Last week, I handed out some Xerox copies, if you happen to have them at the second case about the Kashi or Kashiata. And I said last week, I said something about how and why we have this thing called transmission and I said something I think about kind of the evolution of so-called enlightenment

[01:03]

as it was understood and practiced in India in the sense that it required a process of path of purification not only over one lifetime but over a series of lifetimes under the context of transmigration and regeneration and that when it got to China that was no longer the case but there was already in place a culture that in its Taoist and Confucian view of experience or life that one from any class through hard work and effort and abandonment of clingy, I suppose, could accomplish, could achieve in this lifetime something we would

[02:14]

call enlightenment that is the dropping away of our attachments, the falling free, free fall into open space. And that when it got to Japan, particularly in the 13th, by the time the 13th century rolled around, the Zen church was just coming into its own along with the churches of Shinran and Nichiren, that because of the historical causes and conditions obtaining at that time there was, as usual in history, a new need for a modus

[03:24]

operandi in apprehending what this thing called Buddha Dharma is about and that something came forth that had already started in China and was in place in Japan to some extent and that was called the Hongaku or the concept or the doctrine of original enlightenment and that it has further purification in Dogen Zenji's qualifying statement. Not only do all beings have Buddha nature or the potential for Buddha nature, all beings are already Buddha. Their only practice is required to realize the authentication of that realization and that it would Dogen Zenji, rather than a transformative process, is more one of just realization in the everydayness of our life.

[04:26]

And that as it was passed along in his church, set up at Eheiji, when he finally managed to break away from the orthodox religious circles of the… I'm having a hard time today with remembering words, so please bear with me. Anyway, with the establishment, you could say breaking away from that, and there was a considerable struggle for him to do so. He found a rich patron in Notohanto, western Japan, who set him up in what is now Eheiji and that his very pure way of practicing, very strict monastic practice, did not have a lot of

[05:35]

appeal at that time to the laity, to people at large, the world at large. And that it was left to his heirs to spread the word of what, in fact, Dogen Zenji, as you know, did not even believe in calling his practice Zen or Soto Zen. That it was the Dharma, it was the Buddha Dharma, without sectarian emphasis. That it was left to his heirs, the Koan Eijo, particularly Tetsugikai, who had, as I said, some problem. We don't know what it was historically, but he was kicked out as opposed to set up his own establishment. Keizan Jokin studied under him. It was Keizan Jokin who, I think, felt that he needed to go back to some Chinese sources

[06:38]

in order to authenticate and authorize the Soto school in Japan to go back to establish a lineage connected up through the Chinese, so-called real and legendary Chinese ancestors, all the way back to the Indian ancestors, Shakyamuni. And there's already in place transmissions of the Lamp in China, which he had recourse to transmit. So this is what we have as a result of that. And these are lectures, apparently, that he actually gave to his Sangha during their 90-day practice periods in the 14th century, 13th, 14th century. So last week, we started with Shakyamuni, of course, and that story of Shakyamuni we all know very well. I always thought it was very interesting. It seems that there's

[07:48]

some aspect of phenomena that sets off an intense and long period of practice. It sets it off or crystallizes it or brings it to a head. In Shakyamuni's case, it's called seeing the morning star. In Dungshan's case, it was walking across the stream and seeing his face. Other cases of you know, breaking a foot or… Anyway, some physical, usually some physical event, both to oneself or in phenomena, is the precipitating event that kicks loose all of this study and there's what's called a sudden breakthrough or realization. Well, what is that breakthrough? What is that realization? It's something devoutly to be wished, I think, that we all have set ourselves up to practice and hoping that in some way we can have the same realization

[08:49]

or what might be characterized as something of the same, breaking through the veil, as it were, the film, the conceptual film and veil that separates us from the world, that sets us up into a separate identity to which we cling with fear and trembling and existential anxiety and so forth. I always thought it was interesting with the story of Shakyamuni because, you know, the morning star being Venus, the beauty of Venus arising as a morning star in the old world in India, it was called the harbinger. It was the servant who preceded the morning sun, the arising of the sun, bringing the lamp ahead to announce the new day that was coming, the enlightenment, the day of brightness that was coming. So I don't know if

[09:50]

that was later incorporated as that old legend into the story of Shakyamuni's enlightenment or not, but I think it's a very interesting fact that it was that very beautiful thing that we see in the morning. If you've ever been at Tassajara in the morning and looked up in the east and seen that, it's so crystalline with the elemental aspects of it there. At any rate, each one of these stories is set up in such a way that as I understand it, and it seems to me, that we read these stories and ponder them and any way you try to grasp it, any way you try to come at it with your mind, it kind of defeats that purpose of really getting hold of it in some ways. It's kind of like mercury, getting hold of

[10:51]

mercury. It kind of slips out of our grip no matter how we try. But I think by a careful reading of these stories, at least we will understand what Keizan Jokin understood as a disciple of Dogen Zenji's Zen practice of the Buddha Dharma, what they understood enlightenment to be. And as I said last week, it certainly does not seem to be some unchanging historical consciousness, but is something that is constantly changing. And in Dogen Zenji's case, it is not a one-time event, but has to be renewed in everydayness in everything we do. Right in front of us is the possibility of this moment of realization, of dropping away body and mind, body and mind dropped away, Shinjin Datsuraku. Do you have any questions about last week's story, since we kicked off?

[11:55]

I have a question about the references to original enlightenment. I just can't help but contrast that with the concept of original sin as a basis for all of our activity, and how it on some level could actually be almost understood as the same thing in a way. I mean, it sounds so kind of like opposite, but it certainly is more inspiring to think of it as original enlightenment than original sin. We'll always think of ignorance as the first link in the twelve links of dependable origination as being the eastern doctrine of original sin that

[12:58]

Buddha said, as a diagnostician of our suffering, that it's a misapprehension or a misunderstanding of the nature of reality that causes our suffering. In the western world, we're sinners because we do not carry out the moral law of the God, of the creator, so we're different. But that this world has given to us the dominion, man has dominion over the world, quite different from the Indian state of mind, which was the world was a place you wanted to get out of. And that, interestingly enough, the doctrine of reincarnation, westerners kind of is another chance, but easterners thought that lifetime after lifetime after lifetime was living in hell. Exhausting. Exhausting. To think that we're going to be doing the same

[14:02]

thing over and over. I understand that's not your point. I was just thinking about it as like dualistically speaking, you know, like enlightenment being like, you know, like one pole, and sin or ignorance being the other pole. But the original sin was eating from the tree of knowledge. Well, you know, it's a, I think I brought up last week that it is kind of an indispensable aspect of the Buddha dharma that a perception mediated by concept, that is to say, our perceptions of reality, as we project our, as we see phenomena, we project upon it our concepts, and then react to the force of our own projections. And that's a kind of, you know,

[15:06]

that's a kind of ignorance, which you could interpret it in some sense the same thing. That we do place reified, that we give to objects our ideas of what they are from our side, reify that, solidify that, divide the world up into discrete manageable units, and think that is reality. But it's a little bit of a misunderstanding, as I said last week, I think, according to Dharmakirti and others, that a raw or basic perception of the world, a first flash of 64th of a second before the arising of concept cannot in itself articulate the nature of reality. It requires language, it requires concept to do so. So is that, you know, millisecond before is that direct perception? I know we're having a whole

[16:14]

three-way dialogue about this. Well, according to what David Camilo writes in his introduction to the 70 stanzas of Nagarjuna, he said that one school broke up the, within the wink of an eye, there are 64 distinct beats. And the first beat of that is a direct perception. Immediately after that, snap of finger, or some says a blink of an eye, or some says snap of a finger, but same thing, depends how fast you blink, I guess. Which school was it? Well, this became the Prasannika school that actually came out of the earlier, it wasn't Yogacara so much before Yogacara. What is the name of the school we're studying? Madhyamaka.

[17:15]

No, before, in the Theravada. Sankratika. Sankratika. Sankratika. Okay, let's turn to Kasyapa. So, just to tie this up because of the things that you said last week, so I was thinking about it and I was thinking that the word that came out of all of my thinking was transcendence. Transcendence, whether it's good or evil, you know, transcendence in these stories. Well, it's interesting because I don't personally think that that's what Dogen Zenji is interested is in transcending the world. Dogen Zenji is much more interested in realizing the world as already

[18:16]

Buddha, not transcending the world. That was an earlier concept, as I understand it, but maybe so, maybe transcendence is part of it. It's more of a realization of things as they are. That's what I would define as transcendence, being here and realizing it and not being in the duality. Yes, well, non-duality is weak. So, is there another word that isn't misunderstandable? All words are misunderstandable. Not according to Daigam. All words are misunderstandable. Oh, thank you. I need hope with that question. Thank you. Now, this is a famous story, of course, which actually legend that came down later about the story about Mahakasyapa being the first one to get transmission, face-to-face transmission, you might say the imprinting of the one mind.

[19:22]

And I think we should read it. You don't have a copy, right? So, I'll try to get some copies for you. Let's start with it. Would you start? And let's read it loud. I like to pass it around the reading a little bit. And would you start, please? When the Buddha raised a flower and blinked his eyes, Kasyapa broke out in a smile. The Buddha said, I have the treasury of the eye of truth, the ineffable mind of Nirvana. These I entrust to Kasyapa. Okay. Now, that phrase, you know, I think you know that that phrase, the treasury of the eye of the truth is what? Kasyapa was born in a Brahman family. In Sanskrit, Kasyapa means drinker of light. When he was born, a golden light filled the room, then went into his mouth. Hence, he was called Kasyapa, drinker of light.

[20:26]

His complexion was golden and he had 30 of the 32 major marks of greatness. Last week, we went over that. Jackie, do you have that? Kasyapa met the Buddha at a shrine known as the shrine of many children. The Buddha said, welcome, mendicant. Kasyapa, having already shaved his head and put on a patchwork vestment, then the Buddha entrusted him with the treasury of the eye of truth. Kasyapa practiced austerities and never wasted any time. Only seeing the ugly emaciation of his body and the wretchedness of his clothing, everyone doubted Kasyapa. Because of this, every time the Buddha was going to give a talk in some place or other, he shared his seat with Kasyapa, who thenceforth was a senior member of the community.

[21:30]

Kasyapa was not only the senior member of Shakyamuni Buddha's community, but he was the intrepid leader of the communities of all the Buddhas of the past. You should know that he was an ancient Buddha. Do not just class him with the other disciples of Buddha. You can read a couple of paragraphs. Before an assembly of 80,000 on Spiritual Mountain, the Buddha raised a flower and blinked his eyes. No one knew his meaning, all remained silent. Then Kasyapa alone broke into a smile. The Buddha said, I have the treasury of the eye of truth, the ineffable mind of nirvana, and the formless teaching of complete illumination. I entrust it all to Kasyapa. No, the thing is about this, of course, for Zen, it's important because, I mean, this particular beginning of holding up the flower,

[22:34]

does anybody have some ideas why that might be so? The end of the transmission? Yeah, but why that? Why the flower? Well... Beyond description? Beyond description, or it was silent. It was a silent transmission. There's an interesting aspect of it. It's not direct perception. Direct perception, perhaps, if you want to look at that way. But, yes, but at least, you know, when later Bodhidharma will say the understanding of the transmission of truth is not, at least not necessarily rely on other words and scriptures. It's a direct perception, a direct realization, an immediate realization. So this is always an extremely important story, as we know, for all the Zen heritage, and all schools of Zen, and, of course, many of the koans are based around this particular legend.

[23:35]

So what did the flower mean? Well, what does a single flower mean to you? When you pick a single flower and hold it up, what are you showing? What do you think? From my perspective at this moment, which is very conventional, I would just see beauty. Yeah. I would have a hard time thinking how it would represent the dharma and emptiness, or the transmission or realization. Well, remember that as far as Dogen Zenji and the one, you know, what I was saying last week, maybe I neglected to mention it again tonight, is the one teaching, the one truth, the one thing, or the one emphasis, whether it was reciting the name of the sutra,

[24:42]

or whether it was sitting zazen. Remember in the samadhi practices that we've been reading at lunch every day, at the nesendo and so on, he talks about stones, walls. I don't get that part. Anybody know that there's a phrase in Buddhism that says, raising a single flower in the universe blooms. A single flower in the universe blooms. A single blade of grass is where we build our sanctuary. Remember in the book of Samadhi? I can understand the blade of grass. The flower is, I miss it. Well? Is it flower, blade of grass? Yeah, would it matter what we picked up? I mean, could he picked up a handful of dust? Is it like this is, is it like saying this is, just this is it?

[25:47]

Yeah. Is that the same thing? Don't you think so? I think so. Just this, this act, this whole act of picking up this flower and holding it up. But that's only half of the act. What's the other half? Smile. In other words, there's a transmission. You get it? Smile. You know, let's say that there's an inside joke, right? And I wink at you and you wink back. We understand what that would mean, right? It's like that. You get it? I get it. You pass it on without another word. Just, just this. Pass it on. Do you understand? But the nature of the secret is different. Different. What you're saying, like, there's an inside joke, right? So, an inside joke is a joke because only one person has told, you know, only a few people know it.

[26:51]

Yeah, well, only these two understood it. That's what I meant by an inside joke. Yeah. In the story, in a way, it seems that nobody else seemed to understand. He hands it, he picks it up and Mahakasyapa smiles. Can I just mention a translation I have? Yeah. There's one part that reads very different. Yeah, read it first. Which is back when the World Honored One said, Welcome mendicant. His hair fell off as a result. He shed his earthly body and he was miraculously clothed in the robes of a monk. So, instead of, I think, the one, that one where he, you know, had an agency and shaved voluntarily here, it's almost as difficult. Yeah, well, this, yes. Clearly, it drops a lot of the kind of supernatural, uh, wondrous stuff that happens in the early Indian transmissions that are passed along in

[27:57]

the Chinese and so on. I think he thinks that we, it's just too much for us. It is for most Westerners. I mean, the magic stuff, we just can't quite buy. You know, we're scientific rationalists. But it's the same text you're translating, right? The same text, same text. But, but isn't that little bit that she just read, a clue that wherever it's needed, it will appear as it may still appear? Hmm. What is it? The teacher or the moment of the transmission of the understanding. What do you mean, a symbol of that? Yeah. Could be, yeah. So, maybe that's my rational mind saying that it's not focus, focus, but it's. Well, here it's saying, uh, also on, um, then the Buddha entrusted him, you see,

[28:59]

when he put on the patchwood vestment, then the Buddha entrusted him with the treasure of the truth, even before this incident about him holding up the flower. We'll get into that. He'll talk, come back to talking about that. So, right then, as Mahakasyapa transformed before his very eyes into a mendicant monk, or was transformed into a mendicant monk, and became his right-hand man, so to speak, right then there was the transmission, it seems. Or at least a step in the transmission. Okay, let's go on. Where are we? The so-called raising of the flower at that time has been transmitted purely through a succession of masters, not erroneously allowing outsiders to know about it. Yeah, well, now we start with the tesho of the dharma talk of Kezan himself. This is his words about it. And, of course, in order to authenticate the tradition,

[30:04]

we have to feel that this is a transmission that is passed down from father to son, generation after generation, so to speak, a kind of pedigree line. And what I understand early, we still do these transmissions at night, at midnight, and in a room enclosed in red, which is, of course, a symbol of the bloodline being passed along and so on. It was a kind of secret ceremony, but I don't think it is anymore, but it was in those days, probably because they, you know, one of the books I've read is because they didn't want the other schools to know about it, exactly what their transmission was, the way they passed it on. And who outsiders, who he means by outsiders, is a very interesting question.

[31:10]

Does he mean just lay people or does he mean other clergy, you see? Dagan, does it remind you of Hoi Nung's transmission in the middle of the night too? Well, they did that, you see, and that's a very good question, because Hoi Nung, when we get to the story, we won't get to the story, but that he received the rope in the middle of the night, the legendary sixth ancestor, Chinese ancestor of Buddhism, and apparently that had already been the case, I think, before Hoi Nung. But he was an outsider, that was the problem. He was an outsider, he was an outsider. They were going to kill him, right? Yeah. That's the story, that's the legend. The interesting thing about Hoi Nung, of course, is that he's a literate. He's not one of those learned scholar types that have learned, memorized. He's the guy that just hears something from the Diamond Sutra and immediately,

[32:14]

as he's carrying woods, puts down his life and goes and finds the teacher. And of course, you know the story of the two ways of, of the two poems that were written between the senior monk and him. Remember how the senior monk, what that one was? The body is like a stand, a mirror stand. The mind is like a clear mirror, continually polished, it don't have any dust fall on it. And Hoi Nung said, There is no, there is no dust. The body is not anywhere like, like a stand of a mirror and the mind is empty. And therefore, on what, there is nothing from the beginning and what could dust the life. So the Prajnaparamita teaching in the second, the fact that there is nothing to be enlightened. There is no one to be enlightened and there's no enlightenment, actually. But, of course, both of those, you must also practice and study and

[33:22]

clean up your mind and your act, so to speak, and to realize, according to one of these traditions, that there is ultimately nothing to be cleaned up. So you got the two things side by side there. That's a really interesting time in the history of the transmission. And I think, what's his name that wrote the, he's coming here, that wrote the Chinese heritage. Who is that? Andy is coming here and going to talk about that a little bit, Wednesday nights. Oh, he is? Yeah. Some of the heritages, some of the past, you know, there's a whole political question about that. It's really very doubtful that we name it, actually. It was a six-page art. But it doesn't really matter, perhaps, ultimately. As long as the Church felt that it needed some authentication,

[34:24]

then that's what seems to matter in people's minds, that we have some kind of imprimatur and stamp of authority or authorization. I have a hard time with it, personally. I don't think we actually need it in this day and age, as Americans. But I'm not, I'm quite alone, maybe, in my reaction to this. I mean, we will all be the followers of Daigon's teaching, as you're saying. No way. Could we see it, maybe, as provisional? Provisional. You know, a show about training wheels, or something like that. Yeah. Not to take away too soon. In fact, what all of these stories are telling about, is there's nothing to be transmitted. That isn't already the case. But we haven't woken up to that fact. What is it that... God, I'm having a terrible time. I must have had a stroke or something. I mean, it's really getting tough to talk,

[35:27]

because I cannot come up with proper names anymore. Just go with it. Musai, Musai, Muso Soseki. You know who Muso Soseki was? He was a famous 14th century, 15th century Chinese monk. And Soseki had his enlightenment experience. And he said, and he broke his toe, when he woke up. He'd been practicing years and years and years, studying Zen. He said, year after year, I dug in the earth, looking for the blue of heaven, only to feel the pile of dirt choking me. Until once, in the dead of night, I tripped on a broken brick and kicked it into the air, and saw that I had, without a thought, smashed the bones of the empty sky. Ouch. So he looked for Buddha everywhere. North Pole, South Pole, Howard Johnson, Zen center. And one day, he broke his toe.

[36:27]

And that's like Matsu. Wasn't Matsu who had his leg broken? He broke, smashed the bones of the empty sky. All things are empty, and yet, tell me all things are empty when you break your toe. Just let your toe, let somebody preach the doctrine of emptiness to you at that moment. So what do we mean? Furthermore, let's go on. Furthermore. That therefore, it is unknown to professors of doctrines and to many teachers of meditation. The so-called raising of the flower at the time has been transmitted purely through a succession of masters, not erroneously allowing outsiders to know about it. Therefore, it is unknown to professors of doctrines and to many teachers of meditation. We don't dig there, right? Obviously, they do not know the reality. Why obviously? What is this? Obviously, they don't know. Furthermore, this story, such as it is,

[37:28]

is not a record of the assembly on Spiritual Mountain. These words were spoken in entrustment of the bequest at the shrine of many souls. So now it goes back to when you met him. The records that say it took place on Spiritual Mountain are wrong. When the teacher of enlightenment was bequest, there was this kind of ceremony. Ceremony, you notice, is in quotations. Therefore, if he were not a master bearing the seal of the enlightened mind, Kasyapa would not have known the time of that raising of the flower and he would not have understood the raising of the flower. Anybody have some comment on that? What is that about? It sounds kind of concrete. When the teaching of enlightenment was bequest, there was a kind of ceremony. Therefore, it was not a master bearing the seal of the enlightened mind. If it were not a master bearing the seal of the enlightened mind,

[38:29]

Kasyapa would not have known the time of that raising of the flower and so forth. Thoughts on that? He had been in Buddha many lifetimes before. Maybe. It's one idea, but there was something. I mean, after all, he made Kasyapa his right hand. Right from the beginning, Maha Kasyapa became the Buddha's. They immediately understood each other. It was that immediate meeting of the mind. So, yeah, it says in the legends that Kasyapa had been the Buddha's in past enlightenments, in past eons, kelpas. I don't know myself what it means, but it's good. Now he says, investigate carefully, see thoroughly, know that Kasyapa is Kasyapa, understand Shakyamuni Buddha as Shakyamuni Buddha,

[39:31]

and simply transmit the way of complete enlightenment in depth. So, although we talk about this legendary historical person, Nick is Nick. Which is very important to the fabric of reality, each individual. Yeah, if the universe, as Dogen says, you know, all things come forward to confirm the self, particularly when the self drops away. It's another way of saying the universe realizes itself as you, impersonally as you. Doesn't it suggest that? If all things come, if we don't just go out and try to grab, ouch, I'm going to cramp my butt. If all things don't rush out to grab hold of everything and pull them into our spaces, is our usual habit, but simply let things go, then all things come forward to confirm the world-honored one who is none other than Sita.

[40:37]

None other than? Sita. Over there. Or you, or me. No, she's Buddha. I mean, what are we talking about here? What we're talking about here is a radical falling away of the ground from under our feet, the usual patterns with which we have been acculturated. Imagine that, you know, that's a radical, fundamental stripping away of the usual modus operandi that we deal with the world. And yet, if that happens to us, the world is still there. It's not like, you know, in some other world. It would have to be that this world as it is comes forward in all of its particularity. It seems to me. Right now, right here. But generally, it seems that we have this mind that's trying to

[41:44]

grab a hold of some aspect of it and hold on to it. But what Dogen Zenji and all of them are saying, you've got to give up everything without exception. Let everything go. There is no knowing. There is nothing ultimately that you can know other than some conventional idea about it. There's not something outside a convention that we're going to realize, and that if we reify the conventional ideas, we miss the point too. Kasyapa is just Kasyapa. Bird is exactly bird. In all of its uniqueness. But what bird is, you don't know. Ultimately, we don't know. Ultimately, we don't know what anything is. Including ourselves. Is there such a thing as ourself we can get hold of, other than what is coming forward at this moment and our usual reactive tendencies? We can't even know that. And we can't even know that.

[42:45]

Well, we can know it conventionally. And we can understand that it's dependently co-arisen. And then to experience that fact from moment to moment. That's what Dogen Zenji said, to do one thing thoroughly. It's to understand the Buddha. Right? Is that what you, you know, chopping carrot? That's what Soto Zen is supposed to be about. That once that becomes the case, you don't have to sit under a tree for seven days and so on, and wait for the morning star. You just chop carrots and cut the grass. Or lie in bed, or whatever you're doing. Completely doing that. But without this usual separate self-sense, it seems to be this static thing over and against everything else that is moving. Usually we have this sense of, I don't change. I don't move. Everything else is changing. But I'm hanging on to something called me. There has to be something stripping that away. How much we study that. Thoroughly we try to investigate all of this. Finally we have to, what?

[43:46]

Give up. But you can't give up and say, I'm not going to do it anymore. Because then you haven't investigated phenomena completely. But he's saying you must investigate the conventional world to its very limit. That's gone. Who's next? I guess it is I. Leaving aside the raising of the flower for the moment, everyone should clearly understand the blinking of the eyes. You raise your eyebrows and blink your eyes in the ordinary course of things. And Buddha blinked his eyes when he raised the flower. These are not separate at all. Your talking and smiling, and Kasyapa's breaking into a smile, are not different at all. Well, that sounds clear enough. What does it mean though? Do we believe that? Go ahead.

[44:50]

If you do not clearly understand the one who raised his eyebrows and blinked his eyes, then in India there is Shakyamuni Buddha, there is Kasyapa, and in your own mind there is skin, flesh, bones, and marrow. So many optical illusions, so much floating dust. You have never been free of them for countless eons, and you surely will be sunk in them for eons to come. This is a wake-up call to his Sangha. It's a wake-up call to us. Don't wait for tomorrow. Okay, who's going next? Well, whoever. I don't care. Once you come to know the inner self, you will find that Kasyapa can wriggle his toes in your shoes. Do you not realize that where Shakyamuni raised his eyebrows and blinked his eyes,

[45:57]

Shakyamuni immediately died away, and that where Kasyapa broke into a smile, Kasyapa immediately became enlightened. Is this not then one's own? Go ahead, Carol. The treasury of the eye of the truth is entrusted to oneself, and therefore you cannot call it Kasyapa or Shakyamuni. There has never been anything given to another, and there has never been anything received from anyone. This is called the truth. Wanting to reveal Kasyapa, Shakyamuni held up a flower to show unchanging, and Kasyapa smiled to show longevity. In this way, teacher and apprentice see each other, and a lifeline flows through. Completely enlightened knowledge has nothing to do with thoughts.

[47:00]

Kasyapa correctly cut through his own conceptual facility, the faculty, and went into The Shakyamuni, too, is eternal. Therefore, since before you were born, it has been pointed out directly and communicated simply, extending over all time, met with everywhere. Therefore, you should not look to two thousand years in the past. If you just work on the way, the alakriti today, Kasyapa will be able to appear in the rose today, without going into Kukuta Parama. I try to find, look up Kukuta Parama, but I couldn't find any reference to it. Anybody know? I tried everywhere. Have you ever looked on the internet? Huh? No, I haven't, but you can look it up and see if there's a Parama. Yeah. What's alakriti? Huh? Alakriti.

[48:02]

Alakriti? It's the ease in facility. Move alakriti with some kind of speed and move. Is it like laxative? Alakriti with laxative? I don't think they have the same. You know, when somebody says move with alakriti, it means step on it, get moving. Don't drag your tail. Let's go. It wasn't, yes. Okay. Well, you know, I feel like struck by something again. It's one of these Zen contradictions where you get this certain culture over and over again, you know, as you're saying about lineage and ancestors and transmission, something that actually is a little bit, sounds almost a little bit, I don't know what, pushes some buttons, you know, about, you know, elitism or snobbery, but then, then they totally constitute

[49:05]

it because he says, therefore, you should not look to 2000 years in the past. So, you know, if they're setting up something like that, it totally gets cut away. And I just find that very, just very typical of what we do here. Well, they're trying to, I think what he's trying to say, yes, there is such a thing as a past and a tradition that's passed down that everything that comes to us comes from yesterday, in a sense, everything we know and so on comes from what we call the past to this moment. But at the same time, it is this moment that realizes everything that has come to us from the past. So, you can't have one without the other. It's again, this dependent co-arising idea, I think, that he's trying to stress here. And this, of course, he's taken some of this page from, it'd be interesting to talk to someone like Karl Bielfeld, who can read the Chinese original, to see if he does what Dogen does, because Dogen Zenji will set up a proposition at the beginning of a sentence, such as things are eternal. But by the time you get to the end of the sentence, he will be actually turning that

[50:07]

and saying things are exactly as they are now and have never arisen before. So, I think it's part of the idea that the problem with language is not the words or the language itself, but is our grasping some aspect of language and then, as we said before, and then projecting it. But if you can somehow, through skillful means, set up language that deconstructs itself, especially in one sentence, any aspect of it that you try to get hold of. And seeing that all things depend on everything, that one thing is dependent on everything else and vice versa, then we can understand without getting caught by either Shakyamuni historically or by thinking, you know, I'm Shakyamuni Buddha without any kind of... Because after all, we are hearing this tradition, we are using language and so on to pass on what our ancestors, or at least some of them, in this tradition that has come down from

[51:15]

the last 800 years to us here, to understand something tonight in this place. So, who is sitting here tonight doing this, you know? It has to be the same, yeah, raise your eyebrows and blink your eyes and hold up your book and so on, the same kind of activity is constantly being manifested. But not out of a clear blue sky, it's being manifested in terms of what's come before, but always new, always new, always fresh, just as our life is from moment to moment, and finally ungraspable, ultimately. That's at least the sense I always get from reading this is that kind of feeling, is that you have to have both, the past, the traditions, the language with which it is manifested and so on, and then to see through that at this moment. Well, let's get on to the end of this. Who's next, please? Das, I think.

[52:15]

If you studied away sincerely and investigated in every detail... Oh, yeah, we did that. Das, I believe. Thus the flesh on Shakyamuni's body will still be warm, and Kasyapa's smile will be renewed. If you can reach this realm, you will succeed to Kasyapa, and yet Kasyapa will be your heir. That's what we're talking about. It has not only come from the seven Buddhas of antiquity to you, you can even be the root teacher of the seven Buddhas, beginningless and endless, beyond the passage of time. The transmission of the treasury of the eye of truth will still be there. Yeah, go on. Thus, Shakyamuni Buddha also received the request of Kasyapa, and is now in the heaven of satisfaction, the abode of imminent Buddhas, and you are also in the assembly on spiritual mountain, unchanging. Have you not heard the saying, always abiding on the spiritual mountain and other dwelling places,

[53:21]

my land here will be safe and secure in the great fire burns, always filled with celestials and humans? That's referring to the end of the kalpa. You know, kalpa is a world system from its inception to the time it is destroyed. So I was reading yesterday on string physics, quantum mechanics, and there's a new theory that came out that the big bang has spread stuff around, and that nothing is ever going to come back together again, because it's spread apart, too far apart, and it's going to burn, it's going to dissipate through heat. Yeah, they're catching up with Buddha. They're catching up with Jyoti. It's not joking. Well, that's, you know, the world ending in flood, fire, and so on, is something deep in our, I think, in ourselves that we know.

[54:23]

Okay. This refers not only to the abode of the assembly on spiritual mountain. How could anywhere, how could, how could anywhere be left out? How could anywhere be left out? I think they should stress that anywhere, yeah. True teaching of the Buddha has spread without any lack. Now, here's an interesting point. Go ahead. Then this assembly here must be the assembly on spiritual mountain, while that assembly on spiritual mountain must be this assembly here. The Buddhas have only appeared and disappeared depending on your diligence or lack of it. Even today, if you work on the way over and over, pass through it in every detail, Shakyamuni Buddha immediately appears in the world. It is just because you do not understand yourselves that Shakyamuni passed away in older times.

[55:27]

Since you are children of Buddha, how could you kill the Buddha? So, get to work on the way and meet your loving father. Why don't you read the last one? Oh, Shakyamuni Buddha is with you all the time. Whatever you are doing, he is conversing and exchanging greetings with you, never apart from you for a moment. If you never see him, you will be remiss, and even the hands of a thousand Buddhas will not teach you. Reach you. Reach you. Sorry. Excuse me. I have some humble words to point out this principle. Know that in the remote recesses of the misty valley, there is another sacred time that passes the winter cold. What is the... Rupert, would you read the last couple of lines from that translation? He says a little more about where they are, even. Uh-huh. Know that in the remote place in a cloud-covered valley,

[56:28]

there is still a sacred time that passes through the chill of the ages. Well, he also mentions earlier about the monastery, right? Oh, okay. Give me a couple of lines about... Today, this descendant of Daijo Monastery, and then in brackets, i.e., successor of Tetsugika, the first abbot of Daijo Monastery, would like to say a few humble words to point to this principle. Do you want to hear them? Is that what you want? Can you read that once more? With all of it, or...? Yeah, yeah. Know, know, know that. Know that in a remote place in a cloud-covered valley, there is still a sacred time that passes through the chill of the ages. Well, you know, if you've ever been to Eheji, in that part of Japan, it's kind of like Tassahara, but it's even colder in the winter. It's buried in snow. And, of course, what is the sacred pine that passes through the winter cold?

[57:35]

What is the sacred pine that passes through the winter? The teaching. It's the treasure of the true eye. Yeah, the treasure of the true eye. It passes through lifetime after lifetime, the teaching. And even in this place, and even in this assembly tonight, know that in a place beside the ocean, on this particular night, Shakyamuni Buddha raised his eyebrows and Kasyapa smiled. Or, as the case of this class, maybe frowned. So, do you ever have the sense that we've been doing this lifetime after lifetime together? It's a little bit different. Quite a bit different. But I always have a kind of déjà vu feeling that I've been doing this before. It's probably because we have, and I just forgot, in this lifetime. But anywhere that, you know, this is true in Christianity,

[58:37]

and it's certainly true in the Buddha Dharma, and I don't know about in Islam and so on, but when you raise the banner, when you raise the sacred teaching, when you raise the sacred words and so on, you're manifesting the whole Godhead or the whole Buddha mind and so forth. And that's, ostensibly at least, what they're saying we're doing here tonight. The problem is, we don't quite believe it. We still go home feeling filled with anxiety and worry about what we're going to do tomorrow. Sort of a question? Sort of a question. No, I have sort of a question. So, in this thought, Shakyamuni raised the flower and Kashyapa was the one person in the crowd who wasn't sitting there going, now what does he mean by that? He just saw the flower and went. And, now I don't remember what you just said, but you said,

[59:40]

but something felt like that. Well, you know, and the whole thing about Zen is that, in Zen, there's not supposed, in Zen dialogues, there's not supposed to be any mediation between what you're going to answer, the teacher says something, you come right back without thinking. It's your immediate response that's important in Zen, rather than trying to calculate some kind of response. So, at least in the Chinese, that was the Chinese invention of this whole tradition. And so, I think you're right. And when he did that, he just, you know, there's just that reaction. When this arises, that Buddha, that arises. When this is not arising, you want to see that. So, we're just about finished here. So, there's a sentence in there, so, when I wiggle my toe, Kshapa wiggles my toe, wiggles his toe in mine, and I thought,

[60:43]

well, that's like being on a winning team, you know, like on a baseball team, like the Yankees. And so, being on a winning team, you know, or a losing team. You know, you can't, if you say a winning team, then you're in a duality, talking about a losing team. I don't know, but. How about just a team? Okay, but we're on the Buddha team? We're on the Buddha team, because when I go like this with my toe, it's Kshapa, you know, that's pretty, that's pretty like. Well, your ancestors could wiggle their toes the same way you're wiggling yours. Yeah. Because they can wiggle their toes. I mean, I don't know, back when DNA was first forming itself and so on, if there's any tool wiggling, but there was DNA getting ready to wiggle his toes. The slime is us, is that what you're saying?

[61:45]

We met the slime and it is us. Okay, here's some, the next two, Ananda is the next one and so on. And if you're extras, please bring them back. If you're just, if you're just auditing the class, please don't take them when I need them. Let me see if I have any from last week. I do have some from last week. Well, there are no books available in the marketplace, but on the internet, Charlie is working to get some copies. Uh, well, uh, so far he's been able to get the clearly, but maybe you can, we can get the, the quick translation. He said, uh, here's one from last week. Did you get one from last week? I have a list.

[62:50]

Yes, we have the list. I have a list. But whether we'll be able to get all the books or not, at least we can have these and I'll make these up every week for us. Read Ananda, try to read it ahead next week. And, uh, if there's something strikes you about it, write it down. When I was, when we, the priests were doing this with Red, we'd all, we'd be required as he's requiring people down his other classes to bring a little poem about it, about our understanding of it. So if you are so motivated, feel free. Do you have your, uh, your poems that you wrote? I wrote a poem out of it. The poems that I wrote? Oh, I don't have them in here. But we do have some of them, we kept some of them.

[63:52]

And, uh, some of the poems are very good that people wrote. No, I don't have in this book.

[63:57]

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