I've been looking forward to doing Teisho with you because partly just because I miss this kind of time with you. I'm sorry to change the time from 4.30 to 5.00 but in the future I think maybe because Teisho will be shorter than seminar maybe we should start at 5.30 because Almost always I'm, this time, this time anyway, almost always having to go to the post office. Parts likely I do as I did today. Then it's hard to get back. I always work up to the last minute to try to get as many things as possible there. Maybe I have to start at five. Because it takes me a little while if I'm going to get techo in these three koans we've been talking about.

[01:04]

It takes me a little while to get the feeling of them so I can speak about them. But since I haven't had an opportunity to do that, today and I feel badly because you guys have spent quite a bit of time on it. I feel I'm letting you down. But a koan I've been looking at recently is the Nishai Roku No. 48. And because I... That's demarcated silence. And I was looking at it because I feel that one of the problems you're having and that some of you are asking questions about is really this sense of non-duality as a territory of practice and being.

[02:17]

So this is, anyway, famous claw and various versions of it. This cat is getting gigantic. Are we feeding him too much? Like a balloon. DB, you're supposed to be a monk, not a balloon. Um... And this is a quite characteristic story of Vimalakirti, who's this wealthy layperson and kind of symbol of the layperson. And he always seems to have, in this koan, he's called a Buddha, who was appearing at Vimalakirti. But he's always presented as having a wide and powerful understanding and expression, while at the same time fully being a lay person.

[03:39]

Anyway, so Vimalakirti asks Manjushri, and he hangs around, you know, the elite of Bodhisattva. That's Manjushri on the wall back there. Which one of Manjushri I don't use. But anyway, he asks Manjushri, what is the Bodhisattva's way of entering non-duality? And anyone might ask you that question, too. What is your way of entering non-development? Something you should have. That's a question you might be able to ask yourself. And I think when people are here, like these Norman College people who are here, they are often really asking pretty much the equivalent questions. And so in some way you're answering or presenting that question, trying to create some feel, field and feel with them that gives them a cellular sense of practice.

[04:57]

Anyway, it's entitled Vimalakirti's Silence, and Vimalakirti asks Manjushri, what is the bodhisattva's way of entering non-duality? And Manjushri says, to my mind, to my mind, in all things, in all things, no speech, No speech. No explanation. No explanation. No direction. No direction. No representation. No representation. Putting aside all questions and answers. Putting aside all questions and answers. This is the Bodhisattva's way of entering non-duality. And Manjushri says, now, my good layman, what would you say?

[06:16]

We've all spoken. I guess they're having a party. These questions are a whole bunch of people answering these questions. It's a Buddhist party. So he said, now, my good man, what would you say? what would you say? And Vimalakirti was silent. Now, very superficially, I mean, somebody might say Vimalakirti was being a layperson, didn't know what to say, and that's part of the pattern that, of course, we more commonly take it to mean Vimalakirti gave a better answer or something. Or he gave an answer which I responded in the way Manjushri was saying you should do.

[07:21]

No speech, no explanation, etc. He was doing what Manjushri said and what Manjushri didn't do, Manjushri was explaining. So he was kind of taking the purer position. that's okay on one level, that's kind of true. But you see, when you understand it that way, you yourself are in-do-out. Because you're thinking, well, is this a good answer or is this not a good answer? And so forth. And you're wondering whether you would give a good answer or what your answer would be. And... So since it requires, if you're thinking that if to see Vimalakirti's answer as silence, as a kind of answer in his silence,

[08:28]

then it can't be exact, that can't be the main feeling of the koan because to come to that conclusion you have to be dual. And also, as it says somewhere in the koan, Vimalakirti's silence does not escape being teaching. taking the form of teaching or being a form of teaching. So if it's a form of teaching, it's no more non-dual than what Manjushri said. So yes, you can take this as something useful. Silence. And silence... which is the silence of not knowing what to say, but just silence, is a quite common way, style of responding.

[09:51]

It's not as acceptable as speaking, actually, but it's very common in Zen. And it's even more common in that you feel the presence of silence even when you're speaking, or from Zazen. You begin to feel a tangible kind of silence which takes the form of speaking something. So, Vimalakirti's Answering with silence seems familiar if you're practicing, because so much of the time sitting we're silent. Then when we're working or talking or something, we can feel silence in, through and around what we're doing. So to just be silent is quite easy. But I think we should look at the koan a little more here because, yes, the silence of Imo Kirti is familiar.

[11:08]

But is it equally familiar? No representation, no direction, no explanation, no speech. I don't think so. I don't think so. Silence for most of us is the opposite of speech or something like that, or the absence of speech. What Manjushri says, it's bodhisattva, the wisest of bodhisattvas, but bodhisattva representing wisdom, says no direction. What's the opposite of no direction? What's the absence of no direction? It says no representation. Well, representation isn't a matter of silence or no silence. Does silence represent something? Does the silence represent teaching? If the silence represents teaching, then he's not really following Manjushri's advice.

[12:17]

So you can practice with this by, you know, silence, noticing silence, feeling silence. This is one way to enter or approach non-duality, feeling non-duality. And you can also take no representation and sort of feel it's possible not to represent things to yourself. Represent them or represent them in images no direction and you feel really that you have no direction or no goal or no arrow of time taking you from past to future. No direction would mean you break the continuity of past, present and future. So Manusri is saying something a lot more than Vimalakirti's silence.

[13:36]

If you think of Vimalakirti's silence as an answer. And it says in the koan, to give you some clue here, Vimalakirti does not... put others against self, or establish a contrast of others and self. So first of all, in this, and often in, I mean, in general, almost always, we tend to look for the, the, uh, confrontation, competition, conflict, or something. And you can be sure in Buddhist practice, Bodhisattva practice, that the first thing that's always looked for is the connection, the flow, the joining, the similarity.

[14:43]

And only when you can't find that connection is there going to be a disagreement, contrast. So it's much, much, it's more fruitful to imagine this in much friendlier terms. Or these people are really relaxed. So there, you know, what is... Vimalakirti also asks the questions, not only silently asks the question, the question isn't much different from speaking. What is the bodhisattva way of entering, not do out?

[15:53]

And I imagine Vimalakirti is very, very relieved to be there with Manjushri as if time was never going to end. And he listens to Manjushri. Manjushri is saying something very helpful to him, to Vimal Kirti and to us. And so much issue says no. To my mind, in all things, and he didn't say something, all things, no speech. This is something you can practice the feel for. No things, no speech.

[16:56]

To my mind, no speech. No explanation. You stop explaining things to yourself. I mean, this is the beginning to just take the first surface of these things. No speech, no explanation. I mean, I bet in Zaza and you guys, I know I do, I'm explaining things often. I mean, I get startled sometimes. Who am I explaining this to since I myself am the person being explained to? Am I trying to convince myself? It's crazy. You're looking at yourself from outside when you're explaining things to yourself or thinking about how you would explain it. You're seeing yourself as if in a mirror. Break the mirror. No speech, no explanation, no direction.

[18:05]

Not one intonation of wanting to be anywhere else. That's a tremendous ease. Pretty hard to come to. There's a couple lines in a poem in the commentary which are stamped for a while by the dark window. Tomorrow, I'll help you figure out, finish the counting. Stand for a while by the dark window and look out the dark window. Tomorrow, I'll help you figure it out, finish the counting. No direction.

[19:16]

You don't want to go anywhere and you're not asking anyone directions. No representation. And questions and answers put aside so much. So being Malakirti is just agreeing with him. One level is giving another answer. More deeply, he's agreeing with him. And more deeply than that, he is simply entering non-duality. Now, this koan doesn't use the word, how do you know non-duality? How do you act non-dually?

[20:22]

It says, how do you enter non-duality as if non-duality is a place? And of course, in a sense, it is. It doesn't mean that you are always non-dual, of course. The point is that sometimes you enter non-duality. And that means, like I said, I need some time to have a certain feel for the cons. It's because... The koans don't... I can't think about the koans, I have to feel them. Then I can think about them. But I have to feel them first.

[21:25]

And here Vimalakirti and Manjushri feel each other. And that feeling, that non-graspable feeling, as I say, more beyond non-gressive. Here we're talking about something we could call emptiness and feeling. And nonduality, all... very little difference. And that feeling, if we imagine it between Manjushri and Vimalakirti, and which that Phukuo and the commentators of this koan are trying to catch here in the surface of this koan, is a feeling which is characterized by no representation.

[22:36]

And if we have no representation, we don't have Bhimalakirti here, we don't have Manjushri. We have something that can't be represented. So we're not talking about a contrast of answers. We want a limited way of looking at it. Dr. Nirmala Kirti, Manjushri, had they entered non-devotee, Coursing like Avalokiteshvara in Prajnaparamita, which means the same thing. Coursing in non-duality. Coursing in. Entering in. No representation. No explanation. No speech. No direction. This is just a description of Zazenman, uncorrected, unfabricated Zazenman.

[23:57]

And approaching it from the point you are trying to suggest it to you, not at Zazen practice, But how in the midst of and through all things, when you say representation, you are talking about things that aren't represented. So it's one thing to say, sit silent and practice uncorrected, unfabricated mind. But here we have the malakirti and Manjushri using each other through not representing each other to enter non-duality, where? They're still alive, they're not dead. Whereas it says, I think it was gone, the snake comes up into your yard with a jewel.

[25:09]

I can't remember the story exactly, but some person helps a... I can't remember how it goes. Anyway, a snake is not harmed because this guy or a worm is not harmed. And later, he finds in his yard, this snake appears. And in the mouth of the snake is a jewel. The sense of this again is that your life and Buddha's life or your life and a much wider stream of life than you usually see is present and known to you through zazen mind.

[26:17]

through entering nonduality itself. So although there may not be some form you can give to this koan or to this question if you can sense this no form which you can't manifest or this rather if you can sense this form which you can't manifest you have a taste of a kind of

[27:18]

I'm talking to Stevie the other night, language which allow you to... I mean, the very inability to find the form can be the language that you use to release yourself. So when you're struggling to find the form, Find an answer to a koan about formlessness, and you can't. That not being able to may be the very way the jewel is offered to you. I don't think I had anything else to say.

[28:19]

I looked at something from the old window, and I was looking for something I'd written a long time ago, and it's a bit stiff, I felt. But in it, I talk about Basha, who had been away from his teacher for quite a while, came to see him, and his teacher said, what is it like after understanding? And Basha said, Basha was the most famous haiku poet. Basha said, oh. After the rain, the moss is so bright green. And his teacher said, what about before the moss?

[29:26]

Now, you could say, like you can answer anything, you could say emptiness or something. But that doesn't work. You could be silent. No. What did he say? So let's go through it again. After understanding, what is it like? Basha said, after the rain, the moss is so bright green. And his teacher said, what about before the moss? And Basha said, frog jump in, water's out. Frog jump in, splash. That is a teacher's knowledge.

[30:36]

And later, as you know, he made it into the most famous of all. Koans, by adding at the beginning of it, adding to what he said to his teacher, just two words, old pond. And it became the koan, old pond, frog jump in, waters. Thank you.

[31:19]

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