Tonight I'm continuing with the series of talks on the Book of Serenity Koan cases. Tonight Case 7, Yao Shan ascends the seat. This is a really interesting story about one of our important founders, actually, of Tsao Tung, or Tso Tso San. So I've talked about these koan collections before. This is the Book of Serenity cases and verses by Hongzhe, a most important Tsao Tung teacher in the 1100s, century before Dogen in Japan. And then later, Teacher Wansong wrote commentaries on these. But first of all, just the case in the first. Yao Shan had not ascended to the seat to give a talk for a long time. The temple director said to him, everybody's been wanting instruction for a long time.

[01:07]

Please, Master, expound the teaching for the congregation. Yao Shan had him ring the bell. When the congregation had gathered, Yao Shan ascended the seat. After a while, he got right back down from the seat and returned to his room. The director followed after him and said, a while ago you agreed to expound the teaching for the congregation. Why didn't you utter a single word? Yao Shan said, for scriptures, for sutras, there are teachers of sutras. For the commentaries, there are teachers of commentaries. How can you question this old monk? So that's the story. And in some ways, this separates Zen from the rest of Buddhism. Hongzhi's verse, a foolish child troubles over money or gold coins used to stop crying.

[02:08]

A good steed chases the wind, looking back at the shadow of the whip. Clouds sweep the eternal sky, nesting in the moon, the crane. The cold clarity gets into his bones. He can't go to sleep. So there's a lot to say about this. First, I want to talk about who Yao Shan is. He's very important in our lineage in China. Actually, one of the founders of the Zao Dong lineage. Yao Shan was the successor of Shito, Sekito, who wrote the Harmony of Difference and Sameness and the Song of the Grass Hut, which we just chanted. Yao Shan was also the teacher of Yunyan, or Ungandanjo in Japanese, who was the teacher of Dongshan, or Tozan, who wrote the Jewel Marrow Samadhi, and is usually considered the founder of Zao Dong or Soto Zen.

[03:09]

But actually, that whole group from the sixth ancestor to Dongshan, very much including Shito, Yao Shan, and Yunyan, are really the founders of our school. And some of what will come out in the story kind of tells us why. One of the stories that some of you have heard about Yao Shan, one time he was sitting steadfastly upright and a student came and said, what are you thinking of as you sit there like that? And Yao Shan just said, I'm thinking of not thinking. And the student asked, how do you think of not thinking? And Yao Shan said, beyond thinking. In his General Instructions, Bukan Zazengi for Zazen, Dogen calls this the essential art of Zazen, beyond thinking.

[04:10]

This is thinking that includes but is not caught by our regular thinking, and includes and is not caught by not thinking. So it's a kind of deeper awareness beyond thinking, it's a kind of awareness. Maybe you could say it's a kind of thinking, but it's not thinking or not thinking. So that was Yao Shan that said beyond thinking. He also once said, the skin is completely dropped off, which we can hear is a precursor to a Dogen later talking about body and mind dropped off. So there's various stories about Yao Shan, but this is one of them. I'll tell another later. But I want to look at this case and some of the commentary. So I'll just read the story again. Yao Shan had not ascended the seat to give a talk for a long time. The temple director said to him, everybody's been wanting instruction for a long time.

[05:15]

Please, master, expound the teaching for the congregation. Yao Shan had him ring the bell as a signal to go to the dharma hall. When the congregation had gathered, Yao Shan ascended the seat. Usually in dharma halls, there's a higher seat for the teacher. I'm sitting kind of on the same floor with all of you, but traditionally there's a higher seat. This is maybe Chinese hierarchy or whatever. But anyway, Yao Shan had him ring the bell. When the congregation had gathered, Yao Shan ascended the seat. After a while, he got right back down from the seat and returned to his room. The director followed after him and said, a while ago, you agreed to expound the teaching for the Sangha. Why didn't you utter a single word? Yao Shan said, for sutras, there are teachers of sutras. For the commentaries, there are teachers of commentaries. How can you question this old monk? So this story has to do with words and letters and how the teaching, how the dharma is transmitted.

[06:27]

I'll read, so there's interesting things in the commentary. I'll read, first of all, Wansong's introduction. Wansong was later, a little later than Dogen in China. They didn't know each other. So Dogen knew these cases and verses, but not the commentary. His introduction, eyes, ears, nose, tongue, each has one ability. The eyebrows are above. Warriors, farmers, craftsmen, merchants, each returns to a job. The unskilled one is always at leisure. How does a real Chan master devise techniques? So that's the introduction to this. That sort of sets it up. What is Yao Shan doing here? What is Yao Shan not doing here? So in the commentary to this case, Wansong says, the hungry will eat anything. The thirsty will drink anything. Therefore, at five requests from three people,

[07:35]

Bodhisattvas enter the teaching hall, showing their whole bodies with half a verse. Demigods take the high seat. How could they begrudge the teaching? So at this time, it seems like Yao Shan's Sangha was hungry for the Dharma. They hadn't heard from him in a long time. They wanted something. They wanted to hear a word. And in a way, the story is like the first story in the Book of Serenity, where Shakyamuni ascends the seat. And Manjushri, who's like the Doan, pounds the gavel and says, behold, the Dharma of the King of Dharmas, the King of Dharmas is thus. And then Shakyamuni has nothing to say, so he gets down. So this is a little bit like the King of Dharmas except that Manjushri isn't even here. Yao Shan just gets up and then he gets down.

[08:36]

What's going on here? Zen is supposed to be the slogan attributed much later to Bodhidharma, a teaching directly pointing to the mind beyond words and letters. So this is about, the story in one way is about silence and it's about words and letters. And of course, you know, I do talk about the sutras and the commentaries and in our lineage from Dogen and Suzuki Roshi, we do talk, we do consider the sutras, we do consider the commentaries. But as Dong Shan says in the Jala Mara Samadhi, the meaning is not in the words, yet it responds to the inquiring student. It responds at a pivotal moment. So what are words that are not words? What are words that point to something beyond words?

[09:48]

Here Yao Shan just gets up and sits for a little while and gets down. So sometimes I feel that way, I feel like just, you know, starting to talk and then just sitting. But of course, that's already been done. So Quang Hoang Huyen said, nowadays many people take the Dharma lightly. I would be like a farmer who lets the fields dry from time to time to make them parched and thirsty. After that, when water is poured on, then the crops sprout. So, you know, I think that's a very important point. You know, maybe sometimes it's good to not hear the Dharma for a while or for you all to, you know, be hungry for the Dharma, really want to hear some teaching.

[10:51]

Wong Sun goes on to say, Yao Shan had not taken the high seat for a long time. However, it was not like this. Jaffan said, A hut conceals deep within a thunderous tongue. Let the myriad forms explain on their own. So we just chanted the song of the grass hut. And Jaffan had said, A hut conceals deep within a thunderous tongue. The myriad forms explain on their own. So the grass hut, overgrown with weeds, points to something, indicates something, helps express something beyond the words that Yao Shan's teacher Zhito had written. Yongzhe, another great teacher, a student of the Sixth Ancestor, said,

[11:56]

Speaking when silent, silent when speaking, the gate of great generosity opens with nothing blocking the way. So Shakyamuni Buddha is supposed to be the teacher, the Buddha who teaches with silence. There are various Buddhas described in the sutras. Some teach with flowers. Some teach with fragrance. Some teach with parasols. Some teach with water. Anyway, Shakyamuni taught with silence. And Yongzhe said, Speaking when silent, silent when speaking, the gate of great generosity opens with nothing blocking the way. Later, Wang Tsung says, Yao Shan took the high seat, remained silent, then after a while got down and returned to the abbot's room.

[12:59]

His act of supernormal power is not the same as the little one's. So, you know, this speaking when silent and silent when speaking, even though I'm up here babbling, can you hear the silence? Again, he said, For sutras, there are sutra teachers. For commentaries or treatises, there are commentary teachers. How can you question this old monk? So, we do study the sutra stories and the commentaries and so forth. And for a teaching that goes beyond words and letters and has developed huge libraries full of commentaries on the commentaries

[14:06]

and commentaries on silence and commentaries on those commentaries, where are the words and letters that go beyond, that are beyond thinking? So, Hongsha's verse commentary has some things to add to this. A foolish child troubles over money and used to stop crying. So, this refers to a story about Mazu, another great teacher, early on, who used to say, This very mind is Buddha. And then later on, he said, No mind, no Buddha. And when asked about this, he once,

[15:11]

there were various commentaries on this, various sayings about this, but Mazu said, This very mind is Buddha. He uses, is like giving gold stars to children to appease them. But I kind of like this very mind is Buddha. It's okay, maybe, to have a few gold stars. The next line from Hongsha's verse, A good steed chases the wind, looking back at the shadow of the whip. So, do you know about the four horses? Sugiyoshi talks about this, too. There's an old saying from some old story that about four horses, four kinds of horses. There's one kind of horse that will only, will run as soon as he hears, sees a shadow of the whip. There's another kind of horse that runs when it feels a flick of the whip.

[16:17]

Another one will run when he's hit strongly by the whip. And then there's the fourth horse that needs to feel the whip in his bone before it'll start running. So these are four different kinds of horses. How will you carry the, how will each horse carry the teaching on its back? So here Hongsha says, A good steed chases the wind, looking back at the shadow of the whip. Just seeing the shadow of the whip. Sugiyoshi used to say that maybe the fourth horse is the best, though. Really needs to feel the whip cut to its bone. Anyway, a good steed chases the wind, looking back at the shadow of the whip. And that's contrasted with a foolish child who troubles over gold coins used to stop crying.

[17:21]

Then Hongsha says, Clouds sweep the endless sky. Nesting in the moon's, the crane, nesting in the moon, the crane, the cold clarity gets into his bones. He can't go to sleep. So he's talking about Yaoshan there. Later on in his commentary, Wansong says that Hongsha's verse in this way, in Wansong's explanation, are all just yellow leaves to stop crying. It is just because you are sound asleep and not yet awakened. Those whose sleep is light will wake up as soon as they are cold. Those deep asleep can only be roused by shaking them. So Yaoshan's silence,

[18:23]

was he cutting his students to the bone or was he just flicking the shadow of the whip there? Again, Wansong's introduction says, How does a real Chan master devise techniques? And that's kind of a joke. Is there a technique here? What is Yaoshan saying? Yaoshan, by the way, just to say in Japanese, is Yaksan. Yaksan, again, if you've seen his name that way. So this is a story about stories, about words, about the meaning, about that which goes beyond all of that. And, you know, it seems that here Yaoshan is putting down sutras and treatises in all of those words.

[19:28]

What is it like for the for the crane nesting in the head and the moon, the cold clarity into his bones so he can't go to sleep? And how do words indicate this silence? How does silence indicate these words? Just for a commentary on this story by Dogen, this is from one of his short talks in his extensive record. This is from like 1251, late in his career, up at Eheiji. And he tells the story.

[20:30]

No, I'm sorry, before that. That's something else. This is actually from an informal meeting of Yaoshan that would have probably happened earlier when he was still in Kyoto. He tells the same story about Yaoshan saying there are sutra teachers for the sutras and commentary teachers for the commentaries. Why do you blame this old monk? And Dogen says, kind of commenting on the story line by line, which is one of the traditional ways of commenting on these stories. He says, Great Assembly, do you want to understand the meaning of Yaoshan speaking like this? And Dogen continues, the clouds and the blue sky. Baofu points to the boat, referring to an older teacher. The water in the bottle. Zhizang plants the fields. A mute person's dream is realized by a mute person. An old woman expounds old woman's zen. Unpolished jewels within the mountain peaks vigorously produce clouds.

[21:32]

The lotus flowers within our hands open toward the sun. Although I have spoken like this, I, Dogen, tonight, yet again, would like to proclaim this meaning, expressing it in verse. And then Dogen gives a verse comment on this story. What the children of the house attain are the true gold coins. A good horse does not even wait for the shadow of the whip. Who can comprehend Yaoshan without these words? Still, ancients and moderns compete to transmit and spread this truth. You have been standing for a while, late into the night. Take good care. So, for whatever it's worth, that's Dogen's little comments on the story. But I want to tell a different story about Yaoshan,

[22:35]

which relates very much to this story. And this is the story about Yaoshan and one of his students, referred to as Novice Gao. And this is also from Dogen's commentary, but I'll tell the whole story. Yaoshan asked Novice Gao, Is your attainment from reading sutras or from hearing lectures? And the novice said, I did not attain either from reading sutras or from hearing lectures. Yaoshan, so this is again about the true meaning and about all of these words of the Buddha and commentaries and all of this babbling that I'm indulging in. Yaoshan then said, so Novice Gao said, I did not attain either from reading sutras or from hearing lectures.

[23:37]

Yaoshan said, there are a great many people who do not read sutras and do not hear lectures. How come they have no attainment? So probably you know some people who have not read sutras or heard Dharma talks. There are people like that around. How come they have no attainment? Novice Gao had his attainment, but not from that. Novice Gao said, I do not say they do not have it, but only that they are not willing to accept it. So that's a great story. It's not that they don't have it, but they don't accept it. So this Buddha thing we're doing here is something that is already here from the beginning. As we sit upright expressing Buddha on our seat,

[24:44]

it's already there. And yet all those people out there who do not read sutras or hear talks and have no attainment, Gao says, I do not say they do not have it, but only that they are not willing to accept it. How can we accept Yao Shan's deep silence? Then Dogen comments. Today I will comment on each statement. And this is the one that's from 1251, from very late in his teaching career, from Dogen's teaching career. Yao Shan said, is your attainment from reading sutras or from hearing lectures? Then Dogen added a comment. Attainment and non-attainment come only from this. Holding up his fist.

[25:51]

The novice said, I did not attain either from reading sutras or from hearing lectures. Dogen commented, even before arriving at Zhaozhou's place, having drank Zhaozhou's tea. This is a famous story about Zhaozhou or Zhaoshu, one of the great Zen masters of all times. And when a visitor came, Zhaozhou would ask them, have you been here before? And if they said yes, he would say, oh, have a cup of tea. And if they said no, he would say, have a cup of tea. His Jisha once asked him, well, how come you say, give them both tea? And Zhaozhou just said to him, have a cup of tea. So Dogen here says about, I did not attain either from reading sutras or from hearing talks, even before arriving at Zhaozhou's place, having drank Zhaozhou's tea. This deep silence that is all around us.

[26:55]

Yaoxuan said, there are a great many people who do not read sutras and do not hear talks. How come they have no attainment? Dogen's comment to that line was, all living beings have no Buddha nature. So Buddha nature is not something that you can have, but also they have no Buddha nature. The novice said, I do not say they do not have it, but only that they are not willing to accept it. And Dogen's comment was, all living beings have Buddha nature. Dogen further said, suppose someone suddenly asked me, Dogen, why I spoke like this, I would say to him, originally we need all of emptiness to break through existence. Already having no existence, what emptiness is needed? It's a great line. Originally we need all of emptiness to break through existence.

[27:59]

So all of the, all of existence, all of the stuff that we have created in this world, and in our hearts and minds, and all of the problems and ways of thinking that we have, we need emptiness to break through it. Then he said, already having no existence, what emptiness is needed? So, going beyond emptiness. So, that's a little bit about this old story about one of our great ancestors, Yaoshan, or Yakusan in Japanese. And I think that, you know, this is a story from his recorded sayings, and there were times when Yaoshan got up on the seat and actually said, used words. But here he just says, he just gets down and goes back to his room and says later,

[29:02]

For sutras, there are teachers of sutras. For commentaries, there are teachers of commentaries. How can you question this old monk? So, that's case seven of the Book of Serenity. Questions, comments? You can respond with silence, but if you have some words, please feel free. I have a question. A question, yes. I understand that he, there, like, we... ... Right. Well, he responds to a particular question about his entry into non-dualism.

[30:06]

Yeah, so... You know, most of the time we just sit here silently. And then sometimes somebody will sit up here and babble. Next Sunday it'll be Douglas. So, tell me your question again. So, well, I mean, I guess I'm asking you to role-play here. The novice said, well, you're not giving a speech. It's just like you're understanding that maybe the Vimalakirti sutra is not telling us that. No, Vimalakirti just had too many words. He spoke too much. Yes, Suzanne. ...

[31:29]

Yeah. Good. ... Yeah. So, Wansuk's introduction ends... Well, he says, the unskilled one is always at leisure as opposed to warriors, farmers, craftsmen, and merchants, the four classes of fetal times. How does a real jhana master devise techniques? So this is not exactly a technique. It's not like Yaoshan is trying to figure out

[32:43]

what to do to awaken his students. It's just, in some ways, maybe Yaoshan was also thirsting for the Dharma. Yeah. That's sort of the difference between Yaoshan and Vimalakirti. Vimalakirti is confusing. It's confusing to answer. It's an emptiness teaching. Yaoshan is... It's demonstrating, you know, through his activities, through actively growing up, taking his seat, sitting and walking all day. So it's like another summary about how the teaching, the teaching of Yaoshan is just feeding my sensitivity. It's not just his activities. It's just the reality. We are aware of that. It's just his reality.

[33:44]

It's real. It's just in his mind. It's in his concentration. Just... Yes, the teaching is conveyed not just in words. If it was just conveyed in words, people could just read books and get it. And many people who come here for the first time have read about Zen and Buddhism. You know, that can be helpful. And I do it myself. I've read sutras, I confess. But... Where do we... How do we feel the cold clarity? So again, Hongshu's verse, clouds sweep the endless sky. Nesting in the moon, the crane, the cold clarity gets into his bones.

[34:46]

He can't go to sleep. So, you know, if you think about Sachin, about sitting all day, and something gets into the bones, and it's not about words. And yet, I don't feel like this story is completely rejecting words. And in our lineage, we use... We use, you know, we study the sutras. We study the commentaries by Dogen and others to encourage, just to encourage this zazen, this silent sitting. And then, as I talked about yesterday morning, how do we express this cold clarity in the world,

[35:49]

in our lives? Other comments or reflections? Yes, Ed? Just briefly, you know, maybe... Maybe if emptiness itself is not a singular form, it takes maybe an infinite form. And that words can be very powerful. And maybe that's why this is... What variation is the difference in the form? How can we identify the subject itself? And how can I experience an infinitely powerful experience of those variations of recognition of the thing in and of itself? Yeah. Yeah, again, as Tongshan... Yaoshan's grandson says, the meaning is not in the words, yet it responds. The words respond,

[36:51]

or the dharma responds, or awakening responds to a pivotal moment, to this opportunity that a word might... that a phrase might arouse. The point, of course, is, how do we encourage just this cold clarity, this willingness to face our lives and the world? Awake. Any other comments? Yes.

[37:31]

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