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's a commonly repeated Zen saying that there's a special transmission

[01:03]

outside of the teaching, outside of the verbal teaching. So there's a transmission of the teaching outside the verbal transmission of the teaching. And I'm 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.

[02:25]

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's a way of receiving the words. There's 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's a special transmission that doesn't depend on words

[03:40]

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 the character which means is 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.

[05:07]

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. 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.

[06:11]

They're your mind. Can we give Galen a seat someplace? Maybe in front of Amanda? Welcome, Galen. This teaching of Jashan is a teaching which was This verbal teaching of Jashan is a verbal teaching that was transmitted to his student Lupu.

[07:16]

So he transmitted these words, but also apparently the source of these words was also transmitted between Jashan 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 Jashan, 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.

[08:28]

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 Lupu.

[09:43]

It's a story about when Lupu was about to die. Thank you. Now you have a piece of paper that has words on it.

[10:49]

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 899, 898, except you are there. And you weren't there in 898. So these are words which Lu Put says, do not grasp the meaning of this story in these words.

[12:16]

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.

[13:20]

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,

[14:32]

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.

[15:39]

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. Yansong said, I can't tell it all. Lupu 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. Yansong said, as your attendant, it's hard to answer the teacher.

[16:50]

Another translation is, I have no attendant to answer the teacher. That evening, Lupu called Elder Yansong 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.

[17:57]

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."

[19:07]

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, where 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,

[20:19]

So 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?

[21:46]

Those clouds, can you find the clouds in the words? Can you see the cloudiness of the words? 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.

[22:59]

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.

[24:01]

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 Lupu 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.

[25:06]

This teaching he gives echoes back all the way. As I bring up the closer generation, it's easier to see and sets up the ability to see the thread going back farther. That often is the case. You can maybe see in the generation before or the generation, sometimes it skips one generation, so sometimes you can see it more in the grandparent than in the parent. But anyway, his 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, okay? And the question he's, and what he says is more like a teaching.

[26:12]

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's 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-grand parent. So Lu Pu's great-great-grandparent is, well actually it goes back to his great-great-

[27:23]

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? Linji. No. That's, Linji is like, kind of like his uncle. Linji, Lu Pu studied with Linji. So Linji's first teacher is Linji, Lu Pu's first teacher is Linji, his second teacher is Jia Shan. So who is his great-great-grandparent? His great-great-grandparent is Yashan. Yashan is his great-great-grandparent. So his parent is Yashan.

[28:27]

His grandparent is the boatman. His great-grandparent is Yashan. And his great-great-grandparent great-great-great-grandparent is Shurto. So Shurto means on top of the rock or rock head. Yashan means medicine mountain. And boatman means boatman. And Yashan means jaw mountain. That's the mountain where Yashan lived. So Yashan went to see Yashan, was a wholehearted student of the verbal teaching, particularly the verbal teaching of the precepts, bodhisattva and monk precepts.

[29:37]

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 Shurto, 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. A great, great, great grandparent says, being just so won't do. Not being just so won't do either.

[30:39]

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, Yaoshan, had nothing to say and said, would you please tell me more? And Shurto 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.

[31:55]

These two masters, Shurto and Matsu. Matsu 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 Sources. So he went to see Master Ma and basically asked the same question. Now he might have told Master Ma about what he, his conversation with 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.

[33:02]

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, Yaoshan started to bow, profusely crying. And Master Ma said, What's going on that you're bowing like this? And Yaoshan said,

[34:04]

Now I see that when I was with Shiratou, it was like a mosquito trying to mount an iron bull. 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 Grave Master Ma said, OK, great. You're enlightened. I mean, we're enlightened, finally. But your teacher is Shurto. So Yashan went back and studied with your Shurto for many years, which is good news for us because then we had stories about their studies together.

[35:20]

I'm trying to stop myself from telling you stories about their time together. But I can't do it. So one time, Yashan was sitting in meditation, and Shirtu comes up to him and says, What are you doing sitting there? And Yashan said, I'm not doing anything at all." Shirtoh said, Then are you sitting idly? And Yashan said, If I were sitting idly, I would be doing something. And Shirtoh said, you say you're not doing anything at all.

[36:30]

What is this not doing anything at all that you're doing? Or that you're not doing. And Yashan said, even the 10,000 sages don't know. And Shirtoh said, We've been traveling along together for quite a while now, ever since back in the days when he tried to mount 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.

[37:31]

But I'm happy to travel with him. Because even the 10,000 sages don't know who he is. How could some impatient, hasty person know? So then Yao Zhan had many disciples, but three big ones are, one is called Yun-Yen, another one is called Da-Wu. And apparently Yun-Yen and Da-Wu were actually biological brothers. But also they studied together with the great master Bai-Jong. And Da-Wu was older by a number of years. And Yuen Yuen 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.

[38:42]

And when the teacher died, he still hadn't gotten to the source. of the teachings. The 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 Bajang died, so he and his brother traveled and went to study with, I guess, maybe different teachers, but anyway, they wound up with Yaoshan, and they became Yaoshan's disciples, successors. And then another important disciple of Yashan is a person who we call the boatman. And when Yashan died, the boatman said to his Dharma brothers, you two are the kind of guys that can come out in the open and teach lots of people and be leaders in a monastery.

[40:00]

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 Jashan. That wasn't his name when he was, before he was the head of Jashan. But anyway, he was a Buddhist teacher. He studied Buddhism. He studied Buddhadharma. He studied the words. And he was really good with them. And people assembled to listen to him talk about the words.

[41:02]

in hopes that Saint Nicholas would soon be there. They wanted to understand Buddhism and 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 Jia Shan. And Jaishan's giving a talk and some monk says to him, What's the Dharmakaya? What's the true body of Buddha? And Jaishan knew the answer. The true body of Buddha is formlessness. Formless or formlessness. It's like vast space. What's the next line?

[42:05]

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. What? Dharma eyes? Yeah, dharma eyes. What's the question? What are the dharma eyes? Yeah, what are the dharma eyes? And the answer is? Something. Huh? They're clear. This thing is very simple. They're clear. So Joshan knew the right answer. And Charlie knows the right answer. And at that point, Dawu laughed out loud, which was unusual back in those days. And Joshan wonderfully got down from his lecture seat and went over to Dawu and said, perhaps I've made some kind of error. Please instruct me. So this is somebody who's ripe. who is teaching people, and he hears the laugh of a well-trained master, and he gives up his position and goes to the teacher.

[43:17]

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 Huating 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 Yoshan. I'm a Zen master. He didn't tell him that. He just rowed him across and then got the name Boatman. So his brothers called him Boatman and they sent Yoshan to the Boatman.

[44:26]

they had a nice interaction. Which I don't remember except the last part where after Jashan realized the source of the teachings which he had been giving for years and he realized the source in his interactions with the bowman 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.

[45:43]

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 Jashan and Lumpu gets together with Jashan and Jashan 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 Lu Pu gives his teacher's teaching to... Joshan gives his teacher's teachings to who?

[46:59]

Who? Lu Pu, right. Lu Pu gives Jia Shan's teaching to Yansong. And 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 of compassion. Ready? All aboard? Here we go. So back from Yashan. Remember what Yashan asked Shirtou? Help me see the source. What did Shirtou say? Being like this, being just so, won't do. Not being like this won't do either.

[48:00]

See, can you see that teaching in Lu Pu's teaching? And then you go back before Yaoshan. Actually, it's before Yaoshan and Shirtou. It's Shirtou that gave that teaching. So you go back before Shirtou to Chingyuan, and then back before Chingyuan 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 Six Ancestors, the Six Ancestors said, Where are you from? And the Six Ancestors, and the monk named Nyanyue, who's coming to see the Six Ancestors, is asked, Where is he from? He says, I'm from Mount Sung. And the Six Ancestors 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. He's both asking them what has come, but also he's using the expression for Buddha, tathagata, thus come one.

[49:06]

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 comes. But where does it come from? And the great student, Nanue, 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,

[50:26]

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 gets worried that nobody's understanding the source or not even noticing that he's 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.

[51:33]

But Manjushri felt like he had to do it, otherwise people might miss the show. But it was already there. There was enough already. So Manjushri really messed things up. Now, in this story where the teacher says he's going to ask a question and he gives his teaching, it's not clear to me if that was his question or that was his teaching and he was going to ask this question after he said, if this is adding ahead and so on. It's 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?

[52:37]

Actually, the head monk quoted one of Lu Pu's teachings, which is, Lu Pu taught, the green mountains are always lifting their feet. He quoted his teacher's teachings. So the teacher says, to say is... to say this is so, to say that's 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, okay. 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, Yonsang, comes forward and says, please, teacher, don't ask the question.

[53:42]

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 Luke Blue say? You got it. Not quite. In other words, pretty good. 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.

[54:44]

That's pretty good. Can you really demonstrate that you didn't get anything there? And so, say some more, [...] say some more. And Liang 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.

[55:46]

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 saw you meant by attendant. I don't have the means. I don't have somebody to send to. 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, now okay, 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 is coming.

[56:58]

And Then he says further, if you can go in there and tell where the host and the guest are, host and guest sometimes seem to be 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 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?

[57:58]

See if you can do it, Elder Jansom. And Yang Chong 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 work with a cloud here. And then Lu Pu says, you should understand. And he says, I really don't. And then he says, tough, isn't it? 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 their olden years alone at heart and hasn't got a fish yet.

[59:10]

So who is that? Is that Lupu 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 Lupu. As I said, everything's like it was then. Lupu's there and the students are there, except you're there too. And there's a space between you and Lupu. 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

[60:21]

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 I'm encouraging, I'm trying to encourage, I've been successful in encouraging myself and I'm trying to encourage you

[61:28]

to go fishing for the source of Buddhist teaching with cloud bait and moon hooks to try to enter the space to meet the source of Buddhist teaching without excluding words or trying to get the meaning from them. 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.

[62:33]

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've heard straight moon hooks work best. Straight moon hooks? Or round ones are nice, too. Round ones are straight. Yeah. Yeah, so we were 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 put on most of my weight, 50 pounds of which I've lost, in Minnesota.

[63:37]

And next to Minnesota they have, there's two states, One's called North Dakota and one's called South Dakota. And I think they're thinking there's a movement to change the names. You know, 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. It does sound like a fish story. Now I have a theory about how it happened.

[64:39]

Want to hear it? 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 around and around from lower altitudes to higher altitudes, you can make bigger and bigger hail balls.

[65:49]

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 fishes also get lifted up into the air by the wind. These hailstones are often almost like tornadoes, and they can lift large objects off the ground. They're not as bad as tornadoes, so you don't have, I haven't heard of a truck, what do you call it, a truck hailstone. But trucks do get lifted high in the air, but that's usually a slightly different thing than a, usually there's not, 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.

[66:56]

Okay? 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. That's from that part of the country too. Have you ever heard about the fish hailstones?

[67:58]

Not until today. So 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? Oh. I heard actually a related story, a fish story. There were some rescued fishermen. And the fishermen said that actually a cow destroyed their boat coming from the sky.

[69:03]

And nobody believed them. It was happening in I think in Russia so until it was found that during that time they had sort of a They were Japanese fishermen. But they could have been off Russia. I don't know. I thought there was some sporting 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.

[70:10]

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.

[71:11]

And 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 things aren't put together into packages, where everything's just resonating mutual support. Yes? Is setting out a wooden goose putting something into a package? Is that what that means? 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.

[72:19]

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 precipitous straits are where you're dealing with things that appear to be out there, where you're dealing with safety and unsafety, where 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.

[73:21]

So that's where compassion operates. The boat of compassion operates in package land and 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.

[74:24]

Or practice compassion without copying the Buddha's. 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, you know, 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 operating a boat that is crashing all the time, you don't use wooden ducks. And the boat of compassion has constantly been 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 okay to use wooden ducks?

[75:33]

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 trail behind the boat or throw them out in front for entertainment and security blanket type of activity. So there is a period which it's understood that you need wooden ducks or, you know, what do you call it? What do they call those blankets? Security? Security blankets. People need them. So people can have security blankets and wooden ducks. But they're not yet ready to practice compassion. But we have compassion towards them. So we pass out wooden ducks if people need them and who aren't yet ready to really take on compassion boat operation. Okay, so sometimes it's good to give wooden ducks.

[76:41]

But if you're really rowing the boat through the precipitous straits, it's a distraction and doesn't really help. But sometimes giving up 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 duck's 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. Okay? So later today we can, or for the rest of our lives, we can study the story. It's, yeah, it's endlessly vibrating with the Buddhas.

[77:46]

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? May our intention equally extend to great being and place.

[78:30]

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