Good evening. You may want to have your chant book out. I'm going to, this evening, do an introduction or preview of the Sashin we're doing this week and talk about or introduce the Song of the Jomar Samadhi, which we're going to talk about this week during Sashin. So during sashin, I want to talk about this as a zazen text, in a way as a koan text. There are many lines of this text that work as zazen samadhi openings. But I want to kind of introduce it tonight.

[01:02]

Some of you may have looked at the Dongshan book that I wrote that has a chapter on this. But just to introduce this, this text, this poem, is attributed to Dongshan Liangjie, Tozan Ryokai in Japanese, who was the founder of the Chinese lineage, Zhaozhong lineage, that was brought to Japan by Dogen, who was the Japanese founder of this lineage. Dongshan lived 807 to 869, so this goes back to the ninth century, and in some ways is the seminal text of our lineage. And there are many, many lines in this that are, What should I say? Very juicy. But the two lines that I want to focus on, and there'll be time if you have lines you want to ask about.

[02:08]

I know Jan has asked about this text often. But the two lines I want to focus on, and then I'll focus on probably every day of the Sesshin. By the way, the Sesshin Wednesday through Sunday, the morning talks. are open to everybody. So whether or not you're signed up for the Sashin, you're welcome to come to any of those talks. But the two lines I will talk about every day and that I want to focus on first, the dharma of suchness is intimately transmitted by Buddhas and ancestors. Now you have it. Preserve it well. First two lines. And then, like facing a precious mirror, form and reflection behold each other. You are not it, but in truth it is you. So these come from a story about Dongshan. Dongshan was leaving his teacher, Yunyan. And so we say Dongshan is the founder of this lineage, but actually, in some ways, the whole lineage from the sixth ancestor, Huining, to Dongshan are the founders of this lineage.

[03:19]

But at any rate, the story goes that Dongshan was leaving his teacher, Yunyan, and he said, later on, if I'm asked to express your teaching, your reality, your dharma, what should I say? How should I respond? And Yun-Yan paused. And then he said, just this is it. And Dong Shan didn't have anything to say. And then Yun-Yan said, now you're in charge of this great matter. You must be most thoroughgoing. So that's paraphrased or expressed in the first two lines here. The dharma of suchness, the reality, the teaching of suchness, of just this. Suchness is a more positive way of talking about emptiness.

[04:20]

Just this, and it's natural practice. So, as you sit facing the wall, suchness, just this. Actually, when you become familiar with just this, suchness, it's everywhere. Walking down the street, drinking a cup of tea or water, saying hello to a friend, just this. But anyway, this Dharma of suchness is intimately transmitted by Buddhist ancestors. And Yun-Yan said to Dong Shan, now you have it, preserve it well, in effect. And this text was actually a transmission text in the Sao Dong lineage throughout China. But now that we chant it, in some ways, all of us have some piece of this, the dharma of suchness.

[05:24]

It's intimately transmitted. It's not, and this word intimately is important, how we receive this. Well, zazen is an intimate transmission in itself. So now you have it, preserve it well. This is not something that you need to acquire from outside. This is not something you need to figure out, as it makes clear later on. This is not something you can attain through much study and through years of meditation. Now you have it. Preserve it well. How do we take care of it? So the practice is, how do we take care of it? How do we preserve it? So in some ways, this dharma of suchness is the topic for the whole rest of this long poem.

[06:27]

So there's much more to say about these first two lines. And also, I would suggest that, as you're sitting facing the wall, facing yourself, facing reality, facing the Dharma of Suchness, to consider the Dharma of Suchness is intimately transmitted by Buddhas and ancestors. What does it mean? Now you have it, preserve it well. How do you feel that? But the story continues. Dongshan departed from Yunnan and he, as he left, he was crossing over a stream and he saw his reflection in the stream. And it's said that he awakened to the meaning of this exchange with Yunnan. And he wrote a verse, just don't seek from others or you'll be far estranged from self. I now go on alone everywhere I meet it.

[07:30]

It now is me. I now am not it. One must understand in this way to merge with suchness. So in this, Later verse from Dongshan, he said, you are not it, but in truth it is you. In the original verse, he said, I now am not it, but it now is me. So this is very deep. You are not it, but actually it is you. when we face this precious mirror, when we face the wall, form and reflection behold each other. You are not it, but in truth it is you. So just that line. You could spend, well, we will spend five days this week, some of us, but just that line, you are not it, but in truth it is you, is worthy of much study, and when I say study it, like Dogen says, please study this, he doesn't mean think about it and figure it out, he means sit with it, feel it yogically.

[08:54]

So, those are the two lines, those are the two verses that are, a key to this, but I'll also say, again, by way of introduction to this whole text, that there are lots of things going on in this long text. Again, the topic is this dharma, this reality of suchness, and how to take care of it. But there is a lot in this text about teacher and student. There's a lot in this text about language. There's a lot in this text about how to take care of suchness. And there's also another one of the lines that is key is inclined and upright interact.

[10:04]

So inclined and upright is one way of talking about, we sometimes chant, we will be chanting also during Sashin, the harmony of difference and sameness. Inclined refers to difference or the particulars or the phenomenal world. Upright refers to sameness or oneness or the universal or the ultimate. And part of what this text is said to introduce is the five-fold way, so there's a lot of fives in here, the five-fold way in which the ultimate or the universal or the upright reality, the background reality that we sense through Zazen interacts and integrates with the particular conventional a phenomenal world, and that's part of what's going on in this long verse as well.

[11:12]

And so there's a dialectical teaching of the five degrees, or sometimes it's called the five ranks, which is kind of introduced in this text, which is the kind of background philosophy of Soto Zen. You know, this is a poem full of images, it's not a philosophical didactic text, and it actually points away from that. It says, the meaning does not reside in the words, but a pivotal moment brings it forth. That's another very juicy line, that pivotal moment. could be translated in various ways. So in the course of sitting for a day or five days or whatever, or even just a period, pivotal moment, could be translated as, the character in there is key. can be translated in various ways.

[12:14]

It's the opportunity or the energy or even the inquiring student. So the energy of your inquiry brings it forth. There is some response. There's some response that there's some meaning that comes forth from such a pivotal moment of inquiry, of energy. So there are many other lines in here that are worthy of settling into, worthy of sitting with.

[13:15]

Pivotal moment brings it forth. Drumming and singing begin together, wondrously embraced within the real. Drumming and singing begin together. That could also be, so the Chinese characters that are translated here, a lot of them could be translated in various ways. Drumming and singing could also be translated as call and response. or hitting and yelling. So there's this immediacy, drumming and singing. Also, reality constantly flows. So whatever you think about this, whatever feelings or ideas you might have, reality constantly flows. This background ultimate reality is constantly flowing.

[14:18]

So there's so much. to say or to inquire about this. And part of what, so what I want, what I'm going to be encouraging during the five-day seshin, and again, you're welcome to come to the talks, is just to use these in tzazen. So you are not it, but in truth it is you. Look at the wall and say, you're not the wall, but the wall actually is you. Can you really see it that way? Or can it see you that way? So there's a tremendous amount to play with in this song. It's called a song. We don't know if there was a melody or a tune at some point that's been lost. The words are not lost, though. So I could keep going, and we will keep going this week, but if some of you have comments or responses or other lines that you want to respond to or ask about, please feel free.

[15:30]

I'll pause for that. If nobody has anything to say, I can keep babbling, but comments, questions, responses. Jan, you've asked about this sometimes. Which lines do you want to know about? Well, that may be the problem of the translator, but that's also what it says. can't be understood as far as I'm concerned.

[16:57]

My teachings and approaches are distinguished, each as its standard. I don't know what that means. But then the next line, where the teachings and the approaches are not, reality constantly flows. And so it means to me that no matter how you are living your life, reality is going to be there. If you're teachable, reality will... I think that it means that if you're teachable, you can influence reality. If you... And vice versa. Well, there's a particular reference here because there's sudden and gradual where teaching approaches or methods even, methods is not the right word, but there was this idea of sudden and gradual approaches to the teaching and there was a northern and a southern school of Chan in China.

[18:25]

That's the reference here, so there were these two, we could say, schools or styles of Chan teaching. that they were talked about as such, as different approaches. So this is a reference to something in Chinese and Chan history before Dongshan, just a little bit before Dongshan. And yet, actually, if we look at them now, Practically speaking, both are both, or the difference. There's another line that I really like a lot. Well, I like most of it. But the one that impressed me when I was listening to the radio yesterday morning, I was listening to On Being, and this line.

[19:30]

They were talking about this poem? Let there be music. And I thought of this line when I was saying grace in the middle of running and singing. Yeah, so drumming and singing begin together as expressions of the real.

[20:51]

And as I said before, drumming and singing is the immediacy of call and response. It's this, there's no separation. So yeah, and there's other references to that, that immediacy. When the wooden man starts to sing, the stone woman gets up to dance. And there's other things. It repeats because one of the lines, natural and wondrous, is not a matter of delusion or enlightenment. And then later on it says, you can't get it through consciousness or that kind of a line. It is not reached by feelings or consciousness. How could it involve liberation? And then there's another one in the beginning. Well, I kind of kicked them out.

[21:55]

But there's about four of them in here. And then there's mine. When I was first reading it, I thought, well, these are solving ones. But I don't feel that way anymore. Good. It's talking about the practice as beyond our usual, deliberative, cognitive processes. Yeah. So other comments? Oh, yes. Hi, Chris. Yes, good evening. Thank you, first of all. For some reason, in a non-partitioned body, Every time we have spoken about this wondrously embraced within the real drumming and singing together, for whatever reason, my mind keeps going to the hammer that strikes where its echo extends out. I don't entirely know why, but there's some reason my mind links the two.

[23:01]

Good. Droning and syncopating together, and the hammer, the sound of the hammer striking this windmill. I'm paraphrasing, because I don't remember exactly. It's the hammer strikes the windmill. Yeah. There's a poem by Dugan's teacher. Yeah. I don't even know what to say about it, but for some reason, those two are connected in my mind, and I just can't seem to. It's just there, and that's it. Good. Yeah. Yeah, so playing with this material is about making those connections. Dylan. The question that's rising for me right now is, if whether teachings are part of the master or not, reality constantly flows, and Buddha's always going beyond Buddha, then why is it important to preserve Preserve at will has to do with how does this keep stay alive in the world? How does this teaching, this teaching of suchness?

[24:06]

Yes. Go ahead. Reminded again of the fan. It's always there. We can't actually, there's nothing we can do about it. In terms of it being there or not, whether we like it or not, whether we don't care about it or not. It's happening. We are it. It's not what we are not it. It's just we want to build off of it. But anyway, whether or not we can actualize it, whether or not the fan gets moved, I think that's what's going to be preserving the movement of the fan. thought there's this really beautiful story about persimmetries, about how we're eating all persimmon, so they're sweet. I'll make it short, but they're oriental persimmons, they're sweet persimmon trees, and there are astringent ones that you can't eat.

[25:14]

And until an astringent tree ripens into a sweet branch, it's not, it's inedible. I was talking about actually original, so like when you plant the seeds of a sweet persimmon tree, all of them become astringent. And he was thinking, for example, you have to graft a branch from a sweet persimmetry onto an astringent one in order for that to become sweet. And at some point in time, over a hundred, several hundred years, an astringent persimmetry turned into a sweet one. And in a sense, they take that and put it onto another one. And I think that that is related in the sense of, you know, he was saying, core practices is how do we keep this sweetness going? So I guess I just really liked that analogy.

[26:18]

Well, that's a metaphor for something that's at the core, the very first line here. The story about Yunyan and Dongshan is how do you preserve the lineage of the teaching? in the practice. So that's what's at stake here. That's one level of it. Yes, reality is constantly flowing. And the Dharma, in some ways, that's ever available. Buddhas can arise when they realize this. But this is talking about a particular lineage that we're connected to. And there are many lineages. But how does that get continued, you know, how does that get drafted on, how does that, that's, so that one of the issues throughout this, there are various issues that are going on in this poem, but one of them is about teachers and students, and how does that

[27:31]

Does that particular approach to teaching get continued? There's the line about one on the verge of realizing the Buddha way, contemplating a tree for 10 kalpas. So that's a particular aspect of our lineage, for example. So it's not just that, yes, it's Now you have it. Preserve it well. When we chant this, yes, this is something that's always available. And yet, how does it actually get carried on? If Suzuki Roshi hadn't come to San Francisco, how would we have realized this? Well, we might have, you know, realized some other lineage and found a way to practice something. But anyway, here we are.

[28:32]

So that's what's going on. That's one of the things going on here. Yes, Dennis, hi. Yes, there is. Yes, yes, yes. That's one of the great lines for Zazen, turning away and touching are both wrong. You can't get a whole. So turning away and touching are kind of gentle translations. Turning away literally is turning your back on it. Touching it, touching is grasping it. So the character.

[29:35]

We can't live with it, can't live without it. It's like a massive fire. And move and you are trapped. So there are lines in here that are literally like... Like... feel like lines about Zazen. Where's the one about the cowering rat? Outside still and inside trembling. I don't know how many of you felt that in Zazen. And yet this turning away and touching are both wrong is really, a way of looking at something that's very deep in Sasan, I think.

[30:40]

So thank you. Were you going to say something else about it? Right. Yes. Yeah, so there's, you know, so skillful means, different strokes. Yeah. How to convey, so that goes back to how to convey this, you know. How to preserve it well, how to take care of this.

[31:47]

How to intimately transmit it. And for ourselves, how do we see it? So there's so many lines here. And again, we can talk about it like this. But to actually take a line like this and spend a period of zazen, half a day, considering within causes and conditions, time and season, it is serene and illuminating, right within the causes and conditions of whatever is arising in your heart-mind. here now. Yes, yes. Yeah, there are lots of specific references in this, and I can mention those.

[32:50]

The white oxen also refers to the ox herding pictures. And there's a non-Chuan set, one set that The Buddhas and ancestors don't know what it is. Cats and cows know what it is, which you can take in various ways, like maybe not knowing is where it's at, or I don't know. Anyway, there's lots of ways to turn these. But yeah, there are specific references in here. but it says just to portray it in literary form is disdainfully violent. You know, that's what we're doing. Yes, right. And it reminds me so much of the line that goes, delusions are inexhaustible.

[33:57]

I vouch for them. And in my book, the line from physics that says an immovable object and an irresistible force can't exist in the same universe. even though it stains things with defilement, because we have to try to use words to talk about life and existence. And it can't be really that. There's the wonderful story which I've told sometimes about the six ancestors.

[35:00]

Okay, maybe I'll tell it again. We're also a little bit over time. Nanyue, one of the greatest successors of the Sixth Ancestor, came to the Sixth Ancestor and the Sixth Ancestor said, what is this that thus comes? What is this that thus comes? Very funny way of saying, who are you? And Nguyen was speechless. And the story goes that he went and sat like an iron pole in the zendo for eight years in the monastery. And then he finally came back and said, now I can respond to your question. You asked me, what is this that thus comes? And now I can say that anything I say misses the mark. Took him eight years to come up with that.

[36:02]

So sometimes in these stories, you know, it sort of seems like they're talking back and forth right away. But actually, sometimes there's some space in between. And in that case, they say it was eight years. But he didn't waste his time, because the six ancestors said, well, so then is there practice realization or not? And Manuel said, well, it's not that there's no practice realization, only that it cannot be defiled. So on that note, we'll close formally. There's going to be these five days of people. The other thing, though, Jan, is we can talk about it, but we can also sit with it and let it sink into us. These are Zazen texts. So how do we sit with a line like, drumming and singing begin together, or whatever. You are not it, now it is you. It's like a pebble dropping in a pond.

[37:10]

Anyway, so let's close with the four bodhisattva vows we chant three times.

[37:18]

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