Good morning, everyone. So a number of us are sitting here all day today, and also welcome to all those who are joining us for the talk this morning. This morning, I'm going to talk about a story about Yunmen, a great master, founder of one of the so-called five houses of Chan in China, who lived from age 64 to 949. This is an old teaching story from the Book of Serenity koan collection. We talk about these old stories not as historical artifacts, but because they have something to do with our practice here today. This is the story I want to focus on. And actually, I'll refer to a couple of other stories about young men, but the story I want to focus on is Case 31 in the Book of Serenity. So, once young man said, the ancient Buddhas are merged with the open pillars.

[01:09]

What level of activity is this? And the assembly of spiritualists. Then two. So, the ancient Buddhas are merged with or that character means also mingled with, mixed with, joined together with, blended with the open pillars. So in large temples back then in China and still today in East Asia, there were large temples with freestanding pillars around the temple. And so Yunlin was saying that these ancient Buddhas the great ancient masters, the Buddhas from past ages, including Shakyamuni Buddha, the historical Buddha from around 2,500, well, 2,500 years ago, around 400, 500 BC, mixed with the open pillars.

[02:17]

So, you know, this is something that happens. Buddhas soak into the space of the temple, into the very structure of the temple. So there's a particular structure from zendos, from meditation halls like this. And the Buddhas who practiced in such spaces, you know, that awakening kind of soaks into the space. So the freestanding pillars in that space. Somehow, Yunmin was saying that these ancient Buddhas had mixed in with these pillars. Something about the very structure of the temple was teaching like the Buddhas, share something with the Buddhas. And then he said, what level of activity, what level of function is this?

[03:29]

This word that is translated here as activity has various meanings. It's key in Japanese. It's the pronunciation. It means activity, function, mechanism. Actually, it also could mean the moving power of the universe. It also means mechanism or a loom that weaves. What is the level of functioning and activity and workings of these ancient Buddhas merged in with the temple pillars? How is it that the Buddha wisdom and compassion works? And Yun Men, after the assembly was speechless, nobody ventured a statement, Yun Men said, on their behalf, on South Mountain, rising clouds.

[04:40]

On North Mountain, falling rain. On South Mountain, clouds rise. On North Mountain, rain. So this has something to do with the way that we are interconnected, or that the world is interconnected, or that all of space is interconnected, or the way that this zazen practice, this meditation that we do here, permeates all life. The added saying for this, in the Koan, for on South Mountain rising clouds, on North Mountain falling rain. As it all was then saying, old man Chong drinks wine, old man Lee gets drunk. Kind of like saying Smith drinks and Jones gets drunk. There's some deeper connection between things.

[05:40]

that we don't usually see. But this is what Yanmen is saying, is the level of working of the ancient Buddhists when they mix in with the temple pillars. And, you know, this is about architecture, but also this is about, and this is about space. And sometimes we also talk about Sangha leaders as poets of the temple. So, you know, in many levels, the ancient Buddhas are working here. You know, obviously not just back in Yodamen's time, you know, in the 9th and 10th century. How is it that the ancient Buddhas work? What is their level of activity? On South Mountain, clouds rise. On North Mountain, or maybe here in Chicago, you could say.

[06:46]

Above Lake Michigan, clouds rise. Up in Evanston, rains fall. There's some connection between how things work, and it's not necessarily obvious or logical according to our usual sense of logic. So, you know, this practice and this way of talking about things that Yunmin is talking here is not something that's abstract. It's practical. There is a principle of response. There's a principle of connectedness that is rooted in our practice and is rooted in the workings of awakened mind. How do we respond to the devastation of the Philippines?

[07:54]

Towns and cities of 10,000 wiped out in a flash. How do we respond to the imminent peril of massive radiation in Fukushima this week? What is our connection? How do we respond? What is the workings of the ancient Buddhas? You know, also in our own lives, in the lives of our friends and family members. So I'm not talking about some mystical, passive, automatic response. Our attention is required. How do we see this? this working of workings of the Buddha. How do the ancient Buddhists function? This is something that is not part of our usual logical way of thinking about how things work.

[08:58]

And yet, Yen Man said, on South Mountain, rising clouds, on North Mountain, falling rain. So the introduction to this case, the commentator of one song said, the unique dynamic of transcendence, a crane soars into the sky, the unique road of direct confrontation with reality. A falcon passes the next country. Even if your eyes are like comets, you still don't avoid your mouth being bent down like a carrying pole. But tell me, what teaching is this? So this is, you know, some of you are here for the first time. This is a pretty advanced teaching. He's talking about the workings of the great ancient Buddhas. And yet, when we hear something like this, this is also something about our own practice, about the nature of the workings of the ancient Buddha on our own cushion.

[10:06]

So this Dazen we do here is an expression of the ancient Buddhas. We're not practicing in order to eventually become Buddhas sometime in the future. We're practicing as expressions of Buddha awareness. So our practice is not about some enlightenment in the future of our practices, the expression of the awareness that's on your cushion or chair right now. So in the comment to the case itself, these cases and the verses were from Hongshe, translated in Cultivating the Empty Field, a great Soto teacher in China in the 12th century. But the commentator Wansong said about this case, about this story, amongst other things, General Jing of the latter Tang and Song dynasties was good at drumming and singing.

[11:13]

And in one of our chants we say, drumming and singing come up together. This is a principle of They're not separate. But he had a saying that, on South Mountain rising clouds, on North Mountain falling rain, is borrowed for use, like young men saying, and then he quotes another story, Vala Kittushvaro, or Kanon Bodhisattva, the awakening being of compassion, comes with a penny to buy a sesame cake. Letting down his hand, actually, it was a jelly doughnut instead. So this is from another case in the Book of Serenity, Case 82. So these old stories, they refer to each other and quote each other. And the more you look at them, you start to recognize how they resonate. But this is another story about Yunmen. So another time, there are many, many stories about Yunmen, many of these stories.

[12:17]

But once he said to the assembly, hearing sound awakened to the way, seeing form, understand the mind. The Bodhisattva of Compassion, Avalokitesvara, Kanzeon we sometimes say in Japanese. The Bodhisattva Kanzeon brings money to buy a sesame cake, but when he lowers his hand it turns out to be a jelly doughnut. So this is a great old koan, a great old teaching And, you know, maybe we don't know exactly what sesame cakes and jelly doughnuts meant in China back then, but still, we can appreciate something's going on here. And yet, you know, the starting point for this is hearing sound awaken to the way, seeing form understand the mind. The way is, and the way, the Tao, in the context of Zen and Buddhism means, Awakening itself, it means the whole of the Buddhist teaching.

[13:18]

Hearing sound, awaken to the way. This is an old teaching from, actually, it's connected to the Bodhisattva of Compassion, whose name means to hear the sounds of the world. And hearing the sounds of the world is the definition of compassion, to be open to the sounds and the cries of the world, to be open to the suffering of our friends and family, to be open to the suffering in the Philippines, to be open to the suffering of all the beings on your cushion and chair right now, to be willing to face your own sadness and loss and sometimes distress. So our practice of just sitting includes that we are willing to be completely the person on your cushion and chair right now, this morning, including your fears and frustrations and difficulties and sadness. Hearing sound awaken to the way. Hearing the sounds of the people walking around upstairs, hearing the sounds of the traffic outside.

[14:24]

We don't awaken to the way outside of forms and feelings and perceptions. We don't awaken to the way separate from this phenomenal world. We don't awaken to the way on some serene, silent, ideal, perfect mountaintop somewhere in China or Japan or California. We awaken to the way in this world. Right amid the pillars and the mountains and the clouds and the rain of this life. So he said, hearing sound awakened to the way. seeing form, understand the mind. The forms of the world around us are this mind. We don't have some mind that exists in some abstract place outside of the forms that our mind sees and hears and thinks about.

[15:28]

So when we said thoughts come, we don't try and destroy all those thoughts. Enlightenment is not the absence of thoughts. It's about how do we see the reality of these thoughts and feelings and sounds and sensations. The pain in our knee or our knees or our shoulders or our back as we sit all day, some of us. Hearing sounds awaken to the way. Seeing forms understand the mind. So the Bodhisattva of Compassion, who listens to the sounds and suffering of the world, brings money to buy a sesame cake. But when he lowers his hand, it turns out to be a jelly doughnut. Yippee. So, something happens here. South Mountain, clouds rise. North Mountain, rain falls. So this has to do with this principle of connectedness that is essential to our Zazen.

[16:40]

This sounds mystical and mysterious, but it's actually the way things is. Smith has a drink and Jones gets drunk. What's this about? We are connected. And this practice that we do, this Zazen, actually, you know, as you do it regularly, and I encourage doing this regularly, numbers of times a week, even for a little while. We usually sit 30 or 40 minutes here, but, you know, if you can only sit 15 minutes at home, that's fine. As you settle into this regular practice, we open up to this realm of connection. And this realm of response. Something's happening here.

[17:48]

We don't know what it is, but that's okay. So in the chant that some of us will do later on at the end of the morning. Dogen, 13th century founder of Soto Zen, this friendship practice that we do. This writing that we call the Self-Fulfilling Samadhi. which I will find. Yeah, he says, when one displays the Buddha mudra, this position of uprightness with one's whole body and mind, for those of you who want to look, it's page 22 in your chant book. When one displays the Buddha mudra with one's whole body and mind, sitting upright in this Samadhi or meditation, even for a short time,

[18:49]

everything in the entire Dharma world becomes Buddha Mudra and all space in the universe completely becomes awakened. This is an amazingly radical proclamation about what this meditation is about. This is not some self-improvement technique. This is not a technique at all. This is a principle of interconnection. South Mountain, clouds rise, North Mountain rains fall. When one gives oneself to just being upright and relaxed with one's whole body and mind. Even for a little while. He says, everything in the whole phenomenal world becomes this awake in the presence.

[19:50]

And space itself completely awakens. All space in the whole universe. And this is just mind-boggling. We can't possibly understand in our usual sense of the world. And he goes on to say things like that when we do this, earth, grass and trees, fences and walls, tiles and pebbles, even fences and walls, even things we think of as, you know, even man-made things. The whole phenomenal world all sounds and forms. carry out Buddha work. And everyone receives the benefit of this. And all are imperceptibly helped by the wondrous and incomprehensible influence of Buddha to actualize the awakening at hand. So there's this mutual incomprehensible guidance. This is what Yen Men is talking about also. The ancient Buddhas are merged with the open pillars, temple pillars.

[20:57]

What level of function is this? On south mountains, rising clouds. On north mountain, falling rain. So we don't know how this works, but yet, when we practice for a while, It has some influence on the people around us. Just our, you know, to whatever extent we become a little more calm, a little more flexible, a little more open, a little more able to respond in different ways. We become more available to the people around us. They become more available to themselves. there is this incomprehensible influence. And this spreads. So this isn't going to necessarily fix climate damage.

[21:58]

There's more that needs to be done. But still, how we all see the world in this wider sense and see reality in this wider sense does help. And this isn't some idea, this is about actually physically being willing to be present in our body and mind and open up to these deeper possibilities. So, you know, sometimes they, you know, come and bring some money for sesame cake and reach out and suddenly there's a jelly jar. How does that happen? So going to the verse for this case, the immense pillars, about the ancient Buddha's merge with the open pillars, Hongzhi says, one path of spiritual light has never been, I'm sorry, one path of spiritual light has never been concealed from the first.

[23:11]

So this is a path of spiritual light. It's never been concealed. Transcending perception and objects, it's so, yet nothing's so. Going beyond emotional assessment, it's meat, yet nothing's meat, or it's appropriate, it's adequate, it works, it's sufficient, yet nothing quite works. The scattered flowers on the crag, in the bees' houses they make honey. The richness of the wild grasses, in the musk deer they make perfume. So how does this work? Flowers are scattered and yet somehow from these flowers in the bees' houses they make honey. The nutrients, the thickness of the wild grasses, the richness of the wild grasses become perfume when eaten by the musk deer. According to kind, three feet are ten and six.

[24:19]

Clearly, whatever you contact, it is abundantly evident. So, this is Holmes' first, but the commentary on it is kind of helpful. Yun Men said another time, everybody has a light, but when you look, you don't see it. It's dark and obscure. So, this is very interesting. Everybody has a light. It's true. There is a light in all of you. And we don't see it. We don't see it ourselves. Sometimes we see it in others. Sometimes we see it. But it's kind of hidden in the everyday. And maybe that's okay. And Leonard Cohen says, there's a crack in everything. That's how the light shines in. So maybe we're all a bit cracked, too. And that's okay. This is the world of suffering, First Noble Truth.

[25:24]

So don't be afraid of the sadness. This light is dark and obscure, and yet there's a light. The young man also said, space cannot fully contain it. Earth cannot support it. Everybody has a life. And, you know, sometimes we can't see our own light. Sometimes it feels very far away. And yet, I hope you hear this, that this is what Hyunmin said, this is what all the ancient Buddhists say. And the point isn't to find the light, really. Even if you never see it, it's okay. When you look, you don't see it, so you don't have to look for it. Just enjoy being the person on your cushion or chair today.

[26:31]

And the commentator refers to the Surangama Samadhi Sutra, which says that this perception and its object are both the wondrously pure luminous body of enlightenment. So again, this idea of the forms around us and our perception of them, this whole process of being, present and aware of the world around us. This perception and its object are both the wondrously pure luminous body of enlightenment. How can there be affirmation or denial therein? And this leads to this commentary that is referred to in the poem. If nothing is me, nothing is not me. If nothing is so, nothing is not so. Because nothing is not so, it's so without being so. Because nothing is not me, it's me without being me. That's pretty intricate, let me say it again, for whatever that's worth.

[27:44]

If nothing is me, or nothing is appropriate or adequate, nothing is not me. If nothing works, then nothing doesn't work. If nothing is so, nothing is not so. Because nothing is not so, it's so without being so. Because nothing does not work, it works without working. Therefore, the scripture says, thoroughly see all things without seeing anything. So this is a kind of effortless effort, to use the Taoist term. You don't have to work at this. Just be there. Just be willing to be yourself. Just be willing to be present. So he says, this verse subtly points to transcendence of common sense views and the merging of subject and object.

[28:47]

You know, this is the problem. We see ourselves as separate from the world. And that's kind of inevitable, you know. We're subjects separate from the world out there. That's how our mind works. It's the nature of thought, even, that there's stuff out there and there's me. We can't get away from that. But as we settle deeper into just being present, we start to lose that That starts to soften up. We start to see that we actually are connected and that we're not separate from stuff out there. And that actually everything out there is who we are. So everybody that you've ever known in your whole life is what is sitting on your Kushner chair right now. Of course, it's your particular distillation of all those beings.

[29:52]

So congratulations. You've got a jelly donut. So this clouds rise on South Mountain, rain falls on North Mountain, this principle of response, we can't exactly control that. Maybe it doesn't even help to hear this. This isn't about fixing things or fixing problems, but it is this underlying reality that we practice with. It doesn't mean that we can just assume that everything is automatically okay and we don't have to pay attention to the problems of the world and the problems of our family and friends. We should do what we can to help. And yet there is this reality, this connection and response that's going on that is fundamental and underlying our practice.

[31:04]

There's a reference to another story about young men in this same case about the ancient Buddhas in the open pillars. In another story about young men, a monk asked, what is every atom samadhi? What is it like when every atom is in meditation and concentration? And young men said, rice in the bowl, water in the bucket. So those of us sitting here all day will experience that much. Just every day, taking care of things. But in the commentary to that, it mentions something from the great flower ornament sutra, where it speaks of entering perfect samadhi, complete whole samadhi, on one atom, arising from right samadhi in all atoms. Every atom is thus, everything is thus. So this is a principle of Bodhisattvas, of enlightening beings. entering concentration in one thing and rising in all things.

[32:11]

This is like clouds rising on South Mountain, rain falling on North Mountain. So there is this interconnectedness going on all the time. And sometimes we even can glimpse it as we sit and see how much we are connected to the people in our life and the things in our world. The unique dynamic of transcendence, a crane soars into the sky the unique road of direct confrontation with reality. A falcon passes the next country. So this reality is present right here in this hall.

[33:22]

It's present in your life. And just hearing this, I don't know, Maybe it helps, maybe it doesn't. How can we be willing to support this, to give ourselves to this deep connection to all beings and to each other?

[33:55]

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