1990, Serial No. 00072, Side B
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Second talk on Side B from same PP
I am proud to be an American. Shoya Roku, Book of Serenity, Case 21. Yun-Yan sweeps the ground. As Yun-Yan was sweeping the ground, Da-Wu said, too busy.
[01:02]
Yun-Yan said, you should know there's one who isn't busy. Da-Wu said, if so, then there's a second moon. Yun-Yan held up the broom and said, which moon is this? I first heard this story maybe 10 or 12 years ago when Bekaroshi lectured on it. And I've come back to it frequently ever since. And I feel like I'm just beginning to get a glimpse of how amazing the story is. I want to give a little footnote first before I talk about the case.
[02:06]
Yun-Yan and Da-Wu. Yun-Yan Don-Cheng is Un-Gon Don-Jo Da-Yo-Sho. Cloud, Cliff, Dim, Splendor. Da-Wu was his Dharma brother. They were also, some of the books say, biological brothers. Da-Wu was... They're a bit older. Yunyan Dongcheng, when Gan Dongzhou was the teacher of Dongshan Yangjie, Tosan Ryokai, Dayou Zhou, who's the founder of Soto Zen. His Soto Zen is named after. So Yunyan is the teacher of the founder of our school. of Tozan yokai who put the To in the Soto Shu.
[03:07]
You couldn't take a step without it. Anyway, Yunyan is very important to us. But it's interesting also that Yunyan is... Yunyan spent 20 years studying with Baizhang Waihai, who we've talked about a lot this practice period. Bai Zhang, who set up the rules for the monastic community initially in China, and who said a day without work is a day without food. He's called Hyakujo in Japanese. He's also famous for having given a monk's funeral to a fox. Some of you have heard that story. Can you hear me OK back there? Let me know if I fade. And Baizhang also said, if you realize there's no connection between your senses and the external world, you'll be liberated on the spot. Anyway, he was a great teacher, and Yun Yan spent 20 years studying with him.
[04:15]
He was his teacher for a lot of that time. And Yun Yan is also famous for not understanding a thing for 20 years, studying with Baizhang. Everybody agreed, he just didn't get it at all. 20 years with Baizhang. Finally, he went to and this was greatly frustrating to Dawu, his older dharma brother. Finally, they both went to study with Yaoshan, Yaxuan, Yigen, Daiyosho. There's one story about Dawu and Yaoshan, Yaxuan, Yigen, having a conversation, and Yunyan just didn't understand. And later Yunyan went back, when Gandanjo went back to talk to Yaxuan, and the story about Dawu standing outside the... doksan room or whatever, the abbot's cabin and listening and being so frustrated and so unhappy and so sad that he bit his finger until it bled because Yunmin just didn't get it. So this is the guy who's the teacher of the founder of our school.
[05:19]
Yaoshan, who It's an interesting thing that happens in there. Yaksanigendayosho, ungandanjo dayosho, tozan yokan dayosho. Could you please stick with one name? I'm really working on following this, because there's one on this. OK. I'll stick with the Japanese, because that's what we chant in the morning. Thank you. OK. So ungandanjo, except the case says yonyan, but that's ungandanjo. It's funny. Just forget it. Well, the point is, he studied with Bajang for 20 years and finally came to Yaoshan. And Yaksan Yigan. Yaksan Yigan studied with Sekito Kisen, was a student of a disciple, an heir of Sekito Kisen Daisho, who wrote the Merging of Difference and Unity. But he had a similar thing happen. He was studying with Sekito and he didn't understand. And Sekito said, go study with Mazu.
[06:29]
And he went there, and Mazu, who was the other great teacher at that time, for whom the Rinzai school come, and Mazu said something, and Yaksan Higan got it. And he said, oh, when I was with Sekito, I was like a mosquito trying to bite an iron bull. And Mazu said, right, but go back, Sekito's your teacher. So it's Sekito, kisen daisho, yaksan higan daisho, onigan donjo daisho. He just cases it out. And then this thing happened with Tozan Ryokai, too. He had been a student of the great famous Zen masters, Nanchuan and Guiyang, who founded one of the five schools. Nanchuan was Joshu's teacher. But he said his teacher was Ngondonjo. And one time he was doing a memorial service, and a monk asked, He studied with all these great teachers.
[07:33]
Why do you take Yun-Yan when Gan Dan-Shou is your teacher?" He said, only because he never told me anything directly. So, anyway, that's just a little footnote. Again, the story is Yun-Yan was sweeping the ground. I guess it was Soji and he was sweeping on a path Da Wu comes by and says, too busy. Yun Yan said, he should know there is one who isn't busy. Da Wu said, if so, then there's a second moon. Yun Yan is sweeping away. Which moon is this? So I've talked about zazen as having two aspects.
[08:42]
One is just the samadhi of enjoying yourself. The other is that zazen is a Mahayana activity. The Buddhas and ancestors expect something of us. We actually have to let the flower of our life force bloom. And Gary Snyder, as I said, has talked about Buddhist practice as just being zazen and sweeping the temple. however big you think that is. So here was Yun-Yun sweeping. So it's possible to have some idea that being busy, too busy, has to do with being in the kitchen or sweeping or taking out the compost and that not busy has to do with being in the zendo.
[09:43]
But I think this busyness and not busyness is not a matter of stillness or movement. My own experience is that I've been sitting in a zendo and very busy, planning and calculating and figuring out and very busy. And there are some Zen teachers who say the best place to practice is right in the middle of hectic activity. So two examples that came to mind from my experience. I used to work at Tassajara Bakery for a while. I worked in the front behind the counter. Saturday mornings is this amazing scene. There's a line out the door from the time we open at eight o'clock till well after noon. And there's four or five people working behind the counter. And it's just very fast and very nonstop. And this kind of dance that happens, and sometimes it doesn't work and you're bumping into each other.
[10:53]
And sometimes it's just this amazing dance. Except for here to go, a small or large blueberry muffin. You want milk in the coffee? Step over to the register. Next, who's next? And very quickly, without stopping movement, when it worked, when the dance was really happening, I think I knew there was one who wasn't busy. Couldn't have done it otherwise. It was very calm and moving very fast. Hard to sustain. The other example I think of from my life is when I used to edit TV news. Sometimes a film would come in five minutes before the show is going to start, and you'd have to look through all the pictures and figure out how to put it together and put it together. And there were guys waiting to run it to the projector for it to go on television.
[11:54]
And to do that, you really have to know where everything is, where all your tools are. You have to know how to put it together. You have to be able to see what goes where very quickly. And you have to know there's one that's not busy, or else you can't possibly do it. Excuse another example, but some of you know who Joe Montana is. He had this amazing year as quarterback this year for the San Francisco 49ers. Usually a good quarterback completes 50% of his passes, a little more. He completed something like 75% of his passes. So here he is fading back, and there's five 300-pound monsters charging at him who are trained and skilled at crushing a quarterback. And he's looking at five different pass receivers who are all trying to get clear, and he can see which of the... Amazing. I believe that when those five 300-pound guys are charging at him, Joe Montana knows there's one who's not busy.
[12:58]
But he couldn't have done that. Joe knows one who's not busy. Category Rush uses the example of a ballerina. He describes this amazing performance he saw, this ballerina moving and swirling and being totally still right in the middle of it. So I think for many performers and artists and athletes, there's this problem because, see, I don't know if Joe Montana knows there's one who's not busy except when he's got five 300-pound guys charging at him. The same thing happens actually in war to soldiers. There's this thrill of being totally calm when you're under fire. So athletes have a lot of trouble giving up their... When they get too old, it's a big problem for them.
[14:11]
But here's Yun Yan. He's just sweeping the path and fairly peaceful. And Dao says, too busy. Just sweeping a path, Dao Yunyan said, there's one who's not busy. We should know there's one who's not busy. So, the contemporary Dharma teacher I quoted last time concerning, recognizing Buddha nature and others, concerning this case, he said, he who is not busy is being born, he who is busy is dying. No, he didn't say that. He said, he not busy being born is busy dying. But we think, in the world they think, if you're busy, you're being productive, you know? Something's happening, you're getting something done.
[15:15]
If you're not busy, you're just stagnating, and you're just lazy. And I think sometimes Zen students can think the other way. They can think, if you're not busy, if you're in the Zen Dojo, then you really, that's really something. And if you're just working in the kitchen, that's a waste of time, or it's not the real thing. So he not busy being born is busy dying. Maybe we should know there's one who is busy. What is the one who is busy up to? Is she being born? Is she dying? Is she beyond birth and death? Is she in both birth and death? And if you know who the one who is busy,
[16:17]
Who knows there is one who is busy? Is that the one who is not busy? Yunyan said, you should know there's one who is not busy. And Dawu said this very fine thing. He said, if so, then there's a second moon. The commentary says, the two old men feared that people would set up a reality body as apart from the physical body.
[17:26]
So is there one who's not busy and then there's one who is busy? Is there a second moon? And Yonyan said this amazing thing. He said, which moon is this? So I feel like, which moon is this that the whole Soto teaching rests on the tip of Yonyan's broom, Hungan Danjo's broom handle. Which moon is this? So there's another story, which for me relates to this, involving Keizan Jokin Daisho and Gassan Joseki Daisho.
[18:35]
They don't have Chinese names, so we don't have to get confused. So Keizan Jokin Daisho and his student, who later was called Gassan Joseki Daisho, were looking at the moon, enjoying the moon one night. And Keizan says to Gassan, by the way, do you know that there are two moons? And Gassan said, no. Only one moon. Keizan said, if you don't know there are two moons, you are not a seedling of the Soto succession. If you don't know there are two moons, you can't be a successor to the Soto lineage. So we have in China, one Ganbanjo saying, you should know there is one who is not busy.
[19:43]
And here we have Keizan Jokin Daisho, saying, you should know there are two moons. When he said this, Gassan increased his determination and sat cross-legged like an iron pole for years. One day, as Keizan passed through the hall, he said, sometimes it is right to have him raise his eyebrows and blink his eyes. Sometimes it is right not to have him raise his eyebrows and blink his eyes. At these words, the Master Ghazan was greatly enlightened. It just so happens that those are the same words that Mazu said to Yaksan Igen before he was greatly enlightened, whereupon he said, and that was the Sekito, it was like mosquito bite in Iron Bull. Sometimes it is right to have him raise his eyebrows and blink his eyes. Sometimes it is right not to have him raise his eyebrows and blink his eyes. So I personally like Gassan and Joseki because he was the teacher of Taige and Soshin, who I looked after.
[20:56]
But just as Yunyan was important in China, Keizan and Jokin is called the mother of the Japanese Seto school and Dogen is the father. If Keizan, Joseki, and Gassan hadn't known Keizan Jokin and Gassan Joseki hadn't known that there was a second moon. We might not have the Soto school in Japan because Keizan is the one who popularized the Soto school in Japan. Up to that time, Dogen's successors were trying to continue the strong monastic practice that Dogen had established. And Keizan popularized it. He set up all this whole big temple system throughout Japan. And he brought into Soto Zen a lot of the ceremonies and forms of the Shingon school, which is the Japanese Tantric school, which had been kind of the basic, one of the two basic forms of Buddhism in Japan before that.
[22:12]
So a lot of our ceremonies and service comes from Shingon, actually, and were established by Keizan Jokin. So the Delons probably didn't know they were doing Tantric practice. Keizan Jokin said, you should know there are two moons. So what this case is about for me is the Soto teaching of non-dualism. It's very subtle. Keizan said, you should know there are two moons. Yunyan said, which moon is this? In the commentary to the case, it says, Yunyan then held up the broom and asked, which moon is this? This expression originally comes from the Heroic March Sutra, which says, like the second moon,
[23:15]
Who will say it is the moon? Who will deny it? For Manjushri, only one moon is real. In between, there is naturally nothing that is or is not the moon. So, when we talk about non-dualism, it's not one as opposed to two. Heizan Jokin's, you must know there's a second moon, is completely one with Yun-Yan's. Which moon is this? Has to be. So we say not one, not two. Dogen Zenji said, The moon is not one moon or two moons, not thousands of moons or myriads of moons.
[24:23]
Even if the moon itself holds the view of one moon or two moons, that is merely the moon's view. It is not necessarily the words or understanding of the Buddha way. Sure. In his fascicle called Sukhi, the moon, Dogen Zenji says, the moon is not one moon or two moons, not thousands of moons or myriads of moons. Even if the moon itself holds the view of one moon or two moons, that is merely the moon's view. It is not necessarily the words or understanding of the Buddha way. So the second moon that Kezan was talking about is not the moon of one moon or two moons.
[25:43]
But you have to know there's a second moon. To return to Yunyan and Dawu, There's a dialogue between them, a commentary to another case. Actually, it starts with a dialogue between two other guys, Yang Shan and Shan Dao. And Yang Shan was one of the founders of one of the other five schools in China, by the way. So Yang Shan and Shan Dao of the stone grotto were gazing at the moon when Yang Shan asked, when the moon is a crescent, where does the round shape go? And when it is full, where does the crescent shape go? Shanda said, when it's a crescent, the round shape is concealed.
[26:55]
When it's full, the crescent shape remains. So maybe you could say he was a pessimist. He saw the crescent moon. Either way, he saw the crescent moon. So then we have a commentary on the story by Yonyan and Dawu. One Gandanjo said, when it's a crescent, the round shape remains. When it's full, the crescent shape does not exist. So this is the teacher of the guy who Soto Zen is named after. And he says, when it's a crescent, the round shape remains. When it's full, the crescent shape does not exist. And he's an optimist. He saw the full moon both times. Dao said, When it's a crescent, yet it's not a crescent. When it's full, it's still not round. Hmm, mysterious. A poem by Lo Bin Wong says, since it can be round as a mirror, why should it be bent like a hook?
[28:03]
Pupatian school calls this the gate of secret concealment and revelation existing together. Also in the teachings it says that bodhisattvas of the tenth stage see nature like looking at the moon through a gauze net. So you should know there is one who is not busy. Is that the full moon or the crescent moon or both? movement, stillness, wholeness or incompleteness. Last night we came to this room and prostrated ourselves and howled at the moon in the fashion of our school. Afterwards we went out and there was a big round moon.
[29:15]
Did any of you see the crescent moon? I would say when it's a full moon, the moon is full. It's just completely full. When the moon is a crescent, it's just completely a crescent. Nyon-nyon said, you should know there is one who isn't busy. Khe San said, you must know there's a second moon. So, I ask all of you, which moon is this? Wendy? I have a question. When he opened the room and said, which moon is this, I sort of get this feeling that it's kind of like Master Balote with the fan.
[30:19]
It's like, the room is not going to sweep. It has to sweep. Mm-hmm. That's good. I've been listening to these quotations from these different teachers that, you know, like, I think something is one and it can't be two. I think something is two, it can't be one. And they seem to be saying that, yes, it can be two, and yes, it can't be one.
[31:24]
Right, it doesn't make sense in terms of our usual logic. It's a different kind of logic, maybe. The one before you discriminate. The one before you discriminate, yeah. But then what about after you discriminate? Is there still one who is not busy? I think that one of the comments is interesting, but I think that maybe the point of that has to do with the non-reality of the group, the relationship.
[32:35]
Well, I think he says you should know there's one who's not busy, so there's a you. He's not saying, please don't be busy. He's not saying... What is the symbol holding up the room? Is the broom and yon-yon one or two? Right in the middle of dangerous activity of sweeping the ground. Some monk might come up to you and say such a strange thing. Is it one or two? Is it you? Is it the broom? So I think I think it's interesting to talk about the monk Bao Zhe banning himself, right in the middle of Joe Montana fading back. He's the one who's not busy.
[34:11]
Is it Joe Montana or is it the football? Is it the guys who are charging at him? Are they separate? I don't know. Barry? The ultimate way of looking at it... Good. And that is that perhaps it's an indirect pointer. He was speaking directly. What's the other guy's name? Dawu, his brother Dawu. Dawu was asking a very penetrating question into the core of Dawu. Which moon is this?
[35:14]
Speaking directly into the audience. Yeah, he asks. He's asking, who are you? Right. Very good, yes. He did not hold up the broom and say, this is only one room. He didn't hold up the broom and say, this is the second broom. He said, which moon is this? Please tell me. Yes. Yes. Yes. Good. Right in the middle of too busy, you should know there's one who isn't busy. Are they the same? Are they different? Are they both or neither? But Kaizen says you should know there is a second moon. In the commentary it also says, good people, as you eat, boil tea, sow and sweep, you should recognize the one not busy.
[36:52]
Then you will realize the union of mundane reality and enlightened reality. In the Dongshan progression, Soto lineage, this is called simultaneous inclusion, naturally not wasting any time. attention, torture and so on. Not wasting time means remembering the one who is not busy. Wendy? Somehow, in all of these stories, the feeling I get from them is that, don't ever stop and think that this is the answer.
[38:03]
Don't ever think that there's two moons, or one moon, or, you know, the question we're in a full moon, sort of thing. And that what, clearly a second ago, this feeling of not getting stuck, sort of getting stuck with the image, and then staying with that image, and then this feeling of, oh, we need to sort of get the bottom out from under it again. And I think that's a feeling I get about when I tell these stories, like it's always more. And as I said, I might be too simplistic in the way I'm stating it, but it kind of reminds me of this pressure to understand the story or to know whether I'm thinking dualistically or non-dualistically. The pressure to, you know, that way it's relieved when I realize there's no stopping.
[39:09]
Right, there's no getting stuck. And I think that's what this is pointing to, the no getting stuck. Sometimes we feel like the full moon, everything feels complete and perfect and whole, just as it is. Sometimes we feel like the crescent moon, and it's just a, you just see a tiny sliver. And so, but if you get attached to the full moon, in two weeks it's going to be a crescent moon, and vice versa. So not getting stuck, yeah. Yes, Hannah? Why do you think my mission says there's always one moon? Because he sees right through everything. So he just cuts through the two of them? He sees the one moon and Keizan Jokin's second moon is just one moon.
[40:13]
That's where it seems to be. So my former question is for Martin. Do you recognize this question? So what's beyond the angels? Yes. Don't get stuck there either. Right. Actually, I mean, right. Actually, I meant to mention that.
[41:27]
Thank you very much. The Yonyan Ongandoncho's teacher, Yaksanigan, he's the guy in that story. The monk came to Yaksanigan and said, what are you thinking about when you're sitting there quietly? Not busy, not doing anything. And Yaksanigan said, I think of that which isn't thinking. And the monk said, how do you do that? And Yaksanigan said, beyond thinking. No, I'm thinking. That's Yun-Yang's teacher. Yes, sir. And how is it that same thing when you're sitting in a Zen dojo and you're sweeping, past, when you're cutting carrots, when you're taking out the trash, when you're digging ditches.
[42:28]
This is why work practices emphasize so much this subject. Don't get stuck anywhere. But maybe Joe Montana should come to this end there so he could know the one who's not busy, even when he's not being chased by a 500-pound guy. Thank you all for your wonderful comments. Anybody else have anything to say? Thank you.
[43:52]
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