About two Zen monks. One is the founder of our lineage here at Zen Center, and his name is Tungshan Liangzhe, lived from 807 to 869 in China. And his elder brother named Sung Mi. He's called Uncle Mi because he's older. And I thought I might read you some other stories about them before we read our main case. Um... One time when Uncle Mi had picked up a needle to mend clothes, Dongshan said, what are you doing?

[01:13]

Uncle Mi said, mending. Dongshan said, in what way do you mend? Uncle Mi said, one stitch like the next. Dungsan said, we've been traveling together for 20 years and you still talk like this. How can there be such craftiness? Mi said, how then does... how then does the venerable monk mend? And Dung Shan said, just as though the entire earth were spewing flames. Another story which is in the commentary here.

[02:21]

One day Uncle Mi and Dung Shan were crossing a river. And Dung Shan said, How does one cross a river? Or how is it when crossing a river? And Uncle Mi said, Don't get your feet wet. Dung Shan said, At your venerable age, how can you talk like that? Uncle Mi said, How do you cross the river? Dung Shan said, feet don't get wet. It's slightly different from the way the story is in the commentary where it says, first it says, feet don't get wet, and then it says, feet aren't wet. But I think it makes more sense if you say, don't get the feet wet, and the feet are not wet. So you see that they were, it looks like they were, you know, all the time, whatever they were doing, Dung Shan was always asking questions.

[03:25]

Like, you know, what's happening here now? What's this? And then Uncle Mi would answer and Dung Shan would say this thing to him. And also the thing about Dung Shan is that from the time he was a little boy, he asked these really troubling questions of people. So when he was like about maybe seven or eight, He was a young monk in a temple. It wasn't a Zen temple, but they were chanting the Heart Sutra, and when they got to the part about no eyes, no ears, no nose, no tongue, and so on, he said, but I have eyes and a nose. And the teacher said, I'm not your teacher. You're too much for me. He sent him to another teacher. And then he just went from teacher to teacher all over China until he met Yun Yan, who was his teacher and also Uncle Mi's teacher.

[04:39]

And Dongshan was a very, you know, he really seemed to be somebody who was asking questions all the time, very daring, sincere monk. But something, you know, something new happened to him when he met Yunyan. And the quality of Yunyan is, I think, much about what this story is about. What you have here is Dungsan, who's very sharp, a gifted religious person, but isn't so much interested in being gifted. He isn't so much interested in that part of the story. So here's our story, where they're crossing a road, When they're walking down the road, they see a rabbit cross the road.

[05:48]

Uncle Mi says, swift. Deng Shan says, how so? Uncle Mi says, like a commoner being made into a prime minister. And Deng Shan says, so old, so old, so great, so great. How can you talk like this? And Uncle Mi says, well, how about you, young man? And Deng Shan says, after generations of nobility, temporarily fallen into poverty. And Bob says he likes to say more like temporarily falling into poverty. And here's one more story about them before we discuss this. They were traveling along and Uncle Mi said to Dung Shan, there is nowhere that a friend would be unwilling to go for the sake of friendship.

[07:05]

Could you express the essential point of this in a few words? And Dung Shan said, Uncle... with such an idea, how could you ever succeed?" Akemi says, there is nowhere that a friend would be unwilling to go for the sake of friendship. Could you express the essential point of this in a few words? And Tung Shan says, With such an idea, how could you ever succeed? Part of what that's about, I think, is that you're being asked, say in a few words what it means that for the sake of friendship, you'll do anything.

[08:10]

Okay? Well, I'll talk to you rudely. I'll even talk to you rudely. That's how far I'll go to help you. And not only that, but I'll talk to you rudely in this particular way, too. In other words, I'll tell you what a fool you are for asking me to show you what that is. And I could go on about this, but there's no need, because... As soon as Uncle Me heard these words he was suddenly greatly awakened. And from then on his manner of speaking became unusual. Later when they were crossing another stream walking over a log The master went first.

[09:16]

Dung Shan went first. He picked up the log and said, Come on over. Uncle Mi said, Master! Dung Shan put the log down. Do you understand? They're crossing a river. Dungsan goes over first, right? And he picks the log up. Do you understand? Do you understand, Sui? No? I mean, I understand up to this point. He lifts the log up and Uncle Mi says, Master! He puts the log down. In the old days, he wouldn't have been able to do that. So they had a good time together traveling around.

[10:17]

And of course, you know, you don't take your Bodhisattva vow seriously, I imagine, right? When you say, Buddha's way is unsurpassable, I vow to become it, you don't really mean that, right? So you wouldn't want to be like these guys, would you? If you would like to be like these guys, then be like these guys. If you want to be a Buddha, be like them. In other words, when you're going to the mall, you know, and you get out of the car, you say to your friend, your shopping mate, well, what is this shopping we're doing here? And the other one says, how could you ask a question like that? And when you're selecting various sales items, which reminds me of this guy, just recently died, his name's Henny Youngman. He said, he said, my wife loves to shop.

[11:26]

She'll buy anything marked down. The other day she brought home an escalator. Do you understand, Anna? Escalators are these stairs, these moving stairs that go up and down. Some are marked down. Marked down means... So another ingredient in the story, it refers here down below in the commentary, it says that this story is just like the story about the sun that gets lost. Didn't it say that place in place?

[12:27]

So this story is about our fallen state. So part of what this story is about is pointing out that we have to acknowledge our fallen state. We have to acknowledge our narrow view. We have to attend to our narrow, fallen state. And in that fallen state, which we, to some extent, live in, we may view practice as a way to be better, to improve ourselves. So Dungsan, Master Uncle Mi is in a fallen state, so he sees practice as a way to improve himself. Dungsan is also in a fallen state, but he doesn't go so far as to view practice as a way to improve us.

[13:34]

Are you following this so far? They're both in the fallen state. It's not like Uncle Mi's in the fallen state and Dung Shan's like way up there looking down at him. They're both in the fallen state, but Uncle Mi is talking like practice is what you do to get up out of the fallen state, to get promoted to prime minister. How does Dung Shan see the fallen state? He sees it as a fallen state. That's it. That's all it is. It's not that you're supposed to improve a fallen state into an unfallen state. It's just that human life entails a fallen state. But human life also entails a transcendent state. There's both a fallenness, a narrowness, And there's a transcendence. And there's a strong drive to transcend. There's a strong desire to transcend.

[14:42]

There's a strong desire to stay fallen, too. To stay fallen, to keep protecting this person. To protect and promote the self is very strong. That's our fallen state. But there's simultaneously a strong drive to become free of this self. And the drive to be free is in the place of the self-protection and the fallenness. That's where it is. There's no need to be free. It has no meaning aside from our fallenness. But if we overlook our fallenness and wiggle in our fallenness and try to manipulate our fallenness, we just fall more... Well, we can't fall any farther, actually. It turns out we've hit the bottom already. Don't worry. Some people are worried, you know, that they're going to get... If they do this and they do that, they'll get worse. Nobody's going to get any worse. Really. So, no, that's one thing you don't have to worry about. What you have to worry about is practicing wrong.

[15:45]

I'm sorry, I can't say that again. It's too horrible. What you have to worry about is practicing wrong, doing the wrong practice. You don't have to worry about being any worse than you are. You don't have to worry about sinking lower. Don't worry about that. Worry about trying to get out of sinking lower. Worry about trying to use Buddhism to save yourself. That's not what it's for. It's not to save yourself. That's not what Buddhism is for. Buddhism is for Buddhism. Not for me, not for you. And your transcendent self is very happy about that. It doesn't worry about that you're not going to get anything out of this because your transcendent self really has transcended yourself. It's not worried about getting anything for you. And it's also not worried about you getting anything.

[16:49]

The transcendent self isn't trying to help you out. Is the transcendent self good? No. He could say, it's better than that. The transcendent self will not be realized unless we stop meddling with the world of good and bad. Now, if you accept that you live in the world of good and bad, and in the world of good and bad, by the way, it's a good idea to vow to practice good. Because if you vow to practice good, it helps you accept that you're in the world of good and bad. it helps you accept your fallenness to practice good in your fallen state. If you don't practice good in your fallen state, you're going to be more likely to try to fix your fallen state.

[17:51]

That's why Dung Shan says, Uncle Me, how could you be trying to get promoted out of here? In other words, you must have been smoking dope or something to be thinking about transcending our fallen state. Or getting high on scriptures, probably more likely, or getting high on stories of transcendence. Or getting high on your meditation on dewdrops on the grass. And in your intoxicated state you can see the idea of promoting yourself to a Buddha. My dear friend, please, give me a breakette. if we can accept our fallen state, we're doing part of our job, almost all of our job.

[18:54]

When we recover from this fallenness, when we realize freedom from our fallenness, then we see that we're always Buddhist children. And you can't get any better than that. Just like Buddha before full realization of Dharma. That's us. We're just exactly like a Buddha before complete realization of Buddha Dharma. No difference. Buddha was just like us when Buddha was just like us. And Buddha was just like us before Buddha wasn't like us anymore. But he wasn't trying to get promoted, except when he was like us, when we're trying to get promoted. And when he was trying to get promoted, he noticed that it was a dead end, and he stopped. And then he got promoted. Without doing anything, he got promoted to Buddha.

[20:02]

But I want to point out that there is, excuse me for saying, extremely important and fundamental difference between understanding or being grounded in the awareness of our fallen state, in our fallen quality of existence. Okay? There's a big difference between being aware of our fallenness and a lack of competence in our family background. There is an important difference between the awareness that we've fallen into a tight little view of the world and a lack of confidence in our family background. There's a difference. You can be confident of your family background at the same time realize that you're temporarily uptight.

[21:13]

Matter of fact, it's partly by realizing that you've got a good background that you're willing to say, OK, I can stand to be poor. I can stand to be a human because I'm Buddha's child. I mean, flat out human. No better than anybody else. I can stand to be that. I don't have to be better than other people. I can be among the lowest, and I am among the lowest, and I can stand that because I have a very nice family background. I'm Buddha's child. I'm Buddha's disciple. Buddha loves me. I'm full of Buddha's compassion. Therefore, I don't have to try to get out of here and mess around with what's going on. And with that confidence, I can stand to feel fallen. And feeling fallen means I can stand to feel that I think I'm a separate being from other beings, and I can stand to feel the anxiety of that.

[22:27]

Freedom from anxiety is grounded in the awareness of anxiety. And just to feel anxious... and downtrodden and petty and tight and stingy. Just to feel that stuff without any confidence is maybe too much to ask. But you can be confident. This book, this case is about go ahead, be confident being ordinary. And that's yin-yang. That's Dung Shan's teacher, to convey that ordinariness that you can be a completely ordinary person because an ordinary person, being an ordinary person, no more no less, is what we mean by Buddha. Buddha is an ordinary person that doesn't try to be better than an ordinary person. When you're completely ordinary, you realize total devotion to the Buddha way.

[23:32]

And now maybe we could look at this... Oh, and one other thing about fallenness, the kind of tough, the strict side of fallenness, is fallenness means, the strict side of it is not just fallen into like subject-object dualism, like I'm me, you're you, and we're separate. and I got my agendas, and if yours cooperate with mine, you're my friend. If they don't, well, geez. Maybe you could switch. Anyway, not just falling into that kind of stuff, but just simply having fallen into consciousness. Okay? That's our... It even includes being fallen in consciousness. That's a limitation on our Buddha background. Buddha does not fall into consciousness. Yes?

[24:44]

If I understand your way, what I was thinking is, what you're saying is, in our fallen state, there is the inclination to not be fallen. That's apparent in the fallen state. Well, no. There's two. There's the inclination to try to fix the fallenness, which is just the fallenness itself, but there's also an accurate, authentic drive to transcend, to become free of the fallenness. The fact of the matter is that within the fallen state, you are in the fallen state. You're trying to fix it, but it's not really possible to do that. Right. Because to do that would be completely... It's like you wouldn't be in a fallen state anymore. Oh, I thought you could say to do that would just be to be more fallen. But... Well, yeah, it's the same, but just a different way of saying the same thing. Oh, okay. I mean, a thing. Well, let's hope so.

[25:49]

We don't want anybody to be saying anything. Right, right. The other thing I read in this is that beyond being a loss, or maybe besides being a loss, is the sense of endurance that's not a pitiable state. Much we seem to think that endurance is ridding your teeth and just making the best of that situation. But this feels to me more like the fluidity or the beauty of endurance. Just being in whatever's going on, to be fully aware of the loss, the fallenness. And the pain is less than the pain of trying to achieve change into something better. Yeah, but that's more severe pain of trying to achieve something better, that's there too.

[26:50]

But we've got the fluidity family background working for us too, so we can stand to be in the worst hell that you can make up. Like the hell of trying to get out of the hell that you got into from trying to get out of hell, that one, you know? You're driving yourself all the way to the bottom. Well, because of our family background, we can go there. and we can be there. There's no hell deep enough that we can't, you know, live there if that's where we wind up. So someone may say, that's the year, you know, we haven't gone as low as we can. I'd just like to deal with this text a little bit and then go on to some discussion. I'd like to look at the poems. Now actually, first let's look at the stories. I'll tell the stories. Yes? Yes? Could you give some other terms for Paul in Spain? What other terms might you use?

[27:52]

What do you think the Chinese meant? Because it sounds so Christian to me that I have a little problem with it. So maybe if there was some other language. What other language or what other way might you say that? Paul in Spain. The Chinese character says, you know, has a character for like, that's used for when I leave Paul's. Like, fall on your face. in the gutter. I'm sorry. Yes, I'm sorry. But it literally is saying fallen. And again, this one story, do you know the Lotus Sutra? You know the story about the son who walks, takes a walk for 50 years and gets lost? That story is about that. It's that you wander away from your home and forget your home. And when you see your home, you can't believe it's your home. You've been away for so long. However, your parents are perfectly happy to have you back.

[28:53]

They don't think you've fallen. They haven't forgotten you. You forgot them. It's just that when they invite you home, you can't believe that they would actually invite you home. So then you have to maybe have some kind of remedial course before you can accept your family tradition. And so that's part of what practice can be. It can be like that. It's okay. So here's some stories. First of all, an image. Reeds crave rain and dew. They like rain and dew. Pine and cypress can stand the wind and frost. When the year is cold, you know the pine and cypress are the last to wither. This means not changing along with condition. Okay? And that's the first line, that's the first line of the poetry.

[30:00]

Matching strength with wind and frost. Okay? These noble trees And then it says, as for talk of nobility and poverty, great people of power can bear this. Great people can bear poverty. Walking evenly through a cloudy sky, directly transcending into enlightenment, is already too slow. What is hardly realized is that traditional nobility rich and honorable. Is that clear? It must not be clear to somebody. Oh, good. What's not clear? What part is not clear? The previous line wasn't difficult, that transcending into enlightenment is already too soon.

[31:06]

That's the first part I thought you might have a little bit of question about. So Uncle Me is saying when the rabbit goes zip across the street, he's saying like that. It's like that. Boom. That fast you can transcend into enlightenment. That's too slow. Okay? That's too slow. What's faster than that? Not being fast or slow. Well, already. You're already there. you're already enlightened, is faster than just like that. However, although you're already enlightened, you have, and you've been enlightened for a long time, by the way, like since from the time there was necessity for enlightenment, from the beginning of delusion, there was enlightenment there. That's how long there's been enlightenment. That's the family background you have. Our long tradition of delusion is has a parallel tradition of enlightenment coming right along with it.

[32:15]

Because of that background, we can stand to be into what we're into. So we've been enlightened for so long, and all along our nobility has been rich and honorable. Does that make sense now? Stella? Well, going back to the part about the poverty and maybe thinking about it in terms of material drift, it's been my experience that when things that have around me, whether they're material or will fall away, sort of precipitate some growth or change. And so I can also see how in the same circumstances you could sink down and just give up. So when it says great men of power could bear this, walking evenly, that makes sense. But part of the traditional nobility, I'm not sure if that's, is that relating to a noble state of being, or is that related to like kings, queens, and everything?

[33:25]

It's related to a noble state of being. that you can walk evenly through bad weather and good weather. Now, what's this fallen for? This fallen is that enlightenment naturally falls into a limited state Like, it does that so that beings can be helped, so that the drama of enlightenment, which is born to complement and balance delusion, can be enacted. Enlightenment falls into the deluded state, into the fallen state? Yes, so that... I was picturing it as... You used the word parallel, and I was picturing it as parallel to the deluded state.

[34:34]

Right. So that that is... It's that too. It's parallel to the deluded state. And it's with you at all times. Yes, right. But it also can illuminate the deluded state. and put on little kind of shows in the deluded state. Like a rainbow? Like a rainbow, yeah. Or like a person with a face. We like rainbows, but also we like faces. We're into faces. Rainbows are cool, but faces are locked into our neurology. So faces have a lot to do with the way our brain is built and our cells are built. Whereas we don't imprint on rainbows, although it would be fine if we did. It's these faces. So enlightenment can take on a face and do stuff like raise the eyebrows and blink and stuff like that. It seems to be really effective in conveying, reminding people of the situation. But it's taking on the face. Yeah, it's taking it on.

[35:35]

It's not falling into me. It's not becoming that face. Yeah, right, it's not becoming the face, it's just using the face for the welfare of the peanut gallery. Yes? It seems like then that, like, I can't quite put, the closest thing I can think of saying is that enlightenment encompasses delusion. And so if that's the case, then what is delusion? If it's encompassed by enlightenment, then it seems like delusion doesn't actually exist. Right, it doesn't. You can't actually establish delusion. But enlightenment is exactly as old as delusion. Did you say enlightenment is exactly as old as delusion? Well, I think so. It might be slightly newer. Because enlightenment is nothing other than... I don't think enlightenment is anything other than understanding delusion.

[36:46]

So isn't nobility just an understanding of poverty? I mean, aren't they just as old as each other, too? Nobility is just an understanding of poverty, right. And understanding poverty is really quite a thing. Because poverty is this infinite complexity and variety of life. It's not the complexity and variety, it's all the little things that make individual to each one. All the poverties together make all life. And enlightenment is to understand all the little poverties that make up the whole picture. It's all those little beings stuck in their little poverty packets that sprout this enlightenment all over the place. Okay, so another fun part about this verse is that in each case you get to say which verse is who. Okay?

[37:49]

And I know the right answer. Because I had an insight. Okay. So you have matching strength with snow and frost. Who's that? Huh? That's Uncle Me. And it's also Kevin. He's a cypress. Stand up, Kevin. Show him a cypress. Look at this cypress. so that's that's uncle me and then uh walking evenly through clouds and sleep is who's that so rinzai you know the rinzai thing you know supposedly the stereotypical rinzai is this great great cypress tree you know this majestic pine in the misty mountains. So, you know, let's get some, what do you call it, imperial funding for this. Yeah.

[38:53]

Get the three gray stripes on the side of the wall of your monastery because the emperor gave you money. Because they got the big pine tree monks inside there. Whereas Soto Zen, we're kind of shuffling along, you know, we're kind of just downtrodden, but you know, You hold her head up high. Okay, now here comes, before I, there's two more, another story, yes? Do you want to ask a question before the next story? What's your name again? My name is Cecile. Cecile, yeah. So what I heard, though, was your, I thought it was an assumption of a purposeful universe in what you were saying. Purposeful? How so? No, I heard it in some sense, but I thought I couldn't... Well, I'm not kicking purpose out of the universe. Apparently there is some purpose flying around here. But anyway, enlightenment just naturally co-arises in relationship to delusion. It sort of like heals the wound that consciousness makes in the universe.

[39:55]

So there's, or at least in this neighborhood of the universe, but I think it happens all over, that when this thing called consciousness arises, the universe gets split and ripped apart, you know, into parts. And then enlightenment comes and sort of heals the wound. Kind of like, you know, it's kind of like poison oak and thistles. that when you make a gouge in the hillside, the poison oak and thistles come back and start closing it over, and then people stop walking through the poison oak and thistles, and pretty soon there's a coyote brush, and then gradually the cypress and the pines come back. And then consciousness arises again and splits it someplace else. So part of the cost of having these highly evolved forms of life that can do the stuff we do is the universe gets all these wounds in it as a result of our thinking. Enlightenment comes and heals it again. Heals it, heals it. So it's kind of like they naturally go together.

[41:00]

Like what is mending? Huh? Like what is mending? Yeah, like what is mending, right. Yeah. But let me do one more line before the next questions. Next two stories, okay? The next story is... The next story is... The next story is... According to the Analects, These next two stories, I might say, I really like these next two stories. This next story is from Confucian Analects. It's book 18, number 2. And so there was this judge. His name was Liu Xiaohui. And three times he was fired, dismissed from his office. Someone said to him, shouldn't you leave town? He said, if I serve people honestly, where can I go and not be fired three times? And on the other hand, if I serve people crookedly, what need is there to leave where I already am?

[42:11]

I can do it here. Does that make sense? Okay. So, that's the line which says, Shahway left the country. Actually, he didn't leave the country. Shahway didn't leave the country. There's no point. Because you can just, you know, no matter where you go, it doesn't do any good if you're honest. You get in trouble wherever you go. And if you're dishonest, you don't have to go anywhere either. This is a good place. And you can get in trouble being dishonest here. Why was he dismissed from office? Because he was being honest. Yeah. But he didn't leave this country. He didn't leave this country, no. So he was dishonest. Why was he dishonest? He quit his job. He stayed at his job. He just didn't leave. Yeah. Anyway, so that's his line.

[43:13]

So who's this? What? Where does it say he left? In the verse, but it doesn't say so in the story, right? Yeah, I don't know if he did leave. Someone says, shouldn't you leave? And I thought he said, well, why should I leave? Yeah, maybe it's a mistake. Maybe he did leave, I don't know. I don't think he left myself. Yeah, maybe he was forced to leave, but why would they say, why shouldn't she leave? Anyway, I don't think he left. I think he stayed and kept getting fired. Okay, the next story is really one of my favorites. I thought this is such an inspiring story.

[44:14]

So there's a guy named... His name later became Shama Shangru. His nickname was Doggy. When he was young, he lost his parents. And at nine, he took care of pigs for somebody. He heard... that Lian, Xiang Gru, became a minister. In other words, he heard of an ordinary person like himself becoming a minister. And so he changed his name to Xiang Gru. He left the pigs and went to study. In China, the road to social mobility was learning. You could actually, if you were smart... And it was kind of like, what is it, you know, Victorian England. If you really studied a lot, you could actually ascend the social hierarchy in a very strict hierarchical society. That was the one way to ascend. You couldn't ascend by being a warrior, actually. You don't have to, but most people won't let you study if you've got pig muck on you.

[45:21]

So anyway, he left to study because he wanted to be a minister. The owner of the pigs beat him. The schoolmaster questioned him and realized he was intelligent and let him stay in a hut outside the gate. Ten years he passed. In ten years he had no more books to give him to read and sent him away. He crossed the bridge for ascending mortals ascending immortals and wrote on the pillar I'm not if I'm not riding four horses I won't cross this bridge again. Later he composed the Idols of Shishu. General Wang was pleased by it and at night when he stayed in the palace he recited it. The emperor said, I regret not having been a contemporary of such of a man who wrote this. The general said, he is still living in Shu, that's Shichuan.

[46:23]

The emperor ordered him to go and summon him. And together they rode four horses across the bridge of the immortals. And he was appointed counselor. Now, it turns out that there was originally had three horses on that, but he said, I won't cross unless you put another horse on there. So they put another horse on. And by the way, in China in those old days, when they had four horses, they had four, you know, right in a row, rather than like one, two, three, four, two and two, four straight across. So it was a wide bridge, wide enough to carry four horses abreast. Isn't that an inspiring story? Okay. So, so which is which? Who's the first line? Okay. Right, the first line is Dungsan, second one, don't call me. But isn't that inspiring? I mean, it's inspiring to become a minister, come up out of the pigsty and ascend to be a minister, counselor of the emperor, through hard work, you know, and creative writing and all that.

[47:31]

It's wonderful, isn't it? But it's not Dungsan's way of practice. But it is wonderful. I mean, I loved that story before I found out who it was about. Until he wanted to be a saint. Until he wanted to be a saint, or maybe even better. But Dung Shan Han doesn't want to be a saint. And he doesn't want anybody else to be a saint either. But if you saw a saint, and if he saw a saint, you would be impressed by a saint, and you would think a saint was a wonderful person, but you'd feel sorry for a saint. if a saint wouldn't drop that and go down with the people into the mud. Because that's actually where saints are. And then one more story, a couple more stories, is Xia He and Cao Cang came to work for Emperor Gao of the Han Dynasty.

[48:40]

Oh, made the work of Emperor Gao of the Hong dynasty successful. So these two guys, again, they became ministers, and they made a dynasty successful. Chou Xu refused King Yao and washed his ears. Do you understand that? So in China, if somebody says something to you, like invites you to be a god or goddess, or gives you a compliment, or insults you, but particularly if people compliment you, go and put your head in the water and wash your ears out. Clean your ears of what you heard. When we have a head monk ceremony, At Zen Center, one of the stock phrases, ancient phrases, is that when the head monk finishes a ceremony, he or she says, please wash your ears in the clear water of Tassajara Creek, or hopefully clear water of Green Gulch Creek.

[49:46]

Do not put your ears in the pond, however. Or wash your ears in the surf. Wash it out. So that's what he did. He washed his out. And this other guy watered his ox upstream from where the guy washed his ears. You understand? So his oxen wouldn't be eating the imperial invitation that got washed out of the other guy's ears. So, one is Uncle Mi, and one is Dongshan. And so, I don't know, you know, there are these, there is this way of practicing which is very great and helps emperors be successful, and there's this other way of practicing that when we get invited to go to the emperor's court, we wash our ears out. And hopefully that's all that we have to wash out. And

[50:52]

Then the last thing, as Lao Tzu said, favor and disgrace are disturbing. When you get one, you're disturbed. When you lose the other, you're disturbed. And then the great teacher Tien Tung wrote the verse, favor and disgrace are disturbing. Profoundly trust yourself. In the real state, one mixes tracks with fishermen and woodcutters. Now, I'm a little confused on this one because the commentator says that one of those is that last two, one's me and one's Dung. And then he also says that when Tien Tung wrote those last two lines, he fell into steps and stages there. So help me with this, would you? Which one's me and which one's Dung are the last two? I'm not so sure. A favor and description, sir?

[51:55]

Yeah. Yes? Oh, these would be the second part, because woodcutters and weatherbirders are distinguished. The woodcutters, what? They're distinguished? They're distinguished from you. You walk among them, but they're distinguished. They're distinguished. So you think you thought me was the second one? Huh? And so what do you think? How so? That's good. That gives us more time to discuss what other people think. Any other ideas about these two?

[52:57]

It's pretty clear. I understand why the commentator criticizes Tien Tung for these last two lines, saying that he's falling into steps and stages with these last two lines. They do sound kind of like steps and stages. It's like he's ranking them. He's slipping into ranking them. Got to be careful. Right. And one more thing before I open up discussion is that the commentator says, wonderfully indeed, Guifeng brought up a metaphor, likening the royal family sinking into obscurity and poverty, becoming accustomed to it so that it becomes natural. Later, when they are recognized and rescued, Though restored to their original status, they still have to relearn and cultivate the three tips, which is the brush, the sword, and the tongue.

[54:01]

Calligraphy, swordsmanship, and oratory, elocution. And they have to... and the six arts, ritual, music, and so on. In other words, even though they're restored to their original status, they had to learn the sort of input-output stuff. What do you call it? Their software has been re-established, but their hardware has to be rebuilt. Huh? Is it the other way? The hardware is... I agree. They've got to reboot. Well, I don't know anything about computers. But that's what the story in the Lotus Church is about. This boy gets lost. He gets back with his parents. His status is recognized and reinstated, but he can't believe it.

[55:03]

So he has to go through this education course to assume his position. So even if now you would trust yourself and trust your tradition, you still have to practice Zen for 30 or 40 years to sort of like re-equip yourself to fulfill your rightful place in the Buddha world. And that's why we have this class. Yes? It seems that the commentator is commenting on this metaphor of boyfriend that even so, for Tien Tong, this metaphor still falls within stages. Oh! And responds to it with the flask. Oh, good. Thank you. That's why you mix tracks. What? That's why you mix tracks. Uh-huh. I see. Good. Thank you. You're restored by these arts to your rightful state.

[56:05]

The implication is that you have therefore no longer mixed tracks. Uh-huh. So you're all clean again. Uh-huh. You say mixed tracks do you mean confused tracks? No, no, that you're intertwined with... Because there's still a dualism if you're from a noble family and you're lost in poverty, and suddenly you're restored through these arts. That implies a certain kind of dualism. I think he's saying, ah, there's still stages there. And so that's why you mix tracks. It's like that's why you stay mixed within the work of the four. So we should stop this class. Sorry to waste your time. Now, how many people had their hands raised in the old days?

[57:05]

Rain, did you have your hand raised? Yeah, it's not. Gone? Should I call in Rain? Rain. Did you mean it when you said that Buddhas don't fall into consciousness? Did I mean that? Well, yeah, I did. Could you explain that? Ah, just a minute. Let's see how this works. Buddha is understanding consciousness. When you understand consciousness, you're not in consciousness. Understanding of consciousness is Buddha. Buddha is not consciousness. Buddha is understanding consciousness. If you don't understand consciousness, you fall into consciousness.

[58:07]

When you understand consciousness, you're not in it anymore. However, consciousness is illuminated by that understanding. But the understanding is not you know, confined to the consciousness. There's no traces of consciousness in the understanding. So, like right now, I'm in consciousness, right? Okay. You get to say. That's one of the advantages of consciousness. You see what he said? I think, therefore I am. But I'm also a Buddha, though, right? You're also a Buddha? Yeah. Yeah, but the Buddha part is not your thinking, that you're Buddha. I guess what I'm getting at is it seems like there's a way that Buddha includes consciousness.

[59:11]

Includes it? How does it include consciousness? If you're using Buddha, doesn't consciousness come out of? Consciousness comes out of Buddha? Consciousness comes out of... No, well, consciousness arises in dependence on various things. Okay? But usually the list of things it depends on, Buddha is not one of those on the list. What? The list? The realization of the depending on conditions is Buddha. Yes. Well, Bodhi is realization of the dependent core rising of consciousness. That's Bodhi. Bodhi, enlightenment, is understanding the dependent core rising of consciousness.

[60:17]

Dependent core rising of consciousness. interdependent relationships that give rise to consciousness, how that happens. But usually on the list of contingencies and conditions for the rising of consciousness, Buddha's not usually on the list. But not like crossed off either. He isn't brought up to say, no, we don't have that. It's more like various factors of existence and non-existence, various components of life, including mind and mental attribution and things like that, and characteristics and qualities of whatever we're talking about that's arisen. These are usually the things that are in the story of the arising of a moment of consciousness. What do you mean by mind? I mean the sort of the force of imagination of a living being. that can sort of impute some kind of entity or independent existence upon, you know, various possibilities. Isn't that consciousness?

[61:24]

Is it consciousness? Well, it's... You can call it consciousness, but it's more like the, sort of like the, it's more like the radio signal of consciousness, rather than consciousness itself. If you have a living being that is conscious, or even just a living being that's perhaps even pre-conscious, if you could have such a thing, it gives off certain kinds of energy, because living organisms are kind of unusual in that way in the world. They give off heat. They're not unusual. They're usual. Things that have heat give off heat. We give off energy. We living beings. And giving off energy in a certain way, in a certain time in history, has given off energy and made the world...

[62:31]

into things. It imputed some kind of entity-like definition upon the world which has all these different possibilities. Now, whether you say there's consciousness prior to this transmission of thingness onto the world, you could say it's prior, but the transmission itself is not consciousness. But then, you know, that kind of mental imputation has set in motion consciousness and all that, which continues to impute and create further things, which then the things then, once they are built, propels the consciousness and creates karma and keeps this whole thing going. Do you call that mind? You call what? Do I call what mind? That imputing of... No, I would call it mental imputation, but not mind. Or mental imputation, conceptualization, attribution of self.

[63:39]

This is the capacity of a living organism that we can do this, and therefore we create for ourselves things out of that imputation. And so what was the relationship between that and mind? Between... By mind you mean consciousness? No, you said mind. I feel like mind is Buddha. What word does that talk about? Well, yeah, if you want to have mind be something that includes understanding, have mind be bigger than consciousness, you want to say it that way. Do you want to have mind be something that's not consciousness? but that can embrace consciousness? Do you want to do that? I don't think I'm subtle enough to understand something that's practically consciousness. So I don't think I can really say yes to that question. Okay, well, if you want to, we could consider using that kind of vocabulary, but Buddha is not consciousness.

[64:46]

Okay? But understanding of consciousness is enlightenment. And being in consciousness, we to some extent are in consciousness. Our existence is conditioned by consciousness. So we're limited in that way to consciousness as existing as individuals. And our individual existence is also a result of imputation from consciousness. Yes. And understanding that process is enlightenment. But that's not the full extent of a Buddha. A Buddha then is all the actions which emanate from such understanding of consciousness. Once you understand consciousness, you act differently, and you teach better, and your compassion is more effective than before you understand consciousness. Understanding of consciousness is not a consciousness. There's no consciousness in the understanding.

[65:50]

When I was talking to a practice peer the other day, I used an example which I liked. It was that to gain five pounds is a fact whether you know you gained five pounds or not. Gaining five pounds is not a conscious thing. And so understanding is like that. Understanding is not consciousness. It's not a conscious thing. But it's a fact. And we all have some understanding. But our understanding is not consciousness. Consciousness is usually a subjective state. Consciousness is like consciousness of something. What you're talking about is turning consciousness into an objective state, something you objectify from another level of consciousness, of subjectivity. Say it again? You're saying consciousness is a subjective state?

[66:52]

For me, I think consciousness is my subjective state. We're just saying a Buddha mind would be something that could take that subjective state and turn it into an objective state, looked at from another subjectivity. Well, you could say turn it into, but I would think you'd usually leave it being a subjective state and see that the subjective state depends on various things, and because it depends on various things, the subjective state is not substantial, because it depends on things. So, for example, all of our subjective states and the various mental phenomena that arise with them, like the belief in self and other and all that, they're all dependently co-arisen, therefore they're insubstantial and not something to get too excited about. Not something to say that it's true or false. But just understanding how that all works is bodhi. And a big part of Zen practice is to conduct ourselves in such a way that we would have a chance to understand how consciousness operates, and therefore how it arises and ceases, and therefore how it's insubstantial.

[68:00]

So it's above subjectivity and objectivity. You could say above, yeah, it's above, I guess you could say. It transcends. It's prior to. But then, when subjectivity arises, when consciousness arises and the world arises, it then deals with that. It has a chance to understand that thing. But it can also embrace the pre-dependently co-arisen world. It could not only understand how conscious arises and ceases and creates a sense of self and other, you can also understand the world prior to the arising of things. But that world is a world where there's no things, there's no suffering. You know, it's a different... It's not a problem world.

[69:04]

It's a pre-problem world. You can also embrace that world because the world of suffering and individuality and consciousness arises in relationship to this world which is prior to the world of subjectivity and objectivity and self and other and misery and suffering and rebirth and karma and stuff like that. So if you become intimate with the world of karma, you realize bodhi, but you also become intimate with the world beyond karma, or prior to karma, we become intimate with that world because that world was never separated from the world of subject-object. And we long to be free of the world of subject-object, where there's suffering, and we long to be reunited with the world prior, to the world of subject and object. And not just because there's no suffering there. Because you can become free of the world of suffering, but you want even more than that.

[70:06]

You want more than just relief of suffering. You also want reunion with this world before that, the realm before that. And it turns out you get both. When you get one, you get the other one. Does that make sense? He looks like he's too abstract. Huh? No, it's not. He is. What's the teacher's name who is these two guys' teachers? Yun Yan. Cloudy Cliff. Is he the guy who made sandals? Yeah. He's a sandal maker. Straw sandals, I believe. Yes. What does it mean to wake up? What does it mean to wake up? Well, I feel funny answering that question, but if you could go right ahead and feel funny and answer it, I would say that you realize

[71:23]

first of all you realize dependent co-arising, you realize interdependence, that's the first thing. But there's further realms of awakening, which would be where you... What is it called? Buddha can appear in the dust, in the world of dependent co-arising, but world Buddha can also appear in the vast openness of space. So you can also wake up to the realm prior to the appearance of subject and object. But in some sense, to wake up is not even limited to those, but what waking up is, is that it really is that all beings are awakened. That's what waking up means. Waking up means that other people are awakened. Other people are set free from the world of birth and death. But that's what waking up means.

[72:28]

The transformation of beings is what waking up means. What do you mean when you say that other beings awaken when someone wakes up? Can you explain that a little more? What do I mean when I say that other beings are awakened when someone wakes up? Well, I didn't mean it that way, but that's also true, what you said. When she asked, you know, what is meant by awakening, I said, well, one meaning of it is you understand how things happen. In other words, you understand delusion and consciousness. That's one level of, you awaken to that and you're set free from certain kinds of delusions. And the other realm would be that by intimacy with that process and understanding that process, you also become intimate with a realm prior to self and other being set up.

[73:36]

You become intimate with the realm of where everything's a possibility, but none of the possibilities have been cashed in on yet. But that's also from the point of view of the sort of like from the awakener or the awakened one. But the most important the awakened ones seem to be what they're most concerned about is not so much what happens to them or how their understanding happens but the fact that really it's the transformation of beings that's really what Buddha is about. You mean that in terms of... That's the highest meaning of their awakening is that other beings are transformed. the other beings who they now realize are not separate from them, right? Right. That they're transformed. Okay? And Buddha does say, according to certain stories, that when he woke up, he realized that everybody was awakened at the same time that he was awakened. So, in fact, it is simultaneous. I guess this... this part about...

[74:39]

Yeah, it's hard to fathom. But that's part of what the practice is about, is to fathom that. Is to fathom how it is that when you wake up, everybody wakes up with you. And that's what waking up means. If it's an awakening that doesn't wake up other people, it's not Buddha's awakening. It's not the awakening of the Buddhas of Shakyamuni Buddha's lineage. Their awakening is the awakening that is with everybody. Just like I was saying this morning, the practice of a Buddha is the practice of everybody together. A Buddhist practice is not something one person does. The Buddhist practice is what everybody's doing together. What are we all doing together? That's a Buddhist practice. When you wake up, you tune in to the practice that we're doing together. If it's not the practice of all beings, it's not the Buddhist practice. That's part of the reason why we don't mind being in poverty.

[75:44]

Because poverty is all these different sentient beings living as separate beings doing their practice. And the way all the different beings are working together, that's Buddhist practice. So there's no hurry to get elevated to be prime minister because really what Buddha's about, it's about all the peasants and all the prime ministers and all beings are doing together. That's the Buddhist practice. And that's hard to fathom Right? But that's what it's about, fathoming that mind. We call that mind. Fathoming the mind which is all beings working together. Which means all beings being individual and all beings interrelated and all beings mutually creating each other. So, again, like I also said this morning, is that the practice, the Buddha practice we're doing here is the practice that we're all contributing to.

[76:49]

So, in a sense, we all have our individual practices, and so, you know, each individual, like, leaves this room and goes off doing their individual practice from their individual point of view. We have that. But there's another practice which we're doing all together, and not just us, but that we're doing with everybody. There's a practice that everybody's doing together, And we, together, are all creating this Buddha mind. And the mind that we're all creating together, that's the Buddha mind. And not just us, but everybody else, too. Yes, those. Yes. Three hands. One, two, three. I can't see. Oh, yes. What's your name again? Lisa. I've kind of been hung up on this. . Right. Yeah, and you know, that story was a story... that story's famous about... it's Dungsan.

[78:01]

Dungsan's in this story. Yeah. Yes, go ahead. . But the whole idea of consciousness and consciousness bringing us away from interdependence and more than to dwell. I can't get away from this idea that maybe we have evolution kind of backwards. Yeah, I can see how you'd say that. And so I just wondered what maybe you had to say about that. Well, it's nine o'clock now, so if you want to, next week I'll give you the evolution of consciousness story, okay? And how it's not backwards. It's actually upside down.

[79:01]

And so, in the spirit of ending on time, let's end on time. And next week we'll have the history of consciousness, the evolution of consciousness, and we'll start studying Case 57. I'm sorry I don't have copies of Case 57 for you folks, but we'll give them to you at the beginning of next class. In the meantime, please just look inside and see if you can find the evolution of consciousness. They are attention.

[79:45]

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