Master Engo introduced the subject. He said, in the bright mirror on its stand, beauty and ugliness are revealed. With the Bakuyu sword in hand, killing and bringing to life are brought under control. A handsome fellow disappearing, an ugly one comes. An ugly fellow disappearing, a handsome one comes. Life is found in death. Death in life. If you have no eye to penetrate the barrier, no freedom to turn about, you will be lost on the way. Tell me. What is the eye that penetrates the barrier?

[01:02]

What is the freedom to turn about? See the following. And then here's the main subject. Setso introduces the main subject. A monk asked Joshu, what is Joshu? Joshu said, East Gate, West Gate, North Gate, South Gate. That's all. And then Master Setso made up a verse. He says, Its intention concealed, the question came. The Diamond King's eye was as clear as a jewel. There stood the gates, north, south, east, and west, but the heaviest hammer blow could not open them.

[02:06]

This kind of case, you know, in the Blue Cliff Record, this dialogue between a student and a teacher often is presented as the dumb student asking the smart teacher, and the teacher, you know, showing the student where it's at. But actually, it's a kind of... not meant to show how stupid the monk is. It's meant to set up... make a setup to show the mind of the teacher. So naturally, the monks, in these times, in the Tang Dynasty in China, the monks would go around and try and put the teachers on the spot by asking them questions like this.

[03:20]

This is a very famous question for everyone. Who are you? It's the ultimate question. Who are you? Who is Joshu? What's Joshu? And see what kind of response they get. So this monk, not a stupid monk, actually, but he was trying to see how he could provoke the teacher So in Setso's verse he says, its intention concealed, the question came. So it concealed, but Joshu could see through the question. So he says the diamond king's eye was as clear as a jewel. That means he could see through the question.

[04:23]

The monk knew that Joshu came from the town of Joshu. These days, the teachers were often named after the place where they came from or where they taught. So Tozan came from Mount Tozan. And Joshu came from a village called Jiaojiao, Chinese, but we use the Japanese pronunciations. And the cities in those days had four gates. They had a north gate, and a south gate, and an east gate, and a west gate. So the question was kind of like, what is Joshu? Could refer either to the state, the town, or it could refer to the person.

[05:27]

And if Joshu started talking about the town, the monk would say, no, I'm talking about a person. And if he started talking about the person, the monk would say, well, I'm just really talking about the town, trying to trick him. So, Zhao Zhou has a place to turn around. Zhao Zhou is noted for his ability to be able to turn in a tight situation and not get stuck. So when the monk says, who is Joshu? Joshu says, East Gate, West Gate, North Gate, South Gate. And he transcends both person and city, and doesn't personalize his answer. If someone says, who are you? You might say, I am, and immediately you're lost. As soon as I am appears, you're already dead.

[06:31]

So, Joshu avoided the I word. And he presented big self. East gate, north gate, south gate, west gate. Now, what are these gates? In Zen, we talk about gateless gate. the gate, which is not a gate, or the barrier, actually, which is not a barrier. Where does one enter? Where does one find a place to enter into reality? So, these four gates of Joshu are somewhat open to interpretation. What did Joshu, although what he said was enough, still there's some meaning in the four gates.

[07:46]

So one way of looking at Jaojo's four gates of who is Jaojo is to think about consciousness. We say that we have the five skandhas, form, feelings, perceptions, mental formations, and consciousness. And the most vital is the levels of consciousness. In Buddhism, it's sometimes said that there is only consciousness. And in the esoteric schools, they put forth the understanding

[09:06]

of various levels of consciousness, and I've talked about this quite often. There are the levels of consciousness which are through the senses, through the five senses, consciousness of mind, which discriminates between the senses of consciousness and things, and the seventh level of consciousness, which is self-consciousness, I-consciousness, in which we identify the ego. And then there's a level of subconsciousness, which is called alaya consciousness or storehouse, where all the memory and seeds of revitalization are stored. And then there's also a ninth consciousness, which is pure consciousness, non-dualistic awareness. Then there's a tenth consciousness, and then there's more and more.

[10:11]

I don't want to get into that too much, but when the levels of consciousness are transformed through practice or understanding, they're no longer called consciousness. They're called wisdoms. So there are five or four wisdoms. four wisdoms, let me say. And the wisdom, starting with the eighth level of consciousness, which is the subconsciousness, alaya, when it's transformed, when the seventh consciousness, which is self-consciousness or ego-consciousness, is transformed, this is actually the key. to all the rest of the transformations, because one can only transform the seventh consciousness, which is our sense of individuality.

[11:19]

It's called that consciousness of passionateness. Of course, passion means suffering, you know, but in another sense it means desire, grasping. And it's interesting that the one word means those two things. Desire and suffering are really two aspects of the same consciousness. As Buddha says in the Four Noble Truths, the cause of suffering is attachment to passions or desire. So when that seventh consciousness or that consciousness of ego or desire is transformed, then all the rest of them turn.

[12:32]

the eighth consciousness becomes the great round mirror wisdom, which sees everything just as it is. So in the introduction, he says, in the bright mirror on the stand, beauty and ugliness are revealed. When the Bakugyu sword is in hand, killing and sparing are brought under control. A handsome fellow disappearing, an ugly one comes. An ugly fellow disappearing, a handsome one comes. This is like whatever comes before the mirror is reflected just as it is. So Suzuki Roshi used to say, enlightenment in Zen is to see everything just as it is, which is very hard. because we always see everything, or we see things filtered through the seventh consciousness.

[13:36]

We see things filtered through our desire, our opinions, our half-knowledge, our discriminating mind. So it's really hard to see something or everything just as it is, as a mirror reflects. So, when the seventh consciousness, the ego, is turned around, then it's no longer self-consciousness, but becomes the wisdom of equality. wisdom of equality sees everything as being Buddha nature.

[14:38]

So even though all created things are different, they all have the same Buddha nature. This is the nature of equality, seeing equality. So when an enlightened person sees different beings, the enlightened person sees Buddha everywhere. The unenlightened person just sees separation. So, these are two of the gates. The gate of wisdom, the great round mirror of wisdom, and the gate of equality. And the third is When mind consciousness is transformed, turned around, it becomes the wisdom of discernment, marvelous observing wisdom, which appreciates the difference in all created things.

[15:54]

A short person is short, a tall person is tall. No problem. Even though everything is completely equal, everything is totally different. And then, when the five sense faculties are turned, they become the wisdom of working for the benefit of all beings. So, delusion is the basis of enlightenment. The vijnanas, when they're turned, become the wisdoms. So, Delusion is the basis of enlightenment.

[16:58]

You don't get rid of delusion. Delusion just becomes transformed into realization. One doesn't try to cut off anything. One simply realizes that as realization. These are the four gates of Joshu. The Four Wisdoms are the Four Gates of Joshu. In esoteric Buddhism, each one of these gates is personified by a Buddha. It's called the Five Buddhas. There are four Buddhas, but in the center is Vairocana. Vairocana is the Buddha, who emanates light, and his characteristic is emptiness, non-duality, and this is the ninth consciousness, ninth level of consciousness, which we call reality.

[18:22]

which has no special characteristics, and yet everything is a characteristic of this, of Bhairavjana. But, you know, this is a kind of symbolic way of talking about something. But the Zen masters were highly influenced by this kind of understanding. Zen itself has no special scripture or philosophy for understanding, but borrows from the various schools of Buddhism. So we appreciate all the schools of Buddhism. And we don't say Zen is the best school or Shingon is the best school or something like that.

[19:29]

Every school has its purpose and its way of understanding reality. Zen is, for the poor people who can't understand in any other way, but we should understand that Zen is the practice of Buddha, the practice of being Buddha, and not just thinking about it, or not just studying about it. So it necessarily has to be very simple. And sometimes it's like wandering around in the ocean without a landmark.

[20:40]

It's like being at sea without a landmark. But when you're at sea without a landmark, how do you enter the gate? You know, we have a lot of landmarks in our life. As a matter of fact, we construct our life so that we will not be without doubt at any moment. We have our cities, our houses, our work, our relationships. It's all put together very nicely so that we won't have to think or won't have to realize that there's nothing, that actually nothing exists. And we make a nice concrete story out of life.

[21:41]

But actually, we're all at sea. We're all totally at sea. Underneath all of this is just the ground. And at the center of things is fire. air, water. So, this is a good question. Who are? Who are you? And how do you find a defining point in the middle of the ocean? A point to relate to? Joshu avoided using the word I. So I is the reference point that we always come back to.

[22:54]

But it's just a reference point. It's like being out at sea and having a fishing expedition and you catch this big fish And he said, wow, I need to come back here tomorrow and fish tomorrow so you make a mark on the boat. So, actually, we can enter the gate anywhere, because there's no special entrance.

[24:10]

Every place is a place to enter. But, as the poem says, There stood the gates, north, south, east, and west. But the heaviest hammer blow could not open them. One can't force one's way into the inner sanctum of Joshu's being. This is not about Joshu, incidentally. This is about you. If it was just about Joshu, it would just be a story. So, we can't force our way in, and we can't think our way in.

[25:17]

How do we get there? To the place where the true vitality of life and death springs forth without creating I, me and mine. Do you have a question? Yes? In the spirit of this, I'd like to ask you, who are you? I knew you were going to ask that.

[26:20]

He says, in the spirit of this, who are you? This is all. Yes? the words think, I quote you approximately correctly, that enlightenment is the ability to see things as they really are, which is very hard to get to. But that implies that things are really, in some particular way, and philosophers, at least Western philosophers, have been grappling with this for a long time. What does Buddhism say about the reality of things? Are they really in a specific way, or just some product of our own impressions about things? the mind makes up a story about things and then we agree on what the story is.

[27:44]

The mind is always creating definitions. I said, enlightenment is this, right? But that's only a tentative way of speaking. One can't say, this is enlightenment. That's just a tentative way of speaking. The mind is always discriminating, and discriminating mind can never reach ultimate reality through discriminating. because discriminating is necessarily dividing. So there are two levels of reality that we see. One is undivided reality and the other is discriminated reality. So we're always immersed in discriminated reality.

[28:57]

And we try to figure things out through a discriminating mind over and over again. Which is okay, but we can never reach ultimate reality through the investigations of the discriminating mind. Yes, the gate, of course. The barrier is set up by the discriminating mind. Are there any gates in the first place? They're all created. Gates are created. In the first place, there are no gates. In the second place, there are gates. Let's say in the no place, there are no gates.

[30:04]

Then we have one, two, three, which is called multiplicity. And then we have gates, barriers. Well, is all these levels of consciousness, is there a consciousness that sees these levels It is a discriminating mind. All of these levels are discriminating except for the consciousness which is not discriminating and which sees clearly that the other levels are discrimination. When you practice asan, without thinking good or bad, right or wrong, like and dislike, that's the ninth consciousness.

[31:09]

It's not that we don't experience, we do experience that. I mean, that is experienced. You don't experience it, but it is experienced. That's why we sit at Zazen, or that's why Zazen is done. Yes? This non-discriminating mind, what is it good for? Nothing. Thanks for the setup. As Sawaki Kodo used to say, something like, The non-discriminating mind, or zazen, is good for nothing. But unless you do it thoroughly, then it's really good for nothing. Joshua makes a comparison between a town and a person.

[32:17]

No, he doesn't make the comparison. The comparison is there already. But you could say he makes it. But he's using the same gates to apply to a person as he's using to apply to a person. And the gates that applies to a person are his senses. Senses. Senses? Yeah. Well, that is one way we say the senses are the gates. But that's a different set of gates than I'm talking about here. What gates is he talking about? Joshu is talking about four gates. That's why I used the four wisdoms. If he talked about six gates, maybe he's talking about the six senses. But that's not what he means exactly. Why not? Because it's too limited. Six senses are too limited.

[33:20]

He's talking about the Four Wisdoms. Is it to not define a person by his senses? No, you don't. Do you define yourself as the six senses? Well, I have the six senses. That's about all I have, yeah. That's all you have? Yes. You should study more. opinions and judgments are inexhaustible. Without cutting them off, how can we get clearer? Well, instead of trying to eliminate something, it's easier to, more beneficial to turn and go the other way. So, you know,

[34:22]

As long as you're trying to get rid of something, you're always fighting, fighting, fighting, fighting. Better to turn towards something and work towards something and let those things drop off. That's practice. As long as you're trying to get rid of something, you become judgmental and you can never get rid of things that way. It's just more judgment, right? You're just exercising more judgment. So it's better to be compassionate toward those things which feel like dragging you down. And then they don't become the enemy. As long as these things become enemy, then it's just more discrimination and harmful discrimination. It's hard to get rid of. Because you can't get rid of the enemy.

[35:23]

You can chop the enemy into 10 million pieces and they grow 50 million heads. Charlie. you know, a broader well-being is what we really want. Of course. You know, we chop away at the symptoms instead of going to the heart of things. That's why we have so many jails. I mean, we're building jails instead of education, putting our effort in the wrong place. Instead of trying to get to the core of what the problems are, what's the basic problem? We just try to fix everything.

[36:24]

So this is the problem. And it's the big problem. And we have to fix things. When fires are out of control, we have to put them out. But to get to the source of the fire, to get to the source of the problem, it's like there's this huge cover that people can't see. through. So we just keep creating more problems. And by attacking the problems in the way we do, we just create more problems. It's not just this country, it's everywhere in the world. So that's why people sometimes say, well, what good is it sitting on the cushion where all these bad things are happening?

[37:29]

And it's a good question. But this is getting to the source. And if people don't do that, Nothing will ever happen. It'll just keep continuing forever, which it will anyway, but we have to work as if it won't, as if things will change. That's the last question. We're having Sashin today, so we have to be careful to be on time, because the cooks are waiting for us, and so forth. And I will answer one more question. You had your hand up in the back. You said that Zen was the practice of being the Buddha. I did? No, I didn't.

[38:30]

No. It's the practice of being the Buddha. Yeah, that's what I said. Oh, I see. That's what I thought I heard. Well, no. But the emphasis is on that, rather than on studying about Buddha. Or, that's what I meant. Although we do study, you know, it's secondary to the activity, to the practice. Do you want to say something, Rebecca?

[39:34]

Oh, you want me to stop?

[39:36]

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