistake, because we don't cultivate the empty field with a real hoe, and also we don't bring dirty garden tools into the Zendo. Even though everything is empty, and it doesn't, the Zendo is as the garden is as clean as the zendo, and vice versa. Still, we don't bring our garden tools into the zendo. And even though we're cultivating an empty field, we don't need a hoe for that. So it seems like there's some way, I think, in which his mistake isn't really responded to in some way. There's never any point where somebody says to him, what are you doing with that? Well, he does say, what are you doing with that hoe in the zendo?

[39:37]

What relics are you looking for like that? But there's somehow, to me, in which it hasn't quite been It's like somehow it feels to me like there's some point where the master should address the hoe more directly. It seems like the hoe is kind of forgotten. They talk about lanes and billowing and whatever. He never gets to put his hoe down, so to speak. He's probably still walking back and forth across the meadow with his hoe. Yeah, I guess that's, yeah. Can I interject that the word hoe means dharma? So I got the image of the fire boy. Oh yeah. He brought what did he bring to the Zimdo? Oh, which is Dharma. Which is English, but yeah. The other thing I have to say is what a joy it is to see you up there. I know, but this pose. Did you hear that part? No, I didn't. What a joy it is to see you up there. I have tears in my eyes through the talk and I thank you for it. The other thing I wanted to say in response to you, Tamara, is that I think, you know, he was trying to demonstrate his, um, his understanding, I think, to Sichuan, but it was, it's kind of a, you know, cloddish way to do it.

[40:54]

Do you think I'm getting the signal?

[40:55]

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