I did not want to take... Someone asked about Master Obaku's teaching.

[01:05]

Obaku is the Japanese name for Wong Fo, who was Master Rinzai's teacher in China. And Wong Fo was a very had a very commanding presence. And he was very tall. And it was said that he had a gem on his forehead. And his practice and teaching was very simple. Simple in the sense of very direct. not full of complications.

[02:06]

And so in the Blue Cliff Record, there's a well-known case in which Baku is the principal, case number 11. And it's called Obaku's Partakers of Brewer's Grain, or the Dregs of the Brewing, about people who just were around the periphery remain around the periphery of practice. We're called drinkers of the drinks rather than the partakers of the wine.

[03:17]

So Engo, Master Engo introduces the subject and he says, The Buddha's supreme power is wholly within his grasp. All the souls and all the spirits of heaven and earth are under his command. Even his casual words and sayings amaze the masses and arouse the crowds. His every gesture and action remove the sufferers' chains and knock off their canes. If a transcendent person appears, The Buddha meets him with the transcendent principle. Who can ever be so wonderful? If you want to understand the secret, see the following. The main subject. Master Obaku addressed the assembly and he said, you are all partakers of the dregs of brewer's grain.

[04:24]

If you go on wandering about like you do, When will you ever settle the matter? Do you know that in all the land of Tong, there is no Zen teacher? Then a monk came forward and said, but surely there are those who teach disciples and preside over the assemblies. What about that? Or what about them? Obaku said, I didn't say that there's no Zen. I just said there are no Zen teachers. Or there is no Zen teacher. And then Sencho in his verse says, commanding was his way of teaching, but he made no point of merit. Seated majestically over the whole land and sea, he distinguished the dragon from the snake. Emperor Taichu once encountered him

[05:30]

and three times fell into his clutches. So in Engo's introduction, he's talking about singing the praises of Master Obaku. He says, the Buddha's supreme power is wholly within his grasp. He sits in Buddha's seat. all the souls and all the spirits of heaven and earth are under his command. Even his casual words and sayings amaze the masses and arouse the crowds." So whatever he does is a teaching. This is very much like Suzuki Roshi. He had the same quality. Everything he did was a teaching. So the students were always aware of his normal everyday behavior, just the way he acted, the way he stood up and sat down.

[06:38]

And just his normal behavior was rather extraordinary, even though it was just normal behavior, nothing special. You may think that this kind of person would have some kind of majestic presence or gestures. But actually, the gestures are just normal. Nothing extraordinary. But in this nothing extraordinary, there's everything was teaching. Even his casual words and sayings amaze the masses and arouse the crowds. His every gesture and action remove the sufferer's change and knock off the cang." Kangs are like heavy, like the stocks, you know, handcuffs.

[07:44]

If a transcendent person appears, the Buddha meets that person with the transcendent principle. In other words, he meets him where he is or she is. Who can ever be so wonderful? If you want to understand the secret, then see the following. So here's the secret. Master Obako addressed the assembly. He's talking to his monks. And the monks, you know, in those days, And in China, it was a practice for monks to go around to the various monasteries to travel after they had practiced for a certain amount of time. But people would easily search out various places to go

[08:47]

thinking, oh, this place has 800 monks, it must be a good place, or 1,000 monks. So, because of the attention, they would say, well, I'll go there and maybe learn something. So, there were a lot of monks who would just travel around and feel that wherever they went, they could learn something. and instead of just settling down and doing the hard practice. So this kind of attitude persists to this day. People, you know, wandering around and never really settling down to resolve the matter. So Obaku addressed the assembly and he said, you are all partakers of brewer's grain.

[09:56]

In the longer story, actually he takes his staff and scatters the assembly with his staff. And then he says, you are all partakers of brewer's grain, the dregs of the brewing. If you go on Wandering around here and there like you do, you'll never, when will you ever settle the matter? Wandering around, as you can apply that to, not just going from one place to another, but even when you're sitting in Zazen, You're wandering around. When will you ever settle the matter and just stay where you are and stop discriminating between good and bad, right and wrong, what you like, what I don't like, pleasure and pain?

[11:13]

When we're new students, we're very restless. And it takes some amount of time before we actually stop moving around and just settle down and accept our situation without discriminating between liking and disliking, good and bad. So in a wide sense, he's criticizing the monks for moving too much around and not actually settling into their own practice, trying to get it from outside.

[12:26]

And in a narrow way, a very particular way, once you do settle down, to really settle in, to really penetrate the matter, really sit still at the center of the universe. So then a monk came forward and said, but surely teacher, there are those who teach disciples and preside over the assemblies. There are, I mean, He didn't get it. He didn't understand what Avalokiteśvara was saying. This monk is very bold to come forward and say something like this, but he didn't get what Avalokiteśvara was talking about.

[13:36]

Yes, there are people out there who will give you all kinds of advice and teachings, but In all the land of China, there are no Zen teachers. So he says, well, what about that? And Nobaku says, I didn't say there's no Zen. There's just no Zen teacher. He's being very extreme here. There's an extreme kind of answer. There is no Zen teacher. It's a wonderful koan. Well, then what do I do? If there's no Zen teacher, what do I do? When some good teachers came to America, they said, oh, everybody wants answers in America.

[14:45]

Students want answers. They have all these questions, and some kind people sit down and answer all the questions. But that's not necessarily doing them a favor. So Huang Po is this not a question-answerer, but a person who raised questions. And his teaching was very direct. When Master Rinzai was a young monk in the monastery, he was at the monastery, but he didn't ask any questions for about three years.

[15:47]

didn't ask any questions. So one day, the head teacher said, why don't you go and ask Obaku about the essence of Buddhism? So I said, OK. So he went to see the teacher, and he started to open his mouth, and Juan Pablo took his stick and beat him up. And then he left. Then he said, I'll go back and see him again. So he went back to see him again. Bam, bam, bam. And a third time. Bam, bam, bam. So then he went to see another teacher. And he told the other teacher about this. He said, what did I do wrong? And he kept beating me. He said, I just don't understand how kindly he's been to you, how soft and gentle and kind he's been to you. So if we hit somebody today, there's a chance that we'll get sued.

[17:04]

He beat him. Take you to court. Actually, Joshu, Master Joshu never beat anybody. His words, he killed people with his words. So people very much admire Master Joshu because they said his lips were, you know, he had golden lips. And he could, with one word or a phrase, he could do the same thing as There are good teachers.

[18:14]

Some teachers are better than others. And it's good to find a good teacher. And it's good to look around until you find a good teacher. But when you find a good teacher, after a while you'll see that that teacher And then you can look around and, oh, this is a good teacher. There's many students. And then, after a while, you say, oh, this teacher has a fault. So at some point, you just have to settle down with the fault teacher. But if the teacher tells you too much,

[19:15]

or helps you too much, then that can be a fault. Sometimes a teacher should pay attention to you, and then sometimes a teacher should not pay any attention. But I think a good teacher is one who raises questions for you, not one who answers them. You have to find your own answers. So sometimes, anyway, a teacher will always fall into being too kind. But it depends on the circumstances.

[20:24]

But a good student, you know, should be able to move with just a hint. I remember And the third horse doesn't move until he feels the whip penetrate his flesh. And the fourth horse doesn't move until the whip penetrates to the marrow of his bones. Suzuki Roshi said, which horse are you? get the most benefit.

[21:39]

The one who has the most difficult time often benefits the most through practice. If you don't have any difficulty, you may not grasp But when we sit here in our sitting dozens, and you may be a fairly new student, and you see everybody sitting so still, and you see yourself having so much difficulty, and you think, well, everybody else has got it except me.

[22:52]

the nation. for the Buddha image.

[25:23]

And he said to him, why are you bowing so much to the Buddha image? You can't get it through the Buddha. You can't get it through the Dharma. You can't get it through the Sangha. So what do you expect to get from all this bowing? Then he said, the prince said, you're such a rough fellow. And Obaku gave him another slap.

[26:27]

And he said, not rough, not gentle. And he gave him another slap. Three slaps. And the prince woke up. Not rough and not gentle. They're actually waking up. But Southern did the same thing for you. Not rough, and not gentle. Just a good slap. If you really put yourself Why are you bowing so much to the Buddha?

[27:40]

What will you get from the Buddha? What will the Buddha give you? What is the benefit? That's a good question. No benefit. What do you get if you disobey? Nothing. But even though we know that there's a lot of things that we can do to make it better, It's a wonderful thing about something in practice.

[28:57]

Oh, shit. That was it.

[32:04]

Happens. Happens. Wonderful. I think this is called leaving home. Just being completely cast out And the person says, well, I'm going to cross the stream.

[35:50]

You want to come with me? And the biker says, yeah, I mean, it's pretty, must be a church or a stream, you know? And so the guy he's with starts walking in the water. achievement.

[37:04]

But mostly, I don't know. to look.

[40:23]

In another sense, you actually doing the practice without any, even though you were a person at home, how do you

[42:57]

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