And everybody else really should listen because this is besides being just a It's a kid's story that I used to read to my kids a long, long time ago. It's also a very funny story, especially about Buddhism. Do you, kids, do you know Frog and Toad? Do any of you know Frog and Toad? You do, okay. You do, okay, great. So we're going to read a Frog and Toad story. And this one, and what I can do is, you know, I can look at it. Green one's a toad. Huh? Green one's a toad. The green one's Frog, and the brown is Toad.

[01:24]

And sometimes I get confused, so it may be the other way around. But it doesn't change the story. I'll try to hold it up so you can see the pictures. Here we go. Toad bakes some cookies. These cookies smell very good, Toad said, and he ate one. And they taste even better. Toad ran to Frog's house. Frog, Frog, cried Toad. Taste these cookies that I've just made. Frog ate one of the cookies. These are the best cookies I've ever eaten, said Frog. big bowl full of cookies. That looked great. Frog and Toad ate many cookies, one after another. You know Toad, said Frog. Frog's kind of a Frog and Toad ate one last cookie.

[02:46]

There were many cookies left in the bowl. Let us eat one very last cookie. And then we will stop. Frog and Toad ate one very last cookie. We must stop eating, cried Toad as he ate another. Yes, said Frog, reaching for a cookie. We need willpower. What is willpower, asked Code. Willpower is trying hard not to do something that you really want to do, said Frog. You mean, like, trying not to eat all of these cookies?" asked Toad. Right, said Frog. Frog put the cookies in a box. There, he said, now we will not eat any more cookies.

[03:51]

said Toad. That is true, said Frog. Frog tied some string around the box. There, he said, now we will not eat any more cookies, but we can cut the string and open the box, said Toad. That is true, said Frog. Frog got a ladder. He put the box up on a high shelf. There, said Frog. Now we will not eat any more cookies. But we can climb the ladder and take the box down from the shelf and cut the string and open the box, said Toad. That is true, said Frog. Frog climbed up the ladder and took the box down from the shelf. He cut the string and opened the box. Frog took the box outside. He shouted in a loud voice, hey birds, here are cookies.

[05:02]

And birds came from everywhere. They picked up all the cookies in their beaks and flew away. Now we have no more cookies to eat, said Toad sadly. Not even one. Yes, said Frog, but we have lots and lots of willpower. You may keep it all, Frog, said Toad. I'm going home now to bake a cake. And that's the story. You want to take a look at some of the pictures? And then we're going to go into talking about this story and other things with the big folks. OK? All set? Well, did you enjoy it? Good, I did too. So, thank you for being here, and enjoy the rest of your day. Bye guys!

[06:38]

Bye! Thank you. I was soaking up seeing people that I've known for many, many years, people I haven't seen for a long time.

[08:27]

So I started off with the kids with this frog and toad story. It feels to me as if I can wrap up all of Buddhism right in this story, this whole process of the cycles of life, going after all the cookies, grabbing them, eating them, and then this incredible action by a frog of just giving them away, letting go. and just that simple thing, it's like how simple, and then going on to the next cycle, who knows what's going to happen with the cake tomorrow, but that whole process that I think a lot of us find ourselves kind of going through in our lives. And so in some ways the action of life frogs is like so simple and go through our lives as an everyday sort of a thing, it's really quite difficult.

[09:52]

And I just have you sort of thinking about a time some years ago, and I think about this a lot over the years, I was meeting the Sojan and talking about some issue that I can't remember, and I asked him something and he responded, and I just didn't you make it sound so simple." And he leaned back and laughed and said, you make it sound so difficult. And I come back to that interchange again and again over the years. Whenever I find myself getting lost in complicated thinking processes and the intricacies of this and that. So simple and yet so difficult. my own kind of tangles created by my own analyzing thinking mind.

[10:57]

So just this question that's sort of always been around with me. What makes things simple? What makes things difficult? So Sojin gave me this koan to work on during this practice period. Case 2 of the Blue Cliff Record choice and attachment. And Joshua added to that, but with a single word there may arise choice and attachment or clarity. This old monk does not have that clarity. Do you appreciate the meaning of this or not? Then a monk asked, if you do not have that clarity, what do you appreciate? Joshu said, I do not know that either.

[11:59]

The monk then said, if you do not know, how can you say you do not have that clarity? Joshu just said very simply, asking the question is good enough. Now make your vows and retire. There's an introduction to this case that I read by Engo. The universe is too narrow, the sun, moon, and stars are all at once darkened. Even if blows from the stick fall like raindrops, and the katsu shouts sound like thunder, you are still far short of the truth of Buddhism. Even the Buddhas of the three worlds can only nod to themselves, and the patriarchs of all ages do not exhaustively demonstrate its profundity. the whole treasury of sutras is inadequate to expound its deep meaning. Even the clear-side monks fail to save themselves.

[13:05]

At this point, how do you conduct yourself? Mentioning the name of Buddha is like trudging through the mire. To utter the word Zen is to cover your face with shame. Not only those who have long practiced Zen, but beginners too, should exert themselves And Setso wrote a verse on this case. The real way is not difficult. Direct word, direct speech. One with many phases, two with one. Far away in the heavens, the sun shines, the moon sets. Beyond the hills, the high mountains, the cold waters. The skull has no consciousness, no delight. The dead tree sings in the wind, not yet rotten. Difficult, difficult. Attachment and clarity. Watch and penetrate the secret.

[14:07]

So I'd like to say a little bit first about Joshu because in some ways I think that Joshu embodies this whole thing we're trying to get at with this koan. He was one of the major Tang dynasties' Zen masters. He lived from 778 to 897. So he was 119 years old when he died. And it's probably not myth because there are a lot of good records. From about the age of 18, he studied with Nansen through the time that Nansen died when Joshi was There's a famous koan that describes Joshu's awakening with Nansen in which he asked the question of the way and Nansen said ordinary mind is the way. He stayed at Nansen's monastery for three years after Nansen's death.

[15:12]

at the age of 80 he settled down in his own small monastery in the north of China and taught there for the next 40 years when he died. His lineage is one that died out after a few generations, but I think when we look through the collected cases of His dharma is probably as strong now as it ever was. It keeps resounding through the world. Joshu was known for his simple, direct words. When he was asked a question, his responses really kind of called for a chewing and digesting, not follow-up questions and analysis.

[16:30]

He brings to my mind the words in the Jewel Mirror Samadhi of the meaning does not reside in words, but a pivotal moment brings it forth. And there's a way that this plays out in this particular koan in the interview with the monk who asked the question. He's not going to tell you what it means. He's going to leave you there with it. That's what you have to do. That's what you have to point to again and again and again. When he says, I don't know, he's not asking if I will explain that to me or whatever. He's just saying, I want you to really sit with and ponder what I mean when I say, I don't know. Make it your experience, not mine. There's an interchange that he had with a monk that I really And it's kind of on the sense of how does he respond to people and what does he look for?

[17:32]

The monk asked him, what about when I'm chasing various, I'm not chasing various things? And Joseph simply replied, obviously, it's just like this. But the monk then came back and said, you've really got to go somewhere else. Isn't this the fact of my own nature? And Joseph just immediately And in some ways, you know, there's a similar kind of feeling that I get in this koan. Don't try to figure it out. Don't try to carry on and go deeper into the implications and the like. Really try to penetrate the response. And that's a term, penetrating, really kind of has come up with me a lot in sitting with this koan. And it's also one of the terms that Dogen uses again and again and again.

[18:34]

It's called to penetrate, to penetrate. Nothing abstract for Joshu. Just this, right now, what's here. Keep your feet on the ground. What is it that's in front of your eyes right now? Don't make up stories. Just point directly. It's interesting, it's sort of a flavor of Joseph as a monk asking himself about realization. It's getting a little complicated here. And Joseph finally said, if you don't shut your mouth, how will you realize it? And again, it's this essence, okay, forget about the talk. What is it? kind of a guy if you're climbing up a ladder and you're trying to get really to a high place and really do something, he'll come along and kick the ladder out, bring you back down to the ground.

[19:37]

He won't let you kind of pin him down and he doesn't use shouts, sticks, beating, anything like that. Just simple words. So, I just have to take a little look at this koan. We're running late-ish this morning, so I'm going to have to... I'll be giving another talk, so we'll be able to go into this a lot more. In the koan, attachment. Don't pick and choose. Seems easy. We continually have to make choices. We continually have to pick.

[20:41]

And the question for me has always been, how do you make choices, pick and choose, when you can't without picking and choosing? And it's like this thing, pick and choose without picking and choosing. And that always brings me back to the words of the famous a yogi, Vera, when you come to a fork in the road, take it. And it's always been a really profound teaching that, you know, it always kind of charged me a little bit, wakes me up a little bit, oh yeah, cut the other bullshit out, cut the thinking out, just do it. It doesn't matter if it's right or wrong, the wrong path, the right path, whatever, take it. So the monk in the koan asked Joshu what he meant by not having that clarity, or a more, I think, accessible way of translating that.

[21:47]

But at this point, the monk pressed on. Either he's trying to get off into some abstract thinking, or he's trying to get Joshu into something, dangling a little bait. What are you going to do here? And Joshu doesn't bite. He doesn't go into the more abstracted, analytical, chopping logic approach. He just simply says, asking a question is good enough. And sometimes when I think about this, this is our practice. Our practice is not about finding what's the answer. How do I put it all together? But our practice is really about asking a question that is good enough. practice, really chewing at it, really trying to penetrate as deeply as we can.

[23:18]

So I find myself sort of thinking about myself in a situation, first thing that comes up is, I've got to think about what's going on here. I think, oh, this, that. I start doing all kinds of options and try to find the best response or something like this. It drives me nuts. I go crazy. And if you've ever spent enough time around me, I'll drive you crazy too. And I get this again and again from Catherine. So it's a koan that I really need every day in my life. And I'm going to stop with it here.

[24:21]

It's really kind of introducing the koan and the actors. And in three weeks I'll try to kind of unpack this more. And I really want to encourage people to sign up for the Shuso Teas if you haven't already. and we can talk about this a lot more. So, let me end at this point, open things up, and thank you. First, I want to, Sojin, if you have anything you want to say? Okay, all right. Gary? Can you read the column again? attachment or clarity.

[25:24]

This old monk does not have that clarity. Do you appreciate the meaning of this? Then a monk asked, if you do not have that clarity, what do you appreciate? Jiroshi said, I don't know that either. The monk said, if you do not know that, how can you say you do not have that clarity? Joshu said, asking the question is good enough. Now make your vows and retire. Thank you for putting together Joshu with frog and toad. It is truly Thank you. Yeah, it is, it is. Yeah, Ed. I'm also back with Frank.

[26:27]

What would you rather have? Great willpower or the cookie? Willpower. I'd like the cookies too, but you know, enough. Enough. That's what Joshua was saying to the monk, you know, it's like, okay, you have your cookies, That's enough. Time to go. What is willpower? Is it delusion? Well, it's just what Frog said. It's trying very hard not to do what you want to do. It's what it is for me, is where you call upon a deeper understanding, a deeper knowing, and address, look at all the other grasping, all that stuff that's involved in just sort of creating tangles in our lives.

[27:44]

It's kind of like, Dropping, dropping. Maybe it's time to have the cookie. What's that? Maybe it's time to have the cookie. He's the boss. Can you offer us a word of clarity and then a word of delusion? Could a word of clarity and delusion be, I'm eating the cookie and I'm still working on my willpower? Maybe. But I'm inclined to think not. It's a question of how you're eating the cookie.

[28:48]

With what mind do you eat this cookie? I kept thinking when you were reading the ones who are going to be around in 60, 70, 80 years from now, I kept thinking about the Antarctic shelf sliding into the ocean as the cookie. It's like, can we have another one? Can we have another one? Can we have another one? This is the human predicament. More cookies, more cookies. And then we get sick. And then the whole planet gets sick. Thank you for that talk. I thought it was very helpful. I'm just curious when you are, I mean, you do have to make choice in life. You can sit with the question, and kind of at that fork, you have to go. How have you, I mean, eventually just gone, if you sort of deliberated it in your mind and gone through the options.

[29:59]

How have you just chosen? maybe it's the wrong choice, maybe it's the right choice, and then worked with that if it was the wrong or the right one, just that process of just understanding that. You know, there's a thing that Sojin talks again and again about intuition. this and that, but I think, and I can just sort of say, you know, for myself, you know, sometimes you just sense this is what to do, sometimes not, and there's, I would say it's the And you take full responsibility for, I did this, if it works, okay, if it doesn't, I'll do something different.

[31:16]

Making mistakes. It's like, okay, I'm ready to make a mistake. I'm ready to just sort of step into this and not hold on to it. Coming to the fork in the road, It's kind of like finding through constantly letting go of the machinations of the thinking mind and planning and plotting mind that we do in our practice, is that you open a space for something else to be there, to become aware of, to notice. And sometimes it's right on and sometimes, well, that wasn't quite it. And you just keep doing it.

[32:19]

And now we've got to do this.

[32:25]

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