Case number eight in the Blue Cliff record, excuse me, in the Mu Man Con, is entitled, Kei Chu Makes Karts. Kei Chu was the legendary first wheel maker in China. He was supposed to have made, when he invented the modern wheel, which had 50 spokes and a hub and a nut, just like the wheel of your car. And this koan just uses Keichu as a reference, as a kind of model. Master Getong asked a monk, Ketsu made a hundred carts or a hundred wheels.

[01:14]

If he took off both wheels and removed the axle, what would he make clear about the cart? That's the koan. If he took off both wheels and removed the axle, what would he make clear about the card? And then Master Mumon's commentary, he says, if you can realize this at once, your eye will be like a shooting star and your spiritual activity like catching lightning. And then he has a verse, Mumon has a verse, he says, where the hubless active wheel turns, even a master fails. It moves in four directions, above and below, south and north, east and west." This koan, this cart, of course, when he talks about a cart or the wheels, he's talking about

[02:30]

our body and mind. The metaphor in this case is about our body and mind, and so Master Getan is using this metaphor. A wheel does have spokes and a hub, but in the center there's nothing. And this nothing is at the hub of the wheel and defines the wheel. So wheel plus Wheel plus nothing equals wheel.

[03:33]

Without nothing, there's no wheel. But we put the wheel onto an axle, and we put the axle onto the cart, and then we hitch up the horse, or turn on the motor, and say, this is the cart. So a cart is many pieces. What we call a cart is many things put together in a certain way to perform a certain function. A human being, we say, is form, feelings, conceptions, mental formations, and consciousness. And these five qualities or elements are put together in such a way that we say, oh, there's Jack or there's Jill.

[04:39]

But if we take away the axle and the hub, and the various elements, meaning not take away, but take away our idea about what these elements are. Take away our conceptions. What's left? What is that? So today we're sitting one day Sashin. And the purpose of this one day Sashin is to take away the wheels and the axle and to know what's this.

[05:54]

The Heart Sutra, when we chant the Heart Sutra, we say form is emptiness and emptiness is form. The same is true of feelings. The same is true of perceptions. The same is true of impulses or mental formations, thoughts. And the same is true of consciousness. But if we try to take away the form in order to see the emptiness, it doesn't work. If we want to understand form, or if we want to understand true nature or emptiness at the hub of the wheel,

[07:15]

we can only realize emptiness through the spokes in the rim, in the hub. It's like there's a poem that goes something like, if within an empty field, you take many grasses and make a house. When you take away the house, there's just an empty field again. And then there's another poem which says, If in an empty field, you take many grasses and build a house, even without taking the house away, there's still just an empty field.

[08:28]

So form itself is emptiness. Emptiness itself is form. The same is true of feelings. Feelings are empty, and emptiness is the nature of feelings. And perceptions are empty, and emptiness is the nature of perceptions. And the same is true of mental formations and consciousness. So when we first hear the Heart Sutra, we say, what do you mean no eyes, no ears, no nose, no tongue, no body, no mind? In emptiness, no form, no feelings, no eye, no ear, no nose, no body, no mind.

[10:02]

Dogen Zenji used the example of a boat. He said, when you step into the boat, a boat is not a boat until you step into the boat and hoist the sail and take hold of the rudder. then a boat becomes a boat, and you become you. When we're looking at a boat, we can say, oh, look at the boat. But a boat is just an idea that we have in our mind. But when we step into the boat and hoist the sail, and take hold of the tiller, then boat becomes boat and you become you.

[11:53]

And both you and boat are completely empty. There's just one thing. So taking apart the cart taking apart the pieces of the cart, what do you have? Taking apart the pieces doesn't mean to take apart the pieces It means to become one with the cart, to become one with yourself.

[13:00]

But yourself is just pieces, axle, wheels, hub. Existing within emptiness So if we want to know our true nature, when we sit Zazen today, just let form be form.

[14:11]

Just let feelings be feelings. Just let thoughts be thoughts. But don't pick the cart to pieces. with the house put together on the field, it's already existing within emptiness. So when we sit, it's necessary to let go of all of our thoughts, all of our ideas, all of our conceptions about what and who we are, and just be.

[15:41]

Just allow a being to be. Just allow existence to exist as it is. When there's pain, just be pain. Just let painful legs be painful. Thoroughly and completely. Just step into the vehicle of pain. Just step into the cart of pain. Don't stand on the shore looking at the pain. But step into the pain. Right at the center.

[16:44]

Be right at the center of your painful legs. then at that moment you can realize form is emptiness and emptiness is form. As soon as you start to set up some distinction, you lose your real life. Om.

[18:08]

Then, in the verse, Master Mumon says, where the hubless active wheel turns, not even a master can stop it. Who would want to stop it? Just let it turn in all directions. This is our practice. to just let this wheel turn. Just let it go with this wheel. Dogen Zenji always was very fond of quoting Tendon Yojo's poem about the wind bell. You know, Tendon Yojo's poem about the wind bell hanging by his mouth in space. This wind bell is turned by the wind.

[20:05]

Sometimes looks like a fish hanging by his, or just the bell itself, with open mouth, hanging in space. East wind, north wind, south wind, west wind. Whichever way the wind blows, he doesn't care. Just ding, ding, dong, ding, ding, dong, all day long. Just run with reality. Just letting the wheel turn and turning with the wheel. No separation. So in our activity today, whatever we do, just do completely and thoroughly each activity.

[21:38]

Each small activity is an expression of our life. Let's not miss it. This life, moment by moment, doesn't come again. But each moment is a moment of now, just now, forever. Whichever shape our cart takes, this is our life. So our cart is always changing.

[22:45]

This cart, which is one with emptiness, is always changing, taking on a new form. And in each moment's form is the expression of our life, very precious and yet gone. So in this today, let's take care of our life very carefully, moment by moment. just paying attention to our life as it changes, moment by moment, without judgment or craving for something else, without wishing it were another way.

[24:04]

Just a deep appreciation for the way it is right now. Just step into the boat, hoist the sail, and take hold of the tiller. without thinking, oh, this is good or oh, this is bad. Just this is it. Do you have a question?

[25:29]

Yes. This is it in the middle of pain? Yes. Just this is. This is. Just this. You mean not is discomfort, just is? Well, discomfort is a kind of judgment. Usually, our life takes place in the realm of judgment and discrimination. But there's another level, which is non-judgment and non-discrimination, where

[26:41]

Everything comes together. So if we say, this is discomfort, it's just from the point of view of what we feel would be comfortable. So that's a kind of idea we have. It's just another point of view. So in this, in Zazen, the purpose of Zazen is to go beyond our discriminating points of view without taking some standpoint which sets up a discrimination. The purpose of Zazen is to bring forth whole mind, not just partiality.

[27:50]

Because we're partial to some kind of feeling, we say, this is uncomfortable. So, it may be uncomfortable, it is uncomfortable, but still it's a judgment. And if we want to find true comfort, we have to go beyond our dualistic idea of what's comfortable and what's not comfortable. So that's still just in the realm of partiality. Judgment and discrimination and dualism certainly is a large part of my thoughts and at this point, is it possible to enter into the center of That's what you have to do. That's the point of Zazen, is to enter into the center of just this.

[29:00]

As long as you keep discriminating and making judgments and saying this is good and this is bad and I like this and don't like that. It's okay to do that. But as long as you continue to sit, pretty soon a body and mind drop away. And there's just this. Saying precious lives isn't precious also, isn't it? Isn't it what? Is the word precious a judgment as well? Yeah. All words are judgmental. But we have to use them. So, you can use words in a judgmental sense or a non-judgmental sense. Precious doesn't mean grasping.

[30:07]

In a non-judgmental sense, it just means appreciation. So, it doesn't mean to try and cherish it or to hang on to it. It means it's worth something, even though it's not worth anything. At the same time, it's not worth anything. But this worthlessness is very precious. So, taking apart the cart means to let go. Let go of everything. And when we sit in Zazen, we just have to let go of everything.

[31:09]

So it's very difficult to do, because in the realm that we live our life, the usual sense, we want to grasp life. So without grasping and without avoiding, this is the middle way. Without trying to hang on to something and without averting something, without trying to avoid something. just to accept what we have as we have it, as it's there. Pretty hard to sit Zazen unless you can do that.

[32:12]

So Zazen is pretty difficult until you find the bottom of your life. Until you can completely let go. Very difficult. And my old teacher Tatsugami Roshi used to call it, he used to say, Zazen or Sushin is the battlefield of the mind and the heart. Battleground of the mind and the heart. among other things. I wouldn't say that's its definition, but it's really so. Until you stop fighting. And just come to peace with yourself. What do you do with love?

[33:18]

What do you do with it? Well, I think it's something you cherish. What is love? It's a feeling. How do you express it? Well, you can express love in both words and actions. Does it have a limit? Probably. What's its limit? They are?

[34:37]

Yes. What are people that are finite? What are people? That they're finite. I don't know. So is love finite? Again, I think so, probably. I've noticed that you have a ring in your hand, so it's that you're married. And I was thinking, well, you have a wife. And in the normal course of human relationships, you have to cherish each other. There are other complications, but we won't go into that. And since you are involved in a process, sort of observation, What becomes of that relationship?

[35:50]

Well, love is on various levels. There's love for people, for selected people. But love in its deep sense doesn't discriminate. You may be married to one person and that's a form of love, but it doesn't limit the love that you have, which is non-discriminant. So we make definitions within our life so that we can perform certain functions so that our life has some definition.

[36:54]

But love itself has no bounds or limits. And within limitless love you can make some definition and have a relationship with one other person which expresses that love. but it doesn't limit it. So we choose to do certain things, but it doesn't limit our capacity. It also includes, goes beyond feelings we have.

[38:02]

We may have some feeling for people, some ill will, but that doesn't limit the extent of our non-discriminating love. So we may try to avoid things we don't like, but strictly speaking, we can't avoid anything. We may want to be comfortable by not being with people that we don't like, or being in a situation that we don't like, but we can't actually avoid anything, ultimately.

[39:03]

It's like no matter where you go, you're always with yourself. I keep carrying myself around, so to speak. So in Zazen, the only way to be really comfortable is to accept everything. completely without making distinctions. It's the only way that you can be comfortable in Zazen. As soon as you set up an opposite or a desire, then you create a discomfort. I'll let you think about that one.

[40:32]

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