This morning, I'm going to talk about case number 50 in the Blue Cliff Record, which is called various things, called Yunmeng, or Unmeng, Yunmeng's particle after particle samadhi, some say atom after, well, Atom meaning particle, small bit. Particle after particle, samadhi. And Ngo introduces the subject, and this is the introduction. Transcending all ranks, rising above all expedience, spirit corresponding to spirit, words answering words.

[01:03]

Unless he has undergone the great emancipation and attained the great use of it, how could he rank with the Buddhas and be a faultless exponent of the teachings? Now tell me, who can be so direct and adaptable to all occasions and have the free command of transcendent words? See the following. And then here is the main subject. A monk asked Master Yunmin, what is particle after particle samadhi? Yunmin said, rice in the bowl, water in the pail. And then Secho, the commentator, has a verse. Rice in the bowl, water in the pail, even the most talkative can add nothing. The north and the south stars do not change places.

[02:05]

Heaven-touching waves arise on land. If you doubt, if you hesitate, though heir to millions, you're, I'm going to interpret this myself, you're standing there with your pants down. So, Engo introduces the subject and he says, transcending all ranks and rising above all expedience, in the Avatamsaka Sutra, there are 52 stages for the Bodhisattva to complete before reaching final emancipation. And in various schools of Buddhism, there are many stages of advancement from delusion to enlightenment.

[03:15]

But in the Zen school, everything is present all at once. There are no stages of advancement. rather than, at least in Soto Zen, sometimes in Koan Zen, one advances from stage to stage, but in Dogen Zen and in Soto Zen, there are no stages of advancement. But basically, in Zen practice, we say sudden enlightenment. But sudden enlightenment and gradual practice.

[04:20]

So rather than going from starting with delusion and advancing to enlightenment, When one enters practice, one enters from the point of enlightenment, but one doesn't know what enlightenment is, so one is really in the dark. When we begin to practice, we're really in the dark. But it's the enlightened mind which brings us to practice and which has the desire for practice. Dogs and cats don't come to practice. Although they have their own practice. It's the human enlightened mind which comes to practice.

[05:32]

There are some people who, although they have the potential for Buddhahood and for enlightenment, never recognize or are not ready to seek what they already have. So, because there's nothing to gain, one must already have the seed of enlightenment. It's not like a seed, though. It's like our true nature is the nature of enlightenment. So when we come to practice, we enter the realm of taking off the covering and revealing our nature.

[06:39]

which is enlightenment. So enlightenment brings us to practice, and we practice gradually, and then at some point we realize our enlightened mind. So there are some stages of practice, but not in the sense of practicing, going to the first grade and the second grade and the third grade. So he says, transcending all the ranks, all the stages of practice, rising above all the expedients, which means the Mahayana, the Hinayana, all of the vehicles of practice. Spirit corresponding to spirit, words answering words.

[07:43]

Here he seems to be talking about Yunmin's ability to match, to meet the questioner and to answer words with words, actually direct communication. When Yunmin answers the monk, he's not just answering in a mental way, he's actually responding spirit to spirit, word for word. which is like direct communication. So the words go beyond the words, the meaning goes beyond the words.

[08:48]

And then he says, unless he has undergone the great emancipation, he's talking actually about Yunmin, he's really praising Yunmin, He says, unless he has undergone the great emancipation and attained the great use of it, how could he rank with the Buddhas and be a faultless exponent of the teachings? So what is the great emancipation? The great freedom. Yunmin has this wonderful freedom. He can move in any situation. He has the ability to respond immediately to any situation and to not be caught by anything because he has total freedom. So what is his total freedom? Yunmin is selfless.

[10:11]

Yunmin is free of self. So what does that mean that he is selfless or free of self? Each one of us seems to have a self. If we say, where is your self? Please point out your self. You think, well, here, or here, or some place. Where is my self? But actually, in reality, there is no self. No true self. There is a self and there is no self. So this is a very confusing point for most people, for everyone.

[11:14]

How can we say no self when there is a self? If we say there is a self, that means that there is a self that exists eternally. If we say there's no such thing as a self, that means that there is only annihilation, a not thing. So somewhere in between an eternal self and a no self and a not self, is where we find ourselves, find this self. A combination of causes and conditions which continually keeps changing.

[12:21]

So, we realize that something came into existence and developed, became a youth, middle age, old age, and then died. Is that the self? On one level, that is a self. But, A self only comes into being through consciousness. Without consciousness, there's no self. So self arises through consciousness, through awareness. And according to Buddhadharma, the self arises through clinging and through grasping and through attachment.

[13:41]

Even though the body goes on, the body is not a self. And if we look at each one of are emotions and feelings and thoughts as they arise, consciousness is always changing. States of consciousness are continually changing. So each state of consciousness which arises is a self, but it's only momentary. So unless there is a grasping, when there is a grasping, when there's a pleasurable feeling, a nice feeling, there's attachment to that feeling.

[14:44]

And that's called the arising of a self. When there is an angry feeling, there is a pleasurable, a feeling of anger. I know we don't like to think that way, but it is a kind of pleasurable feeling of anger. And then there is attachment to that feeling. And then there is the arising of a self. So self arises through attachment to feelings, through attachment to emotions. through attachment to a thought. When there's no attachment to feelings, no attachment to emotions, no attachment to thoughts, there is no self that arises. So even though feelings and thoughts and emotions arise, unless

[15:52]

we attach to those feelings and thoughts and emotions, a self doesn't arise. So this is why non-attachment is so important for our understanding of Buddhadharma. The Sixth Patriarch in the Platform Sutra says, to not be attached to any of the dharmas that come up, although those dharmas will continually come up. So the Zen student is continually letting go of all dharmas that arise. When a pleasurable dharma arises, to let the pleasurable Dharma arise and let it go.

[16:56]

When the angry feeling comes up, to let it arise and let it go. To not be attached to anything in the world. So this is called the great emancipation of no self. No clinging to a self. in the meal sutra we say, to let go of self-clinging. May we all be free from self-clinging. This is the great emancipation. So he says, unless he has undergone the great emancipation and attain the great use of it.

[17:58]

Use of it means once one is free, has this great freedom, there's nothing to do but respond to the cries of the world. One who has this emancipation can freely help others. because there's nothing else to do. And then he says, now tell me, who can be so direct and adaptable to all occasions? Who can do this? He's talking about Unman, or Yunmin, and have the free command of transcendent words. This is why whatever Yunmin says is correct. Yunmen is very famous, maybe one of the most famous of the Chinese Zen masters.

[19:07]

He is said to, whenever he made a statement, the statement had three qualities. Every statement that he had said had three qualities. One quality was that his statement covered heaven and earth. which means that he didn't fall into the side of the mundane or the transcendental. He didn't fall into either form or emptiness, but his statements were always non-dualistic. And the second quality was that his statement always followed the waves, meaning that he didn't ignore the situation. He went along with the situation and used the situation.

[20:16]

And the third quality was that he cut off the myriad dreams And his statement always woke people up to reality. So the main subject. A monk asked Master Yunmin, what is particle after particle samadhi? And Yunmin said, rice in the bowl, water in the pail. This statement of the monk comes from the Avatamsaka Sutra. And the sutra says, if one can enter into samadhi sitting in the dust, one can complete the all-dust samadhi.

[21:21]

Sitting in the dust. So what is samadhi? There are various explanations of what is samadhi, and there are many, many, many samadhis. Samadhi, strictly speaking, means concentration, but it means far more than just concentration. There's the moment after moment samadhi. Particle after particle means maybe moment after moment. Each moment samadhi. The samadhi of the ever-renewed present is one explanation. The present moment

[22:25]

is continuously renewed. So on each moment we can say, this is now. There's only just now, even though we say yesterday and tomorrow. We think in terms of yesterday and tomorrow, which is necessary to do, but really there's only this particular moment, which is the only moment there ever has been this is the moment of now, which is continually renewed. So, Uman says, Each mode of dust is a universe in itself.

[23:44]

This world is made up of uncountable dust modes, and there are many combinations of dust modes, or atoms, or particles. and each particle is the whole universe. Nothing is small and nothing is large. From where we stand, we take a standpoint according to our size and then compared to our size we say a dust mode is small and Mars is big. But actually, nothing is small or big. only by comparison is something small or big. So, in any situation, universes exist everywhere. Dogen says, even in a dew drop on the grass, the whole universe is reflected.

[25:00]

So samadhi is most accurately understood in zazen because samadhi is, although in its concentration, It's concentration without self, without the arising of a self. In zazen, although thoughts, feelings, emotions come up, there's no grasping and there's no attachment. Thoughts, feelings, emotions continually come up and disappear. But there is no self arising in zazen.

[26:36]

This is the state of absolute samadhi. And then when you leave the cushion and enter the world, your activity is in the realm of positive samadhi, where you are working in the world, entering and interacting without the arising of a self. Very difficult. the one who has perfect freedom, like Yunmin, can enter into any situation without creating a self.

[27:43]

This is a Buddhist activity. So, Water in the, rice in the bowl, water in the pail, is, everything is an imperturbable samadhi. Water in the bowl, rice in the pail, rice in the bowl, water in the pail, rice in the bowl is not an object. Water in the pail is not an object. My teacher used to say, when you drink a cup of tea, the tea and the bowl are not objects.

[28:57]

When you drink the tea, you are one with the tea. you are one with the teacup. Zen student drinks a cup of tea with two hands. In a meditation hall, drinking a cup of tea is not the same as our usual way of drinking a cup of tea, which is usually casual. But when you're in the meditation hall and you drink a cup of tea, you drink a cup of tea with total attention, with total, your whole being. I was talking to a tea student, someone who had been to Japan and studied tea, and she was saying, when I tried to imitate my teacher,

[30:06]

the way she handles a bowl, tea bowl, it always seems contrived. But when I watch my teacher turn the tea bowl, just turning the tea bowl, it's so natural and there's no separation between the teacher, the way she turns the tea bowl and the bowl. And she said, I don't know if that's love or not. I think it's just mindfulness. I said, well, what's the difference between love and mindfulness? And she wasn't sure. I said it's not seeing the bowl as an object in both cases.

[31:20]

So when the teacher is turning the bowl, she's turning herself. The bowl is actually turning her. This is samadhi. When you turn the bowl, the bowl turns you. When you walk down the street, the street walks you. In Setsuo's verse, he says, rice in the bowl, water in the pail, even the most talkative can add nothing. And that's obvious, there's no argument about it. Then he says, the North and the South stars do not change places. Each one is fixed in its place.

[32:28]

The North star's over here, the Southern stars are over there. They have their positions. They're immovable. And then he says, heaven-touching waves arise on land. What he's pointing out here is that Samadhi is imperturbability. In Zazen, one sits in imperturbable Samadhi. When a thought comes, it doesn't move you. When an emotion comes, it doesn't move you. When a feeling comes, it doesn't move you. Everything just passes through easily, and you expand to include everything that comes along.

[33:35]

So Samadhi, since there's no attachment to self, the self can take on any shape and form without suffering. And he says, if you doubt or if you hesitate, even though you are heir to millions, you're standing there with your pants down. He's talking about the story in the Lotus Sutra about the prodigal son who had nothing, who went away from his, left home and then finally found his way back but didn't know he was home and his father saw him and induced him to come back and he finally became the heir to the father's fortune, which is the story of the prodigal son in both the Lotus Sutra and the Bible.

[34:46]

So even though he was heir to the whole thing, he's just standing there with his pants down. He says, trouserless, which means the same thing, right? It means you have it, but you don't know you have it. Do you have a question?

[35:54]

Yes. It seems to me that the Japanese have a way of, when they talk about themselves, they point to themselves and they point to the other person. And it seemed to me that there is a self beyond myself and yourself in the way that they understand self. Like Jung's collective unconscious. Jung's collective unconscious has always been compared to the no-self of Mahayana, but there's some correlation, but I don't think it's exactly the same. But it does give an indication that there's That's my self.

[36:57]

Yeah, that's the self of your big self is the whole universe. Your true self is the whole universe. That's Mahayana understanding. So each individual self is an expression of that, but our You know, in Samadhi, Samadhi includes, each particle includes the whole universe. That's the point. That in each mote of dust, the whole universe is included. And so, we're all expressions of the same. universal soul, so to speak, if soul means one. Does vision actually change with enlightenment?

[38:06]

You don't see anything different, it's just that what you see, you see correctly. Peter? You don't grasp them. You don't grasp them, yeah. But does that mean they have no significance? Yeah. I was wondering if you could talk a bit more about the rice and the bone. About the what? Rice? Well, I can see there's some similarity.

[39:51]

Wash your bowl is to let go. And water and rice in the bowl, water and the pail. It's like no separation. No separation.

[40:20]

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