Good morning. In concluding our spring practice period this weekend, this three-day Seshing, I'm talking about Hongzhe and his practice instructions in cultivating the empty field and You know, all of these practice instructions are sort of holographic. Each one, in some ways, includes the whole teaching. the three aspects I'm wanting to, I'm talking about this weekend. The first are about this quality of settling, which I focused on yesterday, of finding the source of serene illumination and settling into that.

[01:03]

And today I want to talk about his teaching about serving the ancestors and the complexity of the ancestors, whose names we've been chanting in our midday service. And then there's also the response, the mutual response that is the expression of this awareness when we go out into our lives, into this world full of turmoil and difficulty. I want to talk somewhat about all three of them again today, but focus on the ancestors. But just to review a little bit what I focused on yesterday about settling. Again, Hongzhe, who is our ancestor from the 1100s in China, in the Cao Dong or Soto way, talks about this field of boundless emptiness or openness, spaciousness that exists from the very beginning.

[02:28]

and that we can reside in this clear circle of brightness. We must of course first, well, first and ongoingly purify, cure, grind down, brush away all the tendencies we fabricate into apparent habits. We know this. I talked yesterday about the subtlety of seeing and hearing, transcending mere colors and sounds, and how in meditation itself we can not be caught by sense objects, by our sense perceptions, including thoughts and thought objects, and this actual practice of going beyond conditioning. and that the practice of true reality is simply to sit serenely in silent introspection. When we fathom this, we cannot be turned around by external causes and conditions. Hongshu says, this spacious, wide-open mind is subtly and correctly illuminating.

[03:34]

content without confusion from inner thoughts of grasping, he says, to effectively overcome habitual behavior and realize the self is not possessed by emotions. So it's not about getting rid of our thoughts and feelings. But how do we not be possessed by emotions, as he says? He also talks about this deep source of creative awareness and energy, transparent down to the bottom that can radiantly shine and respond unencumbered to each speck of dust without becoming its partner. So this process of settling may be sitting all day, we have a particular opportunity to explore this.

[04:40]

And then this complex process and practice of letting go, accepting our function. So he says, to gain such steadiness, you must completely withdraw from the invisible pounding and weaving of your ingrained ideas. If you want to be rid of this invisible turmoil, You must just sit through it and let go of everything. So this letting go, as I talked about this more yesterday, is subtle. It's not the same as getting rid of or pushing away or casting off. So this is a subtle art that we learn over a lifetime of practice to let go. He says, attain fulfillment and illuminate thoroughly.

[05:44]

Drop off your own skin and the sense dust will be fully purified, your eye readily discerning the brightness. And then he has this sentence, accept your function and be wholly satisfied. In the entire place you are not restricted, the whole time you still mutually respond. So this accepting your function has to do with the teaching of the Self-Fulfillment Samadhi, accepting your situation as it is. Accepting, not in a passive way, but dynamically occupying, inhabiting your function, your lively situation. interdependent situation that is arising now on your seat. How do we explore this? How do we feel how it feels? How do we be present in it?

[06:45]

And he says, be wholly satisfied. It's okay to be the skin bag on your cushion, on your seat right now. with all of your problems and all of your interests and all of your capacities and complexity, how can you be satisfied with your function? How can you take responsibility and use it and share that? with the world that needs it. Each of us has our own way of doing this. Each of us has our own way, and the world responds. In the entire place, you're not restricted. The whole time, you still mutually respond. So, Hongshu has this uplifting message that has to do with the actual practice of serene illumination, or we could just say of zazen, that we are engaged with and that we can deepen as we enjoy our inhale and exhale and settle on our seat through the course of period after period, through the day, enjoying our inhale and exhale.

[08:12]

Of course, there is the invisible turmoil of our ingrained ideas that comes up again and again. And so we have to accept our function, face our situation. And yet this is something that we actually can do. And then how do we mutually respond with the world? How do we allow the world to inform us and to see that we have the ability to respond to the difficulties in our own life, in the life of the people around us, in the life of the world around us. Of course, this is not simple, and it's not that we know how to fix anything exactly, but our response can make a huge difference. So that's a little bit of a review of yesterday. So today I want to talk about part of that connection and part of that mutual response, which is how we, well, the ancestral way.

[09:32]

So I'll read a couple of his practice instructions that deal with this. And these were not among, well, okay, I'll just read these. Those who produce descendants are called ancestors. Where the stream emerges is called the source. A different way of talking about the source. After beholding the source and recognizing the ancestors, before your awareness can disperse, be steadfast. Do not follow birth and death or past conditioning. Don't be caught by all of our past conditioning. If you do not succumb, then all beings will show the whole picture. Wake up, and in turn, the ground, the roots, and the dusts are clearly cast off. Although empty of desires, with deliberations cut off, transcendent comprehension is not all sealed up. We can't kind of put it in a box.

[10:35]

It's open, it's not something that we can diagram or explain. Perfect bright understanding is carefree amid 10,000 images and cannot be confused. Within each dust mote is vast abundance. Someone was talking about that yesterday and quoting Walt Whitman, saying I'm vast and contain multitudes. Here Hongshu said, within each dust mode is vast abundance. In 100,000 samadhis, or meditations, all gates are majestic, all dharmas are fulfilled. Still, you must gather them together and bring them within. How do we bring this awareness onto our seat, onto, into our own heart-mind? To reach the time honored, return to the source and serve the ancestors. Join together into unity, scrutinize yourself, and go on.

[11:39]

So maybe I should read that again. So this thing about the source, I was talking about where he talks about the source before, and I talked about that yesterday as this source that's not historical, that's about the source of our presence and awareness right now, which has to do with everything in the whole universe. Each one of us is, by definition, everything that we are not. Everything that is not Taigen is how we know Taigen. Each one of us is the product of innumerable causes and conditions. The whole universe allows this situation, this function, right now. We are totally interdependent with everything in space and time. That's just, that's physics, that's just reality, okay? It's not a false fact or whatever they call these things now.

[12:46]

This is just reality. But then also, he's talking about the ancestors and the names of the ancestors we're going to chant at our midday service. I know them by their Japanese names, but now we're chanting them in their Sanskrit and Chinese names as well. So Vipassana Buddha, Sikkim Buddha, these names of Buddha, Vishvabha Buddha, Krakusanda Buddha are actually from past I don't know, historical ages, maybe. But then we get to Mahakasyapa, Ananda, Janavasu, Upagupta, Dhrtika, and then through various Indian names to Bodhidharma, and Dasa Vika, and Janja Songsana, and through various Chinese names to Tiantang Rujing, who was the teacher of A. H. Dogan, who brought it to Japan. and so forth down to Shogaku, Shinryu. Suzuki Roshi was my teacher's teacher.

[13:47]

So we also have this historical lineage of, and then we also have these women ancestors who are, it's not a lineage, but these are great women practitioners who helped keep this alive. So, you know, there's also this way of seeing the ancestors and seeing the source, and we are able to do this practice here today thanks to each one of these people. And actually, we don't historically, you know, from the point of view of modern history, we know that the names of the Indian ancestors aren't exactly historically accurate. They were put together in China because they didn't care about lineage and history in India so much, at least not back then. And so these were great Indian Buddhist figures and they knew about in China. But it doesn't really matter. We chant those names because somebody in each generation kept us alive. So I'll read it again first, and then I want to talk about Tathagata Zen and Ancestral Zen.

[14:56]

Those who produce descendants are called ancestors. Where the stream emerges is called the source. After beholding the source and recognizing the ancestors, before your awareness can disperse, Hongshu says, be steadfast. Do not follow birth and death or past conditioning. If you do not succumb, then all beings will show the whole picture. So how do we? see the whole picture. How do we see all beings? And I'll read another practice instruction that talks about that. Wake up and in turn the ground, the roots, and the dusts are clearly cast off, which also means that they're clearly part of us. Although empty of desires with the liberations cut off, transcending comprehension is not all sealed up. Perfect bright understanding is carefree amid 10,000 images and cannot be confused. Within each dust moat is vast abundance. Dharma gates are boundless, we vow to enter them.

[15:57]

Each situation, each sense object, each confusion, each limitation, each problem that weighs on your heart, also contains vast abundance and is a gateway to realization and awareness and luminosity. In a hundred thousand samadhis, all gates are majestic, all dharmas are fulfilled, still you must gather them together and bring them within. How do we take this on? This is the question really. How do we, you know, Hongshu is telling us this, how do we take it on? How do we take responsibility? How do we use our ability to respond? To reach the time-honored, return to the source and serve the ancestors. Join together into unity, scrutinize yourself and go on. So, I moved to Chicago 10 years ago this January.

[17:02]

So the, past 10 years of my teaching here at Ancient Dragon Zen Gate in Chicago, I've mostly been expressing Tathagata Zen. I used to talk about this in all Zen texts in terms of Tathagata Zen and Ancestral Zen, or they use Patriarchal Zen. You don't have to say it that way. Tathagata Zen is, they're both important. Tathagata Zen is, Tathagata means Buddha. And this is the teaching of Buddha nature, and this is most of what Hongshu is saying, and this is most of what I've been saying the last 10 years, that the field of boundless spaciousness exists from the very beginning. As soon as you walk in the door, I know that somehow something brought you here, that you've had some inkling of, some glimpse of this ultimate reality, that you have some taste of Buddha.

[18:15]

And all of you, by sitting upright in your physical and mental posture, like Buddha, are expressing this Tathagata Zen. And this is wonderful, and our world needs it. But now I also want to talk about ancestral Zen. This is that somehow over Well, you know, it's not the same as history exactly. You know, we can map it on to history. 2,500 years ago, more or less, somewhere I saw 2,580 years ago, Shakyamuni was born. We don't know exactly. And we don't know exactly the names of all the people who kept it alive in India. We know these names from China. We know these names from Japan. It's not like a string of pearls, you know. all along the way there were, each person had, often had, you know, various teachers.

[19:25]

And so it's, and yet this sense of ancestral Zen is about how do we, how do we carry it on. So I have talked about this some. I talk about, you know, the people who are going to walk by on Irving Park Road in 50 years or 250 years and our responsibility to those people. So Aung Kyaw says to serve the ancestors. So we've been chanting the names the names we have of ancestral teachers. And we have this lineage. And there are many lineages. It's not that, you know, it's not that you should practice only in Suzuki-Roshi lineage and, you know, we have... It's a wonderful situation in America.

[20:29]

America's wonderful. It may also be the terrorist rogue nation of the world now, but it's also a wonderful melting pot of Buddhism as well as of various ethnicities and hopefully, you know, Muslims will be welcomed as well as all the other kinds of people who are here. But, you know, we have in Buddhism, we have Theravada people, we have uh... korean chinese japanese we have uh... you know various lineages of of uh... chon and zen and kaeson and yin and zon started in korean and douglas started in tibetan and you know a lot of people here have practiced in various lineages Howard started with Korean lineage. So it's not that we have to just stand up for one tribe. That's kind of silly. And yet, there's this Vajra pride thing.

[21:29]

So we have a particular list of ancestors. So Hangzhou says, those who produce descendants. are called ancestors. So it's not just, it's not even just spiritual lineages. So there's another practice instruction here that was one of the Sixth, it was offered to the practice commitment period participants. All beings are your ancestors. Fully appreciate the emptiness or the spaciousness of all dharmas, of all things. Then all minds are free and all dusts evaporate in the fundamental brilliance shining everywhere.

[22:36]

Transforming according to circumstances, Hongshu says, meet all beings as your ancestors. So that turns what ancestralism is about. Subtly illuminate all conditions, magnanimous beyond all duality. Clear and desireless, the wind and the pines and the moon and the water are content in their elements. So I'm going to go back and read this and say more. Without minds interacting, wind and pines or moon and waters do not impede one another. How do we support each other? How do we see that we're not impeding one another? Essentially, you exist inside spaciousness and have the capacity to respond outwardly without being annoyed, like spring blossoming, like a mirror reflecting forms. Amid all the noise, spontaneously, emerge transcendent, emerge from the ground.

[23:39]

So let me read that again. Fully appreciate the emptiness or the spaciousness of all dharmas. Then all minds are free and all dust dissipate in the fundamental brilliance shining everywhere. We don't have to be caught by the sense dust. We don't have to be caught by the objects of our consciousness, he's saying. Transforming according to circumstances. Meet all beings as your ancestors. So, uh... we do have lineages of ancestors and it's not just you know one particular zen lineage is not even just various buddhist lineages we all have enough talked about this before we all have various cultural lineages of ancestors uh... people we look back to in the sciences in the arts and music uh... in uh... in terms of uh... freedom fighters, people who've stood for awareness and awakeness on various levels, who inspire us.

[24:52]

So we have this lineage, many lineages of ancestors. But here, Hongzhi's going beyond even that. Transforming according to circumstances. Meet all beings as your ancestors. So the Tibetans say that everybody you meet was in some past life your mother. It's a different way of saying it. Some of you might not like your mother, so maybe you don't use that one. But to meet all beings as your ancestors, this also plays with time a little bit. to meet all beings as your ancestors. So Libby, how is Una one of your ancestors? Your little baby.

[25:53]

To see that, to see how the complexity of reality, but also to see this in terms of what I'm calling now ancestral Zen, that something is carried on. It's not just, so it's also, the Saga of Zen, it's also that Buddha awakening awareness is available to all of you and to everyone here now. It is. And we don't believe it. And even after years of practice, we don't completely believe it. But as you settle into this uprightness, We get glimmers of it. Sometimes we feel something. But this other side is, how do we take on responsibility for taking care of this? So this is this other dimension.

[26:57]

And so I'm thinking about ancestral Zen these days. Transforming according to circumstances, meet all beings as your ancestors. Subtly illuminate all conditions, magnanimous beyond all duality. So illuminating all conditions. Yesterday, excuse me, Nicholas, for telling people this, but yesterday Nicholas said in discussion that he, did you say that you were Donald Trump? I was a son of a trade officer. Okay, well, I won't. Yes, and? Okay. Yeah, so we all have shadows, yes. We all have conditions, put it that way, in terms of what Hongxue is saying here. So, but Hongxue is saying, subtly illuminate. all conditions, so all the situations of our world, of our own lives and of the world around us, how do we subtly illuminate them?

[28:03]

This is a question, but it's a meaningful question. It's not that we fix them, but how do we illuminate them in terms of this reality of interconnectedness that we taste as we sit through the day. This is ancestral scent. How do we subtly illuminate all conditions, magnanimous beyond all duality. It's not about making judgments and condemning this person or that person or this group or that group. We can also say that some people shouldn't have power, but whatever, and that some actions are harmful and some are helpful. So it's not that we don't have values and ethics, but how do we subtly illuminate all conditions? How do we meet all beings as our ancestors.

[29:04]

So then he says, without minds interacting, winds and pines or moon and water do not impede one another. So the wind blowing through the pines doesn't disturb the pines. The pines doesn't disturb the wind. How do we see this dynamic interaction? He's using this nature metaphor again, where the moon, the moon's reflection on the water doesn't hurt the water and it doesn't hurt the moon. How do, you know, he's using that as a way to point something out to us. Essentially, you exist inside spaciousness or inside emptiness and have the capacity to respond outwardly without being annoyed. Like spring blossoming. We might feel outraged at something that's going on, but we don't have to, we can respond outwardly without being annoyed. Okay, I want to respond to our country officially denying that there's climate change when it's destroying the world.

[30:08]

But I don't have to express annoyance. I can just say, okay, this is ridiculous and we need to do something about it. The way spring blossoms. or, you know, take any other situation in your own life. I mean, this may seem difficult because we're all caught up in our conditions of anger and frustration and this and that, you know, but listen to Hangzhou. Essentially, you exist inside emptiness and have the capacity to respond outwardly without being annoyed like spring blossoming. like a mirror reflecting forms, just to reflect the situation, to reveal the situation. And then he says, amid all the noise spontaneously just emerged transcendence above the ground. So just a few other things that I wanted to add to that, a couple of other

[31:14]

little bits from Hongzhe. Well, okay, this one I've been referring to. I'll read most of it, but just talk a little about it. He says, in clarity, the wonder exists with spiritual energy shining on its own. It can't be grasped, and so can't be called being. It can't be rubbed away, so can't be called non-being. Beyond the mind of deliberation and discussion depart from the remains of the shadowy images. Emptying one's self, excuse me, one's sense of self-existence is wondrous. This wonder is expressed with a spirit that can be enacted. Radiating light everywhere, responds appropriately to beings and enters the sense dust without confusion.

[32:17]

overcoming obstructions that shines through every empty dharma, leaving discriminating conditioning. Enter clean, clear wisdom and romp and play in samadhi." So, you know, there's a way to do all this, to express this, that's playful. that's, you know, let go of discriminating conditioning. You know, we talked yesterday about letting go and how difficult and subtle that is. But just, you know, put aside all your calculations and discriminations and, you know, take on the conditions that you have and just open yourself up to romping and playing and allowing your imagination to flow in your settleness, in your samadhi. And then the last thing I was going to read, which is relevant to this ancestral Zen. Zen practitioners roam the world constantly emptying and expanding their minds.

[33:26]

That's a good thing to do. Just, you know. As you go out onto Irving Park Road, just steadily empty and expand your minds. Sounds like the 60s. Anyway, without the slightest remnant held inside, they can respond appropriately, not hindered by beings, not tangled up by dharmas. So we have all these conditions. We don't have to get tangled up in them. I mean, we do, you know, we do get tangled up, right? Admit it, confess it. That's our ancient twisted karma. But, you know, okay, let it go and just, you know, okay. Openly appearing and disappearing, you can freely share, but if merely involved in the intellect, you'll be buried, he says. Doesn't mean get rid of your intellect, but, you know, that's not all there is that's happening, folks. If enacting pure maturity, then you can naturally journey at ease among the 10,000 changes without touching them and without turning away from them. So we say in the Jwal Meru Samadhi, turning away and touching are both wrong.

[34:33]

You can't get a hold of it, but you can't ignore it. Whether releasing or gathering up externals, eliminate all leaking. Such a person can fulfill the family business from this place just returned. So this ancestral Zen is about fulfilling the family business. That's what we're doing here. In this storefront, temple where shopkeepers of Zen fulfilling the family business. From this place just return, the white clouds enter the valley, the bright moon circles the mountain. On this occasion you have the same substance as the elders. So all those names we chant, we're going to chant midday or just You know, they are us and we are them. They are not us, but we're actually them, or however you want to say that.

[35:35]

Do not leave any traces, and inside and outside will merge into one totality, as leisurely as the sky clearing of rain clouds, as deep as the waters drenching the autumn. All of you good people, remember this matter well. So. We are of noble lineage, of many noble lineages. How do we take care of this for all the beings of the future, trusting that there will be a future, working so that there will be a future in spite of you know, the war merchants and the fossil fuel industry and all of that.

[36:39]

And also it's all right here. We can enjoy our inhale, we can enjoy our exhale. So we'll have time for discussion this afternoon. We'll have a questioning ceremony this evening and one tomorrow afternoon too, but some people won't be here. So if anyone has any responses or comments or questions or complaints about any of this? We can listen to a couple. Ah, Jenny, go ahead. Okay, what about it? And then we will always go to Sadhana to meditate.

[38:16]

Oh yeah, definitely, definitely. It's all good until we get to that part about... No, it's not. It's just that we are trying to take care of the family business. How are we doing? That's all. Yeah. Tathagata's end. Yeah. Well, you know, it's sort of Tathagata's end, but I could, you know, I could tell a story that it's both. Yeah, there's this mutual response.

[39:22]

It's so deeply embedded in reality. We think there's somebody who's going to make it a great again. We think there's winners and losers. But actually, it's all this just total mutual interconnected response. And we're part of that. And yet, it's not something happening out there. We have a part in it. We receive or we serve, we're involved in it. It's not something that happens out somewhere else on some movie screen somewhere. So thank you. Other responses? Dave, hi. Just ouch.

[41:04]

Rule number one is ouch. But I had the flip of it, where I got a really beautiful sense of solidarity, where it's like, rule number one is that you're never in this alone. That's right. That I think, at least I do, that I think, what did I do? Bye! Yeah, so to think that the first noble truth is that the world is suffering because of me.

[42:29]

I caused all the suffering in the world. That's the first truth. It's just me. Because I'm so bad, the whole world has always been suffering. Yeah, people can think that. I think people do think that. So that's not the first noble truth. The first noble truth is that there is suffering. And yeah, I like the way you say it, and that it's something we share in common. Everybody's hurting. Everybody's damaged. Everybody's got their share of sadness. And I've been saying that it's a noble truth because we can face that. And you're adding that we can face it together. Yeah, there's a strength, there's a solidarity. the solidarity forever. Yes, Michael? Yes. Yes, that's right.

[44:04]

Yeah, so working in the kitchen one knows that food comes from somewhere and is offering itself to us. Whether it's animal or vegetable, yeah. So this deep interconnectedness. is both sides of the First Noble Truth, the sadness of the First Noble Truth and the solidarity that we are together in this, and we can face it together. So, thank you for comments. We will continue this practice forever.

[44:50]

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