Good morning, everyone. We've been for a little while now in a practice commitment period and studying a particular text, the Song of the Precious Mara Samadhi or the Jewel Mara Samadhi, which is attributed to Dongshan Liangjie, an 8th century Chinese master who's considered the Chinese founder of the branch of Zen that we do, Soto Zen in Japanese. And this is a long text. It's on, you're welcome to look at it, it's on what page? Page 10 of the chat book. And I'm going to focus on a particular line today, like facing a precious mirror, form and reflection, behold each other, you are not it, but in truth it is you. which is in the middle of the first page, but I'm actually going to focus on a different reading of it that has to do with a teacher-student relationship.

[01:10]

So there's another way of reading those Chinese characters. But as background, And I appreciate that people are here for the first time today. Welcome. As background, this teaching poem by Dongshan goes back to a story about his own meeting and relationship with his teacher. And this has to do with the first two lines. So as background, the first two lines of this teaching poem, the Dharma of Thusness or Suchness, you could also say, is intimately transmitted by Buddhas and ancestors. Now you have it, preserve it well, and this is facing a precious mirror, form a reflection, behold each other, you are not it, but in truth it is you. Clearly go back to a story, that I'll tell about Dongshan and his teacher, whose name was Yunyan in Chinese. And the story briefly goes that Dongshan was getting ready to leave his teacher, Yunyan, and he asked him, if they ask me later on, what should I say?

[02:23]

Was your teaching a reality? This word dharma, important word in Buddhism, means Well, it means a number of things. But basically, it means the truth or reality. But it also means the teaching about that. So we say Buddhadharma, the Buddhist teaching. So Dongshan had been studying and training with Yunnan for some time. We don't know exactly how long. A lot of the history of all this is obscure. This is 9th century China. We don't know a lot of the historical details. But anyway, Dongshan asked Yunnan, what should I say? was your fundamental teaching, your fundamental reality. And yin-yang pause, the story goes. And then he said, just this is it. So that's a statement of suchness. So in some sense, this whole teaching, two-page teaching poem is about this Dharma or reality or teaching or practice of suchness.

[03:29]

So what we've just been doing, sitting and facing the wall, is about how we practice and engage with meeting reality, meeting what it is to be this body and mind here this morning on our Kushner chair. beyond our ideas of who we are, beyond our stories about ourselves and the world, just what is it like to be present here? This body, this mind. And so for those of you who did this for the first time this morning, some of you may have had some previous experience, but five people here did this, here it is for the first time, and just to see that Thoughts arise, feelings arise, sensations. It may be a little uncomfortable. We realize when we sit that we don't control our thoughts. The thoughts arise and come and go. And our practice is basically just to sit with all of that.

[04:33]

We offer techniques of breathing or other things to focus on to help settle. So part of it is settling. But just this. What is our experience? Yunyan said, just this is it, and Dongshan didn't really know what to say. He left, and the story goes that as he was crossing a stream, he looked down and saw his reflection, and then realized what Yunyan had said, and he wrote this verse. Just don't seek from others, or you'll be far estranged from self. Now I go on alone, everywhere I meet it, it now is me, I now am not it. one must understand in this way to merge with suchness or thusness. So this, it now is me, I now am not it, in this song of the Precious Mary Samadhi is you are not it, but in truth it is you. So we can see that this, oh, and then, I'm sorry, after, before Dongshan left, Yongyan said, just this is it.

[05:40]

Dongshan just was silent, and then Yongyan said, you are in charge of this great matter, you must be most thorough going. So this is, now you have it, preserve it well. And when we chant this, I have this feeling that as we chant this, which we do regularly, now you have it. Just to sit and to chant this, somehow we have some relationship to this reality of suchness. And the practice, the point of our practice is not to figure out some obscure philosophy or to have some special experience, but just to open up to this experience that's already here. Now you have it. How do we take care of it? How do we express this reality of suchness, this teaching of suchness in our lives, in the world? And then looking at this reflection in the mirror of the stream, Dongshan said, I'm not it, but it now is me.

[06:53]

OK, now, so we have this in the Precious Mirror Samadhi. You are not it, but in truth, it is you. So I want to talk about that. So well, let me say a little more about that. You are not it, but in truth it is you, or actually it is you, is the same in the original story. The only difference there is that it's got the character me in the original. It now is me, as opposed to the character you. But this it is very tricky. The character for it is very tricky. It also has a character now. So looking, having studied this in the Chinese characters, the now is in the original, and it's not in the General Marriage Samadhi, but this character for it is a little tricky. In the context of it, you are not it, but in truth it is you, this it refers back to this reality of suchness, which is the subject of this

[08:08]

are one of the themes and subjects of this Song of the Precious Mary Samadhi. So we've been, in this practice commitment period, a number of us here have been studying this for a month and a half, basically, this two-line, two-page poem, teaching poem. But this line, you are not it, but in truth it is you, is kind of pivotal to the whole thing. And it has to do with our relationship to reality itself. So, in Buddhism we talk about non-self, that our idea of, this is a basic teaching in all of Buddhism, that our, non-self doesn't mean that we don't have a self, it just means that our idea of self is not true, is not real, is not true. We do have this idea of, you know, we can all recite, you know, our social security number and our address you know, to say things about our personal history and so forth.

[09:11]

That's this, you know, story about ourself. And on some level, conventionally, that's true. But ultimately, that's just an illusion. It's something that's made up of various other conditioned stories. In terms of ultimate reality, you are not it, but it actually is you. There's this relationship between this limited self sitting on your cushion or chair right now and this ultimate self that is the whole universe, this ultimate reality that is the whole universe. So this you are not it, but in truth it is you, actually. it is you, has to do with the relationship of the limited self to the ultimate, or the particular to the universal.

[10:13]

And this applies not just to our personal self, but to everything. Anything we can think of is one particular limited window into the whole of universal reality. It's one portion or aspect or piece of wholeness. Each of us is that. And yet, we are limited by our human capacities in many ways. our limited perceptions, our limited intellectual and spiritual capacities, and so forth. And that's fine. Each of us, in a particular way, is an image of the whole of reality. You are not it, but it actually is you. So that's one level of what this means.

[11:16]

And that's very, very important about the nature of self and the nature of wholeness. And part of what this zazen practice we do is about, is that as we settle and as we do this practice, and for those of you who are here for the first time, I very much recommend doing this regularly, several times a week at least, whether it's 40 minutes or 30 minutes or 15 minutes, just to stop and sit, face the wall, be present, see what it's like to be this upright body and mind. beyond our ideas of who we are and our stories about who we are. In doing so, we start to have a sense. We can't understand it completely, but we start to have a sense of the wholeness, of the universal. So there's this delicate, tender relationship between this limited self and wholeness, the universal.

[12:26]

And that's what you are not it, but in truth it is you is about. So that's background. Now I want to talk about the other meaning of this. So one of the other themes, there's a number of themes. There's also, so part of what this is about is just this nature of suchness or reality itself, but also it says in the first line, it is intimately transmitted or conveyed by the Buddhas, by the awakened ones, and by the ancestors, by the teachers in each generation. Now you have it. Take good care of it. How do we take good care of it? How does this convey? So other themes in this two-page poem that we've talked about have to do with language, have to do with the subtleties of this study of reality that is part of our practice, and of how it's conveyed. And it also has to do with the teaching and our relationship to teachers and to the Dharma, to the study of this.

[13:33]

And it happens that in both the version in the story of Dongshan's verse after he looked in the stream, after leaving his teacher Yunyan, and in the version that's here in this Jewel Marrow Samadhi, there's this Chinese character that's translated in both cases in here as it. So the you and the I are clear. Some Chinese characters can be identified more specifically as a you or an I or them or he or she. In this case, this pronoun, this, in Japanese it can be pronounced kare, but it means it, but it also means he or she. So as it, it refers to this reality of suchness. But I've only seen it translated as it in terms of translations of the Precious Mara Samadhi. But in the original story, it's often translated as him.

[14:37]

And that's kind of in the background here, because this song of the Precious Mara Samadhi is also about teachers and students. There are lots of lines about that. We've talked about teachings and approaches arise, whether teachings and approaches are distinguished, each has a standard, whether teachings and approaches are mastered or not, reality constantly flows. Then it talks about the ancient sages grieved for them, for those who were suffering, and offered them the Dharma. So there are various things in here about teachers and students and their relationship. And there are metaphors for that. But in this particular line, this could also be read as, you are not him or her.

[15:40]

We've talked about the fact that through most of patriarchal Asia, the recognized teachers were men. Nowadays, in America, we have many women teachers, too. It could be him or her. But you are not him. He actually is you. So I want to talk about this in terms of teaching and teachers, and the relationship of the individual to teachers of suchness, and the student-teacher relationship traditionally in Zen. And I'll say something about how we might adapt that now. So one of the things we've been talking about is this tradition that we've inherited, this wonderful tradition from 2,500 years since the Buddha in India and China and Japan, but also then how do we make it our own here in the 21st century in a lay center in Chicago.

[16:42]

But there's a subtle subtlety to this, what's being said here, that applies not just to our relationship to the universal and to wholeness and to this reality of suchness, but also to the subtlety of the relationship of teachers and students. And there's a kind of mutuality to the relationship of teachers and students that's pointed to here. There's a kind of integrated relationship here. And there's a number of stories about Dongshan that point to this in specific ways. So when he left his teacher, one way to understand this This verse that he wrote after he looked in the stream and saw his reflection after Dongshan had said, just this is it.

[17:53]

Actually, that's the same here. So one way to understand what Yunyan said is just this person. Now is he talking about himself or about Dongshan or just their relationship? One way to understand what Dongshan said And we don't have to worry about what Dongshan meant. We don't know who Dongshan was. What does it mean to us? And we can take all these meanings. These teaching stories are there for us to play with and to take meanings from. So in some sense, I don't care what did Dongshan mean when he said this. Which one did he mean? Did he mean him or it? To me, that doesn't matter. But another way to read it is, Just don't seek from others, or you'll be far estranged from self, which has to do with what is it you get from teachers. Now I go on along, but everywhere I meet him. He now is me, I now am not him.

[18:54]

Or, in the words of the general Samadhi, you are not him, but actually, or in truth, he is you. Or she, if your teacher is a woman. So this is kind of subtle, and yet there's some way in which I feel it is deeply true about this relationship. You know, I feel it about my own teacher. His name is Greg Anderson. I'm not him, but he actually is me. But there's some other stories. Let me tell you some other stories about Dongshan talking about his teacher, Yunyan. And these are kind of funny stories in a way.

[19:56]

So one story is Dongshan was doing a memorial service for his teacher, Yunyan, and a monk came up and said, When Yunyan said, just this is it, what did he mean? And Dongshan said, at that time I nearly misunderstood my teacher's meaning. Then the monk said, I think this monk was kind of nervy, he said, did Yunyan himself know it is or not? And Dongshan said, if he didn't know what it is, how could he be able to say it? Of course. But if he did know what it is, how could he be willing to say it? Something really subtle there. So part of it is that, you know, no teacher can't tell you how you can be Buddha. You have to see it for yourself. So part of this, so this, so this, Dongshan again is the founder of this branch of Zen that we do here.

[21:08]

And it's slippery and it's subtle. And for those of you who came here and had Zazen instruction for the first time, in some ways, you have my sympathies. Our basic practice here is kind of like at the top of the mountain. This is the highest form of Buddhist meditation. Other schools of meditation, other schools of Buddhism, they won't let you do this until you've read lots of books for years and years. This is the ultimate practice, just sitting, just being present with whatever arises. There are lots of very specific programs of stages of meditation where you study this and you study that and you do this program and that program. And it's okay, we can do that here. But we start off with just this is it. So again, you know, my sympathies. And if you want a specific, and I don't know if Douglas gave you this morning, particular practices like following the breath or counting breath.

[22:15]

There are lots of different, there are libraries full of particular concentration objects. And we offer those here too. You can do mantra practice. There's lots of ways to help focus and settle. And that's important. But ultimately, just this is it. So, So some more things that Dongshan said about his teacher, in addition to saying, well, another time when Dongshan was doing a service, a monk asked, what instruction did you receive at your late teacher's place? And Dongshan said, although I was there, I didn't receive any instruction. The monk said, well, then why are you conducting a service for him? Dongsheng said, even so, how dare I turn my back on him? And then the monk said, well, you studied with other teachers who were much more prominent.

[23:18]

Why do you do a service for this guy, Yunyang? And Dongsheng said, I don't esteem my late teacher's virtues or his Buddhist teaching. I only value the fact that he didn't explain everything for me. So, I don't know that I can live up to that. I sometimes, I confess, I think I sometimes fall into trying to, or almost explaining things. I hope not, but, you know, I try not to. You really have to see it for yourself. So when you come and ask a question, I can try and help you find out for yourself. But really, this one motto in Zen teaching is to see it on your own, then come see someone and check it out. But I'm not here to explain the teachings to you.

[24:21]

I'm here to help you see it for yourself. That's what Zen teachers are for, according to Dongsang, and really in this tradition. The monk asked after that, you were a successor to this teacher, do you agree with him or not? And Dongshan said, I half agree and half don't agree. And Dongshan, and the monk asked, why? And Dongshan said, if I completely agreed, I'd be unfaithful to my teacher. So what does this say about this, I am not him, but he actually is me? And it's all through the Song of the Precious Mary Samadhi. There's this complicated relationship. And there's different ways that this plays out.

[25:26]

It's different in each case. The point is for the student to discover on their own how to find this suchness and express it for themselves. So it's not that I'm being stingy or something. I can't tell you how suchness is for you. And if I could, I wouldn't want to. And yet there's this funny thing that goes on. There's this funny dynamic. And there's different ways in which a student benefits from a teacher, and it's very individual. And there's different ways of seeing it.

[26:27]

And I'm talking now all about the traditional approach within our tradition, and maybe we have to... adapt that in terms of our context in the 21st century? Maybe not, I don't know. I think everything needs to be up for question. But again, I feel that my teacher, I'm not him, but he actually is me. I know that when I express the Dharma, I'm expressing something that I heard from him. And I feel this. It's kind of strange, but a number of you, when you give talks, and I try and have a lot of people here give talks, you're not me, but I can hear how I am you.

[27:27]

I can hear, when you talk, I hear, I said something like that once. There's something going on. And what it means is that the teaching is alive. I don't want people to be clones of me. And I couldn't do that anyway. And my teacher's so weird that I don't want to be him. And yet he's actually there. It's a funny thing. So the teacher depends on having good students, and vice versa. And so the other part of it is that there's different ways to engage with the teacher. So some of you here, I have, you know, there's, so Ancient Dragon Zen Gate, this place, exists as an available facility for people to come and hear the Dharma, to come and do Zazen, to

[28:30]

to make this practice and this teaching and this reality available in different ways, in the way that works for you, and that may change over time. So there's, you know, one way to think about it is there are people who come here and are in kind of training relationships, who actually see me somewhat regularly and are working in particular ways and particular things. And there are people who come here and practice, Maybe who I never talk to, and that's fine. You hear my dharma talks. I hear your discussions, so I do want to have discussions soon. There's lots of ways to use the opportunity of a practice center like this. So you don't have to, there's no requirement here that you come and have Doksana, an individual interview with me. It's not required. There are places where the teacher does that.

[29:34]

I don't care about that. Come and sit Zazen. You don't have to say anything. You don't have to participate in the discussions after Dharma talks. You're welcome to if you want to. You can just come and sit. Zazen is the greatest teacher. So there are various ways in which you can, for yourself, meet and engage this sense of wholeness. But again, there's this funny dynamic. You are not it, but it actually is you. So maybe that's enough for me to say.

[30:37]

Comments, questions, utterances, responses? Jen? I was at Greencoach last month. I was able to attend Greencoach exactly once, and Rev. Anderson gave the talk. And I bring you greetings from him, although he didn't ask me to. But I feel that I really should say that. He began his Dharma talk by taking a full 10 minutes. I didn't time it, but it seemed like an eternity, arranging his robes. And so there was a long period of silence while he adjusted and shifted and did this, that, and the next thing. So during the discussion period afterward, which I rarely attend, I gave the little speech I've given here about Tim DeChristopher and Terry Campos Williams.

[31:44]

And then there were other comments about various things that he had said in his talk. And he brought up the subject of having taken a huge amount of time arranging his robes. maybe that was the most important lesson he had given that day. And it was weird. And so I just wanted to tell you I'm very, very moved by this connection. Sometimes at the end of his talks he sings a song. Do you sing a song? It was the one about the sunrise. It's a Bing Crosby song.

[32:48]

He didn't go on to the other parts. Thank you. Other comments? Douglas. One of the interesting things about, you know, I am not an actor, you are not an actor, now is your turn. It's a theme that starts in the very first line of the poem, where the Dharma does this, is intimately transmitted by Buddhas and Ancestors, and you await their death. How is that? And then, I think the answer is, is to sort of be a reflection of dustness in ourselves.

[34:05]

We are dust. We have to be a reflection and live in a core of dustness. But it's a limited expression. So it does manifest itself in us. When you look in the mirror, that's dust. That first point is always, I think that your mind and his view is something that it's hard for me to understand until we separate the condition of that first point. other comments or questions, or for people who are here for the first time, if you have any questions about any aspect of this practice or what we do here, that's welcome too.

[35:17]

Kathy, hi. Thank you for your talk, I enjoyed it. Good. You know, the effect, it's not a good issue or, you know, I always think that means that From our own experience, we can see what the whole universe is about, even though that is a consternation, because it's hard to understand it. But it is also comforting in some ways to think that it's within our experience about Oh, we see a reflection of it. We see, you know, we have some, there's some connection. We don't, we can't, this little me can't get the whole thing, but there's a connection.

[36:20]

Yeah. I was reading yesterday a little bit about what you said about Damshan and the dharma of the insentient beings and I was wondering if the precious mirror is the reflection, is the dharma of the sentient beings and the insentient beings. The world is holding up a mirror to you all the time. If you don't respect the dharma of the sentient beings and the insentient beings, you could stub your toe or get run over by a car or burn your finger on a flame. And so the mirror is to help you be that little part.

[37:26]

Yeah. Everywhere I meet it, or everywhere I meet him. It's everywhere. There's nothing that's not a reflection of omnis, of the Dharma. And I feel that about my own teacher, everywhere I meet him. He's part of everything. I don't mean that in some gushy way or something. In Tibetan Buddhism, there's a different kind of emphasis, but also a strong emphasis on the student-teacher relationship. They refer to the teacher as the guru. And I think this might have been his first book, Born in Tibet, which talks about escaping from the bed.

[38:34]

Somebody said, well, you asked him, you have this whole, a system of this intense student-teacher relationship. And now here you are. You're a refugee. You're in exile. At that point, you're basically on your own. And so who's the guru? And the situations themselves, I think, were very much aligned for me. Yes, the teacher is everywhere in each situation. And students are teachers. I learned from all of them. A teacher needs good students to be able to be a teacher. But this relationship to reality and how we come to feel it and express it is very subtle and very tender, and it's a living, dynamic process.

[39:59]

So we can't get a hold of it. And why would we want to? we somehow are part of the process of expressing it, which is lovely, it's wonderful. And it's not about doing it correctly, because what would that mean? But here we are. So any last comment or reflection or thought? Jan? I just want to, this is just like an anxiety. Timothy Christopher got out of jail, and he went to the church in Salt Lake City that my mother used to go to, and he was greeted with cheers. And that is another connection that makes me. Just for people who don't know, this is someone who upset a,

[41:03]

an auction about auctioning off public land to drill for oil on it and spend some time in jail because he was trying to protect public land from oil drilling. So thank you for that news, Jen. Anything else? Anything about suchness or teachers or reality or Zen or meditation or dharma or question. It's not directly related to this, but it has to do with something you said on the way as part of this. You said the idea of anatman does not mean we have a self, it just means our ideas of ourselves are not have a self.

[42:11]

I understand that, but to simply put it, to stop there, seems to be only saying about, only part of what the, you know, the idea of what that is. I mean, that expression, you know, we have a self, but our ideas of self are wrong, that's... I didn't say we have a self, I said that anatman doesn't mean that we don't have a self. Anatman is the Sanskrit word for non-self. That's a whole other dharma talk, Ma. Yeah, any way of putting it, there's something that troubles us. Because we can't get a hold of it. And I ain't going to explain it.

[43:17]

But yeah, you are not it, but it actually is you. So we're in that little pivotal, yeah, whatever.

[43:26]

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