And let's continue talking about this Blue Cliff Records story about Wong Po. I think by this time you must have some feeling for the story. And that's enough if you can just have some feeling for the story and follow that feeling. To try to figure it out exactly is not the way we study poems. Such a story will give me a chance to talk about things that in other circumstances my

[01:01]

mouth must be shut about and give you a chance for things to come up that otherwise might not come up. if you can understand or develop a feeling for even one or two of these stories thoroughly. The other ones will be quite easy when they come up. For some reason, we persistently try to defeat ourselves. It's almost a characteristic human trait of everyone, everything people do. Even people who are only interested in success and completely ambitious.

[02:57]

seem to be followed by the feeling that they're going to fail, that failure is there unless they try to succeed, that somehow success is the antidote to the failure that has to be there. we seem to have some deep-seated fear that sticks to us like glue. To be all alone, to be out on a limb, some deep resistance that is almost impossible to shake off, to seeing things, deep resistance to seeing things quite simply as they are, quite simply as this life is. So, Huang Po says, there is not even

[04:30]

a teacher of Zen, anywhere, in Tang. If there ever was a period when there were teachers of Zen, it was in Tang. Sometimes, if you study Zen, sometimes you wish you lived in the Tang dynasty. Everyone lived just down the road, so many great Zen masters. But Wong Po said, there's all of the time no teacher. He means the lineage

[05:31]

has passed to you. Ingo tells various stories about Wong Po. The stories, as they occur in different places, are a little different. As they should be. And even when Suzuki Roshi would tell a story, he would tell it differently. So the differences are not very important if you understand the essence. One story here, in one collection, is everything is the reverse of what it is in the Blue Cliff Records. They say just the opposite. But it's exactly the same story. Anyway, one story is

[06:54]

Wang Po is quite well-known. He's on Tendai Mountain, and he sees someone, he meets a monk with very bright eyes, and so he thinks this will be good very bright, steady eyes. You know, in Zen practice, we don't look around much. You may think this is strange, a coercive thing, to have to always keep your eyes down, but it's easier than stopping thinking. So, that's a good way to practice. And not exactly down, so your people can't get you to look at them. But if you've stopped thinking, if you no longer are seeking everywhere, you don't look around. You're not curious about what happens over there, over there. So one of the rules, strict rules in a

[08:30]

in Japan, is that you do not, during service, look around. During mealtimes, you don't look around. What you're doing, you just do. There's no need to have your eyes shifted. In no dance, which has been so influenced by Zen. One of the attributes of a good dancer is that even though he's in the midst of various movements, his eyes are completely still. So, one poem is this man with very still, bright eyes. and decides to travel with him. So in the valley they come, it's quite typhoon-like, torrential rain, and the stream is quite deep, and when they come to the stream,

[09:51]

says, what next? And the other monk says, let's cross the stream. And Wong Po says, after you. So this guy takes off across the water. And Wong Po says, oh, you jerk. If I'd known you were nothing but a spook, I would have cut your legs off from the start." And the spook turns into an Arhat, you know, flies off. He says, oh, indeed you are an instrument of the Mahayana. Anyway, when Wong Po went to see Hyakujo, this is a very great lineage of teachers.

[11:31]

Sixth Patriarch Nanaku, Baso, Yakujo, Wong Po and Rinzai. And Wong Po comes to see Yakujo. And Hyakujo says, when they first meet, where do you come from in such high spirits? And Obaku Wongpo says, in such high spirits I come from between the mountains. Anyway, and Wong and Yakujo says, what did you come here for? And Wong Po says, nothing special. Yakujo seems to have been impressed by

[13:04]

this visitor. And, you know, there's two kinds of traveling, to visit teachers. They're rather confused in the stories because many times one is disguised as the other. Sometimes, always disguised, but sometimes fake disguised. One way is after enlightenment, or after you have some understanding, you visit teachers as part of your maturing, and you visit as ordinary monks. Another is you're seeking for a teacher. But the most traditional way, at least as Suzuki Yoshi expressed it, is you rather follow circumstances in finding your place of practice.

[14:04]

And when you arrive there, you sit, already you have some truth or some feeling. And you, your zazen is not seeking zazen, you are just sitting in truth. until the time comes for you to do something else so Wong Po was traveling in this way rather, he was already a rather alert person and the next day he was leaving and he went to see And Yakujo said, where are you going? And Wong Po said, I am going to see great master Baso. And Yakujo says, he has already been transformed.

[15:35]

Huang Po says, I've had such a deep feeling to meet him, but I guess my circumstances or my feeling was not deep enough to allow me to meet him. Not deep enough to allow me to meet him. But I so want to receive his teaching. Please tell me what he was like. Tell me something about him. So Hyakujo said, the second time I met Baso, the second time I went to see Baso, when I came in, he was holding his yak-tail whisk up in the air. And I said to him, how do you teach without this means?

[16:38]

And Yakujo and Baso put his whisk down and for a long time was silent. And then he said, how will you teach without using your mind? How will you teach without using your mouth? So, Yakujo picked up the whisk, held it up and Baso said, and how will you teach without using this knee? And Yakujo put the whisk down and then Baso let out a terrible cry, which made Yakujo, Yakujo said it made him deaf for three days. This is the first time that

[18:03]

in any Zen literature there's any record of this kind of shout. So, Tobaku began to tremble all over and his tongue stuck out at this story. Someone said he had epilepsy. I don't think so. Or it attacked him then for the first time. Yakujo said, you are Baso's true successor. And Hwangpo said, no, I will lose all my sons and daughters if that's true. Through you, Yakujo, I have known, I know Baso's pure, clear mind. Yes, Joseph, that's right. If the teacher's understanding, if the student's understanding equals the teacher's, because teacher's influence or teaching is diminished by half, only if the student exceeds the teacher

[19:46]

can we say that transmission has truly occurred? And Yakujo says, you better look into the son and father, father and son relationship in the house of Yakujo. Later, Hyakujo came, Huangpo came to Hyakujo and said, how to transmit correctly to our successors? Asking this question. Yakucho didn't say anything. He just sat there for a long, long time. And finally, Wang Po said, I thought the transmission should not be interrupted.

[21:26]

And Jacocho said, I thought the successor was you. And he got up and left. Later, Wong Po became close to a government official named Pei, who supported Wong Po in many ways. And one day he brought a scroll in which he had written some poem of his understanding.

[22:31]

and presented it to Wong Po. Wong Po just put it on the table and sat there again, not saying anything. And finally, he said, do you understand? And the official Pei said, but you've not even read my statement. Huangpo said, if you would have understood already, it would have been all right. As I said before, practice in many ways is like a woman having a baby. She doesn't know how she makes a baby, but still she does it by her continual activity, and we make

[24:05]

We make our practice by the same effort that we don't understand, that we can't express by our mouth. you may hear some whispering in yourself which gives you some guidance or some feeling or clues that you have to be ready, able to hear and respond to but it's so easy to overlook it or neglect it

[25:12]

This is why we practice concentration. You can understand in a flash that there is no need to look around. No need to seek anything. to do it, to exercise it requires your ability. So I've also been talking about in this session your ability to exercise your practice by deep, complete relaxation and concentration. If you're not relaxed, your concentration will be narrow. If you're relaxed, your concentration will cover everything. And when your concentration is pretty good, your will will begin to act.

[26:44]

and you will see quite clearly in the midst of events and through people how to do something. And if your will is in accord with circumstances, which is really what will is, the ability to act at one with circumstances, everything you do will be like a good pool shot quite clear what to do but if you are still thinking and distracted your will can't function so this skill of being one with your breathing and the practice one with the cessation of breathing how to be in accord with circumstances. First learning how to adjust yourself. Dogen emphasized this point. And Suzuki Yoshi was particularly struck by

[28:28]

how to live in America. Many people, when we first moved to Page Street building, found it very strange, like a YMCA, not like a real Zen monastery. And some people left because it was too much like a YMCA. And some people left because we hid the fireplaces. in the Buddha Hall behind the altar, and it wasn't American enough. But you can imagine how difficult it was for Suzuki Roshi, if you lived in Japan, such a big, strange fortress, with thick walls and little windows, and hard surfaces everywhere. But he Because of this understanding of adjusting yourself to circumstances, he tried very hard to find our way here in America. This characterized his way in America. He did not try to make us be Japanese.

[29:55]

Things which he could find no way to express, except in the Japanese way, he expected us to adjust to. The universal way of Buddhists, which he said made us beautiful, was the gassho. He said, this is our fundamental way to adjust ourselves to circumstances. wherever we are, Japan, or America, or any place, if in the circumstances we can just show, out of this attitude, we'll find out how to take care of things. He was talking about how at the Heiji, they said, So you can't do zazen unless you first prepare your place. It can't be too dusty or not taken care of, or you can't find a place to put your cushion. So first we prepare our place. But we must know our priority is always zazen. If you understand this point thoroughly, worldly things are quite simple.

[31:32]

because they're simply something you take care of to allow yourself to do satsang. They're not important. We can build a building here or plant the fields or take care of many things here and in the city and Tassajara as we've been doing to prepare a place for practice where we can concentrate on the many aspects of Buddhism. If we never lose sight of, if we always know that the second priority is Zazen, which means Zazen is first, of course. So we don't have to squabble about what kind of building, how to do this or that, because we are not involved in it, it's not important to us. Just to get it done, well enough that it will allow some of us to do zazen. We can't do it perfectly. Somebody in the future will have to do it too, so they can do zazen. With this understanding many daily problems of career and job and how to support yourself

[32:59]

are put in there, taken care of in their place in a natural way. So this is, too, where practice begins. Adjusting ourselves to our circumstances and taking care of our situation, our circumstances, volume of air, how our lungs are used, where we do something, how we support ourselves, how we take care of our apartment or room. Without getting so emotionally, so much psychology, psychological aberrations, our desires are attached to our

[34:01]

room and facilities and clothes and appearance and career. But when you know these are just preparation for nothing, they're not a problem anymore. We may take care of them in any way we wish. So gazan practice begins with this taking care of things. And if you do this well, this is wonderful and tremendous and easy help to practice. If you rush into some mystic experience without taking care of your room, will always be mixed up and the many contents of your mind will overwhelm your practice.

[35:27]

So, please trust to your own, what Tsukiyoshi called, your own innermost feeling, which allows you to practice. And try to cast off the many resistances to being out on a limb or taking responsibility completely for your life and your practice and this world, this community, that naturally will come upon you when you see what you're doing. Not as some burden, but just as the obvious extension of what everyone is doing. We're so frightened to see that life isn't all we'd hoped it to be. Not sure we can face it. So we either make it horrible, or we glamorize it, or we hope for something in the future, or we simply choose distraction.

[37:33]

But without distraction, suspending discrimination, with one breath acting, is the way of Zen practice. The absolute moment, which cannot be discriminated or observed. in which you find yourself linked to everything. By that one alone We are all so lucky, you are and I am, to have this profound teaching to encourage us. But it's up to you, not the teaching.

[39:29]

you may get the hint, but you must act on it. You must go out on your own whim, with no one around you, taking responsibility for Thank you. You mean in the story about the tile? He was arranging for us to have a good story.

[41:13]

That's true, in those stories you shouldn't neglect the set-up for the punchline. Do you want to become a Buddha? See, it takes a great deal of nerve to say, I want to become a Buddha.

[42:05]

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