Well, as you... I think everybody knows, or most everyone knows. Can you hear me? As you know, our study is going to be on Kezon Zenji's Denko Roku, translated as transmission of light or transmitting the light. And this Xerox piece that I gave you is a fascicle from Dogen Zenji's Shobogenzo called Komyo. divine light, or sometimes translated as radiant light.

[01:04]

So when Kezan is talking about light, you can get some insight into where he's coming from through reading Dogen's physical gomyel. people a lot of people think that this is this use of the word light doesn't appear so much in Dogen but actually it appears quite a bit in Dogen and Dogen uses this term throughout the Shobu Genzo and it's very much a characteristic of his expression. And Ko'un Ejo, Dogen's major Dharma heir, also wrote a, according, we think that he wrote it anyway, nobody knows exactly who wrote what necessarily, always, but

[02:28]

attributed to Ko'un Ejo, a fascicle on komyo, which is quite lengthy, actually. And he also mentions Dogen's use of the term komyo. although it's a wonderful fascicle. We're not studying Dogen, we're studying Kezan. But this will give you some background for your study.

[03:30]

So there are two actually there are three translations of Denko Roku one by Thomas Cleary and the other one by Francis Cook and they both came out at the same time but there's an old one which is not complete by G.U. Kennett Roshi in Selling Water by the River retranslated as Zen is Eternal Life not retranslated, renamed by the publisher after it was published a second time the publisher decided to call it Zen is Eternal Life but her original title was Settling Water by the River publishers apparently do this anyway there is a partial translation of Benko Roku in that publication

[04:51]

probably not as accurate as these these two translations are by very good scholars so I don't care which translation you use they're both good and they're each one a little different so sometimes if you compare them you get some especially in certain places where there's some uncertainty it's good to compare and then you get some other angle on what the translator is trying to say because what we have here is the translator's understanding of what they're translating so Kezon Zenji was the fourth ancestor of the Japanese Sōtō school after Dōgen.

[05:52]

There's Dōgen, Kōun-eijo, Tetsugi-kai, and Keizan. And Dōgen was a kind of purist. And although Dōgen was interested in establishing Zen in Japan, And although his transmission and background of study in Zen was the Cao Dung school in China, or it's called Soto in Japan, he was not in a position to establish a large school. Dogen's function was to bring the teaching to Japan and to plant himself as the seed or root and to let someone else propagate the school.

[07:06]

And Dogen actually wasn't so interested in calling his practice the Soto As a matter of fact, Dogen was a little bit iconoclastic when it comes to divisions of teaching or calling, he was even skeptical of calling his teaching Zen. It was just Buddha Dharma and going beyond Buddha Dharma. And he criticized the use of the terms or the names of the five schools of Zen. And I don't know if he used the word Zen or not, but he did, of course. But in his own way. So anyway, Dogen was a very complex fellow.

[08:11]

And whatever he affirms, he also denies. and whatever he denies he also affirms so we have to understand Dogen's mind and not get caught by his affirmations and negations and it was Kazon who actually created the Soto School out of Dogen's material and propagated the teaching. And Kezan popularized Soto Zen and had disciples who he sent around the country to propagate Soto Zen and create monasteries and temples.

[09:13]

And he created many good temples and he also established Sojiji. Dogen's temple was Aheji. His monastery was Aheji and Kezan established Sojiji and Aheji and Sojiji have continued down as the two head temples. of the Soto school in Japan. So Dōgen is like the founder and Keizan is like the propagator. Sometimes Dōgen is called the father and Keizan is called the mother of Soto in Japan. And their styles are very different and their way of doing things is very different. Keizan was a very local person.

[10:14]

He stayed around the same place. He didn't cater to wealthy people or donors or the establishment. And he was, and Dugan didn't either, but he did have some people who were interested in him. And Kazan was a very talented person. But his style is very different than Dogen, as you can see when you read them. So Keizan's a little more straightforward. And his teacher was Tetsugikai. And Tetsugikai, after Dogen, died and Ko'onejo became his heir and took over the responsibilities of Aheji.

[11:23]

And then Tetsugikai became the abbot after Ajo. And there was a lot of dissension when Tetsugikai was abbot. there was something about Gikai that was divisive in the Sangha and that people formed sides some people wanted him to be there half the people wanted him to be there and the other half didn't and there's some controversy nobody knows exactly what Gikai did that was wrong or that caused divisiveness once a Japanese monk told me that he thought that Hikai was kind of manipulative and kind of catered to donors maybe and was a little bit loose in his living.

[12:31]

And the people that were very strict didn't like him so much. So eventually Gikai was ousted as abbot, I think when he was 70 years old. Couldn't have been too loose a lizard, had it? And he established his own temple. And Kezan followed him because Kezan was his student. And they practiced together at Tetsugikai's temple. And then Kezan became the abbot of that temple. And then he established his own temple, Sojiji, which was moved eventually, but to Kamakura. And, I think Kamakura. Yokohama, right, to Yokohama. And that became the other head temple of the Soto school.

[13:38]

And so this history you can read in the, if you have a book, you can read the history in the introduction. So I don't want to talk too much about that. I have asked people to buy the book. This one is $14.95. And if you're going to study Zen for a while, it's good to build up a little bit of a library. So taking a class is a good way to help build a library of books that you will always use. So instead of making a lot of Xerox copies, which would cost somebody a lot of money, I would rather that you buy a book for 15 bucks.

[15:01]

And if you can't... Besides infringing on the copyright. Huh? Besides infringing on the copyright. Yeah, besides infringing on the copyright. And if you can't afford to do that, we have copies in the library. reading room. And if that doesn't do it, then you can borrow somebody else's because they won't be reading it all the time. Anyway, that's the way I want to do it this time. So we're not making Xerox copies. We're asking you to get a book or read a book. And read the introduction because the introduction is very informative. This is a gift of the... It's an advanced, uncorrected, page-proof copy that I got from the publisher. So I don't know how much this one costs, but it's probably the same.

[16:03]

This is Clery's. And Clery counts 53 ancestors. They call them patriarchs. We call them ancestors because it's non-sexist. Actually ancestor is the right term. Patriarch is not necessarily the right term. Ancestor is correct, correct term. So we count, he counts 53 including Shakyamuni Buddha. And Cook counts 52 plus Buddha. So he doesn't count Buddha as a patriarch. So, these are all disciples of Buddha, and Buddha's outside of the account, somehow. Yes? A question about the transition from teachers to students.

[17:10]

A list of patriarchs or ancestors came into existence I'll get to that. That's a good question because you anticipated what I was going to talk about. So, yeah. Another mention about the numbers. I noticed in Cleary's introduction, oh, I'm sorry, in Shilpa Genzo, Bill Gen 6, Dogen what? Dogen speaks of the six Buddhas before Buddha. Oh, yeah. And we say seven in our Bodhisattva Paramount. That's right, we do. So it really means the seven Buddhas and then the Buddhas before Buddha. So it's all kind of put into one piece. It's called the seven Buddhas before Buddha. Get it? Yeah. So it's a little bit mind-boggling. I don't know why we haven't corrected anything to that.

[18:15]

But I think it should be somehow corrected, because it's saying two things at once. It's saying there's seven Buddhas, and then it's saying the Buddhas before Buddha. But they're actually six before Shakyamuni. Seven, including Shakyamuni. So the way Kezan has written this, he started it apparently when if indeed Kazon wrote it. There's some question, but we go on the assumption that this is Kazon's record. And Kazon wrote it, started writing it while he was still with Gikai. And in this particular fascicle, according to the way it's translated by Cook, at the end he mentions Gikai. Anyway, There's several reasons why something like this is written.

[19:21]

Dogen came back from China with a new school. There was a little bit of Rinzai Zen in Japan, but it was not, it was associated, it was not completely Zen. I mean, there are other practices as well. And Dogen established really the first true Zen school in Japan, except for Eisai established the Rinzai school. And Dogen studied with him for a little bit, I think. And of course, his disciple Myozen went to China with Dogen. But Dogen established the first completely Zen school. without any pure Zen, even though he didn't believe that there was a school. And so he had to prove some authenticity.

[20:29]

And the way you prove authenticity in Zen is through the lineage, to have a family line. And especially in China, family line is very important. Chinese are very family oriented and they have big families and you have a family name. And family you belong to is very important. Also in Japan. So probably family lines didn't exist in the same way in India. But when Buddhism came to Japan, that became very important. And tracing your lineage back to Shakyamuni. So whether or not the ancestors lined up in the way that they did, you know, nobody believes that that actually happened.

[21:33]

But it actually goes both ways. You know, you can say, well, so-and-so, you know, this came down from so-and-so and this one and this one and this one. or you can look back and you say these are the people who are in line with these are the ancestral line which we would like to see or which we feel is accurate not necessarily in a factual way but in a spiritual way so it's a spiritual lineage and they kind of put it in place and but both things are true and where there's a gap you kind of put it all together so in China they put these lineages together and so

[22:40]

Whether or not it's completely factual is one thing, and whether or not it's just spiritually and physically manipulated is another way. So of course it's spiritually and factually manipulated to be put together, which if you realize that, of helps you with your seeing where your affinities are so in China one teacher didn't have only one disciple in China one teacher would have many disciples but in each age there is someone who stands out someone who

[23:42]

carries the teaching forward and is the best exponent of the teaching and who makes it relevant for the time. And this person you call a great patriarch, a great ancestor, because they embody the teaching and they make it available and they express it in a way that's relevant for the time. And so these are the ancestors. And people try to line them up as well as they can. But that doesn't mean that there's only one. It looks like this one handed to that one, and that's all they were. Because each teacher had lots of different students, lots of transmitted students. But they're not mentioned here because this is magnified down or reduced down to a certain kind of line that has this specific purpose to show the lineage and how it's transmitted through these generations so it doesn't mean that that's the only one but it means that these are the outstanding

[25:13]

ones that have for their time. You know, there are probably other outstanding ones in those times too. If you look at the lineage charts, we can see how the outstanding disciples, many outstanding disciples in every age, in every generation, and who they are. This is singled out for a certain purpose. Before practice period, actually last year, I started talking about these cases and I did Shakyamuni Buddha, holds up a flower, that's the first one, and Mahakashapas, transmitting No, I just did that one.

[26:24]

So what did I do? Anyway, I did Shakyamuni. So that's why I don't want to do it again, even though it's the first one. Shakyamuni seeing the morning star and was enlightened and said, I and the Great Earth and being simultaneously achieve the way. That's the first one. The second one is... Shakyamuni transmitting to Mahakashampa holding up the flower those are the first two so the first one's not really a transmission it's Buddha's own transmission to himself actually and Buddha's own verification by the universe that's an interesting point Shakyamuni was verified by the universe's understanding. And then the stories go on to say how Shakyamuni verified Mahakashapa's understanding, and how Mahakashapa verified Ananda's understanding, and so forth.

[27:41]

But each one, even though each one is verified by someone else, They also have to be verified by themselves and by the universe. Because they're verified by the universe, someone else can verify them. So the way that Denko Roku is written, it's just written as kind of one piece. But the way it expresses itself is like a koan case. So Cleary translates it just as one piece of story, without any divisions. And Cook translates it by dividing it up into the main case, the circumstances, and

[28:47]

the taisho or commentary and then a verse just like a case in the booklet record and that makes it easier to kind of see what's going on and that is actually the way that it's written even though it's not divided that way on paper so each one of these is a kind of case and then um In the tesho, the case just expresses the meaning of the two and what they're saying to each other. Very short. Then the circumstances gives the background. And then the tesho is Kezon's commentary, where he doesn't try to explain it, but he gives you a way of looking at it. And then his verse at the end sums up the essence of what's going on.

[29:54]

Okay. So last time, or last Saturday, I talked about Mahakashapa and Ananda. So what I would like to do is, there are 52 or 53 of these, and we can't handle them all. Right, so maybe a dozen is as much as we can study. So a good many of them are Indian ancestors, and then there are the rest of Chinese, and then there are two Japanese. Two Japanese are Dogen and Ko'un. So I think make half of them Indian and half of them Chinese and then Ajo and then there's another factor the other factor is it's a little bit of dilemma as to which ones to choose right so there are the famous the famous ancestors like Bodhidharma and this Raitan Eno and

[31:15]

the most famous ancestors, which we read about a lot. So should we present them, or should we present the more obscure ancestors, which we don't know so much about? Actually, it's more interesting for the old people, the old-timers, to hear about the more obscure people. But so I've decided to kind of do a little bit of both. And so Ananda to Shonawashu. That's the next one, right? This is two people in a line. Mahagashapa, Ananda, and Sanavasa. And then Kambimara and Nagarjuna. These are people together. And then in China, Sagan... and Sekito, and Yunyan, and Tozan, and probably Ungo.

[32:23]

But I'm not fixed on this. And you don't have to worry about it. I'll just give you the next one after this class. That's all you have to worry about. But if you have any suggestions, if there's one that you would like to, one or two that you think you would like to study, you can tell me about it. I'm not fixed on this. And it's really hard to decide. Tonight we'll take up the case of Ananda and Sanavasa. Sanavasa is what we call Shonawashu when we do the lineage chant in the morning. It's just the Japanese. The Japanese pronunciation is Shonawashu, but in Indian language, Sanskrit, it's Shanavasa.

[33:27]

So I'm going to read out of Cook's translation because it's divided into sections, and also he has a lot of footnotes, which clearly doesn't have. Uh, so does everybody have something to read from? No. I would, I would suggest that if you look down with somebody, have some discussion. It's easy to just listen when I'm reading or commenting, but in order to have discussion, I think we have to have something to refer to.

[34:39]

Okay, I'll read it. The third ancestor, I'm going to say ancestor for Patriarch, the third ancestor was Shanavasa. He asked Ananda, what kind of thing is the original unborn nature of all things? Ananda pointed to a corner of Shanavasa's robe. Again, he asked, what kind of thing is the original nature of the Buddha's awakening? Ananda then grasped a corner of Shanavasa's robe and pulled it. At that time, Shanavasa was greatly awakened. So that's the koan, the case. I'll read it again. The third ancestor was Shanavasa.

[35:43]

He asked Ananda, what kind of thing is the original unborn nature of all things? Ananda pointed to a corner of Shanavasa's robe like this. He had his okesa pointed to the corner. And again he asked, What kind of thing is the original nature of the Buddha's awakening? Ananda then grasped a corner of Shandamasa's robe and pulled at it. At that time, Shandamasa was greatly awakened. So, do you have any questions about this? So he said, what kind of thing?

[37:04]

What is it? What kind of thing is, what is this? it as, what is the fundamental uncreated essence of all things? So that's another way. Don't get hung up on the words. What is the fundamental uncreated essence of all things? And Ananda pointed to the corner of Sanavasa's robe. And then, Sanavasa asked again, what is the basic essence of the enlightenment of the Buddha? So those are They seem like the same question, but they're not. The first one is pointing to one thing, and the second question is pointing to another thing, but they're related.

[38:05]

I wonder whether Anabha was surprised when I saw a lot of these questions. Yeah, we don't know that. So what do you think he means by what is the fundamental uncreated essence of all things? And he points to his oquesa. Points to the corner of his oquesa. He hasn't said both yet.

[39:09]

Okay. I don't know. There isn't both. No, there isn't. Well, no, but there's two things. One is when he points to it, he's saying, this is what it is, right? If somebody asks you a question and then they point to something, oh, that's what it is, right? It's the corner of the uncreated. fundamental essence of all things is right there, right? So that's very simple. He didn't say anything. He just said... It sounds like he's also bringing it to something that's more mundane than the question, that The question is talking sort of metaphysically. Well, we don't know that.

[40:11]

Well, this is just how it seems to me. Seems, yeah. It sounds like, I think there's some story where a student approaches the teacher and says, what is the Buddha mind? And the teacher says, have you eaten? And he says, what is the Buddha mind? Go eat. And it almost has that quality to it, that he's asking this great big profound question, and the teacher directs his consciousness to something immediate, something mundane. Yeah, something immediate. Every day. Right. Ordinary. Ordinary. Kazon, you know, was enlightened by the phrase, ordinary mind is the way. There's a koan. Ordinary mind is the way. conceptually this is fairly easy to grasp but it seems like the point is that there weren't any words spoken and that there was a larger thing that happened.

[41:18]

So how are we supposed to ascertain this? How are we supposed to have the same kind of experience by reading these things? Is that the idea? Are we supposed to intellectually understand what's going on? Intellectually, your mind is being prepared. This is like putting your mind in a certain mode. It's not like, you know, you could be enlightened by just reading this, but you won't be. Well, when you're enlightened you'll know. So let me continue.

[42:29]

So what is the fundamental uncreated essence of all things? And he points to the occasion, right? Then, Shana Vaso asked again, what is the basic essence of the enlightenment of the Buddhists? So how is that different? It's a strange thing, isn't it? It is. Enlightenment seems to have a special form of the self-dynamic feeling. That's right. It has that dynamic feeling, right? This has, the first one has the retiring feeling. Retiring, right? It's like, how do you get to the essence? And this other question is, what do you do with the essence? Right? It's like, how do you express it? What is the essence of the enlightenment of the Buddhists?

[43:34]

How do you express it? And he says, here, what kind of thing is the original nature of the Buddhist awakening? So it's like, the first question is like, what is the essence? And the second is like, what is the function? see it, and that's the way I would see it. He said, what is the essence? And he points. He says, what is the function? So, if you understand this, you have to be very sensitive. Shonawashi was very sensitive because it's not like he showed it to somebody whose mind wasn't prepared. Shonawashi's mind was prepared, so when Ananda pointed and pulled, he understood.

[44:44]

If Ananda had explained it to him, it wouldn't have meant the same thing. But because he demonstrated it in that way, It opened his mind. It's called pecking and tapping. You know, the chick, even though this doesn't really happen, usually, in eggs, you know, the baby bird is tapping from the inside and the mother bird taps from the outside. It's a very famous or well-known kind of analogy for the teacher and the student in this kind of circumstance. The student is pecking by asking the question, and the teacher pecking from the outside just at the right moment. And the shelf breaks open.

[45:47]

This is a good example of pecking and tapping. Tapping, pecking and response. So here are the circumstances of the case. The master, who is Shonawashu, Shonavasa, was a man of Mathura. In India, he was called Shanaka, Shanakavasa, which here in Japan means natural rope. Drifted down. Remember that? Anyway, he was called natural, Shonavasa means natural clothing. So, Shanavasa was born wearing clothes. Now, who believes that? But it's true, everybody's born wearing clothes.

[46:52]

And later the clothes became cool in summer and warm in winter. When he aroused the thought of enlightenment and made his home departure, his lay person's clothes were spontaneously transformed into monk's clothes. Just like an incident recounted concerning the nun lotus color. I don't know anything about her. And nobody else apparently does either. During the Buddha's lifetime... Okay, yeah. She was known as lotus color during the Buddha's lifetime. When he was a merchant long, long ago in previous lifetimes, he presented 100 lengths of woolen cloth to 100 Buddhas. Since then, as a result of his acts, he wore this natural clothing over many lifetimes. The time between when people die and are reborn is called the intermediate period.

[48:00]

This is called... Often this is... characterized as 49 days of the bardo in Tibetan lore during which time the one who not the soul because there is no soul in Buddhism but the energy the conscious energy seeks another rebirth, seeks new parents. This is the Buddhist lore. During that time, they have absolutely no clothes, much less a body. In the present case of Shanavasa, he wore clothes even during the intermediate period. This is even more fantastic.

[49:06]

I mean, I can give some kind of a warning sense, but what do they mean about him not wearing clothes in each room? Well, you know, when he aroused the thought of enlightenment and made his home departure, his layman's clothes were spontaneously transformed into monk's clothes. What do you think of that? That's not so hard to understand, is it? It's like Monokastia was a woman. Nanda. All his hair fell out. That was Monokastia. All his hair fell out, yeah. All his hair fell out. He was immediately gone. Yeah. I remember when I used to go to Zazen. When I used to go to Zazen over at Sokoji, you know. I used to wear this sweater.

[50:08]

And I wore this sweater every day for about two years. And so, you know, Suzuki Roshi saw me in this sweater every day for two years. And every time I came to Zazen, I'd have it on, you know. And he said, this is your robe. So that's one incident, incidentally. So there are many ways, you know, this can be construed. There are many ways to talk about past lives. So anyway, also, the Indians have this kind of mythology. He didn't make this up. He made some of it up, but he used it for his own purpose. But these stories are all come from India, the Indian ancestor stories, or at least they come from China.

[51:10]

And if you read the Vajrabodhisi, the Vajrabodhisi is a publication from the Gold Mountain, what? Gold Mountain Monastery, which is a Chinese based or Chinese influenced Buddhist group, which is now in Talmadge, the city of 10,000 Buddhas, for years and years, every one of their publications, they have a story of one of the ancestors, of which there are hundreds. And these are just ancient stories, the ancient lineage stories. And so Kezon, is basing his interpretation on these already existing stories. He's not making the story up.

[52:14]

He makes up a little bit sometimes. Or he kind of screws around with it. But it's not his invention. This is the ancient mythology of Buddhism. It's mythology. It's so old that it's mythology. Could the reference to clothes mean that You know, they say when you're enlightened, you remember all your past lives. So, if he was going from one past life to another, but he retained his clothes, then, you know, he didn't lose his identity. It's like a feeling, I guess, that you lose your identity, and you don't remember it when you reborn, so you keep making the same mistakes. I think that's a good, uh, uh, smack at it. You can also say it's his unborn nature, his blue nature. Yeah. Yeah.

[53:19]

So you can see that there are—it's nice to think about it. Oh, I see. I don't think he's trying to make something in the name. The name is there. Yeah, but there's one meaning of the name apparently is natural clothing. Another meaning of the name is this grass called non-brite splendor. Well, these are the circumstances. I don't think he's making up the circumstances. I think Kezon's contribution is in the Tesham. Kezon's contribution is in explaining it. Not explaining it, but talking about it. So he's not really talking about it yet.

[54:21]

He's just presenting the circumstances. He's just presenting the various interpretations of Shana Vata's name. Yeah. So, also in India... Shanavasa is the name of a grass called nine branched splendor. When a saintly person is born, this grass grows on pure ground. A lot of time, they try to show that this person has some destiny. That's often the case. In order to make the person seem splendid, and developed, there's some kind of auspicious sign that shows this. So they're always trying to point out an auspicious sign. So the auspicious sign is the nine branches splendor plant. When the saintly person is born, this grass grows on pure ground.

[55:22]

This grass grew when Shanavasa was born, hence his name. He was born after being carried in the womb for six years. But that's not so great. That's not so surprising. Because Lao Tzu was carried around for 60 years. Lao Tzu. He was carried in the world for 60 years. Yeah, Lao Tzu. Well, this kind of thing is a little exaggeration to show that by the time he was born, he was already highly developed. In ancient times, the world-honored one pointed to a lush, verdant forest and told Ananda, this grove is called Urumanda.

[56:28]

And a hundred years after my death, there will be a monk named Shanavasa, and he will turn the wheel of the wondrous Dharma here. The master was born here after a hundred years, and later he received the venerable Ananda's transmission and stayed here at this grove. He turned the wheel of the Dharma and vanquished the fire dragon, and the dragon submitted to him and presented him with the grove. Truly, this is all in accordance with the world honored one's predictions. So if you read the Lotus Sutra, there's quite a chapter on predictions of Buddhahood, where the Buddha predicts the future realization of Buddhahood of various characters that appear in the Sutra. And prediction of Buddhahood is something that's bound up with the mythology of ancient Buddhism.

[57:31]

Yes? Master Kaza, is he taking the circumstances from other... Yeah, the circumstances is the old story. It's the old story. Right. And as it gets into the Chinese cases, it becomes less phantasmagorical. become much more plain and simple. The Indians are very much prone to this kind of presentation. They invented zero. They have numbers that are bigger than anyone can possibly read. So they're prone to florid kind of depictions. Yeah, a little bit of an interesting chronology is the Buddha told Ananda, a hundred years after I die, you know, this guy's going to be born, and then Ananda's still around to be his teacher.

[58:41]

Yeah. They move time around. It's a stage. In other words, it's just like, you know, they put on their masks and they have this stage, and they play out these plays in a kind of something is communicated through these plays. So now, we haven't gotten to Tesho yet. We're still in the story. So the Venerable Shanavasa was originally a wizard who lived in the Himalaya mountains. He joined with the Venerable Ananda And so we have this story. This. And so this goes back to the original case. We have this story, which is Ananda asked when he met him, what kind of thing is the original unborn nature of all things?

[59:50]

So he was still a wizard when he asked this question. But the case just presents what they say. And then comes the circumstances, and then the circumstances go around to presenting the case. It's very nice, you know. First you hear the story and say, what's that about? And then you hear the circumstances, and the circumstances end up with the story, with the case. So, the Venerable Shanavasa was originally a wizard who lived in the Himalaya Mountains. He joined with the Venerable Ananda, and so he had this story. This what kind of thing is the original unborn nature of all things? That's the original case. It's truly a question no one had ever asked. Shanavasa alone asked it. There is no one who is not born with this original unborn nature of all things, but no one knows it and no one asks about it. That's the point.

[60:50]

That's the point of the story. Why is it called unborn nature? Even though the myriad things are born from it, this nature is not something which is born. So it is called unborn nature. It is wholly the original unborn. Mountains are not mountains and rivers are not rivers. Therefore, Ananda pointed to a corner of Shanavasa's rope. I don't get it which is okay because it's a kind of deep koan and if you got it I'd be surprised so here is Kezan's tesho so he talks about what's the meaning of robe he says kesa that is in Sanskrit kashaya the monk's robe

[61:57]

It's a big robe. This is a, raksu is a small kashaya, is an Indian word and means spoiled color or unborn color. Truly you should not see it as a color. One way to see it is the color of the mind and body and external environment of all things. From Buddhas above, the ants, mosquitoes, and horses flies below. However, they are not formed in color. Therefore, there are no three realms to live and no fruit of the way to acquire. That means some explanation. But he says, the Muxro, or Akesa, is an Indian word, and it means spoiled color, unborn color. And, you know, the Japanese wear black. They also wear brown, but the monks wear black robes.

[63:03]

But black is not the right color, according to this understanding. Actually, according to the traditional length of the robe, it's not a pure black, I think. We'll just have you try to dye something not quite black, almost black, so it's not really black. Right. So it's kind of a gunmetal color. A little blue, black, red, reddish, so that you can't say what color it is. You know? If you've ever seen somebody make a mess, you know, try to mix colors, you know, and then they squish it around and it makes a kind of brownish, reddish mess. That's the color, something like that. It's not a special color. But, of course, there are robes that are special colors.

[64:07]

And in Buddha's time, really, the robes were saffron. So the Chinese and Japanese have their own understanding, which is this. And possibly in India, too. it's spoiled color, you know, not a true color, and not an unborn color, a color that's not a color. And truly, you should not see it as a color. One way to see it as the color of the, one way to see it is as color of the mind and body and external environment of all things. In other words, none of us are true color either. In other words, each aspect of the unborn nature, which is called you and me, is also not a true color.

[65:11]

In other words, it doesn't exist by itself. It doesn't exist as its own being. See it is as the color of the mind and body, an external environment of all things, from Buddhas above to the ants and mosquitoes and horseflies below. However, they are not form and color. Form and color is a metaphor that's always used to mean existence, to mean it exists in a certain way. Therefore, there are no three realms to leave and no fruit of the way to acquire. Three realms are the realm of form, the formless, and the realm of what? The desire realm.

[66:20]

Desire, form, and no form are the three realms of existence. And each of the realms, the desire realm is the lowest in the form realm and then the no form realm is most rare but all three are still subject to common and even though one is in the no form realm it's still not freedom are not form and color therefore there are no three realms to leave leaving the three realms is like getting out of karma there are no three realms to leave and no fruit of the way to acquire there's no place actually where they abide so

[67:26]

And though he understood this in this manner, Shanavasa asked a second time, what kind of thing is the original nature of the Buddha's awakening? Even though we are not confused in this manner from since ages ago, if we do not realize its existence, one time we will be vainly obstructed by our eyes. Therefore, Shanavasa asked like this in order to clarify the place whence Buddha's come. In order to let him know that Buddha's respond to calls and appear in accordance with knocking, Ananda showed him by grasping a corner of the room and tugging at it. At that time, then Shana Rasha was enlightened. He understood the first part. He understood that through the first question that Buddhas abide in the unborn nature.

[68:28]

But he didn't understand that the expression of that was to come forth and do something. This is kind of like one way to epitomize it is it's important to leave everything behind in order to really experience, your true nature, it's important to die to everything you know. But in order to come back to life, it has to be expressed in the realm of circumstances. and this is called Buddha responding to the circumstances so you can become Buddha by dropping body and mind but then you don't Buddha doesn't come to life until it's expressed by responding to circumstances maybe taking off another body and mind yeah

[69:53]

Like a hermit crab. Using any old shell will do. But dropping body and mind doesn't mean this, you know, doesn't mean to not have one. You reinvented in every surface. you're reinvented in every circumstance or re-established in every circumstance is this like you understand that the nature of wind is permanent yeah go ahead yeah that's good that refers to actualizing yourself you understand that's right you understand the nature of wind is permanent That's the first one. But you don't understand the meaning of its reaching everywhere.

[70:55]

Yeah, that's related to this. So, though he understands in this manner that the nature of weight is permanent. Shanavasa asked a second time, what kind of thing is the original nature of the Buddha's awakening? Even though we are not confused in this matter from since ages ago, in other words, this is obvious, If we do not realize existence one time, we will be vainly obstructed by our eyes. In other words, by what we see in front of us. We'll be confused by what we see in front of us. Therefore, Shanavasa asks like this in order to clarify the place whence Buddhas come. In order to let him know that Buddhas respond to calls and appear in accordance with knocking. Please help. Ananda showed him by grasping the corner of the robe and tugging it. That time, Shanavasa was greatly awakened.

[71:57]

Truly, though, we are not confused about this matter, since from ages ago, if we do not experience it one time, we will not realize that we are the mothers of the wisdom of all Buddhas. Prajnaparamita is called the mother of all Buddhas. have appeared in the world one after another and ancestral teachers have pointed it out generation after generation although one thing that is original nature is never given to another or received from another it should be like touching your own nostrils by searching your face oh yeah there it is although original nature is not something that somebody can give you or that you can give somebody else It's like, oh, there it is. The practice of Zen must be one's own practice of enlightenment. When you are enlightened, you should meet a person who is a true teacher.

[73:02]

To not meet a person, you will be like a bodiless spirit, vainly dependent on grasses and adhering to trees or kind of a ghost just kind of wandering around and not able to touch ground with anyone. is you have to be you know if you don't find a teacher or don't find a place to test out your understanding or develop your understanding with someone you'd be like kind of like a wandering spirit You should use this story to clarify the fact that you must not practice Zen aimlessly and spend your whole life in vain. Do not vainly express naturalistic views or put your own individual views first. Naturalistic views, I think, are like, do what comes natural, man.

[74:06]

Suzuki Roshi used to talk about the difference between Zen and naturalism. and naturalism. Yeah. You know, just kind of flowing with, or doing what you feel that comes naturally, or doing through impulse, acting out through impulse, naturalistic impulse. You may think the way of the Buddha ancestors distinguishes between individuals and capacities. You say, we are not up to it. Such a view is truly the stupidest of stupid views. Who among the ancients was not a body born of a mother and father? Who did not have feelings of love and affection or thoughts of fame and fortune? However, once they practiced Zen, they practiced thoroughly and achieved enlightenment from India to Japan. Throughout the different times of the true Dharma, counterfeit Dharma and collapsed Dharma, those are the three times. You know about the three times. Most people do, but I'll explain it a little bit. During, at some point,

[75:14]

after Buddha's time, or they say Buddha predicted that. The first 500 years of Buddha was the time of the true Dharma. The second 500 years was, what does he say? How does he express it? Counterfeit. Counterfeit. Yeah, counterfeit is like, thinking you're doing it, but you're not. And the third 500 years was the time of Ma Po, or the end of the, nobody could practice at that time. And then, that was about the time of Dogen, it was 1500, the end of the 1500 year period. And people really believed that, a lot of people. Except Dogen didn't, of course. He said Baloney. But there were people that did. And Nichiren, and that there was no need to practice because practice, nobody can really do practice in this last period.

[76:23]

And so Honan and his disciple, Shinran, practiced just chanting the name of Buddha because you figure, well, there's no way that anybody can really practice in this time. So just chant the name of Buddha and rely on Buddha's mercy. But Dogen plowed through. Throughout the different times, the true Dharma, the counterfeit Dharma, and collapsed Dharma, enough holy and wise men to overflow the mountains and oceans have realized the result of enlightenment. Thus you monks who possess sight and hearing are no different from the ancients. Wherever you go, it can be said that you are this complete person and you are Kashyapa and Amanda. You are no different than they are. There is no difference in the four great elements and the five aggregates.

[77:26]

So how are you different from the ancients as far as the way is concerned? As a result of, I would say merely as a result of not penetrating this principle and making an effort in the way, You will not only lose your human body, which is hard to obtain, but you will not realize that it is the expression of the self. In other words, here, this human body and mind is the expression of the light or Buddha nature. Realizing in this way that one should not be negligent, Ananda again took Krishyatta as his teacher. And Ananda also accepted Shanavasa as his student. Thus, the way of teacher and disciple was transmitted. The treasury of the eye of the true Dharma and wondrous mind of Nirvana, which has come down to us in this way, is not different from when the Buddha was alive. Therefore, do not grieve because you were not born in the land where the Buddha was born, and don't regret not living in the time when the Buddha was alive.

[78:29]

In ancient times, you planted the fruits of good abundantly, and you deeply created auspicious conditions for acquiring prajna." So in ancient times, you know, You created auspicious conditions. Ancient times can mean anything. It can mean since you were two years old. That's ancient times. Or it can mean past lifetimes. It can mean anything you want to mean. But in the past, it means you created the conditions for where you are now. You set up the auspicious conditions for acquiring prajna. As a result, you are now assembled here at Daijo Monastery. Truly, So he's talking to these monks, right? And he's giving them a little propaganda. Truly, it is as if you were shoulder to shoulder with kashapa and knee to knee with ananda. Thus, while we are host and guest for this one time, in later lives, you will be Buddhist ancestors. Host and guest means teacher and student.

[79:29]

In other words, now I'm your teacher and you're my student. Next lifetime, you'll be my teacher and I'll be your student. That's the Suzuki Roshi to say. For this time, I'm your teacher and you're my student, so you act like the student and I'll act like the teacher. Next time, you can be the teacher and I'll be the student. Do not get blocked by feelings about past and present, and do not get attached to sounds and forms. Do not spend your days and nights in vain, carefully make an effort in the way, arrive at the ancient's ultimate realm and receive the authenticated seal and prediction to Buddhahood. That's like, you know, receiving the encouragement of your teacher. And so he says here, and receive the authenticated seal and prediction to Buddhahood of the present master of Daijoji, Tetsukigai, my teacher.

[80:31]

Clearly he doesn't translate that part. about the present master of Daijoji, Tetsugikai. But apparently, it's in the text, so it must be there. So I would like to clarify this story with a humble verse. Would you like to hear it? This is the clarification. sourceless stream from a 10,000-foot cliff, washing out stones, scattering clouds, gushing forth, brushing away the snow, making the flowers fly wildly, a length of pure white silk beyond the dust. Beautiful poem, but I won't explain it. So next time... study Kabimara.

[81:46]

Where is Kabimara? Remember. Kabimara comes just before Nagarjuna. Kabimara was Nagarjuna's teacher. And Nagarjuna, of course, is very famous. Nagarjuna? Kabimala. Number 13. The 13th ancestor was Kampimala, or Kambimara, as we say. And the next one is Nagyaarjuna, number 14. So you can read both of those. But Kampimara, 13th Kampimala, the 13th ancestor. I'm finished on time too.

[82:52]

Do you have any questions? Yes? No, because soul is like... the individual piece that soul is usually described as some indestructible bit of a person that embodies that inhabits the body and mind and then the body and mind fall away but this piece is indestructible and another body and mind form around it And it's also like a spark, you know, from big game.

[83:55]

But it's a different concept than Buddhism. Superficially, you know, if you look at it, can construe it that way. What? What? There's nothing personal about the nature. Personal? Nothing personal? Well, it's both personal and impersonal. When it's personal, when it's personified as a person, then it's personal. So the most personal thing is Buddha nature, yet it's completely impersonal. Buddha nature cannot be described it can only be expressed and so it's expressed as this person but this person doesn't have a there's nothing permanent about this person at all not even that little bit of soul so what apparently

[85:15]

continues is reborn is called energy action influence it's not a thing it's called action influence and this action influence keeps perpetuating itself in some way through being reborn It's like two flames. It's like a candle, you know. When you light one candle with another, one flame with another, is it the same or different? Is the light the same or different? Is it the same light or a different light? Well, it's the same and it's different. There's no way you can pin it down to being the same. Because fire is flame.

[86:16]

this action influence energetic action influence keeps transforming itself it's like nothing no action is lost actually the effect of an action is not lost it continues to create more action influence I don't know. I'm going to tell you what I heard. But, I mean, we could talk about it, but not now.

[87:12]

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