I vow to taste the truth of the Tathagata's words. Good morning. This is the, for a number of us, the end of the fourth week of practice period. And next week will be the week before Sashin.

[01:05]

And I just wanted to say how much I appreciate everyone's huge effort for the practice period. especially when the weather has gotten so nice to be cooped up in a room like this when you could be at the Berkeley Marina flying a kite or something. I really appreciate you all coming out to hear the Dharma. So Monday, I just wanted to say we're having shosan. For people in practice period, people who aren't in practice period can come too, but shosan is like public dokusan, and Sojin Roshi will sit in front here in a chair, and one by one we'll each ask him a question.

[02:10]

probably something about what's coming up for us during the practice period or something about practice. So I just wanted to remind people to be thinking about what they might ask Sojourn Roshi on Monday morning. At the end of Tsushin, we have something called the shoe-sell ceremony where I will be sitting in this seat answering the questions. And sometimes people aren't sure, you know, they might be new or they've forgotten or whatever. and they don't know about the shuso ceremony. So at the end of sashin, at 4.30 on the last day, we'll have this ceremony, and I want to encourage everybody in practice period to come. I know some of you won't be able to, because this is kind of closure for the group to kind of bring it to the fine point

[03:21]

So it's really good if we can all be there together after being together for the six-week practice period. So last time I introduced this case which Sojin Roshi gave to me. The shuso gets a case from the abbot to study during the practice period and to express their understanding through. And actually within this case is a poem and that's been my study for the practice period has been this poem and I'm going to return to it today after considering it a little more, living and breathing it day after day. and share with you what I think I can say, what I think about it right now.

[04:25]

So, first though, I wanted to say something about practicing or practicing without some idea of fame or gain or some idea of I'm going to get enlightenment which has been coming up during the class. We're studying the Gakudo Yojinshu, Dogen's Gakudo Yojinshu, and there's this little piece on practicing without the notion of fame or gain, or practicing for the sake of practice. So I have a little something I want to say about that. A friend of mine's son is practicing martial arts. And she had a conference with his teacher.

[05:36]

And his teacher said, you know, your son is very gifted in this way and probably will be a black belt by the time he's 16 years old. So she went to him and said that she had had this conversation with his teacher, and what did he think about that? And he said, I don't. And then he told her this little story. A student went to his teacher and asked, how long until I will be a black belt? The teacher said, five years. How about if I study as hard as I can, then how long? The teacher said, 10 years. How about if I study day and night? The teacher said, 20 years.

[06:37]

Why longer each time I ask? The teacher said, because you have one eye on the goal, and that only leaves one eye on the learning. So in our case, the learning is practice. And you may want to be a Zen master someday. Sorry. But probably if you're focused on being a Zen master someday, you won't enjoy your practice. it'll be very difficult to enjoy your practice. And that's because when we're focused on something other than what we're doing, we can't be where we are right now. And all we have is right now, all we have is this moment.

[07:43]

all we have is the appreciation of this moment. And really, whatever it is that we want, our deepest desire, it'll come to us naturally. So we have to make a great effort. So, Today, this morning, I could hear the pile drivers. I don't know if other people heard that. It was just this steady beat. Boom, boom, boom. Probably a little slower. Boom, boom. And maybe some people found it annoying or distracting, but the practice is kind of like that. It's just, you just,

[08:47]

keep going deeper and deeper until you hit the source. So, you know, if you're drilling for, let's say, drilling for water and you go here and you drill a little over there and you drill a little over there, well that didn't work, I'll try over here, and you're just kind of, you never get anywhere. You just get a bunch of, incomplete holes. So we have to get out our divining rod and find the place to start and then just drill down. And then eventually we'll get to the root of the matter. So Sochin Roshi gave me this poem on this sheet of paper.

[09:56]

And I could have retyped the poem on another piece of paper, but there's something about it. I love this piece of paper, and it has some, this is Deng Xian's Enlightenment poem, and it's, an interpretation of Suzuki Roshi's. And so there are these characters across the top. Probably you can't see it. Probably in about five years we'll have a camera you can pan in. We'll have a little, you know, people will be sitting outside under a big tent. It'll be really great. And then his handwriting, I think probably his handwriting. And then there's something attached to, here's the poem up here, and then there's this attached, which I'm going to read to you. So it says, an excerpt from a talk by Suzuki Roshi, but I read this to somebody and they said, I think that's actually from sometime Suzuki Roshi entered the zendo when people were sitting and he just said these words.

[11:08]

Don't move. Just die over and over. Don't anticipate. Nothing can save you now because you only have this moment. Not even enlightenment will help you now because there are no other moments. With no future, be true to yourself and express yourself fully. Don't move. This came in handy to read before I give these talks. So back to, meanwhile, back at the ranch, back to Deng Xian and this case. Dengshan Liangjie was one of our old ancestors from Tang Dynasty, China.

[12:19]

And a lot of people, after I read the circumstances of this case, wanted to talk about the exchange that Touzan had with his mother. So I'm going to read that again and then talk a little bit about that to start with. The master's name was Liang Jie. He was from Huiji, and his family name was Yu. Once as a child, when reading the Heart Sutra with his tutor, he reached the place where it said, there is no eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, or mind. And he suddenly felt his face with his hand. He asked his teacher, I have eyes, ear, nose, tongue, and the rest. Why does the scripture say that they do not exist?" His teacher was amazed, and realizing that he was unusual, said, I am not your teacher, and sent him to Zen master Ling Mo on Mount Wuxie, where he took the robe and shaved his head.

[13:26]

When he was 20, he went to Mount Song, where he took the complete precepts. He was his mother's favorite child since his elder brother had died, his younger brother was poor, and his father was dead. But once he yearned for the teaching of emptiness, he left his old mother for good, vowing, I will not return to my native place and pay respects to my mother before I acquire the Dharma. With this vow, he left his native place. Eventually, he completed his study and later went to live on Mount Dung Since his mother was alone and had no one else to depend on, she looked for him every day, finally wandering around with some beggars. When she heard that her son was on Mount Dung, she yearned to go and see him, but Dung Shan avoided her, barring the entrance to the room so she could not enter. It was because he didn't want to meet her.

[14:29]

Consequently, his mother died of grief outside his room. After she died, Dengshan went personally and took the small amount of rice she had collected as a beggar and he mixed it with the community's morning rice gruel. By offering it to the whole community of monks, he made a funerary offering to assist her on her journey to future enlightenment. Not long after, she told Dengshan in a dream, Because you have firmly maintained your resolve and did not meet me, I severed the delusive feelings of love and attachment. As a result of the power of these good roots, I was reborn in the realm of the satisfied celestials. So to a lot of people, it sounds kind of harsh for Deng Xian to allow his mother to die of grief outside his room.

[15:35]

And we've all had our different experiences with our parents, and different experience with our children, and we bring those experiences to this presentation, to this story. So for me, it made a lot of sense. And I think that, you know, the teacher has to see the student and what the student might need to help them to wake up. And I think that Tosan knew his mother very well and saw what the need was and what he needed to do. For my mother, maybe, Tozan would have said, come on in, because she's very timid and very selfie-facing. Or, come sit us a sheen. I think this also points to that it doesn't matter who it is.

[16:50]

It can be your brother or your aunt or your father. We can always preach the Dharma. We don't just preach the Dharma to our friends who might understand. And because, well, being Buddhists, we don't really go around proselytizing so much. So it's up to us to find a skillful way to preach the Dharma. And I think that probably most of us have had the experience of being around friends or co-workers who say, who notice, you know, gee, you're a little different, or you're so calm and serene all the time, which is what people say to me, which I know isn't really true. I hide it, well, on the outside maybe, on the inside, you know, churning, working with churning.

[17:54]

Actually, part of this story, or this case, this wasn't included, this story about Deng Xiaonan's mother, but I deliberately included it in my talk because I knew that it would stir people and get them to thinking. Now I'd like to talk about non-sentient beings preaching the Dharma or not. So there is a bit of history that I want to share that I got from a footnote because I don't really think about non-sentient beings preaching the Dharma. So I had to think about that a little bit. before I could say something that I felt okay about saying, you know, that came from my experience rather than just saying, this is what I think.

[19:17]

So here's what the footnote says. I find this very interesting. First I'd like to give you some history of this question. Those are my notes. The question of whether non-sentient beings possess Buddha nature and thus by extension are capable of expressing Dharma grew out of differing interpretations of the Nirvana Sutra, particularly the line, all beings without exception possess the Buddha nature. This was a major controversy in early Tang China, probably for some people. Huizhong was a prominent spokesman for the belief that non-sentient beings are included under all beings. So here, too, we've had this kind of ongoing discussion about when we say the robe chant, do we say saving all being or saving all beings? So if this is correct, all beings includes non-sentient beings, just so you know.

[20:29]

On one occasion, he cited the Avatamsaka Sutra. This is Huizhong. The Buddha's body completely fills the Dharma realm and is manifest to all beings. Often cited in opposition to this is the following passage from the Nirvana Sutra. Such non-sentient things as wall, tile, and stones lack Buddha nature. All else can be said to have Buddha nature. Hui Zheng must have been aware of this passage when he used wall and tile rubble as examples of the mind of the ancient Buddhas. So now I'm going to read that part of the case. It can be kind of tedious, but I want to read it anyway, because each time we hear these things, you might hear something a little differently.

[21:45]

So, next the master, that's Dungshan, made a visit to Guishan and said to him, I have recently heard that the national teacher, Jung of Nanyang, maintained the doctrine that non-sentient beings expound the Dharma. I have not yet comprehended the subtleties of this teaching. Guishan said, can you, Acharya, remember the details of what you heard? Acharya means mendicant monk, and I guess they were, they would call each other Acharya. at that time. Yes, I can, said the master. Then why don't you try to repeat it for me, said Guishan. The master began. A monk asked Huizhong, what sort of thing is the mind of the ancient Buddhas? The national teacher replied, it's wall and tile rubble. Wall and tile rubble? Isn't that something nonsentient, asked the monk.

[22:52]

It is, replied the National Teacher. The monk said, and yet it can expound the Dharma? It is constantly expounding it, radiantly expounding it, expounding it without ceasing, replied the National Teacher. The monk asked, then why haven't I heard it? The National Teacher said, you yourself haven't heard it, but this can't hinder those who are able to hear it. What sort of person acquires such hearing, asked the monk. All the sages have acquired such hearing, replied the national teacher. The monk asked, can you hear it, Hushan? That means teacher. No, I can't, replied the national teacher. The monk said, if you haven't heard it, how do you know that non-sentient beings expound the Dharma? The national teacher said, fortunately, I haven't heard it. If I had, I would be the same as the sages, and you, therefore, would not hear the dharma that I teach. I hope you're all following this.

[23:59]

In that case, ordinary people would have no part in it, said the monk. I teach for ordinary people, not sages, replied the national teacher. What happens after ordinary people hear you, asked the monk. Then they are no longer ordinary people, said the national teacher. The monk asked, according to which sutra does it say that non-sentient beings expound the Dharma? Clearly, you shouldn't suggest that it's not part of the sutras. Haven't you seen it in the Avatamsaka Sutra? It says, the earth expounds Dharma, living beings expound it throughout the three times, past, present, and future. Everything expounds it. The master thus completed his narration. Guishan said, that teaching also exists here. However, one seldom encounters someone capable of understanding it. Then Dongshan went to see Master Yunyan and had this same or very similar conversation with Yunyan.

[25:21]

And Dongshan, reflecting on this, composed the following gatha, or like a poem. How amazing! How amazing! Hard to comprehend that non-sentient beings expound the Dharma. It simply cannot be heard with the ear, but when sound is heard with the eye, then it is understood. So, what is the mind of the ancient Buddhas? So I think I experience non-sentient beings preaching the Dharma all the time, especially when I'm in the wilderness. But the question arises, how do they do that?

[26:29]

And how do I know that that's what they're doing? Can we really experience non-sentient beings expressing the Dharma? And how can all of us express the Dharma? How do we do that? So I think that when Dunchan says, it simply cannot be heard with the ear, but when sound is heard with the eye, then it is understood.

[27:43]

I think this is, what this is saying is, We can't hear it with the usual faculties. We can't hear it with this hearing. We can't see it with these eyes. So what is that faculty that we see and hear the Dharma with? You know, Dung-Shan wrote this poem called Song of the Precious Mirror Samadhi, which we recited this morning.

[28:46]

It's kind of nice that we're doing that too, which we always do, but that I'm studying this case and talking to you about it, and then we recited it this morning. So... throughout this song of his. Songs were used by masters to help their students come to some understanding about, in this case, the precious mirror. So by memorization and recitation, you can kind of have it in mind and study it in that way. So I have this little story here. There's a story or koan about a master and disciple traveling through the mountains. They come upon a group of monkeys and the master comments that the creatures are truly pitiable because though they carry the ancient mirror, they run around in confusion and ignorance.

[29:59]

So the image I have are all these monkeys with this thing strapped to their back and they can't, they can't see it because it's just, it's back there. but they have it. And the ancient mirrors are true nature or Buddha nature. So we all have this ancient mirror, but we forget that we have it. And in the poem it says, one of my favorite lines is, So minute it enters where there is no gap. So vast it transcends dimension. So it's not really like a piece of mirror. It's not really a thing. One of our teas

[31:06]

was one of our away teas was a trip to the Berkeley Marina where we had tea and lunch and we brought a kite. And though there were three Zen students attempting to launch this kite into the air, we couldn't get it up. And all around us were people flying beautiful kites. It was a tremendous way to start out the practice period. I'm not going to tell you who was there. So it was, at first, comical. Because if you've ever been at the Berkeley Marina on a Saturday, there are just all these kites. And they can be as big as this room.

[32:08]

Wonderful, wonderful kites out there. And then it was a little frustrating that we kept the kite in the air. So it was a bit of a tense moment. But what I thought about this was, you know, I grew up in a place where it was pretty rural and we used to fly kites all the time. And I don't have any memory of never being able to get a kite in the air. We used to get the diamond kites and trick them out with them. We used to even get little fishing weights put on the points for balance and make tails out of cloth and string and go up to the hill. and fly kites. It was just really wonderful. But as I was attempting to get this kite in the air with the help of my Dharma friends, sometimes I was helping them, sometimes they were helping me, I began to remember how to fly a kite.

[33:32]

We still couldn't get it up, but There is this way that you let out the string enough for the wind to pick it up. And if you let out too much string, it just, you know, does this. So you have to keep this tension. going, and then little by little, you know, it can be just right in front of you, just sort of hanging in the air. Little by little, as the wind takes it out, you let it out a little bit, but there always has to be this tension when you're flying a kite. So I thought, well, gosh, how did I forget? I mean, I just really couldn't do anything to get this kite in the air. Wow. Humbling, humbling experience. So, you know, even though we forget the precious mirror, it's still there.

[34:37]

And the thing about this too is that we can also forget our, Master Sheng Yen calls them vexations, our hindrances or our difficulties, we can forget how to do that too, so. It's always some work to do. And now, Paul what time is it? This is my admission to you. Surgeon Roshi gives me something to do and I kind of

[35:47]

go all around, and when I have four minutes left, then I get to, excuse me, the point. So this is a wonderful poem that was given to Bill Kwong Roshi when he was the shuso. And it goes like this. This is Deng Xian's Enlightenment poem two, one interpretation of it. Do not try to see the objective world. You which is given as an object to see is quite different from you yourself. I am going my own way and I meet myself which includes everything I meet. I am not something which I can see as an object. When you understand self

[36:50]

which includes everything, you have your true way. So this first line, the objective world is the world outside yourself and I think what this is pointing to is that, that you can't rely on things outside yourself to guide you. And that, I think it points to not dividing into inside and outside. Don't divide things up in that way. Don't separate things out in that way.

[37:54]

You which is given as an object to see is quite different from you yourself. So there's two yous here. The one that is given as an object to see, this illusory body, transient illusory body, and the other you. So what is that other you? So the other you is the Dharmakaya, or the great body of order, or things as they are, or Buddha nature. It's not exactly like we can describe it in some way or express it with words.

[39:00]

That's the best I can do right now. I am going my own way and I meet myself which includes everything I meet. So this is the Seamless unity of all things. We're all individual. There are all these individual things and then there's the seamless unity of all things. I am not something which I can see as an object. So there's two I's here, again. When you understand self, which includes everything, you have your true way, which I think just means when you're in accord with the Dharma or the natural order of things, that's the true way.

[40:25]

the true way, the ultimate true way. We'll have our own way and our way of expressing ourself completely and fully, but ultimately there's one true way. Thank you. Is there a comment or a question? Peter, then Greg, then Linda. It's on Sean's poem where he says, everywhere I go, I meet myself.

[41:30]

Something to that effect. hearing non-sentient beings, speaking to them. So, I guess I can't really think about it.

[43:06]

But thank you for allowing me to think about it for a little bit. What comes to mind is no gap. Thank you, Peter. Greg. if you could say something about the mirror, and whether the mirror and the poem, Ganshank poem and the mirror, how the mirror relates to the poem, or how the mirror might relate to the two selves. Can the mirror see both selves? Well, the mirror doesn't discriminate. How about the two subs?

[44:16]

Do the two subs discriminate? Or does one discriminate and the other doesn't? I don't think so. Linda and then Amy. Well, one response I had to the question about non-synthetic beings was that you're words strike my mind like that devil striking the bamboo, so there is no difference. I want to say something about that mother. How about it?

[45:20]

It seems like that Dushan who wrote that poem wouldn't have had to think of his mother as a hindrance, though he was already pretty deep. So I'm still surprised that he had to think of her as a hindrance. When I heard the closing of the story about the mother, where she said, I'm in the land of the celestial beings. Thank you for letting me die of grief, I really didn't buy that. It's, and so, you know, because traditions have a way of justifying stuff like that, by saying you're happy after you die or something. So I was just thinking, you could, what would be okay, what would feel okay to me? Like you could say, with you, I won't eat your food.

[46:31]

But to cause somebody to die, to let somebody die, I don't think any story can really make that okay. Finally, it made me remember how I regret the ways in which I didn't love my parents. Yeah, we all do in our parents a little bit. Um... We're not sure if she really died of grief. That's the story. Um... But, you know, there's not really any keeping out.

[47:39]

Amy and then, uh, Eric and then... Somebody. I have to speak about the mother. I would like both of you to speak up. Okay. I want to say something about the mother also. separate and it's impossible and you have to keep trying thank you Eric

[49:22]

And B, we should resist the urge to think that all of Dongshan's actions we need to take as models for how we want to live. This kind of story, think about the way in which it's been used. It was used to teach roomfuls of 20-year-old Chinese boys who had to leave their families in a country where filial piety was the highest of virtues. So its uses in that context are obvious. They may have had to leave their screaming parents begging them to come back and die to start the show. There's tons of stories like that. But whenever they get talked about, I always hear all these voices, oh, it was just, I mean, I think it's an OK metaphor for us to leave our attachment behind.

[50:51]

But we don't know what Dongshan really did. And maybe that's OK. That's a good point. Thank you. Alan, and then Eva, and then Marty. I think... Do we have to close? I think it's... Is it time? I will only tell you that it's 13 minutes after. Leave that to Hiram. Okay, so... I think we have to talk about this at tea, but Alan, go ahead. and its story are about the difficult teaching, but the not so difficult realization of complete subjectivity.

[51:52]

And when his mother dies of grief, completely grieving. There is nothing outside of that. There is nothing objective. There is no attachment. There is just complete immersion. Full subjectivity and grief. And that's really difficult for us to... It's difficult to let in that if we do something that is actually also the universe speaking through her. That's a way, aside from all the social dimensions of it, which I think about as well, all those different positions.

[52:56]

That's the way I think about that story. And of course, that allows her to be Very difficult. Okay, thank you.

[53:12]

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