Good morning. I'd like to speak this morning about a koan from Dogen's koan collection, volume nine of his extensive record, number 79. So just to say that, as many of you have heard me say, koans are not nonsense riddles to solve. They're ancient teaching stories from the tradition that tell us something about our practice today. Dogen was the 13th century Japanese monk who went to China and brought back this teaching tradition, this practice tradition. Sometimes these stories are lengthy and involved, involving dialogues between teachers and students. This one is very short. And these cases are selected by Dogen and then have his four line verse comments.

[01:11]

So the case. is whenever Zen master Luzhu Baoyan saw a monk coming, he would immediately face the wall. So that's the whole story. So Luzhu was one of the many successors of Mazu, the horse ancestor. In Japanese, his name is Baso. Mazu was in the 700s, contemporary of Shuto or Sekito, who wrote the Song of the Grass Hut and the Harmony of Difference and Sameness that we sometimes chant to great masters of that time. Mazu's successors included Linji Yorinzai and Shuto's included Dongshan or Tozan, from whom the Sao Dong and Soto lineage comes. But they sent students back and forth between each other.

[02:12]

Anyway, Luzhu was one of the 139, they say, enlightened successors of Mazu. But he was a strange dude. Whenever Luzhu saw a monk coming, he would immediately face the wall. So in the Zen tradition, we sit facing the wall. This goes back to Bodhidharma, the Indian master who came to China and spent nine years sitting facing a wall in a cave. And from him, we say, came the Chan or Zen tradition. There's an image of Bodhidharma standing on our altar to my left on this side. So we sit facing the wall. But also, our practice includes studying the sutras, the Buddhist scriptures, and studying the stories of the ancestors, and also inquiring with teachers about our practice and about the teachings.

[03:22]

So here, I'm available for formal doksan or practice interview with the teacher. And we also have, amongst our practice instructors, you can set up interviews with. Aisha and Douglas are here, if you want to talk about your practice. So this is part of our tradition. But Luzu, when he saw a monk coming, would immediately face the wall. So that's like if somebody came into my doksan room, if I suddenly turned around and faced the wall and went back to them. And so, you know, you might say, that's rude. And, you know, maybe right now I should just turn and face the wall for the rest of the Dharma talk. But I can't get away with that. Luzu already did that, so I have to say something. But really, you know, there's nothing to say.

[04:28]

We each sit and face the wall. That's what we've been doing just now. We each sit, this body, this mind, upright, present, facing the wall. We don't face the wall to shut out the world. We face the wall to see ourselves. So Dogen also said, to study the way is to study the self. Of course, to study the self, he said, is to forget the self and to be awakened by all things. But we sit facing the wall. We didn't build these walls to keep people out. We built these walls to allow everybody in. Anyone can come in here. We face the wall to see our communion with all beings.

[05:36]

We face the wall as a mirror to see ourselves, as a window to see how all beings are already on your seat. But Luzu, when he saw a student coming, would just face the wall, wouldn't say anything. So there's a lot I could say about this. And I don't want to say so much. But this story that, well, maybe I'll read Dogen's verse, comment on it first, then just read it and then come back to it. Dogen said about this, alone my teacher walked the path of turning the self beyond difference and sameness when seeing monks arrive. Even wishing he could tell half for you, instead he faced the wall and lost his merit.

[06:43]

Alone, my teacher walked the path of turning the self." It's really interesting that Dogen honors this guy, Luzu, tremendously by calling him my teacher. Usually he talks about Tiantang Rujing, his direct teacher in China, or sometimes Miaozhen, his Rinzai teacher, who he went to China with as my teacher. He doesn't call anybody, well, sometimes I think he calls Zhaozhou his teacher, or Hongzhou, or even Shakyamuni his teacher, but anyway, he refers to this guy, Luzu, as his teacher. Alone, my teacher, walked the path of turning himself. So, you know, when we sit and face the wall, we're alone. Of course, we're with all beings too, so I've been talking about our practice as the samadhi of all beings. Everybody you've ever known or will know is on your seat facing the wall with you in some real way, but also it's just you facing the wall.

[07:53]

How will you turn yourself? alone my teacher walked the path of turning the self, beyond difference and sameness when seeing monks arrive." So this difference and sameness is what Shakyamuni talked about, the harmony of difference and sameness, beyond, you could say, the ultimate and the particular, beyond seeing or feeling the student coming in as an example of oneness, of the ultimate, of the sameness that we all are. And so, consider when he came back from China, eyes horizontal, nose vertical, and beyond the particular. So each one of us has our own particular way to express Buddha. Each one of us has our own particular way of facing the wall. Each one of us has our own particular gifts, interests, talents, ways of sharing this immediate reality in the world, in our troubled world.

[09:12]

But Dogen says, alone my teacher walked the path of turning the self beyond difference and sameness when seeing monks arrive. So maybe when Luzu turned his back on each student, he was turning the self and turning their self too. Sometimes students come and want some explanation. Maybe this is natural in our Western linear rational context. We want some explanation or definition of reality or enlightenment or the ultimate. So I don't literally turn my back on people when they ask, but I verbally do it.

[10:21]

Even wishing he could tell half for you and steady face the wall. How could anybody tell you half of how wonderful it is to be alive? to see the ultimate reality, to see the particular reality that you could see when you faced the wall. Even wishing he could tell half of you, instead he faced the wall and lost his merit. So, it's kind of a joke. When Bodhidharma came and eventually faced the wall, before he went to North China and sat in a cave near where I got that image when I went to North China saw the cave temple where Bodhidharma sat. We went to the temple where he taught finally later. And they had these images of Bodhidharma. Near Shaolin where he sat facing the wall.

[11:35]

But before he got there, the story is he stopped at the court of one of the kings in southern China. And here was this Indian master. And Buddhism was already established in China. And the king asked him. What is the meaning of the highest truth? Bodhidharma didn't turn his back on the king. He just said, vast emptiness, nothing holy. Kind of turned his back on him. He didn't even begin to tell half. Just said, nah, it's nothing. Well, first, the king said, what's all the merit of all of the temples I've built and all of the priests I've had ordained and all of the sutras I've had translated before I was asking about the meaning of the highest truth?

[12:53]

What's all the merit of that? And Bodhidharma said, no merit. So the king lost his merit. And here, Dogen is saying that Uluzu faced the wall and lost his merit. There's no merit. There's nothing you can get from this. Of course, there's lots you can get from this. You can see yourself, and you can see all beings. And you can find some calm and balance to help act to be helpful in the world. And the world needs it now, of course. It's not about personal merit. We give away our merit at the end of all of our services. We chant to dedicate our merit to the Buddhas and ancestors and all beings. So merit is a funny idea. It's important in Asian Buddhism that, you know,

[13:54]

temples survive based on lay people giving donations, and there's this idea that giving to practice, to support practice, develops lots of merit. And part of that is understood popularly as for, so that you'll have a worthy next lifetime. So they think of it in terms of personal karma. But we could just say that Merit is the energy we develop, the spirit we develop through our practice. And if you try and hold on to that for yourself, it can be kind of poisonous. If you think you're just going to get something for yourself out of the practice. Of course, we do get benefits from the practice, but those are side effects. The point of the practice is we're practicing for everyone. the people around you benefit from your practice.

[15:00]

So I wonder how it was that those monks, those students who came to see Wuzhu and just saw his back, how were they helped? I don't know. So that's a question, and it's a question that, so the story that Dogen takes as the main case here, number 79 in his 90 cases. Whenever Zen master Lu Zhu Baoyan saw a monk coming, he would immediately face the wall. This is also case 23 in the Book of Serenity, which is the Koan collection that was started by Hongzhe, who was a century before Dogen in China, and whose silent illumination meditation instructions will be studying in the spring practice period. But he also founded this Koan case, Koan collections. There's a longer version of the story in case 23 of the Book of Serenity.

[16:08]

Whenever Luzu saw a monk coming, he would immediately face the wall. And then the case in that collection adds that Nanchuan Great Master Nansen heard of this and said, I usually tell them to realize mastery before the empty eon, before the empty kalpa, to understand before the Buddhas appear in the world. Still, I haven't found one or a half. So commenting on Luzu's approach, Nansen said that he tells his students to master the practice before And we could say before the Big Bang, before the empty eon, to understand before any Buddhas appear in the world. Don't depend on the Buddhas. And so in some ways, that's a little bit like Luzu turning his back. But Nganchuan says, still, I haven't found one or a half. And then he says, Luzu, that way will go on till the year of the ass.

[17:10]

Which is kind of a joke because in Chinese in Chinese zodiac there's no year of the ass We're coming up later this month on the year of the rooster We've just had the year of the snake haven't we Monkey, oh yeah, The Year of the Monkey. Okay, well, there you go. Anyway, so, Nanshuan, in the case that the way Hongzhi cites it, and it puts down Wuzhu, and, you know, Well, Wansong, so Dogen knew the Book of Serenity cases and verses, but from Hongshui, he didn't know Wansong's commentary that's in the larger Book of Serenity. But Wansong says, about Luzu, that way will go on till the year of the S. Wansong's comment is, his meaning seems to be blaming Luzu for being too strict.

[18:20]

But in reality, he's praising his direct imparting right there. Haven't you heard it said that even if you can explain thoroughly, it can't compare with personally arriving once. So yeah, nobody can explain it for you. You have to experience for yourself how it is to just face the wall, face reality, face wholeness, face all beings. Dogen's verse, that Dogen would have known, goes, in plainness there's flavor, subtly transcending thought and expression, continuously seeming to exist before any sign, unbending like an idiot, his path is lofty. Jade, when a pattern is carved, loses its purity. A pearl in an abyss attracts of itself.

[19:24]

A thoroughly clear air burnishes sweltering autumn pure. A bit of cloud at leisure divides sky and waters afar. So I'll read that again. Hongzhe's verse about this story. In plainness, there's flavor. So there's something, you know, very plain and simple about just sitting facing the wall. It's very simple. It's very plain. Subtly transcending thought and expression, continuously seeming to exist before any sign, before any signal, before any definition. Unbending like an idiot, his path is lofty. So yeah, he kind of loses that, seems like an idiot, here he is just turning and facing the wall, when anybody comes to inquire of him.

[20:28]

Jade, when a pattern is carved, loses its purity. So yeah, just a piece of jade by itself is pure and lovely. But if you go to, I think, at the Art Institute Museum, you can see lovely jade with all kinds of interesting carvings on them and all kinds of Taoist images and designs. And those are lovely, too. But jade, when a pattern is carved, loses its purity, he says. A pearl in an abyss attracts of itself. So a great master said, the entire universe is one bright pearl. But a pearl in an abyss, just imagine this beautiful blue pearl that we are sitting on. It's not in an abyss, it's in the middle of a solar system in the middle of a galaxy, but anyway. A thoroughly clean air burnishes sweltering autumn pure.

[21:31]

A bit of cloud at leisure divides the sky and waters afar. And then Wansong's commentary on Hongzhe's verse. He mentions in ancient times a royal courier going to take up a post to the capital. on the way past a monastery and went into the hall there. He rejoiced as he saw a monk sitting facing the wall. Here's a fellow who likes plainness. And another great master said, there is a flavor in plainness. So, I'm just quoting that in his verse. One song says, the nature of water is originally plain. When you add tea, or honey, bitterness or sweetness are produced therein, but the water is just plain. It's the loser facing the wall, and each of us facing the wall. There's a plainness there. Of course, we may add thoughts and feelings that bring in bitterness or sweetness.

[22:38]

We may have feelings about what's happening in the world and feel bitter. We may have thoughts or feelings about aspects of our life that we appreciate, and there may be sweetness or bitterness. Nature is also still and calm, one song says. If you make waves with delusion and enlightenment, then ordinary and holy are established therein. Though he says that plain has flavor, this is flavorless flavor. The flavor is everlasting, subtly transcending thought and expression. Thought and expression come from mind and speech. When you get here, the path of words ends. the trend of mental action dies out. Fayan, founder of one of the Five Houses of Chan, said, when reason is finished, you forget thoughts and expressions. How can there be any comparison? So this whole story is just pointing to a kind of simplicity, a kind of plainness. When Zen master Luzu Baoyan saw a monk coming, he would immediately face the wall.

[23:47]

So amid all of our questions about our life and the world and reality, we just sit and face the wall. Can we appreciate the plainness of that as we sit and face our whole life? Dogen said, alone, my teacher walked the path of turning the self beyond difference and sameness when seeing monks arrive. Alone, walking the path, turning the self beyond difference and sameness. When seeing your own questions arrive, can you be beyond difference and sameness? not caught by wholeness, not caught by all the particular problems, just turning the self, opening the self, allowing the self to be this samadhi of all beings.

[25:15]

So this difference and sameness, You know, this is the texture of our practice, of course, seeing this sameness, seeing the ultimate, seeing this background wholeness that we get a glimpse of when we are willing to sit and face the plainness. But there's also the differences, and there's also how do we express that in the world? So he's talking about beyond difference and sameness, but here I am saying something about difference and sameness. The difference is, the sameness is, you know, we could say emptiness or wholeness, however you want to say it, the ultimate, the universal, this background reality. The difference is that we do have problems in our life and in the world, and how do we express that? And that's the realm of precepts, so we try and be helpful rather than harmful. We do respond to the situations of our life and of the world.

[26:29]

We try to include all beings. It's not about just taking care of oneself or one's family or particular beings. It's not about excluding, you know, immigrants or people of color or women or LGBTQ people or, you know, anyway, the things that are going on in our society. But everyone is included on our seat. How do we be helpful and try and have others be helpful? How do we not be? How do we try and decrease harm? How do we be respectful to every being involved. This is a great challenge. So, this is the difference in sameness that here Dogen is talking about.

[27:35]

This is going beyond, but we have to acknowledge what the difference in sameness is. Going beyond difference in sameness is to be within difference in sameness and take that on. So this is our practice. This is all part of turning the self. But this plainness gives us a place to breathe, to calm, to sit, from which to respond, from which to find our balance, So I don't know, maybe this is too much, what Wu Tzu did. Maybe it was okay back then, in the 700s or 800s.

[28:38]

You know, here we are in, you know, and that was a Buddhist culture and a culture informed by Taoism and Confucianism and, you know, there was a kind of, Well, there was unrest back then as well, but in our time maybe it's not enough to just turn and turn our backs on each other. We have to talk together. But this example of Luzu is, you know, interesting for us. Can we also see the plainness? Dogen says, even wishing he could tell half for you, instead he faced the wall and lost his merit. So when we wish we could tell half or wish we could tell all of it, we should remember that whatever we think we have to say is,

[29:43]

This is just a little bit of the reality. It doesn't mean we shouldn't say it if we have something to say. How do we respond to the world? But don't think, you know, that because you're saying what you think you have to say that that's going to get a lot of merit. How do we take care of the world? That's sort of in here for us, for us looking at this story. This is an example of one of these great masters from back in the, I don't know, 700s, maybe he lived into the 800s. There's something pure and plain and straightforward about this example. It's maybe worth remembering, as we struggle with how do we respond to the people coming, asking us, how do we take care of the world?

[31:09]

How do we take care of ourselves? How do we turn the self in this time? And even wishing I could tell half for you. It'd be better to just face the wall. Still, I seem to keep babbling on. So maybe I'll shut up, and I have a lot of announcements for later, but let's take some time. If anyone has any comments on this story, responses, Please feel free. Or just questions about what's going on here. Tom.

[32:35]

Would it be fair to say that a loser's action, based on the law, might be taken by the prosecutor themselves, as a suggestion that they do the same and that will answer your question? Yeah, that's a good response. I suppose some student might feel like they were being insulted or something, because the guy wouldn't respond. But yeah, I think we could all take that as a suggestion. You know, that's kind of how I'm, one part of how I'm trying to take it, you know, that there's not a lot to say, and yet that's how we communicate, so we talk also, and here I'm babbling, but yeah. Yeah, just go and face the wall. See what comes up. Yeah, right. It's a suggestion, maybe. It's a good way of taking it, I think. Yes, Aisha.

[33:39]

It seems like it's a very vulnerable teaching because it's so open to the interpretation of the student. And really, I mean, I know everything that we do is that way. Yes. Hence, you know, the babbling and the wish to sort of explain and clarify. But I guess that's kind of where I I want to be that vulnerable to someone thinking that maybe I'm, you know, turning my back on them, rather than, you know, encouraging them. Yeah. Yeah. Lu Su's, you know, this example, Lu Su is vulnerable a thousand years later, twelve hundred years later, to people, you know, putting him down. And, and, yeah. And, and we do. refused to meet his students, or his prospective students, or people who wanted help.

[34:41]

It's a funny way of meeting people. It's an interesting, funny way of meeting people, that's right. Maybe it's an interesting, funny way of remembering that that's a way of meeting people. Just say nothing. Kathy. I don't know if this is a fair example. I'm not recommending this to everybody, but I have a yoga teacher And so then, if you are planning something, that means you have to do it a day ahead, or two days ahead, or a week ahead, or however long.

[35:43]

And I think that, in some ways, that feels to me similar. If somebody is not that available, then I think there's also a sense, I don't know, that it's interesting to see his practice, or the way he does his lines, his way of simplifying Yeah. Yeah. You reminded me, I have a good friend, an old friend I started practicing with in New York City 40 plus years ago. And I'm going to see him in March. And he doesn't own a cell phone. He doesn't have a computer. He doesn't do email. He doesn't have an answering machine on his telephone. So I just have to catch him when he's home. And I talked to him the other day, which was lovely, and he's a wonderful, wonderful person.

[36:46]

And I don't think he does it as a way of, you know, it's not a technique or something, it's just, you know, he doesn't, that's the way he lives. But it's, yeah, it's a little bit like that, yeah. But sometimes when somebody asks you something or asks you for something, maybe silence is... that no matter how much a parent tells a child what to do verbally, the child will follow their example. Yeah, right.

[37:51]

Even if the parent tells the child to do something other than what the parent is doing. Inevitably the child follows the parent's actions. So we sit facing the wall. That's what we do. How do we actually respond? The explanations are not... are not... Yes, Carla? You know, you can also see it as simplification. It's almost like sitting face to wall listening to experience. you're going to experience. I mean, you know the two experiences will be different, but it's, like you said, in some ways, it is almost like an example, but it's an invitation to say, well, if you sit and face the wall, the answer is going to come to you.

[38:57]

You're going to experience it. I like that. That's kind of what we do here. This is an invitation. We all face the wall together. I don't know about answers, but, you know, we have some experience together. We each are by ourselves. Together, have some experience. So yeah, this is an invitation to face yourself. So we also have all the, you know, many stories where there was a dialogue, where there were interesting things said.

[39:57]

But the stories work best when what's said is not really some direct explanation, but is kind of like just facing the wall. It's like poetry. Yes, Aisha? I don't know. I feel myself like what I want to do being up here or being, you know, suppose the teacher here, you know, maybe we're all the teacher here, but anyway, is just encourage everybody to find themselves, express themselves, appreciate the possibility of being awake, you know?

[41:01]

So just encouragement, you know, but sometimes it comes up to need to say something hey, you're not paying attention. So there's that side, and maybe Luz is also expressing that. So thank you all very much for facing the wall together.

[41:34]

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