Good evening. This evening I'm going to speak about another of Dogen's koans from his collection of koans and first comments in his extensive record. This one features Baizhang, Baizhang Waihai, Yakujo, in Japanese, famous for giving a monk's funeral to a fox. But in this story, the other character is Chenqing Dan, who's a less well-known student, successor of Baizhang's. And one time, Dan asked Baizhang, this student yearns to understand Buddha. What is it? So, I'll read all the way through and then come back. Baizhang said, you are much like one searching for the ox while riding the ox. Dan said, how is it after understanding? Baizhang

[01:07]

said, it is like a person returning home, riding the ox. Dan said, I'm not clear. How can I protect and care for it from beginning to end? Baizhang said, it's like an ox herd holding up a staff to watch that the ox does not disturb people's seedlings. From then on, Dan grasped the meaning. So, that's the case. That's the story. And I'll come back to it, but I'll just read for now Dogen's first comment, which as often turns the story. Even with morning mist thin, his robe gets damp. Where the evening sun sets, birds fly on distant mountains. In this painting, an ox returns home amid evening radiance, singing of plum blossoms and the moon above the snow. So, this obviously refers to the ox herding

[02:19]

pictures and verses, a story about training. There's various versions of this. There's ten ox herding verses, and there's six ox herding verses. The ten start with searching for the ox, then seeing traces, then seeing the ox, then catching the ox, then herding the ox. There's this whole process of seeing reality. The ox here could be taken as a metaphor for the ultimate, the sense of wholeness, this background universal, this deep reality. After herding the ox, then there's coming home on the ox's back, which is referred to here in a nutshell. Then the ox forgotten, leaving the person alone. Then the ox and person both gone out of sight, and then returning to the origin, back to the source, and then

[03:25]

finally entering the city with bliss-bestowing hands. So, that's an elaborate version of ten of these. There's maybe three or four that are, two or three that are referenced here, but it does reference that description of the process that I've talked here about Dongshan talking about practicing the mountaintop and going beyond stages, and I was talking about that this weekend in Houston too. So, this isn't exactly stages, but it's talking about a natural process that we all work with, sometimes over and over again in our practice. So, going back to the story, Zen Master Chongqing Dan asked Baizhang, this student here in Hong Kong, is to understand Buddha. What is it? And in some sense, this is the question.

[04:27]

All the other questions and all the other stories come down to this question. What is Buddha? What does it mean to be awake? Buddha's the awakened one. What does it mean for each of us to be Buddha on our kushina chair? So, all the other traditional questions, why did Bodhidharma come from the West, and so forth, really come down to, what is this Buddha? What are we doing here? And as Devgan emphasizes, it's not just, what is it? It's not just about understanding it. So, Dan here is caught up in wanting some explanation, it seems. He yearns to understand Buddha. But then his question, what is it, is fundamental. What is it to allow Buddha's body on your

[05:31]

kushina chair? How do we open up, unfold, develop this practice body? So, this is an important question for all of us. And Baizhang said, you are much like one searching for the ox while riding the ox. It's right here. You're riding the ox. What are you looking for? There are a lot of stories like that. There's a story about the fire boy going to seek fire. Or, I can't remember exactly, but somebody, and this is an old story from India, from maybe Buddha's time even, somebody looking in a mirror, and anyway, somehow not seeing himself, and thinking that he's lost his head. Anyway, what, or somebody with their glasses on top of their head, looking for their glasses. What is Buddha? And Baizhang said, you are much like one searching for the ox while riding

[06:33]

the ox. So, this Buddha that we wonder about, and sometimes we want some understanding or, you know, some way to get a hold of it. Of course, we can't. It's ungraspable. Buddha is not something. It's not something. Buddha is not some, yet another entity that we can define and dissect and give an explanation to. And yet, you are much like one searching for the ox while riding the ox. And then Dan says, it's interesting, he says, how is it after understanding? So, he hears that he's riding the ox, and he has some sense of this, oh, I understand. Something happens there. And then Baizhang said, it is like a person returning home riding the ox.

[07:34]

So, there's one of the stages, one of the phases of the ox pictures where the boy is sitting on the ox returning home. What is that about? It's like a person returning home, riding the ox. So, we're all tangled up in looking for the ox or sometimes seeing the ox, sometimes searching for it, sometimes taming it, you know, as we see our wild patterns of greed, hate and delusion arising when we're sitting all day or whatever. But then, what is it? It's like a person returning home riding the ox. So, first Baizhang says, you are much like one searching for the ox while riding the ox. But then he says, oh, after understanding, it's like a person returning home riding the ox. What does this mean to return home? Well, in some sense, this is taking refuge.

[08:39]

This is turning towards Buddha. Buddha turning towards Buddha. Not somebody else returning towards Buddha, but I take refuge in Buddha. I take refuge in Dharma. I take refuge in Sangha. Returning home. Or maybe it's like T.S. Eliot's line about the end of the journey is returning to the place where we started and knowing it for the first time. Returning home riding the ox. But Don persists. He says, I'm not clear. How can I protect and care for it from beginning to end? Going beyond what stage he's in or where he's in the process. How do I protect and care for it? So, in the Precious Mara Samadhi, Dongshan repeats what Yunyan said to him. You must be most thorough going. Please take good care of this.

[09:40]

Preserve it well. And so, Don is asking about that. From beginning to end, how can I protect and care for it? How do I take care of this ox? This deep truth that we maybe can't explain, but we're right there riding it home. And Bajang said, it is like an ox herd holding up a stack to watch that the ox does not disturb people's feelings. So, here we are practicing together. Buddha's Straps on each of our seats. With this seedling, this delicate, precious beginnings of a Bodhi tree. Stringing up from our seats. In our practice. So, Bajang said, it is like an ox herd holding up a stack to watch that the ox,

[10:47]

or myself, or the whole process, does not disturb people's feelings. One description of what a teacher does is kind of leave people alone and just watch them. See what's happening. See how the seedling is growing. How do we not disturb people's feelings? How do we respect others, including the others on our cushion, enough to not mess with it? Not to disturb the process of, as Dogen says, just experiencing the vital process on the path of going beyond Buddha. How do we allow the seedlings to find their own nourishment? The Lotus Sutra says that the Dharma rain falls on all, and each plant, each seedling, grows in its own way. So, from then on down, grasp the meaning. Let me read the whole story for you.

[11:51]

Zen Master Changsheng Dan asked Bajang, This student yearns to understand Buddha. What is it? So, maybe I neglected to express appreciation for Dan's yearning to understand Buddha. This is such a simple practice, and yet, you know, it's not so easy. It's not so easy to persist in it. And yet there's something important about this yearning, yearning to understand Buddha, yearning to understand what it means to be awake, yearning to understand how to take care of relieving suffering, and providing joy, and helping all beings, including the beings on your seat, but everything, to awaken, to... So, understand is a funny word. I kind of put that word down a lot,

[12:52]

because we understand understanding as kind of conceptual understanding, but also there's this kind of deeper understanding, the understanding that stands underneath Buddha and watches it grow. What is it? What is Buddha? And Bajang says, You are much like one searching for the ox while riding the ox. Sometimes it's hard to ride the ox. Sometimes we get thrown. Sometimes we lose our seat. Sometimes we get distracted or we get diverted anyway. Searching for the ox while riding the ox. Maybe this is the heart of our practice. Maybe this is true practice, searching for the ox while riding the ox. We're right here.

[13:52]

We're riding this ox, Zafu ox, general ox. And still, there's this searching, there's this yearning, there's this wanting to understand, or wanting to... You know, Dogen will put it, wanting to express Buddha. Anyway, then Dan says, How is it after understanding, after seeing the ox? Like a person returning home riding the ox. It's been said you can't go home again. But maybe home is everywhere. Maybe we can find a way to ride the ox where we can be present. We can be present in each new situation. This is challenging. So Dan said, I'm not clear. How can I protect and care for it from beginning to end? So this is another wonderful question. This is a good student. How can I protect and care for it?

[14:53]

How do we take care of this practice? How do we take care of this heart of awakening? How do we take care of this yearning? Baizhang said it is like an oxer holding up a staff to check, to watch, to make sure that the ox does not disturb people's seedlings. It's beautiful. So we also want to offer positive help to all beings and support growth, and awareness, and kindness, and the health of our world. But also just don't disturb people's seedlings. See how they grow. And Dan grasped the meaning. So Dogen in his verse says, even with morning mist thin, this robe gets damp.

[15:55]

So I don't know if this is, if he's in some way criticizing Dan. The morning mist is thin. He's yearning to understand Buddha. Maybe that may be the wrong, the wrong way to approach it for him. But then he asked, then Dan asked, what is it? So Dogen says, even with morning mist thin, his robe gets damp. And so this is the saying by Dogen. It was famously repeated by Suzuki Roshi in his own way, from his own experience, talking about walking through a Golden Gate Park in the fog and his robes get damp. So we can have that experience. Just sitting every day, sitting regularly, something happens. Our resistance kind of wears thin.

[16:59]

We start to feel this deep connection. This robe gets damp. While the evening sun sets, birds fly on distant mountains. It's a lovely image. The evening sun sets and birds fly on distant mountains. The sun is setting, but there's life all through the mountains. In Houston, I saw an ostrich. It's beautiful. They have lots of birds there. In this painting, an oxherd returns home amid evening radiance. So, you know, he's talking, by referring to the painting, he's talking about these oxherding pictures. And yet, you know, Dogen also talks about a painting of a rice cake not satisfying hunger

[18:02]

and only a painting of a rice cake can satisfy painted hunger. All of this is a painting. We are painting our lives. We're painting zazen, as we say. We're painting our practice. And the oxherd, the one who's riding on the staff and watching not to disturb people's feelings, returns home amid evening radiance. Beautiful scene. So, Dogen is using this nature poetry here to comment on this scene of not disturbing people's feelings. Last line, singing of plum blossoms and the moon above the snow. So, in this painting, an oxherd returns home amid evening radiance, singing of plum blossoms and the moon above the snow. So, there are many references to plum blossoms by Dogen in his poetry.

[19:02]

And his teacher, Chantamuji, also talks about plum blossoms a lot. Plum blossoms bloom white in there. The first blossom towards the end of winter and the blossoms fall and there's plum blossoms on the snow that's white on white, blonde on blonde. Then he talks about the moon above the snow. It's like the heron hidden in the moon. Or the moon in a dewdrop, but here it's the moon in the sparkling snow. Snow in a silver bowl. Anyway, there's all these images of returning home, of taking care of the ox. So, maybe I could say more but I'll just put it down and ask if anyone has questions, comments, responses to any of these images or any of this

[20:04]

description of our process of practice. Please feel free. Jim, any comments or reflections? No. Just the image of intermingling of white on white on white. Yeah. Somehow a powerful image. Plum blossoms and snow and the moon.

[21:06]

And part of that is that in some of the versions of the ox pictures the ox starts out is it black to white or white to black? I forget. The ox starts out all black and as the pictures progress it eventually becomes all white. Iridescent. So yeah, there's the white ox there too. Just walking through the field of plum blossoms and the moon, the white moon above the snow. Beautiful. Yeah. Thank you, Louis. Any other thoughts about the beauty in this? So, you're saying that once you've

[22:09]

found the ox then you bring the ox with you wherever your home is which is wherever you are. That's one way to see it. Do you bring the ox or does the ox bring you? You're riding the ox. What's that relationship? Because it's Buddha riding Buddha, kind of. Okay. Yeah, so this image of the ox is really interesting. There's a lot of Zen stories about it. How are you hearing it? Like, you know, when you find awakening that moment is you're becoming Buddha when you find awakening so the ox that carries you to awakening is itself awakening. Okay, yeah. Like searching for the ox while riding the ox. Yeah. Okay. There's also

[23:12]

the image of the white ox in the Lotus Sutra where there's the ox cart or the ox vehicle as an image for the one vehicle that the story of all the kids in the burning house and the whole world is burning up and they don't want to come out because they're having too much fun. They have lots of distractions and video games to play or whatever. And the father says, Oh, I have all these wonderful carriages I have all these wonderful vehicles out here, you know. Describing all these, you know, wonderful carriages and convertibles and anyway. So they all come out because they want to see all these great cars and it's just this one white ox vehicle and part of how that image is used is that this white

[24:12]

that you were talking about kind of includes everything. All pictures all colors, all images and all the different practices all the different vehicles are part of this one vehicle, the Lotus Sutra says. So we can respect not just tolerate but really appreciate different aspects and modes of practice. They're all part of this Riding the Oxen. Douglas? Well, I like to think of Riding the Oxen as a practice and you ride the ox until you reach some understanding you still ride the ox afterward. It's not that you stop practice afterward but practice is living expression

[25:13]

on the way to it. Beyond that I think there's an interesting thing and that is that even before awakening you're riding the ox just as you are afterward. You're still practicing it's still practice, it's still good work in the intention of Buddha even if you haven't wake up. And I think that's a very Dogen, very Lotus Sutra kind of sentiment too. Yeah Buddha going beyond Buddha or Bodhicitta as his first inspiration. Yeah And that the practice is not just toward an end point and it derives value only from reaching that end point but Riding the Ox is still Riding the Ox and before he's awakened he's Riding the Ox in the same way he's Riding the Ox there's a difference

[26:15]

but it's still Riding the Ox. Well maybe there's always a difference there's this kind of ongoing difference there's this ongoing edge I think the yearning is important the caring about the quality of one's practice one's life, the world that impetus but then at the end of this little case anyway it comes down to well it says not disturbing people's seedlings, it's also taking care, nourishing all the different seedlings. So there's actually a lot in this story Dave do you have something? No I'm just thinking about impetus Okay I think that I appreciated the Oxfordian figures the idea of looking for the ox is very real to me. Even when you're Riding on the Ox

[27:17]

it's kind of a critique or another order or another kind of order of magnitude way of talking about the path but I think I appreciate it but don't understand it. Good I think appreciation is more important than understanding but yeah looking for the ox you know I mean that image of Riding the Ox on or Buddha going beyond Buddha there's this as we as new things appear in front of us, as there are new shoots appearing, as we have new situations or new problems or new opportunities or whatever whatever comes up along the path there's this dynamic and looking for the ox

[28:17]

even wanting to understand Buddha is part of Riding the Ox So how do we take care of our own as well as each other's buddhist friends? How do we not trample on people's seedlings? Do you have any reflections? I always thought it was odd using ox but it's the best period animal instead of I always wanted it to be a Mustang or something like that every time I hear that

[29:20]

ox story I think of why is it an ox? To me an ox is oxen serve people, you know they're domesticated to serve so I don't think it's an accident that it's an ox but I don't quite get that part of it Does that make any sense? I mean I think it's a good point but I think it's so one response is that part of it is that the ox is also serving Buddha and part of our practice is it's tricky because we want to take care of the wilderness as well but also in some way

[30:22]

the process of our practice is that of becoming domesticated I think there's something there I just don't quite get I'm sick so I'm stupider than usual but I like thinking about that ox It's a good question why an ox? Why a duck? Yes Jim Just to chime in with Laurel to stretch it a little further oxen don't be trained hmm your standard ox does what it has the habit of doing huh people don't have to train an ox like you break a Mustang hmm well there's still now that that's true you don't have to break an ox

[31:24]

but you have to teach it to stop and go and turn left and right well there's the herding the ox that's going on here riding the ox but there's definitely domesticating an ox and domesticating a Mustang are two very different things yeah when I was just in Africa and one of the guides said to us about zebras he said oh people have been trying to domesticate zebras for hundreds of years they can't do it they're too mean and I thought oh I love zebras domesticated anyway ox and king well I think you know the ox village is partly because it's a scene from ordinary village life yeah domesticated animals in rural China chickens pigs and oxen you would eat the chickens and the pigs but you wouldn't eat the oxen oh and the oxen is you know sort of

[32:26]

they're huge they're powerful and they're also um calm they don't get excited too much unless you're doing something to them but they're observing I don't know maybe they they're not you kind of convince the ox to do things you know you have to an ox isn't like a dog it won't perform tricks they never knew an ox personally you still see them in New England sometimes for county fairs there are farmers who will raise them for special contests for plowing and pulling and things like that um but I think there's a lot of that they're slow they're powerful they're

[33:26]

um tranquil and I think those are the kinds of things I mean there's a reason they're an ox they're not bulls which would be wild when you control them completely or out of control dangerous but they actually do work so I think the everyday knowledge function is part of what's huge amount of work they don't experience themselves as subservient subservience is something that we might put on yeah I think you're right is anybody else born in the year of the ox am I the only one so it makes you slow and powerful but not incredibly smart yes

[34:28]

exactly just I wonder if anybody has any thoughts about even with morning mist thin his robe gets damp where the evening sun sets birds fly on distant mountains it's just a beautiful image I don't know if anyone has any reflections or comments on that to close I shiver when I hurry excuse me I shiver when I hurry yeah it's beautiful yeah right there's a shiver there where the evening sun sets birds fly on distant mountains maybe some of us have seen that sense of the distance of mountains without end and in the sunset

[35:33]

that's a different view of practice than being permeated by dharma than let's say vallabhi and koan practice that people sort of firecrackers going off realization this is you keep the practice going and going and going and suddenly you're stuck in the dharma with the water it's very much a so-called view of and there's something about the ox that's kind of peaceful you do a lot of work the other side of being domesticated is that they're steady and tranquil sakshat sakshat

[36:31]

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