Tonight is the last class, and I'm going to go over, compare three translations of Chinese poetry. It's all here on the sheet. So when they're all passed out, we'll go over that. Is there anybody that doesn't have one? And are there any that's left over? Everybody has one?

[01:15]

Good guess. So you remember when we did Tozan's, last time when we talked about Tozan's Five Rings, and we read the poems for each one. And now there's another, you know, when Tozan point out different things. These five positions have a little different slant to them. Although it's similar, it's different. He uses this

[02:20]

this symbolism more as... not so much to talk about absolute and relative, but to point out more succinctly different stages of development of practice. So what I've... And what I said that I was going to do was... I talked about, in the beginning, that Dogen didn't use the Five Ranks directly. He didn't talk about the Five Ranks directly. Although he did, he kind of absorbed and understood Tozan's Five Ranks, but then he expressed it in his own way. And I gave you a copy of the Ginjo Koan.

[03:28]

I don't know whether you brought it with you or not. And you may have read it. this set of five ranks in his Ginjo Koan, with these five lines which are kind of like the essence of the Ginjo Koan, to the part where beginning with that line. To study Buddhism is to study the Self, and to study the Self is to forget the Self, and to forget the Self is to be enlightened by the ten thousand things, diamonds, and to be enlightened by the ten thousand diamonds is to drop body and mind, and

[04:41]

This traceless enlightenment continues forever. So those are the five lines of Dogen, which is his expression, seems to be his expression of Tozang's five positions. So if we look at the translations, the translations, the one on the left, the one we used a lot, is by John Wu. John Wu was a Chinese scholar who wrote a book called The Golden Age of Zen.

[05:51]

which is actually very nice. It's out of print. It was printed by the Chinese War College in Taiwan, I think. But it's been out of print for years. But it's a very good book about the history of Zen. Chinese what college? War. You won't find it through that source. But I was reading the obituaries in the Chronicle about a year ago, which I never do, and I ran across John Luke. I made this long obituary on him, which I was surprised, you know. He's a famous Chinese scholar, and he wrote a lot in English. So anyway, on the left is his translation of these five poems, and in the middle is Akinroshi's translation of these five poems, which is not published, but that's the big one, the big print.

[07:03]

And on the right is Charles Luck's translation of these five, and they're all marked 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. So as we go through it, the reason I didn't give this to you before was during the dinner, it might have been a little confusing to look at this, so maybe not. So we'll just go through and compare these translations, because I think that's an interesting thing to do for various reasons. For one reason, whenever you read something, it's translated, you know that it's not really it. So to compare translations, this one says this a little bit better, and this one says this a little bit better, and this one says this a little bit better.

[08:06]

So you can get a wider, broader picture of accuracy by comparing the translations. So I'll use Akin Roshi's as the basis, and then compare that with the other two. And his is in the middle. So he calls this the five modes of Dungsang. So modes is one term, instead of ranks or positions. And the second cycle, which is the other one that we studied was the first cycle, and this is the second cycle. Last week's was the first cycle, this is the second cycle. So he calls this, he translates this as honor and virtue.

[09:10]

Whereas Charles Luck translates it as the shift. That's kind of interesting. So shift means something like moving toward a different mode. Right, and Aiken has orientation. So, orientation and shift. It means coming around to seeing, to recognizing the Dharma. So, it means shifting from your usual mode into seeing your nature.

[10:16]

It means shifting from your usual mode to practice. And Aitken calls it orientation, orienting yourself toward the practice, or orienting yourself toward the Dharma, actually, or using the Dharma as orientation, rather than some other touchstone. So he said, here's the poem. As the sacred master, make the way of Yao your own. Yao is the emperor, ancient emperor. Make the way of Emperor Yao your own. He governed with propriety and bent the dragon waist. When he passed through a market, he found culture flourishing and the Auguste dynasty celebrated everywhere. So this has the feeling of the Emperor Yao, you know, was this kind of wonderful sage and he governed with propriety and the bending the dragon waist has the feeling of not being stiff, you know, of actually accommodating or going through

[11:41]

associating with the common people. When he passed through a market, he found culture flourishing, actually, because of his activity. And the Auguste dynasty celebrated everywhere. So this has a feeling of harmony, or how somebody creates a harmonious field. So on the left, John Woo translates it as, all holy rulers have patterned themselves upon Emperor Yao, who treated his people with respect and humility. Whenever he passed by crowded markets and streams, he was hailed by all his people for his benevolent government. So now it kind of has the feeling of, this is the way a teacher should be.

[12:48]

You know, benevolent and patterning. Instead of Emperor Yao, you could say Buddha. So, to say Emperor Yao actually means Buddha, you know, in a subtle way. And then Charles Luck on the right, says, following the example set by Emperor Yao, the prince teaches morality to his people. At times, he passes by the noisy marketplace while all men welcome his rule. the other one, noise and marketplace. Crowded market and street, that's a real different... Why isn't it that one word or two characters?

[13:59]

Well, you know, both of the Chinese translations are noisy marketplace and crowded marketplace. So that's probably more literal. But the dragon waste in Aikens is probably more literal. That's probably more literal. That's probably more liberal. I'm sure it must be, otherwise he wouldn't have put it in there. It's interesting that Eiken Roshi refers to the marketplaces where he found culture, because in those times, most of the culture was considered to be in the courts. The poets and whatnot were under the auspices of the courts. Well, that's right. So here he is going out in the marketplace. well, how does it interrelate to the first cycle?

[15:07]

Well, I think we should not try to interrelate it to the first cycle because, well, you can. Well, my question is really, and this reminds me of, this is almost like the scene of the first Oxford picture, in a sense. Well, yeah, the way it's different is that the two circles, the first two circles are interchanged. So this is actually, this one, this is, So this first poem is about this.

[16:22]

And this is coming into the world. This is the coming out of the court, actually, and going into the world. And it's about the marketplace. So it has a different feeling than these five positions, or the way that's expressed. He's expressing it a little differently, he's... So, what... See, in Ekan, remember, she says, make the way of Yahweh your own. As the sacred master, make the way of Yahweh your own. He's talking about you. Whereas, the other two are talking about not saying you. It's not stated as you. But... The Chinese are much more subtle, and you is implied. Whereas, in order to make a point in American Zen, the teacher will say, you, you know?

[17:32]

We're much more blunt. So as the sacred master, make the way of Yao, the benevolent emperor, your own. governing or propriety, you know, and out in the marketplace. So this is the position of being out in the world, out in the marketplace, and taking the Emperor Yao, who actually means Buddha, as your example, and acting that way. So Charles Luck says, the prince teaches morality. which is a kind of loaded word for us, I think. It's okay if we understand morality. But Charles, I mean, John Woo says he treated his people with respect and humility rather than teaching them morality. I think that's very different

[18:33]

So the second one, second position is called Service by Aitken and Submission by Charles Luck. Wu doesn't name these. So Aitken Roshi says, for whom do you bathe and make yourself resentful? you to come home. Hundreds of flowers fall, yet the voice is not still. Even deep in jumbled peaks it is calling clearly. So this is like going this way. For whom do you bathe and make yourself presentable? That's interesting. On the right, Charles Lux says, for whom is the elaborate toilet now discarded? But actually they have the same meaning.

[19:56]

Because if you discard the elaborate toilet, if you take off your fancy stuff and just come clean, kind of naked, that's the same as for whom do you bathe and make yourself presentable? It's really the same sense. And Wu says, for whom have you stripped yourself of your gorgeous dress? So it's like taking off your jewelry and putting away your fancy clothes and excess and coming simply as yourself. And the voice of So the kaku, actually, it's a kind of play on words because the sound of the kaku in some Chinese dialect means, sounds like, come home, come home, come home.

[21:11]

So it's a kind of well-known statement. hundreds of flowers fall, yet the voice is not still. And flowers means like distractions or kind of beautiful things, you know, that kind of blind your eyes. Even deep in jumbled peaks, it, meaning the cuckoo, is calling clearly through all the stuff, you know, all the beautiful falling leaves of distraction. The cuckoo is still calling clearly. It cuts through all of that. So Locke says, the cuckoo's call urges the traveler to turn home. Its note continues when all flowers have fallen, echoing deep among the intermingling peaks.

[22:17]

So this has more the feeling of the flowers have fallen and there's nothing to hold on to, or to be amused by, or to attract your attention. And you're kind of, you know, just standing there with nothing. And you hear the call of the kuklu. And then John Woo says, for whom have you stripped yourself of your guilt and stress? The kuklu's call is urging all wanderers to return home. Even after the flowers have fallen, it will continue its call in the thickets of wood among the jagged peaks." So, thickets of wood, you know, and jagged peaks have kind of a feeling of... A thicket of wood is kind of like a dark place, you know, a dark, mysterious place. And the jagged peaks is like out there, you know, in empty space, sort of,

[23:20]

high and dangerous. Sometimes we feel one way, and sometimes we feel another. Sometimes we feel kind of enclosed by the world. And sometimes we feel that there's nothing really to hang on to in rarefied space. Those are both kind of uneasy, can be uneasy places. But also, You know, it has the feeling of being alone, kind of all alone, with none of our props and none of our dependencies. I'm reminded of that, I think it's Dogen's expression, of flowers falling, giving rise to attachment. That's right, that's right. So, when we look, that's a good point, when we look at Genjo Koan, Dōgen also has that part in Genjokōen.

[24:28]

Do you have that with you? I probably have it somewhere. Yeah, the attachment process for... Right, so, you know, the first four... In Genjokōen, there are four lines. As all things are buddhadharma, there is delusion and realization, practice, birth and death, and there are buddhas and sentient beings. When he's talking about all things being buddhadharma, it means all dharmas are seen as they are in their presence. Then he says, as myriad things are without an abiding self, there's no delusion, no realization, no Buddha, no sentient beings, no birth and no death. This is like, the first one is like emptiness And then he says, the Buddha way is basically bleak and clear of the many and the one.

[25:36]

So the many is the first line, and the one is the first paragraph. And the many is the second paragraph. Buddha way is basically bleak and clear of many and one. Thus, there are birth and death, delusion and realization, sentient beings, and Buddhas. Yet, an attachment blossoms full, and an aversion weeds spread. So Blossoms has this feeling of things that we like, you know, things that we're attached to. Even though we're attached to things, they always fall. Everything falls eventually. And in aversion, weed spread. The two sides of attachment are grasping and aversion. And both are attachments, two aspects of attachment.

[26:39]

One is hanging on and the other is pushing away. We don't think of pushing away as attachment usually, but actually aversion But no matter what, it doesn't depend on whether we have, no matter what. Well, blossoms are what we like. Right. But I would say if we're not there to like it, then they're not necessarily blossoms.

[27:42]

Well, that's right. If there's no... Well, that's right. If there's nobody there, it doesn't matter. So, I then... I'm trying to get to the part where... So, thank you. So, this part, this first line, orientation, or ship, coming back to the first one, right?

[28:49]

The first poem. This corresponds to Dogen's to study the Buddhadharma is to study the self. This is like shifting from And the second mode here is to study the self, is to forget the self.

[29:50]

So that's what that's, you know, it says, for whom is the elaborate toilet not discarded. That's like forget the self. Elaborate toilet. Ego. So John Lewis says, for whom have you stripped yourself of your gorgeous dress? Gorgeous dress actually means ego. The cuckoo's call is urging all wanderers to return home. So in order to do that, they kind of lay down ego orientation. we step aside from ego as the center of our life and kind of abandon that center in order to take on a different orientation.

[31:01]

As a matter of fact, well, he calls the first one orientation. The second one is called service by Akin Roshi, which is interesting. Because service means that you give up self-serving in order to serve the Dharma, in order to engage with reality in a non-self-centered way. So that's actually, he calls it service. Charles Locke translates it as submission, submitting yourself. So submission has the feeling of bowing down to something, or putting yourself under some restriction, or putting yourself under some guidance. You called that one unity at one point.

[32:09]

You called that one unity. This one? Yes. Yeah, that's a good point. Unity with the emperor. Or submitting to the emperor. Submitting to the host. This is the type of obedience that we talk about? Well, yeah, I think most religion talks about that. Submitting. If you go to a monastery, it's called submission. And obedience also is like that. Here, obedience is not used. But I think that obedience has various connotations. Whereas submission has connotations too, both good and bad. You could say obedience, I think that would be okay, in that you're following obediently something, and not straying from it.

[33:20]

So submission also has a finger not strained away. There's a wonderful poem by a student of Issan's, Kyo-san, who was actually one of Tozan's teachers. And he lived on Mt. Tozan. And he talked about, he had a kind of poem about an ox. And he said, for 30 years, I lived on Mt. Isan. All that time, I ate Isan's rice, and I shit Isan's shit, but I didn't study Isan Zen.

[34:31]

All I did was tend an ox, and when he strayed, I pulled him back. When he trampled into other people's fields, I beat him with a whip. When he ran away, I always pulled him back. And he always, poor thing, he was always influenced by others advertising. That's my interpretation. Always influenced by somebody's, by something that people were telling him. But Now, he always stays right in front of my face. And even if I try to push him away, he won't go away.

[35:33]

I can't get him to leave. So, this has a kind of feeling of practice, which is just doing something. over and over and over again, 30 years, right? Not really studying Isan Zen, just tending to the ox, who was always kind of unruly and being drawn off by things and being, you know, rambunctious and difficult to manage. But now, after 30 years, he just stays there, you know, in front of my face, and beautiful, a wonderful creature. But even if I push him away, he doesn't seem to want to leave. This is kind of like submission. And it's like also training.

[36:41]

So Dogen says, in this rank, he says, to study the self is to forget the self. Actually, he calls it dropping body and mind, which means dropping ego, or not being centered around ego. And that's what his Ganga Koan is actually saying, and he says it over and over in various ways, how not to be self-centered, actually. It talks about the boat and the water. It looks like when you're on a boat in the water, it can easily look like the shore is moving instead of the boat. That's because of our orientation. It's actually the boat that's moving. So in our life, it looks like the world is revolving around us. We have that kind of feeling.

[37:44]

But that's because of our orientation. Instead of feeling our place with everything, we feel that we're in the center and everything's moving around us, which it is. But that's not the only thing that's happening. We're also part of many different movements that we're not the center of. For me, I have some trouble sometimes with the word submission. Yes, I know. Part of making that work, to me, gets into that thing you were talking about, about intention. It's like one has to wear out a certain thing before you can really understand what that is.

[38:51]

And it's a very different thing from other times in my life when I've done things because I thought I should in that whole thing versus what happens when you finally wear all that out and you realize that... Right, but that is a little problematical because it's easy to say, well, as soon as everything is okay, then I can As I, you know, get enlightened, then I'll practice. But you can't wait. Just thinking of that shift reminds me, it's like when early people thought the earth was the center of the universe and all the planets revolved around the earth, and there was a great deal of resistance to the scientific discoveries of the Earth revolving around the Sun and not being all that important.

[39:54]

So, maybe it's... Not having the same kind of importance. That's right. Yeah, that's right. That's an interesting point. And, you know, Doge in the Angel of Covenant says, it's neither round nor square, or, you know, he goes on to deny any shape or form that it is, you know. very radical, Andropic notions. We said, well, of course the world is round. We discovered that. So now we think the world is round instead of square. That's just another notion, even though we can see that it is round. But that's just what we call it. Even though the world is round, We don't know what it is. Another thing on that line is this whole thought about the atom as the smallest piece, and we reduce everything from atom to now, of course, we discover that beyond the atom is quarks, and beyond that, but this need to get it down to one piece.

[41:05]

That's right. And so, whatever realm you go into, it's just another big room. So we go through all of these realms and then we end up here. Anyway. So then the third, Akhenoshi calls virtue, and Charles Luck calls achievement. So, the first one we have is like shifting or orientation toward dharma.

[42:07]

The second one is like dropping or submitting, actually, the Absolute, and serving Dharma, or submitting. And the third one's called Achievement, which means coming back out. And it's still comparable to this one, the third. Akinroshi translates it as, flowers bloom on a withered tree in a spring beyond Kalpas. Kalpa means it's a miserable period of time. You ride a jade elephant backwards, chasing the winged dragon deer. Now, as you hide far beyond innumerable peaks, a white moon, a cool breeze, the dawn of a fortunate day.

[43:10]

This is a feeling of confidence. great confidence of enlightenment. That's a feeling, too, of just a desolation, kind of, or just spaciousness? Well, flowers bloom on a withered tree. It's kind of a well-known, well-used phrase in Tang Dynasty Zen. And it's used in many different ways. The withered tree is actually Buddha nature. It's a withered tree because it looks like nothing's there. So flowers are blooming on it. You think, well, this is dead, right?

[44:10]

This tree is dead, and yet flowers are blooming on it. And so it also has the feeling of after the great death, flowers blooming. So, you know, it has a feeling of resurgence or rebirth, which is very comparable to this. And so flowers are blooming on this withered tree, which we all thought was dead. are coming back to life in a true way, without being eco-centered. Spring beyond, help us. You ride a jade elephant backwards, chasing the winged dragon deer. Charles Luck says, the flowering of a withered log heralds an eternal spring.

[45:14]

So this kind of spring is not usual, but eternal spring means beyond birth and death, actually. Hunting a unicorn, a man lived backwards on a jade elephant. Now he dwells alone beyond a thousand peaks. He means moonlight. Cultural difference. Cultural difference. And John Woo says, the green tree flowers into a new spring far, far away from time's kingdom. The hunter of the unicorn rides backwards on a jade white elephant. Carefree, he makes his lofty home now beyond a myriad peaks.

[46:20]

where a clear moon and pure breeze fill him with happy days. So riding backwards on the jade elephant, you have a feeling of carefreeness. And the elephant is a symbol of Buddhism. I remember when we used to go to Sokoji in San Francisco, on Bush Street, where we had the first Zen Center. during New Year's, the Japanese congregation had this elephant. They had a wood, a wooden elephant, and everybody would carry it through the streets in the neighborhood. But there wasn't anybody riding backwards on it. So a unicorn, I don't know if unicorn is a, It's interesting because the Chinese translators use unicorn as the term, and Aiken, who is Caucasian, uses chasing the winged dragon deer.

[47:34]

That's kind of nice. I don't know what the winged dragon deer is, but I think it's Unicorn has one horn, and I think the Garuda also has one horn, or one eye. or these different flowers.

[48:51]

Yeah, I think it has different meanings. The flower falling means, is like, like we described, also has, sometimes has different, like, you know, there's the famous Bodhisattva, dropped flowers and did a lot of criticism about whether, if this made some impression on him, then he wasn't really there yet. Well, that's why I wonder where this is sort of central in this stanza where there's been... But blooming here has a different feeling. It has to do with life. So, and flowers and the other ones.

[50:00]

So, I think the meaning of flowers is different in both of them. Although, flower, it does mean phenomena, you know, and into the world, something coming into the world. But in this sense, it means life, and the other, it means attachment or distractions. Because, you know, life is distracting. And anything can be looked at as an attachment or just phenomena arising. Right. That's right. Whatever it is can be seen in many different ways, depending on our attachment, I thought that they chose unicorn and the other animals because we're so used to hearing or knowing about unicorns that it's easy to imagine one, yet if you throw in this winged dragon here, it kind of, it stretches your... You wonder what that means, what that is.

[51:14]

Well, precious, I think. Right, you can't eat too many of those. Yeah. It's also not a real elephant. No, that's right, it's not a real elephant. It's like... What would that elephant be, you know? The Dharma. Yeah, right, or... Or your true body. Jin has special meaning for Chinese people, but I can't explain it. It's more like life-giving force, they say. Like a talisman almost. That's right, it's like riding the life force, you know, Buddha nature. Jade elephant here probably means good nature.

[52:30]

I'm struck by the aloneness of these verses, that you're alone in the myriad peaks. Yes. It seems so cold and strange. Yes. You have to get there before you get to the fourth one. Because the fourth one is called combined virtue, or collective achievement. that's no longer alone. So the first three are kind of like, you know, one is abandoning dependency and turning toward the Dharma. And the second one is being self-centered and being completely immersed, you know, dying a great death. And the third one is coming back to life. So those are three which are your practice, you know, your personal practice.

[53:42]

And I think when we talked about, remember we talked about the two swastikas? One going this way, and one going that way, and one going this way, is like the first three of these positions, going into the mountains, so to speak, and finding your true nature. And the third one is also coming back out, so it has both aspects, like this, It's like you finally emerge, but it's still potential. Now you have to do something. Once you've emerged in the strength and in the third position here of achievement, once you have achieved, and virtue means

[54:47]

using the absolute as a base. In other words, it means, Brita means activity, which is not self-centered. That's actually the It means being established in the unconditioned. So, the fourth, and this is where I'm comfortable to go in saying, to drop body and mind is to be enlightened or confirmed by the ten thousand dharmas So, flowers blooming is like a confirmation, you know.

[56:03]

Life, Dogen says, to advance and... Let me find out a new Dogen thing. To carry yourself forward and experience many things is delusion. third position has that feeling of being confirmed by the ten thousand things. Now, the translation is a little different here, actually, than usual. To carry yourself forward is delusion. all things to come forward and confirm, to allow the 10,000 things to come forward and confirm the Self is enlightenment.

[57:06]

So, that has the feeling of letting go of, of just being open. And instead of seeing yourself in relation to things as subject and object, to realize all things as yourself. That's what letting the 10,000 things come forward and confirm the Self means. All things are the Self. Confirm means to be one with, right? So that's like riding a jade elephant backwards. And the flowers blooming are like the 10,000 things. So also, Charles Lick says, now he dwells alone beyond a thousand peaks. But alone, as I explained before many times, has two meanings.

[58:12]

Alone means isolated, and it's one meaning. The other meaning, basic meaning, is at one. So it means, at one means the opposite of isolated. So all alone means all at one, without this division of subject and object. So that's the same as the 10,000 things confirming yourself. So this is the stage at which one enters, comes to life in a true way, where ego is in its rightful place and not isolated.

[59:24]

And one feels at one or alone, all alone with everything. And indeed, one's true body is the whole universe. The true human body is the whole universe. So then, the fourth position that Akinwoshi continues calling a virtue, and he says combined virtue, And Charles Luck continues to call it achievement, and he calls it collective achievement. So collective achievement, or combined virtue, means acting with all things. So Aitken says, ordinary beings and Buddhas have no interchange. That's a little awkward. Mountains are high of themselves.

[60:28]

Waters are deep of themselves. What do the myriad distinctions and differences reveal? Where the partridge calls, many flowers are blooming. We had the cuckoo before, now we have the partridge. Charles Luck says, Buddhas and living beings do not hinder one another. So they're actually saying the same thing, but Neither one is quite right, I think. They sound opposite. Well, they sound opposite, but to say no interchange, it looks like they're... But no interchange, I think he's trying to say, there's nothing to interchange. Because they're not different. So Buddhas and Tsenshinping, you know, they're very well-known. The most important aspect of Mahayana Buddhism is that Buddhists and sentient beings are not two.

[61:39]

They're not different. That sentient beings are Buddhists and Buddhists are sentient beings. They're not like Buddhists way out there in the sky and sentient beings down here below. But Buddhists are sentient beings. And sentient beings are Buddhists. So ordinary applies to both realms. So when he says ordinary beings and Buddhists have no interchange, I think he's saying there's nothing to interchange. But it sounds funny. That's right. Living beings do not hinder one another.

[62:41]

And what John Lewis says, there is no conflict between Buddhas and all living beings. So, and then Charles Lech goes on to say, the mountains may be high and deep in the And yet the partridge calls among a myriad fresh flowers. And Wu says, there is no conflict between the Buddhas and all living beings. The mountains are of themselves high, as waters are of themselves low. All distinctions in kind are in degree. What do they prove? Wherever the partridge calls, flowers of all kinds are blooming afresh. So the cuckoo calls come home. Well, I think they're fairly similar.

[63:48]

I'm not sure what the distinction is between the partridge and the cuckoo. It seems like a further awakening in the partridge. He's talking about the wanderers telling the wanderers with the cuckoo to turn back. One of them says, turn. Yeah, the Partridge Cry, I think, is like maybe the sound of enlightenment. So, Buddhists and human beings not hinder one another, kind of has the feeling of actually

[64:51]

And once one is enlightened, then one sees everyone as Buddhas. One sees Buddha nature everywhere. So that's to be completely intimate with everything. Great intimacy with everything. Not separate from things, but really complete, close intimacy with everything. So it's kind of, you know, subtly said, there is no conflict between the Buddhas and all the living beings. That actually means that there's no separation. And that's what Aitken's actually trying to say. But he didn't want to say it directly. Mountains are what they are.

[65:57]

Waters are what they are. Mountains are deep. They are deep, but they're also high. And waters are deep. And this great, well-known saying, long bamboo is long, short bamboo is short. Everything has, no matter what its comparative value is, each thing has absolute value, the same absolute value. We say a nickel is a nickel and a penny is a penny. That's their comparative value. So we tend to judge everything according to its comparative values. But if you give a penny to a kid and a nickel to a kid, the nickel is a nickel and the penny is a penny. And each one of them is wonderful.

[67:00]

And the nickel is not worth any more than the penny. value, and doesn't see its relative value. But after you grow up, we're only concerned with relative values. That's how you don't pick up dirty pennies in a cloudy, dark place. So we end up judging everything. Well, depending on how you think. Yeah. It just seems like even absolutely it has to be relative to something. In order to have value. In order to have value placed on it. Well, but that's because of the way we think.

[68:03]

In other words, Do you feel that you have value? Yeah, sometimes. It's like a therapy. One of the problems that we have as human beings, you know, And is that we're always comparing ourselves to each other. And when we stop doing that on a value level, we have to do it anyway, but when we stop doing it on a value level, then we feel our value, our true value. But we can't, it's really hard for us to feel our true value when we're comparing ourselves to everything.

[69:05]

But we still have to compare. You know, we say, don't make value judgments. Right? You're making value judgments. And it's true. Because the more value judgments we make, the more we put ourselves into a position based on comparing ourselves to everything else. And judgment values, good judgment values are value judgments. And then we say, well, who am I? What am I? Well, I'm nothing if I'm not, you know, as soon as you stop doing that, you're nobody. But is that true? No. So, really, who am I when I'm not making, when I'm not comparing myself to everything? That's Zazen, right? Zazen, you should not compare yourself to your neighbor. Oh, he sits on both legs up, you know. I can't pretend, and he sits without moving, and I'm always shuffling around.

[70:14]

So we make those kind of, and then we value ourselves as Zen students. This is just an example. We value ourselves as Zen students according to, you know, our comparative values of what so-and-so is doing, what I'm doing. We can't help doing that, but we shouldn't be caught by it. because what you're doing has absolute value, and what your neighbor's doing has absolute value, which has nothing to do with the comparative value. So nobody can judge their zazen. You can't judge your zazen as to whether it's good or bad. You can only judge it as to whether or not you're completely there or not. engaged. So mountains are mountains, and that's the same thing, mountains are mountains, and waters are waters.

[71:35]

It's like before the famous three positions, Before enlightenment, mountains are what I see as mountains, and rivers, waters, are what I see as waters, rivers. After engaging in this, mountains are no longer mountains, rivers are no longer rivers, nothing is what it seems In other words, you stop evaluating things and you stop naming them and taking everything for granted. You actually question everything. Everything comes apart as far as what you know about it. Then after enlightenment, mountains are mountains. But they're not the same. But it's not the same. And although we have moments of that, we're kind of like going through those three points at different places at different times in our life.

[73:24]

Right. It's not so much a matter of what's going on here, although that's possible. It's just not thinking in those terms. In other words, after you've been sitting five days, or six days, you go outside and you just feel part of the environment, right? You're not thinking. You don't necessarily name the bush, the bush is just part of your life. So those are a series of moments of... Just this. fades away and then we're back to... Yeah, that's true. That samadhi is not so strong, but something is transformed in you. that the tree, even though we call it a tree, is not a tree.

[74:36]

Because it looks, there's a different feeling or it looked different a moment ago or a day ago. Well, you know that we only call it a tree. But through the experience of Even though you may not realize that you don't see it as what it is. Because when we say tree, we're already removing ourselves from it. Maybe better to go up and hug it. Like Marilyn Monroe. Remember that movie? I can go in and I can go out. It's very similar. Remember when she goes... So then, I better get to number five because we only have a few minutes.

[75:44]

So Aitken calls it virtue upon virtue and Charles Luck calls This is like the fifth rank. When head and horns peep out, but it's a little different. When head and horns peep out, it endures no more. If you arouse your mind to seek Buddha, it's time for compunction. What do you think compunction means? It means it's being compelled, right? Strange term. Volition. something, you're motivated.

[76:45]

Yeah, it's time for motivation. In the Kalpa of Emptiness, there's no one who knows why, go to the South, why... There's no one who knows, comma, why go to the South? Why go to the South to interview this 53-year-old? It's actually 53. So, Charles Lux says, in his excellent achievement, the rearing of the head's horns shows its unworthiness. And down below, Wu says, as soon as your antennae begin to stir, it's already an intolerable misery. So, I think that it has to do with ego. The head's horns, you know, it's like,

[77:46]

And a mind set on the quest of Buddhahood is shameful indeed. That's what he means by compunction here. If you arouse your mind to seek Buddha, it's time for compunction. I thought he meant when he said that, like the stick. Time for compunction. Whip yourself back. Yeah, that's right. So in other words, Wu says the slightest intention to pursue Buddhahood is a This is like forgetting Buddhism, forgetting Buddha, forgetting everything that you learned. This is kind of wonderful, you know, because the end of practice is to go beyond Buddha. And Dogen has a classical called Buddha Going Beyond Buddha. It's like getting rid of the label. I'm a Buddhist or I practice Buddhism.

[78:52]

Just sit and just... In Zazen, there's no Buddhism, there's no Buddha, there's no... it's just what it is. And not being attached Buddhism is not something, as Sugar Rush used to say, it's not something in a drawer. You can pull out the drawer, you know, and find it there. There it is, you know. It's like there's no end to practicing the Dharma and going beyond, going beyond, going beyond. baggage that it carries.

[79:57]

Yeah, I think that's probably true. Go ahead. In the endless empty aeons, nobody has ever intimately known that which journeyed south. Well, you know, this is Sudhana. Sudhana was the... I think I explained this a few times ago. and the third book of the Athatantaka Sutra, Siddhana, is its third book. So that's what he's talking about. And Luck says, since the far distant empty aeon, no one yet has known that which journeyed south to visit. And Aiken says, in the Kalpa of Emptiness, there is no one who knows why. No. Thank you, Deli.

[81:01]

In the Kalpa of Emptiness, there is no one who knows why go to the south. Now, tell us again, these are translations of Tozan's words or characters? These are Tozan's poems, translated by three different translators. What is the meaning of the second cycle? Well, in the second cycle, these two are switched. and then goes to retreating. So it has a different feeling, it has... It's very Chinese, it's like the left side of Tai Chi. Kind of like that, yeah. But, you know, in the first one we're talking about form and emptiness. You know, the first one's talking more about the darks and the light, right?

[82:04]

The first cycle. Right, the first cycle. Here that's not emphasized. What's emphasized is stages of practice or stages of understanding. Not so much stages of practice, but kind of. But stages of practice in that, you know, in a kind of poetic way to emphasize, give people a sense of what how you enter practice, how you do it, and what the end is. Five easy steps. So, the first one is called orientation or shift. Shift away from being self-centered to encounter the Dharma.

[83:05]

And the second one is submission to it, or dropping body and mind. And the third one is achievement, being enlightened by the 10,000 things, is enlightenment. Being confirmed by the 10,000 things is your enlightenment. The fourth one, collective achievement, is to be enlightened by the 10,000 things, is to drop body and mind, to not be, what did he say? Yeah, that's right.

[84:13]

He says, when actualized by myriad things, body and mind, as well as the body and mind of others, drop away. So it's... That's the fourth one, to be completely with everyone, or be completely one with things. And that's called the collective achievement. And that's... And it probably corresponds to this one. And then the fifth one is complete freedom. It's like going completely beyond. After having mastered the teachings, after having enlightenment and also being, say, teaching or helping all sentient beings, to go even beyond that.

[85:28]

That's the fifth one, is to shed the skin of being a Buddhist. But, you know, as with the other five ranks, five positions, We can be in any one of these positions at any time. And it's all interchangeable. It's like transmigrating through the six worlds. The world of the heavenly realm, and the fighting demon realm, and the human being realm, and the animal realm. and the asuras, the hungry ghosts. Yeah, here they are. This is heaven, this is hell. And this is, I can't tell by looking at these.

[86:31]

This is the hungry ghosts. This is the animals. This is the human realm. The human realms in which we all transmigrate every day. So at any one time we can be like an animal or a hundred ghosts or a fighting demon. And at any one time we can be any one of these. Well, thank you.

[87:38]

Thank you. Thank you. That was great.

[87:41]

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