sudden enlightenment, sudden enlightenment. And it doesn't mean that you don't need practice or preparation. It means direct pointing at your essence of mind, and to practice in that way, not emphasizing the ten bhumis or various four or eight jhanas, just direct pointing at your mind, your essence of mind, on everything. So this sashin we've been talking about, noticing your mind in relationship to your breathing. More through the story, when wisdom does not reach it, what should we do? And the story about the flag and the wind

[01:31]

You know the famous end of the Genjo Koan, in which Dogen repeats the story of a teacher and disciple's discussion about a fan, where the teacher is Remember, we talked about that fan of mumongosha. The teacher is fanning himself. And the disciple says, since the nature of wind is permanent and reaches everywhere, why do you fan yourself? since the nature of wind is permanent and reaches everywhere. And the teacher said, you understand the meaning that the nature of wind is permanent, but you do not understand its meaning, that it reaches everywhere. Can you teach me?

[03:00]

And he just continued fanning. And then Dogen ends the Genjo Koan by saying, the wind of Buddhism ripens the... how's it... does something to the gold of the earth and ripens the cheese of the long river. I love that, ripen the cheese of the long river. I don't know. I actually, I can't remember what that alludes to. It alludes to some poem. I can't remember, but it's also saying about the Yellow River. You know the Yellow River in China, which is always muddy? It's called the Yellow River. They say something

[04:07]

Sometimes people practice like they're waiting for the Yellow River to get clear. So I always think, oh, it's ripening the cheese of the ocean. Which actually means what I mean, but I don't know if that's what Dogen meant. Hmm. maybe it's pretty hard to realize our essence of mind. It's quite close. It's always with us. But it's pretty hard still. You all know the story I've told you, I think, several times about Suzuki Roshi and the old-time student at Zen who was at the lecture.

[05:49]

And Sukhreshi had never met him before, but just noticed him. And after the lecture, Sukhreshi called him. Do you remember that story? Some of you? I'm sure you remember. I told it. I'll tell you again. Sukhreshi called him. And he had never met him before. He couldn't understand why he was calling him. He called him into this little alcove at the side of the auditorium. And he stepped in, and Suzuki Yoshi walked right up to him and went right at his forehead, like that, three times. And the man was quite startled, and Suzuki Yoshi just turned and walked right out. And he wondered about that for six or so years. What did he mean? So he came to visit. And he's practiced for many years, He came to visit Tsukiyoshi before he died, about one month before he died, and he told me before he went in, I must ask him what he meant. Maybe this is my last chance to ask him what he meant.

[07:10]

And he went in and he came out, and he was all beaming. And when he came out, I said, oh, I had a wonderful visit with him. He's just so clear and wonderful. And I said, did he answer your story? Did he explain your story? Oh, he didn't remember. He said, I don't remember. what I meant. So, he's still wondering what he meant. One of the Hmm, images used for explaining the 10 mysterious gates, 10 mysterious gates. No need to explain, actually, because it's so, it sounds so tricky to explain it. They're so semantic, you know, they're just little tiny differences. But actually, when you're practicing with someone,

[08:34]

Each one of those ten are ways we get caught. When you're caught, they're meaningful. If you're not caught, they're not meaningful. But they all do a turn around a golden lion. Sometimes we see the lion, and then you're seeing form. Sometimes you see the gold, and then you're seeing essence. And the lion is completely gold. When you say lion, you're hiding the gold. When you say gold, you're hiding the lion, revealing one, hiding the other, etc. Anyway, it goes back and forth. Anyway, the story I told yesterday about the flag and the wind is a very good story. for you to develop a habit of trying to see, not the objects of your mind, but your mind in everything. And when wisdom does not reach it, what do you do? What do you do? When you seek your consciousness or your mind with your mind, how do you seek your mind with your mind?

[10:05]

At this point, what do you do? When you realize your essence of mind, you have no problem anymore with form or emptiness or practice or ordinary life. The gold and the lion are completely one. or the wave and the water are completely one. And, as Sukhrishi always said, you know, wave following wave, wave leading wave. There's no problem at that point. Yesterday we talked about looking for clues. No problem at that point, whether you're following the wave or leading the wave. Everything is mutually, simultaneously, making room for everything else. And so, at first you practice zazen, without obstruction, or you become the obstruction, obstructed Buddha.

[11:32]

Just to let go, you know, and become one with the mind of the patriarch. Do you need anything more on your mind than what you hear at this moment, or what you see at this moment? What you hear should penetrate your whole body and what you see. You don't need anything else. We are so corruptible. Not just us. Animals are corruptible, too. But we're smart enough to be corrupted more easily than animals, I think. But we should also be smart enough to be free from that corruption. But most of us are just smart enough to be corrupted.

[13:05]

I was so struck by this when Suzuki Roshi and I and Oksan and Virginia and who else? I guess that was all. We drove across the United States in Trudy Dixon's car and Mike Dixon's car to visit Trudy at her ranch, which is a beautiful ranch just at the foothills of the Bighorn Mountains in Wyoming. of several hundred thousand acres. brother, Jack, who's quite a good friend of ours, of Zen Center's, and who was very close to Trudy, is now, this is just a footnote, but kind of interesting, is now Assistant Secretary for Land and Water in the United States. Land and water also mean mind in Buddhism. Not that that means anything in relation to him, but it's interesting.

[14:34]

But which means he's head of the Department of Interior and Department of Water Resources and Land Resources. In other words, he's head of an area of the United States and Alaska larger than Europe. Huge portion of the West. been quite influenced by Trudy and her ideas of Buddhism in relation to land and water. So we spent quite a lot of time with him there, too, with Yoshi. Oksan did tea ceremony for him there. He has a Japanese room at the ranch. Anyway, on the way there, we stopped at Yellowstone Park. And Tsukiroshi and I noticed that all the bears were quite young, maybe one or two years old. We asked the ranger, it was just about winter, and there was a lot of snow but the roads weren't closed. We asked the ranger, why don't we see any bigger bears?

[15:59]

And he said, because they don't survive hibernation, because they eat all the candy and junk that the tourists feed them, so when they go to sleep for the winter hibernation, they don't have enough energy to last the winter and they die during hibernation. So they last one or two or three years while they're strong enough. As they get older, they can't survive their diet. we said to the ranger, well, is there some way to stop the feeding of the bears? And they said, we've tried everything, but the bears are just smart enough to be corrupted. Because they wait. When you arrive at the park, you're given this big thing, big piece of paper says, don't feed the bears, blah, blah, blah. But then you're driving down the road and these two or three bears waddle out in front of the car, you know, and you can't get by, you know. So you, after this happens two or three times, you try to beat them, but they're too smart, you know, because you, they force your car to stop. I'm just going to run into them. So there you are, and the bears are sitting out there in front of you. And then, then,

[17:24]

They get out of the way, right? And you try to start up, but before you've got a chance to start up, they come up and they put their big paws all over the window. So it's really a startling event, because there's this enormous bear slobbering all over your window. And you can't really start the car up, because there's one on this window and one on this window, and they've got you sort of trapped. And they won't go until you roll the window down and give them something. They just, you know, so in the next bunch you try to start up quickly after they get out of the way and they just land on the car. As a result they're killing themselves. So we do the same thing actually, but we should be smart enough to prevent that. The bears aren't smart enough actually to get free of the corruption. So it seems that some people have been able to... Let me start again. I think a healthy society, culture, is one which is smarter than the individual and gives you some guidance.

[19:09]

and helps you be free from corruption. And it seems that society itself, particularly if it has a great ability or decides to have a great ability to accumulate large advantages, corrupts itself. certainly what's happened to America. So, you can do, your response can be to try to change society by some political action, or just to try to start living the way

[20:14]

you'd like society to let you live. And without being dramatic, I think that's what we're trying to do. And at such a time as this, it depends on individuals, like us, who for some reason, you know, maybe just we're more desperate or weaker and more influenced by our disturbed self or our disturbed society, and so we've banded together in some way to study Buddhism. But at such a time, historically, society depends on individuals who do this to be wiser than the society. I don't think we can say we're wiser than the society or not wiser than the society. That's not what I'm saying. But I do think that we have a big responsibility to realize our essence of mind.

[21:42]

to find some way to live that's satisfactory. It may not be wise or stupid, just something that works for us. And the first precept of a bodhisattva is you help others. And help has some wide, subtle meaning. If you wait around to be saved by Avalokiteshvara or Kanzeon, if you wait for someone to help you, you will have many troubles.

[22:48]

But if you don't wait, if you just start offering yourself to others, it's almost the same as being saved. There's a very interesting story. One One monk says, how many hands does Kanzeon Bodhisattva have? Kanzeon and Kannon and Avalokiteshvara are all the same. How many hands does Kanzeon Bodhisattva have? And the other monk says, his whole body is his hands. And the first one says, oh, but your answer and my question are the same. And the first, second monk says, 99% correct. Do you understand? It's not very complicated.

[24:26]

A hundred percent would be some finite number. Some relative number. Ninety-nine percent, we don't know. Some vagueness. His whole... Dogen said ninety-nine percent is the correct answer. Ninety-nine percent is enough. So your one practice includes everything. Help your whole body. His whole body are hands. So one of the most wonderful things about life here at Tassajara is the way we actually do help each other. And if we can extend that spirit without discrimination to everyone, I think you can realize your essence of mind immediately.

[26:06]

one and the same, one and yet two. How can you hold yourself to the samadhi of oneness and samadhi of one form? Realizing essence of mind on everything. If you have no wandering thoughts, some other kind of desire. Everything you look at reveals. Anything you look at reveals everything. Some shining. And if you have wandering thoughts even, those also are essence of mind.

[27:59]

give up the usual kind of rough discrimination. I really did find it, this seshin, difficult to leave zendo to go to do doksan and other things I had to do because the feeling in here was so wonderful. I don't know how much you felt it. It's harder for us to know our own practice than for someone else to know it. I thought of that seeing all the blades of grasses out there, which are growing straight up, and yet by their own weight falling over. And you all experience yourself. You experience. If the grass was conscious, like we are, it might experience falling over. But if we look at it, we see

[29:14]

There's straightness. And if you return to your own straightness, your own essence of mind, you won't have the burden added to your natural falling over sometimes. Um... I have many things. He would enjoy your laughing. See him laughing? He died two days ago. Yasutani Hakun Roshi.

[30:55]

It's rather sad news. How old was he? 80 or 90 something. Nearly 90 or more than 90? 95. What? 95. 95. This May. Anyway, this was at 80. Well that was, no that was, that says he was 80 when The Three Pillars of Zen was published. Is that 15 years ago? Anyway. Anyway, he doesn't really die because his life spirit certainly is going on here in America. There have been two

[32:45]

schools of Buddhism, maybe, in America, Zen Buddhism. One is Yasutani Roshi's school, or way, and one is Suzuki Roshi's way. And maybe 99% or 95% of all the Zen Buddhists in America are descendants of Yasutani Roshi or Suzuki Roshi. Yasutani Roshi way was to spread the seeds of groups and Suzuki Roshi's way was more with particular group of students. And for some reason there has been quite a intimate relationship between Yasutani Roshi's groups and Suzuki Roshi's group. We don't have so much connection actually with the other groups like Sasaki Roshi's group. But we've had quite a

[34:20]

long and penetrating relationship with Yasatani Roshi's groups in Philadelphia and Rochester and New York are the main ones, and there are small ones in Los Angeles. Of course, Philip Kaplow is his disciple, and Maezumi Roshi worked with him for many years, and Taishan worked with him for many years. Although Taishan is not his disciple, Sonen Roshi and Yasutani Roshi are quite closely related. And Taishan was, Taishan Edo Roshi was Yasutani Roshi's main helper here in the United States. He was quite a courageous man. In Japan, you don't mess around with your affiliations. It's not like here. You really don't. One mistake and you're ostracized. And he was one disloyalty, that kind of mistake.

[35:59]

And he was... All kinds of other mistakes I've committed. Anyway, he was ostracized by both Soto and Rinzai almost all his life, because he was neither Soto nor Rinzai, but his own way of disciple of the Soto Roshi, Harada Roshi, and studying both Rinzai and Soto way. But he had the courage to say that neither school in Japan was fulfilling its purpose, which was for people to directly realize the essence of mind and to practice zazen. So he withstood that kind of pressure, which in Japan is enormous, equally unusual as Suzuki Roshi's being a pacifist during the last war, which is also, if you know Japan, unbelievable.

[37:24]

But both these men had some unique courage to stand up to their own culture and as Buddhists first and secondarily, you know? Japanese or some particular country or man or woman or husband or wife. So it's no accident that they came here, were able to come here and meet with us so freely, understanding us better than we understood... understand ourselves. We came here with Son Roshi and with... his son, and Maezumi Roshi, and Edo Roshi. And we had quite a good time. So when Roshi gave a lecture, was anyone here at that time? Were you here? You were here when they were all here? Huh? You were here?

[38:57]

Did you go to the ashes at the top of the mountain? But you were here when I visited. Yes. Talked here. I wonder why you didn't go up to the top of the mountain. Anyway, someone or she gave a talk one time. And Yasutani Roshi gave a talk a second time, a very interesting talk, describing Shikantaza from a physical point of view, from the point of view of your breathing. Wonderful talk. And Suzuki Roshi and he had quite a good time together, quite a good meeting. They enjoyed each other a lot.

[40:05]

helped very generous with each other. Afterwards, Suzuki Roshi and I talked a long time about how to help Yasutani Roshi in Japan, and whether it was worth trying to patch up his relationship with Soto. We didn't think so, actually. Suzuki Roshi had some opportunity to do so, because at that time, Soto headquarters thought he was their golden boy. Spreading the dharma, you know. Tsukiroshi talked afterwards, I believe, the third talk, and he said, I think he said, I don't have much to say, because Sonoshi put in the, painted in, put in the left eye of the dragon, and Yasutani Roshi put in the right eye of the dragon, and it came completely to life. So I don't have anything to say, except something like that. And that, on the 15th of this month, we're doing an ashes ceremony. Scattering Suzuki Roshi's ashes.

[41:37]

on the top of this mountain. And that ceremony began at that time. You know that story, don't you? No? Some of you know. I just think you like to hear me tell stories. You say no. Sawanoshi brought some ashes of Nyogen Senzakiroshi from Japan to be in America on the altar at Edo Roshi's group when they were opening the new Zenda in New York and commemorating it at that time. And they thought they should bring some of the ashes here, which was a wonderful recognition of, by Yasutani Roshi and Niyogen Senzaki and Soen Roshi, of our practice as being one Zen in America. That Niyogen Senzaki's ashes should be here, where the Dharma resides.

[43:01]

as Mumon Yamadaroshi's visit and Dr. Abe's visit was very encouraging for us. So, they asked Suzuki Roshi, where shall we scatter them? And Suzuki Roshi, without hesitation, who must have been noticing that mountain for a long time, said on the first peak of that mountain. Because from years back I can remember him saying that he appreciated Nyogen Senzaki's writings for their directness and unaffected sincerity very much. And it was the, so Tsukuroshi had noticed that mountain as the first place and highest place from which you can see Tassajara, straight up. So, we decided to do it that evening that they were here, which coincidentally happened to be a full moon. I don't know why.

[44:22]

So we went up there, and no one wanted to be... First it was just going to be a small group of people, just Yoshida and myself and Tani Yoshida, and we were just going up and just doing some private intimate ceremony. But the director should go and the president should go. So pretty soon there were 10 or 15 going and the students rebelled. We probably do. And some of them started walking up the road, you know. No one wanted to be left behind. I think Dan Welch decided to be left behind. Wasn't it right? Was it Dan? His spirit took him. It's a pretty good spirit to be willing to stay behind, to not wait for, to be helped. So he just waited, you know. I think it was Dan. And all he had was a flashlight, which he signaled to us, and we signaled that. And we went up by various cars and walking. And we got to the top and we didn't know what to do and we kept waiting. We didn't have any plan.

[45:42]

We waited for the moon to come up, and it wouldn't come up, and wouldn't come up, and wouldn't come up. We kept seeing the glow getting brighter and brighter, and everybody would say, it's almost here. We'd wait. And finally, Sonoshi got tired of waiting, and he said, let's chant. So we started, kanji, saibou, satsugyo, jin, hanyarami, that we all chant. And the moon started coming up. And it shone all over. It was fantastic. And Sonoshi got quite excited. And wouldn't stop chanting. He chanted everything. Everything we knew we chanted. We kept chanting around. And I was standing, I think, between Suzuki Roshi and Yasutani Roshi. Maybe Soen Roshi and Yasutani, but I think Suzuki Roshi and Yasutani Roshi. And I think Soen Roshi was next to Yasutani Roshi. And I was holding, I know in my left hand, Yasutani's 80-some-year-old hand and Suzuki Roshi's hand, and we were going around in a circle like this, you know, the May Dance. Chanting, and the moon was coming up, all in a big circle, do you remember?

[47:02]

And it was completely dark. We were stumbling over the sagebrush and stones and everything. In the middle of it, Son Roshi said, this is true hippie dance. It was wonderful. And Yasutani was dancing quite well. He was a nice man. So then later, Suzuki Roshi, told me he would like his own ashes scattered on the second peak. He asked me to please do that. He told me maybe one or two weeks later. So this evening of the 15th, Sunday, is one or two days before full moon. and we'll scatter Sri Krishna's ashes and chant the Ryagri-phasat ceremony, which is a full moon ceremony and a gathering of, as he told us so well at the beginning of the practice period, about the background and history of the Ryagri-phasat ceremony.

[48:35]

Is there anything you want to talk about? Maybe we've talked enough. We have just a little more chance to continue this profound sitting we've started in this Sashina.

[49:50]

And tonight I'd like to change the schedule just a little bit, which is instead of having three long periods, I'd like to have three short periods and one long period. So three 30-minute periods. with five minutes of kinhin between them. The time works out to be almost the same. In a shorter period like that, it's rather sleepy time. It's hard to make an effort sometimes for 40 or 50 minutes, but for 30 minutes, you can keep up your effort to sit still, and not move, and not stray from your essence of mind. So, with that kind of shorter period, you can sit with some vigor, and kinhin, just to break it a little. And then at the last period, we'll have a

[51:29]

regular length period to just sit without making any effort and without moving at all to end this training period sashimi Let's not think we are not good enough to practice Buddhism or to realize our true nature. Let's practice as if we can do it now. No one, even Joshu,

[52:49]

supposedly obtained great enlightenment when he was still a boy, practiced any other way. He had no idea that he had special capacity. He just realized in the end I have to return to my essence of mind, which is permanent and reaches everywhere, and has no form or color, and yet takes every form.

[53:44]

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