I presented case number 62 in the Blue Cliff Record where Master Uman says there is a treasure hidden in the mountain form. He says, between heaven and earth, in this mountain form, there is a treasure or a gem. And in the morning, you carry your lantern into the Buddha hall. And when you leave, you carry the temple gate on top of the lantern. That was last week's talk. I think it was last week.

[01:05]

Last week's talk. And, of course, this gem is our Buddha nature, and the mountain form is this body-mind. Master U Mon likes to use, likes to play with the term light, likes the concept of light. And so he says, carry your lantern into the Buddha hall. And in case number 86, he talks about, he focuses on light as the subject. So these two cases are somewhat correlated, although the emphasis is a little different.

[02:19]

So Engel introduces the subject and he says, controlling the world He allows not the least speck of dust to escape. He cuts off the diluted stream of thought, leaving not a drop behind. If you open your mouth, you are mistaken. If you doubt for a moment, you have missed the way. Tell me, what is the eye that has pierced the barriers? See the following." And then Master U Mon presents, Master Muman, or Master Engo, presents the main case, the main subject. Excuse me, Master Setso. Muman spoke to his assembly, and he said, each one of you has his own light.

[03:31]

If you try to see it, though everything is dim and dark. You see nothing but dimness and darkness. What is each one's light, anyway? And later, answering himself, he said, the halls and the gate. No, actually he said the temple storeroom and the temple gate. And then, He also said, it may be better not to say anything, even if it is a good remark. What he said at the end is interpreted in so many different ways. And I'll talk about some of those different ways. And then he said, set shows as a verse at the end. And he says, it illuminates itself absolutely bright.

[04:35]

He gives a clue to the secret. Flowers have fallen and trees give no shade. Who does not see if he looks? Seeing is non-seeing, non-seeing is seeing. Facing backward on the ox, he rides into the Buddha hall. So back to the Engo's introduction, he says, controlling the world, he allows not the least speck of dust to escape. He's talking about Master Unlong, but he's also talking about anyone who has this understanding. Controlling the world, he allows not the least speck of dust to escape.

[05:43]

So what does controlling the world mean? How do we control the world? As a matter of fact, the world is out of control. If you look at what we call the world, the world is out of control in some way. And yet, even though the world is out of control, there's still some order to it. It may not be the order that we like, or the order that we want, or the best order, but there's still some order to it. And this order is continually changing. As soon as you say, this is the way it is, it's already some other way. Even though things look out of control, there's still some order.

[06:50]

And how does one control something that's out of control? How does one manage one's own world? How does one manage one's own life in a small sphere of activity? Suzuki Roshi used to say, when you know who you are and where you are, you are always the boss. No matter where you are, you are always the boss. Which doesn't mean that you are always bossing somebody else around. It means that nothing can control you. No matter what happens to you, you always are settled.

[07:57]

So, controlling the world, he allows not the least speck of dust to escape. Master Rinzai said, I control the world. Somebody said, well, how do you do that? He says, everything is just exactly the way I want it to be. That's a great koan. Then Engo says, he cuts off the diluted streams of thought, leaving none a drop behind. So what's a deluded stream of thought? Here, deluded stream of thought is the thought of, as I said last week, self-delusion, self-belief, self-arrogance, and

[09:22]

self-infatuation. These are deluded streams of thought. Belief in a permanent self or an independent self or some permanent entity. Not realizing who and where and what. We actually are. And if you open your mouth, you're mistaken. If you try to explain it, you're already mistaken. And that refers to the case. You can be it, but as soon as you objectify it, you're already mistaken.

[10:32]

You can express reality. You can live in the midst of reality, expressing it moment by moment, but as soon as you start to explain it, you've already made an object of it. And you're already lost. So sometimes we make a mistake on purpose. Right now, I'm making a mistake on purpose. I'm talking about this. That's a mistake. But I know what I'm doing. I know I'm making my mistake. And if you doubt for a moment, you've missed the way. In order to really bring our life to fulfillment, we have to live it totally.

[11:43]

That means totally subjectively. As soon as we doubt, or objectify, we lose it. So consciousness or awareness and trust go together. In order to live our life fully and completely, we have to have absolute trust in life itself and its direction. As soon as we hesitate, as they say, the arrow has already gone past Korea, or Los Angeles, in this case.

[12:51]

We have to be able to put ourselves into the hands of life itself with trust, complete trust. So this is controlling the world. This is how we control the world, by not controlling anything. But we're always looking for control. And you can see how that happens. So he says, if you doubt for a moment, you'll miss the way. So doubt, faith and doubt are two extremes. Polarity. Actually, doubt is necessary. Faith is necessary and doubt is necessary.

[13:54]

But when faith and doubt are working together, they support each other. And when doubt becomes skepticism, then life stops. But doubt gives direction to faith, and faith gives impetus to doubt. So, working together in balance, life itself comes forward in its full expression. So doubt becomes a controlling factor for faith rather than a hindrance.

[15:17]

This is an important thing for us to think about because we tend to think in dualities. And when we think of faith as the opposite of doubt, that's a duality. actually within doubt there's faith, and within faith there's doubt. This is the oneness of the duality. So, in the interplay of the forces of life, the duality of oneness is how we express our life in our activity. And the oneness of duality is the basis from which all activity springs. So here's the main subject.

[16:28]

He says, well, tell me, what is the eye that has pierced this barrier or these barriers? So see the following. Here's the main case. Master Oonlong spoke to his assembly, and he said, each one of you has his own light. If you try to see it, everything is darkness. Or, even though you're looking right at it, you don't see it. That's what he's saying. Even though it's right in front of your face, you don't see it. So this light, word for light in Japanese is komyo.

[17:28]

Komyo is this light. And this light, by this light, of course, he means the light of Buddha nature. And Komyo is sometimes, Komyo-Zo actually, Komyo-Zo is sometimes translated as divine light and sometimes translated as radiant light. Divine is a word that presupposes a deity. That's where it comes from, Diana. is the source of the word, and it refers to a deity. And in Buddhism, we don't refer to a deity, so it's a little funny to say divine, but that's as close as you can come, I think.

[18:33]

Maybe you can come closer, but maybe better to say Radiant is like the activity, whereas divine is like the source. So a radiant light is like the activity of divine light. So there's something in between. That's the right term, but I don't know what that is. So maybe the source light would be okay. But if we understand, we can say divine light, because it actually goes back to the source.

[19:35]

And since we're not naming any deity, we can say Divine Light. And there's Samadhi of Komyozo Zamae. Samadhi, which is another name for Jijunyu Zamae, self-fulfilling or self-joyous Samadhi, which is another name for Shikantaza, just doing, or just sitting. So there are many terms that have the same meaning, depending on which aspect we want to emphasize. Shikantaza, of course, is well known as the practice of Soto Zen, just doing, without adding or taking away anything.

[20:43]

As Suzuki Roshi used to say, practice with no gaining mind. Not trying to get something. And this is where most people fall into the pit. I just saw this image of a plateau and then a big, long ditch. And then the other side of the plateau, and the gap between the two sides. And when we come up to no gaining mind, some people can leap across, but most people fall into the ditch. Because everybody wants something. Everybody wants something. What do I get out of this?

[21:50]

That's the common refrain. What do I get out of this? I've been sitting for so long. What do I get? You're lucky if you get nothing. But you don't know it. Even though you know it, you don't know it. So, you know, we're always driven by some motive. This is a gaining idea. You know, maybe I'll get enlightened someday, even though, you know, we don't talk about enlightenment. Still, you know, maybe someday I'll get enlightened. And if I keep practicing, But, God, I've been doing this for a long time. I'm not enlightened yet. Or, you know, maybe my mind will clear up.

[22:54]

But, you know, even though I've been practicing for 10 years, I still have all these thoughts that float into my mind. You know, my Zazen is so unclear. And I'm so deluged with I see all these people around here and they don't look enlightened to me. This is a very common refrain. They just look like ordinary folks. And some of them are even more helpless than ordinary people out on the streets. So anyway... Nevertheless, each one of us has our own life.

[24:13]

And that can't be taken away or given to you. When we look at the world, everything looks quite ordinary. Very ordinary. The reason it looks ordinary is because our mind is clouded by habit, by our habitual way of seeing and understanding and acting. And through our habitual way of seeing, we look at the world day after day, and our light becomes dimmer and dimmer. This is just ordinary, you know, just the ordinary world, ordinary life. But as soon as someone holds the gun to your head, suddenly the world looks like a beautiful place. I don't want to leave this place.

[25:16]

It's gorgeous. So even though we try to look maybe for this vitality called the light, we can't see it because our mind is so covered. So he says, although you are looking right at it, you don't see it. It's dim and it's dark. And when you try to find it, you can't find it. You know, people look for enlightenment, but the more you look, you can't find it. Because the search for enlightenment leads you right back to where you are. And that's not where you want to be. You want to be in the realm of enlightenment, not in the realm where you are.

[26:25]

So all we can gain is ourself, just as we are. The sad fact When we can really accept ourselves completely, just as we are, then we can begin to see. And when we can accept ourselves completely as we are, then we can accept everyone else. The reason why it's difficult to accept everyone else is because we haven't really settled on ourself. And, you know, then we complain about this one, we complain about that one, and we're always putting it off, you know, onto, this one doesn't act so well now. We do. One, we can observe how people are.

[27:42]

That's one aspect. And observing how people are, we can see that, yes, they have this fault and that failing and this good thing and that good thing. But the other side is judging. And because they're like this, because they have these qualities, we put them in this category or that category. So we're always arranging, you know, the world according to our judgment. But it's not clearly seeing. It's seeing through partiality. The judgment is seeing through partiality. And it's necessary. Necessary to have some partial partiality. Otherwise you can't sort things out so well. But it's also okay to not have any partiality. As long as you don't have anything to preserve. As long as you have nothing to protect.

[28:46]

You don't need to have any partiality, and you can deal with any person in any circumstance, as long as you have nothing to lose. So, think about it. So, if you try to see it, it's all dim and dark, what is everybody's light anyway? If you explain it, you fall into the demon's cave. But, yet, if you try to say, oh, you know, some people say, when I sit in Zazen, sometimes I see a blue light.

[29:51]

Or people talk about light in various ways. But, Blue light is not buddhanature, is not komyozo. Although, you can't say it's not. It's just that if you try to identify it, that's not it. Whatever you identify as it is not it. And yet, there is nothing that's not it. So, as long as you don't single out blue light as it, it's okay. Blue light is it. Sure, blue light is buddhanature. It's divine light. But so is every other light. So you can't say it's yellow or blue or bright or dim.

[30:54]

Anything that you try to single out is impossible. Because the whole Dharmadhatu is one piece and all of the individual things that we see are just its manifestation or its expression. So it's one body with many squiggles, many sparks. And it's being expressed constantly by everything. Everything is continually expressing this komyozo. When we sit in zazen, this is pure expression of komyozo.

[32:09]

That's why we said Zazen. There's no other reason. Just in order to express this. To allow this Buddha nature to be expressed through this mountain form. Just as it is. All you have to do is just be you. When you are you, Zen is Zen. But it's really hard to just be you. It's a problem. It's a big problem. Because then we have the koan of, what is me? Is it?

[33:13]

Where would you point to? If I say, who are you? Where would you point to? Here? Is it the brain? Is it the liver? Is it consciousness? Is it the post? You could just as easily point to the post. It doesn't matter where you point to. It isn't and it is. And so, last week I was talking about ego consciousness, the seventh consciousness, which appropriates the thinking faculty and clouds the free flow of Ko Myo Zo.

[34:22]

It's like standing in the window so that the light doesn't come through. But as soon as the ego takes its rightful place, then the window is open and the light comes through. So ego is like a big curtain or a shade that hangs in front of the bright window. And when it's lifted, the light pours through. It's as simple as that. That's why in Zazen you stop the working of the ego. The ego is no longer at work. You don't have anything to do. You don't have anything to think about. You don't have any contrivance. You don't have to get anything. You don't have to make anything. You don't have to be somebody that you're not. You don't have to add anything.

[35:35]

or take anything away. It's just pure existence. There's nothing to get. And if you actually have something, you should toss it out. Let go of it. That's what Zazen is. It's like letting go of everything. It's the only purpose. So the person sits there and they say, well, I don't get anything. And I'm just kind of bored. Nothing happens. It's right there in front of you. Nothing happens. But hard to take. So Master Uman is kind of well known for presenting a question and then answering it himself.

[36:54]

He does this often. He'll ask the monks a question and then nobody will say anything. Then he answers it himself. So later, he answered it himself and he said, the temple storehouse and the gate. The temple storehouse and the gate is like the most common place, you know, to be in the monastery. He didn't say the Buddha Hall this time. He said the temple gate or the temple storeroom and the gate. That could have some other meaning, but basically it means just our ordinary everyday the place where we are, where we're the common ground of our activity. That's where you find it. So there are a lot of interpretations as to the last part.

[38:09]

And again, he said, it may be better not to say anything, even if it is a good remark. So then Master Setcho in his verse says, it illuminates itself. It illuminates itself. It means that Buddha nature doesn't need anything. Except that, you know, all of this activity in the universe is you can say is buddha nature talking to itself.

[39:15]

Maybe buddha nature talking to itself or expressing itself to itself through activity. Stillness is expressing itself to itself through activity. There's the still and the incline. And incline means tipping over. When something is straight up and down, there's no movement. There's no dynamics. And then when it's inclined, something starts to happen. It's like when you have a pool of water. Then you throw a pebble in and the rings emanate from that center. And the still pool is like basic nature.

[40:18]

And pebble is activity. So activity is like the expression of stillness, like the waves in the water. It's like Buddha nature, in order to know itself, does something. And in order for us to know ourself, we have to do something. So we're always in constant activity, continually changing. There is no beginning or end, even though we note beginnings and endings. Basically, there is no beginning and end. It's just continuous change of the one thing.

[41:25]

So it illuminates itself through its activity. And it's absolutely bright. And then he gives a clue to the secret. Flowers have fallen. Trees give no light. This is the state of utter darkness. So this utter darkness has more than one meaning. He said, when you try to see it, you only see utter darkness. But utter darkness is also light. Within the darkness, there is light. It's in the Sandokai. Within the darkness, there is light. And within the light, there is darkness. But don't be attached to the darkness and don't be caught by the light. They're like a pair, like the foot before and the foot behind and walking. They alternate with each other and they include each other.

[42:38]

So Light is darkness, and darkness is light. This is the oneness of the duality, and the duality of the oneness, form and emptiness. Two sides of a coin. So then he says, who does not see? if he looks. Seeing is not seeing. Not seeing is seeing. Non-seeing, what is non-seeing? Non-seeing doesn't mean there's nothing seeing. It means let seeing see. Usually we say, I see, but when we say, I see, there's partiality.

[43:47]

When we say, just let seeing see, that means seeing just sees what's there. That's seeing as it is. But rarely do we see as it is, because seeing is always covered with partiality. always colored by partiality. Oh, I see. I understand. I know what that is. This is partiality. We need that kind of partiality, but it only goes so far. It's very limited. To see something as it really is, is to go beyond that limited partiality, and just let seeing see. As soon as we start to decide what it is, then it becomes limited. So when we sit in Zazen, we listen to the sound of the airplane.

[44:52]

If you just let the sound, if you just let hearing hear, then that's hearing as it is. But we say, Oh, that's an airplane. And then it becomes limited. And then we say, oh, airplanes have wings and motors and maybe it's a TWA. And then we've lost actually seeing as it is. We do see something as it is. We see the partial, what we think we need to know about it. Then we forget it. But to actually just listen, let hearing hear, is to see as it is, beyond our identification. And to just see the wall. Oh, that's a wall. Oh, there's a fly on the wall. Oh, there's a dent in the wall. And the nail is showing.

[45:55]

Just to be able to see something without naming it or partializing it, partitioning it, putting it into a category. When we look at a picture, we see the positive spaces. and then there are the negative spaces. But we always look at the positive side and say, oh, that's a house, you know, with trees. But there are also negative spaces, but because of the negative, the positive becomes parent. But the negative is just as important as the positive. The space You know, we don't say, I see space. We say, I see a house. We don't say, I see a canvas.

[47:04]

We say, I see a house. So we're drawn into the, which we should be. But nevertheless, there's the fact of the canvas. So seeing is not seeing. Non-seeing is seeing. Facing backward on the ox, he rides into the Buddha Hall. Facing backwards on the ox is like sitting on the ox, you know, without any concern. And you're sitting backwards and the ox is just going where it's supposed to go. Right into the Buddha Hall. Right into... The Buddha Hall is here. Not here. The Buddha Hall is here. That's what it means. You should know for yourself. This is where the light comes from. Or this is where it emanates from. So, when we sit Zazen, actually, you can... I don't want to give you ideas, you know, but... Sometimes, just see if you can feel

[48:23]

that some emanation from yourself. When you really sit up straight with all of your energy, with total concentrated body and mind, completely engaged in sitting, you can experience that emanation. And then you understand, you no longer have a question about what zazen is. So I'm afraid that

[49:17]

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