Mark tells me there's six inches of snow on the ridge, and it's not supposed to rain till Monday at midnight. When? Midday. And today is Tuesday or Friday? I'll tell you what day it is. It's Friday." That's what my wife says. So we might be able to have a Buddha's birthday party in the snow or looking for white flowers in the horse pasture, up here in the ridge. I don't think there'd be snow in the horse pasture. Mahayana Buddhism, of course, emphasizes compassion and a profound relationship with others.

[01:52]

And yet it also, Buddhism also depends on a world of no confirmation. It's said, old saying is, when you get here, when you get to here, no one can know but yourself. And the story, koan, I told you last night about the rhinoceros, which my anja thought I'd made up. He says, it sounds just like you mumbling around the cabin. Where's my rhinoceros fan? It's broken. Bring me the rhinoceros fan. Actually, I think the anja was pretending to be dumb, he knows. It's an old story. But this story, a point of this story is, well, it's rather profound. It's one of the last koans in Blue Cliff Records and they get a little more, they cover so much territory.

[03:36]

But one aspect of the story is that each of the individuals is in the world of no confirmation, and yet each one knows what the other's talking about. World of no confirmation. When Suzuki Yoshi said, there's someone in this room who has been enlightened but doesn't know it. That doesn't know it is the no confirmation, no reference. He's not just saying the person doesn't know it. He's also saying the person shouldn't know it. Just... I don't know what word to use. Compost. Just your You don't need any reference. Philip Zenshin mentioned to me Seppo's remark. When anybody would come to see him, what is it? And as Zenshin

[05:07]

pointed out. The point is, is Seppo... Seppo is both asking, actually asking, what is it, and actually, and also he's quite satisfied. This is again our point, turning the question, said to his monks, can any of you Zen followers turn a word? The rhinoceros fan is broken. Will someone bring me a rhinoceros? And one monk said, stop everything and let's go to the meditation hall. And Satya said, God, I threw out my line for a whale and I got a frog. Croak. But, you know, he also ended the rhinoceros dialogue there, where Zhu Fu

[06:34]

draws a circle. He was a disciple of Yangshan who liked to do all these circles and stuff. And he so drew a circle and put rhino in it. But Setso ends that dialogue with, After all this study, isn't there—what a pity no one understands. This kind of remark, kind of erasure, is Just the same as Sukhir Roshi was saying, no, but doesn't know it. Zufu, you know, is well-known too. In his monastery, he went into the lavatory in the middle of the night and he shouted, And the monk started running around, he started running around in the dark and he grabbed one of the monks and said, I caught him, I caught him! And the monk said, no master, it's just me, you didn't. And he said, yes I did, you just won't own up to it. He would do things like this, you know. He had a sign outside his monastery door which said,

[07:46]

Beware of dog. Above, he'll get your head. In the middle, he'll get your loins. Below, he'll get your legs. If you meet him, he will take your body and mind. So whenever he saw a newcomer, you know, in the monastery, he would holler, watch out for the dog. The guy would turn around and he'd Zufu would zip back into his abbot's room and close the door. I should be colorful like that. Yangshan would draw a circle and put an ox in it. Ox means usually Dharmakaya or whole reality or something like that. You know we have, we can say we have biological desires, psychological desires, social desires,

[09:25]

But we can also say that another way. We can say, we want to express ourself biologically and psychologically and socially. And I change it from desires to express ourselves. because I'm emphasizing this expressive place. Now, I don't know if I can... There's one side of desire which we can talk about and relate to precepts and so forth. But this side of desire that I'm talking about now, or expressing ourself, I think if we can find this out through our monastic life or practice life, it will make, give us a new life in our desires and understanding of precepts and world of contraries where we're attracted and

[10:51]

averted both. So it's pretty simple you know it's like if you're hungry and you think I'm hungry and it means to you you want to find something to eat But we all know if you snack all the time, your meal, you have no joy in eating and you're not healthy and so forth. So being hungry is part of eating. Being hungry doesn't just mean to satisfy your hunger. Being hungry is its own satisfaction. Someone may be scared of being ordained, as some people are, I know. Sometimes people who want to be ordained, the first way they bring it up to me is they say, you know, I'm, what I don't want to do and what I'm really scared of is ordination. Or maybe the, the matfolds are scared of getting married or something. Or I'm supposed to do a marriage this Sunday.

[12:22]

day after tomorrow. I thought I'd try to combine it with having it all in one day, but the same day as the map rolls. But because of all kinds of complications, lawsuits and things, I had to do this marriage this Sunday. Anyway, being, say, scared of ordination, you may want to get rid of that fear or feel you should practice with it in some way, like you're not accepting it enough or something like that. But part of being ordained is to be scared of being ordained. It's the same thing. There's maybe no meaning to being ordained unless you're scared of being ordained. This is a rhinoceros in the family, or in the circle. Or, bring me the rhinoceros. Or loot

[13:49]

Another koan in the last part of the Bluetooth records is about Surangama Sutra. Why can you not see my seeing? Or see my not seeing? The pointer or the introductory word starts out with, you know, to hear the song as the strings of the lute are touched, just first touched. or it says in the pointer to the rhinoceros fan story, to transcend limitations, to get rid of, get through sticky points, to uphold

[14:51]

the fundamental vehicle to support the treasury of the true Dharma-I. You must be able to respond equally to all ten directions and be crystal clear and enter this realm or attain this realm directly. this is another kind of perception than we are used to, which we can call... I don't know what to call it, you know, expressive place, or it's not complacency, but place. Maybe the first, at first we practice with mindfulness. This is also phenomena hidden in phenomena, or phenomena revealed by phenomena, or phenomena receiving phenomena. In this way, conduct receives your conduct. There's no confirmation outside your conduct.

[16:23]

Boat is not hidden in ravine. Desire receives your desires. Your activity receives your activity. So maybe first is that we practice is mindfulness. You're trying, you know, all of culture, as I said to someone, all of culture and all of civilization is involved with the extrapolation or extension of or expression of those aspects of ourselves which we don't know. unconscious or mythology or so forth. And they are, in a sense, given to your culture. You don't have much control over them and so many of your actions are guided by your society or your culture or your unconscious.

[17:51]

Now this world, this person who doesn't need confirmation, which you don't any longer need to confirm your experience. And most of our life is what we call conscious, our conscious world is, you know, the most common projections, you know, the projections we share, more or less, with others. The drunken monkey, Chinese or Indians call it, drunken monkey. Sufis call it the blind world, automatic world. So, although Mahayana Buddhism emphasizes profound relationship with others, and we may experience, oh, Zen is, Buddhism is so groupie, too much group life, sitting together, Though you, it's interesting, you complain about it but you like facing out. Like seeing each other. But actually, you know, here's the law of opposites again. Emphasis on, in Buddhism is, to enter that world without confirmation.

[19:16]

So it means to make all of those things which guide you, which lead you, mythology, culture, civilization, unconscious, accessible to you. So mindfulness is one practice to make, try to make yourself more awake, more aware of and participate, a participant of your life. So you know what you're doing. And mindfulness is one of those practices. Questioning is another practice, turning a question to direct you at what's inaccessible to you. You know, it's very simple practice, very sincere practice, and arises out of, again, I guess I'd have to call it non-theistic sincerity. In other words, you're a very sincere person. You don't know what to do. You don't know why your relationship with your spouse is terrible, or why your sashimi was so sleepy, or why whatever. And you have no belief or rule book or anything to turn to.

[20:59]

So, what can you do? And you know that the inventory of your rational thinking, you've already been through the inventory of your rational thinking, I hope. You know that inventory is rather limited. It's a lot of what your friends said. And you need something new. You want something you haven't thought of yet, otherwise you wouldn't be in such a state. So you don't have anything to do but ask a question. And you don't know where the answer is, and you don't know what the rule book is, and you can't get it out of your inventory. So this sincerity is offered, nothing but a question. This sincerity, you know, must have constancy. You can't just ask the question once, what is it? What to do? So you ask it over and over again like a fool. What is it? Like Seppl? What is it? What is it? Everyone you see, what is it? Anyway, this is the profound practice of Zen Buddhism. What is it?

[22:27]

What the heck's happening around here? You know, that's all. But you, some compulsive nature, you ask it over and over again, what the hell's happening around here? Over and over and over and over. So, again, in Mahayana Buddhism, this profound relationship to others is actually a function of your profound relationship to the inaccessible. And this is what makes you accessible to others. This is what makes us accessible to ourselves, to each other, and to yourself. If you meet someone who has access to themselves, it gives you access to yourself. So mindfulness makes you get aware of your inventory. But then mindfulness doesn't penetrate so many areas. And you find yourself guided by habits and culture and civilization and unconscious and so forth. So one by one you begin to pinpoint those areas and you pinpoint them with a question. And you don't know. You have only this lifetime. So you say, boom, boom, boom. You just keep at it one year or two years.

[23:58]

And when you get on to this as a practice, it takes one or two years to make the first question work, if you really are doing it. For one thing, most of us just don't have the simple ability to repeat a question over and over again. You forget about it, you know. Even if you want to, you get bored with it, you don't want to do it. Even though you made a vow to say it, you know, you forget about it, and months go by and you haven't said it. And then you think of it, and when you think of it, you don't say, if your sinking mind would think of it and say, It's been four months since I've thought of it, to hell with it. But, rising minds say, after four months I've thought of it again, great. You can start saying it again. You know, I read somewhere that I always say I read somewhere when I've only read it in one place and have no confirmation. I read everything. A rye plant, run rye plant, has between 6,000 and 7,000 miles of rootlets and root hairs, which would stretch halfway around the earth. That's amazing. It makes it in just one little springtime.

[25:28]

It makes us respect the rye plant very much. I mean, it might make you respect the rye plant very much. And when you step, everywhere you step, there's 6,000 miles beneath each footstep. So our gross conscious world is very limited and your life is very short. But this world of 6,000 miles right here under your foot is very long and this life is also very long, very long. As I have often said, between me and Buddha, between you and Buddha, there's only 90 people. 90 people, 30 more than in this room. Stretched out. Power of 90 people. who have seen dynasties rise and fall, and teachings come and go, and cities and buildings go up, so forth. And we 60 people have the same power. Dogen quotes great Zen master Rinzai, said,

[26:56]

In all of the Tang Dynasty, no matter how hard you try, there's not a single person you can find who isn't enlightened. The Tang Dynasty means any old time. Maybe better in the Tang than most, but anyway, any old time. In the whole Tang Dynasty, no matter how hard you try, there isn't a single person you can find who isn't enlightened. And Dogen, you know how Dogen likes to turn everything around. Dogen says, haven't you seen a half-enlightened person with a shiny face? He says, in any single half-enlightened person, he says, you can find many dynasties. This is the rhinoceros in the circle. Being hungry is eating. So as long as you need confirmation for your consciousness, you cannot really profoundly enter anything. You're bizarrely uneven. You will always have some barrier. Even the darkness that's always around us, you won't enter.

[28:26]

physically, sexually, emotionally, until you can completely trust your body and your space. And we have a kind of mandala, you know, around us. And generally, not everyone experiences this, but generally it's populated. And it's populated by friends and parents and stuff. And you'll feel this side is warm, this side is cold. And by the way, I've been meaning to say this, it just came up now. When I straighten your back, I am not... Sometimes I'm straightening your back. And sometimes, you know, the way I'm pushing your back isn't meant to keep your back in that position I put it in. But actually, I'm moving my back, my hand, up your back until it gets dark. Because your back is There'll be... I can feel it's open or clear, and then it'll get dark. And I can feel light, and then it... The point where it gets dark, I stop and give you a little poke, so you'll know where your unconsciousness in your backbone starts, where it's no longer open. And from that point you should lift.

[29:55]

But if I've pushed your backbone through your navel, it doesn't mean you have to keep it that way. You can put it back, you know. And also, while I think of it, I'd like to have the gone-gone from wisdom gone beyond wisdom. Excuse me for always changing things, but trouble is, when we translate something like this, it's liable to be around for 50 years or 100 years. Every year we chant it, it gets harder and harder to change. No one has the nerve. They changed it back in 1978. They probably knew what they were doing and we didn't. The only way I can hear it is to hear it over and over again, and then I can begin to see how it will be heard from many points of view. So now I'd like to try it with wisdom beyond wisdom. And I time it every now and then. I wear my watch sometimes and I time it, which part, and compare it to Jigo Sanchi to see if there's enough time to offer the incense.

[31:19]

So wisdom beyond wisdom, Maha Prajnaparamita, I think will work okay. Anyway, there's this mandala around us. And in tantric Buddhism, tantric Buddhism, you know, emphasizes a being a chip off the old Buddha, much more than Zen. So it emphasizes bodhisattvas and reincarnation, and the reincarnation is often from a lineage beginning with a bodhisattva. In Zen, no one says we're reincarnated from a bodhisattva, you know, at least it's… I never heard of it. Sometimes we say bodhisattva dropped in and said hello, but we don't say that. But Tantric Buddhism, particularly Tibetan Tantric Buddhism, emphasizes acting as... In Zen we say, be completely yourself and you will be Buddha. In Tantric Buddhism you act as the Bodhisattva.

[32:48]

And at some point you'll jump, make the jump and realize what Maitreya is or Avalokiteshvara is. So they populate this mandala with various Buddhas and Bodhisattvas and Gurus around your head and stuff. But this space is active around you. This is the more esoteric side of the practice of expressive place. Anyway, I won't say more about it, except that it's good to be aware that actually our space is populated. We think of it... You'll notice that one side feels different from another and so forth. We feel it as populated. So we're trying in Zen practice to make this all accessible to us. I think I've mentioned to you before, I think it's called the Senoi Indians and their Dreaming Practice. Do you know about it? It's quite interesting and it also fits directly with particularly Zen, with Buddhist relationship to dream, but particularly Zen relationship to dream.

[34:24]

And it's a little different in the West uses dreams. But what they seem to do, and this is all according to one person's paper, is every morning they discuss, the family will discuss the dreams of the night before, of the children and things, and they'll teach the child that the dream is their own power. So if the child, say, dreams about a tiger. They live in a jungle or something. If the child dreams about a tiger, they say, oh, that tiger is your tiger. If it appears in your dream, it's your tiger. You can make friends with that tiger, and it will teach you. It has games and so forth. That's quite good, you know. It's like that. Or if the child has had a dream of falling, and it's quite scared. They will change it into a dream of flying. They'll say to the kid, well, what'd you bring back? That's great. What'd you find? Next time, get something. Bring it back. So the kid will, next time they dream they're falling, they'll soar off and come back with something interesting. That's very much like practicing with a koan or turning a question.

[35:49]

And it's interesting and very refreshing to turn a question or do a koan, as I said yesterday, repeating somebody who said, it's like a fresh landscape, like seen from a train. But it's very... When you... With turning a question or a statement, you're bringing content to your every moment. You're consciously bringing content to your every moment. And I think that we have some fear of that, Again, because we're so hooked into this idea of natural, and I think we see Shikantaza as something natural, just sitting, but that just, very big just, very... maybe I can get to that, but it's not reflective. You know, Suzuki Roshi told me that his teacher, when he was twelve or fourteen or so, told him, your mind should be like a mirror. And Suzuki Roshi said, this is a pretty good practice for a kid, you know. It's a little simple, though. And what he meant by it's a little simple is actually everything is a mirror. If we say everything is a mirror, each mirror, the reflection in each mirror is something different. So this mirror, you see this, and then in this mirror, it's something else. So the six patriarchs supposedly said, instead of

[37:18]

that mirror which you wipe and keep clean all the time. The Sixth Patriarch said, there's no mirror and no stand. That means that everything is a reflection of each other, but the reflection in time and space is each time different. This is again the rhino in the circle. So when you bring, with the questioning, when you bring the questioning, you're bringing some content. Avalokiteshvara or Maitreya or why can't I get along with my spouse? Whatever it is, you're bringing that over and over again to each tree, event, dish, etc. Although you're bringing some content to it, the effect is quite exciting and dangerous feeling sometimes. And the effect is of eliminating content because actually you bring so much automatic content to every moment that to bring one specific content over and over again eliminates a lot of content that's already there. So you begin to see things more freshly. So mindfulness gives us inventory.

[38:39]

And awareness develops awareness. And turning a question penetrates more. It develops not awareness but presence. Awareness is still like an observer. Turning a question is more like radiant presence, continuous presence. Awareness just looks at things. Presence shines on things. so you start shining on things when you see things they look very fresh people will feel it too and by this presence you can penetrate very It's like they have this new, what's it called, a neutrino or something, which will go right through anything. It will pass right through anything. You can make a lead wall from here to the ridge, bops right through it in a moment's hesitation. I don't know what it's called. I don't know if it's a neutrino or not. They're trying to communicate.

[40:00]

to set it up so they can do radio communication with it and television and so forth with the other side of the earth because they can bop it straight through the earth. Nothing gets in its way. Now, presence isn't quite that good. But it's more like that, you know. Awareness kind of hits the object and stops. Presence is more penetrating and by it we can get to more inaccessible areas. So that's the second. The third is expressive place, activity. How we must, some way we, our activity itself becomes non-confirming reality. Our activity itself is conduct, receiving conduct, or activity of no mind. And our activity then penetrates. Our activity elucidates the inaccessible. Now, Prajna

[41:29]

So this is real activation of place, undoing. Again, rhino in the circle, ox in the circle. Then bring me the rhinoceros. But, you know, I think the earliest meaning of prajna, wisdom, is the wisdom of cutting off externals. or of not leaking, or not needing to respond. So initially, the practice of cutting off may seem rather, again, quietistic or shutting out perceptions, etc. But it's actually a complete version or fourth step of expressing place or returning phenomena to phenomena. You yourself are the place, so there's no externals. You yourself are the circle within the circle. One way to practice

[42:59]

shikantaza is to concentrate on the sensation of shikantaza, concentration on the sensation of sitting. This is also many dynasties in the half-enlightened person. Anyway, this was all to try to explain what I wasn't able to explain yesterday. I did it better today. You know, as I said yesterday, Rinzai is too independent, and Soto is too mixed up with Buddhism. And I think we have to find

[44:08]

some Buddhist Zen, very direct Buddhist Zen, which brings all of Buddhism into our practice. And I want you to know uses of the teaching. You know, one of the reasons I'm trying to get you to do this turning question is to also teach you how to use the teaching just to be familiar with it and how to use it. This is our tradition. And of course in our monastic life it's maybe the only place we can see the importance of doing things with two hands, such a simple thing. How six thousand miles of rootlets and root hairs are made by this no foreground, no background, doing things completely, making everything count. If you, for a while, try to don't say anything unless it counts, I mean, maybe you're just saying, hello, it's a nice day, or there's snow on the ridge, but it's not casual. You're saying it

[45:33]

with feeling of being the agent of blue or agent of snow on the ridge to someone, to hello, just good morning, the agent of good morning. If you do, if you only do what counts, it will add up. Very simple arithmetic. like the 90 who brought us here. We can make, if we do, what counts. If your minute actions, like the root, those tiny root hairs have a little starch ball, I read, in it. And the starch ball tells it where it's down and what's sideways, because it rattles around. So the root gets like this, the starch ball bounces this way.

[47:13]

And where it's, when it's dry, it goes away from there, toward the wet area. And this I've seen, when you have something growing this way and you have something there, and it's not yet there, it's growing toward it, and you move it here, it will go down this way. That's very interesting. But the plant is only doing what counts. It's not fooling around. Our activities, our roots should penetrate into doing things with two hands. So in such detail, by this we will enter so many inaccessible areas without needing a referent or confirmation, without needing any conscious control. And we can not only continue Buddhism but found Buddhism, found a practice for people. Make this profound accessibility to ourselves and to Buddha a great treasure of contemporary world.

[48:39]

I don't see why we should do anything else. Do you? Is there really anything else to do? Why don't we do it? Okay, thanks.

[48:59]

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