If anyone qualifies for number one Zen master, it must be Vassa. He's not a founder like the Sixth Patriarch, of course, if he existed, but he seems to have been such a great and strong teacher that Everybody, the whole Zen tradition is influenced by him. He died maybe around 79 years old, I think, and he left something like 80 heirs, which is something phenomenal. It takes as much out of the teacher as it takes from the disciple. So, usually a person has one or two or three or four or five, if he's very good, heirs, but to have 80. Now, I don't know exactly how many. Nanaka is his number one descendant. I don't know how many exactly

[01:29]

He may have had many, many students, many more students than 80. Some teachers had several thousand students. Sometimes all at once they'd have one or two thousand students. But descendants, the small group of people who stay a long time and are sometimes partially acknowledged or completely acknowledged. Anyway, they carry his tradition. So Baso must have been, you know, he was sick in his monastery, and it must have been some great heavy feeling for everyone there. And so he's sick. Actually, he died the next day, I think, after this story occurred. And the treasurer came to see him. Some stories say the head monk and some say the treasurer. Most say the treasurer. And they make something of it, like the treasurer was calculating the expenses of the funeral or something like that. I don't think so. Maybe Basel was a little worried about it, but I don't think the treasurer would worry.

[03:04]

Anyway, supposedly the treasurer came too. He'd be one of the two or three or four head monks in the monastery. He came to see Vassa and said, how are you feeling today? How is your health today? And Vassa said, sun-faced Buddhas, moon-faced Buddhas. This is a much more inexplicable statement than you probably think. When I discussed this with the city practice period, someone said, I don't think anyone would actually say such a thing. It's a quite unusual statement.

[04:09]

But sometimes you do say something like that, especially if you feel that the person is able to hear. And he didn't mean something like, well, you know, whether I'm sick or well, it's all right. That's not what he meant. You know, good times or bad times are okay. He didn't mean that. And then there's various explanations, you know, like sometimes you're supposed to be able to see in your teacher the eye of meditation and the eye of entering the world. So one eye is open. So some people interpret it means something like that. sun-faced and moon-faced, inner and outer or something. Supposedly, I don't know how they know this, but anyway, supposedly, a few months before, a, I think what was a new translation at the time, of a sutra, which named 11,293 or 11,093

[05:46]

Anyway, more than 11,000 names of Buddha. And all the names were different. No name is repeated. And in that book, it refers to two Buddhas. One, the sun-faced Buddha, who lives for 1,800 years, and the moon-faced Buddha, who lives only for one day and one night. So it's thought that Vassa was referring to this came to mind. So when he's asked, how do you feel? He says, sun-faced Buddhist, moon-faced Buddhist. Setsho says in his poem, I waited 20 years to find out how to respond to this line, sun-faced buddhas, moon-faced buddhas. And sun-faced buddhas, moon-faced buddhas,

[07:17]

1800 years, or one day and one night, are equally Buddha. One instant of Buddha, or one kelpa of Buddha, is exactly the same. But even intellectually, we don't quite believe that. So what realm is such a thing true? In Buddhism we call this the realm of great activity, which we see, as I said last night, when our eye is open. But how to teach this?

[08:25]

say anything about it. Though you may know it's quite true, how to say something about it when you know that is the problem of Zen. So he just said sun-faced Buddhas and moon-faced Buddhas. It has no reference to whether he's sick or well. It means... There's no comparison. Just this moment is... includes everything. So what is this realm of great activity which is before us? To teach something, we set up zendos at the Green Gelt, Tassara in San Francisco, and we have various ways of acting, practicing, and doing zazen.

[10:12]

And there are many ways of teaching. So Engo, in his introduction, says something about this. He says, one gesture, one word, one verse. We must use something to give access but this is like gouging out holes in good flesh." Then he says, the great activity is always before us but without any trace. If you try to teach or demonstrate this great activity for everyone in heaven and earth your effort will be wasted." Then he says, yes is right, no is right. Everything is Buddha's merciful way. Then he says,

[11:45]

Yes is wrong. No is wrong. Everything is dangerous and unapproachable. How not to get lost? Think deeply about this. and consider the following." Then he stayed. Attention. The treasurer of the monastery came to see Vaso, who was unwell. How are you feeling today? So, Engo is listing here. Now, if you know much about other forms of Buddhism, Tendai school and Shingon or Tantric school, Tendai is teaching school.

[13:22]

you'll see quite a worked out system for how you teach Buddhism. And Zen, we don't have such a worked out system that we that's laid out as a kind of path. But a story like this does present what has been worked out as a kind of system in Zen. How we find ourselves trying to give access

[14:27]

And it's not spelled out, it's only in the most indirect way referred to. So you have to be quite familiar with Zen before you can make sense of what Engo is trying to introduce you to. And since these kinds of things are not in books, you know, you have to have gotten a feeling for it from your teacher. So your teacher will give you some background. And by living together, you have more and more feeling for what must be going on. So I'll try to give you some feeling for what's going on. He begins by saying one gesture one word, one symbol. And this, he says, one gesture, one word, we must use anything available to find access. This means both you must and the teacher must give you some help.

[16:03]

So, one gesture means like raising the eyebrows or turning down the corners of the mouth or some noise. And this kind of thing, again, is not you know, not some mental symbol we've worked out, you know, that Zen tradition has worked out, but rather just what you find yourself doing naturally or in response to somebody you may turn your mouth down. So, but because we are rather that I'm reminded of the Sanskrit word, ritual, which covers all action. They don't have the idea that some are natural actions and some are ritual actions, as I've pointed out to you before. But that if you're conscious, every action communicates something. There's no action which doesn't communicate something.

[17:43]

So if so, everything you do is ritual, not in that it's planned, but in that it communicates something. So you can understand everything as a mudra, everything as communicating something, no matter what you do. So everything is a mudra, because you're conscious of its communication, not because it's some particular form, or because any form is mudra. It's mudra because you're conscious of its communication. So, because of that, you know, we may notice that, or you may notice that when you do something, your teacher may make some face at you or something. He's not thinking, I'm going to communicate something and make a face. You do something, so he makes a face. You know, like a baby. But we know that when we do that, it means something. So, he says, one gesture, you know, which means something like raising the eyebrows. You may find that with some people, when you look at them, you raise your eyebrows, or blink, and with some people you don't.

[19:14]

And why you don't do is something subtle. Doesn't mean you have to go around watching everybody to see what they're going to do. Because it's, as I'm trying to say, it's not at the level of your watching. It's the level of just intuitive activity. So you also don't have to worry about whether it communicates or teaches because you didn't intend it to teach. There was no intention behind it. Someone, you know, you poke a baby and it does something. It had no intention to teach you anything. So it doesn't care whether you understood or not exactly. But probably there's some understanding because you poked it. So it makes a face. So then one word means some objective. First something like raising your eyebrow. These are just symbols for Zen. Raising your whisk raising your eyebrow And so this is some tradition in Zen about this kind of thing So one means Subjective and one means objective if you're pointing out pointing out the moon pointing to a flower Raising your whisk Something like that is more

[20:43]

pointing out circumstances. Someone says something and you point to a tree. So these are two ways of teaching. So this is what he refers to first, two ways of teaching. And it's very much like Rinzai's taking away subject or taking away object. So if a person is caught by objective distinctions or world, you give him some, your instinctive response is to return to your subjective self. So if he is caught by some subjective, you point out something objective. So this is Rinzai's.

[21:45]

Sometimes I take the person away and leave the circumstances. Sometimes I take the circumstances away and leave the person. Sometimes I take both away. Sometimes I take neither away. This is just what Rinzai did. Afterwards, his disciples said, why he did this, and we call it four positions. Actually, he just did it, you know, and his students noticed he did it. But it becomes a system, you know, later. But a good teacher really doesn't have any system. He just does what he does. But when we notice how we are responding, you can explain it by some system. But it's not motivated by a system. So, but when you take away something from a person if he's subjective. You take away subjectivity. That's rather painful, you know. And it's sort of incomplete way of doing something. So it's like gouging out holes in good flesh. And it's also like Tozan's five positions.

[23:14]

And all these things refer to someone who's already practicing, not to a completely uninformed person. So the first position isn't you before you start practicing, but you when you start practicing, and you've already had some recognition of host or absolute, and it's beginning to take over. And in the verse, You know, the last two lines are something like of the first position of Tozan. The last two lines are something, but I still have some yearning for the beautiful days. And though you're not losing anything, your history remains the same, but the hope is, the hope in your history is gone.

[24:16]

So you have, maybe for a while, at this stage of practice, some painful sadness, because for 20 or 30 years you wanted something, but suddenly you find that you no longer want it, and it seems rather... not painful, rather beautiful, that that's what makes the world go around, or something. You know, you hear an old song, and you think, God, it means nothing to you anymore, but at one time, it meant a great deal. But now, everything you see, you look back as some poignant, on some poignant stranger, who used to have various yearnings, and how beautiful those yearnings are in retrospect. So I shouldn't explain quite so much, perhaps, but I'm trying to give you some feeling. What I'm saying is not exactly right. So then he says, the great

[25:47]

activity is always before us, and leaves no traces. And if you try to demonstrate it, it will be futile. this tells you something, you know, that this, which we call great activity, is inexpressible. There's no way you can make an expression of it. It exists at one with everything, but solely your own private immediately appearing reality. This corresponds to circle, circle number five of Tozan's five positions.

[27:26]

Chosan's five positions are a kind of Huayen philosophy, you know, of totality and interpenetration, mutual interpenetration, integration, the simultaneity of worlds, expressed from your experiential point of view. And five is this sun-faced Buddha, moon-faced Buddha, but it's not even a circle. There's no approach to it. But 1, 2, 3, and 4 we can understand some way. You don't know what these circles are, most of you, do you? So I... I don't think you need to know. You'll have some sense from what I'm saying. Earlier, they're based on if we draw a circle, just a plain circle,

[28:38]

It's the absolute. If we color it in, it's relative. And the combination would be some realization of the oneness of absolute and relative. And you could make another circle then, which is beyond any of those. which would be in Tozan's System No. 5. So this kind of story is referring, by each word or each little section, to this kind of system which may be not so useful for you. I remember Suzuki Roshi was rather worried if you get involved in this kind of story, like in the Blue Cliff Records, you may lose your own way and try to think that Reality is something like the Blue Cliff Records story. But, you know, it must be your own way, not the Blue Cliff Records. But when you find yourself becoming conscious of your own way,

[30:08]

you will find some problems occur which you can, because you are you yourself, you can't, you know, imagine the problem. It's like, how does your eye see your eye? So how does you, you who is experiencing, experience your experience itself? So in order to give you some clue, Zen has established these things. So partly I'm trying to explain this. So, because you're studying Zen, you should know something about the background of such a story, and not just think it's some charming poem. It's a rather complicated theological document. But it's just saying, sun-faced Buddhas, moon-faced Buddhas, with no theology at all. important Zen story, one of the most important things. So the first circle

[31:49]

First position of Tozan is when you have had some recognition of the unreality of your distracted mind, that you are pushed this way and that way, that this world is transient. When you've had that kind of recognition and you no longer want to be, can be caught by your moods and tempers and etc. You try to find something more absolute or something deeper. That's your practical experience. So that seeking the absolute and when we say absolute we don't mean it's the only thing which exists. There's also what is not absolute. It's not a kind of exhausted description of reality. It just means we seek something absolute. And this is called the host position. When you are trying to reside in that state of mind, which is there before and after and through and through and between, among your mental events and physical events. And I don't mean something up here.

[33:17]

You need something everywhere. And you may come to some actual thing that you can almost say you have experienced it. But your experience of it is to lose it. But in Zazen you may have something that you remember. Many times, probably. And something translucent. Something clear and uncontaminated by the forms it takes. This form we give it is rather because we give things form, not because it has any form, but we give it some form. So initially a good Zen student is rather always in the host position, not so caught by this and that. You know, most religions are concerned with this recognition of God or the Absolute, And this is Zen's way of recognizing that urgency, and giving it as little a name as possible. Because the more name you give it, and the more you try to then relate to it, the more you create yourself in a dependent baby position, and psychological dependence on this. It's some seeking of security. And from Zen,

[34:48]

point of view, most religions end at this point. You take then the Absolute or God as your guide and protector and resource, and He is always helping you. But if you are really challenged, or in any or all of the adverse circumstances of life, This won't help you. You won't be completely free acting agent knowing your God yourself. Being the center of creativity yourself, not only able to survive adverse circumstances which is maybe relatively unimportant, but able to actually manifest the great activity by which everything has its own nature. So, Tozan goes on. Next step is also common to most religions, though, is submission. It's knowing that having a sense of the Absolute, you find there's no approach to it except to submit yourself to circumstances.

[36:18]

to your teacher, to your tradition, to your lineage, to your practice, to the responsibilities of your life. You don't know any more what the absolute is. Mountains are no longer mountains. You are just concerned with detail. But, you know, the details are quite clear, and you can act on them, you know, without a lot of emotional fuss. And third circle is usually portrayed as

[37:21]

a circle with a black dot in the center. And it's called the resurgence of the real or coming again of the absolute. And you begin to now find the absolute in everything you do. There's no need to have host position or some refraining from contaminating activity. There is no need to be frightened by your distracted mind. Your distracted mind itself is the absolute. But you can say that, but that's not true for most of you. When you're angry, you don't feel that's Buddha, or something you like. You dislike it. But at this stage, it's not a philosophical question. You actually find your distracted, angry mind is the Absolute. And there's a different quality to your distracted, angry mind

[38:23]

because you're no longer caught by any one position. This can sometimes be drawn also as everything black in a white circle in the middle, which is more like you're a little afraid Everything is relative, but the absolute is there. So the next circle is just a plain circle. The first one, you know, has some black circle, but the black is getting bigger, and it curves like that,

[39:24]

Moon. The next circle is much clearer. The white part is getting bigger. The black part is getting smaller. So it suggests some shift or submission. First is called shift or recognition of the Absolute and your acquaintance with the Absolute. And the second is your submission to the relative. Then the circle with a little dot in it. And the secret of these, it's a kind of secret, of these circles are part of your lineage and transmission ceremony, the explanation of this. But in the final ceremony or initiation, there's no longer any explanation. No explanation should be necessary. But some acknowledgment of how we teach is there. How we express our nature with everyone. So next circle is just plain circle.

[40:58]

And it means two swords meet, or two arrows meet in the air, or two mirrors exactly reflect everything. Form and emptiness, and emptiness and form are one. You can also relate this to form and emptiness emptiness is formed, etc. Which are actual ways we practice, again, some philosophy? Some exciting way we practice and live. Exciting because it moves us deeply and realizes us, brings us into existence in a way we couldn't have imagined. But the last circle is all black, utter darkness. Maybe the preceding circle is great light,

[42:27]

Last circle is utter darkness, actually has no boundaries, no form exists in it. This is called host in host, or emptiness is emptiness. This is like, not like two mirrors held up reflecting each other, but a mirror which you look into and you see everything all at once. This is sun-faced Buddhism, face-to-face. Circle four is when the gentle rain of the Dharma is everywhere, without any effort.

[43:29]

So in this way, Zen teachers traditionally have tried to show their disciples where they get caught. Like you suggested yesterday, some stage of getting caught like that, there's some antidote. So he says, we may use some gesture or some word some pointing out or some symbol. But it's like drilling holes, making caves in good flesh. What are you really to do with the great activity which is always before us and without any trace? If there's no trace, how do you approach it? So then he said, also there is the yes... Yes is right, no is right. This is called the granting way.

[45:09]

in which you, in everything you see, incarnate Buddha. This is another way of teaching. This is Buddha, this is Buddha, you are Buddha, etc. It's safe. Also, Pure Land Buddhism is mostly this way. What was that song you heard? Just Call My Name. Just Call My Name. Do you know that song? Just Call My Name. Wherever you are, just call my name and I'll be there. Who is the singer? Carol King. Carol King? And uh... Someone else was singing it. James Jarrett. James Jarrett, thank you. I'm completely dependent on him for everything. Anyway, what interested me about the song, which I'd never really heard before, is how pure it is. He never messes... whoever wrote it, Carol King wrote it, she never messes it up with anything like I Love You or... things are good or bad, or some kind of statement, it's very, just call, spring, summer, winter, fall, just call my name and I'll be there. It's exactly like Pure Land Buddhism. It's true. Namo Amida Butsu. No matter what circumstance you're in, call the name of Amida Buddha. Namo Amida Butsu, Namo Amida Butsu, Namo Amida Butsu. This is to make everything incarnate Buddha.

[46:42]

And it's an actual practice for it. Every person you see, you recognize their host, Buddha. So, one practice you should be familiar with is making everything God or Buddha. The merciful reign of Buddha. Namo Buddha, Namo Buddha, Namo Buddha, And Avalokiteshvara too. When you need something, Avalokiteshvara will take any form that has 1,000 arms and 11 heads. And grasping way is, this is not right. Yes is not right. No is not right.

[47:48]

Everything is dangerous and unapproachable. Grasping means you grasp everything by its true nature. You can't grasp things by their conditioned aspects. Don't do that. Already you're perfect. Don't add anything. That's not Buddha. taking away. The granting way is taking away neither subject nor object, and grasping way is to take away subject and object. Grasping is not such a good word for us in English, but it means to know the Absolute But the point of Engo's introductory word is these two ways also are not adequate to understand Tozan's fifth position, utter darkness. There's no handhold in utter darkness. Sun-faced Buddhas, Moon-faced Buddhas. For one instant or one kelpa, it's exactly the same. Do you live in this realm?

[49:19]

Really, you can live in this realm where your hopes and fears are not stretched out over minutes or hours or outcomes, etc. it stops anyway. Setsho's poem is, in response to this, Sun-Faced Buddhas, Moon-Faced Buddhas, Three Honored Ones and Five Emperors. Of what value to us? Of what meaning to us? For twenty long years I searched for a response. Went for you, went down into the green dragon's mouth

[50:59]

into the green dragon cave for the jewel. Stooped and bent, stood up again, stooped and bent and stood up over and over. Clear-eyed monk Do not disregard these labors.

[51:32]

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