I vow to teach the truth about the darkness of the world. Morning. Well, as you can see, We have just about completed our bricking over of the pad of the... You can't hear? No. Maybe I turned it off instead of on. No. Hello?

[01:07]

Hello? Hello? Is that better? A little bit? Okay. Okay. Better. Okay. I'll start again. We finally just about completed our breaking over of the public area and the patio after a long period of time. And just before we started this final project, Miriam said, well maybe we should have some kind of design in the bricks. Like, you know, like in a Christian church, they have the maze and, you know, various patterns which symbolize some aspect of practice or philosophy or understanding.

[02:21]

So she talked to Kuan Lam, and he thought that was a good idea. And she presented something to me, But then, since the workmen were just about ready to start, to change something and think about some design and have them do that would toss a monkey wrench into the plans to go ahead and do the work. But Hoang Lam said, well, maybe we could just do one of the characters from the I Ching. You're all familiar with the I Ching, I assume. The Book of Changes, one of the five classics of the Chinese literature, which uses trigrams and hexagrams for symbols.

[03:26]

A trigram is like three lines and one or two of them are broken and one is straight. And they form various combinations for each symbol. And then when you put them together, it's called a hexagram because there are six lines, broken lines, combinations of broken lines and straight lines. So If you are familiar with the Jewel Mirror or the Precious Mirror Samadhi of Tozan Ryokai, which we chanted this morning, that chant, that poem, I guess you call it, by Tozan, is based on Tozan's five ranks.

[04:30]

positions, which in each position is characterized by a trigram from the I Ching, or a hexagram, and I'll get around to talking about that. And the final hexagram is called the Chong Li hexagram, which means illumination. The illumination hexagram. He said, why don't we use that? That would be easy to do in the patio. Just take bricks and make a hexagram. And then I said, well, why don't we just do the five ranks? And that would be pretty easy, too. We just make a a section and mark it off and with the bricks we make the six positions, the five positions.

[05:54]

So we did that and it's out there on the patio, not quite finished and actually the workmen put in the bricks, but he didn't do it quite right, so it has to be rearranged. But I just wanted to explain what's out there. Maile said, you should explain it to everybody. So I said, okay. Tosan Ryokai, Dengshan in Chinese. Dengshan is one of the main ancestors for our school in China.

[06:57]

and he composed, or at least the jewel, the precious mirror samadhi is attributed to Dungsan, and the five ranks of the absolute and the relative, I would say that the five positions of the non-duality of the Absolute and the Relative or the Phenomenal and the Actual, the True, Dongshan composed as a teaching tool to show the five ways of And this was studied quite a bit in the Soto school, up to a point where it became a kind of game, kind of intellectual game, and then they abandoned it.

[08:14]

And Dogen doesn't talk about the five ranks, but actually he internalized the five ranks and expressed it as Genjo Koan. So I want to explain a little bit. It's a little bit complex and without the symbols it's a little hard to explain, but I'll explain it anyway. The first Let me just read to you a little bit first. If you're familiar with the jewel, we say the jewel mirror, but actually jewel is literal, but it means precious. So sometimes I say jewel mirror and sometimes I say precious mirror.

[09:21]

But in this Precious Mirror Samadhi, Dungsan says, it is like a babe in the world in five aspects complete. It does not go or come, nor rise nor stand. Baba Wawa, is there anything said or not? Ultimately, it does not apprehend anything, because its speech is not yet correct. It is like the six lines of the double-split hexagram. The relative and absolute integrate. Piled up, they make three. The complete transformation makes five. It's like the taste of the five-flavored herb like the diamond thunderbolt. So he uses these images in order to, these images really all point to the same thing, but he uses each one of these images to characterize the five positions and the baby with five aspects complete, yet

[10:48]

even though the baby has five aspects complete, it's like innocence, and the baby can only say ba ba wa wa. So if you try to explain, you know, it's ba ba wa wa. But then he talks about, he goes on, he says, it is like the six lines of the double split hexagram. The relative and the absolute integrate. Now, piled up, they make three. So he's talking about three and five. And when he talks about The diamond thunderbolt, this is a good image.

[11:54]

Are you familiar with the Vajra? In Tibetan practice, they use the Vajra, which is the prongs and then the little nub in the middle, and then the prongs on the bottom. So it's two, three, five, right? But it's one, two, three. and three piled up make five. Three basic structures, parts of the structure, and then the top one has two parts, and the bottom one has two parts. So it's like this, one, two, middle, and one, two, and the bottom. That's three make five. So in the five ranks of Tungshan's teaching you have a circle and a circle and a circle in the middle and a circle and a circle, five circles.

[13:08]

And he uses these circles to demonstrate the relationship, the five relationships of practice the integration of practice in the relative and absolute spheres. In this time in China the circle was used a lot. Guishan used a system of a hundred and then there are the ten ox-herding pictures which are encircled. So the circle was used a lot in those days and Dongshan is going to be no exception.

[14:11]

So the first circle is the relative within the Absolute. This is like relative concealed or hidden within the Absolute means the Samadhi practice where the relative aspect of the world is left behind. This is like It's like form is emptiness of the Heart Sutra. Its counterpart on this side is the absolute hidden within the phenomenal, which means that one comes out of

[15:26]

samadhi and enters the world of brightness. In Sandokai it's called within the darkness is light and the other side is within the Everything is included as one. Brightness means everything is revealed as multiplicity. So bright and dark don't mean good and bad here. It means oneness and multiplicity. When you open your eyes, you see everything. different and all the various phenomenal manifestations of life and when you close your eyes there's just utter darkness, no differentiation.

[16:43]

So in this circle all is one these are the two fundamental aspects of the non-duality of phenomena and essence. The third circle is the resurgence of reality coming through phenomena. This is called total integration, and this is where we practice in the realm of non-duality. The first one, you see, you can see them

[17:52]

there are really just three aspects, three ways or five ways to view practice of non-duality. One is from the viewpoint of the absolute, the other is from the viewpoint of the phenomenal, and the third one is from the viewpoint of the One doesn't fall into the absolute side, one doesn't fall into the phenomenal side. So the fourth rank or the fourth position is a white circle. I didn't explain that. is mostly dark with just a little bit of light.

[18:59]

And this circle over here is mostly light with just a little bit of dark. The circle in the middle is white with a black center. And the circle down here is totally white. That means putting yourself into total activity in the world without thinking about anything, without being concerned about the absolute. In other words, you're just totally involved with the phenomenal side of practice. But this is where one actualizes practice, is in the world, totally involved in activity of saving sentient beings.

[20:10]

This doesn't mean self-centered activity, this means Buddha's activity in the world without looking around. The fifth rank is the black circle, totally black circle, and this is from the viewpoint of not even thinking about Zen or practice. This is the state of maturity where whatever one does, it's the activity of saving sentient without even thinking about it or being concerned about it. One's practice is so developed that whatever they do is the right response, correct response. And it's also called useless activity.

[21:15]

has a little verse, the foolish wise men filling up the well with snow. If you try to fill up a well with snow, it's a kind of useless, endless activity or maybe like digging a hole in sand. Just useless activity, but totally beneficial. So these are the five positions, crudely and simplistically explained. And then each one has a trigram or a hexagram. which is attributed to it.

[22:26]

And the five ranks, there are various systems of the five ranks. Dongshan himself had at least two systems of the five ranks. His student, Tozan and Sozan, he's a student, and his student had his own system of the five ranks. But the first one is the Sun or Wind Trigram, And over here is the damage. I don't think it's damage. I think it's more like activity trigram. And over here is the greatness trigram. Over here is the faith trigram. In the middle is the illumination trigram.

[23:32]

I can't explain it any further than that. But in one system of one of Deng Xian's systems. The first one is called shift. The first rank here is called the shift which means shifting your, when the student shifts their attention from Kind of like the shift from the realm of desire to way-seeking mind. The shift from self-centeredness, the shift from seeking something for oneself to actually putting one's energy into practice.

[24:37]

So that's called the shift. And the second one over here is called submission. That means actually putting yourself into practice, submitting to practice, submitting to the teacher, submitting to the way, the dharma. And the third one is called, in the middle, achievement, actually achieving practice and being able to sustain oneself in practice and have the authority, personal authority, for your practice. Personal authority is the stage of maturity. So this is called the stage of maturity, where one is responsible for one's own practice and where you have authority. Authority means that you author your practice.

[25:41]

you don't need someone else to tell you to get up, you don't need someone else to tell you what you're doing, because you're generating your own effort which is authoritative and genuine. And then collective achievement. It's like actually achieving your goals with everything. And the fifth rank is called the host within the host. As in the Jewel Mirror Samadhi, the end says, just practice like a fool, like an idiot.

[26:50]

This is called, if you can achieve this continuity, it's called the host within the host. That's the fifth rank. So when you see that little rectangle out there with the five ranks in it, you'll know at least something about what it is. At least you'll have some idea. And I'll post something on the bulletin board so you can read it. So every time I walk out my door now, I see this thing.

[27:52]

And I think about it. So, do you have any questions about it? Yes. You mentioned a lot of substitutions. Yeah, I did. Yes, manyness and oneness, yeah. Manyness and oneness. Once I heard that, and I think you mentioned about darkness and brightness also. Once I heard that the cause of suffering is called darkness. That's a different use of the word.

[28:59]

Yes, yeah, you know what we call evil darkness and we call good brightness, light. Yeah, we say light is associated with good and evil is associated with dark, evil. It's just, but not here. That's not what the meaning here is here. Meaning here, darkness means oneness and brightness means multiplicity. It's different use of the terms, different use of the terms dark and bright, dark and light, not the same usage of the terms.

[30:30]

The purpose of Buddhism is to end suffering. but we use dark and light in a different sense. If you don't associate, different association. Yeah, dark here means the absolute, doesn't mean the evil, doesn't mean suffering. Yeah, you can use it in that way, you can use darkness, but that's not what the meaning, not the meaning here, different meaning.

[31:41]

So you say, yes, clear away the darkness, you know, so that we can see the light, right? That's okay, but here it's a different meaning. I just have a question about the fifth circle, and I'm wondering if it's the same... I heard it said that Zazen, when... in the activity of Zazen, one isn't creating karma, and it reminds me of the fifth circle. I think you're on the right track. You see actually, each one of the five ranks is present in Zazen.

[32:47]

They're all there. It's just, you know, it's a model, right? It's a model for looking at, investigating what practice is. So, all of those, you know, the whole thing is there in Zazen, and you can look at it from those five different points of view. There are a lot of it, yes. Sometimes you can look at it as a progression. There are many ways to look at the five ranks, various ways to look at the five ranks.

[33:50]

One is to look at them, each one individually, as five different aspects. And the other way is to look at them as a progression. Hakuin looks at them, sees them in a progressive way. and he has the most wonderful commentary, but also Hakuin, you know, the five ranks are kind of the property of the Soto school, and Hakuin is a Rinzai teacher, but he said the Soto school abandoned the five ranks, is the most wonderful way to study Zen. That's Hakuin's point of view, so that's interesting. But I don't like to look at these things as a progression, because if you look at the ten oxfording pictures as a progression, then you think, well I'm here and

[35:00]

progressive way puts you into some kind of category. If you look at something in a progressive way then you tend to find yourself in a category and practice is not like that. It's like sometimes I'm in the fifth rank, sometimes I'm in the first rank, sometimes in the the eighth picture, sometimes I'm the fifth picture, and that can all change in a few minutes. It's like transmigrating through the six worlds. But it's just a way of looking at how practice manifests. Yes? If you can achieve continuity, this is called the host within the host. Is that similar to Sejo coming together with her soul?

[36:07]

Sejo and her soul coming together, that's a whole other story. Is it the same idea? Yes, yeah, it's the same idea. So what is the host? The host is Buddha nature. The host is the real, the absolute. Also, host and guest. They use the term host and guest and they also use the term prince and minister. Sozon uses the terms prince and minister. The first one is the host position up here. That's the absolute. The second one is the guest position. The third one is the host coming to light.

[37:10]

And over here is the guest returning to the host. And here is the host within the host. Where did the guests go? That's a good question. Good question. Where did the yes go? If I understood you correctly, the third rank thing to don't emphasize in this regard ordinary activity or formal practice. not disregard, not fall into one side or the other. So equally balanced formal practice and ordinary activity. Yeah. Now the last two seem to, the way you described them, seem to focus mostly in activity. That's right.

[38:13]

You said fully Let me just finish the question. But I just want to say that the first one is devoid of activity, and the other four are activity. I just wanted to clarify that. So, but when you say that the phenomenal, it's totally immersed in the phenomenal activity, whether it be washing dishes, walking, Which may be useless, may not be useless. That's right. The other one, when you say it's useless, it doesn't mean doing something irrational or some bizarre action that has no use. It means it's an attitude. No, what it means is totally useful.

[39:16]

Nothing but useful. To say useless activity means it's unselfconscious. It doesn't mean useless, it's just a euphemism. So it's a spirit with which we are immersed in activity. So in that sense they're not two. Right, that's right. Now does that activity include both formal practice and ordinary activity? Well ordinary is not necessarily the opposite of formal. You mean formal and informal? Yeah. It includes formal and informal practice. Of course, formal practice is going on all the time. Whatever we do is formal practice, even if it's informal. Oh, yeah.

[40:30]

Can you tell me what the hexagram that is? Oh, it's a trigram. Yeah, that's—shift is—what do you want to know? No, that's not what the shift is. The shift is simply shifting from your ordinary way of dualistic activity toward the practice, the non-dualistic practice. That's what shift is. Shift means turning karmic continuity to the realm of way-seeking mind.

[41:36]

That's the shift. It's not complicated, it's simple. Understandably, it brings up a lot of that place, you know, separating from or turning away from our powerful difficult and causes a lot of wrenching emotional stuff.

[42:54]

It's the realm of renunciation, where you give up, let go of certain things. And hard to let go. Sometimes it's easy, but usually it's hard. And right, and you keep making the effort. Yeah. Yeah. Over and over again. These are numbers.

[43:52]

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