Since we're being on time, I thought we'd be on time. And we can kind of gab a little and babble on for a while until the others drift in, if there are any others. But anyway, I wanted to ask about, this is the fifth class. So the next class was actually scheduled for two weeks from now. Well, it turns out I could do it next week. So I'm just checking with people. Marianne, just next week or the week after, does either work for you better? Well, because of it, we have a lot of work to do next week. My class would not be here next week. OK, fine. Then we will have the next class in two weeks. OK? Good. That settles that. OK, that was the way it was scheduled. Good. OK. So we've spent the first four classes going over the text of Being Time and talking about the first two thirds of it.

[01:13]

And we could obviously spend many, many, many, many classes going over each paragraph almost. it's very dense stuff, but I feel like we've explored, we've managed to get into, in each class, some of the dynamics of time that Dogen's talking about. Tonight what I want to do is start with the stories, the koans, at the end, the last third of this text. So, basically what I want to do tonight is tell stories. So we're going to tell stories, some of the stories about some of the important people in the Soto lineage. And these are all stories that very much relate to the being-time text and start with the story that's in the being-time text. I'm hoping that as we go over these stories tonight that we can kind of put into them some of the teachings about time that we've been going over in the past weeks.

[02:26]

So I don't really want to do a long review, but I'm just going to mention a few of the kind of key sentences that popped out that we talked about a little bit, and not in a way to kind of go over them. As we've talked about, this is very slippery stuff, and how we see time is very complicated. In the first class we talked a lot about just different ways of seeing time, in Buddhism and in our own culture. And so it's something we've been talking more from the text. But as we look at these stories at the end of the text tonight and two weeks from the last class, maybe we can see how they reflect different ways of seeing time, and especially the way that Dogen is talking about a re-inhabiting time, or being time, or how we can be time, how to be time.

[03:31]

So just to mention a couple of the key sentences Towards the beginning he tells us, he mentions that an old Buddha said, and this old Buddha is the same old Buddha we're going to talk about tonight in the story. For the time being, or sometimes, or in this being time, I stand atop the highest mountain. For the time being, I move on the deepest steps of the ocean floor. And he says, the time being means time just as it is, is being, and being is all time. And a little later on, I'm just bringing up some of the sentences we talked about and just kind of flag them. Just reflect, this meditation instruction, just reflect. Right now, is there an entire being or an entire world missing from your present time or not? So he asks us in his text to look and see, is time present or not? Is there a time missing, the whole time?

[04:36]

And then he talks about being-time having the virtue of passage, the time passage from today to tomorrow, from today to yesterday, from yesterday to today, from today to today, from tomorrow to tomorrow. Past time and present time do not overlap or pile up in a row. So, and he talks about the view of the ordinary, unenlightened person, and he doesn't negate But he talks about seeing other ways of seeing time. So again, I'm not expecting you to follow. I'm just kind of mentioning a few highlights of the section of the teaching section before these stories we're going to talk about tonight. There's this wonderful passage. Harry, I don't know if you got this Waddell translation. Yes, I do. I have it. OK. And Herb, if you want to look on. Oh, Marion, did you get this? Yeah. OK. Could you pass this back to Herb? This is on page 122, for those of you who have it.

[05:45]

Thus, entirely worlding the entire world with the whole world is called penetrating exhaustively. So to really penetrate exhaustively into our time of being. And he says, one does nothing but penetrate exhaustively entire time as entire being. There is no remaining dharma left over, because any dharma left over is as such a leftover even the being-time of a partial exhaustive penetration is an exhaustive penetration of a partial being-time. So we talked about that and we could talk about that sentence for hours, but there's a feeling there of even though we think we're not doing it, even though we think we're only half-heartedly being present in our time right now, that's completely doing that. He turns our view of time. So to show the dynamic quality of our being present and to encourage us to do that more. It's not just that everything is okay because it's a partial being-time, but to really fully be that partial being-time.

[06:51]

And then he talks about, we talked last week about dharma positions. There has never been, on the next page, there has never been anyone who, while taking time to be coming and going, has penetrated to see it as being-time dwelling in its dharma position. this idea of every person having their dharma position, every thing having its dharma position. We are right where we are. We are doing the life we are doing completely right now. So all of this talk about time... Well, one more sentence. on page 124 of Waddell, one must learn in practice that unless it is oneself exerting itself right now, not a single dharma or a single thing can immediately manifest itself or make a passage either. So he's talking about yourself being present right now. It's not a matter of you or me. It's a matter of that to intimately, personally be present in this time, right now, which of course includes past, future.

[08:00]

today and tomorrow, so he's not talking about being outside time, he's not talking about getting away from time, he's not talking about denying time, he's not talking about running away from the past or the future. There is a time, you know, when we're sitting sometimes we find ourselves reflecting on the past and regretting this or that or worrying about this or that or worrying about the future and we want to be just present. So this being-time includes all of those times. We are present in this present, which is not separate from other times. He also talked about gaps. There is not a gap between different times. There is also not a gap between you and time. Time does not exist somewhere outside of our being present in it. Time doesn't exist as some object somewhere else, other than in our own presencing, in act of being time. So this is a very, very, very quick summary of some of the teachings before this, and we can refer back to them, but I really want to get into these stories because a lot of times in Dogen's writing he will have this very philosophical, poetic

[09:17]

passages where he plays with the language and turns things inside out and turns inside out our usual way of seeing things and then he'll bring in the old koans, the old stories of the old masters and talk about them in terms of that and use them to illustrate it. So I want to try and look at these stories and see how they reflect some of this way of seeing time, of being time, of re-inhabiting our own time of being that he's been talking about. So, on the board there, I want to refer to this lineage chart. So, a number of these characters are specifically mentioned, and I want to talk about three stories that are very central in our lineage that all relate to being time. I shouldn't say just our lineage in Zen. Because the lineages aren't meant to separate us from others but just to reinforce our connection to other times of being which are being-time also.

[10:29]

So there's this story which people have different translations and I've confused things by encouraging us to look at different translations and it's confusing here because we have Japanese names and Chinese names. And Waddell confuses it even more by using other Chinese names than the usual ones. So I want to try and keep these characters straight. The first story—I'll read Waddell's just because maybe most of you have that—one set the direction of the great master Wuji. Wuji is Shito or Sekito, Sekito Kisen. He wrote Merging of Difference and Unity. So Yueshan Hongdao went to visit Zen master Zhangshi Tachi. So these are other—a lot of these guys have many names. So the three people in this story are Yaoshan Weiyan, who is Yakusan Igen, Shito Tsuchan, who is Sekito Kisen, and Mazu Daoyi, who is in Japanese—the lower name, the second name in parenthesis is the Japanese name, Baso Doizu.

[11:33]

So I hope this isn't too confusing. And if you do get confused by the names or who's who, please stop me and we'll go over that. But those first three names are the people in this first story. And Sekito and Mazu are grandchildren in Dharma of the sixth ancestor. And all of Zen comes from those two. And those two were the great masters of their time. And the story is, So what Zen is about in China and what being time is about is not just to get caught up in the philosophy or the doctrines or the teachings. Zen is a kind of a postgraduate movement in Chinese Buddhism. It came in because people were caught by particular teachings, the Lotus Sutra or the Parinirvana Sutra and so forth. And there were many very good monks in China who knew these teachings very well, but they hadn't totally embodied in their experience. So Zen originally was the school of experience.

[12:35]

And I think that's very relevant to this story, to this text of being time. So I think what Dogen is trying to point us to, using words and letters, is to really fully experiencing our own time, in every time, and really fully acknowledging our time. So, after the Sixth Ancestors, and kind of exploded, Chan kind of exploded in China, and it was all about using weird expression and using the teachings of the sutras to really get past just some intellectual understanding of them, to really make it personal in your life. What do you mean by weird expression? Shouting and slapping and some of the things you'll hear in the stories. And just using wordplay, all of the koans in the classical Chinese period. using words to express something that goes beyond words.

[13:39]

So, okay, Yao Shan, or Yakusan Igen, as we say his name every morning, was studying with Shuto, or Sekito Kisen. And this story that is quoted in Dogen's Being Time is kind of the second half of the story. So I want to fill you in on the beginning of the story. So the beginning of the story is that Yakson came to Sekheto, and he says, I have a rough knowledge of the canonical teaching of Buddhism. In other versions, he actually is being modest. He had a very good knowledge of the sutras and the canonical teaching of Buddhism. But I've heard that in the South, in China, they directly point to the human mind, see its nature, and attain Buddhahood. I really do not understand this and hope you will be so compassionate as to give me some indication of it." And then Dogen… This is in a different writing of Dogen. Then Dogen says, "'This is a question of Yakusan, who originally was a lecturer.

[14:46]

He had mastered the canonical Buddhist teachings, the sutras, so it seemed there was nothing further about Buddhism that was not clear to him. In ancient times, before the separate schools had arisen, just to understand the canonical teachings was considered the way of doctrinal studies. Nowadays, many people, being stupid, set up individual schools and assess Buddhism this way, but this is not the rule of the Buddha way." So this is Dogen's little comment there. In reply to Yakuzan's question, so Yakuzan is asking, what is the real truth? What is the direct pointing to the human mind? What is the real nature? How do I attain Buddhahood? You know, I've studied all the teachings, but how do I really embody Buddhahood? And Sakita said, it cannot be grasped as such, it cannot be grasped as not such. As such or not such, it cannot be grasped at all. What about you? And Dogen says, this is the great master's statement for Yaksa.

[15:48]

What about you? I think all through this Dogen's being time. And then Dogen says, "'Truly, because it cannot be grasped at all as such or not such, therefore it cannot be grasped as such, it cannot be grasped as not such.' Suchness should be studied in non-grasping and non-grasping should be sought in suchness." So, again, Sakhita said, "'It cannot be grasped as such, it cannot be grasped as not such. As such or not such, it cannot be grasped at all.' What about you? And Yaxuan didn't understand. He didn't get it. And at that point, Sekito said, go study with Baso, who was the other great teacher. So the Soto schools comes from Sekito, and the Fushito, and the Rinzai school comes from Baso. But they sent their students to each other all the time.

[16:49]

This was kind of regular practice. There were many students who went. They would check. Many of them would go back and forth. and study for a while with either one of them. Anyway, Shuto sent Yaoshan, or Sekito sent Yaoshan, to study with Mazu. And that's when this story in Dogen's Being Time comes in. So after having not understood with Shuto, Yaoshan said, I'm fairly...went to Mazu and said the same thing. I'm fairly conversant with the three vehicles and the teaching of the twelve divisions." These are the different branches of the Buddhist sutras and doctrines. But what about the meaning of the first patriarchs coming from the West? What is the meaning of Bodhidharma coming from the West? This is a question about what is the essential meaning, what is our life really about? This is a kind of standard Chan question. And Masa said, for the time being, I let him raise his eyebrows and blink his eyes. For the time being, I don't let him raise his eyebrows and blink his eyes.

[17:53]

For the time being, my letting him raise his eyebrows and blink his eyes is correct, or is it? For the time being, my letting him raise his eyebrows and blink his eyes is not correct." So this word correct, this translation for correct, you could say correct or you could just say right on or it. It's not so much just right or wrong. So this is what Masa said. I'll read it again. For the time being, I let him raise his eyebrows and blink his eyes. For the time being, I don't let him raise his eyebrows and blink his eyes. For the time being, my letting him raise his eyebrows and blink his eyes is correct. For the time being, my letting him raise his eyebrows and blink his eyes is not correct. So this time being is uji, or being time. So we could say, sometimes I let him raise his eyebrows and blink his eyes. But sometimes I don't let him raise his eyebrows. Or we could say, in being time, I let him raise his eyebrows and blink his eyes.

[18:56]

So this is what Mazu said. And when Yaksan, or when Yaoshan heard this, he came to great enlightenment. And he said to Mazu, when I was at Shuto's, it was like a mosquito biting an iron bull. Some of you may have heard that expression before. This is where it comes from. So, then let me read a little bit more of Dogen and then come back to the story because it's not over. What Maso utters is not the same as other men or people. Eyebrows and eyes here must be mountains and seas because mountains and seas are eyebrows and eyes. Within this letting him raise, you should see mountains. Within this letting him blink, you should accentuate the sea. or completely understand the sea. Right enters into intimate terms with him, him is ushered in by letting or allowing. This him is not gender, by the way, it could be read as it. Not correct is not, not letting him, and not letting him is not, not correct.

[20:03]

They are all equally being time. So remember that Chateau originally said grasping, grasping is not it, not grasping is not it. So not correcting is not not letting him, not letting him is not not correct. This is not a matter of correct or not correct. This is a matter of sometimes I let him raise his eyebrows and blink his eyes, sometimes I don't let him raise his eyebrows and blink his eyes. So what's going on here? Yaoshan heard this and was greatly enlightened. and said, when I was with Shuto, it was like a mosquito trying to bite an iron bull. And Mazu said, and Yaoshan wanted to stay and study with Mazu, and Mazu said, Shuto is actually your teacher. So Yaoshan studied with Mazu for a little while longer, stayed there a while, then went back to Shuto. And in Northeast, we say each morning, we say, Sekito, Kisen, Daisho, Yakusan, Igen, Daisho, Shuto and Yaoshan.

[21:13]

So, and you can see in the lineage chart over there that Yaushan is considered in the lineage of Shuto. So, this being time business, Dogen is bringing back to the issue of teaching and teachers and how we understand how to be present fully in our time. How we come to completely be time, to inhabit our time. So there are other stories that echo this. Let me just read the next part of Dogen's comment. Mountains are time and seas are time. If they were not, there would be no mountains and seas. If there was no time, there would be no mountains and seas. So you must not say there is no time in the immediate now of mountains and seas. If time were destroyed, mountains and seas are destroyed. If time is indestructible, mountains and seas are indestructible.

[22:16]

So this is very important. If we think of time as separate from us, then time is also separate from the mountains and the ocean, right? But if there were no mountains and seas, there wouldn't be time. If there wasn't time, there wouldn't be mountains and seas. Time is not something that exists as an abstract outside of us. Time is how we live, how we experience our life. If time is indestructible, mountains and seas are indestructible. Within this true Dharma, the morning star comes to appear. The Tathagata comes to appear. So the morning star is the star that Buddha saw when he was awakened. Eye pupils come to appear. The holding up of the flower comes to appear. That's so, that refers to the story when, do you know the story when Shakyamuni held up the flower and Mahakasyapa, the first ancestor, you know, he held up a flower and the first ancestor of Zen, he's called Mahakasyapa, smiled.

[23:25]

Nobody else, you know, understood what Buddha was doing, holding up a flower. Mahakasyapa smiled and that was said to be the first transmission of the teaching. So this is time, were it not time, things would be not so. So all of these times are times, are times of being. So he's talking about times of being but he's emphasizing here times of being in which one comes to fully realize how one is in this time of being. So, before I go on to the next story. There's three stories that are very much related that I want to tell tonight, but any comments, questions? Does this story have any resonance for you, Janet? The resonance for me is a reminder of John Mason's idea of linking systems theory with God.

[24:28]

Please say more. Yeah, that's it. It's like when you go to France and you say bonjour, that's it. Oh, hey, hi. Konnichiwa. Well, we talked... It's just very similar to that one passage, but... I can't remember it all, so I'll bring it next week, though. I'll bring the passages that remind me exactly of this. Okay. Oh, by the way, for people who came late, we're having one more class, and it will be in two weeks. Yeah, so I talked a little bit in the first class about Joanna Macy's idea of deep time. So, Dogen talks about being time, Joanna Macy talks about deep time in terms of having a relationship to time of the distant past, time of the distant future, as well as the close past and future, and that really influencing how we are in the present, to really fully... She talks about re-inhabiting time, which is a phrase I've used a lot in this class, and I think it's very much about what Doggett's talking about, to be present in one's time while not trying to escape from past and future.

[25:57]

So, yeah, I think that is relevant. And she puts it into this Western philosophical context of the systems theory, which I think is very relevant to, like, the Flower Ornament Sutra and its idea of time, the ten times we talked about. Do you remember the ten times? Maybe some of you weren't here. The past, present and future of the past, the past, present and future of the present, and the past, present and future of the future. And then the tenth is all of those together. So to see time as multidimensional, to see time as not... So he talks... He's talked a lot about time being, you know, 8 o'clock, 9 o'clock, 10 o'clock, yesterday, today, tomorrow, the next day and so forth. So that's one way of saying time. He doesn't say that that's not valid, he just says that's just a tiny bit of it. So what he's pointing to in these stories seems to me to be... about the underlying time of realizing ourselves fully, realizing who we are and coming to fully be present in our time.

[27:07]

So, anybody else have their questions? Sure. Is that, is this really an analogy with the mountains and seas? Or is that just something that... Yeah. Well, there's a lot of, there's these phrases, so Dogen is, It's been called a philosopher, but he's really... He's talking to... These are all written for particular students, and this is all about awakening. This isn't about philosophy. And a lot of times he's very poetic, and he uses poetic imagery. So, in a sense, any way that you... Any imagistic way you see any of Dogen's writing is valid, you know, is... It's very... Parts of it are very evocative. So, this thing about eyebrows and eyes, There are a lot of ways to talk about it and think about it. And there's this one obvious one that Dogen himself talks about as eyebrows and eyes as mountains and oceans. So, you know, we can imagine just the picture of an eyebrow over this kind of dewy eye or something and mountains above the oceans.

[28:15]

I mean, there are various ways to see this imagery. We can also see it as kind of... echoing form and emptiness, you know, and I don't think it's so helpful to push any of these too far. They're just kind of like echoes. So in a way he's talking about non-duality, about not getting... about being-time including both the top of the mountain and the bottom of the ocean, being-time including the eyebrows and including the blinking. And how do we recognize each other? And I think that in this part of this text, once he gets into these stories, this text is a lot about teaching and teachers and students too. And how... And teachers and students is really about how do we recognize each other.

[29:19]

So there's a lot going on in these stories and that's... That's what koans are for. Isn't it also about how we recognize ourselves? Yes. With one teacher, he couldn't see through, and then with another teacher, something changed, something shifted, and he could see himself in something. It may or may not have been the second teacher. It may have just been when he took this walk and he was 100 days older, or what he had for lunch, and who knows. It was a particular being time and he was there. That's right. Yeah. So, I mean, if we could... You know, it's possible to analyze these things intellectually, too. It's not that they are irrational. You know, it's not that there is not a logic to this.

[30:22]

So the first teacher Shatoh talked about it cannot be grasped as such, it cannot be grasped as not such, it can't be grasped as form, it can't be grasped as emptiness. But what about you? This is direct pointing, cutting through all our ideas about yes or no or this or that or right or wrong. And he couldn't get it from that, so he went and he heard this other thing, sometimes it's you raise your eyebrows and blink your eyes. Sometimes I don't let you raise your eyebrows and blink your eyes. Sometimes letting him raise his eyebrows and blink his eyes is a right being time. So let's read Cleary's translations, just for variety. Sometimes I have him raise the eyebrows and blink the eyes. Sometimes I don't have him raise the eyebrows and blink the eyes. These are two sides, right? Two sides of two sides. There's eyebrows and eyes there too.

[31:22]

Sometimes having him raise the eyebrows and blink the eyes is it. Sometimes having him raise the eyebrows and blink the eyes is not it. Hearing this, Yaksana was greatly enlightened. He said, when I was with Sekhuto, I was like a mosquito climbing on an iron ox. So that time he heard it. So something about eyes also. have to do with the various different kinds of eyes in Buddhism, various different ways of seeing. Sometimes letting it happen is it, sometimes it's not it. And yet those are all sometimes, those are all being times. Let's keep going to the other stories and come back to the text. I need to show you this time map up here of these characters. So we've already seen that Yaoshan or Yakshan studied with these two guys.

[32:29]

Masu had 139 enlightened disciples. I mean, he was really something. And one of them is Baizhang Waihai, or Kyaku-jo in Japanese. So I told you in the second class the story of, we talked about Kyaku-jo's fox. And that's a story about not ignoring the cause and effect, not ignoring, not being blind to the effects of karma, not being blind to the effects of time. And I won't go into that whole story right now. Come back to it if there's time. But I wanted to talk about this guy. Tell another story. Yun-Yan Tan-Cheng, or Yun-Gan Dong-Zhou. So he had a brother. named Dao Wu. And they were actually biological brothers. And they also were both Dharma brothers. They both studied originally the Bajong. So Bajong had a lot of great students also, Bajongs.

[33:31]

One of Bajong's students was Nan Chuan, who was the teacher of Zhao Zhou. Zhou Shu said Wu and also said to a monk, you are used by the 24 hours, I use the 24 hours. was the teacher of Linji or Rinzai. Anyway, I'm sorry to stick to all these names. For those of you who recognize them. Anyway, Baizhang was a great, great teacher, one of the greatest teachers of all times. Yuanyang, these two brothers, Dawu and Yuanyang, studied with him. And the story goes that Yuanyang was his jixia, his personal attendant. Baizhang was his attendant for 20 years. And in 20 years, he didn't get it. He just, you know, he had all these great students who were, you know, great, great, and many great students who were greatly awakened, and nearly understood and understand, you know, and kept saying these things that made it obvious that he didn't understand.

[34:32]

Meanwhile, his brother, who was already pretty, pretty, and was awake, kind of had all these dialogues between the two of them, because... Between the two brothers? Between the two brothers. Dao would get very frustrated. There's a story about him listening, sitting, standing outside the doksan and listening to Yunyan's advice and talking and, you know, there's stories like, there's a number of stories like that between Dao and Yunyan. So there's one I want to tell. One of the others that you may have heard is that this thing about, so some of the stories happen later after they were Why does the Bodhisattva of Compassion have all those hands and eyes? And Yanyan said it's like reaching back for a pillow in the middle of the night, which is a great image of compassion. So, you know, the Bodhisattva of Compassion, Khandro-la, sometimes there's a thousand arms, each hand has an eye.

[35:36]

That's one story. There's another story. So before I tell you the story, what happened eventually is that they both went to study with Yausha and became disciples of Yausha. And Yun-Yang was enlightened with Yao-Shan. So it's very much like Yao-Shan going to Mazu and then coming back to Shitta. It's this very interesting parallel there. So the story about Yun-Yang, it may not be so obvious what it has to do with being time yet, but it will soon. Anyway, the story goes that one day Yun-Yang was very busy sleeping. And Dao Wu came by and said, too busy. I relate to this story a lot. Especially those of you who know that I've been very busy lately, and I've been thinking about the story again. And I use this story as my koan when I was Shiseo at Tassajara, and apparently it didn't help. Anyway, so Yunyan is sweeping, and Dao comes and says, too busy. And Yunyan said, it's amazing, and he said, you should know there is one who's not busy.

[36:41]

And Dao said, you mean there are two moons? And Yun-Yan held out his broom and said, which moon is this? So that's the story. And I think it's very relevant to this being time. We're all relatively busy in time and all trying to wonder how to use our time and not be used by our time. So Da Wu asked, are there two moons? And Yun-Yan said, which moon is this? So he didn't say yes or no, he just said, you know, it's like, what about you? What about this? Anyway, I think it's a great story. And it leads to another story, which is why you may see why I mentioned this story. By the way, Yun Yan was the teacher of Tozan Ryokai Dongshan Liangjie in Chinese. He was the founder of the Soto school in China. So these are like, these four guys,

[37:45]

are like giants of Chinese Zoto school. So Shinto or Sekito wrote The Merging of Difference and Unity with the Chant Every Day. Tosa Ryokai wrote the Song of the Drone Heir's Samadhi. So, well, before I go on to the third story, any, any, any comments? Too busy? What hope do we have? Now there's one who's not busy. Dana? I'd never thought of it, but the comment you said by Joshua, that you use about 24 hours, I use it. That's a very nice summation of each time. Yeah, but it's- Is it connected, or is it just a- Well, they're all great Zen masters. Yeah, well. But yeah, I think there are a lot of other sayings about time.

[38:48]

But I think that's actually pretty subtle, because we can start to get into trying to use the 24 hours kind of like efficiency experts or something. And so what does it mean to use the 24 hours instead of being used by the 24 hours? Are you going to use the 24 hours and be too busy? What does that mean? I think in terms of what, like, in that Joan Stambaugh, I mean, she says something that has helped me formulate, was like this idea of time as a container. That's a, that's a sort of an easy way. So, in Joshua's story, using it in the, the unenlightened monk is using, throwing his activities into this container called time. Good. Say some more about that idea of the container. So he's referring to this, there's a very fine book, which I mentioned at the beginning, Impermanence is Buddha Nature, which is a commentary on Dōgen by James Staple.

[39:49]

Let's say some more about that container idea, because I think that works in a couple of, in a few different ways also. Yeah, well, it's just, like I said, it was helpful for me to, I mean, like little snippets just come floating up, and sometimes they connect, and wasn't there like in, at that 6 o'clock. Yeah, it's the activity or the presence or the experience. So I've been thinking about being time, substituting the word experience for being. And it works pretty much experience time to actually fully experience time or two. So the being of being time is a verb. I mean, the time could be a verb too, but this is a kind of way of being in our life where all the words become verbs.

[40:57]

inhabiting our time and our being in a kind of more... not active as opposed to passive, because it's not about being too busy. See, there's a hinge there. So, if we think of time as a container that we throw our activity into, then there's no end to being used by time. That's timing experience. Yeah. Right. instead of experiencing time. These words, it's tricky, because we're trying to get at something with these words. So the meaning is not in the words, but we still use the words to try and get at something about what is our experience, and how do we be this time? So, the idea of time as a container, I think, can be used in a way where we see it is our container. to, it is my time, or it is your time, and he means it's your own time, it's not some other time, it's not an outside time.

[42:10]

So if we think of the container as kind of existing kind of objectively outside, then we're kind of caught by it. If we see the container of time as our life, then we are living it. It's just like, are we used by it, or do we use it? Do we actually? So using it has to do with our intention also. Yes? Well, it just reminds me, what is it? Is it sometimes I turn the wheel of the Dharma, sometimes it turns me? I mean, I just have some allergic reaction to thinking that there's one way or the other. It seems like we all do both. Right. And there's an essay by Dogen about the Lotus Sutra where he talks about that, where both of them are kind of equally the dharma flower turning, you know, turning the dharma flower, being turned by the dharma flower. There's an old interpretation of that, the kind of conventional, dualistic interpretation of that is, as you said, that one is better than the other.

[43:13]

So this is very... So what you've said is exactly like him saying, to partially be time is to... A partial, exhaustive study of being time is completely a partial exhaustive study of being time. Or it's completely an exhaustive study of a partial being time. He makes, he sees how the partiality in it, the duality in it is something that we see and he takes us out of that and shows us that actually we can't but be right here in our time. But we don't realize it. We get abused by it. We get too busy. So that's why you should know there's one who's not busy. Even in the middle of, in the middle of being very busy, you should know there's one who's not busy, this statement, but Dilyana is very great. Yes? Does Dilyana talk about being able to be time or experience time, correlate with emptiness and realizing that you're emptiness?

[44:25]

There's no purpose, because there is intention, and actually the next part of the story, the next commentary on the story talks about intention, it talks about mind and words, and it's really intention and expression that can be translated as. But yeah, I think it's about not seeing ourselves as separate, not seeing this time as separate from other times, so this has to do with emptiness. To be empty means to realize that we're not separate. Emptiness is a technical term for it. It means that I am empty of separation from you. Actually, we're really connected. We're all connected. We are empty in the sense we're open. And actually, we're totally influencing each other all the time. And in all the different times, not only are all the beings influencing each other, but all the times are influencing each other. That's what karma is about. Karma is exactly about that all the times, so he says, in one place he says, Shuto is time, Mazda is time, Wang Po was a student of Baizhang is time, Xing Yuan who was Shuto's teacher is time, there's a passage in Being Time where he says, all of these different presences are being time.

[45:48]

So emptiness has to do with seeing that there's not a separation. Emptiness has to do with seeing things, and it means to be in time is to be time. So yes, it's about realizing emptiness in the sense of letting go of our alienation, letting go of our, not just letting go, because letting go happens sometimes, but sometimes we have to work at seeing how our ideas of how we're all separated, how we're all stuck, and how we're all being used by time, and how we're all too busy, seeing how those ideas of of what's happening are just a partial view, that there's something more. Let me go on to the next story. And then we can talk about them all together, because the talk kind of ties up. So, Tozan Ryokai, or Dongshan, founded the Chinese Zao Dong, or Shoto school, a bunch of years later, a few centuries, several centuries later.

[46:53]

Eihei Dogen, who wrote this text for studying was a Japanese monk in the 13th century, and he went to China and came back and wrote a lot of stuff. Three generations after him is a guy named Keizan Jokin that I will show, whose name we also say each morning. And there's a story about Keizan and one of his students, Gassan. There's more to the story, but the part of the story that is most relevant. One night, Keizan was enjoying a meal along with Gassan. And Kaizan said, do you know that there are two moons? So Dao asked, are there two moons? And Yun-Yun said, which moon is this? So here, a long time later, Kaizan says to a student, Gassan is there sitting there standing outside admiring the moon. Do you know that there are two moons? And Gassan said, no.

[47:53]

And Kaizan said, If you don't know there are two moons, you cannot be a carrier or a seedling of the Soto lineage." And he was dumbfounded and the story goes on, at this the master, Gassan, increased his determination and sat cross-legged like an iron pole for years. One night, as Khe Sanh passed through the meditation hall, Gosan was sitting up late, sitting like an iron pole, and Khe Sanh 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 Gosan was greatly enlightened. And then with full ceremony, he expressed his understanding. Khe Sanh agreed with him and said, After the ancients had gotten the message, they went north and south, polishing and shipping away, day and night, never complacent or self-conceited.

[49:01]

From today you should go call on teachers in other places." So, you should know there are two moons. So, what do you think, Edward? So here's the second guy who was greatly enlightened by the same statement as Yen-Shan was, almost a millennium earlier. Well, let's see, 1300s and 800s or 900s, 800s. 500 years later. So these are three stories about being time. So what are these two moons? Any ideas about these two moons? You have to know there are two moons. So, Dao said to his brother Yunyang, you mean there are two moons? When he said, there's one who's not busy.

[50:03]

As if there's the one who's used by time and the one who's using time. Or the one who's too busy and the one who's not busy. Is that like, you know, are there two separate moons? And then 500 years later, Keshav says, you have to know that there are two moons. Okay. Anybody else? So Sekitar originally said, the first of these three stories, he said, it cannot be grasped as such, it cannot be grasped as not such. Yeah, probably. What do you think? So, I don't know, I don't know what else to say about it, about these stories in a way, except that, I mean, we could talk about them a lot, and maybe it's just enough to, you know, repeat them again and just let you kind of play with them for a couple of weeks.

[51:45]

So, one of them is directly in this text, but I think they all have to do with how do we experience our time? So there are various kinds of conventional doctrinal ways of talking about two moons. There's form and emptiness, and there's the relative truth and the ultimate truth, right? So I think that's a useful idea to kind of throw in there. So this is kind of the pre-Zen way of talking about it, right? This is the doctrinal way of talking about it. There is the ultimate truth in which all time is right here, then there's a conventional truth, which is 8 o'clock, 9 o'clock, 10 o'clock. So I think we can apply these ideas to time, and this is something Dogen does, and he does it in a way that seems to me pretty unique in Buddhist teaching, and quite challenging, really. So I really appreciate all of you sticking in here with this difficult text it is.

[52:58]

So anyway, there is this time of the conventional time, just the ordinary everyday level of time, and of our experience, and of our life, which is 8 o'clock, 9 o'clock, 10 o'clock, you know, just ordinary way of seeing things. And Doge is very clear that he's not negating that, he's not saying that's not true, he's just saying that that's so limited, that there are many more ways of seeing time. And I don't want to push this idea of two moons too much, because it's actually quite limited to two. And I think Dogen's way of seeing time is, you know, very dynamic. There are many ways of seeing time. So throughout this text he's pointing us in lots of different directions at the same time. So he says, time moves from yesterday to today, from today to tomorrow, from tomorrow to yesterday, from today to today, from yesterday to yesterday. So our experience, our awareness of time is shifting and includes all of that.

[54:09]

So we can't ignore cause and effect. There is cause and effect, but also there's a way of not being caught by cause and effect, accepting cause and effect, working with cause and effect, or being able to It just keeps getting upright in the middle of course, in effect, like an iron pole for years. So there's a lot here. There's the whole thing about eyes and eyebrows and blinking. There's the whole thing about mountains and seas. So one thing I mentioned in the first class, for anybody who cares to, I talked about writing a poem for the last class. So in two classes, anybody who would like to try to just respond to any part of this text or try to sum it up or try to take some part of it and

[55:16]

just do a four line poem about it. Dana had one last time, maybe this is a good time to read a poem. I think, like when I read these things, I always get a hinge. I mean, for me, that time is a time container. And then, well, Tony and I are both great admirers of the Bard, Bob Dylan. And I happened to, I was just reading like, I don't even know where I picked it up, but he had this little, it was just one of his weird little things, Down with you, Sam. Down with your answers, too. That's irrelevant. Hitler did not change history. Hitler was history. Later on. History is alive. It breathes. But that thing, it just happened to be Hitler. I mean, Hitler did not change history, impacting time. And that's how you usually read it in the textbooks. That's how I think about it. He was history.

[56:18]

He was being time, going through. Or you could put it however you wanted it. And that sort of brought that alive for me. Yes, let's throw Shakyamuni Buddha in there. Buddha did not change history. Buddha was history. And history is alive and breathes. Buddha, Shakyamuni, continues to be alive and breathe. At the same time, as we were saying earlier before, it's great talking about this, but it's almost... my personal experience, time is very much a container. Well, I think we can't... so there are two moons. Is that maybe the truth? So, talking about emptiness, Jennifer, traditionally it's said that the worst kind of attachment is attachment to emptiness. So we can't ignore the conventional truth in which we see time as this external container that's separate from us, and there's a clock up there, and we have to arrive someplace at a certain time.

[57:22]

There are these two moons. There is the second moon of ordinary world, and we have to function in that world. It's not it to just go off and enter some other dimension of time, where you're outside time, or you're in all times. It has to be both. Being time is to be fully So if we want to say in the ultimate way of looking at time, or the kind of flower ornament way of looking at time is multidimensional, and then also in the ordinary way of just seeing the 24 hours. So I think that's part of this two moons business. Mary? The whole issue of looking at two moons is kind of specially heated. When I think of the idea of the two moons, I keep thinking that prayer, writing light, there is darkness, but don't treat it as darkness.

[58:40]

Writing darkness, there is light, but don't treat it as light. And that, like, you know, during the daytime, when the sun's out, we treat time a certain way. Then light goes away and moon comes out. We treat time in a totally separate way instead of seeing them as one. Yeah, daytime and nighttime. Well, they are different. But also, so the other example I think I mentioned before, we've had the experience of sitting Zazen for 40 minutes. And there's some 40-minute periods that seem to go on forever. And you're sure the Dhawan fell asleep. I know there are 40 minutes to go by like that. or, you know, and some in between. So time is not... So anyway, there's that side of seeing it, that time is something that is... we experience in different ways. So there is a difference, and yet right in light there is darkness.

[59:41]

So that's by Chateau. And he says, if time were to give itself to merely flying past, it would have to have gaps. And he just said something like that a couple minutes ago. But is that a reference to it would have to have gaps? Is that a reference to that implies flying past implies a separation? In other words, that I'm here and it's over there, and that that's the gap? I think it works. I think he's talking about it on two levels in that passage, and that's a very important passage, as many of them are, but that if time is kind of flying by, then, you know, there's this time and there's this time and there's this time, and there's gaps between the different times, and in a sense it negates cause and effect.

[60:41]

It's like, you know, you can just have a time and, you know, You don't have to worry about what's going to happen or what did happen. We don't have to clean up our garbage. We don't have to appreciate what has been given to us from before. If time is just flying past, it's separate from itself. So that's one level of it. There's also, we're separate from it. If time is just flying past, it's kind of out there, and we're not actually being time. We're being outside time, or we're kind of trying to push time away. I can understand that, but I don't understand a gap in this. You said also in the sense of it being here, and then being here, and then being here. I don't see how that's implicit in it flying by. Let's see if Mr. Rodel has a footnote that can help. I don't know if I can explain this in terms of physics. He talks about passage.

[61:41]

Q He said there would be no unifying principle of the present. A I'm not sure. Do you have the place where that is? Q Sure. It's on page 120, but note 19. A If time were to give itself to merely a flying past, it would have to have gaps. So he's not saying that it doesn't fly past, but if it was only that, then there would be... I think you're right that it's mostly gaps between yourself and time. I don't understand the implications of all of that. there would be past, present, future. So the world of the three times, so often a way of describing in Buddhism, the world of samsara, we should say, or the world of the worldly world is described as the three worlds.

[62:59]

And that refers to past, present, future. So if we see a past, if we have past, present, future, there's a separation. Past is back there. or up there, depending on which direction you're going. Presence is something we imagine to be here. So even if the present is, they're all three are ungraspable, the Diamond Sutra says. Cannot be grasped in past mind, present mind, or future mind, how we grasp it. So once we have these three times, then there's kind of something in between. I think it's in that sense. The thing right after that, I think, is also relevant. Now, he uses this word, being-time has the virtue of seriatim, passage. It means series. Then there's the thing about it, passage from today to tomorrow, from today to yesterday, yesterday to today. I think this footnote is useful. The movement of time in its authentic sense as being-time occurs without ever leaving the instant presence.

[64:02]

So there's an instant presence but it's also moving, it's dynamic. It is a continuous occurrence of nows manifesting themselves discontinuously as independent stages. This passage, or kereki or kyoryaku, this passage taking place on the standpoint of being-time, is thus a discontinuous continuity of such stages. And there's this idea of dwelling position as manifesting themselves Each thing is completely itself, fully. Each time is completely itself, fully. So just to fully be present as the person we are, as the thing we are, without trying to be in some other time, or to be some other person, or to be some other... you know, just to fully be ourselves. The trick is to be fully present while the...

[65:08]

The wood or whatever it is, is turning into ash. It's fire at one point. Yeah, there's fire. We're always in transition. Yeah, it's dynamic, it's not static. There's no gaps in the log burning. Right. Each moment is completely dynamically, fully burning. It's either a piece of wood, or it's starting to get hot wood, and it's starting to smolder, and it's starting to burn. And it does have its cause and effect. We don't, you know, that does, there is cause and effect. But there's just now. Yeah. There's now. And this now includes all time. Yeah, but it isn't, it isn't flying past you. Yeah. You're there. You know, this is, what about you? Right, but there's also something I'm not expressing. It's not that I'm here, it's over there, but that it's just completely right here.

[66:13]

And it's this completely right here, this nowness of it, that means there can't be gaps. That's the way he says this, what does he say? The unifying principle of the present moment, that it's just now. There's continuity, sort of, but there's not continuity. There's a moment, and then there's a moment. There's now, and there's now, and there's now, and there's not. But it's not... Yeah, I think... Which I don't really understand. Yeah, it's not something we can understand in the usual way of understanding, I think. I think it's not a matter of understanding, it's a matter of how do we be present in it, or how do we actually bring our intention to it. How do we be time? It's not something to understand, it's something to be in. One of my thoughts on this is that I think we have a hard time understanding all this because we all drive on freeways.

[67:15]

If you're going to drive and live on a freeway, you have to be ahead of time. Your attention is six car lengths ahead and you're not in the car, moving with the car. I had an experience recently where I went across the Golden Gate Bridge and I swore it took me 35 minutes. And then I went by another time and I didn't even recognize how long it took. There was a difference in how I was sitting in the car. And yet, you know, you can be sitting in the car paying attention to six cars ahead and you can turn on the radio or change the station. So I think there's a lot going on in all being times. But yeah, this is an interesting thing. There's this book called Time Wars by Jeremy Rifkin, which is fascinating. And he talks about how time will be the politics of the next century. And he talks about computer time, which a lot of us have gotten caught up in being something that actually separates us from the natural rhythms and separates us from our relationship to time that allows us to relate more fully or to be time.

[68:30]

Let me just use that word. He talks about time, the history of time. So there was a time not so long ago, 16th or 17th century Europe, I referred to this once in one of the other classes, where people never, didn't know about minutes and seconds. It just wasn't part of common, you know, Consciousness. People lived their lives and they knew that the sun was overhead and it was midday and they knew it was dawn and they knew it was dusk. And they functioned and it was a... This was back, I guess, in the feudal agricultural society. And then hours and minutes and seconds became important with industrialization. And then everybody, you know, was paying attention to the minutes and even the seconds. So there's a political quality to this time and he's very much suspicious of, you know, as you were talking about automobiles, that the technology we use distorts our sense of being time.

[69:33]

That we get, that our, we're, when we get clicked into the computer, it's moving and we're not, it takes us away from kind of receptiveness to the natural rhythms of how to live our lives and how to develop relationship and how to be attuned to natural harmony. So there's that issue, but at the same time, I think it's very interesting that Dogen talks about the same problem. You know, even in Dogen's time, which was, you know, before I mean, when he went around to visit all those teachers in China, he was walking across those mountains. So I think it does give you a different perspective of time. But even then, there is this ordinary view of time, which is, they call it, at that time they had 12 hours instead of 24. Maybe eventually we'll have 80 hours in a day. You mean it's like, in times like these, it's always helpful to remember there have always been times like these?

[70:39]

Yeah. Right. Yeah, so it's true that the world's a big mess today and it's all falling apart and we've endangered it by all this technology. And yet in Dogen's time in Kyoto where he lived, there was famine and plague and huge civil wars and bodies littering the streets. at part of the time when he lived in Kyoto. So, yeah, there is that time too. There's also the fact that, I don't know if it's a fact, there's also the notion that, as opposed to what Ritkin says, that if you're using a computer, you're in that time. I mean, you're in the time of having that particular little gadget in front of you. The saying is, you know, using a hoe several centuries ago or something, using that, that speeded up using hand.

[71:40]

I mean, it was, it's still in that time. Yeah, you'd be even in, even in that, that's still a being time, yes. From Dogen's point of view, absolutely. And there's even talk now about, about the implements we use and the technology we've invented as also being part of sentient beings, in other words... Artificial consciousness. Yeah, I mean, it's like... I haven't sort of grasped all that yet, but I'm interested in thinking about it. Yeah, the times, they are changing. Well, yeah, I think that the important thing in this text again is, what about you? Which moon is this? So, I think he's encouraging us to examine these different… He actually says early on, to reflect whether there is some time missing from your time.

[72:45]

whether the entire time is present in this time right now. So it actually means you have to ask about, to look at, how is my experience of fully being myself right now changed by driving on a freeway, by using a computer, by using a tractor. So I think he's mostly asking us to really watch that, to be examined, examining very closely. Are we being time, or how are we being time, or what is this being time? And keep an eye on the gaps. When there are some things in there. Well, I confess. Me too. Me too. Well, I want to look at the next section.

[73:48]

So there's this one story that Dogen talks about, and I've mentioned these other stories that it relates to. He goes on to mention another kind of commentary on this. or another expression about being-time, or sometimes. So Zen Master Guixiang of Sheshen was a Dharma descendant of Linji. I know several interesting stories about this guy. He was a very fierce and severe Zen Master. Maybe there'll be time to tell you some more stories about him, but I don't know how relevant they are. Anyway, once he instructed the assembly of monks For the time being, or sometimes, or in being time, the mind reaches but the word does not. In being time, the word reaches but the mind does not. For the time being, the mind and word both reach.

[74:49]

For the time being, neither mind nor word reach.' So this mind, it means mind but it also means intention, and I think that's important here. Clearly translates it as intention and expression. So I think it's useful to think of it that way also. He's talking about what is our mind, what is our awareness, what is our heart, and what is our understanding, and what is our intention. So there's also this intention to be present in being time, this mind that wants to, that seeks the way, that this thought of awakening, bodhicitta, is all implied there. Sometimes our intention reaches, but our words don't. We can't express it. Sometimes the word reaches, but the mind doesn't. Sometimes we can express it, but our mind doesn't get it. Or there is an expression, but our mind doesn't get it. For the time being, the mind and the word, both the intention and the expression, both reach.

[75:52]

So reach here, there's a footnote about it, but reach means to kind of attain or understand. It also means to understand. And then sometimes neither our mind nor our words reach it. So the mind and the word are equally being time, Dogen says. Their reaching and not reaching alike are being time. So we think to understand is being time and not understanding isn't it. He's saying both reaching and not reaching, both understanding and not understanding alike are being time. even when the time of their reaching is not yet over, the time of their not reaching is come. So even when we understand and that's still here, there appears this time of not understanding or not reaching or not getting it. Okay. So we're, we're kind of dancing with being time. We're being time and then we're partly being time and then we're being time again.

[76:59]

First there is a mountain, then there is no mountain, then there's eyebrows. And they're all being time. But we're also, we have this dynamic relationship to this being time. The mind is a donkey, the word a horse, making the horse a word and the donkey the mind. So this is a reference to the monk asking, what is the essence of the Dharma? And the teacher saying, the donkey's not yet gone and the horse arrives. So our understanding that the horse, the, the, you know, the kind of, so donkey is kind of, has a negative implication, right? The horse is kind of, you know, majestic. So even when the donkey is, that's one way to read it. Even when the donkey's still here, still the horse is coming. Even when, Even when we're still an ass, there's a dragon that arrived to exaggerate it.

[78:04]

One way to read it anyway. So, but they're both, they're both, so the mind is a donkey and the word a horse, making the horse a word and the donkey the mind. Reaching is not coming, not reaching is not yet. This is how being time is. Reaching is impeded by reaching and not impeded by not reaching. Not reaching is impeded by not reaching and not impeded by reaching. Mind impedes mind and sees mind. Word impedes word and sees word. Impeding impedes itself and sees itself. This thing about impeding is a very important idea, and he's throwing in here at the end. He talks about it in other writings, too. Impeding impedes impeding. That is time. So the thing that blocks us, you could also say for impeding, just blocking, the thing that we fully are blocks us.

[79:07]

This is related to this idea of dharma position, to fully be yourself. You're, when you fully are taking your position in the world, when you're fully, when Mary's just fully being Mary and Pat's just being Pat and Jennifer is being Pat, you're obstructed by Jennifer and you're obstructed by Pat and you're obstructed by Mary. So Pat is patting Pat. I mean, Pat is working through being Pat. That's your driver position, right? So we are all working with the stuff that we are. and we're all blocked by that. So in being time, we are blocked by this being time. Blocked isn't necessarily negative at all here. This is not a negative term. It's just that's what we're meeting, in a sense. We are met and we are dealing with and we are realizing and actualizing this particular situation that we are.

[80:14]

in being time. I don't want to read any more from this. We have a few minutes left, but let's look at the last little section of this next time. But also, I just want to give some space for questions, thoughts. other parts of the text that you want to go back and look at. Yes, sir? I keep thinking about the two moons. I don't want to over-intellectualize it, but I have questions about what it is, and I keep trying to incorporate it into these other stories, and trying to, like, you know, put it in place with these other words. You know, so, like, sometimes there is a moon, sometimes there isn't.

[81:18]

Sometimes they're both is and isn't. Sometimes they're neither is nor isn't. And, I mean, is it possible to fit it into the same context? Like, it's just basically, the two moons are just the absolute moon and the relative moon. Okay, I think everything, yeah, yes to everything you said, but don't get, don't stop with that. So that's the trouble with kind of getting some intellectual... This is exactly why Zen developed in China, that if we have some understanding, when we actually have some understanding, we're impeded by that understanding. So Zen is about learning how to be time. in this dharma position. And part of our being time is to, is that as conscious critters who make discriminations, we turn these, we turn this around, we turn the dharma wheel of time.

[82:20]

And so, yes, to everything you said, but keep seeing how the moon thing works. So it could have just as easily worked if they said there is no moon, or there is only one moon? In fact, there's another… I was going to read this before and forgot. There's another passage by Dogen which directly relates to this moon business and two moons and one moon and… I hope I can find it. I know it's in here. Oh, no, it's not in here. It's in… I'll bring it next time. It's in Book of Serenity. Yeah, it's not in here. Okay, I'll bring it next time. But there's a, it's actually a conversation between these same two guys, Da Wu and Yun Yan. And one of them says, when the full moon, the question was, when the full moon is there, what happens to the crescent moon?

[83:30]

And when the crescent moon is there, what happens to the full moon? And I think Dao said, when it's the crescent moon, there's no full moon. It's just our ordinary experience, and it's just completely that. And Yunyan said, when it's the crescent moon, still you can see the full moon. So it's the same as saying you should know there's one who's not busy. You should know there's one who's not busy. Even in the middle of our relative confused existence, there is the full moon. And then there's somebody else who said there's neither full moon nor crescent moon. But there's a little more to the story than that, so I'll bring it next time. So all of these stories, the way you said it was very good. To work, to turn, to take one story and kind of put it into the language of the other is a way of working with this stuff.

[84:37]

So it's more than understanding it, it's like to... These stories, these koans are kind of ways of playing with the way we see things, ways of more fully engaging in the possibilities of language and the possibilities of understanding and the possibilities of being present in time. So to take these two moves and kind of play with them in other passages or to substitute other terms and see if they work or to turn the language inside out and see what happens with that. It's more like these stories are more things to kind of play with and see from all the different angles, just like there are 10 times. I mean, there could be 10,000 times, but to see all the different times very dynamically, we can do that with language. There's a way. So koans are about using language to get past being caught by language. But that's at least one of the functions of koans.

[85:39]

I'm going to say something. No, I just was thinking, what about you? Yeah. When I see koans, there's something to something that we project down to them. And then you can see. So to see how it is that we take, that we have, what our particular way of responding to the koan or playing with the koan is. Yes. There are ways of seeing ourselves. So our last class will be in two weeks. And I would encourage any of you who feel like it, please don't feel you have to write a poem to come to the next class. But I would encourage you to try and play with the language of this text and just come up with four lines.

[86:43]

Or it could be a found poem. or anybody else that resonates with something that has come up in this. Can you talk for a minute about how you would play with this? Well... Does anybody else do that that you've thought about doing? I think just to take the actual words and change them. So, in the first... For the one moon, I let him raise his eyebrows and blink his eyes. For the two moons, I don't let him raise his eyebrows and blink his eyes. For the two moons, my letting him raise his eyebrows and blink his eyes is correct. For the one moon, my letting him raise his eyebrows and blink his eyes is not correct.

[87:47]

that was somewhat spontaneous. And anyway, does that work? And when you turn the language around like that, look and see, does that actually make sense or not? And maybe it does and maybe it doesn't. It's not illogical. There is a logic and a pattern to this. And it's all the logic of kind of, how do we be more present? And how do we express that in a way that helps everybody else be more present? So that's the point of all this. It's not just some kind of crossword puzzle. It's how do we actually help each other see our lives more clearly. So may our intention...

[88:33]

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