And I think, at least I do, I look out at these birds and ducks and they seem to swim where they want and the bird flies where it wants. But this little bird looks pretty neurotic to me. I mean, I really don't know what it's doing, but it's building a nest anyway, and it thinks it's hiding where its nest is. So it comes up with all kinds of nice things to make a nice house. Moss and sticks and things. Its beak is really full. And then it looks around, is anybody watching, you know? And if it thinks somebody's watching, as far as I can tell, it flies off and pretends it's doing something else.

[01:09]

It's completely obvious what it's doing, but it thinks, you know. And its mate is up in a tree watching to make sure no one else is watching, too. And finally, after quite a lot of fooling around, it'll go up in its place and come back. It's been going on for two or three days. And it's, I'm sure, ritualized behavior of some kind, but it doesn't seem so much different from the way we do our daily life. So we might as well enjoy it. So again, these four foods are what we eat.

[02:19]

And the sense of eating a measured amount of food. By the way, some of you, especially if you're wearing Buddha's robe, it's not so good to make a mess. But you have to be especially careful with beet soup. But still, generally you don't lean way over. You hold the bowl under your chin. As much as possible, you sit in a zazen posture and eat. There's going to be a disaster. Okay, lean over, but in general you try to sit up. Okay, the second food is what's called the three meetings.

[03:33]

When the sense organ and the object of perception, and consciousness come together. Now, when you have that sense of a sense object, the consciousness and the sense organ, this is a nourishing feeling. experience of contact with the world. And again, sometimes in zazen, with all of our helpful birds, we have this sense of, our sense, ear consciousness and The ear and the bird are coming together.

[04:42]

This is called the second food. The third food, I think most simply we could call one-pointedness. When you have a volitional or intentional thought about something. So concentrated intentional thought Also konzentrierter absichtlicher Gedanke ist die dritte Speise. Und die vierte Speise ist, wenn ihr ein konzentriertes Gewahrsein habt ohne Objekt. Now, these four foods are also part of the orioke.

[05:48]

When someone's serving you, you have this attention to the serving of, you know, like this. When someone serves you, you have this attention to the serving of, you know, like this. So the point I'm making here again is that you in your daily life to find some way in which you can have a sense of this kind of nourishment of your contact with the world. So some of the aspects of sesshin can be brought into your daily life in addition to doing zazen. If you understand why a zazen is the way it is, you can understand why to bring small parts of it into your daily life.

[06:53]

In the Shuso ceremony at the Crestum, the Shuso says, It's the question and answer ceremony with the head mug. After the ceremony, he says, if I've misled you in any way by what I've been saying, please wash your ears out with the pure waters of Spanish Creek. After the ceremony, at the end, he says, if I have misled you with what I said, then wash your ears with the pure water of the Spanish gorge. And I think this actually comes from a Chinese custom, particularly of scholars, when they studied a lot or listened to a lot, they then wash their ears out so that they can be free of what they've studied and hear things freshly.

[08:49]

And hear things for themselves. And it may be silly that you have to actually go wash your ears out, but there's some kind of interesting truth to it, a feeling about it. After studying a lot, go wash it. Or maybe in the morning when you do wash your face and hands and ears, have the feeling of washing your ears out so you can hear for yourself. I think that's enough on all that. Yesterday I mentioned the kind of corny koan of the goose in the goosenecked bottle.

[09:58]

So let me give you the koan that's so now a symbol in the West of Zen that it's become a joke. Which is Hakuin's koan, the sound of one hand clapping. And I invite you to take it seriously for a time. And actually try, have the feeling, hearing the sound of each thing you notice or perceive. Not just the sound of this hand. But the sound of everything, and if you don't hear something, imagine you're hearing something.

[11:17]

Or what is happening is your hearing of one hand clapping. This kind of attention to the world is very helpful. Thank you very much. May our intention deeply penetrate every being and place. With the true merit of Buddha's way, you drove on ahead to save Ando, all born for Jetsun to save Ando.

[12:20]

I've been here quite a lot of times. I've been here quite a lot of times. I've been here quite a lot. Vento gentil mio noa, Iarus et manvo nio aeo cotogatasi, O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave? Namo amin.

[14:00]

Yodashivin jitsum yogeshi tathayi masuram. Anansarpas penetrating in perfect dharma. I hope all to taste the truth of the Tathagata's words. I believe this is the sixth day, is that right?

[15:22]

So we only have one more day. I always feel rather forlorn when a seshin is about to end. Sakyurashi used to say that the students, the disciples, the practitioners have it easy. Because when the session's over or when they leave the zendo, they forget about Zen and the teacher and they have quite a good time. Because when the session's over, But the teacher's mind is always going with the student.

[16:23]

What is he or she doing? And it's something like that. The trouble with Zen is it's too lofty. Too high, too difficult. At least that. No, I'm serious. It's too lofty. But you're the ones who made the mistake and came here.

[17:25]

I didn't. No, I made it a long time ago. Not my fault you're here. So, at least I hope not. So we have to accept it, it's too lofty. The problem is, because it's too lofty, most people don't really practice it. It should be limited like supposedly shamanism is to the few crazies in the village. Yeah. And because it's... So lofty.

[18:35]

It tends to get institutionalized and the teaching rhetoric. Rhetoric? Rhetorical. I guess rhetorical. Why not? Sounds similar. I'm so jealous of all you guys. You can speak German so easily. Keeps me in my place. And there's been several scholars recently who have criticized Zen historically as being nothing but rhetoric.

[19:42]

And there's even a book, one of the most brilliant is a book called The Rhetoric of Immediacy. And I feel sad about this scholarship, although sometimes it's quite insightful, interesting and unfortunately accurate. What was the first two? Accurate? Unfortunately accurate? Yeah, that's what you remembered. Insightful, interesting. And I feel sad because unfortunately it is accurate, often accurate.

[20:43]

And for most people it's more believable than this lofty teaching which they don't understand. Many of the Zen leaders in America and Zen groups are jumping on this bandwagon. And saying, yes, you see, it's no wonder we haven't realized enlightenment because it's all rhetoric. And they say, we're just a religion like any other, and we should help people. We're a kind of sociology. We're social work. And I feel sorry also because these scholars have never had a real teacher.

[22:03]

Or never gone into the practice which is characterized in this koan I'm discussing this afternoon as the sweating horses of the past. Yeah, if you want to keep your mind in the confines of your society and culture, Zen does seem quite locked. But if you look past your culture, your language, at the vastness of this world,

[23:06]

then maybe Zen is a good practice for you. Yeah, this isn't about being successful in the world, although more people would practice if there were more careers available. Right now maybe it's healthy. There's not much in the way of careers available in Zen. There are lots of careers available in Japan. And often the more serious young people monks come to America or Europe or want to because there's too many careers available in Japan. The inducements of, the natural inducements and the compassion

[24:27]

way we can express ourselves in our society are very powerful. The attractiveness and the things that induces you to be part of the society. But this practice is no more lofty than this world we live in is lofty. Which is, our world is immensely complex and yet has such a simple face. It's layer upon layer of compressions Which we can, if we practice, open up.

[25:45]

Again, it's actually not so lofty if you're just willing to do it. Without any idea even that you're doing something. we find some paths of immediacy. Anyway, since it is the way it is, let me present you with another column. And this one is, for what we've been discussing this week, would be a classic Quran. A monk named Wei Zhao asks Fa Yan, this person said, Wei Zhao is asking the teacher,

[27:20]

What is Buddha? And Vayin says, you are Weijiao. Now this is a typical sounding Zen story. So let's try to look at it. You might ask, Neil MacLean might say, this is Neil MacLean asking, what is Buddha? And I suppose you probably asked yourself that question. Don't tell me you haven't. Oh dear, I almost thought for a minute you were going to say me, watching me.

[28:45]

You would have really put me in a zen fix. Even Fa Yen wouldn't have known what to answer. Yeah. So Fa Yen, this Fa Yen is the same guy, same great founder of the Fa Yen school that was in the Koan 20 that we talked about so much last year. Where Fayan says he's going, he's on pilgrimage. And Dijan says, what is the purpose of pilgrimage? Purpose. Purpose. And Fayan said, I don't know.

[29:52]

And Dijang said, not knowing is nearest. So anyway, same person, same Fayan, but now as a teacher. Now the commentary starts out, the thousand sages, the thousand Buddha ancestors, have not transmitted the word before sound. Now, these folks are trying to talk about something here. And they're not hiding in the behind the gauze curtain of ineffability.

[30:53]

In what? Of words that don't ineffability. What was that? Ineffability. It means... You can't talk about it. Language can't express it. Silence is best. And instead of using esoteric, some kind of special esoteric language, they use ordinary sentences... But they say like the word which is before sound. Now, if you want to practice this way together with us, with such good Dharma friends, you really have to go quite slowly.

[32:01]

And without the feeling of trying to accomplish something. You know, the mind of aspiration to realize enlightenment with and through and for all sentient beings is called the mind of aspiration, but it's not really a mind of desire. It's more like a person aspires to get on a train. And then they get on the train. And you can say, this is the person who aspired to get on the train. But now that he's on the train, he no longer aspires to get on the train, but he's the person who aspired to get on the train.

[33:14]

But so now he's just on the train, wherever it takes him. And the mind of enlightenment is like that. If you realize this mind of aspiration, once you've realized it, you no longer are aspiring, you're just taking direction from this mind. Does that make sense? You're on the train. You've achieved this mind of aspiration, but it's no longer about desiring something. You just are listening to this mind that wishes everyone could realize enlightenment. So I want you to try to use your zazen practice and use your...

[34:15]

investigation of how we exist, to open up another, actually the word that's used is station, like a train station. Also, ich bitte euch also, euren Geist zu benutzen und eure Untersuchungsfähigkeit, um etwas zu eröffnen, dessen Wort also hier bei uns als Station, als Bahnhof gewissermaßen übersetzt wird. like impermanence is considered a station. It's a state of mind from which you investigate impermanence. So the emphasis here is not so much in noticing things are impermanent, but generating a state of mind that notices things are impermanent. Do you understand the difference? This little bird is still building its nest. It's really busy, I don't know, when it rests.

[35:31]

And it brings this mouth-beak load of stuff up there, but it seems to put in a couple things and come back out with about three-fourths of it. It looks around more. It goes back. So I'm watching this bird. Quite cute. I think it thinks I'm God or something. Because I'm in another realm behind the window and I'm sort of watching but not interfering. And it cocks me a sidelong glance every now and then. And my friend, I told you about the other day, my former student just died just after I talked to him on the phone, I guess. So I'm watching this bird and I suppose I'm contemplating impermanence.

[37:06]

But I'm not thinking everything's impermanent, the bird is, you know, etc. I'm just have this station of mind of... acknowledging impermanence. It's like I'm on the train of practice and sometimes I stop at this station and generate this mind of impermanence. And sometimes I generate, shall we say, the mind of objectless continuum. These all are considered, this is the term the Prajnaparamita sutras use, stations. And you occupy these stations now and then. More and more you can feel these stations present in your ordinary mind.

[38:31]

They can be intentionally visited or they're just present as stations in the background of your activity. And this is described as how the Bodhisattva courses, travels, courses in wisdom. So here's this guy, Wee Jau, asking, saying, Wee Jau. He's very exact. He's very precise. He could say, Wee Jau, who is standing here, is asking the teacher, What is Buddha? He could say, he's very exact. This person is asking this question of you, the teacher, what is Buddha? By looking at his question, we can see what kind of fellow he was.

[39:42]

And we can know something about his practice. And we can know something about his practice. Now, I practiced with Suzuki Roshi not anywhere near long enough, but a pretty long time. And, for example, I mean, okay, so I'm doing doksan now. And some of you, you know, one of you might have asked me a question and I gave you some response. And what exactly did I mean? If you ask me next week, I won't even remember probably. Did I say that? But if we wrote it down on, you know, a paper kimono, And we added a bunch of commentary and stuff, you know, could become, you know, a kind of... The house, there's still a koan.

[41:03]

Yeah, so... But it's not just that the commentary fixes it in place as a teaching story. But it's also the case that You know, after all these years of talking and practicing Buddhism, talking about it with you, it's pretty clear what I mean. And practicing with Suzuki Roshi, I developed a, we could say in the beginning, a kind of parallel mind that was Suzuki Roshi's. I came to San Francisco looking for a Zen teacher.

[42:04]

I had no idea where there would be a Zen teacher. There were no Zen teachers as far as I knew in America. But I was somehow attracted to Zen. It actually occurred, believe it or not, probably most deeply on Basho's frog poem. I was listening to Reischauer, who was the professor of this course I was taking in college, So I was listening to Reischauer, this professor at the university where I was studying. And he said, well, you know, I should tell you about this kind of haiku, which I don't understand, but, you know, it's a famous haiku, I'll tell you.

[43:23]

And this haiku was Basho's enlightenment poem with his teacher, actually, supposedly. So this... Any of you could have, looking at this pond out there, composed this poem about a hundred times. Yeah, so anyway, Reischauer said, yeah, I don't get what this is about, but here it is. Back up, old pond. Frog jump in.

[44:28]

Water sound. And I don't know why, you know. I went, whoa, you know, sort of dig light around me and I was sort of throbbing. It was great. And I don't know why, but it was just wow. It was light around me and it pulsated. So, really great. And I think it may have been just that he said he didn't understand it. He told it in such an offhand way. But that stepped me outside of the course, the class, et cetera, somehow. And it's one of the points at which I started to practice. So I've been very fond of frogs ever since. I keep a little stone one in front of my computer. He travels with me.

[45:29]

Every now and then I pet him now and then. Don't tell anybody. We won't. I won't translate. Yeah. So I thought, where would there be a Zen teacher? A Zen master, maybe. Yeah, I thought. As I've told you once or twice before, you know, I thought, well, Chinatown. And I knew Chinatown in New York, and it didn't look like there were any Zen masters there.

[46:30]

So I thought, maybe San Francisco, it's near the Pacific. So I thought maybe San Francisco, it's near the Pacific. So off I went on a bus with $35 to San Francisco. And a friend bought my ticket and gave me $35. I was pretty broke in those days. I had some idea that maybe there'd be some Chinese Zen master and he'd be surrounded by Chinese people and speaking Chinese, but I could stay about 50 feet away and watch. So when I met Tsukiyoshi, I felt quite lucky.

[47:33]

He spoke English, more or less. And I took on the job of helping him improve his English. I took over the work to help him improve his English. So, feeling quite lucky, I really tried to study his mind and study his way of doing things. And at this point it wasn't about whether he was a Zen teacher or anything really, it was just he made himself available to be studied, so I decided to study. So I investigated him and myself continuously.

[48:38]

I couldn't explain exactly why I did it, but it seemed like. nothing much to do, so I would do that. So it was almost like there were two of us, two minds. Everything I did, I noticed it and investigated it and also wondered simultaneously how he would investigate it. I'd heard two heads were better than one. Do you have that expression in German? Two heads are better than one. Not really, no.

[49:56]

Two eyes are better than... Four eyes seem more than two. Yeah, it looks like that. Four eyes seem more than two. Four eyes in English means a person who wears glasses. So if you're a kid and wear glasses, they call you four eyes. So if you're a kid and wear glasses, they call you four eyes. So this is, I mean, we may never end this lecture if I keep chatting away like this. We'll have to have an eighth day. I'm just teasing. But that was, this koan made me think of it, that this was... some investigation which, by taking on him as the path, it was more than just myself investigating things.

[51:11]

And in the doing of it, after a while it's not about, as I said, he's a Zen teacher and so forth. It's just the experiment of studying another person who made themselves available to be studied. It was completely immaterial to me whether he was a good Zen master or wasn't a Zen master or anything. He just now was this... person that I decided to investigate. And he didn't run away. Usually if you try that on somebody, they run away. Yeah. Okay. So this, again, this commentary begins with not even the thousand Buddha ancestors have transmitted the word before sound.

[52:45]

And this phrase might be the antecedent for Hakuin's koan, the sound of one hand clapping. Yeah. And the commentary goes on to say, the sky doesn't cover it. The earth doesn't support it. Space cannot contain it. The sun and moon cannot illuminate it. And what does this mean? This is Zen way of talking.

[53:48]

It means it covers heaven and earth. It supports everything. And it is its own illumination does not need sun and moon. So what reality is this pointing at in the midst of this simplicity and complexity which is our life? And the commentary goes on to say when there is not even Buddha, when you alone are the world-honored one, when you alone are the Buddha, then there's a small chance you may amount to something. And if you can't enter on this, realize on the tip of a hair.

[55:06]

Realize on the tip of a hair and let illumination spread everywhere. Now what kind of, if you can't realize through this, The word before sound, which cannot be transmitted, so you're on your own. And it's beyond any categories like illumination or supporting the earth or being included in space. If from this you don't understand, then realize on the tip of a hair. Now you have to stop for a minute and think, what kind of practice is this that you might realize on the tip of a hair?

[56:11]

One of these trains you're on, one of these stations you're in, has to be really as detailed as this bird with the hair and moss and twig in its mouth. Fayan said something like, you must realize the absolute moment. We could say, we must realize the absolute of this moment. You should know what's coming to you. If you don't see it or you miss the chance, you will take the visible for the invisible.

[57:41]

You will take the visible for the invisible. So somehow we're in this preciseness of each thing to the preciseness of the tip of a hair. But you're realizing not only the form, but also the sound before the word, before sound arises. This is like Dogen saying, think non-thinking. Which is not the same as don't think. Think non-thinking. Now this is Versified, as the koan says.

[58:57]

By Shui Do. Shui Do wrote the poems in the blue cliff records. And This is particularly Chinese to see an image or a verse line as representing something. It's almost like you think in images or poetry as well as thinking in ordinary sentences. Das ist nun sehr typisch chinesisch, also diese Zeilen. Die denken in Gedichten und in Versen, um etwas auszudrücken. So the first line of this verse is in the river country the spring wind is not blowing. In the river country the spring wind is not blowing. Yet still

[59:59]

Deep in the flowers, the partridges are calling. So it says in the koan that this first line in the river country, the spring wind is not blowing, versifies the statement. I am hui jiao, asking you, teacher, what is Buddha? And... You are Huijiao is versified as the partridges are calling deep in the flowers. And, of course, the qualities of characteristics of partridges are included in this, which are partridges are sort of gossipy birds, you know.

[61:23]

And when you chase them out of the bush, flush them out, they... So... Now, the koan also points out some possible misunderstandings of this koan. One misunderstanding or intellection. is to assume this means that we, Zhao, is Buddha. We already have Buddha nature. Another misunderstanding is to take it as an ox looking for an ox while riding on an ox. You already, you know, the ox, you know, it's like looking for your glasses with your glasses.

[62:39]

I do that quite often actually. And I say, why are things so clear? Where are my glasses? So I have to have several pairs of glasses so I at least have the sensation I've found something. Because I think looking is more what I'm doing than finding. Another misunderstanding is... I forget. But there's another one, which is some people, when hearing this koan, put a glare in their eyes.

[63:40]

This refers to the more shamanic side of Zen practice where you kind of look real forceful and spurt energy out of your eyes to show people, to make them understand. And Zen teachers aren't supposed to do this unless it's uncontrollable. Because you're supposed to let the student discover. You're not supposed to induce understanding through some kind of fierceness. It's only where there's these various misunderstandings. They're trying to get you to see what Fa Yan meant. You know the Buddha is behind us in the past.

[64:50]

And there are Buddha ancestors behind us in the past. And Suzuki Roshi is behind us in the past. And his teacher, Gyokujen, and so on. But for them, Buddha was also in the future. Because Buddha only exists when Buddha is in the future. Sukhiroshi wouldn't have been Sukhiroshi if he hadn't entered the path of the Buddha. If he hadn't believed it was possible to realize this practice. If he hadn't had faith in this world as it exists, that it must be possible. Only when there's no Buddha, And you are the world-honored one.

[66:25]

Is there some hope? Nur wenn es keinen Buddha gibt und ihr, der von der Welt verehrte seid, gibt es etwas Hoffnung. So in this sense the Buddha of the past comes up and joins you and the Buddha of the future comes back and joins you. Und in diesem Sinne kommt die Vergangenheit zurück und vereint sich mit euch und auch die Zukunft kommt her und vereint sich mit euch. And this understanding is versified by Shredo. Und dieses Verständnis wird wiederum im Vers gefasst von Shredo. As at the dragon gate Am Drachentor. Which I think it was some place or it means anyway, you know, a dam blocks. Yeah, like that. And it's used as a metaphor for passing the examinations in China and stuff. And so it says, at the three-tiered Dragon Gate, where the waves are high.

[67:43]

And this kind of expression, the waves are high, is often used to mean the waves cover the sky. You're deep in the trough of the waves. And you can't see the world. All you see is these waves and your struggle. So it says, at the three-tiered dragon gate, where waves cover the sky, fish become dragons. And it says, some fools still dip water out of the evening pond. Now, some fools dip water out of the evening pond is likened to a person who, a farmer who happened to, it's called waiting by a stump. So it means that some farmer was walking along and he saw a rabbit come running out of somewhere, hit a stump and fall over dead.

[69:05]

So he took the rabbit home to his wife and they had quite a feast. And the next day his wife went looking for him and he was standing by the stump waiting for it to happen again. This is likened to people who depend on the sutras for understanding. Or do zazen, like they were waiting for enlightenment or something. So if you just do zazen, you know, sort of dipping water of the evening pond.

[70:20]

No, you have to enter the dragon gate. Yeah. So it means you have to enter the footsteps of the Buddha. You have to have the confidence, even in these big waves, even just being Wee Jow or Neil MacLean. You have to have the confidence to say, this is possible, someone has to do it. I will enter this Buddha behind me, Buddha in front of me. I alone am the world-honored one. You must have the confidence that it is possible that you can tell the past Buddha behind you, the future Buddha in front of you, I alone am the world-honored one.

[71:23]

And Chayin meant, as we jow, you enter this path. And each of you, the case is the same. Thank you very much. May our intention equally penetrate every being.

[71:34]

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