I am eager to see and listen to, to remember and accept. I am proud to taste the truth of the Tathāgata's words. Good morning. Today reminds me of a poem by Ryokan, who is a Zen hermit.

[01:22]

Today reminds me of a poem by Ryokan. The rain has stopped, the clouds have drifted away, and the weather has become clear again. When your heart is pure, then everything in your world is pure. Abandon this fleeting world, abandon yourself. Then the moon and flowers will guide you along the way.

[02:40]

Today I wanted to, I thought I would talk about non-abiding, or abandoning this fleeting world, or about what's called sometimes in Buddhism the signless, the Dharma gate, the liberation gate of the signless. First I want to tell you another couple of Ryokan poems, which tell you something about the first poem. One of them is pretty simple, it goes like this.

[03:49]

A Buddha is your mind, and the way goes nowhere. Don't look for anything but this. If you point your card north when you want to go south, how will you ever arrive? That's one. The other one is... I'll come back to the other one. First I want to talk a little bit about this fleeting world. Abandon this fleeting world, abandon yourself.

[04:53]

And I want to spend some time, a few minutes now, looking at what is this fleeting world that could be abandoned. What is this self to be abandoned? [...]

[06:06]

So, this world... This world is a mystery in many ways. And yet we have, each of us, some idea about the world and the way it is. I think last time I talked here, I brought up the example of the air. What is the air like? What kind of air is it? Is the air something that is threatening, hostile, full of danger? Full of pollutants? Dusty? Clear?

[07:07]

Is the air something invigorating? Something nourishing? Something soothing? Something that will warm your body and mind? As you breathe, what kind of air do you breathe? Do you hesitate to breathe because this air might be harmful? Or do you breathe fully and deeply, welcoming the blessing of the air? What kind of air is it? And the air is just one example of looking at what is the world that you live in. What is the world that each of us lives in?

[08:09]

And depending on the kind of world that we each think we live in, we take some stand towards that world. What stand do you take towards the world? Are you aggressive? Are you weak? Are you shy? Are you angry because the world doesn't treat you right? Or maybe if you get angry the world will respond better? Or do you adopt a posture of sadness? Maybe if I'm sad enough, the world will respond and take care of me better. And this stand we have, we tend to have, each of us, some habitual stand towards the world.

[09:28]

And it's not only in our body, not only in our mind, but in our body. It's in our face and shoulders and chest. How we stand towards things. What is our posture towards the world, the supposed world that we live in? And we think that as things come along, we can change our posture. If something comes along that we like, we think we can suddenly switch our posture and be open, when we spend a lot of time being closed. But mostly we get stuck in a particular posture and it's real hard to change that. And of course part of the point of meditation is to let go of your accustomed posture.

[10:37]

Let go of your accustomed body, your accustomed mind, your accustomed response to things, your accustomed view of the nature of the world that you live in. And we do this by sitting still and breathing. Pretty good, huh? And this is amazing, you know, that such a simple practice as sitting still and breathing can do this sort of thing. You might not think so, but this is a very powerful practice. We all get to try it out this morning, except for me, I have to talk. So, this is about the world and the world we live in.

[11:47]

And each of us, you know, if your heart is pure, all things in the world are pure. And if your mind is pure, all things in the world are pure. So now for the other Ryokan poem. He said, If you speak delusions, then everything becomes delusion. If you speak the truth, everything becomes the truth. Outside of the truth, there are no delusions, but outside of delusion, there's no special truth. Followers of the Buddha way, why do you so earnestly seek the truth in distant places?

[12:51]

Why do you so earnestly seek the truth in distant places? Look for delusion and truth in the bottoms of your own hearts. This is where the world comes from. This is where the world arises. In the bottom of our heart, and from the bottom of our being, in the bottom of body and mind. And you know we say bottom, but there's no bottom. And this whole world comes into being that requires, we think, us to take a particular stand towards it. And a response towards it. It makes a big difference if you think.

[14:05]

When you think the world, the air you breathe, is a blessing, and will be refreshing, and energizing, and invigorating, and bring you joy. You breathe quite differently than if you think the air is something toxic. I better keep my distance. I better stand back from this. I better not have anything to do with it. So which is which? And can you change your posture accordingly? Can you decide on each occasion which is which? And you'll be open, or you'll be closed. It doesn't work like this, you know. And then further on top of this, we have not just the fleeting world, but who we are.

[15:40]

And then, you know, we tend to think that as things happen, we can correlate what happens with who I am. You know, if somebody smiles at me, that's a sign. If somebody smiles at me, that's a sign that they must like me. I must be alright. I must be a good person. This is a sign of it. Now somebody's angry at me, that's a sign I must not be so good. And so all the time we take momentary experiences to be a sign of who we are. The kind of person we are. And then we think we have to do something about it. I better behave differently so those people stop looking at me like that. And so that nobody will ever humiliate me again.

[16:42]

I better take a different posture towards things so that nobody's going to do that to me again. I better stand up and assert myself. I better do this, I better do that. I want to produce some evidence out there in the world that reflects well on me. And we do this with things we see, things we feel, things we touch. And we want to have thoughts that reflect well on us, accomplishments that reflect well. And so we take each moment, oftentimes, most of the time. This is our habit. And so we think the thing to do in life is to be able to manipulate and control sensory experience and our thoughts and our emotions.

[17:52]

Because that will reflect well on me. Hmm? So this is what, you know what it means, Buddhism says, it talks about the signless. That actual reality is signless. The way things are is completely no indication of who you are and whether you're a good person or not. Even, you know, even wonderful people like Suzuki Roshi get cancer. Even somebody who practiced Buddhism for 50 years, single-mindedly, gets cancer. Do you think that's fair? Is that some indication of who he was then? So, you know, he talked about the four horses, the four kinds of horses.

[18:58]

There's excellent horses, good horses, poor horses and bad horses. And the excellent horse is a horse that runs fast and to the left or to the right, just at the driver's will. Whatever you want, the horse will do. Hmm? And the good horse will do the run and run fast and run to the left or right at the shadow of the whip. Or when, you know, or, you know, it can kind of just see the whip out of the corner of its eyes. And then the poor horse is the horse that has to feel the whip in order to run. And then the bad horse, the worst horses, is the horse that it won't run until it feels the pain in the marrow of its bones. So Suzuki Roshi said, when you hear this story, when we hear a story like this, most of us think,

[20:03]

I'd like to be one of those excellent horses, wouldn't I? And I'd like things to go really well for me like that and, you know, when I want, and things will just respond to me just like that horse. You know, the people out there, and wouldn't that be great? And then if we can't be the best horse, maybe we could be one of the good ones. But unfortunately, you know, most of us usually end up finding ourselves in the category of the worst horse. Our life, we seem to find an awful lot of pain in our life, you see.

[21:04]

Before we respond to anything... We think, if only, you know, I was a little more skillful. Maybe I could get better at this. You know. Everybody would really appreciate me. Get a little fame, wealth, you know, celebrity status, I don't know, whatever. Maybe it would help, you know. Maybe I'd feel better then if I just, you know, got something. The interesting thing, of course, about this is that, you know, it doesn't make much difference whether you're a good horse or a bad one. Or whether you think you're a good horse or a bad horse.

[22:09]

And Suzuki Roshi said, so if you think about Buddha's compassion, you know, who will Buddha have sympathy for? Buddha will have a lot more sympathy for the worst horse than for the best one. And actually, it's the worst horse who learns something. And it's very hard, often times, for the best horse to learn anything. And the worst horse learns by going through the experience of suffering and how difficult it is. And by meditation practice then, you know, we have a chance to sit quietly and breathe. And we have a succession of agreeable and disagreeable experiences.

[23:24]

Over which we have no particular control. And we find out what a bad horse we are. And we also find out it doesn't matter what a bad horse we are. And we gain, we understand something about the world. How it arises. And letting go of that world. And the self and how it arises. And letting go of that self. And this doesn't just happen, I mentioned meditation, but of course it doesn't happen just in meditation. This happens throughout our life. .

[24:37]

. [...] But this activity of sitting quietly and breathing is particularly conducive to accepting and being open and being grateful for the simplest moment of experience. So I'll tell you one more ryokan poem. This one is, my hut is in the middle of a dense forest.

[25:39]

Every year the green ivy grows longer. No news here of the affairs of men. Only the occasional song of a woodcutter. The sun shines and I mend my robe. The moon comes out and I read Buddhist poems. I have nothing to report, my friends. If you want to know the meaning, then stop chasing after so many things. If you want to know the meaning, stop chasing after so many things.

[26:43]

Do you know about all those things we chase after? Do you? And when you're chasing after something, you know it's very hard to appreciate what you already have. It's very hard to find virtue in what you already have. And in the simpleness of being alive to each moment. And we think we need that particular special experience to change my life. And we can imagine all sorts of special experiences we might have. You know, material, spiritual, who cares?

[27:49]

There's great spiritual experiences you could have. Aside from all those mundane, lesser special experiences you might go after. Some of us would like to go for exorcism. Exalted, special spiritual experiences, rather than the more mundane ones. It's kind of fun. So while we're busy doing that, you know, that's going to, as Ryokan said, why do you so earnestly seek the truth in distant places, outside yourself, somewhere else, outside of your present experience? We want some special experience outside the present moment of our experience. How is it possible at that time to know the meaning and the depth

[28:54]

of our present experience and our life as it already is? And how is our life as it already is? Have you already decided the air is threatening and hostile? That person is difficult? I'm an awful person? What is it you've already decided? And why did you decide that? What was the evidence for it? What was the basis for making all those decisions? Was there a real basis for it? Do you have, have you really accumulated enough evidence that you can know completely, exactly, where that person is at, where I'm at? So Ryokan says, look for delusion and truth in the bottom of your heart.

[30:04]

If you want to know the meaning, stop chasing after so many things. So sometimes this is called in Buddhism, non-abiding. Non-abiding because it's not abiding in each particular experience and then taking each particular experience as some evidence of the way things are from now on. I always knew. You know how easy it is to accumulate evidence for what you already believe? I'm really not such a great person. But then it's easy to find all the evidence and then even when people tell you what a wonderful person you are, do you believe them? It's really hard, huh? To admit after all those years that you were mistaken?

[31:11]

You made a mistake when you thought that? And you've been thinking it for how many years? 20, 30, 40, 60, 70? Who you are? Who other people are? What the nature of the world is? You want to admit that you made a mistake? Oh, that's painful. Oh, how awful. And you have to cry and cry, you know? And then you wonder, what a fool I've been to think that all these years. And people tried to tell me, you know, differently. You know, I just couldn't let go of seeing the world the way I always saw it. So one of these teachings, one of the teachings in Buddhism is non-abiding. Not abiding in each moment. Not taking the signless. Each moment is not a sign. Of the way it is, once and for all.

[32:16]

And prove it, just like you always thought. It doesn't prove it just like you always thought. Each moment is signless. So in the Perfection of Wisdom Sutra it says, someone asks, how should a bodhisattva, who courses in the perfection of wisdom, how should such a bodhisattva train? How should such a bodhisattva, what is that bodhisattva's practice? And it says, a bodhisattva who is skillful and courses in perfect wisdom does not course, does not abide in form. In sensory experience. Does not abide in feelings, in thoughts, in emotions. Does not abide, set up residence there. A bodhisattva does not course in form.

[33:26]

Abide in form. Does not course in the idea that form is a sign. Feelings are a sign. Emotions are a sign. They indicate, they're evidence. A bodhisattva doesn't take each moment of experience as evidence of anything particular. Does not course in the stopping of form, or the production or destruction of form. Does not course in the idea that form is empty. You might think that if form does not indicate something, well, and it's empty of indication, well then you don't have to deal with it. But we still have to respond to things. And respond from our heart.

[34:29]

Not from knowing of what it's a sign of. And the bodhisattva then does not course in the idea that I course. Or that I am a bodhisattva. Or that I am not coursing in the production of forms, or the stopping of forms. Bodhisattva does not think, oh I'm doing all that stuff. I'm not doing that like those other people are. Bodhisattva doesn't have thoughts like that. That would be starting up the whole thing again. ... So sometimes Buddhism, somebody will say, as Ryokan said,

[35:56]

this mind, this very moment is Buddha. And the way goes nowhere. You don't get anywhere when you follow the way. If you want to go south and you point your cart north, how will you arrive? Oh, and I left out that line, that wonderful line, don't look for anything but this. So it's sort of funny to say this mind is Buddha. But it means that how we think things are, and what we believe and understand, and what we take it as evidence for, is not necessarily the case.

[36:59]

And each moment, every moment of experience is something, we say Buddha because every moment of experience is something we can respect in our heart. As this moment of experience. Respect and open to and receive as Buddha's teaching. Even the pain and the suffering. And we respond to it then as best we can. And sometimes there's something we can do about it, and sometimes there's not. Each of us may get cancer. Each of us certainly will die. So sometimes we say,

[38:10]

this mind, this moment, right now, is Buddha. The way goes nowhere. Don't look for anything but this. If you want to know the meaning, stop chasing after so many things. Abandon this fleeting world, abandon yourself. Then the moon and flowers will guide you along the way. Thank you. And I think we need some,

[39:12]

because this is such a tender place and such a vulnerable place to be, or at least it feels that way, from where we spend a lot of our time. We need a lot of support and help from others in order to be in this place. To soften our body and mind and breathing and stance and stand. So we help each other in this way. And I feel, when I give a talk here like today, I feel you, all of you helping me in that way, and I appreciate it very much. Thank you.

[40:13]

Carry on. To carry on. Moon and sway.

[40:47]

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