I started out this session saying that first we set forth our mind, and so we've been talking about setting forth the mind. And second, we cultivate the way. That means the six paramitas, and it means something unnameable. But since we usually can only cultivate or practice something nameable, I will try to tentatively give

[01:01]

some names today to what is unnameable. Everything actually is unnameable, even things we take for granted you are somebody or other, it is time to do something, etc. Today, by the Hekigan Roku sixth case, we're discussing space and time. And these also are tentative names. but there's no such entity as the East or West or South or North. There's no substance of all time. I would like you to have some insight into the difference between

[02:29]

Activity and information. Activity and information. If philosophy is in the realm of information then Buddhism is not philosophy. Can there be activity without information? Can there be information without activity? There can be activity without information. How can you have activity without information? But what is activity? Recently I read Tadagiri Roshi's wonderful lecture in their new magazine, maybe its first issue? Newsletter? Udumbara, it's called, I believe.

[04:00]

Anyway, he has a lecture about four kinds of happiness. And in it he quotes Dogen, a story about Dogen, in which, while he's in China, a Zen master asks Dogen, what are you doing? And Dogen says, I'm studying the sutras. He says, what for? And Dogen says, I want to find out how the Buddhas and patriarchs lived, what they did. And the Zen master says, what for? And he says, I want to bring Buddha's teaching, back to Japan for people. And Zen Master says, what for? And he says, I want to save all sentient beings. And the Zen Master says, what for? Kadagiri Osho says, that Dogen was at an extremity then, didn't know what to say.

[05:34]

So, Kagirishi said, it's like two people sitting facing each other saying, I want to help you. It's quite good, I think. It reminds me of Kagirishi's story when he was the attendant of maybe Hashimoto Roshi And I forget who it was, but maybe Hashimoto Roshi. Anyway, he had to go to the bath with him. And each time Karagiri Roshi was in the bath with him, he would say, do you want me to wash your back? And Hashimoto Roshi would say, no. or wouldn't say anything. And next time they went to the bath, he'd say, do you want me to wash your back? And he wouldn't say anything, or sometimes he'd say no. This continued for some time, until one day, Karagirishi just started washing his back, and Hashimoto-shi enjoyed having his back washed

[07:00]

So if we want to do something, it's Kadagiri Roshi's point, you just start. If you want to climb in the window, just climb in the window. If you want to practice Buddhism, just start in any way you can. But this kind of activity, is difficult to practice fully without a teacher or Buddhism or some hint of the depth of our activity. To wash someone's back finally without asking is easy. Those easy things you should be able to do, those things which have observable, understandable possibilities, those you should do. When you're fully doing those,

[08:44]

Maybe you're ready to be taught, to receive teaching. But until that, you know, until you at least do the observable, easy to understand things, no one can teach you. Eventually, no one will waste their time with you. But for a long time, Everyone will wait for you to start on at least the observable activities of practice. Last night I said, in emptiness. Disappear, forget everything. Lie down into the insight of voidness. This is more intangible, this practice with our mind.

[10:09]

our subtle attitudes. And I said, listen to the sound deep within you of the stream, our engagement. And so I've gone from information to activity to now engagement, the practice of engagement or I can say both born, simultaneously born activity. Sambhogakaya. There's freedom from form and colors and engagement with form and colors. These are two kinds of practice. Dharmakaya and Sambhogakaya. See phenomena as arising from emptiness. See all phenomena as examples of great activity.

[11:43]

this calmness, this is calmness, and will allow the actual engagement of your practice. What are you going to be engaged with? Streams, mountains, people. How are you engaged? Practice is not information, not philosophy. There's no truth at the level of information. You can only practice with yourself and with others, engaged with yourself and engaged with others. There's no other way. So you should take every opportunity for engagement. And it includes sound of

[13:13]

stream and form of mountains. Dogen tells about the poet Sutongpo, who I mentioned before. I think, I'm almost certain it's the same poet, but I haven't checked it out thoroughly, as the poet who I read his poem to you about New Year's Eve and unable to review all the cases of prisoners waiting for execution. Anyways, Tung Po wrote a poem one night, late at night, sitting on a hill. The sound of the valley stream is his long, broad tongue. The form of the mountains is his body.

[14:50]

and many, many verses I heard uttered. How can I possibly put them down for others?" He presented this the next day to the Zen master he was staying with. who accepted the poem. The previous day he had been asking this teacher, What does it mean, the preaching of insentient things? And Dogen says that Tungpo did not remember anything about his answer or he had barely answered. But that evening he heard the sound of the streams as his broad tongue and the form of the mountains as his body.

[16:31]

So Dogon asks, did he hear the sound of the stream or did he hear his teachers, Tesho, continuing in the stream? Did Sutongpo become enlightened or did the mountains and streams become enlightened? Dairyo Chikan has a beautiful poem which I've mentioned to you before. Uchiyama Roshi liked it very much. The sound of the breeze brings, excuse me, the breeze brings the sound of the stream to my, close to my ears.

[17:36]

The moon carries, brings the shadow of the mountain near my bed, closer and closer to my bed. He responded with this poem when a monk asked him, what is the mysterious? He said, The breeze brings the sound of the stream near to my ear and the moon carries the shadow of the mountain across the room. This both-born, I don't know what to say, both-born, all-born, mountains and rivers enlightened and sutungpo enlightened. When you perceive someone clearly,

[19:20]

They experience themselves more clearly. You know that. And when someone sees you clearly, you feel yourself clearly. How profound this is, you will find out by greater familiarity with it. how you participate in creating everything. By it being born in your body, it's born in what you see and do in your activity. Morality is different, much deeper when we understand this. How great your responsibility on the one hand when you find out the both-born, simultaneous birth of everything. And how great your gratitude on the other hand

[20:50]

when you find out how you are always being birthed by everyone. So we also Call, name, the sound of the stream, Buddha's voice sometimes, so you can find your engagement with it too. ISAN the same Issan that Tok-San went to visit in number four, the loop that records number four, and Tok-San stormed out with his shoes. Anyway, the same Issan of that story, who was such a

[22:13]

famous teacher in his time, had a disciple named Ryogen. Ryogen came to, when Ryogen came to see him, his son recognized him, recognized his aroused potentiality. And one day he said to him, you seem very bright and learned, understanding everything. But without reference to the sutras, to any books, from before your parents conceived What can you say about Buddhism? And he didn't know what to say. His

[23:51]

body seemed useless, and all the books, he couldn't find anything to say. So he took all his books and burned them, saying, what use is a picture of rice cakes to a man that is hungry? From now on, he vowed, I will practice Buddhism, I will discover Buddhism in my present life and I will devote my life to just serving rice to people, to practicing monks. From this story, I think, came a phrase used in Buddhism, meal-serving monk, someone who just does practice in that way. And the practice of attendance, being an attendant,

[25:18]

is, other than zazen, probably the fundamental practice for layman and priest. It's where layman and priest practice should be the same. Everyone, I think, should have some experience of being an attendant of this kind of engagement with another person. A person who can't do it, who is too proud, surely cannot understand Buddhism. And sometimes we find people practicing who can do everything quite well except that one thing, serve some other person without regard to ability. And so far such people have always, what I've seen, always met frustration finally in their practice. So this practice of attending someone is extremely important.

[27:03]

And Ryogen deciding, I will be a meal-serving monk, is just to wash someone's back, just to serve someone's meal. And this is, I think I mentioned this to you before, but in Buddhism, in Zen, we have our spaces attended. Did I mention that to you? How they ring the wake-up bell? In a monastery, you ring the wake-up bell, even in empty rooms, which no one uses, in the kitchen, in the library, in the memorial room. All space is attended. One of the things we do in San Francisco and Green Gulch, and here in the summer, we don't just offer someone a room, we offer someone a tended, attended room. This is rather different from usual idea of space. And we don't, here at Tassajara, don't fully understand this practice yet, because there are places at Tassajara which aren't used, which aren't attended. The pine and stone rooms kept many cobwebs during this time of year.

[28:44]

And the day on 380 days should be clean, like every other room. And we should ring the wake-up bell where no one sleeps. Anyway, this kind of practice is to name something subtle. Anyway, Ryogen, after deciding to just serve food for people, went to Issan and said,

[29:47]

Help me, I can't speak. Say something to help me. My mind is clouded." And Issan said, And his son said, where he lived and practiced. One day, he planted some bamboo, some young bamboo.

[31:24]

One day while he was sleeping, I think from the roof, a small pebble hit the bamboo and made a sound. And he was enlightened. This is a famous story because it's enlightened by some chance or circumstances. A pratyekabuddha is enlightened by circumstance, and can't teach is one understanding of pratyekabuddha. But in this case, you know, it's more like Dogen said, is the tesho still in the stream, is Isan's words still on the bamboo? So he composed a poem which goes something like, one sound of bamboo and everything I knew perished. What need now to

[32:53]

What is there now to practice or subdue? Doing everything with ease, without despondency anymore, there is no trace. free from forms and colors. This is the way of all understanding, of all experience, of all enlightened ones.

[33:57]

He went back to Issan and came to Issan's room and offered incense and said, Oh, how thankful I am that you didn't say anything those years ago. How I might have not understood when the stone hit the bamboo. So what I'm talking about is some way to engage yourself. When you eat, it is some ambrosia. And your body, it is Buddha eating. When you sleep, you lie down in emptiness.

[35:59]

No dream or disturbance either. You know the sound of your own body, heat. You come to be one with your heat and warmth and movement by just settling on where you are. Real poverty, you know, having nothing beyond where you are, no idea of attainment, no idea anything but engaging yourself immediately. Not information, just breathing, maybe just some mental activity,

[37:28]

like a movie. Without making distinction of inner and outer, self and other, without any information following your activity one-pointedly. Then everything participates with you. Moon brings the shadow to you.

[38:40]

That breeze brings the sound to you. Every day is a good day. For spring flower and the butterfly, every day is a good day. For you who don't have many more to waste, also every day can be a good day. When you can engage yourself with the one-pointedness and identity of

[39:46]

spring flower and butterfly, so similar, stone and bamboo, sound of stream and Buddha's voice, your own inner mind and mountain. It requires some great patience. Patience with very small insight, small accomplishment, which you feel confident will mature by itself. Whatever you find out is enough.

[41:46]

and patience with many, many, many daily failures that become more and more apparent to you as you begin to find out what practice is. What cultivation of the way is? What saving all sentient beings is? What hearing the voice of insentient beings is? We are just ordinary black-robed monks. For now, black-robed monks, burning incense, eating, doing zazen, nothing more than that.

[43:45]

Nagarjuna, when he met Kabhimura, Dayasa, and Nagarjuna had practiced many things. It is said, taught many dragons, which means perceived, entered the depths of his and everyone's being. but he was interested in something special. And when he met Kabhimora, before he said anything, Kabhimora, Daisho said, Don't wonder whether I'm a good teacher or not. Just become a monk. Just engage yourself, he meant, immediately in practice. So that's what we should be doing. It's very difficult to forget all about our hopes, to be ready to let everything we know

[45:23]

perish to be ready for space to pulverize. It doesn't come about looking for some big experience. It comes by just accepting as you are now and engaging yourself directly in zazen, in breathing, in eating, in serving. What more could there possibly be except information? Do you want to indulge yourself the rest of your life with information? Why can't you accept just as you are?

[46:24]

free to roam about without any feeling, any idea of space or time, past, present, future, to be reborn instantly with everything, and find out that everything exists this way. Stop separating yourself. Stop separating yourself. Thank you.

[47:59]

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