Paying Respect to the Great Teacher 

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with oh

recently i was standing
in the mountains
waiting to go to the meditation hall
of the monastery

and the person attending me
said
where does it say that
if there's prostrations in the world
there's buddha dharma in the world
and
if prostrations cease in the world buddha dharma ceases in the world
and i said
i think that's in ah
the treasury of true dharma eyes
the chapter called durrani
dani

later i thought maybe i go read that chapter
ah in the treasury to draw my eyes treasury to damn eyes his a
he's a text are many essays
but a coastal the person who var we just chatted
so i i i read the chapter i started reading the chapter
and a pinch
today i like to tell you about this chapter of the treasury of true dorm eyes

huh
durrani a orphanage is translated as a spell or incantation
it's something that's a proclaimed
it's a like a proclamation
with the hopes and confidence that this proclamation will have some great benefit
so for example we we often chant the daughter ne of great compassion
die he shins donny
who just came
who just came in the room
oh welcome christine
happy
party
maria sorry maria
wasn't wasn't
the anointed wonder what a night and one's mother
ah
ah
so it's a we we make this proclamation of great compassion and hopes to realize great compassion and hopes that it will
come to be
so the beginning of this
heh say it says something like
are those who have
ha
clear eyes of practice
have clear eyes of dharma
those who have clear eyes
for the practice and study
have clear eyes for truth and those who have clear eyes for truth have a clear eye a practice

can you see the pivot here
there's a pivot between
eyes are clear about the practice and eyes that are clear about the truth
eyes it are by the truth eyes are clear about practice so there's a pivot between i practice and the i of truth and there's a pivot a bot
when the i with as se i have the truth pivoting injured i practice of the i practice pivoting into the i of truth
so i see a pivot there
and
then the ancestor a castle says
the authentic transmission of this pivot
is inevitably due to the influence of pay respects to a great
good
teacher
which is the great purpose itself and the great durrani itself
the great purpose is the realization of this pivot
and the realization his pivot is the durrani
another translation is
that the authentic transmission of this
essence
this pivot concept called the essence of essences where the i have practice and i've truth
i live in essence the character can mean pivot hub essence
essential necessary
so another translation it would be the authentic transmission of the essence is due to
the power of prostration
prostration what led me to the this chapter
so the character means both prostration the the determined is prostration but also paying respects
a traditional way i'd pay respects in india and other parts of east asia is by prostration
prostration to what
prostration to what to the great teacher
huh
huh
in this shabby there's that
some detail formal instruction about how to do prostrations to
ah ones teacher
how to do prostrations insert the literal sense of joining the palms and bowing down and touching your head
to the ground before your teacher
and there's a dynamic here another pivot between
your teacher and the great teacher
your your teacher in one sense is created phenomenon a human being maybe
but the great teachers not just a created phenomena
a human being
but your teacher and a great teacher or not really completely different and they're not completely the same
but there has to be some way to express
your respect you have to be some way to express the prostration to the great teacher and the
limited teacher the form teacher the manifest teacher is an opportunity to
pay your respects
you can also stand on the ground and just pay your respects with no one around to the great teacher you could prostrate yourself
by going down and touching your head to the earth to the grade teacher without a human teacher nearby
and then that are great ancestor a coup so
says thus bringing t and making tea is the pivot
her mind or thus bringing t and making tea realizes the pivot of mind
or the essence of mind
and is bringing t and making tea refers to
some stories
some stories from ancient china
would you like to hear them
good

the first story is about a man who
ah
we call long time we
being a we in day
in this tradition
louis kahn which means dragon
dragon pond or dragon swamp
looney times
one of the most delightful dennis and stories features dragon pond in the role of
the teacher
the story has been referred to here is a story of dragon pond before he was a teacher when he was a young person
so i can tell you the stories about dragon pan with a teacher and angry dragon pond the boy the child i could tell you stories are dragon been the touch child and then go to dragon upon the teacher which will which way
she we go
first teach first you're going to say the opposite
how many people want to hear that the child and and then the adult
how many people on here the adult than the child
oof

the child contains the adult the adult contains the child

may i tell you that
i had just recently heard i've just recently heard the story of long time when he was a child
previously i heard the story of long time the adult zen master
and when i heard the story of his childhood there's something about the story of his adulthood that gave me a kind of and another possible respective on on him and honest and a great story about him

so i think actually i will take you on the tour that i went on
and then you can have it all surprised that i had
or maybe you want but you could hear about my surprise
so i heard the story about
if it actually was a story about
starts out to be a story about
another monk
who current who finally became a disciple of a long time
and this this month name was
da schon which means a virtuous mountain
he was a buddhist monk and he was a ah
very committed
an enthusiastic scholar
of the diamond sutra
prefer a perfect wisdom
he read the suture and many commentaries
maybe he even wrote commentaries and then he heard about it a school of buddhism
which came to be called is and school
where are they were said to propose that
you could directly realize buddha without dependence on the scriptures
when got dependent for dependence are relying on for example the diamond sutra he became incensed about this
it was really heretical or something like that and he determined to go to where the zen people were and
i don't know what the word is and we refute them
if i made but refuting sometimes can be rather devastating in
the land of
theological assertion
in india if somebody who had a certain view on a theological matter and new debated them
and they lost the debate they had to turn their clothes inside out and become your disciple
sony you can walk around and in a force people to give up their religion if they would debate you though it may be a pre debate agreement you can always say if i when you become my disciple new and i become mature disciples this is the
in in china wasn't quite like that but little bit so he's gonna go down there and
do in interact with the zen people so there was tromping through the mountains of china
and on his way into the zen territory
he comes upon
a refreshment stand

and the refreshments that they serve are we calling cantonese we call these refreshments dimson
and insulin is it is cantonese for it
a
i can can heal which means dot hard dot the heart or dot the mind which means refresh the mind
refresh the heart
that's what gibson means
if little refreshment said
perk you up on sunday morning

he comes upon the spanned
with the intention of getting some refreshments
and the proprietor of the stand is i think often said to be
i somewhat elderly woman
and she says to him
what's in your backpack reverend sir
reverend priest and he says it's the diamond sutra perfect wisdom and many commentaries i am a great scholar or i'm a scholar of these things if she said oh well
i have a special deal for you
how ask you a question about the diamonds so dry and how i happened to know a little bit about it i'll ask you a question about the diamond sutra if you answered
i'll give you three refreshment
if you don't
you're not gonna get any refreshment
is fine go ahead
she says in the diamond sutra it says present mind
cannot be grasped
cannot be apprehended
future mind cannot be grasped
mind cannot be grasped
can i say present first that's good
reverend priest with what mine will you
refresh yourself
what mine will be refreshed and the great scholar had no answer and she said
well that's it then
i recommend to you that you go see somebody who lives over this mountain

his name is dragon pond
so he goes to sea dragon pond
and when it gets to drag him pond
he goes into the hall he looks around and he says i've long heard of dragon pond
now that i'm here
i see no dragon
and no pond
and then dragon pounds steps out from behind a screen and said thus you have truly arrived at dragon pond
dijon was allowed to stand in attendance
with long time
into late that night and finally long time said
it's getting late
you should go
duchesne
when to the door raise the curtain looked out and said
his dark
longtime brought him
a lantern
handed to him as he handed it to he blew it out
henderson was illuminated
the next morning he burned all his commentaries
and said i will never again
doubt
these zan guys
does she became a principal disciple
of long time
and dijon had a disciple name's fung

as fung
had two disciples
one am young men the other
fire and the young man school is one of the most important schools of chinese then and the fiat is another
so this this dish this interaction between dijon
and long time
transmitted this
pivot of mind
which is the great durrani which is the great matter of the buddha dharma to transmit this mind is minded sees the practice and sees the truth
longtime transmitted it in this way in that intimate meeting
now when long time was young he happened to live near a teacher named can walk down
and ten watt doubt
can can walk know
ten one ten one towel can wong lived near the near the entrance of a monastery called ten one which is why it's called ten one didn't say that he was the habit but somehow he was a great master that live near this monastery
and when long time was young he lived in a family and the business of the family was and this is this is the kicker the business of the family was
cakes
refreshments
longtime grew up in it
cake selling family and he used to bring maybe a daily basis he used to bring
ten cakes to
ten two ten one darwin
for some reasonably he'd brought this he made these offerings to this monk
for some reason he paid his respects to this monk
and every time he did the monk
da who kept set aside one cake
and after some time the boy said how come your was set aside one cake is for my descendants said i have i have been lots of cakes
and that was said wasn't have lots of case it wouldn't wouldn't do any harm place set one aside would it
and boy had some understanding
and decided to leave home and study with
the person who had already been
prostrating himself to by bringing him
these cakes the prostration process was going on in the form of bringing cakes
the transmission of the pivot of mind the transmission of the essential heart had already started
he's questioning the team has committed a teacher the teacher setting aside cakes he's asking the teacher the teacher tells him he's understand something and he decides to move in to study with the teacher
after some time the boy says to the teacher
i'd been with you for some time now but you don't teach me anything
about what
about
the pivot of mind
you haven't told me about the pivot of mind
he haven't taught me about the central heart
download the teacher says
all the time you've been here
and i might add since the first time i met you i have done nothing but proclaim the essential pivot to you
in the boy says the boy long time says wow
have you been doing that
and
long time said when you bring me cakes
didn't i receive them
when you make me t don't i receive it
when you come and bomb to me don't i lower my head
this is this is the transmission of this is the proclamation of
the essential heart
and the boy long tan understood
and became
the adult person
who could help the scholar become the successor in this vital lineage
so what i realized a story in a sense was that he then became teaching and he had all his family members and set up stands around the temple
so when people came by his family mystery members would test their practice their understanding and
unless they were enlightened they would be sent they would you know and feel enlightened they would be given refreshments and they can go on but if they weren't they had to go see long time
there's and his cousins and his hands and all lot stationed all around in the mountains to
catch the fish and send him to the dragon pond
now
i i haven't heard anybody else to make this point but me but it says this is my speculation my happy speculation is that this wasn't just it accidental lady out there
she was part of the big program

so here you can see on maybe can see may here we may be able to see
that that this this is this is the way the prostration was in this relationship the prostration the durrani is pay respects in many ways to the former way is by
prostration offering his sense of frustration
another way to put it is that the
the way that is essential heart is transmitted transmitted in intimacy
the intimacy of pay respects to the teacher the teacher receiving your respects
pay your respects to a human teacher and have a human teacher receive your respect as a ceremony
a pay your respects to the great teacher and having a great teacher receive your respects
on this little stage here
on this big beautiful planet which actually is a very tiny little speck in the universe a beautiful wonderful
green blue
with all kinds of beautiful beings on it in this limited place we can act out paying our respects to the great teacher of the universe
so it says bringing t realizes the essential mind the pivot of mine and also says making tea
ah
bringing water and so on are also realizing which refers to another story
i can tell you this story this afternoon i can tell you now take your jars
one now how many knows
what an hour
okay well here's a now
once upon a time in china there was
a disciple of buddha was also called a great teacher his name was grey grey grey greyish on actually just question
and he had ah to big disciples one was called young schon
and neon john was called little shocking mooney
in those days and the disciple was
sean
jiang yan xiang yang
the two disciples i believe that's like an indoor so one day
yeah shaun
these disciples were his attendants also
notice how the first story
yeah
shot came in attended along long time previously had attended
a tin tin tin home ten one ten one
wow
the an intimate relationship where the mutual respect is being expressed now here young sean is attendant digression so young guy comes to go on question happens to be taking a nap
the young john comes in and when it comes in waves on turns and faces the wall
and young chan says hundred disciple don't be former with me

so great i'm sorry to get up
by which time he on china start to leave
can you imagine that comes in the teachers taking a nap teacher turns to say the same time you decide to dump with don't be more with me and then the said believes teacher starts to get up and says
cause by buys other name we he he and sorry young john
disney of young zhang wuji
ah yonge a wage he comes back
and cuisine said
i wanna tell you my dream
and that
the auction please forward close to listen
and question says i want you don't want to hear i want to hear your interpretation of it
and young chan gets up goes away and comes back with a basin of water and a towel
for his teacher
his teacher receives the water washes his face and dries it with a top
then she young comes in
question says
ah
welcome i'm glad you came with young children i had just been sharing miracles
hannah showing answered
i've been right next door i saw at all i witnessed at all really clearly
the question says well
the now you give it a try
he gave gunshot chance to try now now you need to be to try and
showing on and leaves and come right back
the simply with some tea and gives it to the teacher
that he said he let's hear your understanding of my dream one brings a ball and all the other brings t
and then
the teachers says
your wisdom
and man miraculous powers far surpass that of maha know a sherry putra and mom og galliano
but the to head monks of sherry path shakyamuni buddha shy putra was the specialist and wisdom and muhammad galliano was a specialist on maj a miraculous powers these too far surpassed them how
by bringing water and a towel and bringing t by
pay their respects to the great teacher
him realizing
the pivot or mind

so they lived together in there and they're interacting
no throughout the day before yeah sean came in the room he wasn't in the room
the kitchen was taking a nap and there was no attendant there but an attendant came and the teacher turned
ah at that time also shiny i wasn't in the room he was nearby though and when he heard the hubbub of the madam de miraculous hubbub he paid attention and then when the time was right he came in
and did his thing
his
prostration
his frustration was my teeth
hit the prostration is the interpretation of the teachers mind of the teacher's dream if the interpretation that your understanding
get an understanding if you haven't understanding a correct understanding of prostrate yourself if your prostrate yourself you will realize this mind if you realize his mind your a prostrate yourself but the prostration you see here
there is a formal prostration and we do practice it but also prostration is
bronte bring cakes bring a basin of water bring a towel bring tea
bring your heart ache but bring your heart ache
as a prostration
bring your heartache as a durrani a great dry that realizes the great mind
this is a miracle miraculous this the miraculous possibility
someone told me
ah she said one time i heard
kr tears name of my
youngest daughter
she's thirty four one time she walked by me not too long ago and this woman the zen student does not a priest
saw her walk by me and when she walked by me she said hi daddy
and when she heard that this priest heard that she thought as i like that
i like that hi daddy
i want to try it
so he called her daddy on the telephone
where she called her father might say on your telephone
and she said when he pick up the phone she said hi daddy and he said who
he only has one daughter got a bunch of stands as one daughter she says hi daddy he says who
and she said hi daddy and she he burst into laughter
apparently it had been decades since she said hi daddy
and at the end the conversation he said you know it the okay with me if you say if you say that to me again someday
did she said to me i guess i guess he received my prostration
i guess he appreciated my prostration
say hi daddy
but when you say hi daddy
i hope it's like pay respects to the great teacher your daddy's not the great teacher but here's a chance to pay your respects to the great teacher by saying hi daddy
and she said that she receives some halloween candy from him
and in a package it said something like happy halloween
daddy
this is prostration it's it's in this kind of this is this this is the situation in which the true mind is realized
put on board robe offer incense prostration yes yes and yes and yes and yes
say hi daddy yes
bring t year spring cakes yes
bring water yes bring your heart yes
and always
this is pay your respects to the great teacher not for yourself not for the teacher but for the realization of the essence of mind where the i
study
goes with the i
a reality
constantly turning and i have practice is very clear the practice is to pay your respects
to the great teacher
and don't let what's happening stop you
even the most ordinary daddy
it's a hi daddy even the most ordinary teacher the most flawed teacher
you pay your respects as a way of paying your respects
does a complete perfect
unsurpassed enlightenment
don't wait to meet a perfect person and taste are doing this practice
he can start to practice immediately
to say karen did she brought me some tea
she brought some tea and i received
and i drink it
and it's a miracle
it's a miracle to drink tea
it's a miracle to what to say
dig holes in the ground had no abode so we can plant native plants
you can do that here to clean the templates a miracle to have lunch together it's a miracle
to have lunch
the pay your respects to the great teacher

so i think my attendant for us to me that question and sending me on his journey
to the land of the great durrani to the land of miracles
to the land
a pay her respects and prostrating ourselves to the great teacher
huh

care to make any offerings
yes

to seen

oh thank you yeah
thank you
thank you and
i was talking about this as you might have guessed since it came up in a monastery of you know where does it say
this thing about prostration i talked to the amongst down there and one of the monks asked
what about dog is angie who just said
he just said i read anyway
he wrote
the essence of mind is realized through the influence to the power of prostration
to the power of offering incense and prostration to the great teacher he said that make another place he says than the first time you meet a master without engaging an incense offering bowing chanting buddha's name repentance or reading scriptures he should just whole heartedly sit and thus do
op away body and mind so river nene and say what about that and here's what about it
it said been the first time you meet a master
but when you mean master what do you do
you offer incense and bow when you meet a master
so if you look at the story of dog and zingy
he studied for a number of years by the time he is about twenty five twenty six have been studying for pretty intensely since he was a boy many meeting various teachers but finally said he met the teacher of his dreams
ten region and when he met tentang routine
he offered incense and did prostrations
at that time his teacher said
the dharma gate or face to face transmission between buddha and buddha ancestor an ancestor is now fully realized
person i met he said that
entered the monastery and practice sitting
and one day during sitting
rue jang said something like
somebody was sleeping any scolded the person for sleeping and he said you people should just sit and drop off body and mind and body mind dropped off for our ancestor
he was wholeheartedly sitting the teacher gave the instruction and body and mind dropped away then afterwards he went to see the teacher
where did he do he offered incense and prostrated and the teacher said what's up and he said body and mind have dropped off
i think the teacher was about the did said something in something he prays something praising him
and he said don't praise me too easily and teacher said
dropped off body and mind
so
so offer incense a bow and wholeheartedly set
offer incense and bow and without offering any more incentive boeing drop our body mind
and how
now
there would be convenient it's called one stop shopping
drop off offers as bow and dropped our body and mind or offer incense and bow and drop off by in mind while you're offering incense why wait you didn't want to wait to hear the stories afternoon why wait for enlightenment
tell this afternoon actually it's already afternoon
why wait till later
we can drop our body mind now okay yes

without offering users
okay
huh
in this fast fascicle dogs and you said also instructions to the teacher the human teacher during the ceremony he says when the disciple
when the student does the prosperity to the teacher to take your joins her palms and receives that the prostrations without
also prostrating
said occasionally the teacher may do a prostration but the usual thing is to receive the prostration without prostration
that's for dogs edges instruction yes

ah did you say if you wish to express your respects but you feel awkward and clumsy they have a question about that
while expression know the an occasion my view i guess you would he would express your respect an awkward clumsy way ha
i'm not saying to do it i'm just saying that
the teaching here today is that the hot if you are offering your respects
to the grade teacher
it's in that context that this essential heart
he's realized now if you are offering it and you're awkward or whatever word
clumsy than to offer an awkward clumsy way that's the context with that moment
so i walked up to the teacher to offer incense slipped on a banana and fell on her but
and incense flipped out of her hands flew through the air and landed in the and sensor i mean
in the sensor
the buddha said another miracle
she dropped she dropped her by her bottom and her mind
of course the point is sincerity
if you're elegant and sincere fine it's okay
if you're awkward and you're sincere fine
one time the the the founder of taken and of the major tea ceremony tradition japan i think it was send eq
he was invited to tea by a farmer
and the farmer across didn't have in our precious tee balls imported from china and his the t he had know the quality a tea but
he didn't have special very special treats but he gave the tea master what he had and a team master said that it was one of the greatest
tea ceremonies he ever experienced
so in a in contemporary or in a twentieth century american children's books there's a children's book called the littlest angel
about that there's gonna be an opportunity to make offerings to the great teacher
some i guess called god
anyway and all the angels are like looking forward to this and they have you know major
high quality gifts to offer to the great teacher and the littlest angel doesn't have much resource for offerings to they may know what the lila's angel bras
i remember
ha
i whistle a song anyway probably brought some i think the little assange was a kind feeling a little awkward
because he's big angels were brain is big grand rainy and offerings to the great teacher and the little little one was feeling kind of like inferior but still she brought her little offering and
the essential heart was realized in a children's story anyway
so yeah we're
we made me ragged and funny
we don't have much money but we travel a lot sooner song side by side
right
shoshana
yes

speaker

so
yes
receive give t
gimme gimme
yes
yes

yes
so you heard a question and enough have picked up on the recording doesn't get do so the question is if you make an offering to our human let's say you're making an offering to this in this case in this context for making an offering to a human we really are but we're also not just doing for this person or for ourselves we're doing
it to realize the great essential the ronnie mind gay that's what we're doing this for so if we say hi daddy
it make where we were given this to daddy and daddy may really appreciated or daddy may not
in the story i told daddy did appreciate it but if daddy doesn't
whatever data give it back
is what daddy gets back if you offer so if you're offering is intended as a prostration to the great teacher no matter what comes back you still made the offering and the great teacher may say okay i'm in a sport this person to literally
reject your offering but i have received it and my responses to test you
by supporting this person giving you something which is littering looks like not receiving
when you make offerings
in the most perfect way does not mean that people will say thank you
test testing
it has a a test the point of it tests the point of the whole thing and tests the pivot of mind it tests the i practice it tests the i of dharma
that's what you're doing this to realize this i have dharma is higher practice and then the response
sees if it can operate on an unknown response and long kinds of camp like the story that centimeters in was a story where a good monk a good monk was falsely accused of committing a crime that he didn't commit
and when he and i think as he had this essential heart and when they attacked him he saw he had the i of truth in the and the i practice me i practice said
to the insult to the false accusation the i practice gave rise to the speech is that so
that's what he said in response to this attack
that was that was as test that was his response that was his offering and then later people found out that it was not trued he did not commit this crime
and they came back and a effusively praised him not only for
yeah not only for being innocent but the way he responded in the way he he either way he responded for a long time to that attack and he said from the same place is that so
same response in this case
from the same mind
always in in both stories but it's primarily doing is
prostrating to the great teacher
has a way to take care of this mind
but it's not like it it can hurt when people slapping the face
and if you didn't mim my feeling was from the first time i heard the story of
if he was superman and the slap of vision bother i'm at all then the stories not as interesting is when it actually hurts a little bit and you still can say
welcome
and also when are really comfortable and you say welcome rather than guy can i have another one of those
that you really are in both cases you're not attach that's that mind that the as i keeps turning
so this
the turning is the other constant turning is dropping drop body mind body and mind and drop body and mind but drop body and mine also means personal now here's another one for you he dropped out one how here's another one isn't i dropped body mind no more body mind can do it again
i have another one of those okay another body mind
ha ha that was good another one know
constant offerings constantly receiving a body mind constantly
implying it in the way receiving and implying it in a way always turning
actually it doesn't it say the bought the pearl a bowl terms of itself
it's not like working at turning it just roaming around in there by it
yes homer

you're here you're making a pair with your hand or see the pivot you're making with your hand
your hands going around a circle see it
that's there's the pivots right there
don't don't don't look at some point you're looking you know you're looking at the ceiling
the i he look you're sitting there making the pillar with your hand and looking someplace else for the pivot so you're actually in the pivot if you play
if you keep looking for the pivot you're going to keep missing it
the pivot is right here
you've gotta stop looking for it someplace else
so you say you say hi daddy and it's right there don't say hi daddy whereas the pivot
don't let that stop here
some people i stopped by nothing there are some time people have stopped by what is there
whatever's there are not there don't postpone
prostrating herself to the great teacher don't postpone it don't say what when when i see the pivot i'll fell prostrate
show me the pivot of mine now prostrate before that time
holding my prostrations in my pocket
me