Well, I think I should talk about Case 53 of the Hekigan Roku. Matsu, Baijang and the Wild Ducks. Now you know that Matsu and Baizhang are among the most important creators of the life we're leading. And practicing this way. The life we're leading here, practicing. Bai Zhang is credited with... It's probably more of a credit than a fact, but credited with creating much of the monastic-style life we have.

[01:22]

And so I feel a certain honor in being able to speak about this koan with you within the tradition that Matsu and Baichang created. I feel a certain honor to be able to talk about this within the tradition, about what Matsu and Baichang created. And they are the creators of our life in many ways, but perhaps just as much they're the exemplifiers. They're used to exemplify the kind of life and practice we have. So it's a touching story. I think they were together all together about 20 years. And that's one thing that we can't create.

[02:52]

We don't have this kind of life together. Yeah, it's like being married. Probably a little better than most marriages. Yeah, not all marriages. Um... So I mention that not to say that it's impossible for us, but we have to be aware of this apprentice dimension of practice. And if the ducks have never flown away, then it's okay if you're in some other city, because you haven't flown away. Or have you? And if the ducks have never flown away, then it's okay if you're in some other city, because you haven't flown away. Yeah, so here's Matsu and Bai Zhang out for a walk, just like we might do, you might do with your friends.

[04:03]

And of course in those days, I mean more so than now, when the sky was black and not lit up with city lights and so forth. Yeah, they were much closer to the natural cycles of the weather, etc., than we are. And the stories often exemplify it, too. They knew exactly where north, south, east, west, etc. are. Yeah, they went to bed mostly when the sun went down. Yeah, another reason they got up so early is... You can't sleep forever.

[05:14]

So you go to bed when it's dark and eventually you get up and it's still dark. So you go do zazen. Nothing better to do. Yeah, so they're out walking. And, yeah, there's some wild ducks overhead. How many? I mean, no one knows. But my guess in those days, it could have been the whole sky could have been filled with ducks. There's a mine cave, a cave that's really originally a mine, a gold mine, I guess, just outside of Crestone, the town of Crestone.

[06:15]

And I have never gone there, but people actually go in the evening to watch the bats come out. I've never been there, but there are people who go there in the evening to see how the bats fly out. Has anyone ever done that? When the first wave of bats comes out, it's 250,000 bats. And nope, yeah, that's a lot of little mice on wings. Whew! Yeah, and then there's a second wave, I don't know if it's from back, nobody knows what, back deeper in, there's a second wave of just 50,000. They actually don't have an exact count. Okay, something, it's a phenomena, and probably the wild ducks are a phenomena like that, you can't miss it. Right. Yeah, so these two guys are walking along.

[07:38]

I'm talking to you. What are the ingredients of this koan? I'm asking you to enter into the ingredients. That's what I say, so let's do it. I remember this painter friend of mine. Edward Avedisian, who I mentioned, I guess yesterday died, very recently. I remember walking down to, yeah, in college, we were friends, down to the Charles River in Cambridge. And it was a particularly beautiful sky. And I remember I said to him, look at that beautiful sky. And he said with considerable disdain, I also can see the sky.

[08:49]

Yeah, and he was right. Because my comment assumed that we needed to make a connection. My comment assumed that perhaps he wasn't seeing the sky just the way I was. Or perhaps I was assuming somehow he was preoccupied. But he was assuming, walking with me, that we were already completely connected.

[09:52]

So my comment showed that I felt we weren't. Yeah, well, something like that's going on in this koan. These are two, again, exceptional persons. You make a mistake if you start thinking, well, one's more enlightened or one's the teacher and one's not. That's a trap. Perhaps Bai Jiang was a little preoccupied So what? Oh, preoccupied sometimes. Maybe he's got a migraine. I don't know. Maybe he's got a sore foot.

[11:04]

And he's thinking about how the hell is he going to keep walking with this sore foot. Yeah, sometimes we have a blister. So there's nothing wrong with being preoccupied. The question is, is he on the margin? Now in early Buddhism, and I like to show or illustrate that early Buddhism and Mahayana are really not so different. In early Buddhism it was considered that a cognitive closure or shutdown Was or could be a step before enlightenment. It's related to, not the same as, cutting off outflows.

[12:07]

What precipitates a cognitive closure? Yeah. Now, Matsu is older. And the teacher, but more important, he's older. And what's important to him? That he has a successor. And Bai Jiang is considered his successor. prime or one of his top main three successors. So Matsu of course wants to stay and continue the lineage.

[13:35]

And of course, Bai Zhang wants his freedom. He's not sure he wants to be stuck in this lineage for the next decade, the rest of his decades. I mean, he was young. When he was young, he was brilliant, talented. young monk and clearly chose this path. But still we have various subtextual desires that maybe we do this sometime in our life or that. Like I've always thought that I might retire to a kind of motor sailor boat off the coast of Maine.

[14:46]

Yeah, where I could just sit around in a port and read and sail occasionally. Or in a canal in Holland. Smooth sailing. But that boat, I'm afraid, is sunk. Yeah, okay. Yeah. Now, there's also the story of, you know, probably know the story of Bajang. coming to see Matsu and he raises his whisk. And Bajang says, do you identify with that action or are you detest from that action?

[15:47]

Matsu says, so he takes this whisk and he hangs it up on the corner of his chair. Yeah, and then Matsu does a pause. Matsu says, when you're teaching descendants, implying that he's going to inherit the lineage, he is going to. When you're teaching descendants, which implies he's going to inherit the lineage. Matsu says, when you're teaching descendants, implying that he's going to inherit the lineage, Flapping your lips, how are you going to continue the succession, GJR descendants?

[17:03]

Matsu, I don't remember exactly how it goes, but Bai Jiang takes the whisk and lifts it up, just like Matsu did. And I don't know exactly how it went, but in any case, Bai Zhang took the broom and held it up like Matsu. And then hangs it back up again. And Matsu supposedly gave him a shout, which Bai Zhang says deafened me for two days. It is assumed that Matsu then made a scream, where Bai Zhang said he was deaf for two days afterwards. Well, you have to surpass your teacher. You can't just lift the whisk up like him. So you can't just imitate Matsu.

[18:08]

So... A shout we could call a cognitive closure. So, Matsu and Bajan are walking along. What's that? I mean, as if he didn't know. What's that? So Bai Zhang says, wild ducks. Where have they gone? I mean, where are you supposed to have gone, you idiot? Where have they gone? They've flown away. What's the subtext here?

[19:17]

Four and twenty blackbirds. I mean wild ducks, eight in a pie. The subtext is... Baizhang going to leave or is he going to stay and continue the succession? That's the unspoken or pretty explicit text. Then Matsu would know that Bajang is on the margin, on the edge. Raising the whisk. Do you identify with this action or you detest from this action? It's not either or, it's the edge.

[20:34]

You identify with it and are also not identified with it. There's the conventional truth and the fundamental truth, and we're right on the edge all the time, if you're a realized person. And when you're on that edge there are many possibilities. It's a name for freedom. So So one of the ingredients of this koan is the whole world cannot hide it. That's probably one of the two most important phrases you should work with. What is it that the world cannot hide?

[21:36]

The whole world cannot hide it. This is good for about ten years. Or at least a few months. Do you think, examine yourself, do you think somewhere there's something hidden from you? Do you think there's something you're excluded from? Do you think there's something you're not included in or that you'd like to be? If you have any such ideas or intimations, you better work with. the whole world cannot hide it. Yeah, that's one of the big ingredients in this koan. Yeah, so Matsu assumes, feels, understands.

[22:38]

After all, they're Mated. They're like two lovers. Or you expect your lover to already understand. You don't have to explain. And you get a little angry when your lover doesn't understand already. Yeah, so to bring it to a point, he interrupts with the obvious. What's that?

[23:44]

It's not about wild ducks. It's about our relationship. Yeah. And so he answers about our relationship, their relationship, not really about the wild ducks. Nobody knows where the wild ducks have gone. And of course, what are wild ducks about migrating? And of course, what are wild ducks about migrating? First of all, it's extremely beautiful to see these formations of ducks. And they make you feel going away. And the seasons are changing. So the overwhelming feeling they both have is, yeah, winter's coming.

[24:47]

Spring is coming. Yeah, things are changing. There's separation. We're going away. Are we together? Yeah. But in this, certainly, Bai Zhang's attention is not fully resting on attention. Settling on attention. Yes, so another subject of this... Ingredient of this koan. Not subject. Ingredients better. And another ingredient of this koan. Before you mix. Before you mix.

[25:48]

It's a subject after it's mixed. It's still waiting to be mixed. Nostrils. I mean your nostrils. Unfortunately your nose belongs to you. I mean, mine at least. I mean, who else has my nostrils? And that's how they, you know, put rings in the nose of ox and cows and things, bulls, you know. So you don't want your nostrils in somebody else's hands. But if... Bajang is going to be Basso.

[26:53]

Matsu's Japanese is Basso. He's going to be Matsu's disciple. Well, Matsu's got him by the nose, maybe. Come on, long in the succession. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. And Matsu wants, Bajang wants his freedom. Well, I'll show you. Yeah. And so he cries. He cries out in pain, but later he's crying. You know, in those days, and in Europe too, crying was a sign of understanding. When you're touched with recognition, with understanding.

[27:55]

So he's crying and laughing, realizing he will be Matsu's successor. And what you want in an enlightened successor... So this is a kind of enlightenment succession story. That the recognition of the succession, the grabbing of the nose, which is both taking you by the nose and freeing you at the same time. Yeah. is the enlightenment which allows you to be the successor. Now another ingredient in this koan is when have they ever flown away? Just introduce this, needle this, insert this into your thinking, your sentences, in between words.

[29:24]

And what about rolling up the mat? What a dramatic act that is. Now, what if I, when I sat down here, Simone, just as I sat down, got and rolled up the damn mat. Simone cut that out. No, I might just follow Simone out. That's how you feel? Is rolling up the mat... Is it anything like... The world-honored one getting down from the seat? What a daring act of Bai Zhang. Don't think of it in a story. Think of it as if you felt you had good cause to do that.

[30:27]

Not just, oh, I read it in the story, so I'm going to try it out on Baker. If you did that, I'd say, do you believe everything you read? Then that wonderful sentence. Then that wonderful sentence. He was showing the scene of the clouds on the mountains. And the moon over the sea. That's one of the two or three most important lines. Significant lines in this Quran.

[31:55]

It's something special when, you know, at Crestone, often the clouds are on the other side or above, and sometimes the mountain throws the clouds down at us. When the clouds are on the mountain, when the peak of Carson and Challenger and Crestone are caught in the mountains, The mountain becomes higher then because it's as high as the clouds. And the moon over the sea the sea shining silver from the moon. So this, as Shuedo says, is what

[33:12]

Matsu was pointing out to Bajang. When he pointed out the wild ducks he was pointing to the clouds on the mountains and the sea the moon over the sea. Thank you very much.

[33:32]

@Transcribed_UNK
@Text_v005
@Score_77.73