Good morning. Listening to this chant sounds like the Buddhadharma is some wonderful, extraordinary thing that we're presenting. But today, the wonderful, extraordinary thing is the most plain, obvious thing that we rarely pay attention to, which is in our life, moment to moment. Today, I'm going to comment on case number 26 in the Blue Cliff Record called Hyakujo Sits on a Great Sublime Peak.

[01:17]

Hyakujo was the disciple of Baso, ba meaning horse, and so meaning patriarch. Baso was the horse patriarch, one of the most well-known influential Zen teachers in China in the Tang Dynasty. And of course, Yakuza was his disciple. So, Yakuza, they're equally influential, so we should know something about their teaching. This case has no special introduction, but I would say that the way Suzuki Roshi spoke He always said, Zen, or our practice, or Zazen, is nothing special.

[02:33]

Don't think about it as something special. So Hyakujo sits on the Great Sublime Peak. So the main subject comes right away. A monk asks Hyakujo, what is the most wonderful thing Hyakujo said, I sit alone on this great sublime peak. The monk made a bow, very deep bow, and Joe hit him with his stick. So that's it. So then Master Setso, the commentator, says, across the patriarch's field went galloping the heavenly horse, Baso's successor. Different, however, in their way of teaching, in holding fast and letting go.

[03:37]

His actions were quick as lightning, always fitting. The monk came to tweak the tiger's whiskers, but his efforts made him a laughingstock. So that's the commentary, the verse. So back to the main subject. A monk asked Hyakujo, what is the most wonderful thing? Well, that's a really good question. How do you answer that? So, in those days, and in these days as well, but in those days, in the Tang Dynasty, monks would go around and interview or ask questions of various teachers. There was a kind of circuit. And so, they would try to ask questions that would trip up the teacher.

[04:40]

you know, or see what he says about this or that. And a good teacher will answer quickly or answer in various ways. So, Yakujo says, I alone, I sit alone. I'm sitting here alone on this great sublime peak. Dayuho means Great Sublime Peak. Mount Dayuho, actually, which is kind of incidental to the question or to the answer. In other words, here I am. What is the most sublime understanding of the Dharma? Here I am. So, we can all go home now.

[05:57]

So, what is the most wonderful thing? I sit alone on this great sublime peak. Well, that has many connotations and ways of understanding, but the main way of understanding is just this. The most important thing is just this. That's the whole of Buddhadharma. So the monk said, oh, what an extraordinary answer. So he bowed deeply to Yakuzho, who took his thing and went, bam. Why did he do that? Same thing. He said, I will give you an answer out of my mouth, but I'll also give you the truth. Bam. There you are. Here I am. Here we are, this is it.

[07:01]

It's a great response. Great response. As you know, Zen masters in the Tang Dynasty in China, and up until America, always hit their students. We think of this as punishment or something. Not punishment, it's like a kiss. Like a blessing. So when he's hitting the, it's not like, I don't like you or you're a bad boy or something. It's stimulation. Up until just a few years ago, whatever that means, a few years, 20 years, 15, we always carried a stick. The teacher always carried a stick and would go around hitting the students in Zazen because it wakes everybody up.

[08:06]

It's stimulation. You know, Zen is about stimulation, actually. To be awake. It's called a waking up stick. And teachers use it in various ways. But it can be misused, like anything can be misused, of course. But in its vitality, it's very useful. So I don't see this as, you dumb student. No, it's like, thank you for that question. I could have gotten off the seat and hugged the student, right? Not the same, not the same. It has nothing to do with your body.

[09:07]

It has to do with... When we would hit somebody with a stick, it's like there was no person, no hitter, no one hit, and just everything disappears. And you're just sitting there in total awareness. So it cuts off all thoughts, cuts off all feeling, and cuts off, it's body and mind dropped off. That's the purpose of the stick. Body and mind dropped off. a moment of total awareness and awakeness without any thoughts. Here we are. Bam. So, and then Hayako-jo says, I sit alone.

[10:15]

So, as I say many times, alone has two opposite meanings. One meaning for alone is isolated. The other meaning is together with. Same word, but they have totally opposite meaning. together with, alone means at one with. That's the basis of alone, at one. So when Hyakujo is sitting on Mount Dayuho, he's sitting by himself at the same time as he is sitting together with the whole universe. at one with the whole universe and as an individual and as the universe.

[11:21]

This is like the whole story. The whole story. That's why we say Zazen is... When we enter Zazen, we enter the realm of enlightenment. And our activity is enlightened activity because it's the individual at one with the whole universe. No separation. Separation and no separation. This is the koan of our life. All koans are about this. So, we're expressing the Buddha Dharma through Zazen totally. So, when Hyakujo hits the monk, he's saying, wake up, right?

[12:37]

And wake up means drop everything. So it's a great compliment to the monk. So there's the monk, here's Chakrajo. Bam, they both disappear into oneness. So, reminds me of a, story about Joshu, there was a woman who asked Master Joshu if he would turn the sutras for her. You know, there's so many sutras when they came to China from India, and many of them are of course made up in China, but in order to, and this is a kind of Zen thing that the sutras are put into a sutra, little sutra building, a little hut, and the Tibetans do this, right?

[13:57]

They have these little wheels and the sutras are inside the wheels and they turn the sutras, right? Because You couldn't stand there and expound the sutras all day long, so you encase them in a little wheel and you turn them. And then the meaning of the sutras comes pouring out into the world. So this woman asked Hyakujo if he would turn the sutra wheels for her. as a kind of, you know, she was too old to do it herself or she was away or something like that. And so he stood up and he put his arms out and turned around like this. He said, now I've turned the sutures for you. This is very, you know, kind of like universal activity.

[15:01]

If we embody the Dharma, then our turning, whatever we do is turning. We're turning the sutras. We're creating the sutras, actually. I had a, there was a Korean teacher here who I was friends with back in the 60s. And he said, he gave me a calligraphy, said, turning to citrus is our daily activity. I would just, as Tolkien says, When he's commenting on this case, Dogen has two fascicles in the court that comment on this case.

[16:03]

And he says, if I were to comment on this, I would say, just bringing my mendicant bowl from Mount Jogiji to this temple where I am now and eating rice. carrying my mendicant bowl from Joe Gigi to where I am now and eating rice. Eating rice when we are totally stuffed with rice and can't eat anymore. That's when our practice begins. So we eat rice and we offer rice. So, Setsubun's verse says, across the patriarch's field went galloping the heavenly horse, Baso's successor.

[17:15]

That means Hyakujo, as I have explained. Different, however, in the way of teaching in holding fast and letting go. So in a lineage, a Zen lineage of successors, each successor has their own way of presenting the Dharma. But they all come from the same root. So whatever is expressed as the Dharma through each teacher, is the same and different according to each person, each one's understanding and way of expression.

[18:16]

So, he's saying Baso and Hyakujo are both heavenly horses, he says, spreading the Dharma through their activity, their great activity, But each one has a different way, and we should all have a different way. And Suzuki Roshi would say, each one of us has to find our own way. Also, we all practice. We all come to the zendo. We all practice the same practice together. When we leave, each one of us has to find our own way of practicing and expressing the Dharma and helping people. That's the plan. That's the way it goes. So we, you know, sometimes look at one teacher, we say, well, you know, they're not doing, if you go to another, if you're used to practicing here, and you go to another zendo, you'll say, they're not doing it right.

[19:27]

They don't, so we have that comparative understanding, but actually, they're just doing what they're doing, which is their own expression. And when we look at it, it's the same teaching. So we have to be very careful and tolerant to accept other ways that are not just our own way. And when you go to Rome, You should do what the Romans do. Sometimes people go to another practice place and there's a kind of smugness, like, oh yeah, they're not doing it right. And so you do your own way instead of blending with the place where you are. And so that's a kind of hindrance. People honor your way when you accept their way.

[20:29]

So that's really important. And in our world today, there's so much dissension. I don't want to use this word. I won't talk about it. But there's so much criticism of how everybody does something that's not the way you do it. So we have to be very open-minded, very open-minded. So, then he says, Hyakujo, his actions were quick as lightning and always fitting. Commentators use this word, quick as lightning, a lot when they're talking about Zen Master. I would say, without missing a beat, I like that better than quick as lightning. The response fits the question without a gap, which I would say is not missing a beat.

[21:47]

The question comes and the response is just the extension without a gap. That brings everyone together. In Dharma, we say Dharma combat. That's the kind of translation. But actually, there's no real combat. It's like, you know, a kind of game. And in a game, there are winners and losers. But in Dharma combat, there's no winners or losers. The Dharma is what comes forth. We're not trying to one person win over another. It's to bring forth the truth of the Dharma. That's the main thing. And so there's some jousting and some positioning and so forth.

[22:49]

But that's stimulating. It's like, kind of like the stick, you know, that kind of back and forth encounter is stimulating and brings forth the dharma in the same way. So this is how Setso is describing this encounter. It's that there's not some kind of winning and losing here. It's that between the two of them, the student and the teacher, the Dharma comes forth. That's the important point. So, but then there's a little, you know, criticism like, the monk came to tweak the tiger's whiskers. In other words, he came to challenge the teacher. That this is a tweak the tiger's whiskers is a kind of stereotype. But his efforts made him a laughingstock.

[23:54]

I wouldn't say that. I would say that the two of them became one. You know, we say that, you know, there's a saying, if you want the tiger's cub, if you want a tiger's cub, you have to enter the tiger's cave. If you want something, that if you want something that could be dangerous, you have to face what it is. So although the monk may have had that kind of, you know, tongue-in-cheekness with the question, he was still serious. And the tiger, Yakucho, grabbed him. He entered the tiger's cave because he wanted the tiger's cub.

[25:01]

So he got the tiger's cub, but Hyakujo caught him. And he said, okay, which one do you want? So, there's another way of looking at this blow. Hyakujo is saying, you're bowing to me as if I had said something extraordinary. This is just ordinary activity. There's nothing extraordinary about it at all. The most important point in Buddhism is nothing is extraordinary.

[26:13]

Extraordinary is simply a comparison to what is ordinary, and ordinary is simply a comparison to what is extraordinary. Our everyday life is ordinary, but actually it's totally extraordinary. But it seems ordinary because when we look at something different, but if everything was extraordinary, then everything would be ordinary. Because there wouldn't be any extraordinary if everything is extraordinary. So that's why everyday life is extraordinary, because it's ordinary. So the most ordinary thing is the most extraordinary thing. Just sitting here is so extraordinary, but it's just ordinary.

[27:19]

It's extraordinary because everybody else is walking around and we're sitting down. Just by comparison to something else. I remember Suzuki Roshi saying when he was at Eheiji Monastery as a young man, It was a kind of extraordinary, to everybody else, their practice was extraordinary. But to the monks, who've been doing it all day long, every day, year after year, just ordinary activity. And then some extraordinary people were coming to visit them. But they were just ordinary people. What is ordinary? What is extraordinary? Everything is extraordinary. I mean, just the fact that we're breathing is extraordinary, but we just see it as ordinary.

[28:25]

So the Dharma is just ordinary. There's nothing extraordinary. But it's also extraordinary, because it's ordinary. Yes? Yes, yes. Yes, when he came back and visited, yes. Yeah. Well, a monastic practice is extraordinary, but to those who practice it is ordinary. And when you come back and you see it, as Suzuki Roshi did, it's very compelling. It brings back those memories. Yeah. So do you have any questions? Oh yeah, Ben. Yes. This is what makes me think of it, and it's probably a poor paraphrase, but something like when you enter the mountain peak, you might think there are sages and wise people,

[29:46]

Yes. Yes. Well, that's what I would say. It reminds me of that, too. Yes. Yes. And yet, we also talk about it as being nothing special. Yeah, that's the koan. It's both at the same time.

[31:01]

It's both at the same time. Yes, yes. You know, because our life is changing continuously, we don't notice it so much. But our ordinary life, if you examine everything completely, there's nothing.

[32:08]

But we don't examine our life that completely. because of momentum. Momentum is movement. Everything seems to be moving. Everything seems to be moving. But although everything seems to be moving, nothing is moving. Because nothing lasts long enough to move anywhere. But we have the illusion of movement and we live in it. That's why we say that this is the world of illusion and delusion. But we have to live within this illusory world. But it helps us if we understand that it's an illusory world.

[33:13]

Even though we have our feelings and we feel them deeply, ouch, right? That's real. But everything is moving and nothing lasts longer than the snap of a finger. Even though, well, I'm still here. Even though I snapped my finger, I'm still here, right? But it's all changing all the time. So, even though it has some reality, it's only momentary, whatever a moment is. We say, in Buddhism, they say there are, I don't know how many moments in a moment, but it's a lot. And it's true. So, it's extraordinary. But extraordinary is ordinary. What is ordinary is actually extraordinary. So there are these two views.

[34:18]

That's all. We just have these two views of ordinary and extraordinary. It's beyond ordinary and extraordinary to tell the truth. Bam! It's beyond ordinary and extraordinary. But we just use these comparative values. of ordinary. That's just comparison. But the oneness, the total truth, is that it's beyond both. And so that's why both of them can be at the same time, because they're both just ideas. They're both ideas. Ordinary is just an idea. Extraordinary is just an idea. We assign names to things. So, that's why the teacher goes, bam! That's beyond ordinary and extraordinary. That's the truth. If you don't believe it, find out for yourself.

[35:23]

As this wonderful guy used to say on KPFA back in the 60s, he'd say, if you don't like the news, go out and make some of your own. Yes. Yeah. Right. Yes. Yes. Yes. Well, the enlightened mind is not reactive. Well, the analysis is not as complex as what you're saying, right?

[36:46]

Yes, some analysis is beneficial. We need some analysis, right? We call it, sometimes we call it judgment. But minimal analysis, just enough analysis. So we have to know it's just enough. Enlightened mind knows just what is just enough and responds to circumstances. without self-interest. Should I expound on that? It's too late. Think about it. After you've thought about it, come back and ask me again. It's not a safe place.

[38:32]

I don't think of it in a safe place. And I wonder why people do. There is no such thing as a safe place. Unless you always feel safe in every circumstance. That's up to you. It's not up to circumstances. Circumstances are not safe. But if you want to feel safe, you have to find the safety within yourself. That's our practice. Well, that's art. Yes, it depends on how you see things.

[39:47]

Yes, I agree. Yes. Yeah. It's true. Yeah. It depends on You know, when you enter the Zen Do, and we sit facing the wall, and we hope that somebody doesn't come in and kill us, right? Although that has happened. Thieves came, you know, even as far back as the Tang Dynasty, you know. and killed the monks and so on. I don't know if they did that while they were sitting, but maybe. But it's not like there are rules. It's not like you can, if you do this, that will always happen. There are rules, but they don't cover everything.

[40:51]

Rules don't cover everything. Something may happen that you don't like, but the practice is to realize that there is no safety. You know, there is, I mean, we try to make things as safe as possible. And some people, when we use something like this, they say, well, my grandfather or my father hit me, you know, and all that. My father hit me with this, he said, if you don't behave, I'll hit you with a strap. Because in those days, I tell you how old I am, in those days, men shaved with a straight razor. And they had a strap, a beautiful, you know, horse hide strap.

[41:55]

And they would, before, I remember before shaving, he would sharpen his straight razor on the strap. And he'd say, if you don't behave, I'll hit you with a strap. And I don't remember whether he hit me with a strap or not. He did hit me with a coat hanger. But when I came to Zen, the first thing I heard was, my first time sitting in the center, bam, bam. And I thought, who's hitting the floor? It never occurred to me that the stick was being hit on, somebody was being hit with a stick. That didn't occur to me. But then I said, what was that? And the guy said, well, he's hitting somebody with a stick. And then when I understood what was going on, It was just the way things worked, and everybody enjoyed it. Because they loved the teacher. And the teacher loved the students.

[42:57]

And so he was doing them a favor, and everybody really liked it. It was not perversion. You know, the teacher had a touch that was just enough. Just enough. Not too much, not too little. And when one person got hit, everybody woke up. But, you know, you can argue this forever. So we stopped using the stick. Although, I do have permission to use it if I want to. Way in the back. Hi, Ronnie. Yes, I know that. Okay. Well, the form of the stick is that the teacher carries the stick, or the students. We always had students carrying the stick.

[43:59]

And you carry it in a very formal way. And when somebody wants to receive it, they bow. And then the person carrying the stick puts the person in a position, bending over a little like this, so they can hit the shoulder just the right place. Bam. And then they bow to each other, and the person goes on. And then the next person will say, please. They ask for it. You don't have to go around beating people up. Although the perversion of that is to beat people up. They do that in Japan. So that's the process. I had no idea that I was totally exempt from being hit, being a guest and an old lady already.

[45:24]

But right in front of my eyes right now, I can see that shadow. It's impressive. Well, we didn't hit guests, but we always hit old ladies. Alex? I want to share a story that you reminded me of. When I was learning to drive, you left your head up. Several times. It's a more difficult drive. Eventually I found this wonderful driving instructor and we had some lessons and we had this dual control car where he had the brake and the clutch on his side as well.

[46:30]

And sometimes he would, you know, if you sort of weren't paying attention, if you sort of emerged from parking without checking the mirror, the car would come to this violent halt. There'd be a full emergency stop. The flag would start to, you know, you'd say, did you see the cyclist? Yes, yes. There are other stories like that, but we can't go on any much longer. Yes, yeah. Well, it's similar. I think there's overlap. Well, too many people want to ask a question.

[47:36]

Yes, yes, that's right. To be aware, to live moment by moment, and to realize that even in an unsafe world, you can work on safety. Be careful, be mindful. So, when we come to the zendo, it feels safe. And then there's sometimes people, you know, who you're suspicious of, you know, or don't, you kind of wonder about or something like that. That's life. Wherever you go, it will be that way. The Zendo is a quote-unquote safe place, but not necessarily.

[48:52]

The reason that's an important subject is because we have our assumptions about how it is and how it should be. I just wanted to mention one thing. About a year and a half ago or something, we did do Kesaku, and I'd like to see that happen in a special sashi if that needs to be again. And just not maybe once, maybe two or three times, because I'm very used to that. Well, you know, this has all been vetted over the years, but I understand what you're saying. Yes, a lot of people do. Yes, most people do. Okay, Judy.

[50:02]

What about it? Yeah. and also receiving it, it really hurts. When it was right on, my understanding is it's flat, right? So it bounces off the acupressure point, the shoulder, and it really releases the pressure, something. And I'm wondering, what's your experience of what's relieved, both in offering and experiencing? You lose it. That's the great relief, is that you lose your mind.

[51:17]

I know that there are more questions. I mean, it's kind of a stimulus, and I'm happy about that. But we have to stop.

[51:29]