Welcome. So having been talking a lot about the koans from Dongshan, about the practice of satchmas, I'm feeling more and more connected to these stories, these old teaching stories. And I've been starting to study the Dogen's koan collection. And for those of you who know it, Dehe Koropa Udoka's extensive record, Volume 9. He has 90 of them with his own verse commentary. And I want to talk about one of those today. So just to say that these teaching stories and the commentary about them are not riddles or puzzles or anything that you have to figure out or even understand. But just allow, and especially for people sitting here all day today, allow bits of them to just settle in you, or inform you, or run through your head, if you'd like.

[01:11]

But this story is the 46th of the 90th in Dogen's collection. And it's about a teacher named Langya, who was in the Linji or Rinzai lineage in the 900s in China. A monk asked Lamya, how does fundamental purity suddenly give rise to the mountains, rivers, and the great earth? Lamya said, how does fundamental purity suddenly give rise to the mountains, rivers, and the great earth? So that's the whole story. along the art, responded with the same words, but not the same. How does fundamental purity suddenly give rise to the mountains, rivers, and the great earth, indeed? Where does all of this come from?

[02:14]

What's this purity business? Maybe this could also be read as fundamental parody. Again, the point of these stories is not to get some understanding. It's not that they're nonsense and cannot be understood. But really, what do these images say about our practice here today? So Dogen wrote a verse commentary. Spring, pine, autumn, chrysanthemum, follow the time and season. Covering earth and sky, the mirror manifests emptiness. The bamboo shadow swept away, dust piles high. The moon pierces the deep pool, dissolving together. Concession poem. Again, spring pine, autumn chrysanthemum, follow the time and season.

[03:19]

Covering earth and sky, the mirror manifests emptiness. What is this mirror he's referring to? Where's the end of it? Where does it start? The bamboo shadow swept away, dust piles high. Bamboo shadow, very thin. Somebody's sweeping it away. Dust piles high, so we'll have a period of temple cleaning to try and take care of some of the dust a little later. The moon pierces the deep pool, dissolving together. So the moon dissolves into the water. Does the pool also dissolve? Do we dissolve? Spring pine, autumn chrysanthemum, follow the time and season, gathering, oh, covering Earth as God.

[04:26]

The mirror manifests emptiness, covering everything. The bamboo shadow swept away, dust piles high. The moon pierces the deep pool, dissolving together. This same story happens to also be case number 100 out of the 100 koans in the Book of Serenity. which is the collection of stories and verses chosen by Hongzhe Zhongtui, who was an important Soto teacher a century before Dogen in China. Very prolific like Dogen, very eloquent. He talked about serene illumination meditation. And so that he chose this story to be in the Book of Serenity, the last story. And in the Book of Serenity, there's not only Hongzhi's cases that he selected, as Dogen does, and Hongzhi's verse, but there's also a long commentary introducing it and commenting on the case and commenting on Hongzhi's verse by a later teacher named Wang Song, who lived in China.

[05:45]

That's contemporary of Dogen, a little bit later. So I'm going to start with his introduction to this story. One word can cause a nation to flourish. One word can cause a nation to perish. This drug can kill people and can bring people to life too. The benevolent seeing this, call it benevolence. The wise seeing this, call it wisdom. But tell me, Where does the benefit or harm lie? So, there's two different ways of saying this saying. And this drug can kill people and can bring people back to life too. So we know that if you take a good medicine, if you take too much of it, that can be fatal.

[06:50]

How do we see medicine in the world? Where is the healing? How is this helpful? So that's the introduction again to the story. The monk asked Longhia, how does fundamental purity suddenly give rise to the mountains, rivers, and the great earth? And Longhia said, how does fundamental purity suddenly give rise to the mountains, rivers, and the great earth? So there's some things in the commentary. Well, there's this kind of folklorish, kind of magical introduction that Longin's teacher was named Fenyang, a very important teacher in the Linji lineage. The lineage is descended from him.

[07:51]

And he also, Dogen points out, that he also originated the evening gatherings, which is a little bit like what we do in the afternoon on all-day sittings, just getting together and talking. And Fenyang was going to stop them, because it was bitter cold up north with the elite. But somehow, an Indian monk arrived there flying on the clouds, and exhorted him not to miss this opportunity. And he said, though this congregation is not large, six of these people are great vessels and their path will give shelter to humans and divines. And amongst them is this guy, Lamya. And there's another story about Lamya that they tell. He had been from Luoyang, and his father was a governor there, the governor of Hongyang. And I'm not sure about these places, and Paul knows where they are. But anyway, when the father died, he carried the casket back to Luoyang.

[08:56]

As he was passing through Li province on the way, he climbed up to the ancient monastery on Yaoshan to behold it and pay respect. Yaoshan was the teacher who He was asked about how does he think about non-thinking, and he said, beyond thinking. And he was the teacher of Yunyan, the teacher of Dongshan. He said, you should know there's one who's not busy. Anyway, this guy later, Longyan, climbed up to the ancient monastery of Yangshan to behold him and pay respect. As he looked where he was going, it was just like it had been a former abode of his. Because of this, he left home and became a monk. So, reading that, a couple of you have been to Tassajara Monastery. in California, where I trained for a few years.

[09:58]

And Jeremy and Joseph, if you imagine going out the far door from Zando and looking up at the line of those mountains, I'm sure if I happen to get there in the next life, I will recognize them. And it seems like Longyear recognized this place. Anyway, that's just these stories. Hongxia himself wrote a verse comment on this story. How does fundamental purity suddenly give rise to the mountains, rivers, and the great earth? And Hongxia's verse goes, seeing existence without considering it existence, turning the hand, over and back. The man I'm not long yet does not fall behind, Gotama, the Buddha.

[11:00]

So, this turning the hand over and back, or seeing existence without considering an existence, without holding on to some idea that this is fundamental reality, fundamental purity. What's going on there? One of the comments by one song, he quotes Nagarjuna, a great 14th ancestor, who is an ancestor of all of Buddhism after him. He said, all things must exist because of all causes and conditions. All things must not exist because of all causes and conditions. This is turning the hand over and back. So here we are. We're under. Have this fundamental purity. Suddenly, give rise to mountains, rivers, Lake Michigan, the Great Earth, Irving Park Road, a room full of people to sit.

[12:18]

So I wanted to follow up Hongzhe's verse with some other writings by Hongzhe. He was very important to Dogen and to all the players such as Zen. And I translated some of his practice instructions in a book called Cultivating the Empty Field. And I thought I'd read a few selections that have to do with this, how does fundamental purity suddenly give rise? to mountains, rivers, and the great earth. So Hongzhi talks in other writings in Chan or Zen, we talk about the source. My name, Taigen, means ultimate source. Although there's different kinds of sources, that's the source of a spring in the water. So Jeremy's name is Shingen, Shingen. was a different word for source.

[13:36]

But what this is talking about is not like some temporal, historical source, not some creator, deity, or principle. It's the source right now. What's allowing us to take the next inhale? As our thoughts and feelings rumble along, rumble around, as we sit here today. Where does this come from? This monk asked Lamya, how does fundamental purity suddenly give rise? And Lamya said, how does fundamental purity suddenly give rise? So I wanted to look at some other things that Manjusha says about this. So these are kogo, or we could say practice instructions, but they're kind of words of encouragement.

[14:46]

They speak to people who have this sense of zazen. And again, don't worry about understanding anything. Listen for something that speaks to you. 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, be steadfast and do not follow birth and death or past conditioning. If you do not succumb, then all beings will show the whole picture. Wake up and in turn the ground, the moon and the dust are clearly cast off. So, Dogen says, the dust pile high, and the covering earth and sky of the mirror manifests emptiness. Om Jagir says, after beholding the source and recognizing the ancestors, before your awareness can disperse, be steadfast.

[15:57]

Do not follow birth and death or past conditioning. If you do not succumb, then all beings will show the whole picture. Wake up and in turn the ground, the trees, and the dusts are clearly cast off. Although empty of desires with deliberations cut off, transcendent comprehension is not all sealed up. Perfect right understanding is carefree amid ten thousand images and cannot be confused. Within each dust mobile is vast abundance. in a hundred thousand samadhis, or concentrations. All gates are majestic, all dharmas are fulfilled. Still you must gather them together and bring them within. To reach the time honored, return to the source, serve the ancestors, join together into unity, scrutinize yourself, and go on.

[16:59]

So how do we return to the source? How do we see this arising of thoughts and feelings and mountains and rivers? To reach the time on and return to the source and then just serve the teaching. Join together into unity, scrutinize yourself, and then So we have a chance, as we sit, as we sit period after period of joining together into unity, feeling the wholeness and the completeness of just this suchness. And he says, scrutinize yourself, or Dogen says, to study the way is to study the self.

[18:08]

Pay attention. What's going on? If you're sleepy, how is it that you're sleepy? If your mind is rolling around, how is it that you're not? If lots of feelings come up, if you're in touch with your basic sadness or concern, sense of loss or fear, feel that. How does this feel? And then go on, take another breath. When the bell rings, stand up for walking meditation or whatever. Another of Hongshu's writings about this All Buddhas and every ancestor, without exception, testify that they all arrive at this refuge where the three times, past, present and future, cease and the ten thousand changes are silenced.

[19:11]

Straight ahead, unopposed by the smallest atom, the inherently illumined Buddha Spirit subtly penetrates the original source. So this refuge is where past, present, and future just cease. This is not about some source back there in the past or up there in the future. Just here, just this, here today, the 10,000 changes can become silent. Straight ahead, unopposed by the smallest atom, the inherently illumined Buddha spirit subtly penetrates the original source. When recognized and realized exhaustively, this spirit shares itself and responds to situations. So this is not like sitting like a Zen zombie.

[20:17]

This is not about being uncaring or unaware. When recognized and realized exhaustively, the spirit shares itself and responds to situations. How do we respond to what's in front of us? How do we respond to our own thoughts and feelings and fears and loss and so forth? The gates sparkle, and all beings behold the gleaming then they understand that from within this place fulfilled self flows out. The hundreds of grass tips all around never are imposed as my causes of conditioning. The whole body from head to foot proceeds smoothly. From within this place, fulfilled self flows out.

[21:22]

So when we can settle and keep breathing and paying attention, slow down, calm. Within this place, this source that's right here now, fulfilled self flows out. And actually, So this practice is about finding that. Not just finding it, but allowing the expression of this fulfilled self. And maybe it changes from time to time, from season to season. But here today, we can just feel this possibility of wholeness. each of you, as you are, is complete. And your completeness includes, you know, all of your fears and frustrations and desires and aversion and all the stuff you think is not complete.

[22:38]

What does it mean, this fulfilled self? How do you enjoy the fulfilled self that's hanging out on your cushion or chair right now? At the same time as fear, sadness, confusion, possibility of anger, So this practice is really pretty simple. We just sit and take another breath. It's not some special, exotic thing that you have to do or accomplish. And yet, right in the middle of that, can you notice the fulfilled self?

[23:46]

Can you enjoy it? Can you express it, share it? When the bell rings and we get up to walk or whatever, or when you go out into Chicago and into your life and all of the circumstances, all of the particular causes and conditions, all of the particular limitations and phenomena that are part of our everyday activity, thing here. So all Buddhists and ancestors testify that they all arrive at this refuge where all three times cease and the 10,000 changes are silenced.

[24:58]

So in the midst of all those thoughts and feelings that warmth or cool or whatever you're feeling, aches in your knees or your back or wherever, as you sit here today. Can you find this refuge, this safe place, this turning towards wholeness, turning towards Buddha, turning towards reality and community? With the 10,000 changes, quiet down. And then look there. So this way of practice is gentle. It's not about having some kind of martial, rigid, disciplined, edge-of-your-seat attention.

[26:05]

It's OK. If you have to move your legs, fine. Take another breath. How do we settle? And we give ourselves that space to settle and see this glistening gaze right in the middle of this. So a fulfilled self is available right in the middle of all your problems. All of us have some problem. So I've quoted Suzuki Roshi talking about how he once said, the problem that you have right now, you will always have. Sorry. But, you know, sometimes some problems, you know, they just kind of fade away. You let go of them. And sometimes that happens.

[27:06]

And if you ever get rid of all your problems, somebody else will come and give you theirs. So, no end to settling into openness and then responsiveness from this. So, one more passage from Moksha about this. The field of the right spirit is an ancient wilderness that does not change. Again, she's talking about something that's right within the changes. With boundless eagerness, wander around this immaculate wide plain. Suzuki Roshi said, give your cow a wide pasture. Kind of the same. With boundless eagerness, wander around this immaculate wide plain. The drifting clouds embrace the mountain. The family wind is relaxed and simple.

[28:10]

Feel the refreshment. The autumn waters display the moon in its pure brightness. Directly arriving here, you will be able to recognize the mind-ground Dharma field that is the root source of the 10,000 forms germinating with unwithered fertility. Again, a description of some source that's right here, directly arriving here. You'll be able to recognize the mind-ground dharma field that is the root source of the 10,000 forms germinating with unwithered fertility. These flowers and leaves are the whole world. So we are told that a single seed is an uncultivated field. do not weed out the new shoots and the self will flower. Coming back to this mind-ground dharma field, settling deeply into just being here.

[29:17]

There's this resource that each of you has, each of you is, or it is each of you, there is this deep source that allows your creative energy to arise. And how it arises is different for each person in this room. So this process of zazen, this endless process of going beyond Buddha, of just allowing yourself to settle into the space of, you know, any words that I, descriptions that Hongzhi or Dogen or I give it is just, you know, just words. We use these images to link to something. This field of bright spirit, this ancient wilderness beyond changes.

[30:24]

with boundless eagerness, wander around this immaculate wide plain." So again, Long had talked about fundamental purity. So the word immaculate is the way of talking about this, this immaculate wide plain. Naturally, drifting clouds embrace the mountain. The family wind is relaxed and simple and refreshing. The autumn waters display the moon in its pure brightness. So that's like No man talking about covering earth and sky, the mirror of manifest emptiness. Directly arriving here, recognize the mind ground on our field, the root source of all the ten thousand forms germinating with unwithered fertility. Again and again we come back to being present and settling and taking another breath. And there's some unweathered fertility.

[31:32]

There's something germinating here. And it's not something you have to figure out or find. Just allow, he says at the end of that, these flowers and leaves of the whole world. So we're told that a single seed is an uncultivated field. from one seed, many, many plants. Do not weed out the new shoots and the self will flower. So allow the new sprouts from the space to come forth for each of you. Sometimes this happens in a given period of zazen, sometimes it happens kind of without our seeing it, you know, in months of practice. Allow that creative energy to come forth. Pay attention, see how to respond to the world, how to be helpful to the world.

[32:36]

Again, Wong Tsung said, one word can cause a nation to flourish, one word can cause a nation to perish. This drug can kill people and can bring people to life, too. The benevolent seeing this, call it benevolence. The wise seeing this, call it wisdom. But tell me, where does the benefit or harm lie? So, as we allow these new shoots to flourish, as we allow our own creative energy to come How do we use this for helpfulness? How do we not allow this to be harmful? Pay attention to how you express this unwithered fertility when it arises. See that deep space, that source of energy and creativity, vitality and dignity, And if you don't see it and you feel like, what's he talking about?

[33:51]

What is this? You know, it's okay. Just stay with it, take another breath. We don't always see this, you know? There are times when we are covered in weeds, covered in the difficulties of our life and the world. We recognize those. Where is this deep source? I would say it's right there underneath your cushion, underneath your chair. Deep, deep down. So another way to practice with this, I'll quote a poem I've talked about before by the great Chinese then adept and painter and musician, but best known to us as a poet named Wang Wei, who was actually contemporary with Deng Xia, more or less.

[34:59]

In my middle years, I've grown fond of the way I head out from my hut on South Mountain and look for sights that only I can see. I follow the stream back to the source and sit and wait for the time when clouds are out. Perhaps I meet a person of the woods, another wayfarer. We talk and laugh and I forget to go home. So just the lines in the middle there, follow the stream back to the source and sit and wait for the time when clouds arise. And if you can't quite get back quite all the way to the source, you know, it's okay to stop and sit on the side of the stream, anywhere along there.

[36:11]

Maybe you'll see clouds arise. I actually did this once when I was living in Tassajara. There was a side stream upstream from Tassajara. There was a little stream that... We walked back up the stream to try and get to the source. I can't remember if we got there or not. So thank you all very much. Some of us are here for the day, and we'll have more opportunity to settle into this source.

[37:14]

Some of you have joined us for the talk, welcome. Because of that, I'm going to, we'll have, for the people who are here all day, we'll a discussion a little later in the afternoon, but if anyone has one or two comments or questions now, please feel free. Any responses? Yes, Dan. Did you get a definition of the ancestors? Not that I did, but you're asking what the ancestors are? Well, in this tradition, you know, Hongzhe, Dogen, and Bodhidharma, and Suzuki Roshi, and Shakyamuni Buddha. So there's a lineage of that. And many say Hongzhe's not exactly an uncle. But also, who are your ancestors?

[38:20]

Who, genetically, but also spiritually, not just in terms of the Sato-Zen lineage, which is wonderful, and all these old stories, but also, you know, who inspires you? So Miriam, as a musician, just name somebody who inspires you from the past. A musician? Yeah. Oh, Bach. There's one young man who's Bach. Excuse me. Bach is not frivolous. Bach is, that's for me too, I'm not a musician, but yes, he's one of my ancestors. What would the world be like without Bach? I don't know. It's hard to imagine. I just wanted to say something. Please. You know, I'm very hard of hearing, so please excuse me if I say something that sounds totally ridiculous. Oh, and you were saying about how on a fundamental journey you rise to the mountain.

[39:27]

Well, naturally, I don't have a clue. This week, my husband and I had a rather such a privilege in our life that we were able to watch on our walk, oh sorry, on our walk, the birds on a caterpillar mountain. a butterfly mountain giving birth. It took almost an hour. And then sort of it, this is like a little mini, mini piece of that great question. When you look and say, how can this little sticky worm ever, ever become a butterfly? So it's kind of like science tries to tell us, but it still remains a mystery that's very, very So you actually saw a caterpillar become a butterfly? No, with the larva getting born out of the butterfly mother. Oh, the butterfly giving birth to one.

[40:28]

The butterfly is giving birth to the next caterpillar. It's very hard for me to know all of your speeches. No, it's fine. It was just the most incredible, incredible, miracle. And so, in a way, a little teeny piece of that question. Yes, on weathered fertility. So you're reminding me, one time when I was Shisho at Tassajara, I was sitting facing the front open door, and it was springtime, it was sort of towards the end of the practice period, and in front of the walkway there, there's a bed of flowers, and the irises were just, hadn't bloomed yet, but they were just, they were there. And I was over three periods of Zazen, I was sitting in the canyon in between, I was sitting, looking out that door, and I saw an iris open. And the first petal, very slowly, and the second petal after that, and then the third.

[41:33]

And, you know, when you're paying attention, you can see things. So any other testimony or questions or responses? We have time for one more. Yes, Brian. The line is, the refrain was, out of pure, what is it? The original story is, How does fundamental purity suddenly give rise to the mountains, rivers, and the great earth? I'm wondering if that's another way of saying or asking, what's the relationship between emptiness and form?

[42:35]

How does form emerge out of emptiness? Okay. We might gloss it that way, but... Emptiness, to me, seems very abstract. So to talk about this wide immaculate plane and giving birth with unwithered fertility... Anyway, but yeah, we're talking about how the next thought comes. Well, to follow up, it made me think of in sitting sometimes, or just during the day, it just sort of happens sometimes, to sort of that image of following the stream to the source, of almost like following back through thoughts and preoccupations and concerns and so forth to a point of stillness and clarity that

[43:42]

It's very simple, and out of that, beginning to notice things, that everything seems to start happening out of that stillness, out of that clarity. Yeah, so our practice of zazen, sitting for a day or a period, allows us to slow down a little and settle into a space where we can see. these possibilities arise in everything. So, Dale, last thought. I say the quote on this ancestor thing, but is the fundamental purity the ancestor? Yes, is the fundamental purity the ancestor?

[44:31]

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