Good evening. It's great to be back at Clouds and Water and see now so many familiar faces and some new ones. So my teaching for this weekend will all be focused on a text called The Song of the Jewelmare Samadhi by Dongshan Liangjie, who is the founder of Soto Zen in China. He lived 807 to 869. And so this is the lineage that Dogen brought from China to Japan and then Suzuki Roshi and Katagiri Roshi and others brought from Japan to America. And I keep coming back to this song because, well, it's just so rich. I've been studying it for almost 30 years and I keep enjoying it. And it has so much to offer us.

[01:02]

So we don't study these old words from 1,000-year-old Chinamen just for the sake of history, but because they've continued to be inspiring and helpful to practice and continue to be so even today. For 1,000 years, this has been chanted. And we'll be chanting it a couple of times tomorrow. So the starting point, just the first two lines, The dharma of thusness is intimately transmitted by Buddhas and ancestors. Now you have it, preserve it well. In some sense, the whole rest of the song is about these two lines. And I think the version that I, my translation is a little bit different from the one in the Clouds and Water website, which I assume is the one you chant. A little bit different, not so much. But this dharma of thusness, this teaching, the reality, the approach, the truth of thusness or suchness is the subject matter of this text, of this song.

[02:16]

So all of the, whenever it says it, it's referring back to this basic teaching or reality or practice. And in many ways, this is what our practice is about. Teaching of suchness or thusness, in Sanskrit it's tatata. I like saying that. Anyway, tatata is what we practice. It's about meeting things as it is. It's about seeing reality as such. So suchness or thusness is, well, we could say it's another way of talking about emptiness, but it's what we learn on our cushions. So I'll be talking about it tomorrow, more in terms of its relationship to Zazen. I want to give some of the background tonight and talk about some of the basic Zen philosophy that is expressed and elaborated in this song. But when we, as we'll do tomorrow, when we sit and face the wall or face the floor or face ourselves, what we are seeing is

[03:25]

what it's like to be this body and mind just as it is. This bare attention is clearly observing of suchness of reality, not according to our ideas, not according to our storylines, not according to our patterns of conditioning and behavior, but just what is it like to be here, this body and mind in this situation here and now? So, in some sense, this is extremely simple, and yet how it gets expressed, how it elaborates, how we practice with it, how we use this experience of the reality of suchness to save all beings, to help the world, is endlessly intricate and complex. So Dongshan starts by saying this Dharma of thusness or this teaching a reality of suchness is intimately transmitted, is directly and intimately conveyed by Buddhas and ancestors.

[04:36]

This is what all of the Buddhas and ancestors teach. This is what all of the teaching is about. So in some sense, all of the books full of Zen writings and All of the Dharma talks are just commentaries on zazen. But the heart of zazen is this reality of suchness, yozenoho in Japanese. This is what is conveyed, and it's conveyed intimately. It's not learned just by studying some ideas about it. going to be talking about this text which talks about it, but this is what we learn from sitting, from facing ourselves, from being upright in our life. It's conveyed intimately means that it's not just something we hear about, but actually we learn it in our bodies. This is a physical practice. So I've had the wonderful opportunity the last couple of months to learn how to sit Zazen in a chair.

[05:40]

I'm recovering from knee surgery a few weeks ago. And the prognosis is excellent. I should be able to get back to the half lotus I've been doing 30 years. And I keep thinking any day now I'll be able to do that. And it's taking its time. So I'm learning more and more about sitting in a chair. So there's always something new in the dharma of thusness. The dharma of thusness, this reality of suchness is always fresh and new. And so each Buddha and each ancestor in each situation in here in this strange new world of America, we have to learn it as it fits for us. But anyway, this is what it's about, this reality of justice. So the song goes, the Dharma of suchness is intimately transmitted by Buddhas and ancestors. Now you have it, preserve it well. So some of you have chanted this before. Many of you chanted this before. Okay, and those of you who are going to be here tomorrow will be chanting it twice.

[06:45]

So once you've chanted it, or maybe once you've heard it, now you have it. Bless you. Now you have it. Now you have it. So this reality of suchness is not something you have to figure out or acquire or obtain. It's actually what is here now, right now, always. It's always available. It's always what it is. So in a way, this is, you know, really good news. There's nothing you, you know, there's nothing to figure out. There's no special exalted state of being or state of mind or some fancy experience that you need to acquire or obtain. Now you have it right now. You have it. It's right in front of you right now, or it's beneath your cushion or a chair right now emerging as you inhale and exhale. So Dongshan says, now you have it, preserve it well. So our lifelong practice is about this, preserve it well.

[07:48]

How do we take care of suchness? How do we take care of reality as it is? How do we take care of the world with the context of this as it is? So we could say that the whole rest of the song is about how we learn to take good care of this suchness and our practice of Zazen and our practice of trying to bring our Zazen heart into the world, into the difficulties of all the problems that we each have, family relationships, co-workers, neighbors, all of the ordinary difficulties of living and then all of the ordinary and extraordinary difficulties of living in this culture with our wars and corruption. Anyway, how do we take care of suchness in our lives today, this week, this month?

[08:56]

How do we preserve it well? How do we take good care of it? So this is, in a way, this is, these first two lines contain the whole thing. Now you have to preserve it well. And yet in the rest of this song, it talks about various themes about this. So one theme is just the use of language. So there are many, many of the lines in this talk about how we use or don't use or are used by language. For example, he says, the meaning does not reside in the words, but a pivotal moment brings it forth. Words don't quite get at this suchness, and yet we use words to help convey this. And there is a way in which the various kinds of language that we can express with our body and mind do help bring it forth. So that's one theme that's talked about in this text a lot.

[10:02]

There's also the theme of teachers and students and the teacher-student relationship, which is talked about quite a lot in this text in various ways, including this pivotal moment that brings it forth in some way. Another way to translate that is the inquiring student, the bringing forth of energy by the student brings forth this meaning of suchness. So there are many parts of this that talk about how teachers and students work together, like drumming and singing begin together, when wondrously embraced within the real. Another theme which I'm going to focus on tonight, I think, is, we'll see what happens, but the interfolding, interfusion, integration of the, maybe we could say two aspects of suchness. One being the universal, the ultimate reality, which we meet when we stop and slow down and just face reality on our cushions.

[11:15]

This ultimate, universal, absolute reality. The truth of oneness or sameness. And then there's the other side, which is the particular situation that we're in. this particular next inhale that you will all take, please do, is completely unique and completely depends on every other inhale you've ever taken, of course. And without this next inhale, you will never be able to take another inhale. So each thing, each particular event, each particular person is, and each particular object and situation, if you want to think of objects, is particularly unique. So this practice of suchness has to do with the integration of these. And so it's in this, so historically and philosophically, and I don't know, I don't want to get too philosophical because this is really a practice text, but actually this text is the initial description of what's called in Sothozen the five ranks or five degrees.

[12:31]

So I'll talk a little bit about that tonight. These are the five-fold way in which the ultimate universal reality and each particular are totally integrated, actually, and how we practice that and how we engage that. So all of that is in this song. You know, I didn't think of this, but maybe it would be good if we chanted it first. Do we have chant books available? Can we do this? Just so we hear the whole thing, and I'm going to keep talking while that is arranged. Part of what I want to do is, tonight, after we chant this, is to tell the story of Dongshan, because a lot of what happens in this song goes back to quotes things that happen in the story of Dongshan himself. I'll need a chant book too, Chris, because I use a slightly different text.

[13:37]

Thank you, everyone. So as I said, we're going to be chanting this tomorrow a couple of times. But actually, maybe it's good to chant it now, and then I'll be referring to various lines from it. But we'll have actually brought it into our body through our voice. Does everybody have one? It looks like there's enough for everybody to have one. Page 17. And Dokkan, would you please do the honors of introducing and chant. The Dharma of thusness is intimately transmitted by Buddhas and ancestors.

[15:12]

Now you have it, preserve it well. Filling a silver bowl with snow, hiding a heron in the moonlight. Taken as similar, they are not the same. Not distinguished, you know where they are. The meaning does not reside in the words, but a pivotal moment brings it forth. Excited, you are trapped. Missing, you fall into doubt and vacillation. Turning away and touching are both wrong, for it is like a massive fire. Just to portray it in literary form is to stain it with defilement. In darkest night it is perfectly bright, in the light of dawn it shows no trace. It acts as a guide for beings, its use removes all suffering. Although it is not fabricated, it is not beyond words. Like facing a jeweled mirror, form and reflection behold each other.

[16:18]

You are not it, but in truth it is you. Like a newborn child endowed with five aspects. No going, no coming, no arising, no abiding. Ba-ba-wa-wa, is anything said or not? In the end it says nothing, for the words are not yet right. In the illumination hexagram, phenomenal and real interact. Piled up they become three, the permutations make five. Like the taste of the five-flavored herb, like the five-pronged Vajra, wondrously embraced within the real, drumming and singing spring forth together. Penetrate the source and travel the pathways, Embrace the connections and treasure the roads. Respect this, do not neglect it. Naturally genuine yet wondrous, it is not a matter of delusion or enlightenment.

[17:22]

Within causes and conditions, time and season, it is serene and illuminating. So minute it enters where there is no gap. So vast it transcends dimension. A hair's breadth's deviation, and you miss attuning with it. In both sudden and gradual, basic approaches are set up. Once basic approaches are distinguished, then there are guiding rules. But whether or not the essence is reached and the approach is mastered, reality constantly flows. Outside we're still, and inwardly trembling, like tethered colts or cowering rats. The ancient sages breathed for them and offered them the Dharma. Led by their inverted views, they take whack for what? When inverted thinking stops, the acquiescent heart realizes itself. If you want to follow in the ancient tracks, please observe the sages of the past.

[18:28]

One on the verge of realizing the Buddha way, gaze at a tree for ten kalpas. like a battle-scarred tiger, like a horse with shanks gone gray, because some are vulgar jeweled tables and ornate robes, because some are wide-eyed cats and white oxen. With his archer skill he hit the mark at a hundred paces, But when arrows meet head on, how could it be a matter of skill? The wooden man begins to sing. The stone woman gets up to dance. It is not reached by feeling or consciousness. How could it involve deliberation? Ministers serve their lords. Children obey their parents. Not obeying is not filial. Not serving is no help. practice secretly, working within like a fool, like an idiot, continuously doing just this, is the host within the host.

[19:32]

So now you all have chanted it. And we do this, we chant these texts, which we also can study and talk about, like I will this weekend. But we chant them because then they enter us in a little different way. We have some physical relationship to them through our voice. So the practice of suchness is not just about deliberations or consciousness as it says, but also about actually feeling how this truth or reality or teaching or practice of suchness is part of us. And I was talking about major themes like language and teachers and students and the relationship of the five rank relationship of universal in particular. But also, of course, there's lots of good just plain Zazen instruction in here. Did you hear it? Have any of you who've said Zazen ever felt like a tethered colt or a cowering rat?

[20:45]

So there's lots of good practice instructions in here, and I'm going to focus on those tomorrow. What I wanted to do this evening to get us started is to talk about Dong Shan himself and how this song comes out of some critical experiences in his life. So we'll start with that. So as I say, Dong Shan was considered the founder of Zao Dong or Soto Zen in China. He lived in the 800s. There's a key story about Dong Shan that begins with him leaving his teacher. He basically finished his training. He had studied, he had trained with a teacher named Yun Yan, or Cloud Cliff. who was really this kind of obscure guy, not so well known in his time.

[21:53]

But anyway, Dongshan was leaving his teacher, Yunyan, and Dongshan asked, after your death, if someone asks me if I can describe your reality or describe your teaching, your dharma, what should I say? How should I reply? And actually, that question, Chinese characters are wonderful because they have various meanings. Part one way that question has been interpreted, if anybody asks me, how can I portray your reality? How can I portray your likeness? And at some point in China, they used to pass along, teachers would pass along pictures to their students as an insignia of transmission. So it implies that, too. Anyway, he asked Yongyan, his teacher, how should I describe your teaching? And Yun Yan paused for a while and then he said, just this is it.

[22:56]

Just this is it. And the story goes that Dongshan was quiet and sank into thought. And Yun Yan said, now you are in charge of this great matter. You must be most thorough going. A short version of that is, now you have it, preserve it well. So that's where that line comes from. But Dongshan still had nothing to say and he left. And he was wandering and at some point he was wading across a stream. And fortunately somebody was there to paint the picture of this. So we have this picture of Dongshan as he was wading across the stream after leaving his teacher. who had said, just this is it. And the story goes, Dongshan saw his reflection in this dream. And some versions say he was thoroughly awakened.

[24:01]

And then he wrote a verse. And it goes, one translation goes, just don't seek from others or you'll be further estranged from self. Now I go on alone, yet everywhere I meet it, It now is me, I now am not it. Or in the song of the Jewel Marist Samadhi, you are not it, but in truth it is you. But he said it, it now is me, I now am not it. And actually this pronoun which we can read as it, referring to this teaching of suchness, also could mean him. Also could be a personal pronoun. So he's also talking about his teacher. He now is me, I now am not him. yet everywhere I meet him." And Dongshan then said, one must understand in this way to merge with thusness. So you are not it, but actually it is you.

[25:08]

This is what Dongshan saw looking into the stream, looking at the reflection. So we could spend the whole rest of the weekend just talking about these two lines. Like facing a precious mirror, form and reflection behold each other. You are not it, but in truth it is you. So I'll say a little bit, and we'll come back to it tomorrow. And then I want to say some, tell some more stories about Dongshan. But this jewel mirror samadhi, this meditation, this intense plunging into awareness of the jewel mirror, It's like facing a dual mirror, and of course our experience of that is just facing the wall or the floor. So when you face the wall, you are not it, but in truth it is you. It now is you, yet you now are not it. And I think it helps to turn this around, to feel the mutuality of that situation, facing the wall.

[26:17]

facing the floor, facing yourself. You are not it, but actually, whatever you see there on that mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the finest Zen student of them all, is you. And then what does the wall see? How is it for the reflection? How do we see the suchness of ourself reflected back at us? So, I remember a shuso ceremony at Tassajara a long time ago. And there was a Japanese monk who was in the practice period. And the shuso is the head student or head monk who kind of gives talks and is the model monk for the practice period at the end of the ceremony, the end of the practice period. There's a ceremony where all the students, kind of one after another, fire questions at the shuso, and he responds, or she responds.

[27:28]

And this Japanese monk, I'll make the shorter version of it. He's talked about how he had this wonderful friend who was a very kind being, who was from the planet something or other near Alpha Centauri. didn't have legs, and, you know, anyway, he was, I don't know, some gelatinous form of being, but very kind and very intelligent. And he asked the head monk, how would you give him Zazen instruction? What would you say is Zazen for this friend of mine from this strange planet? And the shisho was very good, said, after pausing a while. I always face the wall. So that goes back to facing a precious mirror. Form and reflection behold each other. You are not it, but truly it is you.

[28:29]

How do we see reality? How do we see suchness? Everything in the entire universe, everything you see is you, but you're not it. You can't say, I'm that. So we don't make up reality. It's not just a product of our particular combination of thoughts and feelings and condition responses. And yet, all of that, all of this that you see on the wall is you. Anyway, this is a little bit of a comment on what Dongshan saw when he looked into this stream. So there's a story. Later on, Dongshan was presenting offerings before the image of Yunyan, his teacher. So it's common practice.

[29:31]

I don't know if you do it here to have a monthly memorial service for the founder. I don't know if you do a service for Katagiri Roshi or anything like that. Yeah. Anyway, some places they do a monthly, like at Zen Center we do a monthly memorial service for Suzuki Roshi. Anyway, I think it was one of those kinds of services, and Dongshan was making offerings before the image of Yunyan, and he told this story about describing the reality of Yunyan. And a monk asked, when Yunyan said, just this is it, what did he mean? And Mr. Dongshan said, at that time I nearly misunderstood what my lay teacher meant. And then the monk said, did Yunyan himself know it is or not?

[30:41]

Did Yunyan himself really realized, just this is it. And Dongshan said, if he did not know what it is, how could he be able to say this? But if he did know what it is, how could he be willing to say this? Anyway, in our tradition, we do say, just this is it. And maybe it's too much to say that. So I apologize to any of you if your practice has been damaged by hearing this, but it is part of our tradition to tell the story. Just this is it. Did Jungian himself know what it is or not? And there's some debate about that point. And actually, there's a commentary in the Book of Serenity When the monk said, did Yunyan know it is or not?

[31:48]

The commentator says, if you say he absolutely knows it is, then he's an attendant. Haven't you heard it said that only one who knows it can uphold it? If you say he absolutely doesn't know it is, here there is gain and loss. There is completely not knowing it is. There is knowing it is, then after all, not knowing. And there is not knowing it is, turning into knowing it is. One commentary says, inner reality is complete. Words are partial. When words are bored, inner reality is lost. So there's this problem about how we talk about this. It's possible, maybe, to say too much. And yet, we have to say something, as Katagiri Roshi said. Form and reflection behold each other. You are not it, but truly it is you. Just this is you. So this is the study we do in Zazen.

[32:53]

This relationship between this lump of red flesh and what? What do we call it? Suchness, reality, the Dharma. How do we find our way to explore this? How do we find our way to express it and honor it? Another time, Dongshan was making offerings before the image of Yunnan at the monthly memorial service. And a young monk asked, why do you honor Yunnan like this? Nobody, you know, he was this obscure guy that nobody ever heard of. He studied with Nanshuan and Guishan, all these great, great Zen masters. Dongshan said, I do not esteem my late teacher's virtues or his Buddhist teaching. I only value the fact that he didn't explain everything to me. So, of course, all, any words I can say this weekend about suchness and lessness and dharma and reality and zazen and all that is just, you know, some picture on the wall.

[34:13]

Nobody can sit zazen for you. Nobody can meet the reality of suchness for you. This is something that each of us does on our own cushion or chair. The monk then asked Dongshan, you succeeded to your late master Yunyan, do you agree with him or not? Dongshan said, I half agree and I half don't agree. So it's not important that you agree with everything your teacher said. Remember that the monk said, why don't you completely agree? Dongshan said, if I completely agreed, I would be being unfaithful to my teacher. So this Dharma of suchness is, What has been conveyed to you?

[35:17]

Now you have it. Now you are it, or maybe it is you. How do we take care of it? So I like Dongshan a lot. There's lots of good stories about him. One of my favorites, I don't know if I actually, anyway, I can probably remember it pretty well. A visiting monk, traveling monk, came to visit Dongshan, and Dongshan said, Where have you come from?" And the monk said, from the mountaintop. And Dongshan asked, was there anyone there? And the monk said, no, nothing. And Dongshan said, then if there was nothing there, then you weren't there either. And the monk said, if I hadn't been there, how could I have known there was nothing? And Dongshan said, oh, and questioned him, huh?

[36:22]

So anyway, Dongshan is tricky. And this is the teaching lineage that we practice in. This teaching of, it is you, but actually you are not it. Truly it is you, but you are not it. Now you have it, preserve it well. So there are lots of ways to talk that this song talks about how we preserve it well. But I think at this point, maybe I'll pause and I want to have this be an interactive Dharma talk. So if anyone has any comments or questions at this point, please bring them forth. Yes, ma'am.

[37:26]

I've monitored this one for a long time. Good. It's difficult. The it is you part, I get that. I think I get that intellectually. Does that make sense? Well, no. Pause. Say something about that. It is you. Or it is me. Does anyone have it the other way around where they can see I am not it but have trouble seeing it as me? Yes. I am not it. Yeah. I'm not it as me.

[38:29]

How could I be it? I'm not it. Let me count the ways. Ah, now we're getting there. What is it? I don't know. I'm not it. And yet this suchness, this reality, everything, anything you can name is part of what's sitting on your cushion right now. So sometimes when we go to sit satsang or come to a one day sitting like tomorrow, we take our seat and we sometimes we have practices that kind of focus us. And there's some part of practice that is about focusing. And in fact, this is called a Samadhi. This is a particular concentration on this jewel mirror, this issue, this turning of the mirror. You are not it. It truly is you. So anything of such, all of suchness, all of reality, do you remember your third grade teacher?

[39:36]

How many people here remember their third grade teachers? Quite a few, okay. So you may not have thought of her for years, but you remembered her or him. Your pet dog or cat when you were a kid? Yeah. is part of what's sitting on your cushion right now. All of it. People you met at a party 10 years ago and never saw again. Anyway, this reality of our experience, the things that we meet on the wall of our life, that is you. And yet, we can also feel I am not in. And of course, we don't encompass all of it. It's not just a function of our thoughts and wishes and desires and expectations and calculations. But anyway, whatever I say about this doesn't get to the bottom of you or not it truly is you.

[40:41]

This is something we have to see for ourselves as the wall looks at us during Zazen. Other comments or questions? Responses? Yes. That doesn't do it either. Certainly it includes things that we don't, may not have some awareness of. What is our experience? Probably all of you have forgotten something that you've experienced. Maybe some of you have photographic memory. I don't know. But anyway, some of you did not remember your third grade teacher, or at least didn't at the time I asked the question. And yet, that was part of your experience.

[41:43]

So I don't know. All I can do is talk around this. And yet there's this pivotal relationship there. So in the commentary on this story about whether Yun Yan himself knew it is or not, Hongzhe, who wrote Cultivating the Empty Field, or who translated in Cultivating the Empty Field, had this comment. How could he be able to say this? In the third watch the cock crows, dawn for the forest of homes. How could he be willing to say this? The thousand-year crane grows old with the pine in the clouds. The jewel mirror, clear and bright, shows universal and particular. The jade machine revolves. See them both show up at once. The way of the school is greatly influential. Its regulated steps, continuous and fine. Parent and child change and pass through.

[42:47]

Oceanic is their fame. The two lines that I wanted to focus on, the jewel mirror, clear and bright, shows ultimate and particular. So this you are not it, it truly is you, relates to this issue of we could say the absolute and the relative or the universal and the particular. And then he says the jade machine revolves, see them both show up at once. As we turn this issue of I'm not it, but Actually, it is me. I am not her, but actually she is me. There's this way in which there's this precious jade jeweled event, this machine or mechanism that is revolving. I always face the wall, as she says. See them both show up at once, Hongzhe says.

[43:47]

So maybe we could talk about this universal in particular. But before I go to that, any other comments? Yes? When I think about it, I am not it. I am not sure that I am anything. That's I am not it, yes. Let me call it Tom. Yeah. Yeah. So this is, you know, this seems philosophical, but I want, and we may not get there tonight completely, but I really, but there's something about this that's very practical. It's about how we take care of it, how we preserve it well. This, this intricate relationship between ourselves and the world, how the world informs us, how we see the world, how we see

[45:01]

the reality around us and how we are interacting with it. So, I don't know if I can do it, but I want to try and convey the practicality of this. There are a couple of more hands, yes. Yeah. Yeah, good. Yeah, so that's right. This is not about something that we have some intellectual understanding of. I mean, it's possible to study this intellectually, to look at it and think about it and kind of have some understanding of it. That is possible. And yet, what it's about is not that. It's about how do we take the next breath. So it's not at it's not at all important that whether you're not you understand what I'm talking about tonight.

[46:06]

Understanding is not the point. And yet there's some way in which our chanting of it and our hearing about this interactive quality of self and it's not other, it's that which is actually us informs our ability to preserve it well. That's what's important. How do we take care of it? Not whether we have some understanding of it. If you understand it, that's okay. It's not terrible. You don't have to be stupid to be a Zen student. But understanding is not the point. How do we actually take on this process, this dynamic jade machine revolving? How do we place our life in the center of now you have it, preserve it? Well, that's the point of this. Thank you. Carol? Yeah, and there's a really good reason.

[47:42]

There's an answer to that question. If people were not caught up in the particulars in the relative world, they wouldn't be. We take care of this reality in the relative world. So, Zen is not about getting rid of your ego. We need to know green light means go, red light means stop. We need to, you know, all of you who came here tonight made various right turns and various left turns, and you knew the difference. Or your body knew the difference. You didn't have to think about it. So when you came here tonight, how many of you came the same way you usually come to Clouds and Waters, in terms of the same traffic route, the same roads that you usually come to Clouds and Waters? Can I see your hands? Okay. So you have a way to come to Clouds and Waters, and you follow that same route. It's the particulars of how you take care of, oh, I want to go to Clouds and Water tonight.

[48:42]

How many of you took some different route that you've never taken before? There you go. It happens sometimes that people do that, where they take a different route. It's possible to do that. But most of the time, you all have social security numbers that you can probably recite, and addresses, and phone numbers, and you have a story about who you are. And this is all the particular relative world. And in order to function, in order to have a society and buildings and procreate and get the kids to school and do all the things that life is involved with, this is all happens in the particular relative world. So yeah, we live in the world of the particulars. What this is about, though, is that it's not enough to see the other side. Of course, that's a big part of our practice. So many religions focus on seeing the ultimate, seeing the universal, realizing Godhead or whatever, seeing the burning bush, realizing that there is this other side of our life that we've been living.

[49:58]

that behind all of the business and the busyness and the particulars and the data of our life, there is this sameness. Dogen came back from China and said, I didn't bring anything just that I realized, eyes horizontal, nose vertical. There is this sameness about all things and all beings and all experiences, this ultimate universal quality of our life. A big part of religion and a big part of Zen practice is, we say, to take the backward step and turn the light inwardly to illuminate the self. So when we're sitting facing the wall or facing the floor, there's a way in which we're turning away from the relative world, the busy world, the particulars, the data of the world, to this deeper possibility.

[51:02]

And again, remember that Dongshan said, um, when he first saw the reflection, it now is me. I now I'm not it. One must understand in this way to merge with suchness. So, uh, in Buddhism too, um, sometimes some teachers, some money, you just emphasize this experience of merging with suchness of realizing the ultimate or the universal. And it's wonderful. And it's in terms of this lineage that we practice in terms of Zen, this is just the starting point in a way. So having some great satori experience is, you know, that's fine. That's the starting point of practice in a way. And in a way, in our tradition, we sort of bypass that. We just say, no, you have it. Preserve it well. Now it's possible that you may have some dramatic experience of seeing oneness or seeing the universal in sashayner, who knows, walking down the street.

[52:10]

And that's fine. It's okay. In fact, all of you, I deeply believe all of you have some real relationship to the ultimate, to the universal, to the absolute truth. I know that because you're here. Just the fact that you showed up means that you have some sense, some glimpse of this universal. Now you have it, preserve it well. So the point of our practice is that how do we bring our Zazen heart back into the world of the particulars, back into the particular situations of our life, back into all the trouble and confusion and greed and anger and all of that frustration and you know, wars and corruption and so forth that go on in our society. So the point of our practice is not to get some understanding. The point of our practice is actually to help suffering beings to make a difference in the world. Yet the process of that includes that we see, oh yes, eyes horizontal, nose vertical.

[53:17]

In some way, we are all just suchness. So in the harmony of difference and sameness, do you chant that here sometimes? The Sando Kai, Sekito says, merging with oneness is still not enlightenment. So, and we sometimes say, Shakyamuni Buddha only got 50%. Maybe it was more like 45, anyway. What are we going to do in our lives to take care of this reality. This is the point of this teaching of suchness. So the next part gets a little technical and philosophical, and we don't like to talk about it much in Soto Zen. Dogen, who brought this from China to Japan, He said it's a little dangerous to talk about this because it's actually philosophically such a neat system.

[54:19]

It really works so well that you can get fooled into really getting caught up in this. And this is called the five degrees or five ranks. And it's in this text. And it's really a way of expressing how this unfolds, this interrelationship of the side of oneness, the ultimate, that we get at least a glimpse of out of the corner of our eye in Zazen, or we taste in some way, or we have some sense of maybe after shitting a few periods and our knees are aching and it's almost the end of the period, and we just get a little taste of it. Anyway, there's this, all of you have some relationship to this universal And yet, what is emphasized in this teaching of the Five Ranks and throughout this Song of the Jewel Marrow Samadhi is this interrelationship of these two sides that Carol was asking about, the universal and the particular.

[55:23]

And actually, this teaching of the Five Ranks is one of the teachings in the Soto Zen Dharma Transmission. You know, it's hard to see it in terms of our practice and not as a philosophical system, which is why we don't talk about it so much. But if I'm going to talk about this Jomar Samadhi, I have to at least mention it. So I will. So there are five places. One way to talk about it. There are five places in this text where Dongshan uses the character true or show in Japanese. It's the same show as in Shobo Genzo. and they represent five positions or five ways in which this ultimate truth of oneness or sameness naturally interfolds with the particulars of a particular practitioner's life. So there's a, there's a kind of lawful, natural unfolding about this. Maybe I'll just say what the five are.

[56:31]

Um, So again, the two sides, we could talk about it in terms of sameness and difference, or universal in particular, ultimate and phenomenal. It's actually not a, it's a kind of ontological teaching. So to talk about it in terms of phenomenal is a little bit off, but actually it's been used in the Soto School to talk about how we experience phenomena. So there are particular meditation instructions about this, and I'll talk about them more tomorrow. But this relationship of the universal and the particular, sometimes it's talked about in terms of the real and the apparent, or sometimes they use the metaphor of host and guest, or upright and inclined. Anyway, there are lots of ways of talking about it. But just to say what the five are, first is the phenomenal within the real, the particular within the universal.

[57:39]

So in the midst of the whole universe, suddenly I look, there's Gary, the phenomenal within the real. And we can say that about anything, any being, any event. Then the next is second is the real within the phenomenal. The universal within the particular. William Blake talked about seeing the universe in a grain of sand. It's that idea. Seeing a flower and seeing all of possibility of the whole universe in it. The third position is coming from within the real or emerging from the ultimate. Emerging from the universal, and I think of this as, oh, maybe like on the third day of Sashin, on a break, or maybe the fifth day, I don't know, walking outside and seeing the grass or a flower, or just walking out of the zendo into the meeting room and there's tea, and anyways, this emerging from the ultimate.

[58:48]

And then the fourth is called Going Within Together. These are the names that Dongshan himself gave for these five. And that's where we have both working together. So both the ultimate, the universal, and the particular side of our experience, of our practice, are there together, and they're both at work. So when the jade machine revolves, see them both come up together. This is like the fourth position. And then the fifth one, He called arriving within together, and that's where we see there's no difference, actually. They're both there, and there's no, partly the answer to your question, Carol, is there is no universal outside of the particular. There's no ultimate truth, except as it's expressed in some particular situation. Enlightenment doesn't exist on some cloud or some mountaintop. It's in each particular situation. It can't, if it would just be an abstract, meaningless, useless idea, except that it happens in the world of causes and conditions.

[60:00]

So going back to the song of the precious mare Samadhi, he says, within causes and conditions, time and season, it is serene and illuminating. There's some combination of causes and conditions that allowed you, each of you to come to practice. it didn't happen in some abstract realm. Each of you in some, for some reason in the, in the, in the course of your particular experience turned away from just trying to accumulate more of the particulars, trying to obsess on, you know, getting what you thought you needed or getting rid of what you didn't want from the material world, but actually, something deeper. There's some reason to be here. There's some purpose for our being in this shape we're in. So the universal can't be without the particular and also the particular always is an expression of the universal.

[61:08]

So this is the fifth thread. So it's not that these are stages of understanding, or development, or whatever. These are five qualities of this reality. So maybe it's useful to throw in from Huayan teaching the idea of Indra's net, just as a way of talking about the particular and the universal. Have you all heard of Indra's net? Flower ornament school, which is kind of the background of this teaching, actually, very much so. The whole universe is this vast network, not just three-dimensional, multi-dimensional network, and each place where the meshes of the net meet... Each particular jewel totally reflects the light of the whole universe. So that's just a metaphor for talking about how this works, that the particular and the universal interact.

[62:16]

But that's, again, just one of the themes of this song that we're studying this weekend. So just to say a little bit about how that shows up in this song, because it's not necessarily obvious. The first place he talks about this is, in darkest night is perfectly clear. In the light of dawn it is hidden. I guess, I think you have actually a somewhat different translation there. In darkest night it is perfectly light. Yeah, but actually the character means clear, bright. In darkest night it is truly clear. In the light of dawn it shows no trace or it's hidden. This is the first, the phenomenal within the real. The second one, we've talked about already. You are not it. but truly it is you in the truth in the ultimate reality realm. It is you out of the universal. There is the particular, the third one is in part of the text.

[63:21]

Part of this text is talking about language. So, um, there's a section here right after that where it says like a newborn child, it is fully endowed with five aspects. No going, no coming, no arising, no abiding. Ba, ba, wa, wa, is anything said or not? Well, maybe all we are, any of us saying is ba, [...] wa, wa, ba, [...] wa, wa, wa. And sometimes you can actually just listen to sound. And it's not important if you remember or understand anything I'm saying tonight, actually. And yet, Dongshan says, talking about this idea of the newborn child, sometimes the Buddha's awareness is compared to that of a newborn baby, where there's not yet any discrimination and aversion and separation between self and other. Well, there's a little bit because there's just mama and milk and food, but there's still not this sense of discrimination and dichotomies and all of the

[64:27]

particularities that we have built up in making the world a bunch of dead objects. So it's almost like a newborn child and yet in the end it says nothing for the words are not yet right. So this is the third position coming from within merging coming in from within the oneness of a baby's consciousness where language is not developed yet where there's not even crawling yet where there's just this kind of sea of color. It's not yet right. The words are not yet right. So we actually need to develop an ego and separate sense of separation and sense of estrangement and see the world as a bunch of dead objects and think of self and other and all of the terrible things that happened to us as we managed to survive adolescence. And that's necessary for us to get back to seeing that you are not it but truly it is you.

[65:32]

So in the end it says nothing for the words are not yet right. That's emerging from within the real. The fourth one is in the illumination hexagram apparent and real. particular and universal interact. So this is the side where they're both at play. And the reason they talk, this is a, we don't have to get into this much, but just so you know, in this, talking about the illumination or the double fire hexagram, do any of you know I Ching or use the I Ching? For those of you who do, there's a particular hexagram, which is double fire, which, this gets very complicated. This is, Dong Shan referring to the I Ching is maybe like an American referring to Shakespeare or something like that. It's just part of cultural lore. But there's one, this one particular hexagram, which happens to be about illumination. When you do the interactions of the trigrams, there's a five-foldness about it. That's all that that means. Um, but, but because Dongshan sees that there are five aspects of how this universal in particular interact, he, he talks about that.

[66:43]

So that's the fourth one. And then the last one is, Like the taste of the five-flavored herb, which is apparently a particular Chinese herb that has five different flavors in it. And I remember there's a Chinese restaurant I used to go to in New York that had five-taste chicken or something like that. Anyway, it's like the taste of the five, no, oh no, it's the line after that. Like the taste of the five-flavored herb, like the five-pronged vajra. Wonderously embraced within the real. So this is the fifth one. This is the fifth place where this character Chu comes up. Inserted within the Chu, drumming and singing begin together. So that line is one of the lines that goes back to relationship of teacher and student. The characters for drumming and singing. Well, it's true that drumming and singing begin together, right?

[67:44]

When you start drumming, singing, People start singing, yeah. But these two characters can be read in various ways. They could be read as call and response. So when you call out the chant, they respond. Another way that these characters can be read for drumming and singing is hitting and yelling. So if I go, you might go, ah. So it's this immediacy of call and response, of hitting and yelling, of teacher and student inquiry and response. So actually Cleary's translation for this, wondrously embraced within the reel, he says, inquiry and response come up together. So actually one of the themes that's in this text that I didn't mention is this whole issue of questioning. questioning this whole process. So I wanted to say, just to kind of say a little bit about this five, these five degrees or five ranks.

[68:54]

And what's important to hear is not the particulars of the five, but just that there is this intricate, intimate relationship that exists in our life and in the world and especially in our practice between these two sides of reality, between this seeing the universal and then the particular expression of it. And it's right there and now you have it, preserve it well. You all have this experience of just this is it, of suchness, of reality in front of you, this in your faceness of the world. And how do we take care of the particulars? How do we, you know, we emphasize in such a sense, how we take care of the phenomenal world, how we express this awareness in our everyday activity. This is, now you have it, preserve it well.

[69:59]

And this is about this interplay of our taste, our experience of the universal. And then how do we take care of the particular phenomenal? So, questions, comments at this point? Rebecca? Right.

[71:18]

Yeah. So this turning of the jade machine, the jade workings, this transformation of ourselves and the world is not separate. the transformation of ourselves and the transformation of the world. Um, yeah, it's necessary to have an ego. It's necessary to have a self to see beyond the self and, but it's not enough just to see beyond the self. Then the point is, Oh, how, what are we going to do about it? How are we going to each in our own way? So we each have our own particular way of expressing this, for the sake of all beings, for the world. And the world needs it. So the point of our practice is not just getting some understanding of this and understanding this highfalutin philosophy. The point is how are we going to then, each of us, find our own way to enjoy and share and express this taste of the dynamics of reality

[72:37]

for the rest of the world? How are we going to bring peace to the world? How are we going to alleviate suffering? How are we going to help other people find their way to connect with seeing beyond just being caught by the particulars? And then how are we going to help them to find their way to express it for the sake of others? So this is very creative. practice we're doing, really. I keep emphasizing that, that zazen is kind of a form of creative expression. Each of us has to find our own seat. Each of us has to find our own way of being able to face the wall and being present and not turning away. So one of the teachings in this that I'm going to focus on tomorrow, turning away and touching are both wrong. for it's like a massive fire.

[73:38]

So there's a lot of real practical stuff in this text along with all that philosophy. The heart of it is not to turn away from the difficulties of whatever particular situation we're in. And also we can't grab a hold of it. We can't get a hold of it. We can't actually kind of reach up touch it. You know, we can touch each other in a way, but we can't, the universal can't be touched. We can't capture it in words. We can't get a hold of it. And yet we can't turn away from it either. And the whole, and also the whole process of preserving it well, of connecting with that which is real, of finding our own way, dynamic, changing way, because everything is changing. How do we find our way to do that? So turning away and touching are both wrong. It's a mass fire. So we sometimes talk about practicing like your hair's on fire.

[74:45]

Some of us just cut off our hair. But how do we see the urgency of this and at the same time find that coolness, that calmness that we that starts to grow when we actually start to trust that it actually is us. So, yeah, it's this dynamic situation we're in. Yes? I really love that answer to the question when you said, I half agree and I half don't agree. You've been kind of circling around of caring and a question. How do you, as a teacher, reach in to a student and find the question that really called out caring on an individual or an individual?

[75:50]

It seems like it's calling this out for us, the question of what do you care about? What's important? So what is it for you? What do you care about? I think it's the fire image. I care about bringing the fire out. Prometheus, yes. Yeah, okay, good. Yeah, so there's the line, a couple lines before that one I was saying. The meaning is not held by the words, but a pivotal moment brings it forth. I mentioned that before. This pivotal moment is like the pivot of the jade machine revolving. You asked me how I do that as a teacher. There's no how. The student comes forth and there's a question. This Zazen is a question.

[76:53]

This practice is a question. There's a question about what are you doing here in this world? What is how each of us has some way of expressing something of wholeness for ourselves, for our own enjoyment, but also for the whole world. So this pivotal moment has a, is about, um, one way of this, that the character in that is key and it's a very complicated character. So there's a lot of ways to translate that line. It could be the meaning does not reside in the words, but the arrival of energy brings it forth or it responds to the arrival of energy. or a response to the inquiring student. So the fire is that you need to bring forth your question. You need to bring forth the way in which, what is it for you? How do you see what you have to give to the world? Each of us has that question. Each of us has some special gift and you know this was meant to be true as Minnesota teacher once said.

[77:57]

How do we find our own way. So I don't have any how. There's no, there's no manual for Zen teachers about how you do that with students. It's just this, just this is it. I'm not you, but you're actually me. So how do we meet and, and do that together? And that's, and that's not up to the teacher. The student has to bring forth a question. I can't, you know, force you to have some questions. I can't force you to care about your life. And yet all of you are, all of you do. I know this because you're here. Somehow you showed up at, you know, clouds and waters and center and you wanted to hear some of the Dharma or whatever, whatever reason, maybe a friend just brought you along and you're just kind of had some vague curiosity about what's all this Zen stuff. I don't care. The fact that you're here proves it to me. So that's all I can say to that.

[79:00]

And yet there is this practice, there is this way of developing our capacity to explore just this, to express just this, to each in our own special way, with our own special gifts, to share this with the people around us and with the world we're in. There's no more questions or comments, so I'll keep going. But if there is, please bring them forward. I had some notes somewhere. Oh, yeah. I kind of want to go back to Dongshan, I'm not sure.

[80:12]

Which story do I want to tell? Yes. About Dongshan? Yeah, there is, thank you. That's the story I wanted to tell. Well, there's a couple stories about, well, there's a long story about the inanimate beings, and I won't go into that one, because it's really complicated, and to do it justice would take a few days, at least, but there's a story about when Dongshan was a young monk, he was a little boy, maybe he was 10 or, anyway, and he was reading the Heart Sutra with his Buddhist teacher, Any of you chanted the Heart Sutra? Yeah, so he came to the part where it said, there's no eye, no ear, no nose, no tongue, no body, no mind. And Dongshan, this little kid, felt his face with his hand.

[81:27]

I have eyes, I have ears, I have nose, I have a tongue. Why does the Sutra say they don't exist? And the teacher was very surprised and said, I'm not capable of being your teacher. And he had to go off and study Zen. There's another story. He was visiting Nanchuan. So I mentioned that Dongshan studied with many great teachers before he found Yunnan. And one time he was at Nanchuan's and Nanchuan was doing a service. Nanchuan was the teacher of Zhaozhou or Zhaoshu, who once said moo about dogs and Buddha nature. Anyway, Nanshuan was the student of Mazu and he said he was going to do this ceremony. He said, tomorrow we will pay homage to Mazu. Do you think he will return or not? No one offered a reply. So then Yang Dongshan came forward and said, he'll come as soon as his companion is present.

[82:31]

Nan Xuan said, this fellow is young, but he's suitable for being cut and polished. He's suitable to be trained. And Dong Xuan said, oh, teacher, do not crush what is good into something mean. So he was a pretty, pretty wild kid in his own way. One time when he was studying with Yun Yan, Dongshan came to Yongyan and said, I have some habits that are not yet eradicated. Maybe some of you could say that. And Yongyan said, what have you been doing? Or what have you been practicing? And Dongshan said, I have not yet concerned myself with the Four Noble Truths. He hadn't even begun to practice, he said. Yongyan said, are you joyful yet? And Dongshan said, It would be untrue to say that I am not joyful.

[83:35]

It is as though I have grasped a pearl, a bright pearl in a pile of shit. So that's Dongshan. Anyway, um, Well, maybe I should go back to the Jewel Mirror Samadhi. We have enough to work with here. So the Dharma of Suchness is intimately transmitted by Buddhists and ancestors. Now you have it, preserve it well. I'm going to skip to the, the meaning does not reside in the words, but this arrival of energy brings it forth. If you're excited, you're trapped. If you move, you're trapped. Miss and you fall into doubt and vacillation.

[84:36]

So this is also about our practice. There is the point of this is not in the words and yet something can happen. It does respond. The meaning of this, the point of this, the teaching itself, the universal and the particular, it does respond to the particular situation when we bring our energy to our life. when we care about the quality of our life. But what happens is, move and you are trapped. When we get excited, when we try and get a hold of it, we get caught up. Turn away, miss it, and you fall into doubt and vacillation. Turning away and touching are both wrong, I mentioned that. Just to portray it in literary form is to stain it with defilement. So there's this funny thing about language that's in here. that we can't get it with words and yet somehow it can respond to the words.

[85:38]

And yet just to put it into fancy words, it stains it, defiles it. So again, this is not about some particular understanding or some particular formulation. This is about the reality of our life and the reality of our practice and how do we find our true face in our zazen, our true experience in our life. So just to follow that theme a little bit, and then I think maybe we'll have questions and then pause for tea, but he says after that, in darkest night, it's truly clear. are truly bright. In the light of dawn it's hidden. Right in the darkness of the universal is the particular. He says it is a standard, a guideway for all things.

[86:43]

Its use removes all suffering. The point of this is how do we use it? How do we preserve it well? How do we take care of it? And the point of that is that we can get rid of this suffering, this extra question that we have. Of course, the world is full of sadness and old age and death and wars and corruption. And maybe we can do something about some of that. But there's some way in which each of us finding our own way to turn this process of meeting the universal and the particular, of expressing the ultimate in the particulars of our life, is helpful to suffering. And then he says, although it is not constructed or although it is not fabricated, it is not beyond words. So it's not made up. And of course, words are just something we compose into sentences and so forth.

[87:52]

And yet it's not beyond words. So we've actually been talking about this tonight, not just me, but in your questions. There's a way to get at it through words and yet we can't get a hold of it. And then again, he says, it's like facing this jewel mirror, form and reflection behold each other. You are not it, but truly it is you. So I'm going to end with this again. You are not it. It truly is you. Dogen says, to carry yourself forward and experience myriad things is delusion. You are not it. Most of how we function in the human world is with this self, this identity that we've constructed or has been constructed partly by our society, by our parents and siblings and so forth. And that's not it. That's not reality. This identity, this self we've constructed, you are not it.

[88:56]

But it is actual you. All of it, the whole universe, finds its expression in you right now here. What do we do about that? How do we turn that so that we can find our own particular way of expressing that? So that's the point. And maybe I'll stop there and we'll look at it more in terms of Zazen tomorrow. But I want to, again, if there's questions or comments or responses of any kind, please feel free. Yes. Yeah.

[90:29]

Yeah, and it hurts. We're out of tune, you know? We don't quite harmonize with everything. This is, there's an incitement there, yeah. And yet it's vast and it transcends dimension. So, it's okay if you're a little out of tune. It has to be, because here we are. And yet, you know, To feel a little bad about that, it's okay. So I'll get to this, I have three more talks about this to do. But one line that's directly relevant to that, I will give a kind of preview of coming attractions. He talks about inverted thinking. This is after the outside still and inside trembling. Sometimes you can be sitting very still and be this perfect Zen zombie on your cushion and inside trembling like cowering rats or tethered colts.

[91:34]

And Dongshan says the ancient sages grieved for them and offered them the Dharma, blessed Dharma, the truth, the teaching. And led by their inverted views, they take black for white. That's us. We see things upside down. We're trained to see things upside down. We're trained to feel like we have to buy all the things in all the TV commercials. We have to become hungry ghosts. We are confused. This is our situation. But then he says, when inverted thinking stops, This is the one place where the translation in your chant book didn't quite do it for me. My translation says, the affirming mind naturally accords. I think yours says, probably that was Dosha who made these, right? The acquiescent heart realizes itself. That's OK, but the four characters, when inverted thinking stops, What it says is the affirming mind or heart, we could say naturally accords, the idea of attunement is there.

[92:51]

Also it means, there's a self in there, but actually I think the reading is naturally, on its own, naturally acquiesces, naturally, Well, first of all, the affirming mind, that character could also be read as the accepting mind, the consenting mind, the mind that takes on things. So this affirming mind, this accepting mind or heart, naturally it acknowledges things, it permits, permits ourselves to be this particular lump of flesh. It allows us to just be this skin bag here and now. That character also means that it forgives and it vows. So the affirming heart naturally forgives itself. It naturally comes into tune by forgiving itself and by vowing.

[93:54]

Vowing is also part of that character. By vowing to take on being this person to this affirming, acquiescing mind, on its own naturally accords with reality. And it does it by all of those other words, by permitting itself or allowing itself to be itself, by acknowledging itself, by authorizing itself, by forgiving itself, by resolve to take on this attunement. So part of the process and practice of attunement that happens as we get into this dynamic of the universal and the particular, it's necessary for us to first do what you just demonstrated, to see this lack of, this being out of tune, and to feel bad about it, to feel, oh, there's this, even if I, you know, kind of, I'm here and I showed up and now I have it and I'm trying to preserve it well, but, you know, it's just, it's not quite right.

[95:05]

It's really important to feel that, to really feel it, to take it on, to take it to heart. And when that happens, there's this possibility of the dharma, of the teaching coming and showing us this affirming heart that can find accord. So I thank you for that question. We'll come back to that tomorrow. Other questions? Comments? Warm heart to warm heart. Face to face. Eyes to eyes. Nose vertical. Eyes horizontal.

[96:08]

Drinking tea together. Chanting together. Inhaling and exhaling the same air together. you know, maybe part of it is listening and trying to understand, or listening and trying to hear anyway. And maybe it's just hearing a little, you don't have to understand those five positions, but just hearing a little bit about these two sides of our experience. And sometime in the next week you might be in the middle of some busy situation, caught in traffic, whatever, And you might inhale and remember that, oh, there's a universal and a particular. And I don't have to scream at the driver in front of me. OK, here I am. We'll just wait, wait out the flow of traffic or whatever.

[97:15]

So how this how this appears in your life is mysterious. It really is. We can't control it. That's why when you ask me how do I work with students, there's no how. Here we are. We're just in it together in the middle of this process. Thank you for the question. Anybody else? Yes. But I don't understand most of them. They're just... Turning away and touching or holding on is like a massive fight. When I read that, when I see that, it just, like, blows my mind completely, but I don't have an understanding of it.

[98:19]

That's the... What's important is blowing your mind, not the understanding. Yeah. Oh, it's not blowing my mind. It didn't blow my mind. You know, there are particular references. Okay, so some of you, actually, I should do this. I imagine that some of you might not be here tomorrow or Sunday. Is that true? Okay, so let me just clue you in on a couple of particular literary allusions, okay? One of them is just this story about with his archer's skill, Yi hit the market 100 paces, and that's about a legendary Chinese archer who was really good. But then the next line, when arrows meet head on, how could it be a matter of skill? This is a story from ancient China about a teacher and student. And the teacher was the greatest archer in the world. And his student got to be really, really good, really good archer. And at some point, he figured, if I kill my teacher, then I'll be the best archer in the world.

[99:25]

So immediately, he picked up his bow and he fired an arrow. And his teacher, some distance away, of course, knew this immediately. And he picked up his bow and he fired an arrow. And the arrows met head-on in midair, fell to the ground. And then they both realized that they could, together, both be the best archers in the world. And they had tea and lived happily ever after, or something like that. Anyway, that's what that's a reference to. How could that be a matter of skill? How could that be a matter of how? What's going on when we actually meet eyeball to eyeball, face to face? That's what that reference is, and that's about teacher and student. There's a few more of these. The wooden man starts to sing, the stone woman gets up dancing. One of my favorite lines. There are a lot of Zen expressions like this. When we sit in stillness, our true life and vitality can emerge.

[100:26]

This actually refers to a Hank Williams song. Do any of you know Colliger? But anyway, when we sit still, when we are willing to just be present, facing the jade mirror, facing the wall, facing the suchness of you are not it and it truly is you, Our true life appears. The wooden man starts to sing. The stone woman gets up dancing. There are many Zen expressions like that. A dragon howls in a withered tree. Or, anyway, there's a lot of expressions like that. I won't go into the host within the host today, but I will talk about that, I don't know, sometime before I leave. Okay, one more that I want to talk about a lot tomorrow, but just as a preview of coming attractions. one on the verge of realizing the Buddha way gazed at a tree for 10 calpas. So I might spend all day tomorrow on that one.

[101:28]

Um, that's a story from the Lotus Sutra and actually it's also in the flower ornament of a Tom Sucker Sutra. And this is about a Buddha who was sitting at under the Bodhi tree just at the point of fully realizing complete Buddha hood. And he sat there, contemplating the tree, sat in meditation for 10 kalpas. Do you all know how long the kalpa is? You all know? Anyone not know? Kalpas like, well, one example is there's this enclosed city that's 300 acres large and it's covered with one layer, just one layer of poppy seeds. At every, I can't remember if it's every three months or every three years. It doesn't really matter. Somebody comes and takes one poppy seed out. So the time it takes to clear away all the poppy seeds is one kalpa. And another image is of this bird that is flying, holding a piece of silk in her talons, and she flies over the top of Mount Everest once every hundred years.

[102:41]

The time it takes to wear down Mount Everest is one kalpa. Anyway, so this guy, this Buddha, who was just not quite a Buddha. Not quite totally enlightened. He was just on the verge. Maybe he was in invirginment. Anyway, he was just this side of Buddha, which of course is Buddha. Anyway, he spent 10 kalpas just sitting on this tree, sitting under this tree. There have been great teachers who've sat on trees too, or in trees. But anyway, he was sitting under the tree, the Bodhi tree. for ten kalpas. That's kind of like our practice. That's Zazen. We're just kind of, you know, just on the edge of completely getting it. But we don't quite go there because there's all these other people here and we want to hang out with them. And anyway, so I'll talk more about that tomorrow. But anyway, anybody else have any questions about particular lines?

[103:42]

Yeah. Thanks. Okay, well thank you for asking. Okay, I could say a lot about this, but this is about this issue of sameness and difference, like from the Sandokai, the harmony of difference and sameness. So if you imagine a silver bowl, maybe you have one in the kitchen even, a silver bowl filled with snow, and you have snow sometimes in Minnesota, not this week, but sometimes, and it's filled with snow, and the snow is melting, and you can see the silver, and you can, If you're looking into the melting snow, is it the snow or is it the silver of the bowl that you're seeing? Well, anyway, it's kind of like they're almost the same, but not quite. Or it's like a heron, and this means a white heron hidden in the moon. So when they talk about, you know about the moon, when they talk about the moon, they're talking usually about the full moon, this perfect circle, this circle of perfection.

[104:54]

that we Zen people sometimes worship. And yet in Asia still, they actually have moon viewing parties, you know? Full moon night, they all go out and drink sake and look at the moon. And it's kind of, the best way to look at the moon is like with some leaves or something in front of it. Or maybe there's a heron flying by. And we see this white heron hidden in the moon. And what Dongshan says, taken as similar, they are not the same, not distinguished, their places are known. It's almost like we might not see the white heron in front of the moon, but actually you can see it. So this is about this interplay of universal and particular, of sameness and difference. And to start with anyway, they're really close, and yet we can see which is which. We can see how we're all the same. We can certainly see how we're all different. So that's what that's about.

[105:55]

I mean, I could say more, but that's a little bit. Well, I think that's probably more than enough for one night.

[106:13]

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