I spoke Saturday and Sunday. This has sort of been koan week here. Saturday afternoon, some of us were here for a seminar on koans and Soto's approach to koan practice and Dogen's way of working with koans. And I wanted to continue that with another of these old teaching stories tonight. And this is a teaching story about teaching. So I'm gonna read three different commentaries by Ehei Dogen, the founder of Soto Zen in the 13th century, who brought this teaching back from China to Japan. So the first one is part of his collection of 90 of these old teaching stories.

[01:04]

As I said Saturday, for Soto practice as opposed to what most people think of as Koan practice or Rinzai tradition where one passes through a series of cases, the point for us is just to allow this story to become part of our practice body, to become part of our awareness, engage with the story. So the whole literature of Zen is made up very greatly, to a great extent, with these old teaching stories, supposedly of people back in the 9th century mostly, these great old Chan teachers from then, and then layers of commentary on it. So Dogen made several comments on this particular story. And the story concerns two of the great masters of the 9th century, Bai Zhang, who's famous for giving a monk's funeral to a fox.

[02:11]

And there are many, many stories about him. And his student, Huang Bo, who in turn became the teacher of the great master Linji, or Rinzai himself. But this was when Huang Bo was studying with Bai Zhang. And Huang Po once asked Bai Zhang, how shall I instruct people about the essential vehicle from the ancients? Bai Zhang sat still. Huang Po asked, what will our descendants and later generations transmit? Bai Zhang said, I had thought you were that person." Then he returned to the apple's course. That's the story. So what's going on here? Huang Po, who in fact did become the teacher of Rinzai himself and all of the descendants in the Rinzai lineage, again asked Baozhong, how shall I instruct people about the essential vehicle from the ancients?

[03:28]

What shall I say? And Baizhang sat still. Wang Po asked, what will our descendants and later generations transmit? One way to hear this is that he was frustrated that Baizhang wouldn't say anything. And then Baizhang did say, I had thought you were that person. And then Baizhang returned to the abbess' quarters. So the first comment by Dogen in this list of 90 cases as a four-line verse, and it kind of celebrates this event. Having been verified and transmitted by the previous ancestors, how could the practice of a whole lifetime be in vain? Long ago his face broke into a smile on Vulture Peak. Warmth arrived and he attained the marrow at Shaoxi. haven't been verified and transmitted by previous ancestors.

[04:35]

How could the practice of a whole lifetime be in vain?" And then he refers to this story about Shakyamuni holding up a flower at Vulture Peak. And Nancy smiled. Long ago, his face broke into a smile on Vulture Peak. So this is not an historical story as a scholar, I hesitate to add, I'm eager to add the footnote that we don't have any record of this actually having happened until around 1100 in China. But still, it's a good story. Shakyamuni held up a flower at Vulture Peak, and one of the assembly smiled, and Shakyamuni then said to Mahakasyapa, Mahakasyapa, you have received the true Dharma-I treasury of the wondrous case of this transmission.

[05:36]

And then Dogen goes on to say, warmth arrived and he attained the marrow at Shaoshi. That's a reference to the second ancestor at the place where Bodhidharma, the great legendary Chan teacher from India, founder of Chan, who came to China, bestowed the marrow, so to speak, on his second ancestor, Rikya. So, dug in here seems to be celebrating and praising maybe both Huang Bo and Baizhang. And we're still talking about this story. Part of the point of these teaching stories is that they've been studied for a thousand years. So Baizhang just sat still. How can we instruct people about the essential vehicle from the ancients? Yes, so this is the challenge.

[06:39]

This is my challenge sitting up here. This is all of us, the challenge we all have. How do we receive and carry on this essential vehicle, this wonderful, wonderful way of practicing, this practice of zazen, this teaching tradition about the inner meaning of this. Baizhang just said, I thought you were that person. And then he returned to the house. Nothing more to say. Perhaps fortunately, we have a couple more of Dogen's commentaries about this story. So years later, after he had moved away from the capital up into the mountains of Eheji, He, in a short discourse in the Dharma Hall, told the same story. Then he said, suppose someone asked me, hey, hey, what Dharma did the previous sages present to people?

[07:41]

I would simply say to him, I show people my sitting cushion. So it is said, I came to this land fundamentally in order to transmit the Dharma, save deluded beings. So it's enough. The job of a Zen priest is just to show people the sitting cushion, to help people to sit Zazen, to help people to find the way to just sit uprightly, to face the wall, to face ourselves, to not run away from this body and mind, here now, on our cushion or chair. So again, suppose someone asks, Me, Dogen, Dogen is saying, what Dharma did the previous sages present to people? I simply say, I show people my sitting cushions. And so it is said, and he's quoting, I came to this land fundamentally in order to transmit the Dharma and save deluded beings. So this is what Dogen would say on behalf of Bhaja.

[08:47]

And then, so this is one of the, we talked about this Saturday, one of the ways that teachers comment on the stories is to say what they would say in that situation. As to what will descendants of later generations transmit, I would simply tell them, I transmit it with my fist. Therefore it is said, one blossom opens with five petals, a naturally bearish fruit. So, In this case, when Duggan says, I transmit it with my fist, I don't think he's talking about the teaching of Deshaun, who we heard about last week from Stephen Hine, who got upset by this old granny selling rice cakes, and later on was famous, when he became a teacher himself, for punching out his students. We don't do that in America. And that's fine. But still, Duggan says, I transmit it with my fist. What does he mean?

[09:49]

Warm hand to warm hand, hands open, hands closed. Just this round fist, or just this round circle. How do we find our wholeness? Each of us on our Krishna chair, and together. Therefore, it is said, one blossom opens with five petals and naturally bears fruit. Well, this is an old phrase attributed to Bodhidharma, again, much later, and it's taken as a reference to the single transmission from the Bodhidharma to the sixth ancestor, and then the historical fact of the five houses as Chan or Zen in China. But I think there's a deeper meaning. So if someone were to ask me, one blossom opens with five petals and naturally bears fruit, how is that?

[10:53]

I would say, we inhale and we exhale. And naturally, in our witnessing the wholeness of our heart, something opens. Something bears fruit. each in our own way, coming and going, entering into our life. And here, right on the storefront in north central Chicago, not turning away from the world and its suffering, not turning away from the city of broad shoulders, here we are. So Dogen says, I would simply say, I show people my sitting position. So this wonderful practice of just sitting and facing the wall, facing ourselves,

[12:07]

finding our inner wholeness, our inner uprightness. That's enough. But then how do we share? And then there is this, all these teaching stories, and it's not necessary to learn all of the teaching stories, as Dogen seems to have done himself when he went to China and brought them all back to Japan. How do we make up new stories that are stories of awakening. How do we convert stories of difficulties and conflict into stories of everyone awakening, each in our own way? This is a great challenge. And yet, that's the sitting practice. And it opens in its own way. So there's another commentary by Dogen on this same story.

[13:20]

This is after he moved from Kyoto, but earlier than the one I just told, and it's a little more, a little lightlier, a little more elaborate. So maybe we'll explore this together, and I hope we will have some discussion. So he says, here is a story, Huang Po asked Lai Zhang, What Dharma did the ancient ones long ago use to instruct people? Bajang just sat without moving. Wangpo asked, what will our descendants and later generations transmit? And this story is a little different version. Baizhang brushed out his sleeves, stood up, and said, I had thought you were that person. So I won't get up right now. He brushed out his sleeves, which is kind of a gesture of, in some ways, a gesture of dismissal.

[14:29]

But it's also sometimes, actually, often in these old Zen stories, what happens is ironic and not necessarily What seems like praise or seems like criticism might be the opposite. There's a lot of irony. My own feeling is that when Bai Zhang brushed out his sleeves and stood up, he wasn't dismissing Wang Po. He was satisfied. And he said, I thought you were that person. So in some ways, he was entrusting this to Wang Po then. But Dogen has more to say, as usual. He says, these two men could only speak of a tiger's stripes. They could not speak of a person's stripes. Moreover, they could not speak of a tiger without stripes, a person without stripes, a phoenix without markings, or of a dragon without markings.

[15:36]

Why is this so? Great Assembly, listen carefully. For the sake of people, the ancient ones just sat without moving. For the sake of people, later generations just returned back to the Abbot Squares. Although this is right, it is not yet fully complete. Where is it not complete? Do you see? Where it's not yet complete? Great assembly, you should know, Dogen went on, that if the question is not complete, the response is not complete. So this is a little bit like Stephen I talking about the old granny and Deschamps needing to say more lastly. Anyway, why didn't Huang Po ask, Dogen goes on. Ancient ones and those of later generations both received the teacher Baizhang's instructions. But what is the connecting pivot right now?

[16:42]

So this is what Dogen would say. He asked, why didn't Huang Po ask that? Again, ancient ones and those of later generations both received Bai Zhang's instructions, but what is the connecting pivot right now? Dogen says, when it is asked like this, how will Bai Zhang instruct him? And then he says, if someone asked me, Dogen, what Dharma did the ancient ones long ago used to instruct people, then I would answer, others put a rope through their own nostrils. Can you do that? Can you do that for each other? Can you do that for me and for Buddha and for Kevin and Mauro and all beings? If also asked, what will our descendants and later generations transmit?

[17:50]

Then I would tell them, I pull myself by my own nostrils. If someone also asked, what is the connecting pivot right now? Then I would say to him, one person transmits emptiness, and then 10,000 people transmit reality. So what's going on here? The point of these stories is not to be mysterious. These are not nonsensical, inscrutable riddles that you have to have a lobotomy to answer. There's a logic to this. And part of it is involved in knowing what these images are about. So Dogen says, if someone asked me, what dharma did the ancient ones long ago use to instruct people, I would answer, others put a rope through their own nostrils. This is a reference to the ox-herding pictures and the motif of training traditionally in Zen. So some of you may have seen these pictures about, there's different versions of them, sometimes six, sometimes 10, but very,

[18:57]

prominent set of images in Zen of oxes and training and becoming whole people. And one of the versions starts with the boy searching for the ox, and then he sees traces, and then he actually glimpses the ox. Then he finds the ox and catches it. Then he eventually rides it home, and then it shows him just kind of ox forgotten. the jolly laughing Buddha entering the marketplace with whispered, stoning hands. But the point is, there are different versions of this story of training the ox. It's an image used for training this wild self, this conditioned self, which is not separate from all self, this confused, eluded self that we all are. So this is a practice for human beings, not for cows and cats.

[20:03]

They already know about this. But the image of the ox is of being willing to be trained. So there's an image that Dogen uses a lot about piercing nostrils. And when I was translating this with Sherlock Okamura, it took a long time. And we'd been translating this image of piercing nostrils. And then at one point, I asked him what that's about. And I had always assumed it had to do with breathing. And I think that's part of inhaling and exhaling fully. But also it's putting a nose ring through the ox's nose so that the ox can be led. So there's some way in which we have to put ourselves in the position of being led, being trained, of serving Buddha. And so this whole process of teacher and student that Wang Po is asking Bai Zhang about, Bai Zhang just sits still. Nothing to do. He doesn't go around punching out people.

[21:06]

But Dogen says, if I was asked, what will our descendants and later generations transmit, I would say, I pull myself by my own nostrils. In this ancient, venerable tradition, really, it's not up to some teacher to come tell you how to be Buddha. I can't do that. I don't want to do that. My teacher couldn't do that for me. How do we find our own way? How do we find our way to be led by what? Buddha. Dragons and tigers. So, how do we pierce our own nostrils? So, when first asked what Dharma did the ancient ones long ago use to instruct people, Dogen says he would answer, others put a rope through their own nostrils. So, it's up to you.

[22:09]

It's up to each of us to find our way of being Buddha. And there's not one right way. In fact, there's many ways on each of our cushions and chairs right now. The path is wild. The path is not a matter of a few rules and regulations. If it were that easy, you could join the Marines and become a Buddha or whatever. And not that you might not become a Buddha by joining the Marines, I won't say no. But how do we allow ourselves to be led by Buddha? So I'll go back to the first verse, commentary by Dogen. Having been verified and transmitted by the previous ancestors, how could the practice of a whole lifetime be in vain? There's something important in this.

[23:16]

It's the practice of a whole lifetime. So, practically speaking, You know, as long as we've had this ancient dragon, Zen Gate, we've just been here a couple months or so. Before that in the cynical, before that in living rooms. And yet, this is a practice of a whole lifetime. Of course, the whole lifetime is right now. Can you appreciate your whole lifetime right now? I happened to see this weekend a couple of different movies about people who knew they were going to die very soon. And they did interesting things to find their way to find their life right now in the life that was left. Long ago, his face broke into a smile on Vulture Peak.

[24:27]

Warmth arrived, and he attained the marrow, shall she. That person is here now. How do we find our way to appreciate the Buddha, and not just the Buddha on the altar, and Bodhidharma standing next to him? So, how do we bring our whole life to our whole life. And how do we sustain this? So Dogen talks very often about Buddha going beyond Buddha. So you may come here and sit a period of zazen and feel wonderful or feel crummy. Either way, you may just appreciate one period of zazen. And that's wonderful. So we are here, the storefront on Irving Park Road, to make this available to people. And if someone comes and sits a period and then we never see them again, still it's wonderful.

[25:28]

They sat a whole period of satsang with us. And yet, there's something about the whole lifetime that's right here. And for some of us, we work at sustaining this in this form. Each of us also has other sanghas, other contexts, other worlds. Even in those worlds, how do we put a rope through our own nostrils? How are we willing to be taken, sometimes dragged on the path? How do we allow circumstances, difficulties, conflicts, challenges of our life to lead us on the way? What is the connecting pivot right now? I want to go back to this thing about tigers and dragons, because I don't know. I think there's more for me to see in this. So I'll just read it again.

[26:31]

Doggett says, these two old men could only speak of a tiger's stripes. They could not speak of a person's stripes. Moreover, they could not speak of a tiger without stripes or a person without stripes, a phoenix without markings or a dragon without markings. How do we appreciate the dragons and phoenixes right out on Irving Park or down in the loop with no markings, no special robes or fancy postures or anything? They could not speak of a tiger without stripes, a person without stripes, a phoenix without markings or a dragon without markings. Why is this so? For the sake of people, the ancient ones just sat without moving. For the sake of people, later generations just returned back to the atmosphere. So, just to come here and sit and support each other, to just come here and sit, all of us in some way are, well, this right here, right now,

[27:50]

in this room. Even the ones that look like there's no one there. Here in North Central Chicago, this is still being spoken of. So part of this story, I was asked to say a little bit more about just the ordinary kind of non-inscrutable, non-Koan aspect of teaching and practice here. So it might be worth making the distinction between practice and training. And I don't make this as a sharp distinction. In fact, they're not. ultimately separate, but part of what we're doing here is making a space available for people to come and practice.

[29:00]

And it's not important to know anybody's name, even. Just come, sit. There's a place here. It's not important to study the teachings. Just come and sit, face the wall. you're welcome to study the teachings and you're welcome to come listen to Dharma talks. And that has an effect, that has actually a wonderful power. So there was one line in one of these that I wanted to say more about, so I will. Yes, this last line in the last one.

[30:04]

What is the connecting pivot right now? And Dogen says, one person transmits emptiness, then 10,000 people transmit reality. And there's an interesting kind of context. There's an old ironic Chinese proverb, one dog howls meaninglessly and 10,000 dogs follow. This might imply that the teaching of emptiness is a provisional skillful means, although it does continue manifesting the true Dharma. But also, each person's practice can influence 10,000 by being here and allowing people to come and practice and face themselves and slow down a little bit and breathe and relax their mind a little bit. The impact we have can't be tracked or traced.

[31:07]

So people who come here may go out into their lives and their jobs and be a little more patient or a little kinder with someone. 10,000 flowers bloom. We can't track or trace that. So that's the side of practice, and it's wonderful. But for those of you who are interested in piercing your nostrils and being led, there are ways in which you can give yourself to some program of what we might call training. So some of you have formally received precepts as laypeople, Hoketsu as a priest, saying precepts, guidelines to how to live in this world. Those are not just for the people who do that formal ceremony. In fact, all of us together receive those. But those people, and actually other people too, who don't want to do that formal ceremony, I consider I have a teacher-student relationship with them.

[32:21]

My job in this temple is to be the teacher. The board's hired me. That's my job. Of course, we're all doing this together, though. But anyway, we will be doing another lay ordination ceremony in October or November. Several people will be doing that. It's still possible if you're interested to ask me about it. So there is that practice, but also I'm available to talk to people if you want to try to do this practice with me of putting a rope through your nostrils. And I'll probably just sit still. I'm available for individual practice interviews, so I was asked to let people know about this.

[33:26]

I'm available sometimes after Wednesday morning sittings, or before our Monday evening program, or after our Sunday morning program. So you can just inquire, make an appointment, and we can talk. And that's a possibility in this mode of training that's available here. that can be done too. I feel very flexible and informal about this. There's not one right way to train an ox. There's not one right way for us to be trained in the lineage and path of the Buddhas and of Dogen and Suzuki Roshi and all of the ancestors. But it's okay if you don't want to do that, if you don't want to be an ox, pierce your nose. Some people like piercing, some people don't. It's okay to just come and sit, still, quietly, like Bajon.

[34:31]

The point is, we are making this opportunity available for later generations. It's almost like it doesn't matter what happens in 2009. Of course it does. my job as a Zen priest is just to keep this stuff alive, to keep this opportunity alive. And actually, you're all doing my job for me, just by being here. So thank you very much. How do we see the dragons without markings? How do we see our way of aligning ourselves with wholeness, with oneness, with a fist, with character one that Kastanahashi left us out in the front hall. How do we find our way to oneness that includes everything?

[35:34]

So, the point of Buddhism is to alleviate suffering. Period. to relieve the suffering of the world in all its different forms. We are open to the suffering of the world. And that suffering, one way to understand the First Noble Truth of Dukkha is just that things are a little out of line. They've always been that way, maybe they always will, and yet there's a way to find this path towards wholeness, openness, towards sharing this together. So we sometimes need to be willing to be led by ourselves, by Buddha, by someone. So I was thinking of reading another story, but I'll have to save that for another time. Maybe I should go back to my dogsight room now, but I'll...

[36:39]

gladly submit to comments, questions, responses. Please feel free. So Hongbo said, how will this be transmitted to later generations? And Baizhang said, Make mistakes.

[37:47]

Part of the way is that it's not just one straight road. That would be too boring. The way is alive. Lose your way. Our practice is to, you know, kind of wobble to one side and come back to upright. Wobble to the other side, come back to upright. Allow yourself to lose your way, but don't forget where the nose rings are. It's okay to lose your way. We have to be willing to forgive ourselves for all our mistakes. This is a practice for human beings. One of the problems of reading these stories about these great old masters is we can think they're these super beings. They were just guys. Gals, in some cases, we don't read so much about them, unfortunately. Steve told us a story about one last week. Lose your way.

[38:52]

It's okay. But come back. Don't forget us. We're here. There's a dragon on the window. Yeah. It's a funny business, because there are people who are officially designated and even hired sometimes as teachers. But actually, all of us have to find our way ourselves. So I have a little experience in this.

[39:56]

But, you know, that's all I can do. So there's a great deal of responsibility, and this is one of the hardest parts of Zen tradition, I think, and maybe some of the Tibetan traditions are more user-friendly. Zen places a great deal of responsibility on you, on each of us, on the individual. There are teachers, there are many libraries of texts, are the sutras and the koans. And there is Sangha, which is the greatest teacher, trying to find out how to do this together. But each of us, you know, has to show up to be willing to be a dragon, with or without markings.

[40:57]

How do we just show up, allow ourselves to be part of the circle of uprightness? This is not easy. And yet, it's a matter of just being willing to not run away from ourselves, but stay. So do you sometimes, after you run, stay, but you tell the dog, stay. Sometimes we have to do that. Kathy? The story made me think about what keeps Buddhist teachings the same over time. The question and answer, I was thinking, you know, I can imagine asking a question, who would be teaching this?

[42:03]

Or asking about descendants in the future, wondering if it'll get distorted by then, or what it'll look like. And then you told me you're a descendant, so it's like it's already come down. But it does make me wonder how much it's shifted or changed over time. Very quickly. Like an arrow flying. And yet we have these old words. So we're in some sense making it up, and yet in some ways we have patterns to follow. Gary Snyder says, when making an axe handle, the model is right at hand. So yes, of course, we have to change it, or it changes us, because we can't be, you know,

[43:07]

is no matter how hard any of us try to be Japanese or to be living in Kamakura period or the Sung Dynasty, you know, we can't do that. Here we are, 2010, North Central Chicago. How wonderful. That's the five, the flower opening in the five petals. We, how the practice manifests is, it's a living thing. It's not about a bunch of dead old guys from a thousand years ago. David. Yes, so what about the first part of the story where he asks the question and the guy is sat still. He's asking about the great vehicle from the ancients. I'm reminded that Thich Nhat Hanh, there's all these different avenues, but recommends to smile during zazen.

[44:34]

I think it's a good thing. Just a little, anyway. It's a paramitanda. I prefer a smile. So thank you all for being here tonight and sharing in this strange, wonderful tradition and practice.

[45:11]

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