Today is the third day of Sesshin for most of us. But for some people, it's the first day. So I'd like to talk a little bit about Shin Shin Ming, which Sojin Sensei has been talking about. And for those of you who just joined us, I'll review just a little bit. The Shinshin Ming is a famous poem by the third ancestor, Kanchi Sosan, and it goes something like this. The ultimate path is without difficulty. Just avoid picking and choosing. Just don't love or hate, and you'll be lucid and clear. Yesterday, we discussed the koan in the Blue Cliff Record, Case 2, where a monk questions Joshu about this poem.

[01:09]

This was apparently one of Joshu's favorite things, and he used to talk about it a lot. And there are actually a number of koans in the Blue Cliff Record in which monks are questioning Joshu. about this particular poem. So in yesterday's case, Joshu says, the ultimate way is not difficult. It's just a porous choice and attachment, or just don't avoid picking and choosing. Those are the two main translations of it. As soon as you say something, a choice and attachment arise, and clarity arises. This old monk does not abide in clarity. Since this old monk does not abide in clarity, is there anything to preserve or not?

[02:15]

So the monk says, since you don't abide in clarity, what do you preserve? And Joshu says, I don't know either. The monk says, since you don't know, Why do you say you don't abide in clarity? This is a very clever monk, and Joshu says, enough already. It's time for you to bow and leave. In today's case, another monk, or perhaps the same monk, is asking Joshu again. And this time, The monk asked Joshu, the ultimate path has no difficulties, just avoid picking and choosing. As soon as there are words, there's picking and choosing. So, teacher, how can you help people? Joshu said, why don't you quote it to the end?

[03:20]

The monk said, this is all I remember. Joshu said, It's just this. The ultimate path has no difficulties. Just avoid picking and choosing." He didn't tell him the rest of it. He wasn't ready for the rest of it. Just this. The ultimate path has no difficulties. Just avoid picking and choosing. So, to explain, I'll tell you another story. And this is a story about Ungan, Ungan Donjo, who was Tozan's teacher. So you heard a lot about Tozan in this practice period, and he's one of the very most famous teachers that we study. But his teacher, Ungan, is not so well known, as far as I know.

[04:26]

Ungan studied with Hyakujo, who was also a very famous teacher, and about whom there are lots of great stories. He studied with Hyakujo for 20 years, without success, it says in the story, without getting enlightened. And after that, he went to visit Yakusan, And we also chant every morning, Yaksanigan. Now, at that time, as you know, it was common for monks to travel around and visit many teachers to clarify their understanding. I don't know why, after 20 years, Bungan finally decided to check on another teacher.

[05:33]

But he went to see Yaksan. And Yaksan asked him where he'd come from. And he said, I've come from Yakujo. So Yaksan said, well, what's old Yakujo teaching his students these days? Now, of course, News travels fast and teachers can read each other's taisho written in books and in the newspapers. But although Kyakujo and Yaksun probably knew each other, they certainly didn't get a chance to see each other. And they got word through students that went back and forth what the other was teaching. So what's Yakujo saying to his students? So Ungan said, well, he often says, I have a saying which contains all flavors.

[06:40]

Ungan clearly didn't understand this, but he quoted it exactly. So Yaksan asked him a question, tried to help him understand. He said, salt is salty. Plain water is bland. What is neither salty nor bland is the constant flavor. What is the same that contains all flavors?" Ungan had no reply. Yeoksan said, what can you do about the birth and death before your eyes? Ungan said, There's no birth and death before my eyes." Yak-San said, how long were you with Hyakujo? And Gan said, 20 years. Yak-San said, you were with Hyakujo for 20 years and your mundanity is still not gone.

[07:46]

What in the world are you doing there for 20 years? He was quite amazed. 20 years. But Yaksan didn't give up on Ungan. He kept asking questions. He didn't give him a lot of lectures, didn't tell him a lot of stuff. Just kept asking him questions about what else Yakujo was teaching. And each time, Ungan would quote exactly what his teacher had taught him. And each time, the Aksan found that Rangan didn't really get it, didn't really understand. Finally, he said, in this series of questions, is there anything else, anything you haven't told me about, that Hyakujo is teaching?

[08:59]

And Rangan said, One day, Hyakujo came into the hall to give a talk, and all the students were ready and standing around. And he dispersed them with his staff, told them to leave. And just as everyone had turned to leave, he called to them and said, what is it? Yaksan said, why didn't you say so before? Today, through you, I've been able to see Brother Hyakujo. At these words, Bungan was greatly enlightened. study for 20 years with Yakujo.

[10:06]

And he didn't get enlightened. He was still confused. But there was great clarity in his confusion. When he went to see Yakusen, he didn't say, well, I've been studying for 20 years and this is what I learned. He didn't add anything. He didn't take anything away. He just quoted it to the end. And he must have quoted it very accurately because Yak-san was able to see very clearly Kyakujo's meaning. It woke him up. over again, completely fresh. And seeing that, Unangan was greatly enlightened.

[11:10]

Those 20 years, where he didn't quite get it, were not entirely wasted. For some reason, he didn't understand completely. But he knew enough not to get in the way of the teaching. And he's very honest. When Yaksan questions him, he answers very honestly. He doesn't make up some fancy story. He doesn't start asking, questioning Yaksan's understanding. He just says, there's no birth and death in front of me. I don't see it. No artifice. No arrogance. So I like the story of Ungan because it's very simple.

[12:17]

And it's a very good example for us of somebody not so flashy, somebody who works very hard. According to the story, Ungan wasn't fooling around with the village maidens going over the wall. He wasn't wasting his time. He wasn't giving Hyakujo a hard time. He was practicing very sincerely. He just didn't happen to get enlightened in those 20 years. In our day, it's also quite common for students to go and visit various teachers. And it's much easier for us to do that. We don't have to travel long distances through dangerous mountains on foot, risking our life.

[13:28]

Right here in the Bay Area, we can just get on the bus and go visit many teachers, Zen teachers and teachers of other wonderful things. But more often than not, we go with the mind of picking and choosing. rather than, we may think we're going to clarify our understanding, but very often we haven't learned anything all the way through. So if another teacher should ask us, what's Abbott Weitzman teaching? could probably say only a piece of it.

[14:33]

We probably couldn't quote it to the end. We don't want to quote it to the end because our democratic mind likes to pick and choose, feels we have a right to pick and choose, and we have very good reasons to pick and choose. If we are going to go to study something academic, we would go to a university that has a good reputation in that subject. If you want to study science, you go to the place where good research is being done, where there are good facilities, good laboratories, well-known researchers. And we... may carry that attitude into our search for spiritual teacher.

[15:40]

And this is the worst kind of picking and choosing. It's very dangerous. So we'll hear about a teacher, or maybe get a chance to hear somebody give a lecture, promote their book, And they sound quite wonderful. And the thing that bugged us most, the thing we're having the most trouble with in our practice, they have a different, this other teacher has a different view of it. I think I'll go study with so-and-so. And by gosh, they don't give you the same problem, not right away. If you stay long enough and the teacher's any good at all, they'll give you the same problem. It may be a different flavor. It may come with a different schedule or in a different translation.

[16:44]

But it's pretty hard to escape our problem when the problem is picking and choosing. Yakson was a very skilled teacher. He brought forth the understanding from out of the student. It was always there, just as it's always there in all of us. He didn't put something in. absorbing Gyakujo's teaching, he'd maybe gotten a little stuck in the words.

[17:54]

So Gyakusan keeps asking him, asking him, having him tell all the stories, all the sayings, questioning him carefully about each one, What is it that you know? Exactly what is it that you know? And then he sees very clearly where it is the student is and shows him just exactly where he is. But of course teacher can't show us exactly who we are. exactly where we are, unless we cooperate, at least a little bit. So Ungan brought with him all the ingredients.

[19:05]

He laid them out on the table, and Yaksan helped him combine them, turned up the fire to cook them into something wonderful. Ungan hadn't polluted the ingredients. He hadn't added anything to spoil them. And he hadn't left anything out. That would be a good lesson to Joshu student who could only remember the first two lines. The ultimate path is without difficulty. Just avoid picking and choosing. Just don't love or hate and you'll be lucid and clear.

[20:12]

Just don't love or hate, and you'll be lucid and clear. Sojin Sensei talked a lot about love yesterday. Love and hate are very much part of our practice with teachers. This was probably true for the students in former times as well. because of our familiarity, our informality with our teachers. This becomes a very big problem for us because we have the opportunity to work together and socialize together and run the Zen Center together in a very democratic kind of way. We have an opportunity to know our teacher more completely and at the same time to have a great deal of material from which to pick and choose what we like or what we don't like.

[21:41]

And in our picking and choosing we cut ourself off from the ultimate path. we may find that our teacher, like other human beings, has some fault, or that the way the teaching is being transmitted to us is in some way flawed. You don't abide in clarity? So what is it you're teaching here? You don't know? What do you mean you don't know? So we may use that as an excuse for not getting to the bottom of it ourself. You see in these koans how hard it is often for the student to really bow to the teacher.

[22:51]

The student's always trying to find the whole in the teacher's understanding. And there's nothing wrong with that per se. Very important to know the limits. But the limits it's important to know are the limits of our own understanding. So it doesn't really matter if our teacher's understanding is complete. What matters the most is our commitment. Is that complete? Is it limited by love or hate? And love and hate being two sides of the coin,

[23:54]

can be equally limiting. If we love the teacher, if we think they're just the most wonderful person that we ever met, and we just love everything about them, sooner or later that person will disappoint us. Particularly if we like the teacher's personality. This can be a big trap. It's just as big a trap as when it turns around and a teacher does something we don't like, offends us in some way, and we hate him. Same trap. And of course, when you work closely with somebody, as one does with a teacher, love and hate, attraction and aversion, are bound to arise.

[25:12]

It's just natural that those feelings will arise. If we look really honestly, we'll see all those feelings. So there's nothing wrong with whatever feelings arise. As long as we don't believe in them, identify with them, act on them, and limit our own practice by feelings that arise in the moment. It's just like in Sachine, many feelings arise and we have many thoughts and we see in a very intense way things that we like, things that we don't like.

[26:25]

we sit in great pain, but that may not be the main source of our suffering. If we identify with the body, physical pain may be a great source of suffering. But in Zen, suffering is not understanding how it is, not seeing birth and death in front of your eyes. If birth and death are not a problem for you, you're not awake. So when you sit here, and the time seems endless, and the pain won't stop, What do you do?

[27:37]

I once said to my teacher, this pain is so terrible, I think I'll die. And he said, that would be OK. I've always had a very hard time with Sashin. I've always had a very hard time with physical pain. And I used to think that Sashin was a very artificial situation. Actually, I remember sometime early in my practice,

[28:41]

A friend I'd been at Tassajara with wrote me a letter and said she'd just had a baby. And she said, it was just like Sashin. Labor is just like Sashin, except at the end you get something. And I found when I had my first baby that she was right. But what struck me was not what I got. at the end. What struck me was the middle stage where I just wanted out of it, where the pain was so intense that I didn't think I could stand it, where I was so afraid of being overwhelmed by it. It was like being at the ocean and walking in the surf, and all of a sudden a big wave comes and knocks you flat to the bottom.

[29:47]

And what do you do? If you panic in that situation, you're very likely to drown. And when I was in labor, I was struck by that incredible wave And I knew that what I had to do was be perfectly still. Perfectly still. There was no exit. There was no comfortable place. There was no comfortable position. And that was very familiar to me. And I was very grateful for the sasheens I had sat, where I didn't learn anything. where all I got was painful legs. And there are many points in our life that are like that.

[30:58]

There are times of suffering and confusion where life is like the third day of Sashin weeks or maybe months at a time. So in many ways, Sashin really isn't different from the rest of our life. It just has a frame around it, a boundary, so we can See it more clearly. The extra stuff is cropped out of the picture. And the main subject is greatly enlarged, magnified. We can see all the details very clearly.

[32:03]

We may not like what we see. What we see may be golden and beautiful. If we get caught on either side, either picking and choosing or abiding in clarity, then we're in great danger. what the teacher says, we're more likely to remember it. We don't like it. It may be hard to keep it straight. Rangan studied with Hyakujo for 20 years. And when Yaksan said to him, what have you been doing there for 20 years?

[33:13]

He didn't say, well, you know, Hyakujo's not a very good teacher, actually. You know, he does these weird things. He assembles people, and then he disperses them, and then he calls them back. And, you know, he really didn't help me very much. And then there were the other students there. There was this guy, Obaku. He was a really kind of a smart character. And I think Yakujo really liked him better than he liked me. And maybe that's why I didn't learn anything. I didn't get any of that from him. Just quotes it to the end. Allows Yaksan to expose his ignorance. It took him over 20 years, but he finally got it.

[34:16]

We don't know how long it will take us. maybe 20 years, maybe 20 minutes. In the end, it's all the same. We all want to get enlightened, or a lot of us do anyway, but you see that Yak-San wasn't satisfied with his own enlightenment. He had to pass it on. He had to light the light for someone else. Not so that he would look good. He didn't take the credit. He didn't say, see, Yak Joe worked with this guy for 20 years, didn't teach him a thing. I worked with him for however long and turned the light right on.

[35:21]

He didn't take the credit. There's an earlier story about Yakson's teacher in which he had a similar experience. His first teacher didn't get through to him, the second teacher did, and the second teacher said, it was really the first teacher that did it. You're really his student. This is the way of good teachers and good students. to rejoice in someone else's understanding, to do everything we can to help someone else without expecting anything in return, without expecting praise or giving blame.

[36:24]

This is pretty hard to do, especially in our society which is so competitive. We are likely to be competitive. In our society which is so acquisitive, we are likely to be greedy about the teaching. So we have a lot to overcome. But like the students in Ngan's time, in Joshu's time, we have all the ingredients. All the ingredients are right here. And each of us is cooking in our own way.

[37:32]

at our own speed, at our own temperature. Some of us may be a custard needing a long, slow bake. Others may be a steak needing a fast, hot fire. It's not up to the teacher to figure out what we need. Teacher tests to see if we're done. But it's up to us to know ourselves. If the fire's not hot enough right here, move in a little closer.

[38:36]

Sometimes it may be appropriate to visit another teacher, to visit another practice place, to clarify our understanding or to clarify our question. When I first found myself really engaged as a student with a teacher, I was quite surprised. It wasn't quite what I'd expected. I don't know what I'd expected, but somehow, although undeniably I was learning something, the process was quite difficult. And although I thought it was going pretty well, I thought it was important to get a second opinion.

[40:03]

So I approached another teacher and described my practice and my relationship with my teacher. And he said, you seem to be on the right track. Please continue. The teacher I consulted had a reputation for being quite stern and critical, so I was I'm surprised by his response. So I asked a couple of other people who were very different, and they said the same thing. You seem to be on the right track. Please continue. And I continued working in that way for quite a long time with that encouragement. And at some point, I had a problem and I thought that perhaps I knew more than my teacher or that my teacher didn't understand me very well.

[41:21]

And I felt that I'd done the best I could with it and had reached an impasse. So again, I went to consult with another teacher to get another opinion. And I specifically sought out a teacher who, from what I knew, was likely to agree with my position. But I was lucky. The teacher said, It sounds like you're having some difficulty. It sounds like You and your teacher are having some difficulty and I don't want to contribute to his problem. Please work it out with him. I'll be happy to see you anytime.

[42:30]

I like working with good students like you, but don't ever complain to me about Mel." So I was very fortunate, both times, to get sent home with some good advice. Once I met a teacher who asked what was going on in Berkeley. And it was a time of great ferment here. And I described it a little bit. And he said, oh, if things don't work out, you can come study with me. So I never trusted that person very much.

[43:42]

We are all teachers and students here to serve the Dharma, to serve it and to serve it up, to be vessels for the truth. If you want to swim in the ocean, you need to be prepared for the waves, for the rocks at the bottom, for the salty taste in your mouth. Maybe you thought you wanted to be a surfer. Maybe at the beginning of Sashin, you thought you wanted to be a surfer. You're lucky to keep your head above water.

[44:54]

You're just treading water. That's okay. But to dive to the bottom, explore the rocky bottom where the dragons live, that also may be necessary. When Ngan finally got enlightened, the conditions were finally right. Yaksan didn't do it. Moongan didn't do it.

[45:54]

Although we work very hard and try to create the right conditions, the ultimate conditions are not in our control, like birth and death. The ultimate conditions for awakening are not in our control. Not picking and choosing. Not abiding in clarity. The best we can do just not to impede the process. Just sitting.

[46:58]

This is our stable, upright, immobile posture. Not picking and choosing. not abiding in clarity.

[47:19]

@Text_v004
@Score_JJ