Tao Wu's Condolence Call

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BZ-02062
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Shuso talk

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i'd like to introduce our she settled for this practice period can't canal consume generous nightingale manifest hard mind catherine cascade parents heater is hassan and snarky
can you hear me okay the back into the how human right
he's to be up
how's that for conference sensible echoing to me he made me down a little bit yeah
so as the practice period approached i was very keen to get my corn kept asking hose on the fatah yet
and partly i you know i wanted a good bit of time to study it and sit with it and find my way with his foot
really the bottom line was that i was just curious
i don't like it that little kid wanting to know how what they're gonna get for their birthday
so in that time was right
hassan gave me the coin and now it's time to open it up
it's case fifty five from the blue kit blue cliff record dow lose condolence call alive or dead
and i will
i read it aloud or read first the pointer than the case and then the captain first

so here's the pointer
secure and intimate with the whole of reality one obtains realization right there
in contact with the flow able to turn things around one assumes responsibility directly
as for cutting off confusion in the light of the stone struck spark or a flash of lightning or towering up like a mile high wall where one occupies the tigers head and takes the tiger's tail this i leave aside for the moment
is there a way to help people by letting out of continuous path or not to test i say this look
so this is the case mrs dalloway condolence call
dow will and genuine went to a house to make a condolence call when he hit the coffin and said alive or dead
wu said i won't say alive and i won't say dead
one said why want to say who said i won't say
halfway back as they were returning un said tell me right away teacher if you don't tell me i'll hit you
who said you may hit me but i won't say and you and then hit him
later dow will passed on he died
un went to she swung who was found out was successor and brought up the foregoing story swan said i won't say alive and i won't say dead
you and said why won't you say
one said i won't say i won't say
and these words these words you aren't had an insight
one day you want the whoa into the teaching hall and crossed back and forth from east to west and west to east so we still in the teaching hall was shush one who is on the gao was successor in still practicing their
from said what are you doing you one said i'm looking for relics of our late master
fong said vast waves spread far and wide foaming below flood the skies what relics of our late master are you looking for
flatow added a comment saying heavens heavens
one said this is just where i should apply effort
food of taiwan's said the late masters relics are still present
so that was the case
and here's the capping verse
heres and horses have horns cows and goats have none
it is quite infinitesimal
in high
the golden relic exists it still exists now
foaming waves wash the sky where can you put it no nowhere
the single sandal returned to india and is last forever
so there's another capping verse i'd like to read you it's a more modern one
in addition to being found in the blue cliff record this coin is one of a three hundred columns that dogan brought from china to japan when he came back in the thirteenth century and there
there's a or
translation of them called the true dharma i in which dido lurie oh gives his own twenty-first century commentary and capping vs his his memorial card is on the altar he died just put two two weeks ago are quite two weeks ago
so this capping verse is from about twenty-first century zen master and i think it is it it's really very accessible for us
fido's capping vs
in burst not an atom is added in death not a particle is lost
therefore life is called the unborn death is called the annexing wished
some for me that's very fresh and direct
he came down
yeah
in birth not an atom is added
in death not a particle is lost therefore life is called the unborn
death is called the annexing wished

when addition to finding this is really fresh huh
expression of the call on i was curious about hum its roots about where it came from
dow who lived over a thousand years ago and i am i was curious about him
so i went looking for move in the library i went seeking those relics in the library
and am i found a number of stories in which he appears
it's kind of amazing to me that this is stories had survived such a long time in their their dialogues often
oh and what really was no worthy in a lot of these a lot of these stories is that either dulu or somebody else usually douche refuses to speak when i asked a question are there as to explain something day they refused to speak
and this reminded me of those stories about the buddha refusing to respond to questions that he thought were on
act of not suitable to be addressed or at least addressed with words
so there's one of these one of these stories that i'd like to read to you if as i think it really says alas about what's going on with our move
and it's a dialogue between douche and his teacher ja schon
yeah shaun entered the hall and address the monks saying i have a single phrase that i've never said to anyone
dow was stood up and said i'll follow you
a month asked yeah shaun how is yeah sean's one phrase spoken
yeah shaun said without words
dow wu said it's already spoken
already spoken
so dumb was really following in the fall along in the the teaching and teaching style of his his master his teacher
and i think they're both pointing to
understanding of something outside language
ah understanding something i'm not with words
and not with the mind that makes language that tries to nail things down with the right word alive or dead black or white this is that
slice and dice get the get it right
not that mind martha and the way that we try to grasp things with language
he says it's already spoken it's already there it's already expressed it's already communicated oh
susan about withholding or or being cagey are making riddles but about pointing to something that's already already obvious already right there completely right there
manifest right in front of you
suzuki roshi i said that talking about the dharma is like making a mistake on purpose because we can't we can't ever really get it home
get it quite all right
but we try me when you're trying a i've actually make to that a mistake
but in this case dow who declined to do that he he wasn't willing to do that he was doing something else
oh
and what we see in genuine was that even though douche
in not speaking was pointing to what was already spoken
for genuine hum we feel his frustration he knew he experienced this is though it is perhaps was withholding withholding something
on the feel his his frustration and in the with the urgency of it feather into kind of roof
the urgency of his mind that wanted to understand
the urgency of his body mind his bodhicitta
tell me teacher right now or i'll hit you
oh can i understand him grabbing oh douche tell me or i'll hit you there was a terrible thing to do we really have
serious transgression to hit your teacher
and he didn't care
it was like a matter of life and death to him you know when use that expression it's a matter of life and death not meaning that it he literally is but whoa that's it has that much urgency is that important
ah
and it was that important to all ago and that's why has that urgency was the energy with which he hit his teacher
that energy of his is seeking body mind i wanted to understand
so dogan cause life and death the great matter the issue that all buddhists must seek to understand the most important issue for all buddhists
a matter of the utmost urgency
life and death itself understanding that penetrating mess
i'm and as i mentioned this this coin is included in the collection of three hundred poems that he brought from china to japan
and he mentions it in a number of other places in his writings in the pure sandwich with the same community and the extensive record
and he had also is the basis for the arising of to of his especially well known physical some shoji and thank you
so gee is home
should you means
life and death
sometimes it's translated as birth and death life and death present if they have a little bit different flavor
life no life
life and death birth and death more that sense of beginning and ending
what he brings forward his life and death all one word like an email address all lowercase new faces like an airplane and businesses are going out
on and on
not beginning not ending a whole life and death
i'm a slow
a flow
of life and death that is ah
life itself that is the life of buddha
xin key
think he is about undivided activity and manifestation get here right now this
fully manifesting fully manifest in math
a flow
in a in an instant in in the one pointed
moment of existence fall they're every bit of it
on
each manifestation actualizing
the whole flow
so i have experience in my own life said it's somewhat like the story town in this call on of douche condolence call
it happened about
twenties from years ago about twenty four years ago
and i was looking for hum
i was looking for my friend george who had not shown up for an appointment that we had
and that was strange and so i went looking for him
and when i found him
i found that the reason he hadn't showed up for the appointment is that he had died i found him dead
and
it was quite shocking shocking to find a dead body it's shocking to come in contact with a process
genuine did that shocked him into pounding live or as well
and what i did what i found myself doing not thinking about it but my response was to put my hands on george as body and just pat all over him
like a police officer patting down as suspect looking for hidden weapons or drugs in after pattern all over
what is this what is this what's going on here
george found george but no not george my infant george there's nothing here this not george
there's not an atom or a particle
since missing but
wow what happened here roof trying to find out with my hands trying to find out what is this what is it
i'm
what's going on here where is george
what's what's happening
and it was very concrete my effort to take this in very concrete but that the same time
i felt like i had felt as a kid
lying on my back in the backyard at night looking up into the stars and into the sky and trying to get my head around infinite space you know this goes on forever
how couldn't go on forever
there must be an end but if there's an end what's after that
oh and come we must have you did that to protect month
with a common thing to do and feeling as a kid like if i keep trying to get my head around this is gonna it's just gonna explode from i say
as it's just it's just gonna blast apart because i'm like i can't do it it's not we won't fit inside my head and there was that feeling as i sat there with my hands on whatever my hands were on trying to take it in rye
right here
and
two to so much so much
and in that moment while are those moments while i was doing there
what were some of the most acutely alive moments of my life
it was a time when i was as acutely alive is acutely alert
i was paying attention with every out of my head and
am i remember it in that way that that kind of par total
being totally there for once i was all there
i don't know if george was all there but something was all there i was older
and i couldn't say
really
much about it except that it was all there i was all there
so i really appreciate the
compassionate tone of the pointer sir
secure and intimate with the whole of reality one of teams realization right there in contact with the flow able to turn things around when assumes responsibility directly
his a way to help people by wearing out of continuous path for not
so
those questions
what is a continuous past how do you let it out how do i let it out and what is it to assume responsibility directly
oh
these were the questions that hum
that we're helping me find my way through this com
i found that there were several continuous paths and they were kind of braided together
braided together in the poem is it goes on
on there was that continuous flow of living and dying and manifestation
that i talked about before
that dogan talks about in show to you and thank you
oh
and when she died as first i would like to review another more contemporary pop by uchiyama roshi
is called life and death and i think it puts it out there very very very clearly also
water is informed by being ladled into a bucket simply the water of the whole universe has been ladled into a bucket
the water does not disappear because it has been scattered over the ground it is only that the water of the whole universe has been emptied into the whole universe
life is not born because a person is born
the life of the whole universe has been ladled into the hardened idea called i
life does not disappear because a person dies simply the life of the whole universe has been poured out of this hardened idea of i back into the universe

so another continuous path that i saw weaving through here was the path of genuine practice the path that took him from that initial encounter with dow where go recounts and that will won't say
to the next encounter with she swung where he asked the question again and she swung response and he has a realization
all the way into the the zendo where he's carrying his whole searching for the relics
there's a part of the story that appears him in the commentaries and actually in the in the rendering of this cohen in numb
three hundred cohen collection
it's about what happened to genuine in between the first and the second encounter and what happened was that he he happened to hear someone reciting the other loki touch for a chapter of the lotus sutra
and this is a chapter that talks about all the transformations of avoid to far all that different forms in which have a low-key touched for the bodhisattva of compassion i can appear
and
they're all different forms if if the the person who is suffering is in a fiery pit of a low-key testify far our appears and
puts out the fire and takes him out of the fiery pit if the defenses of fish suffering in a net of a low-key test far freeze the fish from the nets
i'm i'm lucky high sparrow compassion appearing in all these different forms
and genuine realize is that on avalon he touched far appeared for him in the form of douche his teacher that didn't give him an easy answer
that fired up his home energy of body mind seeking to understand and kept him going insisted that was like thirty five years between the first and the second encounters paul that time
oh genuine practicing with this
and then
he he begins to have a realization when he when he hears this and he asked the same question again it sounds like the same question but it's really not the same question because he's not the same cheer you on
he's he's testing
or at least i think that's part of what he's doing
and the answer comes back from shush wrong and it is fresh and alive and he has a realization at that time
and then he keeps on whoa whoa hawaii and searching for the relics
then there's that continuous path of the dharma that is flowing from the auszahlung who wouldn't say
through douche who recognize that it was already spoken through she shrunk who voiced it in the same words but
in a way that was still so alive that arms that genuine could ah
could finally see it could finally have a realization of what was right there the whole time
so i hope i have at least to have like about five minutes for questions your tenants great something
syncing betty how many questions and comments anything you'd like to bring forward lisbeth
on
you see this thing about many house that has to health
he thought
has he go from thanks to secure into the city with the high
and so
on
i think the wrong thing always touching base the original comic an alex alex i teach me
while now i'm finding out and helping others have you have seen him
cars are now
yeah mom gave me beyond their to the helped ah i think it's it's
both of those things it's the whole the whole works the whole life and death a whole continuous path
constantly manifesting and children in that would ensure swung for his i guess yeah
us
sorry manson
fifty
the
the only problem at some points seem the the harder i
that was standing in the way of
seeing some truth
i don't feel satisfied with that
explanation
and i'm looking at you i don't know if you're really there is like a hard you over there
when you touch george's body something was missing seems to me you were very alive but he wasn't he was dead
are you alive
i are you alive now
yes
yes i am hands i think you're pointing to something that's really
really important and that i didn't i didn't touch on and i didn't go into and
i'm
i'm glad to have the chance to do it now
i love the part in the farm guy those
first he says in birth not an item is added him death not a particle is last in first not a adam is added when george was
coming into being in the emptiness of his mother's womb
not a particle or an atom was added what became george was what she ate when she drank and if the earth did not nourish her adequately it came out of her own body there's an old saying some for every child at tooth
it's because if the mother wasn't getting enough calcium to make the teeth in the fetus the calcium came out of her own teeth and then she asked those teeth that's where the atoms came from nothing added and yet
something happened that was more than the atoms and particles and
then at the time that george died
there was something else going on as well all the atoms and particles were still there
this is a condolence call
in a house where there's a coffin in the living room there is sorrow
because we're people and we have a feeling for those selves that mysteriously
and i think perhaps this is the deepest mystery mysteriously manifest and
have life and then
hum phat changes
and there's something that
has no beginning that's unborn something that has no end if unexciting wished life goes on that's something people say sometimes when they're grieving well
my loved one is gone but life goes on and there's usually a lump in the throat that says that
oh and that's true
and that's a part of a part of what's being pointed to hear but there's also condolence
with with the sorrow with the dolore western western the sadness because we
we are in relationship with each other we care about each other and you could say that the i is hardened
if the i is also a soft and warm
home and connected
don't move didn't live in a time when buddhist priests were in the business of doing funerals that's not why he went
he went because
he was connected to the bereaved in this household and what we do is in the presence of this enormity and this sadness
we don't do it alone we come together
we make a condolence call
we have the dolore together
the supreme together sad address heard of it
if is blown away the wisdom of not an adam appears and nada nadim disappears
i just don't
receive that but i received condolence
since my heart comes out to you
kate
i'm thinking of her
the landing a friend the pounds
my picture of is that particular thought it was
well not fun for water
oh it's a little different the specific sense oh here it is to be even more literal i've read the ago
various people
the exercise of waiting for if i were an aftertaste assumption shirt for her cousin and if it was ever so slightly less after its fella
something seems to roof
fifty fifty slaves with someone who character for her
what's your question
shop and i won't say it
how much does not happen
more of a when you read if the to me when i and i vaguely remember columns and i don't always remember which ones go together but this erasure from going into the since collison zendo with know how from will wake of the
oh yeah of the hell yeah there's something about that at some airports here with you make of that says he is he for me just say what you may an well
when i make of it is all tangled up in language in in perhaps have
doesn't hold up when it comes to translation
but
why i the the words the word cultivation is one that i have heard a nato in relation to what chinese and monks do for cultivating cultivating the mind cultivating self cultivation
and there's a wonderful home look
the called cultivating the empty field and that's what it's about it's about cultivating their cultivating emptiness in myself
i'm me so that book bit shorter misrepresented in some ways but that's that's one way to say what that this hundred
oh
so that's what came to mind
for me
home around that image of the whole in the in as and of cultivating cultivating
emptiness and finding the relics of the teacher oh
in there
a in that way like findings
cultivating with a hole in your garden and finding rocks or roofs or something says that well you know it seems to be like a subset of in a and clothes somebody's making a mistake constant deliberately and they're sort of looking to be set straight so it seems to be like a piriformis you know a son was safe because
we don't cultivate the empty field with the real whoa they've also we don't break gertie garden tools into the center
not everything is empty and it doesn't that isn't always as the garden is as clean as and or vice versa still we don't break your heart garden tools to the zelda will even though we're cultivating an empty field we don't need a whole for that so it seems like is it seems like there's some way i think enriched his mistake isn't really
he responded to of way these different prefer somebody sister what are you doing with that while it's just a i wonder if you're sitting with it at home and is what relics are you looking for as if somehow to the average it hasn't quite tests like somehow skills we like there's some point where the masters should address the whole heart or
actually it seems like the whole it's kind of forgotten so face off about weddings is billowing at whatever he never missed the for his hometown for so to speak he's probably still live in brackets and fan mail addresses so has the i guess see
ren has the united and your journey that the word home games dharma sort as the image of a fire going to a and fire he brought where he bragged the oh which is car
which is english it he asked the other thing i have to say is what a joy the i know that this whole or
since you hear that fart noise friends to join it is to see my fast affairs in my eyes to talk to my you
the other thing i wanted to say in response to to mars than they think unix was trying to demonstrate his
his understanding i think to shush one when he was kind a claude exclude
hunter and my reply
to think i'm getting the signal