Morning everyone. I want to speak this morning about one of the traditional koans or teaching stories of Zen. Maybe one of the most important. It's about, we might say, the goal of Zen practice. This is case 38 of the Book of Serenity koan collection. There are many of these collections of teaching stories traditionally. The point of these stories, a lot of them are about ninth century great famous Chinese masters, as this one is. And the point of these stories is not some historical artifact, but they all have been studied for a thousand years or more because they have something to do with us and our practice. And the story today is about the great master, Linji, or Rinzai, in Japanese.

[01:04]

So many of you know that we are in the Soto tradition of Japanese Zen, which is the other one from the Rinzai tradition. But that doesn't really matter. Those differences between Zen and Buddhist traditions are not as important as what Rinzai or Linji is talking about in this story. The Book of Serenity Koan collection is, as I said, there were many of these historically, traditionally still studied, but this is one of the maybe three most important, most commonly studied, and this is the one that's most used in Soto-sen, but still there's this story about the great master Linji. So, I'm going to just read the story first. Most of these stories are fairly short, as this one is. And then I'll talk some about it.

[02:06]

Maybe I won't get so much into the second half. But anyway, Linji said to the assembly one time, there is a true person with no rank always going out and in through the portals of your face. beginners who have not yet witnessed it. Look, look! So I have a lot more to say about that, but then the story goes on. A monk came forward and said, what is the true person of no rank? Linji got down from in the seat, grabbed and held him. The monk hesitated. Linji pushed him away and said, the true person of no rank, what a piece of dry crap he is. So this is the story which I want to talk about today. And first I want to say something about, a little bit about the first part.

[03:08]

Very important. There's a true person with no rank, always going out and in through the portals of your face, through our sense gates, eyes, ears, nose, tongue. A true person of no rank is always present in the portals of your face. Look! Pay attention. So, fundamentally, this true person of no rank is what we're here about. We could say this is about the teaching of suchness, or reality. How do we meet reality? This true person, always, right now, is present. Right in your sense case, right in that which you are aware of.

[04:13]

We include in the sense case, maybe it's not a portal of your face, but we include thoughts that come also, as well as sights and sounds and smells and tactile sensation. Anyway, always present right here, this true person of no rank. So let me read a little bit of the commentary to the Book of Serenity story. It gives a little more context to this. In the extensive record of Linji's saying, it says, in the field of the body of five clusters, there is a true person of no rank. Grandly revealed, without a hair's breadth gap. Why don't you recognize it? The reality of mind is formless and pervades all directions. So these five clusters, here doesn't mean the five senses, but the five skandhas.

[05:16]

chants in the Heart Sutra, forms, feelings, sensations, or forms, feelings, perceptions, another way to translate it, tendencies, or just predispositions, and consciousness itself. Anyway, there's, in the field, in this field, in the body, and mind, and awareness, on your cushion or chair right now, there is a true person of no rank, grandly revealed, not a hair's breadth's gap, recognize him or her. The reality of mind is formless and pervades all directions. And the Book of Surrounding, commentator Wansong continues, since it pervades all directions, it is not only in the physical field of five clusters, it is always going out and in the gates of your face. Linji said, beginners who have not yet witnessed it, look, look. I would say, those of you who have been sitting for many years, look, look.

[06:18]

Do you see this two person of no rank now, here? At that point, a monk asked, what is the two person of no rank? Everywhere, Wansong says, they call this conveying the matter along with the voice. But what can be done? The one riding the donkey doesn't see the assembly. Linji got down from his seat and grabbed him. You know, in most Zen places, even in America today, the teacher sits up on a higher platform. And, you know, I don't like to do that. I'm here with you guys. But Linji got down from his platform and grabbed him. Tell me, where is the true person? Wansong says, he should give a slap. The monk hesitated. The true man is absent. What a pity, Wansong says. So this is an important point. What is it about this monk's hesitation? Linji pushed him away and said, the true person of no rank, what a piece of dry crap he is. Huan Song says, though face to face, he's hidden away.

[07:19]

One aspect of this koan, you know, koans are challenges to our practice. These teaching stories are ways of seeing aspects of our own practice body. And one aspect of this that I think is important, and maybe I'll get back to some, Linji didn't say, when he pushed the monk away after he hesitated, he didn't say, this is not a true person of no rank. He didn't say that. He said, the true man of no rank, what a piece of dry crap he is. So he wasn't saying that this is not a true person of no rank. Okay, so what's going on here? What is this about? What does it have to do with us? So what is a true person?

[08:21]

What is a person who sees the truth of suchness, who tastes it? This is about finding the reality of our own experience, the rawness, the tenderness, the nakedness of our own experience, the person the true person of no rank, on your cushion or chair right now. Always. This is going in and out of the portals of your face, when she says. And yet, you know, I think there's particular aspects of this that have to do with maybe more with our culture, but I think it also has to do with just the human condition. And by the way, in the commentary later on, it says the true person of no rank is just a slab of red meat.

[09:24]

Maybe that's a little more polite than calling him a piece of dry crap, but it gets the feeling across just as well. So, in our society, rank is important. Social status is measured by rank. Ego is measured by social status. So I want to talk about this idea of rank and then how does that contrast with true spiritual authority, the true person of no rank. So, you know, it happens that in our Sangha we have many, many skillful, talented, very bright people.

[10:25]

It's okay for people to come here even if they're stupid. It's all right. And sometimes that's an advantage in Zen practice. But the fact is that in our Sangha we have, I was thinking about it, we have at least eight psychologists and at least eight teachers and a few lawyers and several artists. several musicians and several athletes and at least six people with Ivy League degrees of all things. Our society measures value, measures our personhood by these kinds of ranks. And maybe we ourselves measure ourselves by these ranks. And in fact, in our Zen setup here, we have what looks like ranks. We have, you know, there's, in the lay and priest ordination ceremony that I perform, and in our Tsuki Roshi tradition, we have Kathy and Dawn are wearing blue raksus, which indicates that they've taken refuge and have received lay ordination.

[11:43]

Aishin and Nyozan and Keizan have black okases and wear black raksas when they're not wearing those, which means that they have received priest ordination or priest in training ordination. And I'm wearing brown, which indicates Dharma transmission, that I have received authorization to teach in the tradition and I carry these teaching scepters as an indication of that. You know, what is it the bandit said to Humphrey Bogart and the treasurer of the Sierra Madre? I don't need no stinking badges. What is all this rank business? How do we see the true person? In some ways, those of us with some ranks in terms of the sangha, that's an obstacle for us to see the true person of no rank. We have to see through any stinking badges. So it doesn't mean that the people who take refuge in Buddha formally and take on these roles doesn't mean that they're necessarily any more or less persons of no rank than people who just come and do satsang.

[12:56]

The point of this is just to be ourselves. What does it mean to really be yourself? So I, you know, follow these traditions and I wear this brown robe as a representation of my deep gratitude and respect for this tradition. And, you know, you can have advanced degrees or various status in the society and still be a two person of no rank, but how do we work with this stuff? How do we not get fooled by it? How do we recognize the slab of red meat sitting on your cushion or chair? How do we enjoy and express and help bring to the world this reality coming in through the portals of your face right now? The rawness.

[13:58]

of this experience, each new breath. So it's not that there is not true spiritual authority. It's not necessarily measured by some colored robe or some rank in society. So part of this is very relevant to, especially to us as Western Buddhists. In America, we have this value of individualism. What does it mean to find the true person? So we do emphasize in our society, you know, the achievements of individuals.

[15:05]

And, you know, our society measures that sometimes just by, you know, salary level or sometimes by all these other kinds of credentials. From the point of view of, you know, and there's a value to valuing the individual. So this true person of no rank expresses herself or himself in this situation of this body and mind. How do we develop our self-expression? And in some ways our practice is about not running away from yourself. And that includes this limited self, your personal history, your causes and conditions, your various skills and also credentials and all of that stuff. These ranks, these stinking badges. So, from the side of the individual, you know, there's an old Zen slogan which I think has been borrowed by the U.S.

[16:14]

Army. Be all that you can be. This is, you know, very good basic Zen principle. Now, I don't know, I haven't actually located it in any of the Sutras or Zen stories, so maybe as American Zen people we should just borrow it from the army. I don't know, it doesn't matter who got there first. But, you know, we're here to be all we can be. To find our way, each of us, in our own way, of responding to the suffering of the world. Of expressing kindness and caring and compassion, of expressing awareness and insight, each in our own context, each in our own way, with whatever credentials we have or don't have. Don't get fooled by ranking. So yeah, part of our training and practice is to find each of us ourselves, to express ourselves, to not run away from who we are as individuals, to be all that we can be.

[17:24]

But actually, if we're talking about the true person of no rank, there's a deeper self, and this is what arsazana is about, too. So it's axiomatic in Buddhism that there's no self. Now, Anatman doesn't mean that we don't have some particular qualities or even some particular set of social security numbers and addresses and phone numbers and email addresses and all that stuff and all our stories about who we think we are and all our personal history. this true person of no rank has to do with the experience of being present, allowing this to come in and out of the portals of our face, of our own sense gates, of our own awareness, to see the reality of this.

[18:28]

And the more and more we open to that, the more and more we see that the true person is not separate, that we are in fact deeply, deeply interconnected in communion with all selves and all beings. We're not separate from each other, from all the people in our lives, from people around the world, and from all kinds of other beings. the rainforests exhale oxygen which we breathe. We're not separate from what happens to all beings in our world. This true person of no rank is not just on your cushion or chair. We each have our own expression of this deep, interconnected non-self or bigger self or

[19:30]

wider self that is not separate. So this is a challenge to us. Where do we find the true person of no rank? Each of us on our own cushion or chair, but also together. How do we commune with this true person not caught up in ranks and status and credentials? How do we commune with the true person that is connected with all beings? We are responsible in some deep way, each of us for everything in the world. It's not separate. And yet we each have our own seat, we each have our own perspective on Buddha sitting in the center there. So this is really challenging to us.

[20:35]

This is challenging to me as having the position of being a Zen teacher. How do I challenge and encourage each of you and all of us together to be all that we can be? To see this true person that is already here on each of your cushions or chairs. American Zen is just trying to find its way. There's a Soto Zen Buddhist Association where they're just trying to come up with standards for training priests and training teachers and how do we authorize that. But just in the reality of here, Irving Park Road, Chicago, how do we all see this two-person beyond are ranks and credentials, stinking badges.

[21:38]

So Hongzhe's first commentary, Hongzhe's the teacher who put together the Book of Serenity, predecessor of Dogen in China, a century before Dogen. 1100s, and he put together these cases, and he has verse comments. So I'll just read his first comment on the story about Linji Irvinzai's True Person of No Rank. He said, delusion and enlightenment are opposite, subtly communicated with simplicity. Spring opens the hundred flowers in one puff. Power pulls back nine bowls in one yank. It's hopeless. The mud and sand can't be cleared away, clearly blocking off the eye of the sweet spring. If suddenly it burst forth, it would freely flow. So I particularly want to focus on these last three lines. He says it's hopeless. The mud and sand can't be cleared away. We're all caught up in all of these ranks and positions and all of the status

[22:53]

in so many ways, that's part of our society and part of our egos. This mud and sand can't be cleared away. So we have to face the fact that we have, and that people have these credentials and so forth. It's terrible. We can't just all be here together in communion. As a sense of being Buddhists together, So he says, the mud and sand can't be cleared away, clearly blocking off the eye of the sweet spring. So one way to talk about this true person, this true suchness, is this spring. My name, Taigen, means ultimate source, and it's the source of a spring in the mountains. That's the name that Rev gave me. Part of our practice, one way to look at our practice, is that we connect with these deeper waters of suchness.

[24:06]

And each of us has access to great wellsprings of creativity, awareness, kindness, active compassion. And a part of our sitting is that we start to become, we start to notice this, we become familiar with it. Or sometimes, suddenly it bursts forth and freely flows. How do we allow our creativity and our kindness and awareness and sharing with all beings to be part of this situation on your push and your pull? So this is a deeper level of be all that you can be. Do we see how we are all together? How do we find our true life and energy? How do we, together with all beings, with our damaged planet, with our friends and family members and the damaged beings on your cushion or chair, we're all caught up in this.

[25:14]

grasping after credentials, grasping after rank. This is how our ego is formed and how our society is measured. How do we instead find this deeper life, this eye of the sweet spring that can suddenly burst forth? So that brings me back to this The second half of the story. Maybe it's enough for us just to hear that there's a true person of no rank, always going out and in through the portals of your face. So I've been emphasizing that side. But then there's this other thing going on here. And so, after saying this, a monk came forward and said, well, what is this true person of no rank? Good monk, willing to stand up to Rinzai and ask him a question. Lindsay Irwin said, I got down from his seat, grabbed him, and held him.

[26:15]

And the monk hesitated. Well, there's lots of Zen koans and stories where somebody hesitates and they seem to be the loser. And in these stories, it looks sometimes like there's a winner and a loser. Don't necessarily take it on that simple level. There's a lot of irony in these stories. The loser now will be later the win. Anyway, Lindsay Irwin. red meat, she is. So if we hesitate, does that mean that we have forever lost this true person of no rank? I don't think so. So I'm not exactly disagreeing with Linji, but you know, I want to add that This true person of no rank, we can make that into some fancy rank too.

[27:21]

It's very subtle, the way we grab on to accomplishments, the way we think we have to get somewhere. We have to get something. We have to reach some higher state. We have to have some fancy experience. We have to have some deeper understanding. It's very subtle. So don't make the true person of no rank into that either. The true person of no rank is just a slab of red meat sitting on your cushion or chair right now. Enjoy it. And you know, sometimes we hesitate. And sometimes we're right there. And, you know, these koans, most of them are stories about these legendary 9th century Chinese masters, but there's others. But, you know, they seem to be emphasizing this, you know, instant response. And that happens sometimes. It can happen, you know, face to face. Still here today. But I would, you know, say to Linji, the point isn't

[28:26]

to be a piece of dry crap or not, how do we recognize, look, look, see the suchness of reality that's here and available to you and to all of us right now. And, you know, if you have some of these fancy credentials, fine. Are you gonna, you know, Do you think that is who you are and does that validate your experience right now? Can you forget about whether or not you're being kind to people today because you have some rank? How do we live in this world of true self, the true person of no rank? Here we are, deeply, deeply interconnected. So these stories, just to mention that, if you read about koans in some of the books, it sounds like they are riddles to solve or something like that, or that they're nonsense.

[29:35]

Ridiculous. They're not nonsense. They are all part of the logic of awakening. And it's not about solving them or figuring them out. I do work individually with students sometimes on particular stories and look forward to their responses. Keep working on the story until it becomes part of your practice body. So here's another one. This true person of no rank. How can you feel that in your coming and going and seeing and listening and interactions? So don't hesitate. But if you hesitate, then don't hesitate after that. Or how is it that you will express this deep wellspring of energy and life that is available now? So maybe that's enough for me to say about this story this morning.

[30:41]

Does anyone have any comments or responses or questions? Keizan. your sort of final comments about how often the teacher, in the set up of the story, the teacher is the one that hits the pad. So sometimes the teacher just rolls over in bed or leaves or, you know, it's not necessarily Yeah, and the awakened or aware or caring response to these stories is not necessarily verbal either. In some of the collections, I think it's more in the Blue Cliff Record than in the Book of Serenity, it does seem to have this dharma combat quality.

[31:48]

And the way that these stories are worked, practiced within the Rinzai tradition today as well, does have sometimes that dharma combat quality. But for us, it's just about, OK, how do we soak in this story? How do we? really look at what's going on and what does the story have to say to me, for me, how does it help me to express the true person I'm knowing. Other questions, comments, responses, testimonies? Aisha? Well, I like the hesitating monk, because I know for me, I can be constantly ranking every aspect of my life and always remembering things in life that makes me look the best.

[32:51]

Thank you for confessing that. Thank you for confessing that. Well, the constant ranking. You know, nobody wants to be the one who hesitates. That's the person of, you know, who we think of as bad rank. And I think it takes a lot of courage to just be willing to do something that it seems clumsy or hesitant or, you know, like looking like you don't know. So I appreciate that. the part of me that constantly ranks wants to see that monk is losing, but the part of me, maybe the monk is really expressing the true person of knowing by having the courage to be clumsy. Good, very good, yeah. So, you bring up another part of this that it's not again just part of our society and social structure and status and all of that, that's there too, but it's also that within each of us

[33:53]

part of the nature of discriminating consciousness is that we do rank things. It's not that you need to get rid of that, because that's what discriminating consciousness is. We make distinctions. And often it's in terms of good or bad, high or low, or whatever, or like or dislike. So what Linji is pointing at, it's very deep. It's going beyond that not just social status, but going beyond that sense of what you expressed very well, Ashen, that we're this constant chatter of rankiness and that. Thank you. Hey, Tom. The word true, this isn't part of the word man. It means things are not always what they seem to be, and true may not be.

[34:56]

I just try to interpret the word true. Yeah, and I think I don't have the Chinese characters with me, unfortunately. But I think what it is, is genuine. A genuine person. Actually... Not authentic, but genuine means honest. Yeah. Authentic, too. The true person. And actually, it is in the original true man. And unfortunately, you know, most of the monks in these situations were men. And this is the patriarchal society of China. But really, it's the true person. It's the character for man that means person, you know. So we have to, you know, we practice together, men and women. It's not just men and women. And I would say it's not even just human. What is the true tree of rank? But I appreciate your asking about this word true. What is genuine? What is authentic to our experience and to our interaction and to our communion with deeper self?

[36:03]

So this true person beyond that which is trivial or false or just an imitation, what's suchness right now so it relates to that all of that thank you yes um when I hear the story I always think these kinds of things but then in this other sense it's just this idea of actually having a position at all wherever it is on the hierarchy and you are aware of it fits into the broader pattern and I think this true man has to maybe has to do with

[37:40]

the true man is no man at all. Even though we contend with particularities of our sensual experience and particularities of our social experience and have to do that responsibly, there's still really no self. There's nothing that can be... Here you are, every time you do Yeah, good, thank you. And you're bringing up another aspect of the story that's very important, so I really appreciate that. As you said, the Sixth Ancestor said that Huineng, in some ways the founder of Chan and China, said to find the mind that does not abide anywhere. This is the true person. And yeah, everything is changing. There's nothing to hold on to, really. This is one level.

[39:15]

This is true. And this is where the true Krishna is. And the other side of it, Dogen talked about abiding in your dharma position. Both sides are true. So, each of us has some dharma, quote-unquote dharma position. We could kind of reflect that as each of us has some particular pattern of causes and conditions that affect how we respond, who we are, what we like or dislike, and so forth. Each of us has a set of experiences and credentials and all that stuff, and talents and abilities. So, Dogen emphasizes, Huining emphasizes, you can't really hold on to any of that. And Dogen says, but, Hank, but abide there. And the dude also says abide. So how do we hang out and take on and take responsibility for this situation, this person on your Kushner chair with its various ranks and lack of ranks or whatever, particular causes and conditions, particular karma, and at the same time see that all of that is just, you know,

[40:41]

all of the ranks and the status and the self-definitions are just so much flimsiness. We have time for another one or two responses. Cathy? Just a comment that you referenced people's educational backgrounds. that sort of thing. So it feels to me like when we walk inside the temple, then sometimes that becomes irrelevant. Yes. Because we're... The other thing about it is that we're switching out roles. You know, that somebody might be taking the lead in the kitchen or in the work position or different places for a period of time, and then they switch out and somebody else takes the lead. So that you don't have anybody reading all the time, it seems like there's something about this practice that makes it possible to realize we're falling in and out and sharing and taking turns with the world of what's going on.

[41:51]

And I'm sure we tend to do it, but it feels like there is something about this that encourages dropping that rank. Yes, that's part of the tradition that Buddha set up. part of it is that in the Sangha, in the order of monks and nuns initially, and still, and that things are measured by seniority of, well, seniority of ordination traditionally, but also seniority of just you know, how long you've been in a place. And that's, so that actually undercuts the sense of ranking and of, you know, using society's ranks and of, and even of individual talent and ability. Somebody traditionally in Buddhist Sangha, you know, takes on a position because of, you know, related to seniority and that's respected, again, not as a way of setting up a rank, but as a

[42:54]

of actually undercutting our patterns of ranking. But yeah, here we are all here. Just, you know, whether it's your first time here or whether you've been here a lot, we're just here. Two people together. Thank you. Daniel. Well, when I heard the words of about the mud and the sand, you know. The mud and the sand, yeah. Locking the string, yeah. Though I was trying to understand that more metaphorically, of course, but somehow I got stuck just on a very literal level of thinking of, you know, the billions of years in which we have emerged from actually mud and sand, all beings, and how as we develop be, but just that even in thinking of how special of a difference we are, which I associate with that concept of rank, even those thoughts can't really have been there without other people who spoke with us or nurtured us.

[44:21]

So on a very profound level, what therefore is that part of me when I'm full of my own sense of rank and specialness, really, when even that thought and that feeling is so much a part of an organic process Good. Yes, yes, yes. Part of recognizing this, the aspect of this true person that is deep self, that is interconnected self, that is, you know, how we each came to be as an expression of the universal is gratitude and respect for all the many beings who made each of us who we are. So I wear a brown robe because it's part of a teaching tradition and a practice tradition that I've found valuable, and I'm responsible for taking that on now.

[45:29]

But it doesn't mean that I'm any more or less a true person of no rank than Nathan sitting next to me. It doesn't do those things. Here we are, each of us together.

[45:40]

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