I vow to taste the truth of the Tathāgata's directions. Good evening. Well, maybe we should just... Well, before we chant the song of the Jewel Mary Samādhi, does anybody have anything to say about chanting the song of the Jewel Mary Samādhi? Has anybody looked at the other translations and thought about chanting one of the other translations? Oh, really? Where did you learn that? Yeah, she has a different translation, which I'm sorry, I don't have that here. I didn't know you'd practiced it. Yeah, there are other translations besides these, actually. These are just four that I picked. Do you want to try and do that? I don't know that any of the others are chantable. Maybe this one isn't chantable either, though.

[01:02]

Let's try that. Let's... I think I... Let's try the Pao one. I don't know that it's... It wasn't probably intended as a translatable thing, but... The Record of Dongshan, the page 63, 116. Do enough of us have that so we can share it? starting the Dharma of Suchness directly transmitted by Buddhas and Patriarchs. Let's say Ancestors whenever you see Patriarchs. I think it's only once. Right on. It ends at 66? Yeah, it ends. If one can simply persist in that, it's called the view of the host. It's smaller print, that's the problem. Do we want to try this? Do you have page 63? It's down at the very bottom. It starts at the very bottom under number 116, section 116, on the bottom.

[02:05]

And it just lasts a little bit. And then it goes to the next page. The record of Dongshan. No, I'm sorry. Oh, there's another 63. I'm sorry. There's a 116 there. It's this one, the record of Dongshan. It starts at the bottom here. Are we all on the same page, so to speak? It's the event which starts on page 61 with number 113, but it's the next page and it's the bottom of the next page and the following page. Are we all there now? So it starts the Dharma of Suchness. It's going to be rough because we're all just reading it for the first time, but let's give it a go. Song of the Jewel-Bearer Samadhi. The Dharma of suchness directly transmitted by Buddhas and ancestors. Today is yours.

[03:05]

Preserve it carefully. It is like a silver bowl heat with snow, and the bright moon concealing errands. When classified, they differ, but lumped together, their whereabouts is known. The mind not resting in words accommodates what arises. Trembling becomes a pitfall. Missing one falls into dreadful hesitation. Neither ignore nor confront what is like a great ball of clay. Giving it literary form immediately defies it. Clearly illuminated just at the middle of the night, it does not appear in the morning light. It is a standard for all beings used to extricate them from all suffering. Although it takes no action, it is not without words. Like gazing into the dual mirror form and reflection to view each other, you are not him, but he is clearly you. Just as in the common infant, the five characteristics are complete.

[04:08]

No going, no coming, no rising, no abiding, bah bah wah wah, speaking without speaking. In the end, things are not gotten at, because the words are still not correct. In the six lines of the doubly hexagram, phenomena and the real interact. piled up to become three, each transformed to make five, like the taste of the five-flavored sugar, like the five-drunk vodka, secretly held within the real rhythm and song arise together, penetration into the source, penetration of the byways, grasping the connecting link, grasping the root, acting with circumspection is auspicious, there is no contradiction, innately pure, moreover subtle, no connection with delusion or enlightenment. According to time and circumstance it quietly illuminates, fine enough to penetrate where there is no space, large enough to transcend its boundaries, being awed by the fraction of a hair's breadth,

[05:18]

The attunement of major and minor keys is lost. Now there is sudden and gradual because principles and approaches have been set up. The distinction of principles and approaches, standards arise. Even if one penetrates the principle and masters the approach, the true constant continues as defiled outflow. Externally calm, internally shaking, like a tethered charger or a hiding rat. The former stages, having compassion for such people, made a gift of the Dharma. In their topsy-turvy state, people take black for white. But when their topsy-turvy thinking is destroyed, the acquiescent mind is self-acknowledged. If you wish to conform with ancient tracts, please consider the ancients. The Buddha, on the verge of accomplishing the way, spent ten kalpas beneath the tree of contemplation. like a tiger which leaves the remains of its prey, and like a charger whose left hind leg has whitened.

[06:24]

For the benefit of those with inferior ability, there is a jeweled footrest and brocade robes. For the benefit of those capable of wonder, a wild cat or white ox, he used his skill as an archer, and there was the bowman who pierced the target at one hundred paces. Two arrow points meeting head on. How is such a great skill attained? The woody man begins to sing and the stone woman rises to dance. It is an unattained and thoughter feeling, so why reflect upon it? A vassal serves his lord and a child obeys his father. It is unfilial not to obey, improper not to serve, working unobserved, functioning secretly, appearing dull, seemingly stupid. If one can simply persist in that, it is called the host view of the host. Yeah, I think it's actually in a way more lively to read to chants.

[07:30]

It's quite different from what we're used to. So this is from the Record of Dongshan by William Powell. That's the translation that we just chanted. So it is a little different, and actually I think it corrects some of the, not corrects, except for one or two points that we'll talk about more tonight. It's not that the theory translation we chant is wrong, but there are places where, as we've said before, multiple meanings, so chanting this one gives us some kind of other view. Are there any questions about anything from just chanting that? I don't have a question, but I didn't get a chance to listen to the first class again, but I'm going to... I remember I was trying to remember this little poem.

[08:32]

that I read that I felt pertained to this, that I can't quite find. Maybe it will reflect something in your mind. And it goes, always the same as the moon before the window, yet if there's only a plum branch, it is no longer the same. Say it again. Always the same as the moon before the window, yet if there's only a plum branch, It is no longer the same. It's like hiding a heron in the moonlight. Yeah. We talked about seeing the moon through the full moon, and then there's also the full and present moon, but there's also the full moon, and seeing it through a screen is kind of... Seeing it with a plum branch in front of it is the way it's often depicted in Asian art. Yeah. I like that. It's really the same, but just put one... It's like you can see it more clearly when you see it through some obstruction.

[09:37]

Or when some sound that's going on in the background stops, you hear the silence more. Thanks. So last time we talked about, let's see, I think we talked about naturally real, the innocence, the childlike innocence of naturally real and inconceivable, and we went down to Well, we went a little further than true eternity still flows. Maybe we should start there again. But I want to go, last time we kind of talked about it at face value, and we will do that again. But there's the thing we talked about two classes ago, which is this five ranks or five degrees business. And I think Sonia at the end of the class said, is that, have I found it useful? And I said, just to know that it's there is useful. And during talking about that, and I don't want to get bogged down in the technicalities of it, but I also repeated some of the traditional warnings about getting too hung up on these five positions and seeing them as too much of a system.

[10:48]

And Dogen and other people in the tradition have warned against it. But I don't want you to feel afraid of the five ranks, or I don't want you to feel like this is just some you know, impossibly esoteric teaching. I think it's, it is useful. So I wanted to, so I thought of just going over some of the stuff we talked about last time and seeing how it might fit into the five ranks. And this isn't a matter of like that there's some right and wrong way of using them. This is more like how to start playing with this process. So this five, this five degrees or this five aspects are like five ways of looking at anything you could take. They're like five angles, or five viewpoints. So, I don't want to spend a lot of time on this, but just to give you a feeling of how you might play with it. Again, to review, the first one is the relative, or the particular, or the phenomenal, right in the midst of the Absolute, coming out of the Absolute, or with the background of the Absolute. The second one is the Absolute, or the ultimate, or the universal, seen in the relative.

[11:52]

So like to see the universe in a grain of sand would be an example of the second one. these pen. The first one is the relative in the absolute. The first one is the relative in the context of the absolute, which is everywhere. But it's actually kind of two, in a sense, the particulars, but with the awareness that the absolute is the background. But in a sense, it's just a particular. Well, it was just what appeared in front of my eyes. It was moving. So the third one is coming from within the absolute, coming out of the state of kind of merging with oneness, merging with principle, which is still not enlightenment, coming out of that. The fourth one is using both of them, going back and forth and having some familiarity with both

[12:57]

the phenomenal side of our experience and the side of our experience which is emptiness or the absolute. We can talk about this in terms of form and emptiness too. The point isn't to have some fixed understanding of it. The point is to have, to know that there's this process, this part of our root teaching of this lineage to have the sense of this, that there's this way of looking at things which is working with these two sides of our experience and their interaction. to see that they're both the same, in a sense. And it's not that they're higher stages, it's just five, it's like a circle, they're five aspects of anything. By the way, I'm saying that this is in our lineage and it comes out of Dongshan, who's the founder of Soto, but it's also in the Rinzai lineage, so I wanted to mention that. It's the highest stage of koans, and Hakuen system of koan study is the five stages. So if anyone wants to look at that, there's actually a very clear description of the five stages from Hakuin in Zen Koan, this book Zen Koan.

[14:05]

We can look at that more. So I just did that very fast again. The main point is that there's this way that is described, the whole second half of this first page, where he's talking about the fiveness, these five aspects of truth, are kind of embedded as a subtext in the Song of the Jewel Marrow Samadhi, and they're considered a primary teaching of Soto Zen, although this was also used by Rinzai, as I said. But just to kind of look at this, at what we were talking about last week and try and, so I just kind of thought about, well, which position, which aspect could we see each of these in? So at the risk of confusing everybody more, communing with the source and communing with the process, it includes integration and includes the road. That would be the fourth one, where you have both. You have both sides. You have the side of integration, we could call it, or the side of merging, and you have the process, the side of the,

[15:10]

the practical. And they're both there, so that might be the fourth one. Then this merging is auspicious, do not neglect it, or this, as we talked about, this line could also be read, missing it is auspicious. Going off is, getting off is auspicious. Losing your way is auspicious. Being respectful of the way is auspicious. It has all of its meanings, as well as merging. I would say that's the fifth one. Because you're, You're kind of lost. You're not tracking absolute and relative anymore. They're both there, just it's one thing. Naturally real and inconceivable. That naturally real, in a way, I think of as the fifth one, too. Just this innocence, this innocence quality. Yet inconceivable when you put that together. So naturally real means We talked about that as it's, I don't know if it, it wasn't here last week.

[16:15]

When we talked about that, it's Reb's name and it means kind of the innocence of a child. It's tension, literally. Literally, it's heavenly genuine, but as a compound, it means kind of the, if you see a child playing, just the immediacy of that, the naturalness of that. But in a way, that's like the fifth one. That's like where it's all together. With causal conditions, time and season, quiescently it shines bright, or it shines right in the silence. You could read that either way. In a quiet, it shines brightly. So to me, that's like the third one, the third of the five, where out of the quiet, you suddenly come forth. Out of the experience of merging, out of the experience of oneness, you know, you're kind of coming out of that. So this is a common phenomenon in Sashin, when people, you know, have this kind of experience of oneness or unity or some kind of, you know, feel, some kind of merging with things, and then kind of, you know, you come out of the zendo for a break at tea time or something, and everything is kind of shiny.

[17:32]

It's kind of like that. then in its finest it fits into spacelessness, we could read that, in its detail, in the details, in its minuteness it fits into non-separation, into the tiniest space, into almost no space. I see that as the second one, right? In the details of things we see this, this spacelessness, this ultimate quality. And also in its greatness, it is utterly beyond location. There's this absolute quality. A hair's breadth deviation will fail to accord with the proper attunement. So proper attunement is, again, maybe the fourth stage where we're talking about seeing both sides. We see the side of our life which is that we're all the same. And we see the side of our life which is that we're all unique and particular.

[18:33]

And we see that those are both there and there's some interplay. So this is the realm of balancing, of attunement, of how do we find our way between those? How do we work with both sides of that? And then there's this thing about different approaches and so forth and different methods being set up. different practice, different styles of practice being set up, sudden and gradual, basic approaches are distinguished, then we have guiding rules. But even though we have these rules, even though the basis is reached and the approach comprehended, true eternity still flows. I see that sort of as the first one again. True eternity, the Absolutes flows, and it flows out through the phenomenal world. So in a sense it's a circle. The genuine, constant is the flowing. It's always flowing. And it flows in the particular events that are conventional, ordinary reality.

[19:36]

So, by going through them and kind of saying, this is this one, and this is one, this is four, this is not like an absolute. That may be all wrong. The point is that you can play with that. It's not a matter of right and wrong. It's like, maybe you could see any one of those in terms of all five of them. Any one of those lines that I talked about you could see in terms of any of the five, actually. The point is to see that there is a way to play with this structure. This is kind of, it's not, again, it's not like, you know, getting higher. It's not stages of advancement. It's stages of kind of perspectives of where we see this dual mirror from. and they each have their place. This may be like, we can see it as a pentagonal, pentagonal jewel or something, or pentagonal mirror, a five-faceted mirror. And of course, maybe it's 50 facets or whatever. Any event we can see from these different perspectives, we could talk about those five perspectives, too.

[20:39]

So, this is kind of a subtext throughout this text, and So how to talk about it in the course of going through these lines, and there's a surface meaning of these lines too, and by surface I don't mean superficial, I mean the immediate meaning of these lines, which is the dharma of these lines. But there's also this kind of implicit in here, and it's made more explicit in some of the other writings in Chinese Soto school, and also in Hakun's. In the Rinzai school too, there's this way of approaching things from these five different angles. Does that make sense? Is that helpful or is that more confusing? So I don't know if anybody felt like, had some other idea about any of those particular lines, how they saw them as a different set, a different place than the one that I... Do you see how true eternity still flows could be the first one?

[21:47]

I see it also has to be the second one, same side. Well, okay, if you... Absolute, within. Right, right. Real, too. Yeah, yeah, you can see it that way, too. That would depend on whether you emphasize the true eternity or the flowing. In a sense, the true eternity is the genuine constant. We can translate that as the genuine constant. Always flows. To me, the flowing is the phenomenal side. Or we could turn it up. Yeah, I think we could, I think with a lot of them, that's right. That's exactly the point. We can flip them different ways. But this is just a tool to look at it from, to have five positions to look at it from. And actually probably any one of these lines we could see from all five. What I was thinking is, when I hear five ranks, and sort of this The way it's laid out, it's like I, what I could see in my own mind is that I made like a progression and as if five was better for something than one.

[23:03]

Right. But actually, as I was watching what my mind was doing with that, and as you were talking about it, now when you speak about how, then I thought, oh well actually all five, I mean if you kind of get to any, or maybe the fifth one, then it's wide open and any of the lines maybe could be all of them. Right, good, yes. Yeah, I think maybe you have to go through all five to see how all of them include all of them, or to see how from the fifth one you can go back to the one. So a lot of Buddhist teachings are like that, and it's kind of a function of Mahayana teaching, and that's relevant to what's coming up, because most of the section that's following this that we're going to talk about today is about Bodhisattva teaching and about stuff coming out of the Lotus Sutra and about what Bodhisattva practice is like in this context. So, you know, what you just said reminded me of the position of the Lotus Sutra, which is that Mahayana is not opposed to Hinayana.

[24:06]

Mahayana includes everything. So somebody who's doing what we might call, you know, arhat practice or various kind of being a very strict meditator going off and living in a hermitage in the woods and, you know, kind of not seeing anybody for 10 years or, you know, some model of what we might think of as very strict, what we might call Hinayana practice in the sense of being self-involved. From the ultimate Mahayana point of view, that's Mahayana practice too because it's there and available for people who would benefit from it. So everything is included. So I think it's that sense of, In all five of these, we could see any one of the others from any of the five. So it's a way, again, I'm talking about it again after last week, because I don't want you to kind of feel like this is something that's so mysterious and irrelevant and that you're afraid of, that you can't think about or can't use.

[25:08]

It's one of the teachings. like the six paramitas or, you know, it's one of those Buddhist teachings which has its uses and you can play with it even if you can't kind of pin it down and, you know, completely understand all the aspects of it. It's something that you can use. So I feel like in going over this text to make it somewhat accessible is part of it. I feel like if you got some ease with it, kind of moving around in them, that if you were sometime you were stuck, you could, I forget the you part, get stuck in any one of those for a particular reason, that maybe then you could sit down and find how the other four views might open it again. And that way might be like a tool, the five ranks might be a tool. Yeah, and I think it's just to know that they're there is that you know that you're working

[26:09]

that merging with principle is still not enlightenment, as we say in the merging of difference and unity, that any one of them is not the total picture. So there's this balance, there's this balancing between these five, and I talked about that particularly in the fourth one, but there's this balancing of the aspect of our, again, of the aspect of our life and practice, which is universal, absolute, we're all the same, or emptiness, we could say. Everything is emptiness, everything is, nothing exists separately. And then there's the other side, which is that each thing is just totally itself. And there's this relationship that unfolds in this fiveness that's about that, and seeing both of those sides and how they work together. So this comes out of it, I don't know if I mentioned the four, I think it's worth mentioning, the four, Dharmadhatus, I think it's called, from the Huayen's teaching. Did I talk about that? Huayen teaching is the Chinese school that came out of the Avatamsaka Sutra, Flower Ornament Sutra.

[27:14]

And the Flower Ornament Sutra is this wonderful, large, visionary, just magnificent depiction of Bodhisattva practice, very psychedelic and visionary. the Huayan school in China that was very philosophical and systematic and used that to develop all these systems. And one of their teachings is the direct kind of antecedent to this five ranks. And it's just, there's four Dharma positions we could say. The first is just the relative, the conventional world. Second is the absolute or the ultimate or universal or emptiness. The third is the interpenetration of the absolute and relative. that the absolute is right in the relative, or emptiness is right in form. Form is in the emptiness, we could say. And the fourth is the mutual, non-obstructed interpenetration of all the phenomenal. So that things, objects, entities, particulars, the phenomenal realms, all come up.

[28:17]

This is like form is form. All the forms are just there, and they don't actually obstruct each other. They all kind of work together. So that's the system of four, which is kind of the basis, philosophically, for this system of five. It might be helpful as a basis to think about that. The difference between one and four there is that number one sees the phenomenal world as discrete objects. Right. And number four sees them as interwoven, as inter... More like each thing is The thing is cooperating. People, events, dharmas, whatever, however you want to see that. Phenomenal phenomena. Mutually interacting without obstructing each other. That that's actually the way things are. That everything is, each thing is as it is. And all are related. and actually everything, I mean, we're always thinking we're obstructed by things.

[29:26]

But that's actually, on this level, there's no obstruction, it's just we're all interacting in this perfect way, in some sense. How's that different than the one before it? The third is the interpenetration of the phenomenal and the absolute. So that's kind of like what the fourth and fifth one is in the fourth and fifth ranks. So it's a little bit of a different angle to look at it. But it's talking about the same kind of issues. So everybody's looking very puzzled. The fourth one is a hard one. Things are just what they are. And they interact. Well, no. And they interact. They're interactive. They don't obstruct each other. They all flow together. They all... There's no dualism, in other words. There's no subject-object. Yeah. Everything is, in a sense, everything is just what it is, but all together, you know, in this dance.

[30:33]

Why isn't that codependent arising? Well, yeah, it's codependent arising. Yeah, okay. You can say it's codependent arising. So again, I don't want, there is this also traditional warning against getting hung up on these systems as systems and kind of analyzing everything in terms of them. But I think there's a balance to be found in terms of here is this teaching and we can use it. We don't have to get too hung up on analyzing everything in terms of that, but it's part of what this text is about. Who's teaching us that again? That's from the Huayan school, from the Flower Ornament or Avatamsaka school in China. At the risk of confusing you further, there's another set of five ranks. You don't want to know about that. Whose is it? Dongshan. No, no, no.

[31:36]

Dongshan had another five ranks, which is stages. Do you want to hear about that one? Sure. Should we go? I would. Will it help us understand it? Nothing will help. Oh. He was quick, wasn't he? Let's see, I think they're in here, but maybe they're not. Okay, yeah, so, okay, this is the five degrees of achievement, and it's kind of based on the other five ones, but it's, State it a little differently. So here's one where you can, where you do have stages, okay? For those of you who are on stages. Okay, so the first one, and they're all pretty cool. Conversion or intention is the first one. Conversion. Conversion. Are you in cultivating? I am. Page Roman numeral 26. Thanks. Which is kind of mindful commitment.

[32:37]

It's like the first step. You know, this is in terms of practice, like commitment to practice, the decision to practice. which you can say is conversion in a sense. It's a decision, okay, I'm going to whatever it is, you know, I'm gonna go sit zazen today, or I'm gonna go sit the sashi, or I'm gonna go move to green gulch, or whatever it is. Second one is service. So this is a carrying out, obediently carrying out the practice. Not just having the commitment and the intention, but actually putting it into service in some way. The third is achievement. And we can see that as immersion in non-discrimination. So this is achievement in the sense of meditative achievement. This is like achievement like actually seeing that there is oneness, actually seeing the absolute, side of the absolute. Okay, because we talked about coming out of the absolute is the third. And then there's, fourth would be collective achievement.

[33:42]

which is returning to a sense of collectivity, to caring about beings, to interacting with beings. So it's not just a personal achievement, so that would be the fourth. And the fifth would be absolute achievement, where we see that actually individuals and their connectedness are the same, that we don't see this kind of non-dualism. So this is another system by Dongshan, after the first one, which is taking these five and showing, and kind of applying them to stages of practice. So that's kind of taking one's sense of one's experience of dharma and using it collectively, sharing it, interacting, you know. Well yeah, this is all about bodhisattva, right?

[34:47]

So this is returning to interaction with beings, returning to caring for others. But service is number three, you said? That's number two. Two, so that's... So service would be like, in a sense, could be like doing, like enacting, in a sense it's like our service in the zendo, it's acting out the decision to practice. So that's also a system by Dong Shuan that's kind of secondary, but it's just a way of talking about these five, from that point of view of stages of practice. But I'm telling you this, I don't want you to forget that basically the basic five are not stages, they're just five different ways of looking at anything, you know, in practice. You know the basis of the reached, I don't know if that's comprehensible. So even though the basis is reached and the approach comprehended, even though you understand the absolute and relative and you can know how to approach all five of these, true eternity still flows.

[35:58]

You can't get away from it. So what I've been talking about, all of these five, so after presenting these five, offering these five to us in this kind of esoteric way in this text, he says, now there are sudden and gradual and connection with which are set up basic approaches. Or we said that could be essential meanings. Once these approaches are distinguished, then there are guiding rules. There are all kinds of systems. That's what he's talking about. I mean, we can see that in terms of, you know, the kind of the rules of, how we move in the zendo, or the rules of monastic community, or the guidelines. But it's also the guidelines of the way the teaching unfolds. So it's things like the five ranks, or the four. The guests, the four guests and hosts actually comes from Rinzai, and that's referred to at the end of this. So we don't need to get too put up in different schools about this, but part of what it says is that these are kind of

[36:59]

These approaches are just kind of conventional approaches. They're different approaches. They're different systems to be used. But even though the basis is reached and the approach comprehended, true eternity still flows. The constant, the genuine always flows, continues to flow on and on into the practical conventional world. So that's all kind of review. Up to where we got last week. I guess we started to talk about it a little bit further, but are there any questions, comments, thoughts, reflections, up to that part of the text? That seemed like a pretty good deal. What's next? Does anybody else have any questions about this five stuff?

[38:05]

These five things? The five thingies. A new system. Immersion. This true eternity still flows, I don't know, that catches me and I don't know, probably we could say more about it but I don't know what to say exactly. It's the genuine permanence, the genuine constant, the genuine... That character for always, that clearly translates as eternity, also means ordinary. It's endless. It's the ordinary endless stuff that's always going on. So the true ordinary flows on. So we've been going over this text and going over other implications of a lot of these words.

[39:08]

Because any one translation, a lot of the lines here, there are lots of overtones that no single translation can really get all of. I was just looking up the symbol for eternity. It has flowing, or maybe that's obvious in here. It has the word flowing or water. It pertains to the symbol for water? That's for flowing, yeah. It's a character for flowing. The two characters for flowing have the water radical. It's eternity. No, the eternity is the one before that. Aha. For those, section 25. This is the one he's translating as eternity. Anyway, moving along, flowing along. Outwardly still while inwardly moving like a tethered colt, a trapped rat, the ancient saints pitied them. Well, okay. Outwardly still, inwardly moving like a tethered colt, a trapped rat, is just, for me, a very familiar image of Zazen. Is that... No, it's just the human condition.

[40:14]

Yeah, just the human condition too, exactly, yes. But particularly I think of outwardly still, you know, inwardly the mind just moving around and around like a tethered colt, a trapped rat, waiting for the bell to ring. You know, that's, that just, you know, I just always think of that when I see, when I hear those lines. But yeah, it's the, it is the human condition. It's not just Sosen, but Sosen kind of makes the human condition more apparent. What I was trying to mumble out last week, and what I associate with these lines, I'm just checking it out, and I think Lee stated it more clearly. But when I hear, like, a tethered cult and a trapped rat, how I translate that in my mind is on climate hindrances that we are working with? Is that... Yeah, sure. Yeah, I think that's what it is. Is that the association? Yeah, I think that's right. I mean, that's what we're tied down by.

[41:15]

We're tied down by the particular relative phenomenal beings, bodies, and minds that we are, you know, with particular parents in particular, a situation of, you know, where we grew up and, you know, what our genetics are and what we've been exposed to and, you know, our associations and what we've done. And so we're, yeah, we're, that's right, we're, this is our form. And we don't realize we're Buddha and all that. We don't express our Buddha nature. Trapped. The word for trapped here is, It means trapped, but it also has the implication humbled, ambushed, hiding, bowed down. So yeah, humbled rats. It saved a witch like me. Anyway, so the ancient saints pitied them, the ancient sages.

[42:20]

This means this is a reference to Buddha's ancestors and so forth. Great. Oh, you're right. That is kind of funny grammar, isn't it? Well, them is us, we could say. Outwardly still, inwardly moving like a tethered, cold or trapped rat refers to human-type deluded beings or whatever we are. And the ancient saints pitied them or us or whatever and bestowed the teaching. So this is just kind of expressing thanks to the ancient sages. And then there's this interesting stuff. According to their delusions, they call black as white. So one of the themes we've been talking about, we've been talking about this relationship between the phenomenal and the universal, or the form and emptiness, or wisdom and function. We can talk about it in terms of that, wisdom and compassion. That's one thing we've been talking about so far tonight in this fiveness.

[43:24]

these five positions. But there's also the theme of language. So here's another, we've talked about that in various ways. The meaning is not in the words. The babe ultimately doesn't apprehend anything because the speech is not yet correct. So various references to how do we use language. It's not fabricated, yet it is not without speech. Here's another aspect of language, and this is in the realm of We talked about a little bit skillful means or how do you use language to get at this thing which is, in which the meaning is not in the words. So the second, so the language is a theme and the third theme we talked about was teaching. So a lot of the lines here talk about this teaching of thusness, which already has been intimately communicated. and now we have it, we have to take care of it, we have to keep it well. So that's the subject in a sense of the whole poem.

[44:26]

So how the teaching works and how we talk about it, which is part of the teaching, and then how that has to do with these, this absolute and relative quality of things. I think this is a real interesting sentence here in terms of all three of those. According to their delusions, they call black as white. So, the punctuation is a little odd here, something that I never really realized before this class, that there could be a period after, and we start upon them, the teaching, and then the next one is... The they, the next one, is not the ancient saints, it's again... The us. Oh. Well, oh, I'm sorry. I thought you read it backwards. Well, I think, actually, I'd always read it the other way, so maybe I'm wrong. Well, in the other translations, it said it's us again. We're so stupid and deluded that we call black. Oh, okay.

[45:28]

I'm sorry. I've always read it differently, and I think the meaning is different. I think the ancient saints called black as white. Oh, well, no. I don't think so. But then there's the erroneous imagination. See, it's very important. That's us. I don't think it's us. I don't think it's us. You don't think it's us? I think it's us. This is a record of punctuality. Yeah, people take black as front. Right. Well, let me look at the original. Okay, this is very interesting, because I'd always read it. Okay. The way I'd always... Because according to their delusions... According to the delusions of the confused people, the ancient saints called black as white. That's what I used to think it meant. I do think that's what it means. But the other translations, all of them say the other way. They all say it. That's a little less interesting. Why would they do it? Why would the ancient saints do that for us? Because it's trying to talk in our deluded language. Well, it's that, and it's also to get us unstuck.

[46:30]

Well, that's right, because if they're speaking our language, it would be black is black, but they're saying black is white, in order to free us. Yeah, I think I... Let me look at the characters for a second, just to see if it makes it clear. The word according is unusual there now. Uh-huh, right. The following here... Section 27 on the characters? Yeah. So it's... Let me just look at this for a second, see if the grammar makes it clear. Partly we're dealing with a Japanese interpretation of the Chinese, so I have to actually look at both. So the first part is, the ancient saints were sorrow, the ancient sages. Actually, that's the character for sensei, I think. No, maybe it's different, maybe the show is different, never mind.

[47:30]

It's the same meaning in a sense, the ancient saints though, it means senior, it means old, past ancient sages. Pity them? It could be read that way or it could be read, we're sad, we're sorry for them, we're sorrowful. and gave them the Dharma. This gave, in this case, is the same characters used for Dāna Pāramitā, for giving, for generosity. It's bestowed upon them, the teaching is bestowed as Dāna Pāramitā, as giving generosity. Then according to this upside down, So topsy-turvy is a good literal translation. It's upside down, delusion, confusion. The question is what the... It's the they. Who is the, yeah.

[48:31]

It's the they. It's the they, the problem, the work. Yeah. There and there. Uh-huh. Always just the they, it's me. Yeah. Well, I think it could be read either way, from the original. So the ones with delusions, the ones with the upside down views call black as white. But since it's referring to the ancient saints pitied them, I think, and partly I'm remembering this, I think, from Reb's class, which he did, I don't know, a dozen years ago at City Center, and I think he interpreted it this way. And so I think both are true. that we have, we see things in reverse, we see things upside down, and we call black as white. But there's also a reference here to the ancient saints calling black as white to get us out of that.

[49:32]

So, recently came across R.H. Blythe, Alan Watts talking about R.H. Blythe, who was an old teacher, and he said, if somebody comes and says, do you believe in God, I say, if you do, I don't. If you don't, I do. So it's very traditional, Zen teaching particularly, if somebody comes with, and this has to do with this relative and absolute thing. If somebody, if a student comes presenting the absolute, the teacher will show them the relative. If somebody, if a student comes presenting the relative, stuck to that, the teacher will show them the absolute. So this is getting into the section where it's talking about skillful means in the Lotus Sutra. And part of how we cease our erroneous imaginations, erroneous again is upside down, it's the same characters, is that we get unstuck from the views we have. So we're already calling black as white.

[50:33]

So you could see it either way. Part of what happens here, and part of what this is referring to, and this is the traditional understanding of this in Soto, is that the teacher calls black as white. If you say to the teacher, I'm just a stupid, deluded being, they'll tell you, no, but you're Buddha. If you go to the teacher and say, I'm Buddha, they'll tell you that you're deluded. It's part of, this is, it's about how, so this is about the teaching and it's about how to get unstuck. It's about skillful means, it's about, there's a kind of implicit methodology there. Again, don't get stuck to any particular methodology. But this is about the process of, part of getting to the point where the erroneous imaginations, the upside down, ideas and conceptions, the characters cease there.

[51:38]

It means just to die, but it also means they're destroyed. It can be a little more active than cease. So this is part of the pity or the sorrow of the ancient saints is that they call black as white. I think it can be read the other way too. but it's traditionally understood that that's one of the implications of that. And then the acquiescent mind realizes itself, and that's very interesting. Does that make sense about the black is white? So it can go either way. Yeah, it can go either way. So again, this is a song. This is a poem. This is not like a kind of exposition. It's a poem or a song in the same way that a song has, you know, you can hear a good song, you can hear the lyrics, or a good poem, you can see the lyrics going one way or another at different times or different contexts.

[52:43]

This acquiescent mind realizes itself is very interesting to me. The word that's translated as acquiescent has also meanings of affirming or accepting or consenting. And it's a regular character for mind, kokoro or shin, which means heart also. So the mind that is acquiescent, that goes along with seeing things as they are, seeing the teaching of thusness. This is about how do we get back to the teaching of thusness. So this poem starts out with, now you have it. This is about how we lose it, how we get it back, how do we take care of it. So the thusness, the teaching of thusness, which we have from the beginning, or we have as soon as we hear somebody say, now you have it. I mean, you have to hear, now you have it, to know that it's there. Because we might just get, in the ordinary world and not even know about the absolute, much less coming back to the relative.

[53:55]

Anyway, this process of losing it, of being a trapped rat, and then we work out. This also refers back to the sudden and gradual. The sudden is now you have it. Keep it well. The gradual is what you were saying, Sonia, that we do have. these karmic things. We do have these ways in which we're tethered colts and trapped rats. So there's also the gradual, which is that we need to be told that black is white to get unstuck, to see things just as it is, to see thusness. So this acquiescent mind has a lot of overtones to me. It's affirming, it's accepting, it's consenting, It's also undertaking, to take on what, to take on black as black and white as white. And then realizes itself, is also pretty juicy, it means allows itself, acknowledges itself, forgives itself.

[55:11]

That's one of the other terms there, authorizes itself. Is that from his mind there, same as Buddha nature? Would they be interchangeable? Or are you talking about something like the actual cognitive mind? I mean the mind that cognizes here? I don't think it's a cognizing mind. I think it's the affirming mind. It's the mind that says yes. It's the mind that just says yes to whatever is in front of you. It's like the mirror. So again, this image of the mirror is here. Jack, he looks up, it's like that. But he hesitates. Retrospective hesitation, anyway. There's this immediate quality, going back to this thing about the naturally real, the immediate, like a child. That's another theme in here, this kind of child-likeness, which works in different ways.

[56:18]

So it's affirming, it's yes, I'll do that. Can you please cut a gallon of carrots? Yes, okay, go get the carrots. It's this responsiveness. That's another word that's been in here. It responds to the inquiring impulse. I think that's a real important line that we can go back to here. The meaning is not in the words. The intention is not in the, the heart of it is not in the specific words, but there is this response to inquiry, to energy. There is something. The world responds to us, so it's like the mirror. It's like, again, it's like facing a dual mirror, form and image behold each other. So this is like, this acquiescent mind I think is like the mind that says yes to the mirror, okay. Or it's like the mirror saying yes to what comes in front of it.

[57:24]

But this realizes itself, it's a kind of ordinary word, it's not like a word like realization or awakening, it's kind of just allows itself. Or forgive, which is interesting. The accepting mind forgives itself. That's the kind of third level. That's not the main meaning, but it's kind of an overtone. But I think I don't know, I have the feeling of this, of just, when upside down imaginations, when fantasies, when all our obsessive imaginings cease, it's like when the particles of dirt in the water settle, you know, and the water is clear, and then we can just kind of be there.

[58:39]

It's not, It's just when we get quiet, we can kind of accept what comes and accept ourselves. There can be a long time between when one gets quiet and then the and one realizes or accepts. Okay? Like there could be, it seems like that's the practice and realization or something. Because things get still, it doesn't necessarily mean you'd be awake. Well, I don't think this is talking about, this is not talking about sleep. So, these erroneous imaginations, that's actually the stuff that gets in our way. It's like all the ideas we have, all the ways in which we think we're not good enough, or whatever, all the things we think we can't do, all the ways we think, you know, all our ideas about so-and-so thinks this is bad, you know, all of that stuff, all of the stuff which our mind is constantly producing, all of these, when we just let go of that, it's not about, this acquiescent mind is not kind of blankness.

[60:04]

That's a good point, it's not, just kind of, nothing's going on, it's not, it's accepting, it's affirming, it's the mind that says yes, it's the mind that's ready to say, that's alert enough to say yes to whatever appears in front of it. It's not like, it's not like nobody's home. So, you know, it's like, you're there, but, You've given up on all the ideas you've had about the way things are. So this is maybe some idealistic state, but I think it's part of, maybe we can see that as one of the possibilities that I think, I don't know, does that sound familiar to anybody as something they've ever, Do you have that sense of sometimes when you're just, you know, when you're, you know, actually working in a place, like working in the kitchen, I notice there's a lot of kitchen workers.

[61:13]

You know, things are going so fast that sometimes you actually, through that kind of situation, through that setup, you don't have time to think about, you know, I can't do that. You know, you just, okay, I'll just do it. You know what I mean? Does that ever happen? That's not quite it either. Well, I don't know. I don't know. Is that like when you're actually fully engaged in just doing whatever's in front of you, there's not a lot of erroneous imaginations. I mean, if you get good, if you're good enough at cutting carrots so you can go on automatic pilot, then maybe, you know, but if you're actually just taking care of whatever you're taking care of, if you're just with whatever's in front of you, Is it tasting the soup? Does it need more salt or pepper or should I put some more, you know? You're just there with it, right? But you're making discriminations all the way along. This is not without discrimination. Okay. That's a good point. This is like you make... When you say just affirm or say yes, it doesn't sound like discrimination.

[62:19]

And that's what I'm... Okay. I'm just trying to sort through this here. Uh-huh, uh-huh. So I think maybe an acquiescent mind might say maybe. Or yes, or no, or... Well, there's resistance, and then if it's released, the mind realizing itself would mean completely doing what you're doing. Arriving at what you're doing is going to put you in full influence. So that's the act of the mind realizing itself in action. Right. It's in action, yeah. So you could be acquiescent. Acquiescent doesn't mean passive. See, we think of acquiescence and we think of passive. That's right. Somehow we have that. But it's not like you're not capable of deciding, yes, it does need more salt. No, it's got enough salt in it. It's just like, yes, it does need more salt. Yes, it's got enough salt. Whichever it is, you're ready to ... You can make these

[63:23]

but you're not caught up in, well it ought to have more salt, you know, whether or not it does or not. Is that? There are yeses. Yeah. Well, instead of taking a fixed view, you respond to the situation. Is it? As it arises. So this is like, yeah, like the mirror, you're meeting this mirror image here. So in the Tantra, Kriya Kriya talks about, a lot about how you develop this in the context of, it talks about the Tenzo's job particularly, as being aware of all the things that are going on, and you can't ignore any part of it. So it's not about calmness, in a sense, it's not about, I think it's a good example of this, if we can plug this acquiescent mind into, like, what is the Tenzo mind, you know? You know, there's all these different things going on. There's schedules, and there's menus, and there's ingredients, right?

[64:28]

And you've got to kind of track all of it somehow. So there's a lot going on there, but you can be saying yes, right? Yeah, you can enter into it because you want it. That's when you realize that you're doing it. So what would be an example in that case of erroneous imaginations blocking the way? Well, an erroneous imagination would be attempting to escape or to diverge yourself from what actually is going on. But conceiving of it differently, like, I'm working really hard, I should escape from here, I deserve to do something else, or giving in to something. Just some kind of idea that if you do something else things would get better. It's just an imagination.

[65:34]

It doesn't relate to actually what's going on. Wanting things to be other than what they are. Yeah, a little dream, you know. Falling asleep. Think that something else is happening. What is that? What if you want the soup to be a little more salty than it actually is? That's not an option. That's not an option. That's not an option. But that's wanting something to be added to the meal. Well, you know, what it is, is it needs salt. That's what it is. They're not attached to it. They're one way or the other, I guess. But you're not stuck on it. You don't take it personally. If you get stuck on it, you point like, And that would be a problem. And then what would happen probably is the soup would be too salty or not salty enough. It seems that you're working with something very concrete with the salt in the soup.

[66:37]

I mean, you could also get... the ingredients of our life are kind of multiple. You could actually be working with something like... I'm exhausted. You know, I'm sorry, I need rest or something. The salts, through salting you can actually work on all the different phenomenal kind of appearances and things in our life. You can take a position about salt independent of where the soup tastes. Right, there are people who think there should be low salt in everything. Or there should be lots of salt in everything. Or you're on a trip, you said something like earlier about salt, And then here's the situation, so you say quit salt and you're not really coming from out of taste, you're coming from what your position is. That's suffering in terms of taste.

[67:37]

Well, the example that Martha gave of, you know, you're exhausted. Okay, well then, that's one thing, right? But then there's also, you know, you need to serve up in five minutes, so you can't go take a nap, you know? Or whatever the situation is in front of you, one of the aspects of it is, oh, I'm exhausted. And that's just there. So it may be, given the whole of the situation, okay, I'll go take a nap, and you do. Or it may be, well, I've gotta, you know, do this other thing. Okay, you can just do it. And you can be exhausted and do it. As long as you don't, or you can be exhausted and go ask in the book later, to let you take a nap. And if you say, God, I'm just all over, I never get enough sleep here. These people are riding me constantly, and I'm so tired all the time. Then that's when he blends over into a romantic imagination. Right. So you have the idea that I deserve to rest. I've worked so hard. That's a romantic imagination.

[68:39]

Yeah. All of these are the trapped rats and the tethered colts. So it's sort of like imputing a past or a future to any present moment. Like I've been working too long and maybe, or this thing is going to go on forever, I can tell you, just like you can't. It's sort of like surrounding it with something other than this. I think it's just missing this thusness. It's missing this teaching of thusness, which has been intimately communicated. It's missing just this miracle-like quality of you are not it, it actually is you. We could go back to plug in that one to this situation. you are not it is, my idea of salt is not what's the soup, the soup is actually you.

[69:42]

Or my idea of what I should do when I'm tired is not it, being tired is actually you. And you just accept this, this is what's happening. Whatever it is that's in front of, you know, if you see yourself as this, I don't know, we could try this on, I don't know if this would work at all, but try on seeing yourself as this magnificent multifaceted jeweled mirror, okay? We are all jeweled mirrors, right? And whatever appears in front of us then is reflected and we reflect, right? That's part of what's going on. That's part of what this is talking about. This is like, you just, whatever's in front of you, you just do it. That's not like, There's a subtlety here, though, because it's not like this blankness. It's not like a mirror in the sense of this dead piece of glass.

[70:42]

It's a vibrant, jeweled, splendid mirror that's aware that it's being a mirror. Like we started to talk about this, or I brought this up last week, I feel like this was an erroneous imagination, just what, like where I went with your words, when you said if we look around and see everything as a mirror, or everything as a reflection. But we're the mirror, right? Yeah. You're a mirror, and everything's reflecting in you, okay? Then what? Right, so I, I had the feeling of being led outside again, where actually I feel like the mirror... There's something about this imputing substance or something out there. I don't know if I can say this clearly. Like that's somehow the erroneous imagination that it's out there.

[71:47]

Right, these are all metaphors. That's how it felt like the words were leading me as if it's out there being reflected. But actually it's in here and I'm reflecting it. Okay, you are not it, it actually is you. So maybe everything else is the mirror showing. One way of saying it, seeing it, is the world is a mirror. And everything you see is you. So whatever comes in front of you is you. But the problem, see all of these are all metaphors. These are all images to try and point us to something. So the problem with these metaphors is that if you hold on to them too tight, you get... See, if you have an idea of a mirror, then you can get into this dualism of there's the reality outside the mirror and there's the illusion inside the mirror. And it's not about that. It's like... But some, like when Darwin says, you don't go out and realize things. Like, you know, things come and realize you. I mean, that doesn't... It's not us going out and saying, that's a dream.

[72:52]

It's things coming in and rising up. The acquiescent mind is that moment when we are just realized by myriad circumstances. Right. The acquiescent mind is When myriad things, yeah, the thing from Genji Koan, which we talked about in terms of you are not in it actually as you, when taking yourself forward and carrying yourself forward to experience things is delusion. When myriad things, how does it go? When we experience myriad things, awakening. When myriad things realize themselves, that's awakening. So that's like this acquiescent mind. The acquiescent mind is the one that's willing to see everything, realizing itself, and let that be what we are. And of course, it's this very wide mirror. So the two words, the words that are heard here are erroneous and realized, I think.

[73:53]

What's the meaning? Mind. Mind, okay. Black and white. Acquiescent. Okay, well, we could spend a long time on this. Did you have something else to throw in? The mind is constantly naming, or grabbing at, or expecting, or making decisions for everything. So, the acquiescent mind is the mind that allows things to happen without thought. I mean, it's one way of saying it. a bare noting, you could call it, or a free verbal, you know, and it's like the ball on the swiftly-falling stream, you know, the infant consciousness. It is like that, yes. So the acquiescent mind is the mind that gears in to what is the bestness. Yeah, it's like the cat. It is a realization of no difference.

[74:56]

So it's like the child, it's like the cat and cow, which we're coming to. It's subtle, though. It's really subtle, actually. It's possible to hear this image of a mirror and make that into a thing, and that's what it is. And that's not what it is. It's like any way we talk about it, the meaning is not in the words. It's like any way we set up to talk about it, there's a way of getting stuck with that, stuck on that. So part of it I think is kind of turning the mirror all the time, kind of not getting stuck in any one angle. And not getting stuck in that particular metaphor of the mirror either. What do you think, Colleen? I think that it's a very broad, it has a very broad expansive feel to me. Do you have a sense of the acquiescent mind, what that is for you when you're doing your work?

[76:12]

You're just there with all those teeth. Especially the erroneous imagination, there I didn't really identify with that. Yeah, we all have the erroneous imaginations. It's actually important to acknowledge, you know, part of the acquiescent mind is acknowledging the erroneous imaginations. We have to see that we see black as white and kind of turn things, be willing to turn it upside down and say, well, what's that? What is it then? And in some sense, the erroneous imagination is giving, biting. Fundamentally, what you're ignorant of is the point of a very erroneous imagination. That once you see that things are impermanent or have a deep experience, then the mind just realizes itself.

[77:17]

Yeah, so it's like a chewy shirt and he still flows. The genuine constantly flows, always flows. trying to pin it down is an erroneous imagination. Again, I think it's pretty subtle. It's real, it's, where is the, what is this acquiescent mind? How do we turn the acquiescent mind onto these erroneous imaginations? How do we, and what is it to, to allow itself, to allow ourselves in this. So this acquiescent mind, what the acquiescent mind does is to allow itself, to permit itself, to acknowledge itself. Doesn't it coexist all the time then?

[78:21]

What doesn't what coexist? The acquiescent mind and the erroneous imagination. Yeah, yeah, right. What the acquiescent mind acquiesces to is that there's this Constant flow. Right. The ceaseless production of illusion is reality. In reality there is this ceaseless production of this imagined phenomenal world, which really is there because we continue to produce it. out of the illusions of erroneous imaginations. Collectively and individually. Well, but also the tendency to hold on to it. To notice that. Or run away with it. I don't know what disease it is, but where a man actually couldn't remember anything two or thirty seconds after he'd done it, and how wretched his life was.

[79:46]

There was no meaning, basically. How we get meaning is by having this history that we remember, that we're somewhat attached to, and it gives meaning to our lives. Sometimes I try to read this, and I've got to come to this place where I mean, it's erroneous, I understand, but it's sort of, ideally, if we could just be fresh in the moment, you know, not have an opinion about it, not be nagged from it on consequences and things, there would be this kind of freshness. Well, that's why we have the basic approaches. I mean, there are basic approaches. We've talked about them as kind of an illusion, but there is this basis. There are basics. There are principles. I mean, that's why You know, you have the Four Noble Truths, or the Five Ranks, or, you know, the Eightfold Path, or... Those are all basic approaches? Yeah. Parts of teaching, but this sounds like it's talking about the mind and the state of the mind. Uh-huh. And not... And then you talk about the path, about how to move within it.

[80:52]

Well, I was thinking, I guess I was responding to the question that you once brought up about purpose. So where is our purpose in this? So, you know, if you think of it as this dead, yeah, where is meaning? So the meaning is not in the words, yet it responds. There is this responsiveness. So I think this is a key question. Where is there meaning, purpose? I mean, is it just like this kind of dead world of objects reflecting each other? That's not, I think, what we're talking about, but when we use this mirror metaphor, that's one of the realms we have to pass through, I think. So this teaching of suchness and thusness, where is the meaning, where is the purpose in it? And I think if we go a little bit further, I think this starts to touch on this. I think it's a good question to look at the whole text with, too, to bring back to each part of the text we've studied so far and what's ahead.

[82:06]

The next part in some ways responds to some of the questions we're having. If you want to conform to the ancient way... This is kind of a major statement. If you want to conform... So the ancient way probably... So the word way in this, the ancient... Let's see. Yeah, conform is a funny word. If you want to fit, if you want to match, if you want to join with the ancient, it's not Tao in this case, but the ancient precedents, the ancient tracks, the word means to match, to fit, to join into, to join with. If you want to, also, this want is like this very strong want. If you need to, if your aim is to, if you see that the essence is to fit in with or join with the ancient way, then please observe and contemplate the ancients.

[83:28]

of former times. Ancients is kind of implied there. So I think this is a response to some of the questions that have come out of this acquiescent mind and erroneous imaginations. When you see that we need, how do we respond, what do we do then with this acquiescent mind? It's the question you're asking. So when you see that, you may need to, you could read it as want, but you may need to, or you may have the aim to join in the ancient way. And this idea in Chinese culture of the ancients being the model, there's this kind of, we tend to think in our culture more often than not of, time having a progression and things are getting better and we're discovering better and better technology and tools and, you know, things will be better. The traditional way of seeing this in, certainly in China and Japan and I think in a lot of traditional cultures is that back in the old days, the ancient masters, they really knew what to do, you know.

[84:46]

So this ancient way means, you know, This is the meaningful way. This is kind of, say, the ancient way, the ancient tracts means to join in with the right purpose or the useful purpose. I think it responds to all of that. It says, please observe the ancients of former times. And then there's this instruction from the Lotus Sutra. And this is, moment of time. I'll just say briefly, and we'll come back to this, but, when about to fulfill the way of Buddhahood, one gazed at a tree for ten eons. So this is a story from the Lotus Sutra, Chapter 7. It also happens to be Case 9 in the Gateless Barrier, the Mumonkan. If any of you want to take a look at that, that's translated in Zen Flesh, Zen Bones, and Gateless Barrier by Ikenoshi. It's one of the basic... Case what? Yeah, so it's a story from the Lotus Sutra, chapter 7 for those of you interested in these things, about a Buddha who's referred to as a great ancient Buddha, like an ancient Buddha from many kalpas before, from many big bags ago.

[86:07]

There was this ancient Buddha which Shakyamuni heard about and is in the Lotus Sutra and is reported there. And right at the point of sitting on the Bodhi seat and about to attain Buddhahood, about to have the great ultimate enlightenment, he just sat still for ten kalpas. So I think there's two ways to turn that. And it says, like a tiger leaving part of his prey, a horse with a white left hind leg. We're getting to the part where I have problems with the clearest translation. And we have to kind of wrap it up now, but the tiger leading part of this prayer, these are images of incompleteness. This is referring to Bodhisattva practice. This is referring to going back and helping. It's referring to not finishing. It's referring to not being complete. It's referring to, so a horse with a white left hind leg is kind of a withered hind leg, like a hobbled horse is what that means. Or a tiger not eating all of its prey. a delayed enlightenment, a delayed perfection.

[87:19]

So this Buddha, so one way of reading it is that, I think the predominant, the usual way of reading it is this Buddha waited for ten eons and refined his practice by sitting under that Bodhi tree to benefit beings. So what the Bodhisattva is, is one who does not cross over to being a Buddha. He could have done it much sooner if he wanted to. Yeah, he was right at the point. For ten eons, he was right at the point of becoming a Buddha. And he just said, well, I'll just... And he just sat there still. I will submit, it might take him ten eons. Yeah, it could mean that. And it could... I think, you know, this may be just some interpretation I dreamed up. last night or something, but it could imply some criticism for this Buddha just sitting still and not moving, but it's not acting, not taking action.

[88:22]

But either way... It says, by sitting still and gazing at a tree, he was like a tiger leaving part of his body. Yeah, so basically this is referring to, this is from the Lotus Sutra, refers to You're not supposed to completely understand the five ranks, you know? It's like, you don't completely get it. It's like... No excuses, Tony. She's not letting me. I'm going to let her out. Well, it says in the notes that it's a popular, let's just say, has the prolonged tenkalpa thing. His prolonged meditation became a popular topic in Chan literature, so it still is a popular topic. Yes. But any way you turn this thing in the various ways you've talked about it, what this is talking about is Bodhisattva practice in the sense of that we don't see the whole picture, that we actually act in the world, that we're willing to be in the midst of erroneous imaginations.

[89:36]

and let them cease again. I tell you, since it says, since it says like there, like, what teller would call it, like a hobbled horse, does that mean that this Buddha was hobbled in some way? That he sat, that he had to sit for ten years? Yeah, wouldn't you be hobbled if you sat for that long? No, I'd be sore I think. Yeah. But yeah, not completing, not entering full Buddhahood. It's intentionally, it's deliberately transgressing, as a way is described by, by Zhaozhou when he said, why is it? Why does a dog, when he said, yes, a dog has Buddha nature, it's a dog because it deliberately transgresses, knowingly and deliberately transgresses. Avoiding perfection. Avoiding, this is about avoiding perfection, avoiding completion. It's about, this is referring back to the ancient saints who pitied them. So the ancient saints are the ones who could have, you know, entered nirvana, but because they took pity on the tethered colts and trapped rats, they hung around and started calling black as white.

[90:49]

are trying to get people out of their erroneous imaginations. So this is, this whole section is about this. The note here refers to the, implies that the horse is white all the time, like when a horse gets old, it's a high, like whiteness with age. Yeah. So it's like a withered, you know, white in the sense of like white hair. It's an old white, old horse with a, you know, a bum leg and all. So, yeah, there are a lot of different, there are some about this tiger and his prey, tiger prey on the horse with the white left hind leg, they don't, there are various other interpretations of it. So, there are various permutations of that, but I think the basic point is, this thing about not fulfilling the way of Buddhahood, or being right at the point of fulfilling the way of Buddhahood.

[91:56]

We're going to finish, but I'm sorry I've gone a little bit late, but I want to just say something about the next sentence, and we'll start again when we're there. This is the sentence which I have the most problem with with various translations. Because there is the base, base here means not like the base of a table, it means like lowly, common, vulgar. You could translate it as, because there are the vulgar, There are jewel tables and rich robes, fine clothing. So this is, again, about upaya. This is about skillful means. This is about calling black. These are examples of calling black as white. For the benefit of those of the vulgar and lowly, who only are interested in, of course, material things, then we have fancy brocade robes and beautiful statues. I mean, there are some lowly that they only want something that's precious in that office, right? This is about skillful means. To make them feel happy? To attract them to the teaching. This is like in the Lotus Sutra.

[92:57]

This is Lotus Sutra stuff. So in the Lotus Sutra there are all these skills, there are toys which are given out to attract people, to attract the deluded beings to the practice, to the path, to realizing acquiescent mind. So this is like, these are, yeah. So we'll go over all this. I'm doing this real fast, but I just want to mention this now because we're at this juncture. Because there is the start, just so if you start to look at this this week, you'll look at it this way. Because there is the startlingly different, I would translate that as for those who are capable of wonder, for those who are capable of being awakened, for those who are capable of appreciating difference. There are house cat and cow, Literally, I translate it as wild cat and white bull. It's an ox, not a cow. The characters for this can be translated various ways.

[93:59]

Literally, it's black cat. In one of the translations, it says, sallow slave. This house cat, there are various interpretations of it, what the characters mean. They're all characters. One of the translations for it is otter. But I think what it means here is, Wild cat and white bull. Those are examples of, for those who are capable of wonder, of appreciating, the ordinary. This is the ordinary. The cat and the white bull. And for those of you who want to, and we'll talk about it next time, but in the Book of Serenity, case 69, Nanshuan, Zhaozhou's teacher, was asked, or said,

[94:48]

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