Good morning, everyone, and welcome. For new people, I'm Taigen Leighton, the teacher here at Ancient Dragons Zen Gate. I've been speaking in some of my talks about the cases in the Book of Serenity Koan Collection. I'm going to continue that this morning. We're up to case five out of 100, so we're just getting started. This is... This story is about one of our important ancestors who we don't talk about so much, there's not so many stories about him, but just to say for those who've heard of koans or these teaching stories, in our tradition from Dogen in the Soto lineage, There are various ways of using these stories in some traditions, in some lineages, by passing through, working with this teacher individually, passing through a whole curriculum.

[01:06]

We don't do that in this tradition, although I do sometimes work individually with students, but these are stories that have been studied for a thousand years because they say something about our practice now. So, and this story is particularly about our Soto or Cao Dong in Chinese lineage that Dogen brought to Japan and Suzuki Roshi brought to California. So, So these stories, again, are kind of endless. We can study them. We never finish studying them. You never finish with one of these. But I'm trying to give an introduction to them. This particular collection of koans, and there are many, many, many in the tradition, but there's a few that are important. And this one, the Book of Serenity, is patterned after the Blue Cliff Records, another important collection.

[02:13]

And the person who wrote the, picked the cases and wrote them up the way he understood them, and then wrote verse commentaries on it is named Hongzhe, Zhang Shui, or Tianzong Hongzhe. He was a very important teacher in the Zhaodong or Shouzhou lineage in China a century before Dogen, so in the 1100s. And then there are prose commentaries, an introduction, a commentary on the case, and a commentary on the verse by a later Xiaodong teacher, Wansong. So, that's just my way of introduction. This story, the whole case is, a monk asked Qingyuan, what is the great meaning of Buddhadharma? uh... in tom clary's translation he says what is the great meaning of buddhism but it's literally buddhadharma buddha means the awakened one or the principle of awakening dharma is the truth or reality or teaching of that.

[03:16]

What is the great meaning of Buddhadharma? So this is a common question in these teaching stories. There are various versions of it. Anyway, Qingyuan said in response, what is the price of rice in Luling? So that's the whole story. A monk asked Qingyuan, what is the great meaning of Buddhadharma? Qingyuan said, what is the price of rice in Luling? Luling was the area where he lived, where his monastery, his mountain called Qingyuan, and often the teachers were named after the place they taught. He said, what is the price of rice in Luling? This is an unusual story because it deals, in part at least, with concern about society and the outer world, and I'll come back to that. I want to read the verse comment by Hongzhe, and then go back to the case.

[04:23]

Hongzhe said about this story, the accomplishing work of great peace has no sign. The family way of the peasants is most pristine. only concerned with village songs and festival drinking, how could they know of the virtues of Shun or the benevolence of Yao? Shun and Yao are great traditional Chinese figures from Chinese antiquity who were said to have refused positions in the government and who are since spoken of as symbols of purity. of virtuousness. So I'll come back to that first. But first, a monk asked Qingyuan, what is the great meaning of Buddhadharma? Qingyuan said, what is the price of rice in Luling? So I want to say a little bit about who Qingyuan was. And also, I will talk about how this relates to our zazen, for those of you who are here for the first time, who have just sat for the first time.

[05:33]

But part of what happens in these stories is that there are particular teachers, characters we could say, who appear many times and who have significance and who are related to other teachers in the stories. And so I want to say more about Chingyuan Xingzi, who is in his name in Japanese when we chant the our lineage in Japanese, his name is Seigen Gyoshi, that's the pronunciation in Japanese. Chinyuan was one of the main students of the great sixth ancestor, Huineng. The sixth ancestor might be considered the founder of Chan or Zen. He was sixth in the line after Bodhidharma, who brought what we now call Chan, or in Japanese, Zen, to China from India, and then there were five after him.

[06:39]

At that, during Huineng's life, there were numbers of teachers, but now we remember six of them, and actually all of subsequent Chan or Zen comes from Huineng. And he's important in many reasons. There's a sutra about him, the biographical part of which is a little bit hokey, but... Li Ning is important because he came to the great Fifth Ancestors Monastery from the south of China, from Canton, from the boondocks, and he was an illiterate woodcutter. And he became the Sixth Ancestor. And this represents that in Chan or Zen, Chan is the Chinese word, Zen is the Japanese, that taking on the lineage mastery of the practice. Becoming a teacher is not a matter of great learning or high class.

[07:51]

Huainan was a common laborer, a woodcutter, and became the sixth ancestor. Anyway, he had a numbers of students, but the two most important, one of them is Nanyue, who I've talked about in terms of the story of him coming to the sixth ancestor, and the sixth ancestor saying to him, what is this that thus comes? So I've told that story a lot. Just briefly, Nanyue was speechless. He didn't know what to say. It's a funny way of asking, who are you? And the story goes that he went and sat in the meditation hall for eight years, and then he came back and said to Huineng, now I can respond to what you asked. What is this that thus comes? And I will say that anything I say misses the mark. And the sixth ancestor said, well, then is there a practice in realization or not? And he said, it's not that there's no practice realization, just that we can't defile it.

[08:55]

So anyway, that's Nanyue, who was the ancestor of a number of the two of the great five lineages in China, including the Rinzai or Linji lineage. The other great disciple was Qingyuan, this fellow in the story here. and he was the teacher, he became the teacher of Shuto Shuchan, so there will not be a test on any of this, but for some of you who know some of these characters, I want to fill this in. Shuto in Japanese is Sekito, and he's the fellow who wrote the Harmony of Difference and Sameness, which we chant a lot, and also the Song of the Grass Hut, which we also chant. So, This lineage that we follow is called Saodong, in Chinese, or Soto, and some people think it's, so it goes to Dongshan. Dongshan is considered the founder, who I've talked about a lot. He's after Qingyuan, he's four generations after Qingyuan.

[10:01]

But actually, Saodong or Soto, really, I think, we can understand, refers to the whole group from the sixth ancestor. One of his names is Cao Xi. So Qingyuan is one of the founders of our lineage. Okay, so the monk asked Qingyuan, what is the great meaning of the Buddha Dharma? Qingyuan said, what's the price of rice and looling? This might be like somebody coming to a teacher now and saying, what is the great meaning of the Buddhadharma? And I'm saying, well, how much does bread cost these days? Or what is the Dow Jones average? Probably they wouldn't say that. But this is about The price of rice, what does it cost to survive? What is the cost of our daily bread? So rice, of course, in China was the staple grain. So what is the price of rice in Lu Ling?

[11:08]

So a lot of times when this kind of question, what is the great meaning of Buddhadharma, is asked. Or sometimes it's asked as, why did Bodhidharma, why did the great ancestor come from the West, come from India to China? So that's a kind of Chan family or Zen family way of asking the same question. And often, The teacher in the great stories that we study who responds to this question will say things like, three pounds of hemp, or the cypress tree out in the yard, or various concrete things, not some abstract philosophical teaching, but something right here. And so we might understand this as a similar kind of response.

[12:11]

What is the great meaning of Buddhadharma? The cypress tree in the yard, or what is the price of rice and looling? This response is a little different than those kinds of responses, though, because it refers to something not just concrete, but something meaningful to the people, not just in Xing Yuan's monastery or temple, I don't know, we don't know how many people there were, how many students he had, but it also refers to something about the society about what's going on in the world beyond the temple walls. And again, the verse comment I'll come back to, the accomplishing work of great peace has no sign. And the family way of the peasants is most pristine. So in some ways, what is the price of rice in Lu Ling is like asking,

[13:16]

Are people around here making a living wage? So next Sunday's Labor Day weekend, I'm gonna talk about right livelihood, which is a very early traditional Buddhist teaching from the Buddha. Anyway, what is the price of rice in the Ling? So I wanna start with an interesting comment, excuse me, by Wansong. to the case itself. And this is a story about what happened when Qingyuan first called on the six ancestors. So I mentioned Nanyue, his Dharma brother, being asked, what is this that thus comes? When Qingyuan Xingzi, that's his later name, from Qingyuan Mountain, first called on the Sixth Ancestor, he immediately asked, this is what Xinguang asked the Sixth Ancestor, what work should be done so as to be able not to fall into steps and stages?

[14:31]

This is really interesting because, as those of you, we did a practice period a couple of years ago on Dongshan, five, five generations later, considered the founder of Tsao Tung or Soto, but I'm saying here that Ching Yuen is one of them too. One of his main teachings, and one of the teachings that appears in many of the stories about Dongshan or Tozan in Japanese, is not to be caught in stages of practice. So this gets back to what the meaning of Arzazen is. So we could say, what is the great meaning of Buddhadharma? We could also say, what is the great meaning of this sitting practice we do? Dogen talks about that a lot. But Xing Yuan, right when he first came to the sixth ancestor, asked, what work should be done so as to be able not to fall into steps and stages?

[15:38]

So I'll come back to the rest of that conversation. But this is a really interesting, important issue for our practice. So it's, I think, very easy, maybe common, to think that spiritual practice or meditation practice is about progressing to some higher stage, to some higher realm of being, to some higher understanding. And still most of the things we do in our culture we think of in terms of stages of accomplishment. And that's the way the world is. And so there are many people in this room who have advanced degrees, for example, and had to pass through many grades and take many tests. And many of you have other areas of work where you had to go through steps and stages to accomplish where you are now or perhaps what you want to do beyond where you are now.

[16:48]

So this is a really basic human issue. And the point is that Arsazan is not about that. And the Buddhadharma is not about that. So, some of you sat here for the first time this morning. This is not a practice of trying to reach some higher state of being or reach some higher understanding. As soon as you sit down upright, like Buddha, that's it. Now, of course, doing this regularly over time over many years can help unfold what this is. But it's not about getting to becoming somebody else, some other being. It's about truly being that which is on your seat right now. And what's difficult about this practice is not

[17:50]

getting your legs into some funny position or sitting still for 35 or 40 minutes or, you know, even though those may be difficult, but how to actually be present and pay attention to what is happening on your seat, your particular being right now here. and see that as we sit like Buddha, we are expressing Buddha. We are performing, each of us on our seat is performing Buddha, as it is for us here this morning. And of course, that involves all kinds of difficulties, like seeing our own greed, hate, and delusion, our own particular difficulties. But it's not about reaching higher stages. So all of that is included in this question that Ching-Yuan asked when he first got to the Sixth Ancestors. He said, what work should be done so as to be able not to fall into steps and stages?

[18:55]

And the Sixth Ancestors said, what have you done? So obviously, he was not a raw beginner when he came to the Sixth Ancestor. He knew something about the practice and the teaching. And Ching Yuan said this very interesting thing. I do not even practice the holy truths. So maybe that means I do not even practice the Four Noble Truths. I don't practice the sacred truths. I don't practice the spiritual truths. I don't try and understand the systems, and they're the four noble truths, the truth, the reality of suffering or disease, the cause of that. having to do with our grasping, the end of that, and then the fourth is the Eightfold Path, which includes Right Livelihood, I'm gonna talk about next week, but, Ching-Yuan said this strange thing, I do not even practice the holy truths.

[20:08]

And the ancestor said, if even the holy truths are not practiced, what steps or stages are there? So, there's no steps or stages. In effect, How could there be steps or stages if you don't even practice those truths? So this is a practice, this is a very radical practice in our tradition that goes beyond stages of accomplishment or Dongshan talks about the bird's path. which you can't see. Birds maybe can see each other's paths, I don't know. It goes on to say that the ancestor considered him to be of profound capacity. Although there were many people in the congregation of the sixth ancestor, the master Chingyuan or Sagan dwelt at their head. It was also like when the second ancestor said nothing, whereupon Bodhidharma told him, you have my marrow.

[21:14]

So this is, This is part of Wansong's commentary on the case itself. I want to talk more about Hongzhe's verse and Hong Wansong's commentary to that. Because this is important about how unique this particular case is and how significant it is, I think, for us. Hongshu said, the accomplishing work of great peace has no sign. the family way of the peasants, of the common people, is most pristine, only concerned with village songs and festival drinking. How would they know of the virtues of Shun or the benevolence of Yao? So again, Shun and Yao are these great ancient figures from, as it's reckoned in Chinese, Chinese people were very concerned about history, but they had these kind of prehistoric figures, I think,

[22:21]

Yun and Xiao were said to have been great masters in, I don't know, 2000 BC or something like that by our current reckoning. The accomplishing work of great peace has no sign. This may be very important to hear for us now. How can we accomplish great peace in a society that is so troubled and conflicted and divided? In a country where we seem to have a policy of endless wars, we have troops all over the world and we are supplying bombs to regimes that are committing genocide in places like Yemen and Gaza.

[23:24]

And then there's also the conflict, we don't have to go that far, the conflict from all the gun violence right in Chicago. How do we accomplish great peace? What is the work for us to accomplish great peace? I know many of you are concerned about this. Huang Zhe says here in this commentary to Ching Yuan asking about what's the price of bread to hear about, he says, the accomplishing work of great peace has no sign. We don't know how we will stop the devastation from all the social injustice around us, from the gun violence, from the endless wars, from the children separated from their parents on our borders, from the huge climate chaos which is affecting things everywhere.

[24:29]

How do we, what is the work we can do to accomplish great peace? He doesn't say there's no accomplishing work. He doesn't say there's no great peace. He just says the accomplishing work of great peace has no sign. We can't. We don't know what to do. Many people are working in many ways about trying to bring healing and justice and peace to our world. This is one of the things that's most encouraging, that so many people are actually working at this. But what is the sign? What should we do? procedure, what is the right strategy or tactics. So Hongshuo commenting on, Hongshuo in the 1100s commenting on Qingyuan in the 700s and what Qingyuan said about the price of rice says the accomplishing work of great peace has no sign.

[25:37]

There's no clear way to figure out what that is. But then he goes on to say, the family way of the common people is most pristine. So even in the midst of all the wars and injustice and climate chaos around us, what Hong Xiu says is the family way, just taking care of family and taking care of everyday activities, the family way of the common people is most pristine, is most pure." Again, he doesn't say that we shouldn't work for great peace. In fact, he's talking about that, how to accomplish the work of great peace. But then he says, the family way of the peasants is most pristine, only concerned with village songs and festival drinking. Yeah, there are common songs, there are festivals.

[26:51]

Has the R.I.B. Festival happened yet over here? I think that's next week maybe. Maybe it already happened anyway. In summer in Chicago, there are lots of festivals. There are lots of street festivals. And common village songs and festival drinking is the concern of the common people. And yet, on the altar still, we have the name of Aretha Franklin, who produced, who sang out beautifully village songs that spoke of concern and peace and respect and justice. Anyway, so why does he say that this family way of the common people, of the ordinary people, is most perfect, is most pure, only concerned with village songs and festival drinking?

[27:55]

What is it about our everyday activity that is part of maybe the accomplishing work of great peace. This is part of what I think is implied. And he says, how would they know of the great virtues of the ancient rulers, the ancient benevolent kings? So there's a commentary by Wansong to this verse. And it refers to, so a lot of these commentaries refer to Chinese cultural events or history or Chinese literature. Wansung, who was also a great teacher and was a teacher in what's now the area of Beijing in northern China during a time in the mid to late 1100s when the Mongols had conquered northern China and the new dynasty was taking place.

[28:56]

So it was a time of civil war then too. there was a time of unrest and of conflict and confusion. So Wansong is thinking about this accomplishing work of great peace that Hongzhe spoke about in those terms. Hongzhe was in the early 1100s and there was conflict then too, and we seem to always have that. In some ways it seems to, the possible impacts seem to accelerate. Anyway, Wansong says, in 832 during the reign of the Emperor Wenzong of the Tang Dynasty, so he's looking back to the 800s during the Tang Dynasty, a century or so after Qingyuan. It mentions the name of a prime minister then, and the emperor said to him, when will the land be at peace? So this is the question of an emperor to the prime minister back in 832, was I think just before one of the great persecutions.

[30:08]

So there was a lot of upheaval then. And the prime minister replied, peaceful government has no special form. There's no sign. There's no clear indication of what peace will look like. We can all listen to John who said, give peace a chance, but we don't know what it'll look like. We haven't seen it in a long time. When will the land be at peace? And this prime minister said, peaceful government has no special form. Now the surrounding nations are not invading and the farmers are not deserting. Although it is not the ultimate order, still it could be called somewhat healthy. If your majesty seeks a great peace beyond this, it is beyond my ability. So maybe they're talking about good enough government. And the way our society is now, I don't know that we have that, but this is a kind of indication of something.

[31:16]

So this prime minister withdrew and repeatedly petitioned the emperor to be allowed to retire. He was finally sent out as the inspector of Huainan, one of the provinces. I say he was already creating a model, drawing a likeness, is what Wansong says. Therefore, in rustic style, beating the earth and singing folk songs, ritual music and literary embellishments turn into oddities. And Wansong continues, the price of rice in Luling is extremely profound and mysterious. The moon is white, the wind is pure, each rests in its own lot. Do you understand? If not, please go back to sitting meditation. So that's this case five. about this student of, important student of the sixth ancestor. What is the great meaning of the Buddha Dharma?

[32:19]

Ching Mun said, what is the price of rice in Luling? What is the cost of bread in Illinois? How are the people doing? Let's just read a little bit from Wansong's introduction to that case. Having passed through the forest of thorns and cut down the sandalwood tree, just wait till the year ends. As of old, early spring is still cold. Where is the Buddha's body of reality? Where is the Dharmakaya? Where is the ultimate truth in all this? So this is a story where they are not ignoring the situation of the world around them. Dogen refers to this story about the price of rice and looling, I don't know, a dozen or so times in his extensive record. There's a long informal talk, which I think I won't, it's complicated, so I'm not gonna go into it, but it's about a dialogue between Mahakasyapa, the first ancestor of Shakyamuni, the historical Buddha, and Manjushri, the Bodhisattva of Wisdom.

[33:37]

And Manjushri, during the practice period, has been out Anyway, there's a whole dialogue about monastic forms and what this has to do with being with the world. And at the end of that, Dogen quotes exactly this first comment by Hongzhe. The accomplishing work of great peace has no sign. The family way of the common people is most pure, only concerned with village songs and village drinking. How would they know of the virtues of Lincoln or the benevolence of Washington, to put it in current terms? Okay, so. What is the great meaning of Buddhadharma? And just to say one last thing before we have some, before questions and comments.

[34:40]

Part of this, the background of this practice, again, is not just, we don't meditate just to accomplish steps and stages and to reach, to get higher. This isn't about getting high. This practice, going back to the sixth ancestor in Bodhidharma and Dogen and Suzuki Roshi, is part of the Bodhisattva way. We will chant the four Bodhisattva vows at the end of the morning, which is the traditional practice of universal awakening, universal liberation, helping everyone, freeing all people, even the common people, even the peasants. It's not about getting some higher status in government or in whatever institution or bureaucracy one finds oneself. What is the great meaning of Buddhadharma?

[35:43]

And then there's just this question, how are the people doing these days here in Chicago? I think there's a lot in this story. And it's one of the stories that most clearly refers to the society beyond the temple. So comments, questions, responses, please feel free. Kathy. Thank you for your talk. You know, what comes to my mind is what goes through my mind often is it seems like the only solution is that people develop a skill to begin to not only

[36:58]

Yes, it does. And what Hongzhi says is there's no clear sign, there's no clear process for how to accomplish great peace. And yet, it is our work. And yeah. And the other thing is that this, both Ching Yuan and Hongzhe and later Dogen who commented on this, were living in very, very different societies. So he can talk about the peasants and the farmers. Now we have agribusiness. Well, we have farmers, we're starting to have farmers markets, and so we can actually see the farmers who are producing our food. But our culture is so different. So again, as I've often said, this is a huge experiment. It's only 50 or 60 years old of bringing this practice to this strange country we are from and live in.

[38:35]

We have to translate what's said for our context, and how do we use this tradition in our situation in Chicago? Yes, hi. Hi. My name is Pat. I recently read Margaret Wheatley's book, Who Do We Choose to Be? What's the name of it again? Margaret Wheatley's Who Do We Choose to Be? Who Do We Choose to Be? Good. about the family life being pristine. Yes. That book came to mind because she talks about, you know, in the justice work we've been very focused on Well, I would just add that yes, and I would add that all of it, there's no clear sign for the work of great peace, but all of it's relevant.

[40:07]

So I'll invoke, as I've mentioned before, one of my teachers, Joanna Macy, talks about the three modes of response to the difficulties now and to the process of turning our world. So she mentions holding actions, trying to limit the damage. So all of the political work of trying to respond to injustice and climate damage is there. And that's part of the work. Second is developing new alternatives, developing some new positive not just criticizing what's going on, which we also need to do, but also developing new forms. So farmers' markets, for example, is an example of that, and spiritual communities. So developing alternative systems. And then the third is changing hearts and minds. And that's what you're referring to, and that's what we're doing here, which is, just by sitting upright like Buddha, paying attention to what's happening on our seat.

[41:14]

how we see the world, how we see ourselves, our conflicted idea of ourself, our conditioned idea of ourself and of the world can change. And that's what I think what you're referring to and what's referred to here. So all three of those are important in terms of what Joanna says. But thank you very much for that. Other comments, responses, questions? Yes, hi. I see her. Yeah, the no sign means we don't know what, obviously, if it was clear, it would have happened already, right?

[42:21]

We don't know how to make the changes that need to happen. And the story, the image you gave is a little bit like Suzuki Roshi, my teacher's teacher, saying that walking through the fog, as he did in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, gradually my robes get wet. So, thank you for that. Yes, station. Sure. I can't imagine that it could have helped to have been informed by the Four Noble Truths. So I wonder if what he's saying is I refrained from practicing on some

[43:25]

Good, so I don't, I have the Chinese for the cases and the verses, but not for Wansong's commentary. So I'm not sure exactly what words are used there, but I think what you say makes sense to me. That what, in this story, what Xing Yuan is saying when he says, I do not even practice the holy truths, maybe he's saying, I don't cultivate them, I don't try and get through them step by step. They're already here. You don't need to, in some sense, you don't need to practice them. They're part of, as you say, your body. They're part of when we sit like Buddha already. that Buddha Dharma, that sacred truth is here. So how do we pay attention to that without trying to reach some stage of it? Thank you, that's a good way of, it's a good exegesis of this passage, I think. Although maybe there are other interpretations too, but thank you. Any other questions or comments?

[44:40]

Yes, Dylan. Doing the things that are helpful and learning what is helpful is what the most important thing is. And I'm worried that being too... because I've been focused on that for so long, that it's possible to lose yourself in that. That you can... almost like get addicted to that helpfulness and lose how you honor this distinctive manifestation of life that's here. Who are you?

[45:41]

What's good for me? Not in a selfish way, but just sort of... I don't know, and that's what I'm sitting with today, I guess. Yeah, thank you. What I hear from what you just said, and I may be missing something, but it reminds me of some Christian or Western ideas of charity and people who are out doing good works in the world, but don't have the side of the contemplative communion with something deeper. We need both sides, so it's not enough to just focus on ultimate truth to put it that way, to focus on the source, to focus on what is the deepest reality. We also need to respond to how are the people in Luling able to get rice?

[46:43]

How are people doing around us? We're not just practicing for ourself, but if one is just out doing good works and not also doing what is certainly part of just sitting and communing with, how is Buddha on our seat, then we're missing that deeper meaning. So both are totally necessary. And that's actually kind of the main teaching of in Sao Dong or Soto Lineage, Xing Yuan's student, Shito or Sekito, wrote The Harmony of Difference and Sameness. So it's not enough to focus on the differences and on the particular problems in the world that we have to go out and try and fix or solve. We also have to see how we are part of that. And so, yeah, I think what you said brings that to me. I don't know if that's, in the realm.

[47:47]

Yes, Nelson. and in the original case, part of what seems to be being indicated is that the way that it's being put, what is great peace, or what is the great meaning of Darwin, those are very kind of reified, very sort of solidified. In both cases with Chinua and the prime minister, they're saying, they're trying to move away from that and say, let's look at how we're living.

[48:59]

All that kind of stuff. So yeah. Good, good. Yeah. And I can look up the character for sign. I think it's what you're saying. But it's that being down to earth and looking at our everyday stuff. And it's also not no mind. We don't have the answers. Yeah. So. Good, well, we're a little over time, so we could keep talking about this for days, but we'll stop that now. And thank you all very much for joining us.

[49:32]

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