The Boatman Does Not Use a Wooden Goose 

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Earlier, when you were sitting, I said, there are no things in front of the eyes.
There are no things before the eyes.
Mind is before the eyes.
I would call that a teaching, or a verbal expression of teaching.
And there is a commonly repeated Zen saying that there is a special transmission outside
of the teaching, outside of the verbal teaching.
So there is a transmission of the teaching outside the verbal transmission of the teaching.
And I am talking now and saying that there is a source of the verbal teachings, and that
source is the actual teaching.
So ancient teachers say we must realize the source of the teachings.
We must realize the source of the teachings which are appearing to us as words, or as
word images, and not try to grasp the truth of the teachings in the words.
There is a way of receiving the words, there is a way of receiving the verbal teachings
which emanate from the non-verbal source, such that we can enter the source, and in
the source we receive this special transmission of the teachings, which isn't in the words.
And in a way, you know, it says that there is a special transmission that doesn't depend
on words, but I don't know, in a way I would say it somewhat differently, that the transmission
of the teaching does depend on the words in the sense that it depends on relating to the
words in a way that allows us to enter the source of the words.
So I say again the words, the words are, there are no things in front of the eyes, and this
expression is an English translation of a Chinese expression, and the person who is
saying this is a teacher named Jia Shan, and the Chinese says there are no, and the
character there is a character which means it's used for things, phenomena, but also
is a character that's used for teaching, and it's used for truth, and it's used for the
law, like the law of the universe.
The Chinese character for Dharma, like the Sanskrit word Dharma, means the teaching,
it means the truth, and it means phenomena.
So there's no things or phenomena in front of you, but also there's no truth in front
of you.
There's no, the teaching isn't really in front of you.
The verbal expression of the teaching is in front of you.
What's in front of you is the mind appearing to you as though it were out in front of you.
So this is a verbal teaching about that reality, the reality that what's in front of you is
not actually something in front of you.
There are phenomena, it's just that they aren't in front of you.
They're you, they're your mind.
Can we give Galen a seat someplace?
Maybe right, maybe in front of Amanda?
Welcome Galen.
This teaching of Joshan is a teaching which was, this verbal teaching of Joshan is a verbal
teaching that was transmitted to his student Lupu.
So he transmitted these words, but also apparently the source of these words was also transmitted
between Joshan and Lupu.
So Lupu can bring up this teaching and be in touch with the source of the teaching as
it's brought up.
And Joshan, Lupu's teacher, also perhaps could express this verbal Dharma coming from the
source of Dharma.
So I offer you this verbal teaching which is that if we can really be kind to what appears
in front of us, we can realize that there's nothing in front of us.
If we can be kind to what appears to be separate from our mind and body, we can realize that
it's not separate.
So when we hear the teaching that nothing's out in front of you, nothing's in front of
your eyes, that teaching may seem to be in front of your eyes.
And if you can be kind to that teaching, you can realize that that teaching is not in front
of your eyes from the source of that teaching.
In the Sashin which we recently had at Green Gulch, we studied a story about a man who
taught Lupu.
It's a story about when Lupu was about to die.
It's a story about a man who taught Lupu.
So now you have a piece of paper that has words on it.
And these words are a story about when a so-called Zen master was about to die in China.
And the date is about 898.
Everything is just like it was then, back in 898, except you are there.
And you weren't there in 898.
So these are words which Lupu says, do not grasp the meaning of this story in these words.
Do not grasp the meaning of what I'm saying now in the words I'm saying to you.
So here's a story about such a person.
So we look at these words in such a way that we don't try to get the meaning from the words,
but that we use these words as an opportunity to enter the source of this story,
the source of this enlightened life, of this tradition.
As we discuss this, as these words are being discussed with words,
perhaps you will see something to take care of.
You can take care of the words.
You can take care of your body and mind as you experience these words.
And I'm saying to you that it would be good if you were very kind to everything that's given to you to take care of.
And everything that's given to you is given to you to take care of.
If you take really good care of these words, you may be able to enter the source of them.
Let me just say that Lu Pu said on the first day of the twelfth lunar month,
he said to his friends,
If I don't die tomorrow, it will then be soon after.
Today, I have just one thing to ask you people.
And that leads into this story.
Shall we read it?
When Lu Pu was about to die, he said to the assembly,
I have one thing to ask you people.
If this is so, this is adding a head on top of your head.
If this is not so, this is seeking life by cutting off your head.
The head monk said,
Green mountains are always moving their feet.
Don't hang a lamp in broad daylight.
Lu Pu said,
or you could say scolded,
What time is this to make such a speech?
Then a certain elder, Yan Song, came forth and said,
Leaving these two paths aside, I request the teacher not ask.
Lu Pu said,
Not quite, speak again.
Yan Song said,
I can't tell at all.
Lu Pu said,
I don't care if you can tell it all or not.
I don't care if you can say it all or not.
Yan Song said,
As your attendant, it's hard to answer the teacher.
Another translation is,
I have no attendant to answer the teacher.
That evening, Lu Pu called elder Yan Song
and said,
Your answer today was most reasonable.
You should experientially realize
the saying of my late teacher,
Before the eyes, there are no things.
The mind is before the eyes.
That is not something before the eyes.
The eyes are not in reach of the ears or eyes.
And then Lu Pu says,
Which phrases are guest and which phrases are host?
If you can pick them out,
I'll impart the robe and bowl to you.
Yan Song said,
I don't understand.
Lu Pu said,
You should understand.
Yan Song said,
I really don't.
Lu Pu shouted and said,
Tough, isn't it?
Tough, isn't it?
The next day, during the noon session,
a monk came forward and asked Lu Pu
about the previous day's conversation.
Saying,
What is the teacher's meaning?
Lu Pu said,
The boat of compassion is not rowed over pure waters.
Over the precipitous straits,
it is wasted effort to set out a wooden goose.
Lu Pu then passed away.
Approximately 250 years later,
another venerable student of the Dharma
wrote this verse,
The bait is clouds,
the hook, the moon.
Fishing in the clear pond,
What do you have, water?
Clear waters?
Fishing in the clear waters.
Olden years, alone at heart,
he hasn't got a fish yet.
One song, leaving the clamor,
Dying away?
Dies away?
On the Milo River,
a solitary, lonely man, sober man.
So I, as a guide to discussing this verbal teaching,
in order, or for the sake of entering the source of this teaching,
the source of this and all Buddha's teachings,
all Buddha's verbal teachings,
I would say have the same source,
and a guide to how to deal with the verbal teachings
in such a way as to enter the source of the teachings,
the actual teachings,
not their verbal expression only,
how to give up trying to grasp the meaning in the words
and enter the source of the Buddha's words.
There's an excellent instruction, which is,
The bait is clouds,
the hook, the moon.
So, this teaching,
can you find the clouds in this teaching?
Those clouds,
can you find the clouds in the words?
Can you see the cloudiness of the words?
Can you see,
can you see the words not as a worm,
or a minnow,
but something more subtle that you can't get a hold of?
These words,
if these words are like clouds to you,
then you're on the right track.
And then, use the moon, it can be a full moon,
a half moon, a crescent moon,
use the moon as your hook.
Last week, we had a full moon,
or nearly full moon to use,
which is particularly nice to use for cloud bait.
To fish for the meaning, not in the words,
the meaning is not in the words,
the meaning comes forth
in the way you relate to the words.
And if you can see,
or understand that the words are cloud-like,
if you can see the subtlety
and nuance,
right before you,
and if you can see that the before you is also cloud-like,
this is instruction about how to enter the source of the words.
This story has layers upon layers of transmissions of the source,
and layers upon layers of transmission of the words.
The layers of transmission of the source are layers of intimacy
between generations of students and teachers,
and also there are layers of verbal instruction given in historical time,
which emerges from the same source.
So when Lu Pu was about to die,
he brings up a teaching which echoes back
through all the generations from him,
back through his Dharma parent,
and Dharma grandparent,
and Dharma great-grandparent,
all the way back to the Buddha Shakyamuni.
This teaching he gives echoes back all the way.
As I bring up the closer generations,
it is easier to see,
and sets up the ability to see the thread going back farther.
That often is the case,
is that you can maybe see in the generation before,
or the generation,
sometimes it's like we say,
it skips one generation,
so sometimes you can see it more in the grandparent than in the parent.
But anyway,
this first teaching that Lu Pu gives as he's about to die,
the first thing he says to his students,
he says he's going to ask a question,
and what he says is more like a teaching.
The teaching is,
if this is so,
basically,
that's adding a head on top of your head,
if this is not so,
that's cutting your head off,
that's seeking life by cutting your head off.
The previous one is the same,
it's like,
this is so is like seeking life by adding something on,
this is not so is seeking life by cutting something off.
Okay,
so this echoes back to his grand,
great-grand,
great-great-grandparent.
So Lu Pu's great-great-grandparent is,
well actually,
it goes back to his great-great-grandparent
and his great-great-grandparent's parent.
So his great-great-grandparent is a monk named,
what's his great-great-
that's hard for you, yeah?
Anyway,
not to be silly,
but who is his great-great-grandparent?
Who is it?
Go ahead, somebody tell me.
Who?
Lin Ji.
No,
Lin Ji is like, kind of like his uncle.
Lin Ji, Lu Pu studied with Lin Ji.
So Lin Ji's first teacher is Lin Ji,
Lu Pu's first teacher is Lin Ji,
his second teacher is Jia Shan.
So who is his great-great-grandparent?
His great-great-grandparent is,
okay,
Yao Shan.
Yao Shan is his great-great-grandparent.
So his parent is Jia Shan,
his grandparent is the boatman,
his great-great-grandparent is Yao Shan,
and his great-great-
great-great-great-grandparent is Xiu Tou.
So Xiu Tou means on top of the rock,
or rock head,
Yao Shan means medicine mountain,
and boatman means boatman.
And Jia Shan means jaw mountain,
that's the mountain where Jia Shan lived.
So Yao Shan,
went to see Yao Shan,
was a wholehearted student of the verbal teaching,
particularly the verbal teaching of the precepts,
Bodhisattva and monk precepts,
he really studied them and tried to practice them,
and he tried to get the meaning of the words in the words,
and he was unsuccessful.
Somehow he wound up meeting this person called Xiu Tou,
who apparently sat on top of a rock all the time,
so they called him on top of the rock,
Mr. Monk on top of the rock.
He went to see Monk on top of the rock,
and he said,
would you please show me the meaning of these teachings
that I've been studying for a long time.
Great-great-great-grandparent says,
being just so won't do.
Not being just so won't do either.
Being both just so and not being just so won't do at all.
How about you?
Saying it's in the word won't do.
Saying it's not in the word won't do either.
How about you?
And the wonderful living being,
the wonderful future great teacher,
Yao Shan,
had nothing to say and said,
would you please tell me more?
And Xiu Tou said,
go see my friend Master Ma.
So at that time there were two especially,
what's the word, auspicious teachers in China.
Auspicious, which means conducive to success
in transmitting the source of all the teachings.
These two masters, Xiu Tou and Ma Tzu.
Ma Tzu had 139 successful transmissions,
enlightened disciples.
He had thousands of disciples,
but 139 entered the source and coughed it up.
Entered the source and you could say made it their own,
but also made themselves the source's own.
So he went to see Master Ma
and basically asked the same question.
Now he might have told Master Ma
about what his conversation was on top of the rock.
Or he might not have,
and then you might think,
well, it's amazing then if he didn't tell him.
But anyway, Master Ma said,
sometimes I make him raise his eyebrows and blink.
Sometimes I don't make him raise his eyebrows and blink.
Sometimes raising the eyebrows and blinking is right.
Right, right.
Sometimes raising the eyebrows and blinking is not right.
How about you?
On this occasion, as I remember,
Yao Shan started to bow,
profusely crying.
And Master Ma said,
Oh, what's going on that you're bowing like this?
And Yao Shan said,
Now it's often translated as trying to bite,
but literally that character means mount,
but you could say, well,
what do mosquitoes do when they mount?
But anyway,
it's like a mosquito trying to mount an iron bull.
And people are still trying that.
Even recently someone's tried that
at Green Gulch.
So, the great Master Ma said,
Okay, great.
You're enlightened.
I mean, we're enlightened.
Finally.
But your teacher is Sherto.
So Yao Shan went back
and studied with Sherto for many years.
And, which is good news for us,
because then we had stories about their studies together.
I'm trying to like stop myself
from telling you stories about their time together.
But I can't do it.
So one time Yao Shan was sitting
in meditation,
and Sherto comes up to him and says,
What are you doing sitting there?
And Yao Shan said,
I'm not doing anything at all.
I'm not doing anything at all.
Sherto said,
Then are you sitting idly?
And Yao Shan said,
If I were sitting idly, I would be doing something.
And Sherto said,
You say you're not doing anything at all.
What is this not doing anything at all that you're doing?
Or that you're not doing?
And Yao Shan said,
Even the ten thousand sages don't know.
And Sherto said,
We've been traveling along together for quite a while now.
Ever since back in the days when he tried to
mock me and bite me.
Just according to the circumstances of daily life,
traveling along,
singing a song,
side by side,
through all kinds of weather,
it doesn't matter at all.
And yet,
I didn't know who he was.
And I still don't.
But I'm happy to travel with him.
Because even the ten thousand sages don't know who he is.
How could some impatient, hasty person know?
So then Yao Shan had many disciples,
but three big ones are,
one is called Yun Yan,
another one is called Da Wu.
And apparently Yun Yan and Da Wu were actually biological brothers.
But also they studied together with the great master Bai Zhang.
And Da Wu was older,
by a number of years.
And Yun Yan had the opportunity from the time he was 14 until he was 34.
I don't know if actually the whole time, but anyway,
I think maybe he was
studying with the great master for 20 years as his attendant.
And when the teacher died, he still didn't,
he still hadn't gotten to the source of the teachings.
This great Zen master is putting out these teachings all the time from the source.
The faithful would say,
the teachings of the Zen master are coming from the source,
but the teachings, the words, are not the source.
They're not separate from the source,
but you can't get the source,
you can't get the truth in the words.
And he sat there and listened to these words for 20 years
and didn't get to the source.
And then the great master Bai Zhang died,
so he and his brother traveled and went to study with,
I guess maybe different teachers, but anyway,
they wound up with Yao Shan,
and they became Yao Shan's disciples, successors.
And then another important disciple of Yao Shan
is a person who we call the Boatman.
And when Yao Shan died, the Boatman
said to his Dharma brothers,
you two are like,
you two are the kind of guys that can like
come out in the open and teach lots of people
and, you know,
be leaders in a monastery.
I'm kind of lazy and
I'd like a more, kind of less structured way,
so I'm going to go, you know,
do it a different way than you are.
But I'll keep you informed of where I am.
My location will be known to you.
And if you run into any,
especially excellent people who are really ripe,
send them to me, send me one of them,
and I'll finish them off.
And there was a monk named Yao Shan,
that wasn't his name when he was,
before he was the head of Yao Shan,
but anyway, he was a Buddhist teacher.
He studied Buddhism,
he studied Buddha Dharma,
he studied the words,
and he was really good with them,
and people assembled to listen to him talk about the words
in hopes that St. Nicholas would soon be there.
They wanted to understand Buddhism,
they thought, listening to these wonderful talks,
maybe they would actually be able to enter the source
from which these talks gave,
and
Da Wu, actually, traveling around
before he set up his own monastery,
went to hear Yao Shan.
And Yao Shan is giving a talk,
and some monk says to him,
What's the Dharmakaya?
What's the true body of Buddha?
And
Yao Shan knew the answer.
The true body of Buddha is
formlessness.
Formless or formlessness.
It's like vast space.
What's the next line?
Does somebody remember what the next line is?
Anyway, the monk asked him another question,
and he gave an answer,
which I don't remember.
Yeah, Dharma eyes, what's the question?
Yeah, what are the Dharma eyes?
And the answer is
something.
Huh?
It seems reasonable.
They're clear!
So Yao Shan knew the right answer,
and Charlie knows the right answer.
And at that point, Da Wu laughed out loud,
which
was unusual
back in those days.
And Yao Shan,
wonderfully, got down from his lecture seat
and went over to Da Wu and said,
Perhaps I've made some kind of error.
Please instruct me.
So this is,
this is somebody who's ripe.
Who's teaching people,
and he hears the laugh
of a well-trained master,
and he
gives up his position and goes to the teacher.
And Da Wu says,
No, I'm not going to teach you.
But
I have a friend
who asked me to send people to him.
So I recommend you go see him,
and his name is
the Boatman.
Now he got the name Boat,
he wasn't called the Boatman
when he was studying with Yao Shan.
He's called the Boatman because
he went and lived by a lake,
the Hua Ting Lake in China,
and he gave people rides across the lake
from one shore to the other.
But he didn't, he didn't say,
Guess who's rowing this boat?
I am a disciple of Yao Shan.
I'm a Zen master.
He didn't tell him that.
He just rowed them across,
and then
he got the name Boatman.
So his brothers called him Boatman,
and they sent Yao Shan
to the Boatman,
and
they had a nice interaction.
Which I don't remember except
that last part
where
after Yao Shan
realized the source
of the teachings which he had been giving
for years,
and he realized the source in his interactions
with the Boatman,
he then departed
from the Boatman,
and as he was leaving,
the Boatman said,
Venerable teacher,
he raised his oar and said,
Is there anything else?
And then he tipped over his boat
and disappeared in the water.
Completing the transmission of the source,
he tipped over his boat,
he retired from ferryman activity,
and disappeared in the water.
Now some people think he died,
and some people think
he went to some other place.
Some people don't think he died.
I'm one of those people.
Hi.
So now we've got Yao Shan,
and
and Lumpu gets together with Yao Shan,
and Yao Shan teaches,
before the eyes
there are no things,
there are no dharmas,
there is no dharma.
The mind is before the eyes.
It's not
something reached by
ears and eyes.
That's his teaching.
And then,
and then Lumpu gives his teacher's teaching to
Yao Shan gives his teacher's teachings to
who?
Who?
Lumpu, right.
Yao Shan gives his tea...
I mean Lumpu
Lumpu gives his...
Lumpu gives Yao Shan's teaching to
Yan Song, excuse me.
And that's
that's the big thing up ahead of us now here.
Before that I'd like to just take a slight voyage back in time
in the boat, in the boat of compassion.
Ready? All aboard. Here we go.
So back
from
Yao Shan. Remember what Yao Shan asked
Sherto?
Help me see the source. What did Sherto say?
Being like this,
being just so won't do.
Not being like this won't do either.
So can you see that teaching in Lumpu's teaching?
And then you go back before Yao Shan.
Actually it's before Yao Shan and Sherto.
It's Sherto that gave that teaching.
So you go back before Sherto
to Qingyuan, and then back
before Qingyuan to the sixth ancestor
of Zen.
And when he met his teacher,
excuse me,
when
when another one of the six ancestors
students came to see the sixth ancestor, the sixth ancestor said
where are you from?
And the sixth ancestor, and the
the monk named Nanyue
who's coming to see the sixth ancestor
is asked where is he from?
He says I'm from Mount Sung.
And the sixth ancestor says
what is it that has come?
Where do you come from?
Mount Sung.
What is it that thus comes?
Which is a play on words.
It's both asking him what has come,
but also he's using the expression for Buddha.
Tathagata, thus come one.
What is the Buddha?
Is the same as saying what is it that comes?
What comes
is
an appearance
or a word
like
oh Buddha or
Buddha's words, that's what
that's what comes.
But where does it come from?
And
the great student
Nanyue says
to say it's this, misses the point.
So there we see
the teaching in the sixth ancestor.
And then just go all the way back from the sixth ancestor
to the first ancestor,
the Buddha
who comes into the hall,
goes up in the seat, sits down,
shows his body
and sees if somebody can relate to his body
without trying to grasp the meaning
in his body.
Someone can look and listen to his silence and his stillness
without grasping
the meaning
of his silence and stillness
in his silence and stillness.
And Manjushri
he gets worried that nobody is
understanding the source
or not even noticing that he is showing something to not grab.
So then he hits the gavel and says look,
look at the teaching of the
sovereign of the teaching.
The teaching of the sovereign of teachings
like this.
And now today I say the Buddha got down in disgust
because Manjushri said
this is so.
But then Brzee felt like he had to do it
otherwise people might miss the show.
But it was already there.
It was enough already
so Manjushri really messed things up.
Now in this story
where the teacher is
said he is going to ask a question and he gives his teaching
it is not clear to me
if that was his question or that was his teaching
and he was going to ask his question
after he said
if this is so, this is adding a head and so on
it is not clear to me that he was going to then follow that up with a question.
Maybe he was and the head monk
interfered.
And what did the head monk do?
Actually the head monk quoted
one of Lu Pu's teachings which is
Lu Pu taught
that the green mountains
are always lifting their feet.
He quoted his teacher's teaching
so the teacher says to say
to say this is so
to say that is off
to say this is not so is off
and then the student
brings up a teaching the green mountains are always
lifting their feet
which again is the correct answer
but not the correct answer.
So then
the elder comes forward and says
put aside these alternatives
putting them aside, ok
I just say please don't ask.
So in a way it looks like he didn't get his chance to ask the question.
He was going to ask a question
the head monk interrupts him
and then the elder
Yang Tsang comes forward and said
please teacher don't ask the question.
We heard your teaching, let's just put your teaching aside
of these two paths
of this is so and this is not so
let's just set those aside
and now would you please not ask the question
that you want to ask us as you're dying.
Please don't ask it.
And what does Lu Pu say?
You got it.
Not quite, in other words pretty good
but it's pretty good that you're
asking me not to ask my question
but you didn't quite get it.
And I would say
pretty good
you didn't quite get it
are you going to try to get it?
Pretty good you didn't get it
that was pretty good that you didn't get it.
Pretty good that you asked me to set my teaching aside
as I'm about to die
and also don't ask the question, that's pretty good.
Can you really demonstrate that you didn't get anything there?
And so say some more, say some more, say some more, say some more, say some more
and Yang Tsang says
I can't say it all
and Lu Pu says I don't care if you can say it all or not
and he says
as your attendant it's hard to answer the teacher.
That translation is like
I'm your attendant
and
you're about to die
so I'm having a hard time answering you
because I don't want
people to think that
I'm the cause of your death
by the way I answer.
So I feel like I'm scared to be
I'm really scared to
say more.
Or
the other translation is I don't have an attendant to ask for me
I should get somebody else to ask for me
because I'm not going to ask.
So since I don't have an attendant
that's it for now boss.
So that's the end of that
and then that night
the story goes on.
But now time for a word from our sponsor.
Yes?
I thought
you meant my attendant
I don't have a means
I don't have somebody to send to do it.
Yeah
that's impossible
I don't have somebody to do it
because I'm not going to do it
and I can't get anybody else to do it either.
This is like
we're done here boss.
You can say speak again if you want to
but that's all for now
and
the teacher accepts that
and calls him in at the night
and he says
I'm going to give you another teaching
now let's see if you can like experientially
realize it
in other words see if you can get to the source of this teaching.
So he gives this teaching
this wonderful teaching
this wonderful verbal teaching
which is pointing to the reality
from which it's coming
and
then he says further
if you can go in there and tell where the host and the guest are
host and guest
is sometimes seen to be
there's two kinds of different understandings of host and guest
one would be teacher and student
the teacher is the host
the student is the guest
that's one
but I also mentioned during the talk that
the word host
host originally meant guest
still does to some extent
host meant foreigners
or visitors, a lot of them
it meant a foreign army
originally
so host over time switched to
the one who greets the guest
but originally host
meant the guest
and that's going on here too
if you can pick out host and guest
but host
how are you going to pick out host and guest?
which is which?
can you get in there and pick out host and guest
without grasping?
see if you can do it
Elder Yansang
and Yansang says I don't understand
which?
literally that means
I don't understand
but he didn't mean I don't understand
he just means I'm not going to answer your question
I'm not going to grasp
I'm not going to pick out the host and guest
I don't understand
I'm going to
I'm going to work with
a cloud here
and then Lu Pu said
you should understand
and he says I really don't
and then he says tough isn't it?
so
in the verse it says
fishing in
so somebody's using
cloud bait
and somebody's using moon hook
and somebody's fishing in clear water
and they're old in years
alone at heart
and hasn't got a fish yet
so who is that?
is that Lu Pu who hasn't caught his fish?
he's about to die
and he wants to catch a big fish
as he's about to die
is it literally true
that he didn't catch a fish?
or is he being ironic
and inviting you
to enter this space
what space?
the space between you and Lu Pu
as I said
everything's like it was then
Lu Pu's there
and the students are there
except you're there too
and there's a space
between you and Lu Pu
and also
Tien Tung
250 years later
is also inviting us into that space
of student and teacher
the space between the student and teacher
where the source is realized
the place where we use
clouds
as bait
to catch the golden fish
or to be a golden fish
so somebody can catch us
to be the golden disciple of Buddha
to be the golden disciple of the golden Buddha
or to catch a golden Buddha
with what?
cloud bait
moon hooks
how do we catch this?
I feel the impulse to scream
but I'm also feeling quite polite
so
so I'm encouraging
I'm trying to encourage
I've been successful
in encouraging myself
and I'm trying to encourage you
to go fishing
for the source of Buddha's teaching
with cloud bait
cloud bait
and moon hooks
to try to
enter the space to meet
the source of Buddha's teaching
without excluding words
or trying to get the meaning from them
to enter the subtle
ungraspable
nuance
of Buddha and sentient beings
enter that subtle resonance
between your wish to meet the Buddha
and realize
reality
together with the Buddha
and the Buddha's
willingness to meet you there
but the slightest grasping
will
interfere
with this meeting
so I'm
again trying to encourage us
to enter this subtle space
between ourselves
and the ancestors
and the teachings they've given
I heard straight moon hooks work best
straight moon hooks?
or round ones are nice too
round ones are straight
they're completely round
yeah
so we're very fortunate to have
these round hooks
that never really
that can't actually hook a fish
but fishes can jump over them
you heard about the fish that jumped over the moon, right?
I
I put on most of my weight
50 pounds of which I've lost
in Minnesota
and next to Minnesota
there's two states
one's called North Dakota
and one's called South Dakota
and I think there's a movement
to change the names
North Dakota doesn't like to be called
North Dakota
they want to change it to something else
but anyway, in that part of the world
they have a lot of hailstorms
and I heard
and the hailstones get really big there
for various reasons
and that sometimes the hailstones fall
and have
various things inside them
and I heard that
one hailstone fell
and had a fish inside of it
now I don't know how big the fish was
but there was a fish inside of it
does it sound like a fish story?
it does sound like a fish story
now I have a theory about how it happened
want to hear it?
the way the hailstones get
the way the hail balls get big
is it's rain that falls
it's rain falling
a raindrop falling
and then it freezes
but if you freeze a raindrop
it's not a very big piece of hail
but as the hail falls
the frozen raindrop falls
it falls into an area
where the water is not freezing anymore
and the water
the liquid water
coats the
frozen water
and the wind
updrafts the frozen water
the moistened
frozen water
up higher and it freezes
so by cycling it
round and round from lower altitudes
to higher altitudes
you can make bigger and bigger hail balls
and this
particular
pattern of wind movement
and rain with cold air
happens out in the prairies
and can make really huge
huge balls
of hail
which then actually
destroy buildings
and crush cars
not to mention ruin crops
how about the fish
the fish
also get lifted up into the air
by the wind
these hailstorms
are often almost like tornadoes
and they can lift large objects
off the ground
they're not as bad as tornadoes
I haven't heard of a truck
hailstone
but trucks do get lifted
high in the air
but that's usually a slightly different thing
usually
it's not so common to have
how do you call it
hail with tornadoes
but anyway
you lift the fish up
into the rain
you lift the fish up into the rain
and the fish
get wet
then the wet fish
gets lifted up higher
and the wetness freezes on the fish
then the fish gets lowered down
in the air and gets wet more
and gets lifted up
and that way the fish gets coated over and over
with water which freezes
and then water on top of the frozen
and you actually create
a
hail ball around the fish
that's my theory of how that could happen
and everything's just as it was
then when that happened
except you are there
do you see the fish now
that's my fish story
what do you think Laurie?
you like it?
yeah I thought so too
this is the best I ever told that fish story
Steph's from that part of the country too
have you heard about the fish hailstones?
not until today
so
so that's what I
that's what I said
and
if any elders
or
baby fish
want to come forward and say anything
you're welcome to do so
yes
I heard actually a related story
to your fish story
there were some rescued fishermen
and
and the fishermen
said that actually
a cow
destroyed their boat
coming from the sky
and nobody believed them
it was happening I think in Russia
so until it was
found that during that time
they had sort of a
Japanese fishermen
sorry?
I don't know
but so there was
a transporting plane
which got into trouble
or so
they had to release
their load
and their load contained cows
and so one of the cows
destroyed their boat
that must have been
an amazing experience
so
be careful
of those people up there
if they have to
lighten up at all
I don't
particularly propose supernatural things
I just think that
things can happen according
to natural laws of cause and effect
but
sometimes they're just
so wonderful
they seem so wonderful because
we have trouble getting anywhere near
imagining how they would
happen other than
some special kind of cause
that's not a normal kind of cause
but you can make almost anything
with everyday
normal causes
but sometimes the way they get together
produces unusual things
like for example
Buddhas
and so there's
causes for Buddhas
which means to be kind
to the illusion
that other beings
are out there
in front of you
if we can be kind to that
that's one of the conditions
that makes a Buddha
that makes someone who understands
that there's nothing out there
separate
that there's just
conscious construction
and in the realm
that's free of conscious construction
that's a realm where there aren't
where things aren't put
together into packages
where everything's just
resonating
mutual
support
yes
setting out a wooden goose
is putting something in a package
but it's a special kind of package
so when you're rowing
the boat of compassion
you're practicing
compassion towards
for example
a boat and towards
passengers on the boat
and towards the water
so when you're rowing the boat of compassion
as a matter of fact
you're rowing the boat of compassion and you're rowing it
in precipitous straits
and the precipitous
straits are where you're dealing with
things that appear to be out there
when you're dealing with
safety and unsafety
when you're dealing with birth and death
these are precipitous states
precipitous states
and precipitous straits
that's where the boat of compassion is operating
so it is dealing with
with what?
packaged things
there's no need for compassion
where things aren't packaged
where things aren't packaged
there's no birth and death
birth and death is the realm of packaging
this is birth
this is death
this is suffering
this is birth which you can grasp
therefore it's suffering
this is death you can grasp therefore it's suffering
so that's where the boat of compassion operates
the boat of compassion operates
in packaged land
in packaging land
what this is saying
is that to go through these
precipitous straits
in the best way
do not put a wooden duck out in front
to figure out how to do it
wooden duck is something that
boat captains
would put out in front of them
and they'd watch how the duck would go through the straits
and they'd follow the pattern
of the duck
to figure out how to go
and you know
they felt that that was
a pretty good way to deal with the world
of birth and death
but the compassion
doesn't do that
it doesn't put something out there to figure out how to proceed
it just deals with what's here
and doesn't think ahead
and try to follow somebody else's
example of what is
for example even compassion
practice compassion without
saying this is compassion
or practice compassion without
copying the buddhas
practice compassion
the same way you
practice with the illusion of somebody being out there
namely
you try to deal with it more subtly
than this is the way
this is the way
the wooden duck is using
something other than what you've got
to figure out how to proceed
and that's not being
recommended for the boat of compassion
for the boat of
trying to make
in the world of birth and death to try to make a boat
that's not going to crash
then you use wooden ducks
but in
in operating a boat that is
crashing all the time you don't use wooden ducks
and the boat of compassion
is constantly being crunched
and transformed and crunched
and rebuilt and crunched
in that boat
we don't use a wooden duck
and someone said
isn't it ok to use wooden ducks
and I would say yes it's fine to use wooden ducks
and I had this picture of
Lu Pu rowing his boat
and on board are some people
selling wooden ducks
either to put on strings
and let them you know
trail behind the boat
or throw them out in front
for entertainment and security
blanket type of activity
so there is a period which
you know it's understood
that you need wooden ducks
or you know what do you call it
what do they call those blankets
security blankets
people need them
so people can have
security blankets
and
wooden ducks
but they are not yet ready to practice compassion
but we have compassion towards them
so we pass out wooden ducks
if people need them
and we don't
who aren't yet ready to like really take on
compassion boat operation
ok so
sometimes it's good to give wooden ducks
but if you are really rowing the boat
through the precipitous straits
it's a distraction
and doesn't really help
but sometimes
giving out wooden ducks and security blankets
gets people on board
and then they can watch
how the
experienced
rowers deal with the situation
and they'll notice oh they aren't looking ahead
at wooden ducks
I am but they're not
I feel more secure
looking at how the ducks going
it kind of makes me feel like it's possible that I'll survive
but I notice the people actually operating the boat
aren't looking at the duck
they're looking at the water
and me
ok
so later today we can
or for the rest of our lives
we can study the story
it's
yeah it's
it's endlessly
it's endlessly vibrating with the Buddhas
thank you for
receiving this
rather highly concentrated
piece of Zen
lore
both in its superficial
verbal and literary form
and also for opening
to its actual
abysmal source
who left over there
yeah
may
our
intention
equally extend
to every being
and place
with the true
merit of
Buddha's way
beings
are numberless
I vow
to save them
delusions
are
inexhaustible
I vow
to end them
Dharma
gates are boundless
I vow
to enter them
Buddha's
way is unpassable
I vow
to become it
now there's an opportunity
to
fish
with
rice and tea