So, prior to coming into the meditation hall and talking about So Roshi then said to him, well, if that's the case, then you can go home. Or you could stay. And then somebody else had added in, and Roshi could go to New York. In fact, the practice of Zen should be the same.

[01:35]

If the practice is different, then it should not be Zen. So what I can say today should be about myself and the modernization of China. So, in fact, both practices should be pretty much the same. Otherwise, one of them might not be Zen. In any case, therefore, Shifu will talk more on his own personal experience and also Zen practice in Chinese monasteries during this century, or recent times. Let me first introduce what I have seen.

[02:38]

What is the practice of Chinese Zen in modern times? And what is the situation? So first, Shifu will talk about practices as they were carried out in Chinese Zen monasteries in recent history. There are big and small Chinese monasteries, but the big ones can accommodate hundreds of people, from 200 to 300 people, and the small ones can accommodate dozens of people. So there were both large monasteries and small ones. Small ones could handle maybe somewhere between 10 and 20 people, and large ones could handle 300 people. The biggest and smallest monasteries have a common feature.

[03:44]

After entering the monastery, There is meditation, sleeping, and eating in the temple. So regardless of whether they're small meditation halls or large ones, they had one thing in common. All of one's life's daily activities would be held within the meditation hall, such as eating, sleeping. And meditation would all be carried out in the meditation hall. What about, how would they sleep? So the platforms that was sitting on here would be longer towards the back so that one could lay down. Personal belongings such as one's clothing, robes, and bowl could be hung behind oneself on the wall.

[05:14]

Or there would be a shelf attached to the wall where one could fold up and put one's robes. The bathroom would be right alongside the meditation hall. Also, even though it wasn't a flush toilet type bathroom, but yet the bathroom never seemed to have a very foul smell to it. So it was, for one reason, it was very deep.

[06:45]

There was a pit in the ground, but it was very deep. Our meditation hall is not like today's meditation hall. You come in in the morning and come in at night. You're not in there during the day. It's not like that. You have to go in for at least three months. At least three months. Also, it wouldn't be just morning and evening meditation. Once you went into the meditation hall, you went in for a period of maybe at least three months, and you were in there all day, basically. Our meditation is called Chan Qi. Chan Qi means a period, not seven days. Chan Qi can be three months, sometimes six months at most. It's also called Chan Qi. No, it's not Chan Qi. It's Qi. The 6th, 7th, 8th Qi.

[07:46]

No, it's not. It's Qi. Oh, a 17th Qi. Yes. So, 3 months to 6 months. If it's such a long time, who would go? What kind of person would go in for that type of period? It should be 100% monastics. But sometimes there are one or two laymen. But there aren't many cases like this. So usually it would be all monks going on a retreat like this. Occasionally you'd get one or two lay people joining in. so you can't so uh... shows uh... uh... is like to say sorry his voice is uh... not feeling is uh... feeling a little uh... out of sorts so uh... uh... don't listen to his voice listen to mine because of my uh... voice uh...

[09:33]

because I recently talked too much. So after you went into one of these meditation sessions, what would happen if you got sick? Well, you're not allowed to get sick. So... there was a saying outside the entranceway to the meditation hall uh... that when you go in you give your body to the meditation hall and you give your life to uh... the uh... the dharma protecting dragons uh... when we go inside the meditation hall you can tell us

[11:13]

If you die, we won't hold a funeral for you. We'll just put you under the bed and leave you there for a while. We'll take you out after the funeral. So even if you were to die during the retreat, you wouldn't be given funeral ceremonies. Your body would just be put underneath the platform there. After the retreat, then we carry out the ceremonies. But interestingly enough, During the retreats, nobody got seriously sick. People would catch maybe small illnesses, but not major ones.

[12:20]

And even those who went in with an illness got better during the retreat. This is the dining hall. We have a vice-principal here. So the Buddha statue in the meditation hall would not be situated up in front as it is here. It would be in the middle of the meditation hall. And the statue would not be of Shakyamuni Buddha, it would be of Manjushri, Bodhisattva Manjushri. And the Roshi would sit in this spot where the Buddha statue is here.

[13:26]

It's a kind of enclosure there, not an enclosure, but a kind of... I don't know how you use it, what the word is for it, but... Cannabis? Cannabis. Something like that, but it's made out of wood. Enclosing the... Not enclosing it, because it's open space. Over the abbot's head. The roshi's head. This... The people who were looking for incense... The people who were looking for incense didn't bring an incense stick. It's made of a piece of bamboo. A piece of bamboo? A piece of bamboo.

[14:37]

It's about 1.5 meters long. It's a very long piece of bamboo. It's a very wide piece of bamboo. It's about 2 to 3 meters long. It's about 3 meters long. It's a very long piece of bamboo. So, it's about 3 meters long, right? It's about 2 to 3 meters long. So the person who would be walking with the incense stick, what is that called in the Japanese edition? Chinese, they call it an incense stick. Yeah, walking with the kiyosaku. That would not be made of wood. It would be made out of bamboo, a strip of bamboo, maybe about two or three feet long. About that thick. And it was also used for hitting people. And they could hit them from a fairly long distance. But normally it would be used in such a way, more often it would be used to hit the floor to make a sound so that the person who was nodding off would hear the sound and know to straighten up.

[16:16]

So, and if the person didn't wake up after the stick was hit on the ground, then he would hit the person directly? So we have people dozing off now, in fact. If Shifu had one of these, he'd be able to hit them. Maybe the Roshi can get one made and try it out. In the dining hall, every day, it's not like the small meals we have in Japan.

[17:34]

It's like everyone can see the teacher by themselves now. Not everyone can meet a teacher in the main hall. You have to think that you are enlightened. After the test by the master of the western hall, the master will see if the person is enlightened or not. Then he will go to meet the monk. Also, it was not so easy to get an interview with the Roshi. What would happen is if a person got to the point where he thought he had some kind of enlightenment-type experience, he would first have to go through a person who was in charge of the hall, kind of a senior monk, who would

[18:35]

try to get an idea whether this guy really has some genuine experience or not. And if he felt he was qualified, then he would send him on to see the Roshi then. So there was an elimination process there on getting to see the Roshi. Small, big, small, small. Chan, this is Chan Huatou. So, it's called, what's called Dogusan in Japanese is called Xiaocan in Chinese, meaning small inquiry. But, this teacher, one day, there was a meeting. It was a public meeting. Once a day? Yes, once a day. Once a day? Yes, once a day.

[19:37]

There would be a talk also every day, once a day. Very short, not very long. It would usually be very short. Maybe only a few words. Maybe only a few words. A few sentences. When he speaks, let's see how people react. And as the Roshi would be giving the talk, he'd be observing the participants and seeing what state they were in. 如果說多半是沒有人回答的,沒有人問話的,他可能問幾個問題,老師可能問幾個問題,多半沒人回答。 so maybe the Roshi would uh... ask some questions and uh... normally though nobody would answer why do you think they wouldn't be answering?

[20:40]

because as soon as you open your mouth you're wrong But if nobody gave any answer, then they would be scolded. You're just a bunch of ducks. If you smile like this, are you a crow or a caravan? If you smile like this, everyone will smile. What is it? Is it a duck? No. A duck is a crow, right? A duck is a duck, a crow is... A crow is a crow, right?

[21:45]

It's not a duck, it's a crow. Okay, everybody's laughing now. Is that telling me that you're pros or are you enlightened? But this kind of interaction, asking of that question and the participants not saying anything because they know that as soon as you open your mouth, you're wrong, and then getting scolded by the Roshi would often, to the person that was right, bring about that kind of doubt sensation, bring that about in the person's practice.

[23:10]

So after three months to six months like this, even those people who really didn't know what practice was all about when they went in, and really didn't seem to do that well when they were there. Nevertheless, come out somewhat different than they went in. So after a long period of time, someone asked, are we really crows, or is that master a crow? Say that again. After 3 or 6 months, everyone came out. So after the three to six months coming out of the retreat, some of those participants might bring up the idea, wait a minute, who's really a crow, us or that Roshi?

[24:19]

If you can verify that the Roshi is a crow, then you're already doing pretty good. But that type of meditation hall is already non-existent in China. So Shifu took a trip back to mainland China a couple of years ago. And he didn't find any really live meditation hall there. Also the meditation periods, those retreats would usually be held when it was coldest time of the year and the warmest time of the year.

[26:07]

Winter retreats, summer retreats. Winter retreats were always more comfortable actually than the summer retreats. So of course there was no air conditioning in the meditation hall. There was a lot of people participating. Especially if the teacher of the Roshi was famous, then there would be a lot of participants. So they might even put 20 people for 20 participants in a space that was originally intended for 10. So also sleeping, therefore when they slept it would have to be pretty close together.

[27:20]

Sometimes it would be the case that you couldn't even lay down on your back, you had to lay on your side and it would be all lined up very close. So was it easy to sleep under those circumstances? Very hot. Actually the whole purpose of that was to try to get you not to sleep. You were considered lazy if you did. But when you're very tired, you still have to sleep a little. The fact that people were not getting illnesses under these conditions itself is inconceivable.

[28:27]

But nevertheless, people weren't getting sick under those conditions. Now I'll tell you a little bit about myself. What time does the talk go on till? Maybe till 9? 9 [...] How much time do I have? Do I have until 9 or 9.30? And then I'll let them ask questions. There's half an hour left. More than half an hour. So our shifu became a monk at 13, the age of 13.

[29:50]

but he wasn't able to come in contact with any good teachers at that time. In fact, he did meet some famous masters at that time, but they weren't able to help him in any way. So the reason was that his own practice was not really developed at that point, so no matter who he met, it really didn't make a difference. Just like an egg that isn't yet fully ready to hatch, no matter what, it's not going to hatch right. But I've never thought about whether or not I would hatch.

[31:10]

and in fact Shifu wasn't really thinking about enlightenment or whether he would be able to get enlightened or anything like this at that time he just liked being a monk and thought it was a nice kind of life Since I was 10 years old, I've had a lot of problems. I couldn't understand the sutras. I couldn't explain the sutras either. I asked a lot of people. A lot of people explained it to me, but I couldn't understand it. Some people told me, don't ask anymore, you'll know in the future. so also from the time he was in his teens he began to develop some questions and he would read sutras and couldn't find answers to certain questions he'd have and he'd ask people for the answers but uh... but he was still not able to understand them and uh... then other people would say uh... don't worry about it uh... when the time is right you will understand

[32:40]

So, Shifu's practice was both very scattered in a way, but also very simple. Things that he did were prostrations to the Buddha, repentance-type prostrations, also reciting the sutras and reciting the Buddha's name. And also sitting meditation was the most important practice. It was among the most important.

[33:49]

But I was not able to resolve any questions that I had. Even less was I able to help anybody else. Sometimes, you can get some answers from classics or books. It seems to be able to solve problems. I also use these answers to help others, to tell others how to help themselves. At that time, you also used books. So it was possible and to look at books and get answers from books and answer people's questions for them through the knowledge you can gain from books and Shifu did do that sometimes. However, after a period of time, those who thought they could help us solve the problem were not useful. Not useful. So, but answering, getting the answers you can get from books like that, Shifu felt were very insufficient.

[35:21]

Because the sutra tells us not to be greedy. At that time, we probably thought we could not be greedy. But when we were greedy, we had no choice but to be greedy. Greed, desire. How? The sutra tells us not to be greedy. Yes. It's best not to be greedy, but in fact, for the time being, don't be greedy for a while, but you really can't stop being greedy. Sometimes, in the end, you still have to be greedy for what you want to be greedy for. But when the time comes, you still have to be greedy for what you really want to be greedy for. Otherwise, how? It's just that this concept is useless. in the sutra, it's useless to teach us not to be greedy because we will still be greedy as long as we don't practice well even though the buddhist sutras, you can read in the buddhist sutras for instance that one should not have greed, should not have desire but just reading that is not going to solve your problems for you definitely you read it and after you read it you still have greed, you still have desire for things

[36:39]

So just reading the sutras, it seems like it's all very simple, what's desired of the practice, but in fact it's not that easy. So, why is it that we can't accomplish what is asked for in the sutras? Buddhist sutras tell us that we should have no self and no form. Everywhere we go, there's self. So this is a very disturbing question.

[37:49]

What use is Buddhism if we can't actualize those desirable results of the practice? Then when Shifu was 28 years old, he met with a master who helped him a lot. So one night, they sat together and Shifu asked them a lot of questions. It was just the two of us. That night, we were actually in a temple, in a monastery. We were sitting on the same bed at night.

[38:52]

It wasn't a bed, it was a bedside table. The two of us were sitting on the same bedside table. A so-called bedside table is a bedside table where you can meditate or sleep. So they were in this temple together at night, sitting alone in this one area on a kind of mat. So Shifu asked them a lot of questions. He was very compassionate. So as Jeff said, I got a lot of questions I want to ask you. He said, oh, well, that's normal. Go ahead, ask them. So I asked him question after question, and after each question in an anxious kind of way, and after each question he'd ask me, are there any more?

[40:01]

Are there any more? And this would go on for a while. At the end, I think he'll probably answer my questions. After he's asked all my questions, he'll answer my questions. So, each time Shifu would give him a long question, and this went on for about, one after another, took for about two hours. And then Shifu figured, well, once all the questions are asked, he'd give him a really good answer. Later on, So... So... Then after about two hours, he stopped saying, are there any more questions?

[41:17]

And then all of a sudden, he just hit his hand on the ground very forcefully and said, how could you have so many questions? Just put it all down and go to sleep. So, and at that point, I had no more questions. They all just disappeared. So, it was... a very big help for me at that time. So, it was a long time, from that time on, it was a long time before another question came into my head. so this was an experience I had and I really didn't know you know what exactly this experience was I didn't ask him

[42:33]

I didn't ask him what it is that actually happened and I didn't know myself either. So the next day when I saw him, he looked at me and said, did you sleep all right last night? And I said, yeah, I slept well. He said, oh, good, you slept well. That's good. This is the first time I have experienced something like this. It was a breakthrough in my life. It was a very meaningful experience. So this was an important experience in my life.

[43:49]

And from that point on, after that experience, I still have greed, still have hate, but I know that I can be without greed. So, prior to that experience, whenever greed would arise, I would not recognize it when it arose, only after it had passed. But after the experience, when greed or hatred would arise, as it was arising, I would be aware of it.

[44:53]

So greed and hatred are still there for me. But on account of the fact that I'm aware of it as it arises, there's not too many times when greed or hatred will manifest themselves from my mind. So I know, I think, that so-called liberation is not easy. Liberation. From this moment on. Also from this point on, I really understood how difficult liberation it is to get liberation. And I have no... I did not think that I would get liberation in one life, within one lifetime.

[46:14]

But I also feel very fortunate to know that I am, to realize that I am not liberated and that And to be aware that I do have problems, that I am not liberated, I also feel very fortunate for having that knowledge. Because only that knowledge allows me to work hard on the path and not be proud. In fact, in many cities in China, few people say that they are liberated. But it is true that they say that they have attained enlightenment.

[47:37]

Few people say that they are liberated. So in the history, throughout the history of Zen in China, very few people have said that they actually achieved liberation, although they have had enlightenment experiences. Because I know I have a problem, so when I was 30, 31 years old, I went to the mountains and stayed there for 6 years. So therefore when I was 30 years old, realizing that I still had a lot of work to do, I decided to go up into the mountains for six years and practice in Taiwan. Originally I had planned only to go off for three years, but after the three years had passed, I felt that it wasn't really enough time, that it passed very quickly, so I decided to stay another three years.

[48:51]

So this type of practice that I did in the mountains is known as practicing in solitude. And in this style, you stay within a certain designated small area. I planted some sweet potatoes in a very small area. And I had a little garden in that confined area where I planted sweet potatoes. So every day, once a day, somebody would bring some rice up to the mountain for me.

[50:02]

I would also eat that with the leaves of the sweet potatoes for vegetable. Every half a month, I could eat a piece of tofu. Every half a month, I could eat a piece of tofu. Semi-annually, I would get a piece of tofu or bean curd to eat. Today, we are eating tofu here. I remember when I was in Beijing, it was hard to eat tofu. In fact, we just had doufu for dinner tonight. And I just reflected for a second on that time I spent in retreat and how difficult it was to get doufu at that time. To have it at that time. I didn't have any soap for cleaning clothes. You can use grass or firewood to burn the ashes.

[51:32]

Then you can wash your clothes. The ashes, what I would use instead of soap was the ashes used from the wood or whatever that was used to make a fire for cooking. I would then take those ashes and put them in water and those could be used to wash clothes. Have you heard of that kind of method before? For brushing teeth, there was no toothbrush or toothpaste. But there was a tree in the area that had these small little branches that if you took them off and Then chewed on it for a little while, you can make it into a good implement for brushing the teeth.

[52:44]

In fact, in India, people still use that method. Also, using salt, you can brush your teeth with that. Now, what was I actually doing for those six years? The afternoon would be devoted to meditation and the morning would be devoted to prostrations. After about six months of practicing like that, the first six months of practicing like that, then I started using the morning period for reading the sutras, and then afternoon would be meditation.

[54:04]

After about a year or so, I started to read sutras and write articles in the morning. And then after about a year and a half, I would use the morning again for reading sutras and also writing. And in the afternoon, I would practice prostrations and practice meditation. It's very strange. In the office, I practiced writing. I wrote very fast. I wrote five books in this mountain. Also, I got very efficient at writing during that period. So much so that I produced five books just from that morning writing period. People would ask, are you spending all your time writing books while you're in retreat like that? And I'd say, no, I just spend actually a very small portion of the morning hours.

[55:08]

writing. So I had some strange experiences and some good insights while I was practicing in the mountains. Very often I would become totally forgetful of myself and time. That was very common. So, one time when I was sitting, practicing meditation in the room, all of a sudden I heard a crashing, big loud crashing sound, big tree falling down.

[56:30]

And it fell on the house. And I figured, I was thinking, I started thinking, well, it's probably going to destroy the whole house and the whole house is going to come down on me. But after a short period of time, the house didn't come down. So I started thinking, such a big crashing sound, it sounds like a heavy tree falling on the house, why didn't the house come down? So I put my legs down and walked outside to see what had happened. And the tree didn't fall down at all. It was still standing there.

[57:54]

What do you think was going on? So this is a kind of actually a demon or a ghost kind of playing games with us. So one practicing alone in a situation like that, stuff like that can happen fairly often. Once, I heard a man whistling. When he was whistling, he aimed his gun at my house. He broke a piece of glass in my house. I thought the glass was broken.

[58:57]

So I figured the window was already splattered. I heard the sound of the glass breaking, the sound of the bullet. I thought, it must have come very close to me. It must have just missed me. I checked my body for a minute and it didn't hit me. Then I looked at the window also and the window was in perfectly good condition. But it was then going back to sit in meditation. I couldn't get back into meditation at that point. Because the mind became too scattered from that.

[60:16]

Later, I told myself, I said, the people who meditate, the people who meditate, are not afraid of anything. Why are they afraid of the sound of a tree falling down? Why are they afraid of a gun shot coming in? I said, it's no use. From then on, I didn't care about any sound. So then I also reflected on this, that a person who is able to meditate well should not care about anything, not care about dying or anything. Should not be fearful of dying or anything else. Why is this disturbing me, this tree falling down, this bullet coming through the window? I'm really not a very good practitioner at all. Reflecting on that and then saying, making a strong will not to sit down and not be bothered by any of this in the future. That's what Shifu decided, made the determination to do.

[61:19]

I have this kind of will and determination. uh... so after making that uh... determination to sit through anything that could that might happen and not be shaken by it uh... nothing like that ever happened again uh... it's eight forty five so shifu's gonna stop at this point I would like to know if you are interested in asking questions about the Zen practice in China. Do you have any questions about my strange practice experience? So if anybody has any questions concerning Buddhism, Chan meditation practice in China in recent history, or concerning Shifu's practice himself, you can ask questions now.

[62:30]

Roshi, what do you think of of the presence of women practitioners and women priests in America in Zen practice. What do you think of the practice of women in the United States? Actually, you used the expression priest, and I used the Chinese expression to leave home, which means to become a nun, in this case. So Shifu's asking you, are you planning to become a nun? He asked this question because you practice in China, and it seems that women don't practice much there. He thinks that women's practice in the US will have a big impact on American Buddhism.

[63:43]

In China, there are fewer women, but there is still a women's jungle. Actually, there were women practitioners also and a lot of nuns in mainland China. Also, not as many as monks, but still, you know, a fair number. Even to the present day in communist China, there are still three major monasteries or nunneries that have quite a few nuns in them. In the U.S., if a woman wants to become a nun, the question is, where does she become a nun? Is there a nunnery or a monastery that allows women to become nuns? so one of the problems about for an American woman who would want to become a monastic person, a nun is finding a place to do that in it seems it might be hard to find a place where it's all nuns a kind of a

[65:04]

a place to cultivate with his own nuns. But is there a place like that at all in the United States? Yes. I think in the United States, men can be monks, women can be nuns. Men can practice, women can practice. Monks and nuns should be equal. so regardless of whether it's uh... leaving the home life and becoming a monastic person same for men and women both should have that opportunity to do so and uh... lay practitioners both men and women can practice uh... well these days uh... we're quite lazy and we eat a lot of tofu and we don't spend We modern people are lazy.

[66:20]

We eat a lot of tofu. And we don't go to meditation for six months. We don't go to the mountains for six years to practice. Do we have hope like this? You are sitting here today and you already have hope. The fact that you're sitting here today means that there's hope for you. So for the thirsty person, to take one sip of water is better than having none at all.

[67:26]

But the one sip, of course, is quite different from drinking your fill. The other day, someone told me he had an experience. He said that when his stomach was open for a long time, it took him about five days. He couldn't eat or drink water. At that time, he could only rub water on his lips to make him feel water. He was already very satisfied. This is someone you know? Yes. He said that after his stomach was opened, he could drink water. He kept thinking about it. He said, wow, I'm so lucky. He said, I can drink water now. But when the water touched my lips, I already felt... I already felt very happy.

[68:27]

At that time? Yes. Where did he open his mouth? In his intestines. So Shifu knows this one person had an intestinal operation on the intestines and was not allowed to eat or drink for about five days after the operation. During those five days, he was only allowed to put water on the lips. And putting water on the lips in that kind of condition, just having that water on the lips was so satisfying. So even that little bit of water was better than nothing. So there's still monks living in the monasteries, but they don't have these long meditation periods.

[69:40]

They have to go to work. have to do farming activities, and take care of tourists. What's the most important point to remember when we practice in our daily life? What is the most important thing in our daily life? What is the most important thing? The most important thing is that life should be normal. Life should not be chaotic. Life means eating, sleeping, waking up, eating regularly, Social relations should be normal and stable.

[70:59]

That's the most important. So most important thing is that your lifestyle be very stable, well regulated, you get sufficient sleep, the time that you wake up and go to bed are fairly regular, your meals are regular and nutritious and there's no disturbing factor going on there. Your relations with other people should be kept Also, it should be smooth and kept well. Don't get involved in crazy sort of things that will disturb you emotionally. So you can be involved in a lot of different kinds of activities, but only... but your mind should remain calm.

[72:01]

I saw a picture in the teacher's book. It was about football. He said, when a person's body is moving, his heart shouldn't move. If you can really do that, you can participate in any event. So there was a picture in Roshi's room here of Joe Montana on the wall. And it was a story connected with that, which we won't go into at the moment. But the comment was made that Roshi made the comment that He's able to keep his mind still in the midst of activity. And Schiffel again just re-emphasizes that if you're able to do that, you can engage in any of these kind of activities. But if it's only a matter of intellectually figuring that you can do that but not being able to really do that, then it might be wise to consider limiting yourself and keeping away from certain activities.

[73:25]

Try practicing more meditation. Mention was made of reincarnation. Is that a principle of Chan meditation? Or was that brought up as kind of a metaphor for relieving the pressure of seeking the character of enlightenment and sort of living life as it is? Mention was made of reincarnation? Yes. And you want to know if he's talking about reincarnation as something that's real or something that's just a metaphor? In your speech, you talked about rebirth.

[74:42]

I don't remember. I don't think you talked about it either. He said you talked about You don't think you will be liberated in this life. So he asked about reincarnation in this life. Is this part of Zen? Is this principle part of Zen? Or are you just using this to explain your own feeling? This is the theory of Buddhism. The cicada can't leave Buddhism.

[75:44]

So, since the cicada is a part of Buddhism, Buddhism's belief, Buddhism's theory, is like this. I believe in life after life after life. It's not that this life is over and it's gone. If this life is completely gone, then it's not Buddhism. So Zen is not apart from Buddhism as a whole. It is a part of Buddhism and encompasses Buddhist beliefs also. The belief in reincarnation is very much a part of Zen also. The Zen masters in China all believe in the future. So, patriarchs of the Zen sect all had this belief in the past and the future.

[76:49]

Not having this belief in the past and the future, that would not be Buddhism. So is the point you're trying to make that Zen does not speak about the future, that there is no future? He didn't say that. He didn't say that. He just asked a question. He didn't do anything. He didn't have any theory in his heart. He only took the tofu.

[77:50]

He asked you... What's the difference between a crow and a house-opener? It should be the same. It should be the same. Cut! This is all convenient. When the teacher is talking to the students, One more time. So this is just a skillful means being used by the teacher.

[79:09]

Anything that's said by the teacher, whether it be good or bad, just as long as it's useful, that's all that matters. Practice and solitude was very important, obviously. How does one tell when that's the thing to do? How does one differentiate that from just not being responsible in some other way? How do you know that practice solitude is right for one? Solitude, how do you know that solitude is the right practice for you at any given time? How does a person know how to practice alone in seclusion?

[80:12]

How does he know that it's right for him to do it that way? He should do it that way. How does he know? He should have the skills to practice. Without the skills to practice, it's dangerous to practice alone. There may be problems in the mind. as well as his body, mind, and thoughts, there may be problems. So there is no foundation, and no concept is wrong? Yes. There are two things, right? Yes. The biological foundation and the concept, which is the middle. Yes. So it's basically, in order to go off and do a practice like that, you should have two things before you do. One is that you've got a good foundation in the practice, and two, you've got right views. Without those, it's very easy for problems to develop. In the past 20 years, many places in Taiwan have been influenced by Western culture.

[81:32]

But this has not affected Taiwan's Buddhism. On the contrary, it has benefited Taiwan's Buddhism. Actually, it has... You asked what kind of influence this had on Buddhism in Taiwan. In fact, it's had a very good influence on Buddhism in Taiwan. Because Chinese people have lost their confidence in their own culture for the past 100 years. I heard that the old Americans in the West are all practicing Buddhism. So, of course, we Chinese should also practice Buddhism. So, the main problem is not that the Westerners are learning Buddhism from the Westerners? No, because the Western culture has spread to the United States and to the East. So, the concept of Buddhism has also spread back from the West.

[82:34]

So for the last hundred years or so, the Chinese have had a bit of an inferiority complex about their own culture in the West and feeling that everything Western seems to be superior in many ways. And now the fact that Western people are also interested in Buddhism, and that has also So people like me, who came to the US and to Europe, have influenced many Westerners. When I came back to Taiwan, the Taiwanese saw me and were very impressed. They thought I was from the West, and that I had a Western background.

[83:38]

So people in Taiwan have this very good view of Shifu, because he's looked upon as this person, oh, he's gone to America, he's gone to Europe, and he's taught Buddhism to Americans and had these American disciples, so it's like a big image thing, you know, in Taiwan. How's his image in Taiwan, you might say. 现在东方和西方距离 Actually, there's not that much difference between East and West these days when it comes down to it. I don't understand how no self is reincarnated. Wǔ wǒ, zhè shì zhǔ guān de zhì jī.

[84:39]

Wǔ wǔ, zhè shì zhǔ guān de zhì jī. [...] Wǔ wǔ, zhè shì zhǔ guān de zhì jī So, no self refers to no attachment. However, there is still birth and death. There's no attachment, but there's birth and death. Buddhas and Bodhisattvas who have vowed to save all sentient beings will transform again and again in order for the sake of sentient beings.

[85:47]

Not for the sake of themselves. no self does not mean there is no self so to speak just that there is no attachment to oneself In one's mind, for the enlightened person in one's mind there is no birth and death. If you're not attached to phenomena, then birth and death are as good as non-existence for you.

[86:55]

If a practitioner is silent, then he becomes a small saint, like a wheel, but he is not the Buddha of Mahayana Buddhism. Being silent means that there is no activity, no phenomenon, then he is a small saint. So, neither rising nor passing away, there would be then no phenomena. One would just enter into nirvana, which would not be the Mahayana way. So, it's a pity that a great master, a great bodhisattva, is no more. So if a master was to say there's no... You mean Shakyamuni Buddha can still help us in this way?

[88:42]

Yes. So, if a greatly enlightened being was to say there was no birth, no death, and just disappear, that would be very regrettable. In fact, the Buddha at any time can help sentient beings. can appear in health-sentient beings. So this no-self is subjective and refers to non-attachment. it's not that there is uh... it's not that objectively there is no longer that particular phenomena so even though the body so one can experience no self but that body this body this keeps on going on

[89:48]

Any questions? No, no questions. Any questions? No more questions. No questions. My master told me to put it down. I have no questions. So just like that master had told Shifu, put it down, there's no more questions. You can go to sleep. Thank you.

[90:41]

@Text_v004
@Score_JI