Zen Stories 

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May I remind you that next week I will be at a prenuptial event in San Francisco, so
I won't be here next week. However, I was thinking that some of you might want to come
and sit together next week, and I was wondering how many people would like to come and sit
here next week? One, two, three, four, five, six. Well, if one of you would volunteer to
be responsible for having the keys and locking up after the session, then you could get together
and have a sitting. So if there's a volunteer who would be willing to do that,
maybe you can volunteer now.
So maybe next week not much is going to happen in this room at this time
in terms of human habitation, so we'll have a class the following week, the 28th.
The koan that I want to bring up tonight, I actually would feel more comfortable whispering
to you, but if I whisper, Nancy won't be able to hear me, and maybe some other people wouldn't
either, so I'm kind of yelling, but my feeling is that this is a very quiet, kind of a quiet,
well, not totally quiet, but has a lot of quietness in it. This is a koan which
I was struck by many years ago, and then I was struck by it again recently,
and what struck me is I felt it was quite flower-like, this koan.
My perspective on flowers, I'm not telling you how you feel about flowers,
but my sense of flowers is that when they're blooming, they're generally quite fragile,
and impermanent, often delicate.
The fruit which they go with, from my perspective, is often also impermanent or perishable,
but it's in some sense sturdier, heavier, and I'm attracted to both flowers and fruit,
but I don't usually think of eating flowers, although some of them can be eaten,
and I also don't think of eating fruit except when it's ripe.
Some fruits are attractive visually, like flowers are, but also they often are attractive
in terms of using them as nourishment, and flowers are nourishing too, but not usually
in the sense of eating them. But flowers are nourishing, and this koan is both,
potentially can be viewed as a flower, and also relating to it can bring a fruit.
I wouldn't exactly call flowers weak, but almost could call them weak. Flowers don't usually
strike me as strong, but this is a koan about strength and weakness.
The weakness that I see in this koan is demonstrated by the teacher, and the strength by the student.
A friend of mine recently noted that somebody referred to somebody as an Asian psychiatrist,
or an African-American psychiatrist, or a black psychiatrist,
but people don't usually say white psychiatrist, or white psychotherapist,
but they might say black psychotherapist.
So this friend of mine said that from now on she's going to say white psychotherapist,
white psychiatrist, white lawyer, white doctor, white politician,
so it should be entertaining. This person sometimes has referred to me as a coot,
as an old coot, so now it's old white coot.
Or a little shrinking old white coot.
A coot is related to a geezer, or a codger.
Geezer, codger, coot are terms for elderly people,
elderly males.
So, elderly males, geezer, coot, and codger.
So you can check the dictionary, see if the dictionary says that you don't have to say that it's a male coot.
I'll think about what I'd like you to call me.
So one rather poetic introduction to this case, which I might as well say it.
Probing pole in hand,
shadowing the grass around him,
sometimes he wraps a ball of silk with iron,
sometimes he wraps a stone with silk.
To determine the soft by means of the hard is of course correct.
What about the matter of being weak, when meeting strength?
Could you hear that Nancy?
What?
What about the matter of being weak, when meeting strength?
When meeting, when meeting, face to face.
Yes.
No.
No.
Not that.
Wrap that silk with iron.
That's the introduction to this story.
Here's the story.
And this is a story about an ancestor in the Zen history, a major teacher,
and his name is Dachan, which means virtue mountain.
And there are stories about him where he is quite dramatic and fierce himself,
a very energetic being.
And so now this story takes place when he is perhaps a kajur, a coot or a geezer.
Perhaps he's become a little tottery.
Tottery?
Huh?
What's the word?
Tottering.
A tottering geezer.
I don't know, it doesn't say that he's a tottering geezer.
But anyway, he's in the position of being the teacher in this story,
and he has an attendant.
And the attendant, I don't know if the attendant was assigned to him by somebody,
like, would you go take care of him please?
Or if the attendant was happy to be his attendant,
because he was a great Zen teacher.
And he thought, okay, geez, I can be the attendant of a great Zen teacher.
How wonderful.
The attendant's name is He.
So attendant He is attending Dachan,
and he says to the teacher something like,
Where are all the great sages?
Where have all the great sages of antiquity gone?
And Dachan says,
What?
Huh?
What's that?
I think that's probably,
I didn't look up the characters,
but I think that's probably what it literally says.
Huh? What?
And the monk says,
another translation of that is,
of the teacher's response is,
I don't know.
But I think actually that's an interpretation of,
Huh? What?
Get the picture?
The monk says,
Where have all the great sages of antiquity gone?
And the teacher says,
Huh? What?
The great Zen master says,
What?
And then the monk says,
the attendant says,
The request was for a flying dragon horse,
or a horse that runs like a flying dragon.
But what showed up was a lame tortoise.
And the teacher, Dachan,
let it pass.
That's the way I first heard it translated.
Just let it pass.
Now the translation is,
he didn't say anything.
Kind of in the spirit of being defeated in debate.
Like the student kind of like,
asked him a question,
he gave an answer,
the student basically said,
I wanted something, you know,
I wanted a galloping horse,
but you're like a lame tortoise.
And the teacher just didn't say anything.
Let it pass.
Weak teacher.
Weak teacher.
The next day,
when Dachan came out of the bath,
So again, the first way I heard this story was,
when Dachan came out of the bath,
the attendant served him tea.
And he patted the attendant on the back.
And he patted the attendant on the back.
And then the attendant says,
This geezer
has finally
gotten a glimpse.
Or,
Hey old man,
you understand a little better today.
You understand a little better today.
He patted him.
That was a little bit better understanding.
Again, this pat was interpreted
verbally by some people
as saying,
How are you feeling about the koan
you brought up yesterday?
And the monk says,
You're doing, you know,
you're catching on better,
old boy.
And Dachan,
let it pass.
Commenting on this story,
there's various ways to go.
One way to go is to say,
Studying with a teacher,
serving a teacher,
don't worry about
the great sages of antiquity
who were,
you know,
hot stuff.
Like,
you know, don't worry about great Zen masters
like Dachan.
It's just enough
to serve your teacher.
Forget about the
glories
of the golden age
of Zen and all
those masters and mistresses.
And just take care
of your life
with the people you're working with.
When a person
is being an attendant to somebody,
they may say,
Oh, I'm being attendant to this person
who's playing the role of a teacher.
And the teacher is like,
you know, something.
This teacher is something
the student might feel.
And then,
how much should the teacher
let the student
serve?
How much should the teacher
let the student
call him teacher?
In some sense,
the teacher should not take this seriously.
The teacher should understand
that the student's understanding
like, for example,
the student's understanding
in this case is,
you seem to be a lame
tortoise.
The student's understanding is,
I'd like to see some ancient sages here.
The student's understanding
from a certain perspective
is
just kind of
a student's understanding.
But the teacher's understanding
in this story, I think,
is that
the student's understanding
is not separate from the teacher's understanding.
The teacher's
dharma,
the teacher's truth
is
consists
of
the student's understanding.
The student's understanding that the teacher is lame,
the teacher's understanding
is in the student's understanding.
And just living
together with the student
having various opinions of the teacher
and perhaps believing them,
which is not the teacher's position.
The teacher doesn't believe
what the student believes.
But the teacher's understanding
which doesn't believe what the student believes
is not separate from what the student believes.
And the teacher's understanding
is totally included
in the student
believing what they think.
Or going beyond that
and getting over it.
And not being a student anymore.
The teacher's not separate from that either.
So this is a story about
the teacher being weak
in negotiating this relationship.
The teacher being like a flower,
very delicate,
easily crushed,
but not protecting itself
with some strong comeback
after it almost got knocked down.
As a matter of fact,
just gently patting the monk
the next day
when he served the tea.
And then again,
the monk,
another strong response
from this
teacher's offering
and the teacher again
doesn't say anything.
Just let it pass.
When I remembered this story
I could hardly remember the student's question.
You know, the first student
about where are all the
sages of antiquity
now?
Where have they gone?
I didn't really remember the question.
I just remembered the part about
the teacher
not having much of an answer
and the student
not thinking that that was so cool
and the teacher just letting it be.
That part I remembered.
I didn't remember what the student was looking for
in the first place.
But I did remember that the student
kind of got whatever he was looking for
the next day.
He got a little bit of it.
When the teacher patted him
he thought, oh,
here we have a little bit of sagehood here.
Maybe the teacher
patted him and the student could think,
there's a little sageness right there.
That's a little bit of a wise man.
I could feel it
sort of the way he touched my shoulder.
This is real Zen
after all.
I'm happy we have this flower
which blooms every spring
in our tradition
and I'm happy
to offer it to you.
There's
innumerable views
of this flower, of course.
If you wish to offer
any more flowers about this flower
you're welcome to do so.
Would I?
Yes, please.
Yes, Jeff.
The teacher
has become a fruit and the student
was looking for a flower.
Yes, Bill.
I have a question
about this particular teacher.
Does he have a record
outside of this story?
Yeah, I was wondering
if I should tell you the other stories first
because he's so strong
in those stories.
Well, what I was saying is
if he had a record of having paid his dues
he would be entitled
to dote and float.
Dote and float?
That's all.
If you paid your dues you have the
right to dote and float.
Kadger is often dote
upon grandchildren.
Yesterday I flew
to Los Angeles, I flew to Burbank
actually
to do what my daughter
called a bold act of devotion.
A bold act of devotion.
She
what's the word?
proclaimed
that it was a bold
act of devotion.
I threw my body
across the sky
to Burbank
to
be present at
Grandparents Day
at my grandson's school.
So he'd have his
grandfather there.
The people in the school
kind of
I don't know, they ordered him
to
show me his
book he made
describing various
things
that they're doing
in his class.
Very studied projects.
He was explaining, he had this
book here which he gave to me
and I was looking at it and he
was explaining it to me.
He doesn't very often
sit me down and give me
explanations of things and tell me stories about
what's going on and what he's been doing but
they told him to do it
and he did it.
And I was
sitting there looking at me in the face
telling me about this
and
the tears were not
so abundant
in my eyes
that he was embarrassed.
They were just
acceptable level of moistness
but I was just so moved
by his genuineness
in just
being there and talking to me.
Part of the story was
it doesn't matter what he's saying
but he is saying something.
The thing is he's actually like
he's following the teacher's
instruction and doing this thing which he
doesn't like to do
like to sit there and tell your
grandfather what you've been doing in school
but he did it.
And then at a certain point
that was enough of that and he stopped.
He said give me my book back.
I wanted to look at more but he had
enough of it and took it back.
Eleven.
I don't know if that was a flower
or a fruit that I saw.
But without somebody
besides me
asking him to do that
he can't do it.
He can't
sit right in front of me and tell me
what he's doing like that.
But they set him up for it and he could do it.
It was
worth the trip.
And then I came back
from Burbank to Oakland
and then I came here.
And I said to him
when his mother said that
about this bold act of devotion
I said
I really am happy
to do things
in service of
my grandson.
Even if the things themselves
are
something I wouldn't ordinarily do
like I don't ordinarily get on airplanes
and go places.
But sometimes if it's my job
I do it.
Sometimes when I'm at the airport
I wonder what am I doing here?
Now when I think that
I often think well I'm here to
support the people in this line.
They're doing a pretty good job and I'm
supporting them to be patient
and unselfish
as they go through
this security line.
But you know you can't actually do that
without having a boarding pass.
You can't go and stand in line without a boarding pass.
Or you could stand on it I guess
and take it to the place where you show the boarding pass
and you could say
I don't have a boarding pass.
I'm just waiting in line to support these people
but then they'd probably lock you up.
So there is a question about where
we should be of service.
You know
who we should serve.
This is a story about somebody
who was serving
Dashaun
who had
paid his dues
for
quite a long time.
Yes?
I'm wondering if the teacher's
response in some way
really was a strong response
that in saying huh
he was maybe mirroring
the student's confusion
because the student was
asking the
teacher's ancestors
from the past rather than
being in the present.
You could say he was mirroring the student's
confusion. He was mirroring
the student's distraction. You could say
that.
And you could say that a mirror is a strong thing.
A mirror can be a strong thing
in a way.
It can be a startling thing.
A mirror can startle us.
Right?
Like whoa!
Wow!
Amazing!
And other times
the mirror is more gentle.
Sometimes the mirror
just kind of lets it pass.
Yes?
I think that
the word strongly
and I know that there's a context.
And I actually think
that strongly
there's a context.
There are contexts?
There is a context.
And I actually think
that
the teacher's response
was very strong.
It was kind of like iron
actually.
And just
now it occurred to me as we've been talking about
the different times we've been talking about
the harmonitas
and we've been pointing to patience
quite a bit. Great patience.
And in my own
personal work
of working with inpatients and patients
kind of the strength it takes
to kind of just be
so spacious
that you can let it pass
is
not
so much
an act of
maybe what I would call weakness.
So I think
that
it's pretty
it's not a clear
it's not a clear
point there.
What's what.
And I think the teacher was
quite powerful
in that.
So may I say that
you're saying that
you feel the teacher's response
or responses
were strong?
See now that's
encouraging to
that's
encouraging to coots.
That in their frail
shrunken form they can be
offered strong
something strong
to the
young
to the young
the youngens.
Well it's amazing.
Again the introduction
could be also
you could
feel from the introduction
that there is this
contemplation of
of strength and weakness
that's
part of the opportunity
of our life is to contemplate that.
Yes Sandy.
Judging
yourself
being vulnerable to that
comment
where it really
could be an opportunity
to get
to take that comment
from the student
and not be
and not be
so vulnerable to it.
Or maybe that's how the teacher actually
views himself.
Yes certainly that may be how the
teacher viewed
herself.
That certainly is possible but also
I kind of feel like
the teacher
is
committed to be
vulnerable.
Not necessarily committed to be
hurt unless it's helpful
but if it's helpful the teacher
is committed to be hurt.
The teacher is committed
to be insulted if it
facilitates the relationship.
And the teacher
may not
some teachers may be a little
queasy about
not being separate from their students
understanding because their students understanding
is
hard to really
accept being intimate with.
But I think the teacher
in this tradition is committed
to that even though it's hard.
Kind of scary.
If you're not separate from the students
understanding you might get thrown in the trash bin
because students can
have that understanding and still be students
but if a teacher has that understanding
maybe that's not acceptable
for a teacher to have an understanding
that a student has.
The teacher is committed to that.
And students may be
but they don't have to be.
They're allowed to be students
if they're not yet ready to make that commitment.
And the teacher
maybe
is encouraging them to make that
commitment so that there'll be another generation
of
people who aren't afraid to be fools.
Or who are afraid to be fools but
they have
they can be patient with that fear.
The Chinese character for
you know, De
as in Dao De Jing
Dao De Jing
the De means virtue but it also
means power.
His name could be Power Mountain.
I think
Arthur Whaley
translated the Dao De Jing as
the way and its power.
Dao De Jing
the power of the way or the virtue of the way.
The way and its virtue.
So here this guy's name is
Power Mountain.
So yeah, dynamic.
You have the power to be vulnerable.
The power
to be
not separate from
beginners,
fools,
etc.
Yes.
Yes.
The overt
power and the aggressive power
is met with
a skillful
not being there.
So that the force
of the initial
thrust with someone
suddenly that person's not there
and
the
person being aggressive
or whatever you want to call this
as
as his
intention.
If someone is
skilled enough
to do that.
Yeah.
It seems that way anyway.
It also seems that when
the student asks the question
there is and then
the teacher gives the answer
the student then says well
I wanted this but
I got this.
It's the expectation
that the teacher is not responding
in an expected manner
perhaps to show the student
that sometimes
the gift is not what you're
asking but something else instead.
Right.
And
the teacher lets that pass.
So
the student expected
some spectacular
wise answer.
He's asking a sage about where the sages are
and the sage doesn't know where the sages are
and then he makes a comment on the sage
not knowing where the sages are
because he kind of
expects the sage to know something about
or at least make some really brilliant
response to their absence.
And thereby manifest their presence
and he didn't.
From the student's point of view
and the teacher let him have his
expectations.
Sometimes teachers
don't seem
to let the students have expectations.
Sometimes they say
hand over your expectations.
Matter of fact
you may be asked to hand over
your expectations.
Yes?
Do you think the student knew
that he was dancing?
Do I think the student knew?
Well, I think that
the knowing
that he was dancing
I think in the story
was
enclosed in iron.
Which reminds me
of
King's question.
Could you be in the lineage
but not know it?
Could you be dancing
with the sages
and not know it?
Or could you know it
but cover it
with iron?
Could you have this
silky
silky
dancing relationship
with the ancestors, with the sages?
Yes.
Would you need to know it? No.
Could you know it?
The dance would be knowing it.
In fact, he was dancing
with the teacher. We know it.
Now
the iron has been
removed temporarily.
So now we know that he was
dancing with the teacher.
That
the teacher's
skill was
not separate from
or constituted
the student's
performance.
But
it looks like the student
didn't know it.
It looks that way.
That there was a covering
around this
actual wonderful relationship.
And it's even a covering
from some people's perspective
the covering also makes
to me the covering of the story
makes the story look kind of like
outstandingly
quiet or
different.
There's not that many stories
about the teachers
having this rather bland
quiet,
letting it pass answer.
But there may be innumerable
cases of that story
but they didn't write them down
because they're so boring.
But this one got written down
and I think this actually
might be a little bit more common
than one or
two out of a hundred cases
in terms of actual
anthropology.
If you actually saw
you might find that this kind of relationship is actually
more about what Zen is about
is to bring people
down right here
rather than looking to some heaven with the
sages to come
and practice right now together.
In a lot of the koans that I see
I'm aware of both the student
and the teacher dancing
and being awake to that
dance.
So when I hear this
koan
it appears
that the student isn't
awake
to the dance.
It appears that way, yeah.
There's many stories where the student isn't
awake to the dance
but a lot of those stories
it looks like the teacher is
and the teacher says so.
The teacher says, you're not awake to the dance.
And then often there's no more
comment from the student.
But this one the teacher
doesn't say the student is not awake to the dance.
The teacher lets it pass
in both cases.
The teacher doesn't
indict the student's understanding.
The teacher demonstrates
the dance very nicely.
But it looks like the student
is not getting it.
But the teacher is saying
I'm not separate from the student
not getting it.
I'm not better
than the student who doesn't get
that we're doing this dance together.
Here we are, we're actually practicing
together, we're actually
doing the thing.
The student doesn't get it
and I'm not separate from him not getting it.
I'm a successful
teacher of a student who doesn't get it.
I've successfully got a student who doesn't understand.
I'm successful in that way.
I'm successful because
I can stand to be
a teacher who has students who don't
understand.
It's similar to the story about
the Zen master who says
don't you realize you're talking to somebody
who can be cut through?
You're talking to
somebody who can be weak.
I've been preparing to be weak.
I've been practicing for a long time
and now I feel I can make
an offering in my weakness.
I can make an offering
by having students like you who don't
understand anything.
I can really accept that.
I'm really successful by having
students like you who don't
get what we're doing together.
I look forward to exploring
your lack of understanding further.
The main way I'll
explore it is by not saying anything that bright.
And you'll get more and more
I don't know what about me.
The teacher also isn't
invested in
thinking
I'm not a good teacher
because he's not getting it.
Before you say anything
you say the teacher's not invested.
Remember you said the teacher's
not invested in something.
But that's the important thing.
The teacher's not invested in blank.
You can fill in whatever you want
there now.
She said the teacher's not invested in
what?
In thinking!
The teacher's not invested in thinking.
What else?
That I'm not a good teacher
because the student isn't getting it.
All those things the teacher's not
invested in plus the teacher's not invested in
So in other words, the teacher's not invested in thinking,
the teacher's not investigated not thinking,
and the teacher's not invested in any thinkings you can be there.
However, the teacher also, by not being invested
in any of those blanks or those thinkings,
can be not invested in being separate from the student
who's invested in thinking.
So the student is thinking, he's not a good teacher because I'm not getting it, maybe.
Or the student is thinking, he is a good teacher because I'm getting it.
If the teacher is really not invested in any of this stuff, the teacher is realizing non-separation
from the student's thinking, so the teacher actually might as well be doing the thinking
and the teacher can do the thinking, but they're not invested in it.
So teachers can think, I'm not a very good teacher because look at my students.
Teachers can think that, but teachers in this school should not be invested in any thinking,
they should just think and let the thinking drop away and then the next one.
But they can also not think, but the main thing is the teacher is not invested.
And again, the teacher is not invested means the teacher can demonstrate to those who are
invested that somebody who is not invested is not separate from you when you're invested
and they're patient with you.
If you're invested, they're patient with you until the end of the investment.
And it isn't like now the investment is over so let's have a big party, but you could have
a big party at that time because it might be quite wonderful if the investment came
to an end and the student wasn't invested, so then the teacher might say, well now I'm
going to be invested and you can save me from my investments, but that's a key thing.
The teacher is not invested, that's the teacher's role, is to not be invested and still do the
new stuff, like take a bath and pet people and say, I knew the answer to that question
once but I forgot, yes?
The teacher was taking a bath, splish splash, he was taking a bath, long about a Thursday
night, yes?
So he was not invested and he was also not vested.
He was not invested and he was not vested.
Yeah, he was not vested.
Well, I don't know, he might have worn some clothes into the bath.
I was just very struck by that image in terms of what you were saying earlier about vulnerability
and perhaps the state of being as a teacher and how the teacher could be that vulnerable.
I can't really think of a more vulnerable moment of bathing and being helped in that
moment.
And I just thought of my grandson.
He performed his service and while he was performing he was very vulnerable.
That's why he doesn't usually perform it.
But somehow the conditions were such that he performed his service, he was very vulnerable,
and yeah, that was great that he was so vulnerable, telling me about this work that he was doing.
And he doesn't usually want to be there, which is understandable.
He hasn't taken me on as his teacher.
And I wasn't his teacher in that situation either, but the people who he does accept
as his teachers, I don't know what the word is, but anyway, they supported him to perform
this service to his grandparent.
And he was so vulnerable and so, you know, he was so naked, it was amazing.
So he was doing that.
But you're in a position with your kids of being the teacher, so it's a little harder
for you to tell them to be vulnerable with you.
But if you gave them some assignment with their grandparents, you could support them
to do that for their grandparents.
Yes?
I wrote down vulnerability as like the silk, and power as the iron, and this non-separation,
like we're all vulnerable, teacher's vulnerable, student is vulnerable, and maturing is our
relationship for how we stand in relationship to our vulnerability.
And strength.
And strength, yeah.
Actually, there is no separation in our vulnerability, but how we process the relationship is how
we mature.
If I feel really scared or vulnerable on the inside, I might come out kind of fighting,
so we protect that.
Say again?
Yes.
If I feel really vulnerable on the inside, I might come out fighting, so that, or kind
of a shield.
Yeah, you might put iron around your vulnerability.
Iron around so that you can't get, you know, a cold heart.
So I think this way that we relate to our vulnerability and maturity, we all have that,
is part of the maturing.
Our maturing.
No safety, or lack of safety, or holes in the safety, is pretty much the same thing.
It's the same as vulnerability.
Vulnerability doesn't mean you're being hurt.
It means you can be hurt.
And I feel like this practice you've offered is welcoming, wherever it comes.
It's like the process of making a relationship to both being vulnerable, and I'm translating
it that way.
It's not exactly a translation.
That's the usual way we say things.
The practice is to welcome being vulnerable, to welcome everything, everything, and then
also everything.
That's the practice.
Basically the practice is welcoming.
And then that's the basic, then you move on to ethics, patience, enthusiasm, concentration
and wisdom.
But the basis is welcoming, learning anyway.
We don't always welcome, so then we have something to confess, I didn't welcome.
I wondered, I guess you said that the teacher wasn't invested?
No, I didn't say that.
What do you mean?
Vera said that.
Vera said that.
But I appreciate that she said that.
Yeah.
I welcome that she said that.
I underline that she said that.
I wonder if the student could not be invested, or if you have to go through a period of investment
and they're not invested.
Do you understand the process?
Apparently, yes.
Most people have gone through innumerable lifetimes of investment.
That's what it looks like.
I could be wrong, but I'm not invested in that story.
But it looks like most people have done a lot of investing, and now it's time to divest.
But, you know, lovingly, graciously, not in a rejection of our investments,
carefully give our investments away.
Convert all our investments into gifts.
Carefully, patiently, ethically, patiently, diligently, calmly, and wisely give all our investments,
which were originally could have been seen as gifts, but we didn't see it, so they look like investments.
They were actually gifts.
That was the dance.
But in our immaturity, we didn't get that, so now it's time to understand that.
And it's like, we can, we can do this.
We can do this.
We have the rest of our lives to learn this.
And that doesn't mean that that's the end of the story, but we have the rest of our lives to do it.
And then maybe we'll have more opportunities later to continue to learn to divest.
Yes?
All of this makes me think, all of this conversation makes me think, not feel,
my thick attachments to everything have a bundle of attachments, which of course bring a lot of pain.
And I think you might say it seems to do to be patient to your attachments.
Yes, I would say that.
Welcome them.
I would say, yeah, welcome.
So now you've noticed them, so now you can welcome them.
Welcome them, and be careful of them, and be patient with them.
Then you bring benefit to these attachments.
And the afflictions, well, they are afflictions.
Attachment is a basic form of affliction.
And so bring kindness to this affliction of attachment, and that would be beneficial.
And that will set the stage for meditation and wisdom to also work on the attachments.
But first of all, we have to benefit the attachments before we can effectively meditate on them.
I mean, benefiting them is a kind of meditation,
but we're not necessarily calm with them until we benefit them.
We have to be kind to them, and then we can calm down with them, and then see them clearly.
So the fact that you notice them, and can express that you see them,
sets up the opportunity for you to start acting beneficially towards them.
It seems that it's such a great affliction.
Pardon?
That attachment seems to me, as you said, such a great affliction.
Yes, it does seem that way.
And the patience and the welcoming and so on are insufficient.
They are insufficient, they're not enough.
However, they're necessary.
In order to do what's sufficient, you have to start by doing those things.
You first of all have to benefit these afflictions in order to do what is sufficient.
What is sufficient is wisdom.
Buddha's wisdom is sufficient.
When you have Buddha's wisdom, that will be sufficient.
Then you will not be fooled by attachment anymore.
That will be sufficient.
But to have that wisdom, we must first of all be very kind to the problem.
Or as somebody said, you have to love the world before you can save it.
You have to love your attachments before you can save them.
But loving them isn't enough.
You have to also see them for what they are.
When you see them for what they are, they're saved.
Without changing them at all, they're saved.
This story is very much a story about not changing anything.
A student was maybe looking for some changes
and the teacher was not really changing things much.
Was not reorganizing the setup.
The student, in some sense, almost was running the show.
Yes?
Yes?
Yes, Mary?
You're wondering if the student is fragile rather than the teacher?
Yes, I think the student is fragile.
The student is fragile.
I agree.
I wouldn't say rather than the teacher though.
I think the teacher should be somebody who's gotten used to being fragile
through many years of contemplation of being fragile.
Or through many years of contemplating,
avoiding being open to fragility
and led her to be able to actually then open to the fragility,
open to the vulnerability.
The teacher should encourage everybody to face how fragile we are.
But students are fragile even before they face it.
Again, my grandson, he doesn't usually like to admit that he's fragile.
Even when he's crying and wants to be with his mommy,
he doesn't quite admit he's fragile at that time.
Sometimes, like not too long ago, we were riding bicycles at Green Gulch
and I saw him approaching a speed bump.
And I said, slow down, there's a speed bump.
And he didn't slow down.
And then he fell off the bike.
And when he hit the ground, it wasn't so bad,
but then he kept going.
And then it started to get really painful.
And then he didn't admit that he was fragile.
He was very fragile, but he didn't admit it.
He said, I'm never going to ride a bike again.
And then when certain people tried to assist him, he said,
nobody's going to touch me.
It's my body, nobody can touch me.
So he manifested and demonstrated his fragility,
but he was not able to admit, oh, wow, I'm fragile.
And not only that, but I'm vulnerable to people helping me
to clean my scrapes and bruises.
And in my case, I recently sat in a group of priests.
I was talking, the topic of how long we're going to go on
with this came up.
And I said, well, as long as I can study like this with you,
I'm up for it.
If I can be of help in the study, I'd love to do this.
And if you want to do this with me,
I'll keep serving you in this way.
Afterwards, someone said,
well, I feel I'm kind of not so good about that.
Seems like you should stay beyond that
and let your dear students take care of you
when you're not able to do anything, really,
when you're not the teacher the way you used to be,
when you're just a ball of fragility and vulnerability.
Let them serve you in that state
when you don't even remember, what are we studying again?
What's the text?
By the way, that's one of the next stories I'm going to bring you.
What did you say?
I said, good point.
I was kind of like,
well, I'll be around as long as I can serve as a teacher,
but when I'm serving as a teacher
by basically just being this, you know,
actually not deteriorating,
but this thing that's changing in such a way
that he can't do any of his old services.
He can't perform any of his previous duties anymore.
But then I kind of feel like, well, I'll see you later.
I don't want to be here for when I'm, like,
not able to do any of the stuff I used to do.
I'm not much use to you then.
But this person said,
well, then you're offering yourself to be cared for,
and that's another service which you haven't been doing, maybe,
as much as you could do later.
I said, yeah, good point.
So not invested in which way you're going to be of service.
I'd like to be of service in this way
rather than a service this way.
When I'm of service this way, I'll just die.
But if I'm of service this way, I'll keep living.
But if this is the way I'm being of service,
I don't know if I really want to be of service in that way.
And then somebody says,
yeah, but that's just as good as the other one.
Good point.
Because I remember Suzuki Roshi, when he was dying,
first of all, he stopped giving talks,
stopped giving doksan,
but he still went to the zendo.
After a while, he couldn't go to the zendo.
After a while, we had to carry him to the zendo.
After a while, he couldn't go to the zendo,
couldn't go down the stairs.
But he was still there in the building, in the city center.
He was still there.
And he was just like, everything he did was like,
to me anyway, everything he did just went right into my,
you could say my heart, but it kind of went into my bones.
Everything he did was like such clear teaching.
I can see so clearly almost every moment that he was,
you know, while he was dying, it was so clear.
But he wasn't teaching in the ways he used to teach.
He was like teaching by wincing, you know,
when the incense cones got down to his skin,
you know, for the maksa bhajan, he was wincing.
That's the way he was teaching.
And that's not usually what we think of as the way of teaching.
And I also told you the story about this
quite, you could say, famous Zen master
who was the abbot of one of the biggest monasteries in Japan.
And then after he was abbot, he retired
and then he got what they call very old.
And I went to see him, you know, when he was in his 80s
and he was still this great calligrapher
and very light on his feet and very energetic.
And then I went to see him when he was very old.
And there he was, you know, his students put on his robes,
you know, and put him in a chair, fancy teacher's chair.
And then they invited some people like me to come and visit him.
And I came to visit him and then his student says,
Roshi, do you remember this man?
He's from San Francisco, remember?
Tenshin-san, he's visiting from San Francisco Zen Center.
And his eyes were just glazed and he was drooling.
And I saw no sign of him recognizing anything anybody said.
And I looked at him and I really thought,
what is a Zen master? Is this a Zen master?
Or was the guy who was like doing his calligraphy, you know,
was that a Zen master? Where's the Zen master?
When he was doing the calligraphy I kind of said,
well, there's a Zen master.
But I didn't really wonder what is the Zen master?
In some ways his teaching when he was doing other things
didn't really make me wonder what a Zen master was.
I just thought, well, you know, this is nice.
But when he was in that state I really wondered, what is it?
What is wisdom? What is compassion?
Is it gone now?
When you start drooling does the wisdom go away?
If you can recognize that it's Tuesday, is that wisdom?
And then if you can't...
So in some ways the most powerful teaching that he ever gave to me
was when he was in that state.
That's when he really made me wonder, what are we doing here?
Rather than, oh, that's what Zen masters are like.
And they often do have really nice calligraphy
and people pay a lot of money for their calligraphy
because they're Zen masters.
And if it's not very good calligraphy people say,
well, maybe he's not a good Zen master.
But at a certain point they say,
well, when the handwriting becomes really shaky
it's even more beautiful.
But what about when there's no handwriting anymore,
it's just drool marks?
You know.
Some big scroll, just a big drool mark.
People look at it, is that a Zen master there?
Is that Zen master drool?
Your dog is your dog even when they're old.
So this is a koan very much about what is a Zen master?
Are there guys that give these startling, amazing answers
that light the sky?
Well, sometimes, yeah.
Some of the stories are just dazzling.
But sometimes you don't see the dazzle.
But the dance is there.
And what is the dance?
What is the dance?
It must be there all the time.
Say again?
The dance may be a slow dance.
Slow dances are nice sometimes, right?
And tortoises go even slower than turtles.
Right?
Yeah.
So next week, looks like we're not going to be meeting here.
Hopefully we'll meet the next week.
And also I told you before that
there's a class here at the yoga room and other venues.
We're starting kind of a new type of study
which sort of starts with the study of the Buddhist teachings
of the unconscious mind.
And so they'll be offered at various venues,
but in particular we'll offer a class here at the yoga room.
The unconscious support of the mind of delusion.
So this is the beginning of, I think, a long study
of a text called The Summary of Mahayana,
The Summary of the Great Vehicle,
which is a study of the mind of delusion.
It starts with looking at the unconscious support
of the mind of delusion.
So keep tuned to your local information sources.
Yes?
Is there a Sanskrit or a Chinese name for that text?
The Sanskrit name is Mahayana Sangraha.
It's by the great ancestor Asanga.
And it's a commentary,
basically it's a commentary on the
Saṃdhinirmocana Sūtra.
And Donna Moyer and Linda Gagoza have a publishing business
and they're publishing a commentary
on the Saṃdhinirmocana Sūtra.
And then the Mahayana Sangraha is a commentary,
an ancient commentary on that Sūtra.
And so I'm turning towards that for a while.
And it seems to be going quite slowly,
so it'll probably be a while.
But I'm really...
I'm enthused about what a rich object
of contemplation it is.
So I just wanted to inform you of this direction.
And the publisher of the translation
will be very happy that I'm doing this.
The publisher of the translation of the Mahayana Sangraha,
which is, in English, a summary of the great vehicle.
But actually now I just might briefly mention
that the word that they translated as summary from Chinese
could also be translated as embrace and sustain,
or embraced and sustained.
So it could also be translated as
embraced by and embracing the great vehicle
through the study of these teachings of mind.
Thank you very much.
Thank you very much.