So this morning we did this meditation on seeing and hearing and sounds and shapes and colors and then on time talked a little bit about. So I want to continue, but are there any questions or comments on anything before we proceed? I was wondering if you could go more into how the Buddha only got 50% or Shakyamuni. Shakyamuni only got 50%. Yeah, that's stuck in my mind. I'm a little defensive about it. Why are you defensive about it? Because I don't really understand And what test are we taking anyway? Are we taking the same test? Yes, we're taking the same test. It's the test of suchness. It's the test of liberating all beings, entering all Dharma gates, ending all delusions, realizing the Buddha way.

[01:11]

In the Lotus Sutra, at some point, the Buddha announces that actually it seems like this text, this sutra that he gives us, his life is about to end. Well, there's a couple. There's also the Mahaparinirvana, which is But anyway, near the end of his life and he's going to pass away and he's concerned about who's going to keep this alive in the future. Anyway, he reveals that actually the time that Shakyamuni Buddha has been practicing since he became a Bodhisattva is this very, very, very, very long time. I mean, many, many, many kalpas. And he will continue in the future for twice that long. So it's not quite infinite or eternal, but a long time. But then there are various ways in which that's understood, and part of that is up to you.

[02:21]

So as I was talking about before, that you, as sons and daughters of Buddha, you are all responsible for keeping alive the Buddha way and the Buddha work and the life of Buddha. Here now. So Shakyamuni Buddha could only do 50%. So you don't need to be defensive, but just, you know. Here you are. Yeah, it can sound like there's something to get in all of that and putting down the Buddha and, you know, I wasn't putting down the Buddha. Yeah. Yeah. Till Maitreya. Yeah. Yeah, so the...

[03:26]

Right, my forthcoming book is about, the story before that is about the bodhisattvas coming out of the ground, you know about that? That there are all these different bodhisattvas who've come to listen to the Buddha expound the Lotus Sutra. In fact, they always come whenever the Buddha expounds the Lotus Sutra, whenever any Buddha expounds the Lotus Sutra. The Lotus Sutra gets very trippy. And then there's this other Buddha who comes to hear the Lotus Sutra being expounded and he's floating in, what's that? Yeah, and they're coming from other galaxies far, far away. There's another Buddha who shows up whose stupa is floating in the air. So the whole middle of the Lotus Sutra happens in the middle of the air. But then these other bodhisattvas from this distant galaxy come and say they'll take care of the, teaching of the Buddha in the distant future evil age, where we are, of course. And so, at which point the Buddhist says, well, you don't really need to do that.

[04:33]

And then from out of the middle of the ground, from out of the open space under the ground and under your zhafus and chairs, emerge millions of bodhisattvas who've been always practicing there. Anyway, this is part of the fertility of space and time. So I talked about time a little bit, and I'm going to want to start by talking about space. But again, if there's other comments or questions, anything else that's come up? Did you say something about Maitreya or something? Yeah, so Jizo Bodhisattva, you all here know about Jizo Bodhisattva, the Earth Womb Bodhisattva, is present, very close to us. And available and helping, you know, very down to Earth, until Maitreya comes. Maitreya is the next predicted future Buddha. Would it be the same Buddha that was before?

[05:35]

Another incarnation? It's, well, he has a different name, Maitreya. Of course, there were Shakyamuni Buddhas before Shakyamuni, and it gets very complicated, but. Yeah, that's right. Yes, there's a guy in London who says he's Maitreya. Yeah, and he may be. We never know. He might be. He might be. So Maitreya is the next predicted future Buddha who's, in the meantime, waiting in the meditation heavens as a bodhisattva. Well, there are such places in London, I gather. But we don't know what. He sits like this, he's always depicted, he's sometimes depicted with his fingers on his chin considering how to save all sentient beings, waiting with all of the devas and heavenly maidens playing wonderful music and with wonderful fragrances kind of flying all around him and he's sitting there trying to really kind of,

[06:57]

He actually studies the phenomena. He's into this kind of study of sensation and perception too because he's the Buddha of Yogacara Buddhism, which is the old Buddhist psychology of looking at all of this. But he knows he's the next future Buddha, but he knows that he's now only a shadow of his future self because he's only a Bodhisattva sitting up there in these heavens. There's various different predictions about when he'll be the next Buddha. One of them is in, I think, the year 4,320 or something like that. Then one of them is 5,670,000,000 years after Shakyamuni. So he might have to wait a long time. Anyway, Maitreya is interesting. Actually, I can read you about Maitreya from Hongzhe, maybe. What's that? We'll have to see afterwards.

[08:02]

There's no beginning in Buddhism, but we can't say for certain that there's no end. So I don't know what to say about that. But here's Hongzhi's poem to Maitreya Bodhisattva. This is from a series of poems by Hongzhe to the different bodhisattvas as they appear in the Complete Enlightenment Sutra, which was written in China, by the way. The roots of ignorance and seeds of attachment are firmly plowed open. The first stage of spiritual understanding is the cherished foundation. The heavenly being inserts a blade of grass and deeply grasps the meaning. The world honored one twirls a flower, he smiles and blinks his eyes. Mahasattva Fu releasing fish should be highly prized. The foolish monk Hotei also deserves deep bows. Here and there, noses and heads bump into each other.

[09:05]

You seen that? In regions with refined mind, who could you despise? So there are actually a number of references to sutras in there, which I can go into if you're interested. Or you could just kind of take that as an expression, an utterance. Well he mentions Mahasattva Fu. Maybe you should know about Mahasattva Fu. Have any of you heard of Mahasattva Fu? He was a great, before Bodhidharma, he was a great enlightened layman in China. So there were such people and he gave away, he was well endowed with material goods and gave them away many times to help starving peasants and so forth. Also did this practice of releasing fish. So this is a traditional Buddhist practice of taking caged animals or caught animals and releasing them back into the world. Anyway. No, he's a historical guy.

[10:08]

I don't think it's a sutra about him. He's actually lived in history. I was going to read a couple more of these. not say much about them. Here's one to a bodhisattva called Sound Discernment Bodhisattva. So we were talking about sound this morning. These are poems by Hongzhe from his verses. Wondrous completion of the one and many cuts off edges from the center. So you can see that this is about the universal and the particular and returning to center, returning to balance in the midst of that. Wonders completion of the one and many cuts off edges from the center. The fivefold dynamic circles together, I'm sorry, the fivefold dynamic circles together transform troubles. So that's about the five ranks, the five aspects of universal and particular. Wind and string instruments come to a chord. Their tones match the regulations. Shuttle and thread weave through and fine brocade appears.

[11:12]

A single body mind is able to discern a response. A thousand hands and eyes cannot be deceived. That refers to the bodhisattva of compassion with many hands and eyes. Providing salted plums is a craggy elder's business. Not returning to harmony and beauty, observe the salt and sour. I'll read it again. Poem to sound discernment, Bodhisattva. Wondrous completion of the one and many cuts off edges from the center. The five full dynamic circles together transform troubles. Wind and string instruments come to a chord. Their tones match the regulations. Shuttle and thread weave through, and fine brocade appears. The single body-mind is able to discern a response. A thousand hands and eyes cannot be deceived. Providing salted plums is a cracky elder's business. Not returning to harmony and beauty, observe the salt and sour. So that last part is a reference to just being in the world as it is.

[12:13]

I'm not needing this perfection. But there are references in there, too, to this idea of coming to a chord, which is also in the Julum era Samadhi, about the affirming or acquiescent heart-mind returns to attunement. This is what happens when we let go of our obstructions of our conditioning and our habits. So I could talk more about any of these or just read a few just kind of to get in the mood. There's a couple more that I like. Poem to Universal Enlightenment, Bodhisattva. Medicine and sickness oppose each other, a pair difficult to separate. The mind flower opens and radiates its own house of Zen. naturally real and lustrous without practice or enlightenment.

[13:16]

Its daily use is magnificent, granting transmission. Stepping high from red earth to the clouds, its knowledge can be fathomed. Stopping cries of children with golden leaves provisionally produces faith. When the bottom is filled with rubbish, just walk through the sludge. Do not laugh at the snail meandering in its own slime." So, going from the lofty to everyday mind. And the first line, medicine and sickness are difficult to separate. And then there's the last one is poem. So from the beginning, not a single thing exists. The first time you sit, all of space becomes enlightened. And yet, some kind teachers will tell you that you don't have it, and you have to practice much harder. And they might hit you with sticks and shout at you, just to help you see that you're responsible for the other 50%.

[14:25]

And none of that needs to fall into stages, actually. But we talk that way sometimes. There's a, well, I'll come to it in the Guideposts of Silent Illumination. There's the image of the poison-smeared drum we chanted this morning. This is from the Mahaparinirvana Sutra. There's a drum that, in Chinese legend, that is smeared with poison, and when they hit the drum, if you hear it, you die from the poison. The poison is in the sound itself. And so that image was used by Buddhist teachers for the Dharma because the Dharma drum is smeared with, if you take just a little bit of poison, it sometimes is medicinal. So if you take a whole jar of pills that you might need, that can be poison.

[15:26]

So this relationship between medicine and sickness is subtle. It also means that if you get caught, if you start to take the dominant medicine, you're done for. That's true. I'm so sorry, all of you. If you start to do what? If you start to take the dominant medicine, you're done for. All of you have already taken drinks of Chozen's Kool-Aid. Oh, I'm sorry. Oh, are there members of that temple here? But of course, that's because it's so wonderful, actually. But yeah, I'll try and be discreet tomorrow. I'll read one more of these poems.

[16:33]

You got me started just because of my tray. This is to complete enlightenment, Bodhisattva. And this one reminds me of Jizo, and you'll see why. Return to the seat at hand and hold the guiding orb. Throughout long ages, enter the Earth Spirit's flow. After awakening, continuity is the function of self-dropped away. Enlightenment comes in private, and many difficulties gather. The ten directions satisfy grasses on snowy mountains. The single color totally fulfills oxen in dewy fields. Winds sweep over the waters of heaven and worldly dusts disperse. Reed flowers gleam together in the bright autumn moon. So this is talking about an earth spirit, but also after awakening, continuity is the function of self dropped away. So someone was asking about this dropping away of body and mind this morning. And at the end of the Jewel Marrow Samadhi, it talks about if you're just able to continue in this, if you're just able to continue,

[17:41]

Meeting suchness, this is the host within the host. Here Hong just says, continuity is the function of self dropped away. So when we're not holding on to self, which also means we're not holding on to our ideas of other, when we're just meeting the situation of the world, then self is dropped away. And that functions through continuity, through just continuing to support the Dharma and support Sangha and meet the situation and respond to the world. So continuity is the function of self-dropped away. Then he says, enlightenment comes in private and many difficulties gather. So one model of the teaching, Tom Cleary used to quote this a lot is that Traditionally it said, awaken on your own and then go meet someone. So awakening in a sense happens before you ever meet a teacher.

[18:49]

This is what I was talking about this morning about bodhicitta. But then you have to, you need a teacher to help refine that and develop that and confirm that and help that unfold. So it's not that you get, you know, you're not gonna get, you're not gonna awaken because of some other teacher, but no teacher's going to sit zazen for you or enlighten you or fix you or any of that stuff. But already you've all in some ways awakened on your own and then for most people you need some teacher to help refine that. Also enlightenment comes in private and many difficulties gather. So enlightenment is not like something that fixes all your problems. In fact, Tsukiroshi once said, you might get enlightened and not like it. Yeah, exactly.

[19:55]

So when you see even just a little bit that you want to live in a way that Ah, feels whole, that is related to wholeness, that expresses your own most beautiful, beautiful. awareness, then you have to take that on. Then you have to do the Buddha work. So from the beginning you enter into Buddha's family and yet then you have a job. And it could be washing the dishes or doing the cooking or setting up the chairs. It doesn't matter what the job is really. You might be the abbot or you might be the eunuch or whatever. or you might be taping the talks of guest teachers. It doesn't matter what your job is. So I'm gonna come, I was gonna talk about Jiji Uzanmai in connection with Hongzhe, the self-revealing, self-fulfilling samadhi, if I get to that. Anyway, this, I like that poem.

[21:00]

Questions or comments about any of that? And again, I kind of feel there's all these things that I want to share and yet maybe we should just spend the rest of the time on one verse or something like that. So I don't know. But I did want to talk about also about, because I'm greedy, I wanted to talk about meditation on space. So we can do that. But I didn't quite feel like we were finished talking about time. So I talked about being aware of, you know, you could say the three times or the 10 times, or seeing how all time is in our breathing right now. Or as Hongju says, one contemplation of the 10,000 years is beginning not to dwell on appearances. So this is actually a practice instruction.

[22:04]

You can do it in zazen to consider the time that is right now, this inhale and this exhale. But also, each inhale depends completely on every other inhale you've ever taken. If you had failed to take one of those inhales, you couldn't take this inhale. And each inhale you take, and of course the exhale afterwards, is totally necessary, because if you don't take another inhale, you won't take any in the future either. And at some point, we'll do that. We'll all just decide to not inhale again for whatever reason. Often, it happens when the condition of our body is just so grotesque that one more breath is just besides the point. But anyway, also, They say that atoms of oxygen that we breathe may have been breathed by, I don't know, Thomas Jefferson or Leonardo da Vinci, that we're connected in time through our breathing too, to many beings.

[23:21]

And of course, here we are in this room sharing oxygen and carbon dioxide. you could think about this or just feel the presence of all the other times of your life in this time. So in any one period of zazen, the thought objects that come up might be all over the place or all over the time. One example, how many of you remember your fifth grade teacher? Many of you raised your hand, most of you, and some didn't, but so Shogun, Shogun didn't remember his fifth grade teacher at first, but then after a while he remembered. So whoever that was, whoever she or he was, is part of who you are now in some way.

[24:22]

And how many of you have thought about your fifth grade teacher who you now remembered in the last five years? How many of you raised your hand when I said, do you remember your fifth grade teacher, but you had not thought of her or him in a long time? Okay, but still, when I mentioned it, you knew who your fifth grade teacher was. So anyway, in various ways, not just people and teachers, but many beings. How many of you remember a pet dog or cat when you were a kid? Oh, many, okay. So those beings are part of who you are on your cushion right now. Anyway, this is a little bit about how time moves in many directions at once, as Dogan says in Being Time. And to think about time in the wider frame changes how we see the problem we have now. and the Buddha work we have now, and gives us a wider perspective.

[25:28]

So this is a particular kind of practice instruction to take on, which includes all 10. Which includes all 10. And what is what I would call being 10. Yes. When you're completely in the flow. Yes. And it doesn't happen for long, because it's a constant state, but that's sort of just something that is temporary. It's temporary, because everything But it's moving in all directions, not just past, present, future. And this present is the future of a past. and the past of the future and now it's already the past of the present because it's gone. So it moves in all these directions. And yet there is this reality constantly flowing.

[26:34]

There is this possibility always, all times, of just facing suchness, of just facing ourselves. And Duggan says in Being Time that a partial exertion of being time is still completely a part of being time. So it's okay wherever you're at. And still, there's a responsibility. There's, you know, something we're called to. There's this Buddha work. So good, that's a little more working out in this time thing. So it's not that they're different, but there's a way of seeing it in terms of space. So this is another exercise we can do from cultivating the empty field. It's on page 45 of this edition, the section called non-interference in the matter of oneness for those of you with the old edition.

[27:38]

So I'll read this and then I want to come back and do a little kind of guided meditation. The matter of oneness cannot be learned at all, Hongzhi says. So it's not like we can study and figure out what this oneness is. The essence is to empty and open out body and mind as expansive as the great emptiness of space. Naturally, in the entire territory, all is satisfied. This strong spirit cannot be deterred. In event after event, it cannot be confused. So that's the time part. The moon accompanies the flowing water. The rain pursues the drifting clouds. Settled without a grasping mind, such intensity may be accomplished. Only do not let yourself interfere with things, and certainly nothing will interfere with you. body and mind are one suchness. Outside this body there is nothing else.

[28:42]

The same substance and the same function, one nature and one form, all faculties and all object dusts are instantly transcendent." So this seeing and hearing and sounds and colors and so forth. Immediately we can just immerse ourselves and go beyond. So it is said, the sage is without self and yet nothing is not himself or herself. Whatever appears is instantly understood and you know how to gather it up or how to let it go. Just be a white ox in the open field. Whatever happens, nothing can drive him away. So embedded in this section is a kind of meditation on space and we can get there just from this one sentence. The essence is to empty and open out body and mind as expansive as the great emptiness of space. So each of us is now

[29:45]

sitting here and for this one, please just sit comfortably now and maybe somebody can, I don't know if we need this but it's okay. Maybe somebody could just cut part of the lights. Just one of them. Yeah, that's good. Okay. So, Hongshu says that the essence is to empty and open out body and mind as expansive as the great emptiness of space. So just sitting comfortably, start by focusing on your breath and feel the space of your body. of the space between your shoulders, maybe the space between your ears, the space between your toes and the top of your head.

[30:55]

So feel that space. And breathing fully, allow that space to be a little wider, maybe to include the space that is also occupied by the people around you. And inhale from that wider space and exhale out into it. And now, gradually, gently, with your inhale and exhale, feel the space of this whole room. And allow your body and mind to feel this space, a roundness or square,

[32:05]

infinite variety, this whole room includes some wider space than your body. So again, sitting comfortably, enjoying your inhale and exhale, feel the space of this room. emptying and opening out body and mind. So now let's stretch a little bit. Feel the space of the grounds around this building, this whole complex of buildings. And you've all seen and walked in some of that space.

[33:12]

Feel that space around us. And breathe in from that whole space and exhale out to that whole space. So again, gently feel your awareness of the space of the grounds of Great Vow Monastery. And you can feel the space just around this building, or you can extend it a little to the edge of the property of Great Vow. With all of the many beings, those of us in this room, and other people, and small animals, and owls, and so forth, and Jesus everywhere, So it's okay if you want to just stay in that space, but if you would like, you can, as you continue to inhale and exhale, empty and open out body and mind a little more.

[34:42]

So I think towards my left, there's a field, a valley, and there's a river down there, and there's a mountain ridge on the other side, and there's a mountain up this side, Feel the space of all of the area around Great Vow Monastery. With your body and mind, feel that space. And if you would like to, you may stretch a little further and include Klatskanai and even extend to Portland and to the Pacific Ocean and North and South to go with that.

[35:58]

This circle of land and space and ground and air. with each of us at its center. And of course, it's possible to empty and open out body and mind even more widely than that. Maybe that's enough for today. Take a few more breaths to enjoy all of that space from Portland to Pacific Ocean and the same distance, you know, north and south. And when you're ready, start to bring the space back to maybe just the area of Klatskanai.

[37:12]

And again, when you're ready, just feel the space of the grounds of Great Vow Monastery, emptying and opening out body and mind into that space. And when you're ready, inhaling and exhaling. Come back to the space of this room. And now, without relinquishing that sense of spaciousness and openness, please come back to this body and mind sitting on your cushion or chair now, and the space you are occupying with this body and mind.

[39:06]

So thank you. So you can put back the lights when you're ready. So this is another kind of meditation exercise. technique, if you will, way of settling into objectless meditation through space, which in a way is a kind of object, but it's also kind of objectless. So any comments or responses or questions about that? Well, this is something you've done before? So you're familiar with this as a meditation? OK. Good.

[40:37]

OK, well. Yeah, so that's something you can do during zazen, in the zendo, or wherever, anytime. Yeah, the confines of the small body too. I introduced it when we were, we do the core foundations of mindfulness, the first part of the body, but we use actual instructions for that. If you read them carefully, they say inside and outside. So my interpretation of that is that we do body scans and become very familiar and comfortable with this body and all of its sensations, but then to move that awareness out into the body of the room, other people's bodies, body of the force, and so on. Otherwise, you're just reinforcing the sense of self if you're just doing body awareness, body awareness.

[41:39]

Right. Yeah, so when we feel the wider space, also to feel all of the other beings in that space. It's not just your space. And Hongsha introduces it by saying the matter of oneness cannot be learned at all, but it can be experienced, it can be, we can feel space, which is actually, you know, kind of cuts through. It's a way of talking about oneness. And space, the character for space also is the character for emptiness or for sky. So it's actually a meditation on emptiness also. But in context, it can be specifically about space. What's the character? Ku. It's the same character that's used in the Heart Sutra for form does not differ from emptiness. Emptiness does not differ from form. I might get it wrong.

[42:53]

That doesn't look right. Anyway, something like that. Okay. Well, one of the things I wanted to do, partly with this book, because it's holographic, as I was saying, I like to just open it up and read and talk about it anywhere. But I wanted to also specifically talk about the silent illumination poem. Is that around somewhere? But also, maybe before that, today is April 8th, and in the Japanese tradition, the eighth day of the fourth month is honored as Buddha's birthday.

[43:54]

And as I mentioned in Eikoroku Dogen's extensive record, Dogen translates, well quotes, doesn't translate, he quotes a lot of Hongzhe's teachings. So I got the chance to translate some more of them. So before we do the Silent Illumination poem, I'll read a dharma hall discourse that Hongzhe gave on the occasion of Buddha's birthday and there's this, do you do the bathing the baby Buddha? So this is, sometimes it's done in Vesak and there's a different day that's used in South Asian. Yeah, but in Japan usually it's the eighth day of the fourth month. So I just thought I'd read this in honor of the baby Buddha.

[44:57]

And this is a Dharma hall discourse. There's a couple of them actually from Hongzhi on that occasion. And then Dogen has a commentary. So when Zen master Hongzhi was abbot at Jiantang in a Dharma hall discourse upon bathing Buddha, he said, So this is a kind of sampling of Hongzhe, aside from the material and cultivating the empty field. He said, this is the completely clear water of the emptiness of self-nature, the perfectly bright, pure wisdom body. Therefore, we do not need to wash the body. Right here, not a speck of dust exists. So he has become Buddha, overcome demons, reached that other shore and departed this diluted river bank. This Baba Wawa baby talk was at the beginning, then this random crawling around became the cause for becoming Buddha. So his Baba Wawa there refers to the story about the baby Buddha when he first emerged from his mother's womb.

[46:06]

The story goes, took seven steps forward and seven steps back and pointed to the sky and pointed to the ground and said, I alone am the world honored one. So. So Hongshu calls that baby talk. And then he says this random crawling around became the cause for becoming Buddha, and that's referring to his taking seven steps forward and taking seven steps back. Hongshu continues, on this occasion, Shakyamuni Buddha, do not get angry at our pouring foul water on your head. Referring to the water that's poured on the baby Buddha. Why don't you invoke the power of Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva and then naturally this injury will rebound to its originator. So in the Lotus Sutra chapter on Kamsayon, one is sometimes chanted. Do you ever chant that here? Yeah, it's not chanted very much in America.

[47:09]

Anyway. Unpsychological. Yeah, that's why I like it. So we chant it sometimes. It's about if you just call on Buddha's name, there's a verse conclusion. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I love it. If you're being, if there's a fire, just chant, call on the power or chant the name of Kanzeon and she'll come and save you if you're, you know, if you're in a flood or if, you know, anyway, whatever's happening, just call on Kanzeon. of that. Oh, well, no. There's a concluding verse to that. Well, the part that's chanted in Soto Zen is the concluding verse of that chapter. And that ends with compassionate eyes beholding sentient beings produce an assembly of, how does it go?

[48:21]

I'll get it later and chant it for you. Anyway, so he's just quoting from, Hongzhi's just quoting from that, talking to the baby Buddha, you know, when you do not get angry at our pouring foul water on your head, why don't you invoke the power, call the name of Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva, and naturally this injury will rebound to its originator. benevolent people, what is it like just when the ladle for pouring water over the Buddha is in your hand? What is it like just as you're holding the ladle of water? Without the cause of thoroughly studying a single thing, we cannot develop any wisdom. So that's what Hongzhe said on the occasion of bathing the baby Buddha. Dogen has a comment on that. This ancient Buddha, my Dharma uncle, referring to Hongzhe, was from the branch of Furang Daokai and a disciple of Dansho Sichuan. Although Hongzhe said it like this, his descendant, Eihei, has a verse on this occasion.

[49:27]

And then Dogen said, at the time of his birth, 3,000 worlds trembled. At the awakening site, 80,000 gates opened wide. Pouring water over the head of his unstained body is an embarrassing scene of sincerity and play. And there's another, there's another Buddhist birthday where Dogen quoted the same dharma hall discourse from Hongzhe and had a different commentary. A little more, a little longer, not so long. Anyway, this is Dogen's second commentary on the same dharma hall discourse from Hongzhe about the baby Buddha and pouring water on his head. Urging two dragons to carry water for her, Dogen says, Queen Maya bathed her newborn son's body. Thus Buddha abandoned the bliss of Tushita heaven and seemed to be stained by the six sense objects of the human realm.

[50:32]

He grasped a glob of mud to make it into a Buddha and scooped the moon from the water, considering it the spirit. The oceanic vow of great compassion has no shore or limit and saves living beings with release from the harbor of suffering. The very last body is the true beginning. So the very last body is the body of a Buddha who will not come into the world again. The very last body is the true beginning, and his birth saying, I alone am the world honored one, is the genuine cause for saving beings. On this fine occasion, both old and young, cut off ignorance, greed, and anger. When you nurture the power of the wooden ladle at Vulture Peak, you become eminent people within the cave of patchwork monks. All of you benevolent people, what is it like just when the handle of the ladle is in your hands? And then Dogen says, the lowest person has the highest wisdom. which reminds me of another line that Dogen uses. I think it's actually in the book The Cliff Record, but he says, the more mud, the greater the Buddha, which I always find really comforting.

[51:39]

So those of you who feel like you're deep in the mud, the more mud, the greater the Buddha. Or another way to see it is to think of a clay image of Buddha, the more mud, the bigger the Buddha. But it also reminds me of Lao Tzu saying, the greatest vessels need the longest to produce. So if you feel discouraged about your practice, remember the more mud, the bigger the Buddha. Yeah. And there's a whole bunch of, what's that? Yeah, yeah, there's a couple places where he refers to it, yeah.

[52:43]

Oh, good. He's bragging. Yeah, I think there's some wisdom to that. There's a bunch of stuff from Hongzhe in Dogen's extensive record. I'll just read one more for now. And this is actually, volume nine is his, Dogen's collection of cases, 90 cases, 90 koans, with his own verse commentary, kind of like the basis, like the thing that Hongzhe did that became the basis for the Book of Serenity.

[53:47]

But one of them, one of the 90, number 25, actually is a verse from Hongzhe that Dogen takes as one of his 90 koans and then writes his own verse commentary on it. So Zen Master Hongsha said in a verse, with coming and going, a person in the mountains understands that blue mountains are his body. The blue mountains are the body and the body is the self. So where can one place the senses and their objects? So this relates to the meditation this morning about the relationship of senses and sense objects. I'll read it again. With coming and going, a person in the mountains understands that blue mountains are his body. The blue mountains are the body, and the body is the self. So where can one place the senses and their objects? So if you're looking at seeing and colors or hearing and sounds, is that sound in your ears or in my fingers or in the air in between?

[55:00]

Yes, neither, yes, all, yes. I don't know, anyway. Dogen wrote his own commentary to this following Hongzhi's rhyme scheme. A person in the mountains should love the mountains. With going and coming, the mountains are his body. The mountains are the body, but the body is not the self. So where can one find any senses or their objects? Hongzhu said, the body is the self, so where can one place the senses in their objects? Dogen says, the mountains are the body, but the body is not the self. Where can one find any senses or their objects? So, okay, maybe we're ready for silent illumination now. Yeah. Yeah, he's a troublemaker, it's true. So does everybody have a copy of the guidepost for silent illumination?

[56:04]

So maybe we'll start on this and then we'll see how long we go, but maybe take a break in the middle of it. When Yuko-san finishes passing them out, maybe we'll start by chanting it again.

[56:35]

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