The first story in the Blue Cliff Records and the first story in Zen Buddhism is about Bodhidharma's encounter with the emperor. And the introductory word by Engo says something like, when you see smoke beyond the mountain, you know there must be fire. And when you see horns beyond a fence, you know there must be an ox there. And knowing

[01:31]

Seeing one, you should know three. And by a glance, you should be able to judge whether something is light or heavy. But these are ordinary tea and rice matters for monks Consider detachment from all forms. West rises, east sinks. Horizontal and vertical, contrary and regular. grasping and granting. What sort of man is this? What sort of activity is this? This is Engo's introductory word to this story put together by Setsubo.

[03:10]

I want to talk a little bit about this kind of story in Zen. And maybe today just this much, just the introductory word. But a koan or a Zen story is not meant just for you to understand by your own experience or to find some parallel in your own life or to have the koan awaken some situation in your life. or manifest some situation in your life similar to that in the story. That's one way of using a koan. And I think the most common way it's understood, which is that it brings out in your own life such similar situations which you act in. That's true.

[04:50]

In that way you can't understand a koan. The point of a koan is that Bodhidharma's experience becomes your experience. The Emperor's experience becomes your experience. Each character in a koan becomes actually your experience. And they are so those stories are so constituted and abbreviated so that you cannot understand them actually until you can understand them from the point of view of Nansen or Joshu or Bodhidharma or Dogen. Whatever you have to be able to make that story a part of your own experience. This is one step beyond finding similar experiences or awakening similar experiences that you have not yet been subtle enough to see in your own life. This way we can make

[06:18]

the lineage our own. And actually everything, every moment takes an awakening to or entering into everything you see as your own experience from the point of view of the tree, of the stone. and the point of view of all simultaneously. If you just from the point of view of the stone, this is what Mahayana calls Hinayana understanding. But from all points of view or no point of view is what Mahayana proudly calls Mahayana understanding. Anyway, we should understand ourselves. These various ways, whether we call them Mahayana or Hinayana, you yourself should understand these experiences, this way of looking at things, being things, situations, events.

[07:42]

So first part, behind the mountain you see smoke. You know there's fire. There's an interesting poem written in Japan sometime later by a empress, supposedly anyway, named Sachiko. I don't know her dates, but very early in Japanese history. She was converted to Buddhism by the disciple of a famous... I think Gifu or Giku converted her by a disciple of a famous teacher in China. He came to America, this disciple. And she wrote a poem expressing her understanding, which said, the clouds gathering beyond the mountain are from a fire we have lit here. Sounds like pollution. But anyway, that's a rather interesting poem.

[09:23]

I think. So, where there's fire there's smoke, or something like that. And second, when you can see the horns beyond the fence, you know an ox must be there. Or in my notes, when Suzuki Roshi talked about this, I have written, When you see a hole in the fence, you know the ox must have escaped. I don't know whether he said that or he didn't pronounce horn, so I understood it. I suspect he probably said hole, because that's even more interesting, from the hole in the fence. That's like at Green Gulch, when you see a hole in the fence. We know Whizbee's cattle have escaped and are wandering about on Highway 1.

[10:40]

Anyway, it means to know from this present moment the extension of things, the continuation, the interrelatedness, that kind of expression. Or as Dogen expressed it, you know, you don't wipe yourself with the hand you offer incense with. Or lifting one or showing one to no three or seven, you can say. This is maybe partly a Confucian idea, I think, expression. Or to judge the tiniest weight. So this means to find everything in the present, to act in the present. You only have so much time, you should act in the present. So, then Hengo says, this is only ordinary tea and rice matters for robed monks.

[12:22]

So this first part, you see, he's been partly talking about the emperor. He's been saying the emperor was pretty good. The emperor built temples and studied Buddhism. And maybe he could judge the smallest thing, the weight of it. So the first part is describing the emperor. Now this, again, I want to say something about koans. Every word, they are so, there are stories which have passed, you know, and everything passing through so many understandings, maybe, in one moment or many lifetimes. They can only be understood, again, almost from another space and time, because they're written in such detail. You know, they're written in such detail that the usual person

[14:03]

cannot put that much attention on the story. You can't sustain that. It's like looking at one sentence and seeing the Grand Canyon up and down through the letters and between the words. You understand what I mean. So everything has some impact, and mostly we can only understand it by beginning to live and feel like your Bodhidharma and Emperor Wu. Maybe for many months or years, being familiar with this kind of story, you see the turn on every word. So although it's one story, each part is different, like our own experience. If time, you know, is, or time and space are one, or if time is really space, maybe that's an easier way for us to understand time,

[15:34]

as space. Then time speeds up or slows down according to our attentiveness. As I mentioned in the city, seeing a film by Bob Boney of clouds. He took a picture, a frame, every five seconds or so. So the clouds are quite exciting. They turn and move. It's very dramatic, like some theatrical production. And suddenly from the wings, you know, great sweep of gray goes across and white shoots, you know, and then it turns and rolls. Very beautiful. But the excitement we feel there is the easy side of our mind, you know, which it's quite easy to see how beautiful

[17:00]

or exciting something is when you see less of it. If you took, I don't know how many frames a second are taken in a movie, say ten, you know, but say you took one thousand, the clouds would be absolutely stationary, not moving at all, barely. But if you can, in your own work or life or activity, drop away distracting thoughts and be fully concentrated so that in one moment you have many actions, many glances, You can do an hour's work in ten minutes. You can read very intensely and go through so much process in extremely short time if you can study with this state of mind. And time is actually

[18:29]

slower. If you check your mind, so much has happened between A and between when I read that and when I finished reading. So many things have happened. It must be forty-five minutes. And you look at the clock and only five minutes have passed. So he says, Engo says, it is only tea and rice matters for a monk. Which means, what he's pointing out here is, in this he's paralleling the story of Bodhidharma and the emperor.

[19:56]

and saying, Emperor was concerned with this merit or with some example of Zen. Tsukuyoshi said, the way a Zen master answers a question is an ornament of Zen, some Christmas tree ornament. But It should not be so. It should be just ordinary tea and rice matter. But for Emperor it was something special. I built many temples or studied Zen. And this story, Engo, is warning you. Don't be caught by special way of teaching in Zen. Thinking Bodhidharma's answer is some special zenny way of answering. So this, when Engo says at the end of Introductory Word, what sort of activity is this? What sort of man is this who acts in this way? He's

[21:19]

trying to say, what is the activity of a Zen master? What is the practice of a Zen monk? What kind of practice is Bodhidharma pointing out to the emperor? And what is that activity by which he points it out? So this story is very fundamental for Zen Buddhism. It covers so many characteristics of all of Zen. So we should not be caught by question and answer of Zen as something special. Tsukiroshi said, for a usual person to answer in this way is, Zen, I don't know. But for a Zen master to answer in this way, I don't know, is just tea and rice matter.

[23:19]

just usual activity. For a Zen master, there should not be any difference between one thing and another. All his activity is Zen, and it should be quite usual, not something special. So at any moment should be the answer and the question. Anyway, so Engo is pointing out, Emperor was caught by his Buddhist activity. And don't you, who are reading this story, hearing this story, be caught by Bodhidharma's activity as Buddhist activity. Do you understand? So, he says then, now he's talking about Bodhidharma. Considering detachment, horizontal and vertical, contrary and regular, sun, actually he says, west rising, east sinking.

[24:51]

granting and grasping. So first part points out, the part about Bodhidharma, about the emperor, points out as our Zen practice, that from each thing you should understand everything. Second part says, you should be detached, that this is only possible by detachment. If you're attached as the emperor, or you're attached to Bodhidharma's activity, you don't understand, really, whether there's fire or not when you see smoke. And yet it goes on. I've been talking about this story actually for three or four times now. So it goes on and says, but contrary and regular or vertical and horizontal, that despite there should be detachment, and things are relative, sun rises or sun sets in east or west,

[26:20]

bodhidharma came from the West. Still, there is vertical and horizontal, as I spoke about in your zazen. Contrary and regular. Granting and grasping. Granting and grasping means two ways of teaching which people got attached to. Actually, Tsukiroshi criticizes setcho and engo as being rather attached to granting and grasping way of teaching. Granting way is, this is Buddha. This is Buddha, hadn't he? Grasping is, this is not Buddha. This is not So various techniques arose for... Rinzai had various responses. Various techniques arose. Ah, this is what so-and-so means when he asks this question. Ah, so I will cut it off in such-and-such a way. Tsukiroshi always pointed out it should be truly usual activity.

[27:51]

just how you respond each moment. So this story is pointing out further that truth we mean in Buddhism is not the truth opposite of false. or any connection with right or wrong, some truth beyond right and wrong, which we mean by non-dualism. Way and enlightenment are one. As Dogen was saying, I read the other night in the Fukanza Zengi So this story then is how to find out, existing in a relative world, that truth which is not relative, your true nature.

[29:14]

Maybe that's enough said about that introductory word. Do you have something you'd like to talk about? Just a response. When I hear you, you're taking me way, way out of my depth. I see it. It's got me tense. I'm sorry. Relax. But being tense is sort of good, actually, too. When we're talking about something that shakes us, It means we shouldn't say too much. It means something not old-fashioned.

[31:31]

I don't know. Yeah. You have to be an ordinary man and teacher to find out. Stop thinking so much. Yeah? This is a little off the subject, but last practice period we talked about the six paramitas. And in my activity outside the Zen Dojo, it's very easy for me to see how to practice the first four. For instance, I don't know how to practice jhana in the kitchen. Can you say something about that? I think to make a direct effort to practice jhāna means zazen. But if you practice the first four, that's also jhāna. Okay? Actually it is. Each one

[33:22]

All of the ones, particularly the way that this list is made, all of the preceding are the next together. If you can practice all the preceding, it means you are practicing the next. when you abandon preceding, when you abandon jhana, you are practicing prajna. Don't you ever have some hope Oh, I see what you mean. Yeah.

[34:43]

I'm sorry, I didn't say it so clearly. Suffering is to have hope, okay? Right? Is that better? But when you realize there's no hope, it's even greater suffering. And then when you really have no hope, then it's all right. So suffering is realizing there's no hope. That's what I meant. Sometimes, in the beginning, I get really tense, and I work like that. Now, no one heard you, barely me, but I'll try to feel like an

[36:15]

I'll say it. Let me see if I can guess what you said. You said that when you're practicing Zazen, you begin, your breath gets, so you don't notice it or you can't follow it. It's too slow, something like that. Is that right? No? Alright, you better tell me again. I can't seem to get enough rest. I can't get the chance. I don't know why that is. So we should keep hitting the drum. Watching your breath.

[37:39]

Well, what should you do when you read this text? Well, for quite a while you may find that when you look at anything you get anxious. That you don't feel anxious only when you look away. If you actually see someone standing before you, you get quite anxious. But we sort of half see people, you know. They're there and you know in a moment they're going to go away. Kind of feeling. And if you look at your breath or your body, when you first really see your body as some vessel about to burst, some bubble about to burst. It's rather scary. So, the first time you mentally become aware of your physicality, intimately, in the sense that they talk about seeing your body as bloated, decaying, etc., which means to see its physicalness, your mind

[39:20]

doesn't really accept the fragility of our situation. So when you do, you get rather tense, I think. And also, your breathing will become calmer when you do zazen, and yet your mind It demands energy and air and such. So it demands fuel, that kind of fuel. But often you'll find if your zazen improves when you start thinking about something, because it distracts you from yourself, it's rather forgetful sometimes to get caught by your thinking. And when you come back to your zazen, oh, you're sitting quite calmly.

[40:22]

breathing, like the drum. So, as long as that anxiety area exists, you have to sneak up on Zazen. In the story of Bodhidharma and what Engo was pointing out too was we can only find out what everything is by our action, by our function, not by thinking or by understanding. So on each moment you should act. I don't know if you know quite what I mean by that, but that's what we mean when we say there's no time to waste. That mental continuity is not important at all. We normally try to maintain mental continuity. Oh, I know what I did a minute ago, and I know that kind of... But that continuity isn't so important, actually. And maybe death

[41:49]

but physical, conscious continuity in which you find yourself in everything. In that continuity we find our life and our assurance and our comfort not grasping this reedy structure, which can't contain anything. You know, the present isn't something that you make yourself safe in. I'm not just speaking to you, of course, but I'm looking at you. The present isn't something you just make yourself safe in or you accumulate possessions in.

[43:05]

The present is something you constantly give away because you know where the ox is by seeing just the horn. You know that you are the ox and the fire and the clouds. and all four or seven or eight corners. So you give yourself away to everything. Dis-ease, mental disease and physical disease and dis-ease are usually because we won't flow with things. If you feel uncomfortable with someone it usually means you're unwilling to flow with them. For some reason it's too much trouble or bad taste or distasteful or irregular or something.

[44:25]

But when you see how completely you can't accumulate anything in the present, by knowing this changing, fragile vessel, you're ready to change immediately. whether that change is death or whatever, you're ready for it. Well, that's the same thing that Eric said. When Dennis was sick, from first sound he knew he should go help Dennis, of Dennis being sick. Excuse me, Dennis, we were talking about you the other day. And that is partly just a matter of practice.

[46:08]

That when you see something or hear something which gives you some suggestion, you act on it without trying to confirm it. The desire to confirm or make sure is really just some mental trip of fear. Is this experience my own? Has anybody else ever had this experience? Is this unique? What kind of world am I in? If you're always feeling things up like that, you'll be wasting your time. Maybe that's abusing the senses. one of the precepts. Don't abuse your senses, always having to see it so completely, hear it so completely. From hearing one thing you should know many things. And that's, to say it is rather boring maybe, but it is a practice of noticing in detail. When you don't

[47:34]

and acting on it that moment. Not devising some program, like the emperor did, of achieving merit. Devising some program, oh, I see this, so in the future I'll do it and improve. But just at that moment that you notice, you act. No thinking about it, no talking about it. Just act. And next moment you don't know if that opportunity will ever occur again. And you don't have to worry. Is this unique or strange or is it the ox or just a horse? Or what do they have in the West? Jackalopes? You seen those postcards of rabbits with horns? They call jackalopes that cowboys hear singing on the prairie at night. It might be a jackalope behind the fence, or a jackanapes. Anyway, you have to act on what you see. If you worry about getting it confirmed all the time, you're living in your parents' world.

[48:59]

Forget about your parents. When you begin to become aware of the practice of mindfulness, it seems something else that comes up that maybe is almost a way of preventing yourself from practicing mindfulness, which is a kind of self-consciousness in which you're constantly sort of judging Well, let's start with being aware of the first thing you said. You yourself. You said, becoming aware of the practice of mindfulness. Just becoming mindful maybe is enough. Becoming aware of the practice of being aware.

[50:15]

Already you're rather separated in the way you said it. So just in the very sentence as you're saying it, what are you saying? Is mindfulness. Without judging. There's no judging in mindfulness. Just this. And some friendly feeling. friendliness or some warm feeling is the most important aspect or context or nature of practice. Without that warm feeling, it's all just philosophy. Something abstract, physically or mentally abstract, some attainment

[51:20]

Just the voice that envelops. It doesn't mean, you know, we should not be caught by ornament of Zen doesn't mean you shouldn't appreciate Zen or poems or paintings or literature or whatever you see but everything should be appreciated just as usual activity equally interesting if you're not discriminating And from this maybe what we mean by Zen forms comes. Zen painting.

[52:30]

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