Good morning. Continuing speaking about cases from A.H. Dogen's extensive record, Volume 9, Case 26, is about Nanshuang and taming the ox, taming the water buffalo. Nanshuang said to his assembly, since I was young, I, Old Master Wong, have been tending a water buffalo. Trying to tame it in the east of the valley, I cannot prevent it eating the marsh grasses of the ruler. Trying to tame it in the west of the valley, I cannot prevent it eating the marsh grasses of the ruler. I must follow after and pay my small portion of compensation, as this is somewhat visible. So this obviously refers to, in some ways, the famous ox-herding pictures.

[01:10]

And the case I'm going to be talking about tomorrow does as well. So there are various versions of those. ox-herding pictures. There's one version of six, one version of ten. They're descriptions of some of the process of Zen practice and training. One of the versions, one of the prominent versions is from a successor of Hongxue who we've talked about and we'll be talking about more. One version that's relevant. The first one is searching for the ox, the second is seeing the traces of the ox, then seeing the ox itself, or catching the ox, then herding the ox. And that's sort of what, that's the fifth stage, is what

[02:11]

This seems to be referred to in this story, and whether or not Nantuan ever heard of these ox-herding pictures. And actually, I'm not sure if Dogen did explicitly either, but they're relevant. The sixth one is coming home on the ox's back, which is kind of what the case is about tomorrow. Then seven, the ox forgotten, leaving the man alone. And then the ox and the moon both gone out of sight, so there's pictures that illustrate these. Maybe I'll pass these around. Let's look around, show those pictures. Then nine is returning to the origin, back to the source, which we referred to yesterday. And it just has a picture of wood and plum blossoms. And then ten is kind of where we start, in a way, being this little storefront, non-residential temple in the middle of Chicago, entering the city with bliss-bestowing hands.

[03:18]

So we don't necessarily need to see these as stages of accomplishment, there are aspects of practice. There's other systems where the ox becomes purified from black to white. Anyway, so this is kind of the background of this story in a way, this process of, well, taming this water buffalo, tending this water buffalo, which is a metaphor for the self, the wild self. We could talk about monkey minds, but oxes and water buffaloes were not exotic but common animals used in agriculture in this period in China.

[04:21]

And Nanshuan himself, this major figure, Nansen in Japanese, he was the teacher of Zhaozhou, or Zhoushu. And Nanshuan is famous for, amongst other things, the story about killing a cat, whether that actually happened or not, we don't know. Anyway, so that's a little background. But Nanshuan said to his assembly, since I was young, I have been tending a water buffalo, trying to tame it in the east of the valley. I can't prevent it eating the grasses of the ruler. Trying to tame it in the west of the valley, I can't prevent it from taming the grasses of the ruler. I follow after, I must follow after and pay my small portion of compensation as it is somewhat visible. So this is a part of our practice, a part of what happens in the course of regular sustained zazen practice.

[05:25]

We tend the ox. We try and tame the ox. We try to tame it. And another version of the story says it tramples on the grasses. And so how do we, each in our own way, observe as we try and tame this wild self, how we trample on the grasses? So one of our precepts comes, well, our precepts in some ways come down to not causing harm, trying to be helpful rather than harmful. How do we not trample on people's grasses? And we talked yesterday about the story, it was about quote from Lehman Pound where he says, an ancient said, the bright, clear hundreds of grass tips are the bright, clear minds of the ancestral teachers.

[06:35]

So all of the grasses and weeds, all of the phenomenal world are exactly the bright, clear mind of the ancestral teachers of the great Bodhisattvas. But here, in the course of our practice, you know, part of our practice is that we start to see our own grasping, our own greed, hate, and delusion. As Dogen said in the verse yesterday, although wanting it all tied up for tens of thousands of miles, nothing holds. We want to have it all settled and figured out and understood, and yet, We can't get a hold of it. And so we see our own grasping and our own anger and our own confusion. And sometimes the world gives us opportunities to feel anger and confusion abundantly. How do we not trample on people's grasps?

[07:38]

And, you know, in this feudal society, for Nan Chuan to say, I cannot prevent it from eating the marsh grasses of the ruler, the ruler's grasses. So, you know, there was this feudal system of authority. So this is more than just a social structure. This is talking about one's own true self. How does this wild ox trample one's own sprouts of reality. He says, I must follow after and pay my small portion of compensation. Instant karma is going to get you. There's nothing we can do about this. It's somewhat visible. We see it, if nobody else does. But, you know, it's somewhat visible.

[08:41]

all of the effects of our own charging around and grasping at things. And this water buffalo, you know, maybe doesn't mean any harm. It's not even about malevolence. It's just, you know, a bull in a china shop. A water buffalo in China, shopping around. Trampling on grasses here and there. Untamed, wild. So Nanchuan says, I must follow after and pay my small portion of compensation. So, you know, from some perspective, some people have said that Dzasana is a kind of penance. You owe something to Buddha, Dharmasangha, so you have to sit here and suffer for a whole day, or three days, or five days.

[09:57]

Sorry. You've been trampling on the ruler's grasses, again. It's somewhat visible. Oh, it's so sad. But there's this process involved of trying to tame it. And our wild, you know, even if it's well-meaning, you know. I don't know if, I think I may have seen a water buffalo in the zoo somewhere. They're different from cows. They're bigger and they're, you know. I don't know. Have any of you had any experience with water buffaloes? Ken, what can you say about them? They're beautiful cows. What else? And they have a real presence. And if you're in the vicinity, you have to worry about them standing in your direction.

[11:07]

something that promotes a belief creation. Yeah. So, so Nanchuan was trying to tame his water buffalo. Tending, he's been, he was tending a water buffalo since he was young. And I don't know if water buffaloes were, are related to American bison, the great buffaloes that were Did the buffalo herds extend to Chicago, the Great Prairie herds? Different animals. They're different animals. Never mind. OK. They were wiped out mostly in the 1870s, although there's some still on the Golden Gate Book. Yeah. Anyway, OK. So this is the case. We'll see how we'll return to that. But then there's Dogen's verse about it. Its nose drifts like a boat in the realm of mountains and waters, a donkey in front with the horses behind.

[12:15]

It is not yet plowing the field, directly binding up grasses against the grain of the usual human will. For a while, I enter the tens of thousands of peaks. So there's a lot in this verse. Its nose drifts like a boat in the realm of mountains and waters. So, Dogen wrote a whole sutra about the mountains and waters. The mountains and waters that are our own bodies and minds, that are the world of nature we inhabit, that we are, that we are expressions of, that we are creatures of. So the nose drifting like a boat. Part of the idea of the buffalo's nose, there are places where Dogen talks about putting a ring in, you know, about the ox putting a ring in his nose.

[13:16]

And he talks about Zen practitioners not having yet put a ring in their nose or having put a ring in their nose. And that's about being led. or he talks about piercing your nostrils, which when I first read it, I thought it was about being able to breathe fully. Maybe that's there too, but it's also, and I guess nose piercing is now kind of popular in our culture, but it was about being willing to be led. So in the process of taming the ox, part of it was that there was a ring put in the nose of the ox so that there was a rope or some way of leading the ox to the field to plow. So the water buffaloes, the ox, were used to help produce food.

[14:19]

to help produce nourishment and spiritually to help produce awareness and awakening. So allowing one's nose to be pierced is a metaphor then that's used a lot in Zen for being willing to be guided and trained, being willing to allows Azen to, in the practice, in the teaching, to inform and awaken and develop the practitioner. So there's a process implied here. And Dogen starts by saying its nose is just drifting like a boat.

[15:22]

It's not directed. So he's talking about this water buffalo of Nanshuans that's trampling around and eating the grasses or trampling on the grasses of the ruler in the west and the east and maybe in all 10 directions. Its nose drifts like a boat in the realm of mountains and waters. So many of us at times in our lives, and maybe still in some ways, are adrift. We don't have the direction of moving towards paying our small portion of compensation to the world and to all sentient beings. a donkey in front with the horses behind, or sometimes it could be a donkey in front and a horse behind.

[16:36]

This is a common image. It can be read in a lot of different ways. Sometimes it basically refers to incomplete practice or incomplete understanding. It could be an image of walking between a donkey and a horse. Sometimes it's referred to as a dragon's head and a snake's tail. incomplete, unfulfilled practice. So a donkey in front with a horse behind it is not yet plowing the field. So when we're drifting around, not having some direction, we're not yet being useful. We're not yet producing nourishment. for ourselves or the world. Directly binding up grasses against the grain of the usual human will, for a while I enter the tens of thousands of peaks.

[17:54]

So actually I chose this case because of these two lines. directly binding up grasses against the grain of the usual human will. So we talked about grasses yesterday. The bright, clear hundreds of grass tips are exactly the bright, clear mind of the ancestral teachers. And I talked about the Song of the Grass Hut, where Chateau, who's one of Lin Min Pang's teachers, says, I've built a grass hut where there's nothing of value, and yet he's talking about the space of practice. He's talking about his little zendo. He's talking about what it's like on his Zabuton. When it was completed, fresh weeds appeared. Now it's been lived in, covered by weeds. Later he says, bind grasses to build a hut and don't give up.

[18:58]

Let go of hundreds of years and relax completely. Directly binding up grasses. So, sashing, coming together and sitting together, is about this, is about finding a space to do this practice. And it's against the grain of the human will. It's against the grain of the world. It's against the grain of the usual way of humans. So, binding up grasses implies You know, it could mean going into a monastery, it could mean going and sitting for a day or five days, turning with it, so facing the wall, turning within, taking the backward step that turns the light inwardly.

[20:00]

This is part of our practice, maybe the first part of our practice, this important part of our practice. a painful part of our practice, which includes seeing how the water buffalo is eating the ruler's grasses or trampling on the grasses of the neighbors. So there's a dynamic of practice that this is part of. For a while, I entered the 10,000 peaks. So going off into the mountains, going into some practice enclosure, some retreat enclosure, whether it's a mountain monastery or even just a day or five days in a storefront temple in the city, he says, for a while,

[21:09]

This is a stage, an aspect of practice. It's not the end of practice. But this is recognizing this part of our practice, which is very important. Directly binding up the grasses against the grain of the usual human will. So somewhere Dogen says, take the backward step that turns the light inwardly, or take and then just return, so, or I guess maybe that's Hongzhou, anyway, there's this rhythm of going within and then later entering the marketplace. And we do it, you know, every time we come here and then go out onto Irving Park Road. But there's this rhythm of our practice that we have to bind up grasses, we have to go against the grain of the usual conventional human world and human will. And it's something that actually we can do willingly and joyfully.

[22:25]

Although for many people it's kind of painful. You know, it's a way of talking about renunciation. But it's also, you know, something we can take on. Just to turn the light inwardly. Just to go against the grain. And maybe, you know, these days it's very easy to see how important that is when the usual human world is turned upside down and kind of crazy. And today is December.

[23:35]

So later this month, we're all gonna be urged by the conventional world to go out and do lots of shopping and be happy and be jolly. This is the usual human world and will. So maybe it's not so hard to go against the grain, but we have to go against the grain. It's part of our practice. It's a necessary part of our practice. to just face the wall, to not face out, to turn within, to see, well, I won't say what. It's up to each one of you what you see. This is depicted in various ways in the Zen tradition.

[24:42]

There's this ancient Buddhist symbol that got co-opted by some elected leader last century. It's called the swastika. And it was an ancient Buddhist symbol, but there's two aspects of it. There's the clockwise swastika. And I forget which one they used in Germany. And there's the counterclockwise swastika. And I should look at the Mahaparinirvana statue we have, because it's on his chest, and it's bothered people when we get it out, because we don't understand what it means. We only think of, you know, that elected German ruler, last century, and the horrors he did.

[25:51]

But it's part of the Soto Zen transmission documents. There's a counterclockwise and a clockwise swastika. So there's a phase of an aspect of our practice that is counterclockwise. And that's this going against the grain. So you all could be out there doing all kinds of other wonderful things. You could be out there on the Miracle Mile shopping or whatever else you might want to do on a, what is this? Is this Thursday? On a Thursday morning in Chicago. So there's going against the grain. giving up all of the pleasures and recreations and, you know, not turning on the internet, just sitting facing the wall with no monitor on the wall, just, you know, lining up grasses to build a hut, just sitting upright like Buddha on your seat.

[27:25]

For a while I enter the tens of thousands of peaks. So going off to see what's beyond the usual human world and the usual human will, what goes deeper? This is our practice, this is our zazen, what goes beyond our usual ideas of who we are and what the world is. For a while I entered the tens of thousands of peaks, or the ten thousand peaks, the deep mountains. So directly binding up grasses, you know, Chateau, Sekito talks about building a hut. So we have a schedule and we have a little meditation hall room and we have a kitchen and a, you know, we have a little structure here.

[28:39]

So it's a pretty modest hut, you know. It's made of plaster and wood rather than grasses, but anyway. Against the grain of the usual human world. So there's this counterclockwise movement. And then there's the other side, which is the clockwise movement that comes afterwards. So this is like the last picture in the 10, entering the marketplace with bliss-bestowing hands. And it's not like these are stages that you have to do sequentially, or they could be. But in our bodhisattva practice, even if you think you're not completely enlightened, There are people who think that, really. There are people who think that they are deluded. Some of those people who think they are deluded are enlightened beings, actually. But in our bodhisattva way, entering

[29:45]

This clockwise motion, this entering into the city, maybe not bliss-bestowing hands, but just trying to be a little generous, trying to express kindness. This is our bodhisattva practice. But we should understand that underlying it are these two movements. Turning within, facing the wall. facing ourselves, including all of the, all of the ways in which our water buffalo eats the ruler's grasses, tramples the neighbor's grasses. So Nan Chuan says, I must follow after and pay my small portion of compensation, as this is somewhat visible. This is like our practice of precepts in the Paramitas.

[30:48]

We take care of cleaning up after ourselves as much as we can, and maybe we can't completely, and that's okay because, of course, the bright, clear hundreds of grass tips are exactly the bright, clear mind of the ancestral teachers. Maybe this water buffalo, this ox is wonderful from the very beginning, and yet there's this process, this vital process that we are engaged in here. And there's no set formula or set of stages that you have to follow in some sequence necessarily. But we have these different pictures of how that works. Its nose drifts here and there like a boat in the realm of mountains and waters.

[31:59]

So our mind wanders in zazen here and there. And yet we can see also that there's this counterclockwise mode of looking in, going deeper, focusing, opening up. And then there's this return. That's not what's being talked about in this case or this verse. We'll get to that. But they're both there. Well, Dogen's sort of referring to it. For a while. I enter the tens of thousands of peaks, but first we have to stop and look within. Just not stop drifting. Strap yourself to a tree with roots. You ain't going nowhere. Here you are.

[33:03]

So this is an ancient tradition. And there's a way, the way, there's a sense in which it moves in this way and that. And rather than drifting, sometimes, you know, this is a cure, she says, give the cow, give the water buffalo a wide pasture. Sometimes we allow the thoughts to wander. But when you see this pattern, you can see there's the turning within. There's the going against the grain. going against the grain of our conventional world, whatever that is. The United States of America, whatever that is. For a while, And then there's our work of just expressing kindness in the world.

[34:15]

So we'll have some time to discuss this over tea this afternoon. But if anyone has a comment or two now. Nicholas, question. aspects of the psyche. What is the, do you have anything to say about the marshes of the ruler? Yeah, good, good. Well, you know, on one level, so all of these stories work on different levels. They work on a kind of just obvious, literal level. They also work on various metaphoric levels. On one level it's just, You know, whoever the feudal lord is, Nontron's water buffalo is eating his grasses.

[35:25]

That's, you know, it's not cool. He's violated the customs of the area, you know, getting into trouble. And people can come and see that the grasses have been eaten. But in terms of the psyche, if you want to have a psychological interpretation, What is, well, who is our ruler? What is our ruler? What is our deepest, what is your deepest intention? What is it? So we talked yesterday about the line. In Dogen's verse yesterday, without your caring, it is easy to lose the path of active practice. So what is it you care about most? What is your deepest intention? So maybe, you know, we could say that's your ruler, and maybe we don't even know what we care most about, but our practice is also to pay attention to that. What do we care about?

[36:25]

What is the caring that brought you here? So in some sense, maybe that is the ruler, that you allow your water buffalo to trample on by just wandering around, getting involved in the conventional human world's frivolities. So that's one take, but part of the point of these stories, these cases, and these verses is that, so I'm giving you some interpretation, but there's more. So you can look at it and consider it for yourself, see what comes up. Yes? I don't know if this has to do with You know, on the one hand, we have this image of this fox that has to be caught in a cage.

[37:39]

This is what it used to be. It says, Patrick, you know, he is a fox. implicitly poems. And so are we talking, when we get those kinds of dichotomies in language, are we thinking about two different ways of talking about the same thing? Are we talking about two phases of a practice? Are we talking about two completely different approaches to practice? I was wondering if you could comment on that. So yeah, so these are all aspects of our practice.

[38:46]

There are different ways of seeing our practice, and they're all relevant. So yeah, this is the dharma gate of rupasamprasana. And also, underlying that, we can see this Dogen also talks about this counterclockwise, this going against the usual human world, going against the grain, something that's part of what you're already doing just by being here. You could be out, I don't know, partying or whatever, or working at some, making a profit at some nice corporation or whatever. they're part of the same thing. And the joy and bliss of this Dharmagate is seeing all of them. And, you know, conventionally you can see these are two different approaches to practice, but really it's all included.

[39:55]

So, we'll talk more later, but this opens up some ways to settle down into just this.

[40:11]

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