So this morning, I'm going to talk about case number 74 in the book of record, which is entitled King Osho, King Gyu, King Gyu Osho and the Rice Pale, sometimes just called the Rice Pale. Kin Yu, Osho, was a disciple of Baso, or Matsu, in Tang Dynasty China, around 750. Can't hear. Is that better? Is that better? So I'll repeat that. King Niu, who was a disciple of Baso and Matsu.

[01:05]

Baso had something like 84 Dharma descendants. King Niu was one of them. And around 750, near 750 in Tang Dynasty China, So I'll read the introduction to this case, and then I'll read the case, and then I'll read the poem, which epitomizes the case. So Master Engo introduces the subject, and he says, the bakuyu sword in hand, he cuts through all complications. hung high, he himself utters the words of Vairochana. In self-mastery, he quietly puts on his clothes and takes his meal.

[02:08]

In mysterious and playful samadhi, what will he do? See the following. And then the main case, the main subject, At every midday mealtime, King U Osho would himself bring the pail of boiled rice, and in front of the refractory, dance and laugh loudly, saying, dear Bodhisattvas, come and take your meal. Setcho says, although King U did this, he was not simple-minded. A month later, quite a bit later, maybe some generations later. A monk said to Chokhe, the ancient worthy said, dear Bodhisattvas, come and take your meal. What does it mean? Chokhe said, he seems to observe reflection and thanksgiving before the midday meal.

[03:11]

And then Master Setjo, who compiled the book of record, says in his verse, From among the white clouds, laughter rings out. He brings the rice himself to give to the monks. If golden-haired, they will follow him even thousands of miles away. So The name Khingyu means golden ox, and one source, the only source that deals with his name, says that Khingyu, golden ox, means something, or refers to wealth, and maybe this name was applied to him

[04:17]

Maybe he was a wealthy person who was a monk in Tang Dynasty, China, and he dedicated all of his wealth and activity to the support of the temple and to the monks. But his name, but his title, Osho, which means priest or monk, So he was a monk, apparently. It's a little unusual for a monk to have a lot of wealth, but not impossible. No, not at all. There were apparently wealthy monks in those days, as there are today. But he was highly thought of because of his generosity. dedicating everything he had to the temple and to his fellow practitioners.

[05:23]

So gold and ox might also just simply refer to his true gold, which was his generosity, not his money, not his true wealth, which was his So Ngo introduces the subject, and of course he's talking about kin-yu and about the nature of his activity. So he says, the bakuyu sword in hand, he cuts through all complications. The bakuyu sword was apparently this weapon that was used in, a famous weapon that was wielded by somebody in ancient China which cut through all the complications. So it's applied to maybe like Manjushri's sword. Manjushri is the Bodhisattva of wisdom and he carries his sword which cuts through all the complications.

[06:34]

Cuts through the complications of duality and cuts through to oneness. There's a famous koan about cutting the cat in two. Most people know that koan because it's so famous. Hyakujo, when he heard the monks arguing about a cat, picked up the cat and said, if one of you can give me a word to stop your arguing, I'll let the cat go. If not, I'll cut it in two. Master Dogen says, if I'd been there, I would have said, why don't you cut the cat in one? So this is the Bakuryu sword. which cuts the cat in one.

[07:37]

And then he says, the clear mirror hung high, he himself utters the words of Vairochana. The clear mirror is like the mirror mind which sees everything just as it is, without distortion, without preference, free of ego, free of delusion, simply seeing everything clearly just as it is, which is very hard to do because our minds are continually creating impressions based on ideas and preference. So the clear mirror hung high and uttering the words of Vairochana. So the clear mirrors actually allows Vairochana to shine forth.

[08:43]

So Vairochana is the personification of the source of light and the source of wisdom. So the clear mirror and vairuchana are somewhat the same. There's a bodhisattva vow which is vairuchana seated on a lotus throne of a thousand petals and on each petal sits a bodhisattva. So this The master takes the place of Varajana. The enlightened person takes the place of Varajana. Seated on a lotus throne of a thousand petals, and on each petal sits a Bodhisattva. So the Bodhisattva, the enlightened person is actually enlightening thousands of Bodhisattvas.

[09:51]

And so this applies to Khingyu, in a way, because Khingyu is saying, come, bodhisattvas, I have your meal. So Khingyu is actually sitting in the seat of Vairochana. So then he says, in self-mastery, he quietly puts on his clothes and takes his meal, meaning He's expressing himself through every detail of his life. He's expressing his enlightenment through every detail of his life. Putting on his clothes, taking his meal, walking down the street, talking to people. Whatever he does is expressing Varocana's enlightenment. He doesn't have to do something special. This is a truly enlightened person acting without having to worry about what he's doing because it's Bhairavachana's activity.

[11:03]

He's completely at one with the source. So this is called self-mastery. Self-mastery means the opposite of mastery, in simply letting go and letting Vairojana do the work, do the activity. And then he says, in a mysterious and playful samadhi, what will he do? So, playful samadhi is like, because he has so much freedom, he can be totally spontaneous. In Zen, people often equate Zen with spontaneity, and that's correct. Spontaneity coming from total freedom, which comes from no egotistical activity.

[12:09]

So there's the freedom which comes from egotistical activity and the freedom which comes from non-egotistical activity. freedom from egotistical activity. In the 50s and 60s, there were, well the 50s and 60s were a time of the swing of the pendulum to the left. And then the 80s and 90s were a swing of the pendulum to the right. And right now we're experiencing the apex of the pendulum swinging to the right. And now it's beginning to swing back to the left. And this is the rhythm of society. It swings to the right and it becomes very rigid. And then people can't stand it anymore, and then it swings back to the left and becomes very liberal.

[13:16]

And then people see all the flaws in that, and then it comes back. So this is the swing of the pendulum. It keeps going back and forth from left to right. In the 50s and 60s, it swung way to the left. And it was the sexual revolution, and the freedom revolution, do-your-own-thing revolution, and people were organizing themselves into communes where they felt that they could just do whatever they wanted. And so this is a kind of spontaneity which doesn't work so well because the communes didn't have very much discipline. So people just kind of went off the deep end to a large extent. Zen Center was organized about that same time. And because Zen Center had discipline and a history, a tradition, it maintained its integrity as a community.

[14:32]

And up until 1970, a lot of people thought it was a commune, until Tatsakami Roshi came to Tassajara in 1970 and organized the monastic life. And then the people who thought it was a commune left and went north to Arcata. So, to find your freedom within some restriction is true freedom, according to our understanding. So, within the discipline we find the freedom. to just do your own thing is actually not freedom, because there's no basis. So here is the main subject.

[15:44]

At every midday mealtime, Kengyu Osho it would himself bring the pail of boiled rice and in front of the refractory, I guess that's the eating hall, dance and laugh loudly, saying, dear Bodhisattvas, come and take your meal. That's true freedom, right? Usually, the monks all sit in front of, you know, in Zazen, and there's all this formality of how we eat a meal. The meal is only part of the formality. And the formality is as important as the meal. And a lot of chanting, and everybody sits very quietly, and nobody says anything. until the right time.

[16:50]

So, what is this, you know, dance and this total spontaneity of, can you? Everybody wishes that they had this spontaneity. People say, can't we be a little more spontaneous in our Zen practice? Well, it's very interesting. This is an example of maturity in a Zen master. Maturity. When a Zen master is totally mature, then they can do whatever they want spontaneously, and it works. But if the novice does this, it doesn't work. It's just like, who does he think he is? It's more like egotistical. This is activity without any ego at all. Total spontaneous activity without self-centeredness.

[17:59]

So it's interesting, it's a kind of line, like where is this spontaneity which is real freedom and spontaneity which is simply acting out? So Setso, the commentator says, even though, although King U did this, he was not simple-minded. But another translation is, he was not just being kind-hearted. It looks like he was just being kind-hearted, but he wasn't just being kind-hearted. What was he doing? Kind-hearted would mean, He's giving him something to eat. I mean, that's kind-hearted. But there's something more that's happening besides just feeding the monks rice. But rice has a lot of different meanings in this case.

[19:04]

What is he actually feeding them? There's material food, and then there's spiritual food. Spiritual food is actually what we eat is the most nourishing. They're both nourishing. It's interesting how food can be prepared in a way that looks really good, but when you eat it, there's something missing. that can be very elaborate, well-done meal, that fancy, and it looks wonderful, but when you eat it, there's not much there. And then there's the meal which is very simple, and made with the simplest ingredients, which is, when it's served and eaten, has vitality to it, and you feel

[20:13]

or experience or eat the love and the care that really is transferred through the food. So what we're actually eating is the intention and the care and the love and enlightenment of the person that's preparing the food. sometimes at the end of a sashin after the cooks come and we express our appreciation for the cooks. I often say what we really, that we all, what we really appreciate about the food is the spirit that

[21:31]

went into the making of the food which actually nourishes us. So we consider cooking in the kitchen the same as sitting in the zindo. And that the activity of the cooks and their spiritual offering is the most nourishing part because the food itself is very simple. to make something, some wonderful dish out of nothing, out of the most common ingredients is the best. Because then you can't count on the ingredients to be the sustaining part of the meal. The sustaining part of the meal is the effort that went into creating it, which is transferred to those who eat it. So this is more like what King U is offering is more than just food.

[22:36]

So, a monk said to Chokhe later on, the ancient worthy, meaning King U, said, dear Bodhisattvas, come and take your meal. What does it mean, Chokei said. He seems to observe reflection and thanksgiving before the midday meal, which is a kind of bland answer, actually. There is another case in this booklet record which is a sequel to that sentence, which I will present in a few minutes. It's just a separate case. Is that the part you just read? Yeah. So Sencho's, in his verse, says, from among the white clouds, laughter rings out.

[23:51]

I think from among the white clouds means, of course, Asian rice mostly is white. We sometimes eat brown rice, but the white clouds, I think, refers to when you take the cover off the pot, this white steam comes out, and he's peering through the steam. I remember at Tassajara in the wintertime, cold winter, And you're sitting in the cold zendo. We used to sit in the ice cold zendo. Now they have heat. And you hold your bowl up, your rice bowl, and all this steam is coming out of the rice bowl. It's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. So he says, from among the white clouds, laughter rings out. This is King Yu. He brings rice himself to give to the monks.

[24:56]

What does that mean? If golden-haired, they will follow him. Golden-haired, it applies to Buddha. You see, the golden-haired lion is another name for Buddha. So if they were followers of If they were true bodhisattvas, is what it means, they will follow him even a thousand miles away. So, you know, this freedom, we should all have this spontaneous freedom. The interesting thing is how do you find your freedom within restriction? Sometimes we feel that the formality is a kind of restriction.

[25:59]

Formality of the zendo and when you eat and so forth. But actually, it's a vehicle for freedom and spontaneity. How can you be spontaneous and free within the formality? within whatever restriction you have. Like wherever we are in this world, there is restriction. You may feel that you can do whatever you want, but actually, you can't. You can only do whatever you want within a certain restriction, within a certain field. When you're driving your car down the freeway, you may want to go 150 miles an hour, but you have to obey the rules. And you have to find your freedom within the speed that you're going, even though you want to. So how do you settle into what you're doing? How do you settle into what you're doing within the restrictions of whatever it is that you're doing?

[27:05]

So our boundaries are what give us our vehicle for spontaneity. If you go up a mountain, you have to respect the restrictions that a mountain offers. If you go into the ocean, you have to respect the restriction of what the ocean has to offer. So knowing the boundaries and conforming, we hate that word, conforming, Conforming means to take the form of whatever parameters your life is entering at any moment, so that you can smoothly live your life with spontaneity. My teacher, Suzuki Roshi, had terrific spontaneity through following the forms.

[28:16]

And when he was not following the forms of the Zendo, all the forms that he was taking up were forms of practice and spontaneity. So I'm going to go to case number 93, which is called Taiko's New Fox Devil. Taiko, this conversation happened much later. A monk asked Taiko, What is the meaning of Chokei's words?

[29:23]

He seems to observe reflection and thanksgiving before the midday meal. Taiko performed a dance. The monk made bows, and Taiko said, what moves you to make the bows? And the monk performed a dance. Taiko said, you fox devil. So, your spontaneity has to be your spontaneity. You can't mimic somebody else. So, if you were the cook and you came out in front of the refractory and said, come on Bodhisattvas, get your sweet Bodhisattvas, it wouldn't work, because it's not your spontaneity. But, Taiko performed a dance.

[30:24]

But it was his dance. When the monk did his dance, it was already too far down the line. He had to do something else. Taiko's dance was his spontaneous response to the monk. But for the monk to dance for Taiko was just mimicking. So, the monk made bows and Taiko said, What moves you to make the vows? And the monk performed a dance. Thought it was a new fox devil. So the teacher doesn't give approval very easily. The monk has to come up with something else. His own response. So Setsuo in his verse says, one arrow glanced off and the other struck deep.

[31:30]

The arrow glancing off, sometimes they say the arrow was more shallow, but that was like Taiko's dance. He said this was his arrow to the monk, which didn't hurt. but the second one hurt, like you fox devil. That was painful. Don't tell me yellow leaves are gold. Baso had a, someone asked him, what do you tell people when they want to know about who is Buddha? And he said, mind is Buddha. And then later, someone asked him again, what is Buddha?

[32:34]

And he said, no mind, no Buddha. And then the monk said, well, I thought before you said, mind is Buddha. And Baso said, It's like giving yellow leaves to a child to play with, saying these are gold. So it looks like yellow leaves look like gold, but they're yellow leaves. But they're good to play with until you find the gold. So you give something to the child that looks like the real thing, and then the child grows up and finds the real thing. So yellow leaves are like something to keep the child from crying. And then, if the waves of Soke were all the same, Soke is the sixth ancestor, Daikon Eno.

[33:38]

If the waves of Soke, the waves of Soke are his disciples, Nangaku and Seigen and so forth, if they're all the same, Many would drown on dry land. So a good teacher does not expect all of his students to do the same thing or be the same. They should each one have their own way. Each one should have their own way. Every student should have his own way, which is authentic. We should all have our own authority or authenticity. In other words, we should all be Vairojana, give up ourselves to Vairojana, and then let Vairojana do the work.

[34:41]

This phrase, he seems to observe reflection and thanksgiving before the midday meal. Reflection and thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is constant. This is a sign of an enlightened person who has continuous and constant gratitude and is expressing it all the time. And the way one expresses gratitude is to take the lowest position and support everyone else. So this is how we recognize Kinyu's enlightenment. He didn't say much, except, dear Bodhisattva, come and take your meal.

[36:00]

But he's continuously expressing his gratitude by giving something back all the time. Dogen, who always returned some water to the stream, Every day he would return water to the stream to express his gratitude and to not be possessive, give something back, always giving something back. I just happened to glance at this new Buddha Dharma magazine, and there was somebody talking about Sang Tsang, Zen Master Sang Tsang, a Korean teacher, and someone had asked him about, I'm trying to remember,

[37:13]

what is a Zen master, what is a teacher? And he said, somebody who is always supporting everybody else. He said, sometimes a big teacher comes to America and people give him a big car and he drives around in it. A lot of money and stuff like that. but just the person who is taking the lowest position and supporting everybody else. This is my criteria for ordaining someone as a priest, is someone who is devoting their life to supporting everybody else. and has no self-interest in anything else.

[38:21]

So, do you have any questions? Oh yeah. 74. My question had to do with the case 93. Yeah. And I was wondering, I mean, you should look at it a different way, but I think making the same point. Sometimes when a Zen master says something like, you old fox devil, it's actually a compliment. Yes, that's true. And in that case, it could be that the light arrow is the bowing and the leap arrow is And that, in fact, rather than being an imitation, the student's dance was, you know, his mature expression. Well, that could be. You could see it that way. I don't think it necessarily changes the… Except that the expression here is torn, the other side.

[39:38]

What? The expression here, the way it's expressed. is toward criticism of the monk. How, what? You fox bogey. What? By calling him. Okay, so that is more questioning, like you old rice, sometimes they say like you old rice bag. That's right. That's more complimentary. But you fox bogey, of course. It's true. If you read the, to look at the poem, the poem is criticizing his imitation. So sometimes you fox devil could be compliment or it could be a criticism. So maybe that's a good call. It is a coma.

[40:38]

It is a coma. Does that mean criticism, or does it mean... I think it's carrying it a little far, but it could be. I don't think it is, but it could be. Somebody else, though, before Pat. Oh, yeah, you had your hand up. I did? If you don't know, then never mind. I have things I can say. Oh, you just want... Okay. Pat? Who feeds the golden ox? Say that again? Who feeds the golden ox? It's... Although the golden ox is self-sustaining, feeding is reciprocal, giving is receiving.

[41:49]

So the more you give, the more room you have for reception. So emptying out is giving space for everything to come in. So sometimes people say, well, I give so much that I'm exhausted. And I'm puzzled by that, because the more we give, the more we're filled. So if it's true giving, if it's really selfless giving, we're constantly being fulfilled as we give. But if our giving is stingy, then we wear out. So, when you give, totally give. Oh, way in the back.

[42:53]

Somebody has a question. It's both ways, yes, unless the receiver is open, you know, so when you receive something you should be open. Sometimes people, you know, if somebody gives us something we feel funny or something, but we're allowing someone to give. Yes, that's the essence of fundraising. And be thankful.

[43:58]

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