Of course, what I'm always talking about is emptiness. And this may be much more difficult for you to understand than you think. It's not in the category mysterious, which is spiritual in the usual sense anyway, which is an extension of our simple world, our usual world. And it's not in the category of the world that we want to understand, simple world,

[01:02]

want to keep under control. Some of you always want something more than you have and you project something mysterious. And some of you cannot tolerate anything outside your control and you try to make everything an extension of your thinking. But emptiness is something that thinking can't reach. There is this world in its widest sense beyond our thinking, and emptiness means this extension. It's some clue for us, There isn't any more really we can say about it, except emptiness. We can give you some hint, but our mind cannot reach it. I know again in Blue Cliff Records, number 11, Engo tells the famous story about Rinzai, the three times hit, it's called three times hit.

[02:28]

Rinzai was an exceptional young student. And he was, I think, at Wong Po's monastery for maybe three years. And he just practiced. Perhaps he was, as I was saying, sitting in truth. very rare student, well-prepared student. But he didn't, still did not know what was right under his nose. He still did not know who Wong Po was. He was just studying at this monastery, which had a good feeling, I guess, for it. Bokshu was the head monk.

[03:32]

And after these number of years, maybe three, Bokushu said to him, Why don't you go and ask Wong Po a question? I don't know what to ask. Rinzai was quite content with just doing zazen and following the Buddhist life of the monastery. He had no gaining idea. He'd already, I think, been purified of any gaining idea. If you have some gaining idea or seeking something, your activity will always be controlled by that idea. You can't have pure direct experience if there's any gaining idea on your activity. So, even so, Rinzai still did not know what was under his nose. So, Bokushu told him to go and ask a question, but he didn't know what to ask, so Bokushu said,

[05:00]

What is Buddha? What is Buddha Dharma? So Rinzai went to Wong Po's room and was admitted and asked, What is Buddha? And Wong Po just started beating him, hit him 20 times. This kind of thing you would not do to an ordinary student, only a very alert student. Tsukiyoshi was rather critical of the shouting and hitting of the imitators of Baso and Wong Po and Rinzai. But on occasion,

[06:01]

when it's not imitation necessary, when it's as spontaneous as Wang Po's tongue coming out at hearing the story of Baso and Hyakujo. So, the young Rinzai left the room and went down to Bokushi I asked you a question and I got hit 20 times. Go ask him again." So he must have been quite good just to simply go back and ask him again. You'd think he would be a little nervous. So he went back and said, what is Buddha? Wham, wham, 20 more times he was hit. So he left, and Bokushi said, you must ask again, because Rinzai said, what am I to do? Ask once more. So he went and was hit 20 more times, altogether 60 times. Quite an afternoon for Rinzai. So he said to Bokushi,

[07:32]

I don't think the circumstances are right in this monastery for me to understand Buddhism. I'm going to go down from this mountain." And Bokkeshi said, but you mustn't be rude. You have to go take your leave of Huangpo Oba. So Bokkeshi went in first and said, You know this young man is quite unusual, not like any of the others, and can you please help him to become a great flourishing tree and give shade to many generations?" And Obaka said, I know, I know about him. So when he came in to his room, Alampo said, you should go see my Dharma brother, the Koan Tiger, who lives at Sand City or someplace. He lived at a monastery called Sand something, beside a river. So, he went there. I think it was a day or so walk.

[08:58]

He went there and Koan Roshi said to him, he told him what happened and that Wong Po sent him. And Koan Taigu said, what, oh Rinzai said, and I don't know what mistake I've made. And Koan Taigu said, What do you mean? Wong Po has treated you with grand motherly kindness. I don't know anything about a mistake, but I have nothing to do with this." And Rinzai suddenly understood he got the clue. And he said, oh, so that's all there is to Huang Po's Zen. And Taigu grabbed him and said, a few minutes ago you were telling me what mistake you made, and now you say that's all there is to Huang Po's Zen? And Rinzai poked him in the ribs three times.

[10:29]

Go on, Tiger said, no matter, I have nothing to do with this. So they understood each other and Vinzai went back to stay with Wong Po. These stories are not to be imitated, but they mean that on each occasion, on some occasion, the opportunity will arise for you to understand. But it's not reached by your thinking mind. Suzukiyoshi, in talking about this, tried to define or give us some sense of the meaning of emptiness by talking about a word in Japanese. I think the word is, if I remember,

[12:23]

And shosoku means a letter of, I think literally means a letter from home. By that means, you may get a letter from home and you can read it and immediately you understand what's going on, what your family is doing, what the village or town is doing. From just a few words, you understand it completely. But if someone else reads your letter from home, they can't understand what's going on. Tsukishi said, when you understand the sutras accurately, it's like reading a letter from Buddha or a letter from home. Until you have this feeling, you can't understand the sutras exactly. A stone hitting a bamboo is shosoku, a letter from home, a letter about emptiness. This was Suzuki Roshi's way of trying to give us a sense of emptiness. From one point of view, emptiness as a practice means without discrimination.

[13:51]

empty of any idea of form or color, some direct experience. So direct there isn't time to, or any inclination to, imitate it or write a poem or paint it or in any way give it form, if you could even. Tsukiyoshi's example was it would be like trying to... He brought some famous or well-known Japanese garden designer to Tassajar. And their feeling was that Tassajar's stream was better than any garden. So Tsukyoshi said, pure direct experience is like Looking at Tassajara Stream, you would never think of making a garden in the middle of the stream. It's already complete. So your experience is so direct there is no question about it. From another point of view,

[15:16]

Shōsoku means everything in its wholeness. Again, he used the example of the stream. If you see only one rock of the stream, you may say, it would be better turned this way or that way. But if you see the whole stream, it's perfect. So if you don't have any idea, any narrow vision, and can see the wholeness of things, that wholeness is emptiness. From this point of view, you can understand better what we mean when we say, accept things as they are. Because from this point of view, things are perfect. When you see the wholeness of things, naturally you accept things as they are. There's nothing to change, no rock to move. Third aspect, which we can try to give you some suggestion about emptiness. Emptiness is

[16:51]

from the point of view of activity, is the world in which everything works. And by stone hitting bamboo, or by a letter from emptiness, you understand immediately what is happening, what is going to happen, what has happened, how things work, because the wholeness of everything is there. so you understand what's going on. Anything that happens is a signal, a letter from emptiness. And Suzuki Yoshi says, enlightenment may be receiving letters from emptiness. At each moment you receive a letter from emptiness and you know what's going on. So I've been speaking in this session partly about zazen as experience to widen your experience, to deepen your breathing, to extend your lungs, to make your posture more still. This is very helpful, but Shikantaza isn't in this realm of zazen as experience.

[18:27]

can be completely mixed up, you know. It's helpful if your posture is good, etc. But Shikantaza is beyond good or bad posture, beyond good or bad breathing. Shikantaza, when your eyes do zazen, shoulders do zazen, stomach does zazen, without any idea of color or form or anything. I always emphasized Shikantaza in my practice. My practice with Tsugyoshi was very experimental. I tried many things, but they were always on the periphery. I never tried to do it, actually. I never tried even to have particularly good posture.

[19:31]

I just tried, what happens when you sit this way? What happens when you breathe this way, or some other way? If I found myself beginning to breathe that way, but I never tried to perfect my breathing or perfect my posture. Just after a brief experiment to see if I was doing it already, to see what that was like, I just went back to letting my zazen do zazen, letting my thinking do thinking, letting my breathing do breathing. I tried to give up any idea of it's too late or it's not enough or I knew I wasn't good enough, but that was too bad, I couldn't help it, so just make do. So whatever it was would have to be okay. I couldn't change the wholeness of things which I had begun to sense. So just to sit. This practice is complete.

[20:57]

from the beginning and also very slow. Your posture improves very slowly this way. But your practice is more direct. And it's at this point of trying to give up some seeking, attaining idea, that practice begins trying to give up some idea of being to do this completely leaves you You can't tell where it's going to lead you. Tsukiroshi used to say, if you're writing a letter and you're studying and your husband or wife or friend comes in and says, hey, how about a cup of tea or let's go to the movies or something, and you say, oh, I'm studying, don't bother me. This is not a Shikantaza. You have some idea.

[22:25]

in your mind, you should just be ready to say, oh okay, I'll have a cup of tea. This practice is okay, rather difficult and you may end up to be constantly interrupted and you never get to read anything or study But eventually, your way will weave back to where you can study. Because people eventually will help you to study. Instead of interrupting you, they will stop interrupting you by themselves. And your situation will begin to protect you from too many interruptions. He used the example of calligraphy. Calligraphy reflects everything on your mind and anything that you think or a moment of reflection, immediately your letter or kanji is not clear. The brush is so responsive.

[23:53]

so dangerous. If your mind isn't clear, the brush won't do it. So, Suzuki Yoshi said that if you're doing calligraphy where you must be concentrated and someone comes and says, hey, let's go out and see the sunset, it's quite wonderful. If you say, no, no, no, he said, no, no, no will be written all over your paper. Everyone can see in each kanji, no, no, no. And watching Mumonoshi do calligraphy is like this. Everyone is pressing on him all the time and he has many stacks of, as I may have told you, things to write all the time, months behind. And there are always many people around him asking him to do this or telling jokes or pushing something else under him, his nose, to write on. Sometimes getting so excited they're ripping scrolls off the wall and they're falling down just to get him to write something on it. Quick, one more, the car is ready, I know, but to get under his nose, you know.

[25:22]

knocking over a flower pot. It's quite hysterical sometimes, and the excitement that they get to have his clay. But he is quite relaxed always. He looks up and laughs at the jokes, doesn't talk too much. If they stick something under his nose, he writes it to me. When we were there, somebody, when Rev and I were there the other day, someone from I didn't know what to make of this earnest young man, but he didn't know quite what he was doing or where he was, I think. But he had come from Hawaii, from a teacher there, a scholar, and brought a book, a new book of this scholar, and gave it to Mumon Roshi and said it was from him. And then Mumon Roshi gave him a book and said something, and I can't remember exactly what happened, but the gist is, he asked Momonoshi, or he asked Rev and I to ask Momonoshi to give him some profound statement, some Buddhist word, some explanation of emptiness. Do you remember what he asked, Rev?

[26:51]

So he said, that was quite nervy, I thought, can you ask, I don't think he knew much about Zen, but anyway, at all, but he didn't know Zazen or anything, but he said to Red, can you ask him to tell me something about emptiness? So what did you caution him? That didn't stop him much. And then later he had Momonroshi's book and he was able to stay and watch Momonroshi do calligraphy, which is quite, at least I always feel, a very special occasion to watch him. He lets us just hang out at his temple while he does things all day. And we did chanting in his segaki ceremony and spent the day there. While he's in the middle of doing a scroll, right in the middle, suddenly this boy pushed forward and said, hey, write something in my book. And Momonoshi stopped right in the middle of it and took the book and said, what is your name? Oh, Howard, and he wrote Howard. And Momonoshi, he didn't say, don't interrupt me, I am doing later. He's, oh, he took the book.

[28:24]

something and gave it to him. And then the young man left. He wanted something. He wanted some physical object from the visit, I think, something. I saw this man and now I have his calligraphy. It was understandable. I had been seeing him for four or five years, quite often, before he gave me any calligraphy. I should have done like he did. I would have cut some right away. And Momonoshi's temple is interesting because of course he has many visitors all the time. And the part where visitors come is quite fixed up and rather as the visitors are, but

[29:29]

Dharma Hall, the lecture hall, and Kaisanda, and the other parts of his own temple, other temple in Kobe, the zendon, are quite funky. The tatamis are all worn out and just... things are just adequate for zazen and chanting and lecture. This is what I was talking about yesterday. Entering the five realms again. Entering from people's own experience. For the carpenters, we build the Violet Center. For the guests, we have some room for them to visit it. some activity or opportunity you offer people according to their situation and in this activity you meet them but always there's some difference if you're well-trained Zen person you have that sense of

[30:59]

So Mumonoshi is always quite completely present. You feel he's utterly present, isn't missing anything, and yet, rather detached, doesn't respond immediately when you speak to him about things. He hears it, but just sits there. So he's the most present person in the room, and yet most most responsive and unresponsive at the same time. So I want you to understand Buddhist life as well as possible. For it's by our life, how we exist, how we exist and how people experience us, that we transmit the Buddha Dharma, not by what we know or what we study or what we can do. And some of you are getting quite good at

[32:45]

and quite easy at doing things and without too much fuss or difficulty, and you're ready for understanding Zen. But you don't yet have that feeling of wholeness on everything. But when it starts to come up in you, you will find, not just your teacher, but everyone in the community will respond immediately. A very direct, pure relationship you'll feel immediately. And by this kind of signal, you will get a feel for our warm-hearted practice or path. It's this kind of sensation or sense

[33:59]

That opens up our practice. So we here in Zen Center are practicing just to just be available to Zazen, to ourselves, to each other, to circumstances, and to trust that things take care of themselves, that emptiness works, that everything is working. If you can accept things as they are, you can trust everything as it as they is, Tsukiyoshi would say. This unequivocal trust is one of the secrets of practice. Abandoning yourself to this big chance. What if it doesn't work? You don't

[35:27]

If it does work, you don't care. Just you abandon yourself to this unequivocal trust. And you have to decide for yourself whether someone can walk on water or not. whether there is reincarnation or not, whether there are ghosts or not, whether there's some special power of practice or not. We can't say these things are not true, and we can't say they're true. If you say it's not true, you're missing something. If you say it's true, It's not right either. So by your own observation and limiting yourself to what you can do, not worrying about others, you will find out the truth of our human experience completely. You won't feel you're missing something.

[37:01]

Those of you who can't give up to this, to accepting things as they are, eventually will leave to try to change things or improve your situation. This is quite natural. And you, and Zazen may help you, and you may have some understanding of Buddhism. But Buddhism won't understand you, and others won't understand the Buddhism by you. So our way is to trust this practice, which we don't know quite what it is. We can't quite put our finger on it or our mind on it, but we just do this Buddhist way meeting people and things on their own occasions.

[38:32]

I am always speaking to you from what I feel here or from what I feel inside me or from what I feel from you and I think you understand what I'm saying by this feeling Sometimes it doesn't make sense, but you still have the sense. Although it doesn't make sense, you still have the sense. Yes, I know that. But you don't remember it later, or it doesn't fit in with something else, or it becomes, what did that mean, or how do I apply it? the feeling you can trust. And if you can be one with that feeling and go where it goes, soon you will have no trouble at all and can give this lecture.

[40:23]

Without even knowing Buddhism, you will be talking about Buddhism. In the immediate circumstances of Buddhism, in your own possession is our lineage. You just have to give it some chance to ripen and mature. until suddenly it all makes sense or you feel some turning your insides go upside down and you realize they're right side up

[41:51]

It's our human ability. It's not some special distant thing. It's our human nature, our Buddha nature. It's the way we actually work. So Buddhism doesn't add anything to it. You don't have to be frightened of Buddhism. Just try to accept things as they are, and you as you are. You accept things as they is, and you as you is.

[43:06]

This is our chance to try it. Sashin and Shikantaza. Shikantaza, the most immediate expression for us of emptiness. Do you have something you'd like to talk about? Yes. Yeah. If someone comes up to you and you're working and says, hey, how about doing this too? You can say, of course, okay, but you still have to do one thing at a time, and you may not get to it, and they won't ask you next time.

[45:06]

if you don't get to, or you can say very clearly, I can't possibly do it, but by later today I can do it, or tomorrow. I don't think it's so good to say no, just say yes, of course I'll do it, but I can't do it till an hour from now, or something realistic. No, you don't just drop what you're already doing. If you might put it aside briefly, it means carrying something or doing something else. The main problem with that kind of thing is not that it's so difficult to do the thing that's asked, because usually it's not so unreasonable. But we get distracted, and our mind gets distracted. If you don't get distracted, it's not so difficult to accept doing this and then that. And if you can't do it, it's clear.

[46:20]

But this area, this kind of thing is exactly how we practice, how we experiment. What can we do? How, this kind of advice, how practically can we actually extend it? And you're always trying, maybe trying it a little more, a little less, to see what works. Some people, you ask them to do something, and even though they're completely able to and want to do it, their first instant reaction is resistance, like trying to push something which has sandpaper on the bottom. It doesn't go for a second. We usually, for a person who you ask and immediately they say yes, usually people become quite considerate of them and quite grateful for what they're doing and don't ask them too much. And if you do, you know they don't mind, so you don't feel so anxious about asking them to do things.

[48:04]

It's a very practical, accurate question. It's just, maybe Buddhism is just common sense, completely followed. Okay. I don't mean to give up your own way for Buddhist way exactly. I mean more to follow your own way exactly and completely. This leads to Buddhist way.

[50:08]

Each of you have your own way, and as Suzuki Roshi always said, actually you know what to do, but it's hard to follow it or to believe it. But by Zazen, your own way will come out and your ability to follow it will come out. So I'm asking you to trust Zazen and to sit as purely and directly as you can, without diminishing your attention. It's a little like looking into the bright sun, you keep wanting to turn away. But being able to stay with just what you are, with undiminished attention.

[51:49]

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