So I'll recapitulate what we did last time, but I'll just read to where we left off, where I think we left off. The Dharma of thusness is intimately transmitted by Buddhas and ancestors. Now you have it, preserve it well. A silver bowl filled with snow, a heron hidden in the moon. Taken as similar, they are not the same. Not distinguished, their places are known. The meaning does not reside in the words, but a pivotal moment brings it forth. Move and you are trapped. Miss and you fall into doubt and vacillation. Turning away and touching are both wrong, for it is like a massive fire.

[01:04]

Just to portray it in literary form is to stain it with defilement. In darkest night, it is perfectly clear. In the light of dawn, it is hidden. That's as far as we got, I believe. So now, in line 19 and 20, It is a standard for all things, or for all beings, actually. I think beings is better than things. It is a standard for all beings. Its use removes all suffering. Again, he's talking about the precious mirror. Precious mirror is a standard for all things. Standard, I think guide is sometimes used as a translation. It is a guide for all beings, which I like better than a standard.

[02:06]

It's more useful. Standard is something that you measure yourself against. A guide is something that, like a beacon, or a light, something that you can have faith in or follow. So I like guide, I think, better. And it's a use. removes all suffering, or vexations. Vexations is actually probably a more appropriate term because vexations means those things which cause us uneasiness or cause us trouble or problems. And the vexation is something that comes from us.

[03:10]

Vexations don't come from outside. Vexations are, you know, if someone insults you, you say, you made me angry. But actually, someone insulted you and your response was anger. The anger belongs to you. It doesn't belong to the perpetrator. someone can insult you and you wouldn't feel angry, you'd feel something else, compassion maybe. So your response comes from you. And although someone may have insulted you, that's a kind of a cause, but it's not the primary cause for your response. primary cause for your response is your own attitude in how you react or respond to that cause.

[04:18]

So, vexation is something that clouds the mind or the heart So we say that the moon is there all the time, but the clouds are continually coming and going, covering the moon. And in the previous two sentences, in darkest night it is perfectly clear, in the light of dawn it is hidden. Whether it's dawn or night, it is always there. but it gets covered by vexations. So we cause our own problems, and it's very difficult to maintain a clear mind all the time in the light of, you know,

[05:29]

things which are continually arousing our responses and our reactions. So the realm of reaction is vexations, and the realm of responses is to be able to respond without reacting. or free of reaction. In the Dhammapada, if you've read the Dhammapada, Buddha says, he hurt me, he did this to me, he did that to me. which brings up all kinds of anger and resentment.

[06:36]

He said, this is the cause of vexations. Not that someone did something, but that we allow ourselves to be caught by reactions. But if we know how to step back and elicit a response, then we're no longer caught by our emotional reactions and we're no longer in the realm of vexations. It's very hard to do. But it necessitates some freedom from emotional entanglements. So, to remain in the precious mirror. Suzuki Roshi used to talk about big mind. Big mind is the same as precious mirror or jewel mirror. We should always be in big mind.

[07:44]

Our responses and our actions should come from big mind, not small mind. then it becomes a guide for your conduct. And although we have vexing situations, we have freedom from vexation. And then he says, although it is not constructed, it is not beyond words. Big mind has no, or the mirror mind has no boundary. It has no special shape, no special form.

[08:49]

It's intangible and as well as tangible. It doesn't come or go. And it is beyond words. Although it is not constructed, it is beyond words. Although it is not fabricated is what Clary says. So we say the true form of things is no form. No special form is actually our true form. When we identify with this body and mind as our self, then we have constructed a form.

[09:52]

And we say, this is me. We all do that. This is who I am, this body-mind construction. But our true self has no special shape or form. And the true form of all things is no form, no special form. So, when this body-mind is no longer present, the true form is does not appear or disappear. As it says in the Heart Sutra, it does not appear or disappear. True form does not appear or disappear. It's always what it is. And the various forms come and go, appear and disappear, but the true form does not

[11:02]

And then he says, it's like facing a precious mirror. Form and reflection behold each other. You are not it, but in truth it is you. Those four lines go together as a statement. And this is Dungshan's statement of his enlightenment gatha. after crossing the river. After he left his teacher, Ungan, Tozan was crossing the river. When he left Ungan, his teacher, his teacher was very old by that time, and he said, where will we meet again? How will we meet? And his teacher said, just give me a last word about where we will meet.

[12:19]

He said, just this is. Just, in a circle, he said, just this is. And so Tozan was a little bit, he didn't quite, he kind of understood it, but he was still a little in doubt. it hadn't quite settled in him what his teacher meant. So he was crossing the river on his way, on his pilgrimage, and he saw his reflection in the mirror, in the water, excuse me, saw his reflection in the water. And he had this realization There are various translations of Tozan's gatha.

[13:19]

The usual translation is something like, don't seek outside of yourself, lest you become estranged from it. Alone I go on my way. I meet him wherever I go. He is just me, but I am not he. Thus must you understand to be one with suchness." Suzuki Roshi had his own translation of this gatha. which is a little bit, I modified it a little bit. Do not view yourself or the world as an object, or far away you'll stray. Today as I walk alone, whichever way I turn, I meet myself.

[14:23]

She is no other than who I am now, and the I though I am not now what she is. If you understand that you as an object is not you yourself, then you have your own true way." This is my combination, actually, of both Suzuki Roshi's and the other one. Actually, Suzuki Roshi's verse, I think, is, Don't view the world or yourself as an object, or far from it you'll stray. Today, as I walk alone, whichever way I turn, I meet myself. He is just me. I am not she. If you understand that you as an object is not you yourself, then you have your own true way.

[15:25]

So this is a part of It's like facing a precious mirror, or like facing a jewel mirror. One's form and reflection behold each other. We usually, when we look in the mirror, we say, I behold my reflection. But here he says, form and reflection behold each other. which is the true person and which is the reflection? We see things from one side, right? There's my reflection in the mirror. But from the side of the mirror, the mirror is, you are the reflection for the mirror. There's a koan about the ass looking in the well, and the well looking at the ass.

[16:39]

I won't go into that koan. But the mirror, although reflection is always present, everything is being reflected all the time, but you don't see it. until you have awareness of response. So when you face a reflecting surface, then you see yourself. Oh, that's a mirror. You recognize it as a mirror. But everything is a mirror. Everything is a mirror. When we look at somebody and they look at us, when we're talking to somebody and they're talking to us, we actually see ourselves mirrored in that person, but we don't necessarily recognize it.

[17:49]

When we get a response, that's a mirror, actually. And as we walk through the world, the world is reflecting ourself back onto ourself. So we actually create our world as we progress. what kind of reflection do you want to receive? Sometimes people say, everybody's angry at me, people are always doing this to me, they're always doing that to me. This is a reflection of something that we are creating. And we don't understand why this is happening. And then we blame others. So if we want to understand, then we have to look deeply within ourselves.

[19:06]

So it's like facing a precious mirror. One's form and reflection behold each other. It's like the mirror here is the Dharma body, and you are your human body. And the Dharma body is reflecting your human body, and your human body is reflecting the Dharma body, the dual mirror. He says, you are not it. You are not it means you are, you are you and it is it.

[20:21]

But in truth, it is you. So as Dogen says, everything is Buddha nature. Everything is the mirror. Everything is in Samadhi. So going back to Tozon's gatha on crossing the stream, he says, don't seek outside of yourself, lest you become estranged from it.

[21:42]

If you look outside of yourself, another translation of this is, If you look outside of yourself, the further you go astray. And then he says, alone I go on my way. All alone now I go on my way. Alone, as I said before, etymologically means at one with. It has those two opposite meanings. It means at one with, and the other meaning is isolated, which is the opposite meaning. Isolated means, when we say, I am all alone, it means isolated from everything else. But its basic meaning is at one with everything. So it's a little ambiguous.

[22:52]

All alone now, I go on my way. So it means, yes, by myself I go on my way, but at the same time, I am one with everything. And I meet him wherever I go. Him means actually my true self. He is just me, but I am not he. That's what it says in here. Thus must you understand to be one with suchness, or as it isness. I meet him wherever I go. Actually, I meet myself. So Suzuki Roshi's translation is a little bit more subjective.

[24:00]

He said, don't view the world or yourself as an object. Don't see yourself as an object. But to see yourself as an object is to isolate yourself and to be self-conscious. Don't view the world or yourself as an object or far from it, you'll stray. Today, as I walk alone or at one, whichever way I go or turn, I meet myself. So meeting myself Everywhere. When I pick up the bowl, the bowl is myself. When I drink the tea, the tea is myself. When I talk to you, you are myself.

[25:03]

Whatever I do, I'm always meeting myself. He, or the mirror, is just me, even though I am not what it is. If you understand that you as an object is not the real you, yourself, then you have your own true way and you're free to come and go without being caught anywhere, because wherever you are is the right place to be, and whatever circumstances you're in are the right circumstances. So, what did

[26:16]

Dung Shan see when he looked into the creek, into the river, the stream. What did he see when he saw himself? What was the image? What was reflected? Water. Water. Well, if you look at this post, will you see a reflection? Not water. It's not water. So then he says, like a newborn child,

[27:30]

It is fully endowed with five aspects. Now this is kind of an interesting statement. These four sentences kind of go together. Like a newborn child, it is fully endowed with five aspects. No going, no coming, no arising, no abiding. Ba-ba-wa-wa, is anything said or not? A newborn child, we say there are eight levels of consciousness. Seeing, hearing, Touching. Smelling.

[28:35]

And what's the fifth one? Tasting. Did I say that? Taste, touch, smell, feeling, and hearing. So those are the five consciousnesses, five sense consciousnesses. And the sixth sense consciousness, the sixth consciousness is discriminating consciousness, thinking, thought consciousness. which discriminates between the fields of sense. So the sixth consciousness has various functions, but it is a level of discriminating consciousness, which says, oh, this is seeing. Oh, this is hearing, this is tasting, this is touching. I see the paper as discriminated from.

[29:46]

I hear the paper. So this is a kind of discrimination. But this discrimination is strictly separation, separating phenomena into categories. It's not yet discriminating on the basis of self. It's simply doing a task and it's thinking on basic level, basic intelligent level. But the baby has not yet developed the sixth consciousness. So the baby puts anything into its mouth, or puts something into its nose that's supposed to go in its mouth, or tosses the food off to the side, whatever.

[30:49]

This discriminating consciousness is at a very low level, very basic level, and needs its parent to survive. So it's like a newborn child fully endowed with five aspects, those five consciousnesses of seeing, hearing, and so forth, but lacks the sixth consciousness of discriminating. So there are various ways of looking at these two sentences. One interpretation is that the five aspects are the five dharma bodies, which are samadhi, precepts, wisdom, liberation, and wisdom derived from liberation.

[31:51]

That's one interpretation. But then he says, No going, no coming, no arising, no abiding. Ba-ba-wa-wa, is there anything said or not? In the end, it says nothing, for the words are not yet right. But like a newborn child fully endowed with five aspects, I think that the five Dharma bodies is actually correct interpretation. This is like someone who has achievement in practice, has the five Dharma bodies, embodies the five Dharma bodies of samadhi, precepts, wisdom, liberation, and wisdom derived from liberation.

[33:00]

So like a newborn child would be like starting all over, born again, Buddhist, which actually is, when one has realization, one becomes born again, actually. So if you, when you become ordained, We say, with your new clothes and your new hair cut off, you are a new person. You have a new name, and you are a new person. And that's the beginning of your new life. So sometimes, if you ask a monk how old they are, they'll date their birth from the date of their ordination.

[34:04]

Say, ah, 10 years old, even though it may be 35. So like a newborn child fully endowed with five aspects, samadhi, precepts, wisdom, liberation, and wisdom derived from liberation. Is this the time for the break? 8.15? That's pretty good, huh? Pretty good timing. So, let's take five minutes. Okay. Did you have any questions? I don't know what he sounds to me.

[35:17]

It's more of a, like a feeling, intuitive. I think that's difficult to describe. To describe, for one, because describing it is already dead, you know, so, but you never lost track of it. is that it's, it's like you say, like whatever conditions or circumstances, you're okay. It's a kind of overwhelming, pervading feeling of warmth and compassion and, you know, really buoyant feeling of, it's okay to be alive. That's really wonderful to be alive. And a freshness and clarity. That's nice.

[36:25]

It's always hinted. Everything is a hint. If you get beyond the hint, then you've already gone past. If you start to describe, then you're lost. So that's why You know, everything is talked around it, but it is never stated. You won't say. No, I won't say. It is never stated, so it's always like talking around it. So, as soon as it is stated, then it's not it anymore. No, that's a hint. If you go looking down in the pantry for it.

[37:43]

He said it was in the pantry. Do you have any other questions? The other Mark. When you mentioned the line, although it is not fabricated, it is not without speech. I didn't talk about that yet, did I? No, you didn't, and that's why I bring it up even though you read it, but you didn't. Oh, I see. Yeah, no, it is not… Okay, great. Okay. Although it is not construction… Yeah, I'm sorry.

[38:50]

Okay, what about that? Yeah, right. I didn't, you're right, I didn't say anything about that, about it not being beyond words. Although it is not constructed, it is not beyond words, right, or it is not beyond Although you can't say anything about it, although it's indescribable, it's necessary to say something. So we say that when we talk about it, we make a mistake on purpose.

[40:01]

You know that it can't be described. and it can't be really discussed, but we say something anyway. We have to say something. So the words are called the finger pointing to the moon. They're not the moon itself. So words are important and necessary, but if you take the words for the thing itself, then you make a mistake. So it's not beyond words because words are part of our process of communication and it's necessary to communicate, but it's communicating about something that can't be described. So we're always talking around it and we use metaphors and similes. The only way it can be talked about is through non-dualistic, in non-dualistic terms.

[41:19]

But language is necessarily dualistic. Language is discriminatory and dualistic by its nature. So whenever you say something, you're speaking in a discriminating way. so language can't really reach it. But that's why when you read the stories, the koans, the koans are speaking in language, but the language, you say, what? What did he say? Why did he say it that way? Using dualistic terms to express non-duality. So when you use dualistic terms to express non-duality, it doesn't make sense in the usual way. So that's why there is collections of a hundred koans and so forth, because the koans are the dialogues of the teachers of the past who expressed it

[42:34]

in an inexpressible way, expressing the inexpressible using dualistic language in a non-dualistic way. So when we read the stories, it doesn't make sense and it drives us crazy. You say, I don't want to read that book. I'm going to read something else that makes sense to me. Close that book. but you have to penetrate their dialogues. And then, it opens your mind to it. But it's non-verbal, and it's non-discursive. So, difficult. Yes? The man with the hand up. Yes.

[43:37]

Right. It's not without cheeseburgers? Yes. That's right. Words don't get it. Add it. Our usual words don't get at it. Our usual discriminating way of thinking and speaking don't touch it. Paul? Close.

[44:42]

That's a very profound statement. Except that in Buddhism, we don't use that term. If you see both Buddha and God as nature or as non-defined, as being non-defined, But there are differences. If you simply use those terms without any background to them, then you could say yes, because you're interchanging one with the other.

[45:52]

But what you mean by them can be the same. Yeah, I know. That's the difference. In Buddhism, there is no creator. That's why we don't speak about God in Buddhism, because you don't speak about a first cause or someone who created. There's simply a cause and effect which continues endless, which has a beginningless beginning and an endless end.

[47:04]

and phenomena roll along due to the law of cause and effect. That's basic. So it's not a kind of linear thing. Well, enlightenment, moment of enlightenment is awareness of change, because change indicates that nothing has any inherent existence.

[48:17]

Therefore, there's nothing but change. And since nothing has an inherent existence, there is no self or soul. but everything belongs to the one body. So in Western terms, you could call it God, but there's so much attributed to God that it doesn't make sense to apply it to that process. But that's not to belittle that concept. I think it's important to keep them separate, otherwise we tend to lump it together and say, oh well, it means God or Buddha, it's interchangeable. But I think it's important to keep them separate, because they're both ideas. Buddha is just an idea.

[49:20]

God is just an idea. And God has various connotations to it that are different than the connotations and ideas of Buddha. But they're really just ideas. So we can throw out God, we can throw out Buddha. or we can look at them and respect them. But I think it's important to not be attached to either one. So we say, well, are you a Buddhist? I don't claim to be a Buddhist, but I'm fine to be one, fine with me. I don't claim to be a Buddhist. to be a Buddhist. But it's fine with me to be one. I'm happy to be a Buddhist, but it's okay not to be.

[50:27]

I'm not attached to being a Buddhist. There's an old saying, if you use the word Buddha, you should wash your mouth out with soap and water. I was sitting here a little while ago, thinking to myself, well, you don't necessarily have to say anything. It's just their compassion. They saw these people, us people, stuck, spinning our wheels with this dualistic thinking, and so they tried to do something that we could get a handle on to... Yeah.

[51:38]

Well, yes, so... you know, it helps us to focus, right? So we talk about the Dharma, we talk about Buddha, and it really helps us to focus and keeps us in line so that we know what our direction is and what our path is. And there's, you know, Buddhadharma is truth and reality. So the main thing is not Buddhadharma, but the main thing is truth and reality. And as long as Buddhadharma embodies that, then we love Buddhadharma. But if it's not truth and reality, then we should focus on something else. talking about this.

[52:47]

Well you have to shoot into the wind sometimes in order for it to get into the hole. in a way to correct erroneous movement. Well, what's the difference between those two? I guess what I'm trying to say is that... Oh, I see what you're saying. There's no rule. They're situational.

[54:16]

Well, everything is both. The whole point of this is that it's both situational and absolute. If it's only absolute, then it leaves out the situation. Then it's just dry, dry knowledge. And if it's only situational, then it leaves out the underlying meaning of things. So it's both situational and absolute. That's the whole point. And that one is the other. That's the non-duality. The non-duality is that circumstances and ultimate reality are not two. That's the whole point.

[55:24]

So this moment is an eternal moment. Yeah. Well, the reason I did that was because when we have a shuso, sometimes it's a man, sometimes it's a woman, so I often give them this gata as their, and so it just happened to be she. The way as I read it, it could be he. It's not better, but it's more, it is like impersonal. He, yeah, he is the personal.

[56:35]

It is impersonal. It is not me, I am it. So in the gatha, it's given the personal, it's stated as the personal. not without expression. Oh, expression is just my term. Speech is what it's usually translated as. I'm just thinking in the sense that it's not that words could ever describe it, but that it could use words, or it could use an expression of some sort. For Bodhidharma, its speech or its expression was the oak tree in the garden.

[57:38]

Right. Yeah, it's not without speech, but the oak tree in the garden is not a description, it's an exclamation. It's the expression for that moment, yeah. So speech, I think, is right. I just said expression because I thought, well, it's not without speech, but there's also a way that it can be expressed. I think that that probably could be more accurate, that even though it is not constructed, it has no way you can pin it down,

[58:43]

it's not impossible to express. So not without speech is a way of saying it's not without expression. So it can be expressed as speech, it can be expressed as a movement, right? That's right, so you can express it as movement or an act, and that's a kind of speech. So I think expression is more inclusive, whereas speech is a little more particular, but I think they probably could mean the same thing. So the oak tree in the garden is like an exclamation. It's like saying, wow! It's like a spontaneous expression of enlightenment.

[59:53]

So, now he's still talking about the newborn child, like a newborn child fully endowed with five aspects, not going, not coming, no arising, no abiding, baba, wawa, is there anything said or not? No going, no coming, no arising, no abiding is like the Tathagata. The Tathagata is the thus come one, or the one who is thus gone. It has both meanings, actually. Thus gone means gone to the other shore, or in nirvana. And thus come means the one who comes without, with no self. But self-nature doesn't come or go.

[61:07]

It doesn't stand or arise or abide anywhere. It neither abides nor non-abides. So it's another view, another way of describing the indescribable. And Baba Wawa is the baby, right? It's like, is anything said? Did he say anything? It's like when you try to say something, to describe it, it's just like a baby talk. It really doesn't hit the mark. In Bill Powell's Record of Dungshan, in his note, he says that The five characteristics in the Nirvana Sutra, the five characteristics of the common infant are explained as analogous to the behavior of the Tathagata.

[62:12]

An infant is characterized by the inability to get up, stay put, come, go away, or talk. Similarly, the Tathagata does not raise the thought of any dharma, does not abide in any dharma, does not have a body that would be capable of action such as coming, does not go anywhere, because he is already in nirvana. And although he has taught the Dharma for living beings, he has, in fact, said nothing. He said, although I've been preaching the Dharma for 40 years, I haven't said anything at all. Also, according to this analogy, the infant is described as producing the sounds of puo ho. This is the way it is in Chinese. The baba wawa is actually in Chinese puo ho. Puo, I think, is Buddha and Ho is Dharma. Accordingly, meaningless sounds, translated here as Ba and Wa, where Puo is equated with the Tathagata's teaching of permanence and the unconditioned, that's Buddha, and Ho with the teaching of impermanence, that's Dharma.

[63:22]

and the conditioned. Thus, speaking without speaking describes the latter characteristic of teaching without recourse to intelligible speech. It also seems possible to interpret this to imply that what is generally accepted as intelligible speech and does in fact concern the conditioned and unconditioned, that is the sutras, is no more than the incoherent sounds of an infant when compared to ultimate reality. So, in other words, all the teaching is just like ba-ba-wa-wa when compared to the actual ultimate reality of the oak tree in the garden. In the end, it says nothing, for the words are not yet right. So explaining is like babbling, and excuse me for being your babbler.

[64:28]

I'm a good babbler. Okay, we have seven minutes, so I'm not going to go into the next one, because the next part is where the teaching of the five ranks begins. five positions. And I've given you this material which we can take a look at. The piece on the top is from Charles Luck. Chan and Zen Teaching, second series. It's an old book. And this was the first, he had the first translation of the Jewel Mirror Samadhi. And he made this diagram.

[65:36]

And the diagram, I'll explain that next time. I don't want to explain it now. You can look it over. But the diagram talks about the five positions in terms of the circles, and also in terms of the trigrams and hexagrams of the I Ching. And the trigrams and the hexagrams of the I Ching is not something we'll study, but it's just interesting that he used You know, the trigrams and hexagrams, the I Ching is one of the five books of Chinese literature, the five wisdom books of Chinese literature, and it's the book of divination. And I think most people know what the I Ching is, and you have the arrow, stick, stocks, and you let them go, and then you tell your fortune.

[66:41]

So, very ancient book. And Dong Shan, being Chinese, used this I Ching to to draw on as an example for the five positions. And if you notice, when we laid the bricks out here on the patio, we put a diagram of the five positions according to I Ching, the trigrams and hexagrams. So that's what that is out there. So I'll explain that when we talk about this next time. And what this funny looking thing down at the bottom is, it looks like a cow's head. But it's not.

[67:46]

And then the next part, which is the six pages, is Haku and Zenji's commentary on the five ranks, which is quite wonderful. And so I want to go through that with you. So you can look that over this week. And we'll talk about it this week. You'll notice in the first page, I didn't Xerox all of Charles Luck's translation of the Hokyo Zamai.

[68:55]

It's just the page on the left is part of it, and then it comes to the part where he talks about the five ranks. And that's when he has the diagram. That's when he presents. You see that? That's when he presents. CHARGE!

[69:26]

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