May I say something to you, Gordon? Yes, of course. I think it was really kind of you to offer your home to Kazan. Very generous to share your good fortune with others. And you enjoy it too, I guess. I'm not sure, but I think occasionally I don't realize what a precious opportunity it is to meet the people I'm meeting. But I don't have that problem today. I'm very happy to see you here. It's a wonderful occasion for us to be together and meet each other here today.

[01:07]

And not only that, but that we actually are aware of that is really great. I'm planning to go to the east coast of this continent in a few days. Pittsburgh, the Big Apple, MoMA, MoMA for the first time, Museum of Modern Art. I went there, I went to MoMA in 1973 with Ahmet Erdogan's sidekick. And do you want to know who Ahmet Erdogan is? You can find him featured in a new movie called Walk the Line.

[02:12]

Anyway, Ahmet Erdogan is a great guy. And so I went to the museum, but the guy told me he didn't want to go in because there was a picket line. He doesn't like to cross picket lines. The... The museum workers were on strike, so I didn't get to go to MoMA 33 years ago, but maybe this time I will. I understand it's worth the visit. There's something good about rich people. After they buy all their art, they sometimes give it to the museum. We get to see it. And then I'm going to go to Europe for a while. And I'll be back for a one-day sitting here on July 15th. I may have jet-lagged, but I know you'll forgive me if I fall asleep in your lap.

[03:19]

And sometimes I was talking to some people yesterday and I wanted to share with you a conversation. This person is a who for some reason or other he just cannot stop speaking of me in exaggerated praise. And I somehow just can't stop him from talking that way. And it's not because I like what he's saying. I mean, I like what he's saying, but it's not that I like what he's saying. It's just that he's hard to stop once he starts talking, this guy, about anything. So I feel kind of uncomfortable, but yesterday I did get a few words in edgewise, and I wanted to tell you about the conversation. He's talking about, you know, he doesn't understand how I can talk to him. you know, he thinks I'm some kind of special person. And I just, I said, well, you know what, how it happened was, I was at Tassajara.

[04:31]

Well, anyway, this is not exactly how it happened. This is part of the story. This is a story about how it happened. I was at Tassajara, and I was like the, it was the summertime, and I was head doe on. And, uh, I gave all the Zazen instruction. Every day I gave Zazen instruction. Day after day I gave Zazen instruction. And I just gave Zazen instruction. I talked about how to sit day after day after day after day for quite a few days. About 100 times I gave Zazen instruction. And then the administration of Zen Center asked me to leave Tazahara and be the director of the city center and so I don't know exactly how it happened but I went there to be director and I also wound up as Eno so I was the Eno and the director of the city center in the summer of 1970 I started after I left Tassajara and I arrived on my birthday

[05:47]

My 27th birthday, I arrived at San Francisco Zen Center to be the director, and I sat down at dinner with some people in the dining room there, and I said, It's my birthday. Sure. They didn't believe me. They just didn't click the picture. You just came from Tussauds, and now you're here to be director, and you tell us it's your birthday? They just couldn't fathom that it was my birthday, but it was. And I don't know exactly if I know if I assigned myself to be Eno or how the hell Eno also. And so I gave Zazen instruction, not every day like at Tatsuhara, but twice a week, like on Wednesday and Saturday. So I just, for like two years, I gave Zazen instruction a lot, just talking about the practice. Not the same every time, but basically talking about it. And then after about two years of that, I became shuso, so I gave some talks. And then after I was shuso, I became tanto at Green Gulch.

[06:52]

And so then I gave talks. But they just sort of like, the conditions arose for that to happen. And then it just goes on and on, as you may have noticed. And then this guy was, then he moved from you know, talking in exaggerated ways about my talks, possibly have happened, and I tried to show them the causes and conditions of the arising of this talking activity. Then he started talking about my athletic activity. That this old man was doing these things at the... This guy's conversation was happening in a gym. And this guy started his athletic career because he joined a swimming club because he heard I was in a swimming club. So he came to Zen Center about 30 years ago and then he heard that I go swimming in the bay.

[07:57]

So he started swimming in the bay. He says, well, if the Zen priest is going and jumping in the cold water, I'm going to go and do it. So he's now there. So he's talking to me about his history of being inspired by me to be an athlete. And he can't understand how he just, you know, anyway, he's got all these expressions about my physical activity that I do. And I thought, well, what are the causes and conditions of that? And then I remembered, which I've said before, but When I was a baby, when I was two years old, I got polio and I became paralyzed. I couldn't walk and I couldn't move my left leg, my left arm. I was paralyzed and I was very fortunate to receive therapy. And then after the inflammation I could walk again.

[09:01]

But after 21 days of inflammation and paralysis the muscles were very, you know, very, very stiff. So I had to stretch. the stretching exercises during the time of inflammation. And they put hot packs on my muscles, my paralyzed muscles, and stretched me. And I remember being in the hospital with those nurses and having the nurses talk to me about that I was a big boy and I was going to do this. But then afterwards, for years, I had stretching exercises which were painful. and my mother used to do them with me. But I think I had a sense, my karma, my situation was, my karma, the consequences of my life with the people I lived with and the people that were assisting me as I got this

[10:02]

good medical attention and my mother did these exercises with me, I would not have, a two-year-old baby, would not have been able to do the stretching exercises himself, especially since they were painful. But with her assistance, I would do these and I think I developed a sense of that it was okay to do painful things that were therapeutic. that I kind of had the sense of, you know, not everything painful is bad. Some kinds of actually make you more flexible. If you work with the pain and the stiffness, there's a way of getting in there and working with it that actually makes you more healthy. And if you avoid it, although it's easy to avoid, that you... So if I hadn't done those exercises, it probably wouldn't have been good for my health.

[11:07]

But I did that. So then, you know, when the leg was broken four years ago, I didn't mind doing all those exercises that I did. And so this guy sees this broken old man exercising and he says, how can you do that? And I said, maybe this is why. This is a story, you know. And the Chinese character, there's a Chinese character which is, I think, pronounced yuren, which means, it means conditions, but it also means history or story. And that's a setup for what I wanted to talk to you about today in terms of the traditional teaching. It's about a story. It's not a story.

[12:08]

This is a story about stories. It's a story about conditions. It's a story about, yeah, about conditions. The story is sometimes called Bajang's Wild Fox. In this case, in the Book of Serenity I'm reading you from, it's just called Bajang's Fox. And I think I read this to you last time, didn't I? If you keep so much as a A in your mind, you'll go to hell like an arrow shot. One drop of wild fox slobber, when swallowed, cannot be spit out for 30 years. It's not that the order is strict in any way. It's just that the ignoramus' karma is heavy.

[13:10]

Has there ever been anyone who mistakenly transgressed? When the great master Baijong was giving lectures in the hall, there was always an old man who listened to the teaching and then dispersed when the crowd dispersed. Another translation which I like was there was an old man who listened to the talks and to the teaching and when the crowd retired he retired too. One day he didn't leave. Bhai Jan then asked him, Who is this standing there?

[14:19]

The old man said, In antiquity, in the time of the ancient Buddha Kashyapa, I lived on this mountain. A student asked me, Does a greatly cultivated person still fall into cause and effect? or not?" I answered, he does not fall into cause and effect. And I fell into a wild fox body for five hundred lives. Now I asked the teacher to turn on my behalf and Bai Jong said, This translation says, and Bai Zhang said, he does not fall into cause and effect. And the old man was greatly enlightened. Another version says, ask me that question.

[15:24]

So the old man says, give me a turning word. And then Bai Zhang says, ask me the question. So the old man says, does the greatly cultivated person fall into cause and effect or not? And Bai Zhang said, such a person does not obscure cause and effect or such a person is not blind to cause and effect. The old man was greatly enlightened at these words. So the turn, the expression is, the expression is, does not fall into cause and effect, does not fall into cause and effect, and he changed it to does not change the fall to obscure cause and effect. So he turned fall to obscure.

[16:26]

That turn enlightened the old man. according to this story. The story, this is the conditions about conditions. In the evening, Bai Zhang went into the hall and recounted the events. I'm going to tell more of the story. Then after the old man was awakened, he said, would you do a funeral ceremony for me?

[17:33]

then by monks later out on the hill behind the temple and went to some bushes and pulled out a fox corpse with his staff and instructed the monks for this fox in the style that is done for monks. And then, in the evening, Bai Zhang went into the hall and recounted the preceding events. And Wang Bo immediately asked. An ancient answered a turning word mistakenly and fell into a wild fox body for 500 lives. Wang Bo was mistaken.

[18:41]

turn after turn. Bai Zhang said, come here and I'll tell you. Wang Bo approached and gave Bai Zhang a slap. Bai Zhang stands laughing and said, this is interesting, I knew foxes beards were red, here's another red bearded fox. Common translation is I knew the barbarians beards were red, here's another red bearded barbarian. I knew Ancestors had red beards and here we have a red bearded enlightened ancestor.

[19:48]

For some reason or other this story is one that a lot of people wanted to make further comments on. for the last, I guess, about, you know, approximately 1,200 years. Making comments on this story in China and Korea and Japan and now in the West, in the United States and probably Brazil and Europe. And maybe back in India, too, they're commenting on this story. Now back in ancient times way, way, way, way before Bajon, this old man was the head monk of the same mountain.

[21:04]

A monk came and asked him, a student came and asked him, does the greatly cultivated person fall into cause and effect or not? And so one thing one might imagine is that the student is basically a very cultivated being fall into cause and effect because greatly cultivated beings attain nirvana. They attain peace and liberation. So for one, the liberation and peace, the peace and freedom of nirvana, do they fall into cause and effect? If you're free of cause and effect, do you fall into cause and effect? one might think that you wouldn't. And the monk said, no, they don't fall into cause and effect. So this is then said to be, in a sense, the wrong answer.

[22:10]

Or anyway, it's an answer that he got. People would often say that it was the wrong answer. and he got punished for it. That's one way to tell a story. And then another way to go on is that then Bai Zhang answered the question in a different way. And the old man asking Bai Zhang to tell the story in a different way, to turn a word in the story, to take that story and turn a word that Bai Zhang gave the right answer, the correct answer.

[23:17]

which is, he didn't literally say that the cultivated person does fall into cause and effect. And he didn't say the cultivated person does not fall into cause and effect. He said the cultivated person is not blind to cause and effect. But you could say, well, okay, so then he's in cause and effect, not obscuring it, not blind to it. So he's in cause and effect but not falling into it. But he didn't say he didn't fall into it. He's not going to say he didn't fall into it, because that's the wrong answer. But he didn't say he does fall into it either, because that could be a wrong answer too. He just says he's not blind to it. a negative way to say he sees it clearly.

[24:26]

Is it similar to being not of the world? I mean, is not obscuring cause and effect similar to being in the world but not of the world? Yeah, that does sound similar, doesn't it? It's similar, but although it sounds similar, not but exactly, but sort of but, or in addition to sounding similar, it points to a possible way, to the actual way that you can be in the world but not of it. So the world is a causal process. which you can be in, but you're not of it if you study the causal process. If you can see the causal process, which is the world, then you're not of the world. So it not only sounds similar, but it shows the way to meditate in order to realize that condition, which is another condition.

[25:42]

Now when I first read just a moment ago that As a result of that answer, he fell into this birth as a wild fox and it looks like he got punished. In a way, actually, you could also say he got rewarded for giving that answer. In other words, in some sense, it's true that a girl doesn't fall into cause and effect. They're in cause and effect, but they don't fall into it. They're in love, but they don't fall in love. So it's true that they don't fall into cause and effect. they live in cause and effect without obscuring it. That's not falling into cause and effect.

[26:47]

And by giving that answer of, no, they don't fall into cause and effect, he was rewarded with 500 lives as a fox to meditate on this wonderful teaching, this wonderful reality of not falling into cause and effect. But although he was rewarded, he apparently was a reward. And he wanted Bai Jiang to help him see that actually these 500 lives as a fox were a reward for his answer. If he doesn't answer, then it's a punishment, I guess. Yes. And if it's a right answer, it's a reward, but he didn't seem to understand that it was a reward, so then it wasn't the right answer.

[27:55]

And when Baijong turned it, he understood that it was 500 lives of reward that he didn't understand were reward, so it was 500 lives of punishment. But then, when he understood, he understood that it was five hundred lives of reward. Five hundred lives of punishment changed into five hundred lives of reward at the time of his enlightenment. And that's why the fox deserves a monk's funeral. And that's why Bajon would give it. Usually, you don't usually give monks funeral ceremonies for foxes. You don't even give monks funerals for foxy ladies. Late people get a different funeral for monks. It's tradition.

[29:01]

One of the main reasons to be a monk is you get a monk ceremony rather than a late monk's. Monk's ones are better. They're longer. But the lay ones, the lay people's ones, are modeled on the monks' ones, which is one of the reasons why a lot of lay people became Buddhists in Japan, because they basically got a monk's funeral ceremony. And the Chinese monks had the best funeral ceremonies in the history of human civilization. As a result of this, Soto Zen flourished in Japan because they had such excellent funeral ceremonies. People were interested in Dogen. They wanted these monks' funeral ceremonies from China, and they got them. You can have one too. You can sign up for one by having a workshop at Zen Center for you to specify what kind of funeral ceremony you want.

[30:09]

Why did they say that there was an old man in the hall and not a fox? At the beginning of the story, when he notices there's a... It looks just like an old man. It doesn't look like a fox. That's an excellent question, Sarah. He probably had a no-pass pulse. It's a very hominid pass pulse. I don't know. Yeah, Tassara Razi is not allowed in the Zendel. This is not a monastery here. This building is more modeled on Vimalakirti's room. It's a magical space for enlightenment. It can be a monastery or not. Part of what's wonderful about this story, ladies and gentlemen, is that he wasn't reborn in 500 lifetimes as a water buffalo, which is, you know, that's pretty good too.

[31:19]

Bajong, I mean, what is it, Guishan said he wanted to be a water buffalo, right? He said, where do you want to go? Where are you going to go after you die, teacher? He said, I'm going to be a water buffalo so I can hang around here longer and eat the grass at the bottom of the mountain. Anyway, in Chinese mythology are shapeshifters. They're tricksters. And they're shapeshifters in relationship to cause and effect. They're not... They represent not only shapeshifting, but they represent contemplation of moral causation. So the fox spirit can be a man, but also he can be a fox. And he can be a dead fox. His karma is completed as a fox.

[32:23]

So that's part of what's wonderful about this story is that this is a Zen story which is recited and commented on in formal Zen practice places brings into the story somehow a folk tale about foxes. And foxes, you know, can appear as lovely ladies, and then they go and they visit monks, you know, as the most lovely, but the most beautiful monk. I mean, the beautiful, most beautiful thing that the monk could imagine. Whatever They can be that, you know, to help the person or challenge the person understand cause and effect. So in Chinese folklore, not only do foxes have this shape-shifting ability, but they represent challenging people's understanding of cause and effect and giving them chances to meditate in real life

[33:36]

in terms of their own behavior to appearances, to meditate on how cause and effect works. What is appropriate? What is wholesome? What is unwholesome? So the fox spirit in Chinese folklore comes to offer people that up, in some sense, to test them, to challenge them, and perhaps trick them, if they can be tricked. So he comes into the hall as an old man, but then he leaves the hall and Fox and Bajon does the funeral ceremony for the fox, who used to be an old man, who used to be a monk. You think the fox was trying to trick Bajon? I think the fox was testing Bajon and passed.

[34:41]

Looks like he performed his function well. Because then we can look at all the different things he did by interacting with the fox and all the things the fox did for him. The fox helped Bajon both demonstrate freedom and enact freedom for somebody. around this issue, but also helped Bai Zhang come across, who had a very clear commitment to seeing cause and effect clearly, and making it clear to the rest of Chinese civilization, which actually, I think Bai Zhang, didn't he die at 14? Is that when he died?

[35:44]

Well, we can find out. We have a chart. Anyway, right around the time of Bajang, I think shortly after he died, so one of Bajang's disciples, right? Is that right? It is sort of, well, that's a story we tell. And then, And then one of Guishan's contemporaries is Dongshan. And Guishan's disciple is Yangshan. Guishan and Dongshan were contemporaries, although Guishan's older than Dongshan. And during Dongshan's life, there was a severe repression of the Buddhist tradition in China. And during that time, We had to play kind of low profile. We don't know exactly what he was doing. Do you know what he was doing during that time? He would be low profile for a few years there.

[36:50]

But before this happened, it wasn't like the Buddhist and the Zen people changed their story after the suppression. Because part of the suppression was accusing, challenging the Buddhist tradition as being antinomian, which means against the law. Part of the criticism was, these people think that they can transcend the law. So that's the interpretation of saying the people don't fall into cause and effect. Enlightened people don't fall into the law. That can be understood as they don't care about the law. So this would be one of the justifications to suppress Buddhism. But Bajang made the case already before the suppression. So that's part of why the same tradition comes back after the suppression, still emphasizing the importance of meditating on cause and effect.

[37:58]

That we take, we receive cause and effect with deep respect, with deep sincerity. I did not use the word serious there. I'm not saying we're not serious about it, but we've got to be careful not to receive cause and effect too seriously. As Suzuki Rishi said, cause and effect is much too important to be taken seriously. So we have to find this balance And that's what I'm bringing this case up for. And now the next part of the story is part of the balancing is that Wong Bo comes in after this interaction and funeral ceremony and hears the teacher. He apparently wasn't in the hall when this happened, when the old man was there.

[39:06]

Or if he was, he for some reason or other was busy doing other things. So anyway, after he hears the story, then he slaps the teacher. And there is a precept against slapping teachers. You're not supposed to slap teachers. You're supposed to bow to teachers, not slap. And the teacher says, here we have a real master. He's not saying, here we have another wild fox? Well, he says, this interesting translation is, he says, I knew foxes had red beards. In other words, I knew foxes could be... The red-bearded barbarian is Bodhidharma. So the usual translation is, I knew that barbarians had red beards, but now here we have a red-bearded barbarian.

[40:16]

The original translation changed it to foxes, which is... Yes, they do. Or this red foxes do. Silver foxes have silver beards. Usually. So you're talking about a win-win situation that you can't see in 500 lifetimes. I'm talking about a win-win situation, yes, and I'm also talking about a lose-lose situation. Lose-lose situations. You make the wrong answer, you get punished. There's that lose-lose situation. But when your understanding changes, it changes from lose-lose to win-win. And the lose switching to win-win doesn't just apply to the present, but to the past and future.

[41:21]

So this practice is about changing your past. The practice of understanding cause and effect changes your past. And not just your past, everybody's past. Usually people are interested in how do you work with the present to change the future? Yeah, that's important. So now we have global warming to deal with, right? What do we do to change the future? What do we do to change the future? How can we be able to change the past? How do we change the past? We change the past by understanding clearly cause and effect.

[42:30]

We must understand now clearly the cause and effect right now. We must look at that. the cause and effect around global warming, but everything else too. So this should, this, the greatly cultivated person will be studying the causes and conditions right now, and that's how they will change the past and change the future. Not how they will, but how that understanding will. How, and again, there's one understanding is that nirvana, that the greatly cultivated person attains nirvana. And nirvana means you don't fall into cause and effect. But another understanding is that nirvana is not in the realm of cause and effect. It's not that when you're in nirvana you don't fall into being concerned about precepts of ethical conduct, that you're free of that.

[43:35]

But rather you work out nirvana. ethical precepts. But you don't do it in a one-sided way. And it's very difficult not to be one-sided these days, as it always has been. Is that the same as understanding the dependent core arising? Pretty much the same, yeah. So the Buddha's was an enlightenment of understanding the cause and the story, the dependent core arising, the causes and conditions of suffering, and understanding, therefore, the causes and conditions of liberation from suffering and the attainment of nirvana.

[44:40]

But part of our ongoing struggle is to have a balanced understanding of what freedom in the midst of causes and conditions means and what is falling into cause and effect. What is that? And is there ever any falling into cause and effect? The introduction says, has there ever been anyone who mistakenly transgressed? This is kind of a difficult question, right? Your mind probably goes, well, yeah, I can think of some examples of someone who mistakenly transgressed. Even I have mistakenly transgressed, not to mention those guys. But did they really mistakenly transgress? Does the universe make people make mistakes and transgress?

[45:45]

Is that an actuality? What is actuality? Or is it actuality that people appear to make mistakes and get punished, and people appear to not make mistakes and get rewarded, and that those two are totally inseparable? It's not just there, it might be everybody's idea. Everybody might see, this person made a mistake and they're suffering. This person didn't make a mistake and they're not suffering. But who can see, who can see that these two falling, as it says here, over and over again, falling, not obscuring, It doesn't say falling, not falling, although there's that too.

[46:47]

Falling, not obscuring. Because to say does fall isn't quite right either. Not falling was the answer, the right answer that liberated the fox. Falling was the answer that made the fox. Falling, not falling, two sides of the same coin. Excuse me. Falling. No. Not falling. Not obscuring. Not falling. Not obscuring. Two sides of the same coin. Not obscuring. Not falling. A thousand entanglements. Ten thousand entanglements. When we meditate on the non-duality of the right answer and the wrong answer, of the entrapping answer and the liberating answer, when we meditate on the non-duality of that, then I say to you now that we work out that non-duality as an effect.

[48:01]

If we realize non-duality, we work it out in the hard, we work it out with our cars. And, you know, and is a Prius the right answer? You know? We work it out in cause and effect. We work out Nirvana in cause and effect. We work out Nirvana, we test Nirvana in 500 lifetimes as a fox. or one life right now anyway, we work it out. So now I'm saying that I think it's time for lunch. Can I say that? I think it's time for lunch. And I would like to talk to you about this more towards the end of the day. after you've realized non-duality.

[49:04]

Or, if some of you turn into foxes, we'll... we'll... we'll liberate you. Right? Is that okay? Can we stop for lunch? Can we have a lunch break? There will be effects. What? There will be effects. There will be consequences of stopping. and then we'll check out whether... May our intention equally stand to every being and place.

[49:52]

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