The point of studying these old stories, or at least one point, is that in many ways they serve as Zazen instructions, as guidance to inform our Zazen. The story I talked about yesterday from Zhaozhou. The monk asked Zhaozhou, I've entered the monastery, please give me some guidance. Zhaozhou said, have you had breakfast yet? The monk said, yes, I've eaten. Zhaozhou said, please go wash your bowl. This story is very simple and also works on many levels. What I want to point out

[01:03]

to start with this morning, is in Hong Xiu's commentary, well, this one line, opened up, the mind ground meets of itself. So as we sit, how does the mind ground meet of itself? It's not that we can find... It's not that we can meet the mind ground. It's not that we can open up the mind ground. But what is the mind ground meets of itself? How does that feel? What is that like? When we have nourished ourselves

[02:10]

in this practice, period after period, opened up the mind ground meets of itself. And then this commentary from one song about this, about Lin Yun awakening to the way upon seeing peach blossoms and his teacher Guishan saying, those who enter by way of conditions never regress. So as we sit, what does it mean to enter by way of conditions? What are the conditions as you take the next breath or the next exhale as you sit in satsang? Or as you take the next spoonful of the first bowl? Or use your chopsticks in the second pole. Or as you get up to do walking meditation, what are these conditions?

[03:22]

Where is the mind ground meeting of itself? How does it open up? And of course, Swamsara said, Lingen's quite correct, but I dare say the old brother's not through yet. So this is background for the next story I want to talk about. It's case 47 in the book of strategy. Very famous story. Also a very simple story. Also a very good story. And so I'm going to be coming back to all of his stories through this machine. But the basic story, Yamaungas Gyajo, well, clearly his translation is, what is the living meaning of Chan Buddhism?

[04:26]

Actually, what he said was, What is the meaning or what is the intention? What is the mind? We can say, what is the purpose? Yi in Chinese. What is the point of the ancestral teacher coming from the West? So this refers to the founding teacher, the Bodhidharma. So here it's right. This comes down to what is the living meaning of Chan Buddhism. But literally, it's what is the meaning of, what is the point of, why did Bodhidharma bother coming from the West? So this is a kind of standard rhetorical question in a lot of these stories. When did this old Indian teacher bother going to China?

[05:29]

And so this is a question that's asked many, many times, and there are many, many stories about lots of different answers that were given by many, many teachers in response to this particular question. Why did Bodhidharma bother coming from the West? What was the point of his coming from the West? In one place, Hongju says, he just came to create less of confusion. What is the living meaning of Zen? What is the living meaning of the Buddha way? Why did Suzuki Roshi bother coming? What's the point of Suzuki Roshi coming from the West? We could say. Anyway, in this story, Jao Zhou said, the cypress tree in the yard.

[06:33]

So that's the whole case. Monk asked Jao Zhou, what is the meaning, what was the point of the ancestral teacher Bodhidharma coming from the West? And Jao Zhou said, the cypress tree in the garden. It clearly translates to this in the yard. I think literally it says, yeah, in the garden. And as I mentioned yesterday, I visited The first summer I was living in Chicago, I went to China and was at Zhaozhou's temple. Now this big thriving monastery with lots more monks than there were in Zhaozhou's day. And there's a whole grove of cypress trees and supposedly descended from that cypress tree. But I imagine that Zhaozhou was sitting in a hall like this and there was a, you know,

[07:40]

Ah, sliding door or something, I don't know what the architecture was back in Tang China exactly, but he looked out and saw a cypress tree, and said, oh, a cypress tree in the garden. So that's the story. What was the point of Bodhidharma coming from the West? The cypress tree in the garden. Actually, the full story So that's the part of the story, often in the Koan collections, in the Book of Serenity and the Blueprint Record and the Mumonkan and all of them. There were many, many, many other collections. Those are the three that are the most best known nowadays, but there were many of them. The full story. the longer version of the story from Jayaja's record.

[08:46]

The monk asked Jayaja once, what is the meaning of the ancestral teacher, Bodhidharma, coming from the West, the cypress tree in the garden? Then the monk said, Master, please do not use objects to guide people. And Jayaja said, I'm not using objects to guide people. The monk Then Maitreya again asked, what is the meaning of the ancestral teacher coming from the West? And Jajo said, the cypress tree here in the garden. So there's this issue here about objects, about what our relationship is to so-called objects. And this monk wouldn't let Jajo off so easy. The cypress tree? What are you talking about? That's the point of our sitting for five days. That's the point of our practicing for years, the cypress tree. Just a footnote, sometimes you'll see this case written as the oak tree.

[09:58]

That's because of the Japanese translation of the characters, but it was actually a cypress tree. Anyway, it doesn't matter. He might have said, the cushion's in the corner. We don't have a window to look outside, but it doesn't matter. So with Wansum's commentary begins, when I went to Greyshawn, a monk asked what the living meaning of Shaan is or what I do. The ancestral teacher Bodhidharma comes from the West, and Greyshawn asks him to bring a seat. If one would be a real teacher of the Source, one must use the basic thing to deal with people. So, you know, that's a pretty good answer. Somebody says, what's the point of our practice? Please bring a cushion.

[10:59]

Have a seat. Well, we could just say, please go sit. And then the commentary goes on to repeat this full story. A monk asked Jaoja the living meaning of Chan, and Jaoja said, the sacristy and the art. The monk said, teacher, don't use an object to guide people. And Jaoja said, I'm not using an object to guide anyone. The monk said, then what's the meaning of Chan Buddhism? And Jaoja said, the sacristy and the art. Later, Chan master Huizhou, who was a disciple, a successor of Zhaozhou, even though his lineage didn't last very long, he did have some successors. He went to Faoyan's place. Faoyan was another great master in the Tang period, founder of one of the other five schools.

[12:04]

And Faoyan asked Huizhou, where have you recently come from? And Huizhou said, from Zhaozhou. And Fahyun said, oh, I hear Jaojo has a saying, the cypress tree in the yard, is it so? And Weijiao said, no. Fahyun said, everyone who's been around says a monk asked him about the meaning of the Chan, or why the Bodhidharma came from the West. And Jaojo said, the cypress tree in the yard. How can you say no? Weijiao said, your late master really didn't say this. Please don't slander him. Wansong comments everywhere Huizhao was called Iron-Beak Zhao. And it doesn't say it in this case, but Fa Yang's response was, the true child of a lion gives a good lion's roar in response to Huizhao. And Wansong's commentary

[13:08]

refers to another master, Shengma, who said that this story of the cypress tree clears away intellectual views. So it's a good story. And Shengma went on to say the three mysteries and the five rants are all within it. Oh well. So there's other comments here, but I want to go back to the introduction to the story from Wang Tsong. The cypress tree in the yard, the wind-blown flag on the pole. It's like one flower bespeaking a boundless spring, like one drop telling of the water of the ocean. The ancient Buddhas born periodically go far beyond the ordinary current, not falling into words and thought.

[14:16]

How can you understand verbally? So, again, this is very simple, but this is worth sitting with. What was the point of You know, this, a Bodhidharma going from India to China. And for us, we could ask, you know, here we are sitting in Chicago, what's the point of Suzuki Roshi or D.T. Suzuki for that matter, or all of those exotic Eastern Buddhists and other figures coming here? from the West to this West. Well, please sit with us. But again, here's Jaojo's.

[15:18]

It's a great masterpiece. There's a cypress tree in here. And apparently at Jaojo's temple now, they sort of made a fetish of cypress trees, and they have this whole grove, and you know, and that's not the point. But you know, cypress trees are neat. And nearby, not so nearby, but not so far, there's Kongshan Temple, which is in northern China. This is a temple where Bodhidharma actually taught, which I visited on the same tour. Went on to Shaolin, but at Kongshan Temple, which they're rebuilding, this is the temple where Bodhidharma left his slippers. Do you know that story? After he sat in the cave in Shaolin for nine years or whatever, and the cave is still there, you can still see it, but he went and taught at Kongshan Temple, and then at some point, anyway, there's all these stories about Bodhidharma,

[16:23]

I think recently academic scholars thought there was no Bodhidharma, but I think it's been verified recently that Bodhidharma actually did exist. There's physical proof of it. But at Kongshan Temple, well there's all kinds of stories about Bodhidharma that we obviously are legendary. Like he cut off his, he was sitting up in his, you know, sitting up so as to not fall asleep, and I don't recommend you try this if you're feeling sleepy, but he cut off his eyelids and threw them on the ground and said that out of his eyelids, tea grew, and that's where we have tea from. You're welcome to drink some tea, but anyway. But the story is that he at some point went back to There were all these other old Indian masters who tried to poison him because they didn't like it that he was talking about, just pointed to Maidongli, and forget about all these wonderful old texts, and just sit, and all these kinds of Chan postgraduate teachings.

[17:39]

Anyway, so he vanished, but then somebody came from the west, I guess from the Silk Road, I don't know, and said they saw him. Oh, he didn't die. They saw him. They went to look in the coffin that they left at Kongshan Temple. I may be getting the story a little bit. No, I think that's it. Oh, they said that he was walking, the person who saw him walking west said he was barefoot except he was carrying a pole with one sandal on it. So they went to his coffin at Gongshan Temple and that's where they opened the coffin and found just one sandal on his body. Anyway, so there's all these legends and you know, we don't know. Except that there apparently was a cypress tree at Jaojo's temple. Anyway, so I mention all this just because the actual story talks about Bodhidharma.

[18:43]

But the cypress tree in the yard, Jaojo says he's not using objects. So what is, when he, when Jaojo says, when Jaojo responds, the cypress tree in the garden, what is his relationship to the cypress tree? When you're sitting zazen, what is your relationship to the wall in front of you? What is your relationship to the cushion you're sitting on or the chair you're sitting on? So this is just one part of the story, but this issue of objects, you know, goes back to... You know, this question that comes up about seeing peach blossoms and entering by way of conditions. Was that cypress tree just a condition?

[19:48]

Well, of course the cypress tree was a condition, but how, what is our relationship to Or what is the world's relationship to Arzazan? So in Wansong's introduction, he says, the cypress tree in the yard, the wind blowing flag on the pole. So these commentaries have referred to all these stories as stories upon stories. That refers to a story about the sixth ancestor who was passing by some monks who were arguing about a banner on a pole that was flapping in the wind. And one said, it's the, I'm not going to get this exactly right, but it doesn't matter.

[20:51]

The one said, it's the banner moving. One said, it's the wind moving. And the sixth ancestor, Hui Neng, said, no, it's your mind that's moving. And so, what's going on when we're sitting in zazen? What's going on when the mind ground meets of itself? What is the living meaning? What is the point of Tsukiroshi coming from the West? I said, cypress tree. And judge's successor insisted no, he never said such a thing. So, you know, after

[22:04]

After sighting the cypress tree, did Zhao Zhou need to go washing? How do we take care of so-called things? Or maybe... I don't know. Anyway, it's... These are questions to inform our zazen, these stories. And, of course, and again, you know, feel free to just forget them completely and just sit and be present with the discomfort in your knee, or your back, or your butt, or the sounds, or the breathing, moving through your mind ground. So these stories are not great puzzles that you need to solve. They're just encouragements.

[23:07]

And yet, here we are studying 1,000 years later in this great teacher's response. So I have some comments from Dogen, and they're probably not going to help much, but... He refers to this story a few times. So he says, I remember a monk once asked Jaojo, what is the meaning of the ancestral teacher Bodhidharma coming from the West? And Jaojo said, the cypress tree here in the garden. The monk said, Master, do not use objects to guide people. Jaojo said, I'm not using objects to guide people. The monk again asked, what is the meaning of the ancestral teacher coming from the West? So this is a good monk, a good student. He persisted. Jaojo said, the cypress tree here in the garden. And Dogen says about this, students in recent times do not understand Zhaozhou's meaning, do not study Zhaozhou's words, so we should deeply pity them.

[24:20]

And Dogen is helpful with these stories because he talks about all the ways of misunderstanding it. So whatever you think you might be going on in the story, Dogen's going to cut through some of that. Someone claimed that Jato said the cypress tree in the garden before, and again said the cypress tree in the garden later, only in order to not allow the student to create any understanding. Another claimed that all words without exception expound Zen, so before and after he used the same phrase, cypress tree, as if he could have said anything. Such kinds of people, Dogen goes on, are as numerous as rice, sesame, bamboo, and reeds, and yet they try to affix their spring dreams or winter dreams, as the case may be, to Zhaozhou's words, but they cannot. Now suppose someone asks me, Dogen says, what is the meaning of the ancestral teacher coming from the West? I would say to him, crossing over the remote blue waves for three years.

[25:25]

So I don't know if it actually took three years back then to get from India to China. There were several routes. There was the Silk Road north of the northern route, and then there were people who came. And the story about Bodhidharma is that he came on the southern route over the ocean and came to South China first. Anyway, that's what Doga is. What is the meaning? What is the purpose? What is the meaning of the ancestral teacher coming from the West into a penitentiary? I would say, crossing over the remote blue waves for three years. It's just what he did. Maybe no meaning besides that. But he did that. Suppose this person responded, Master, do not use objects to guide people. Dogen says, I should say to him, I am not using objects to guide people.

[26:29]

Suppose he again asks, what is the master's expression that does not use objects to guide people? And then Dogen doesn't repeat himself. He says, I would say to him, and then he gets this verse, how could blinking the eye at vulture peak be a special occasion? Breaking into a smile has never ceased. Four or 5,000 willows and flowering trees along the street 20 or 30,000 musicians play strings and winds in the balconies. So Tolkien can get very poetic, but he's referring here to the story, of course an apocryphal story, that maybe you've heard, that Shakti Muni held up a flower at Vulture Peak. And Lanka shot the smile. And Shakyamuni said, Mahakasyapa has the two Dharma-I treasury of Nirvana.

[27:32]

And that was supposedly the first transmission of that. And in the lineage that we will chant later is the first ancestor in our lineage after Shakyamuni. Of course, that story is supposedly referring to Shakyamuni whenever it was 400 BC or 500 BC. There's actually recent questions about it, some recent archaeological dig that raises questions about what year that was anyway. But we know that that story about Mahakasyapa smiling in the flower at Vulture Peak doesn't appear anywhere until around 1100. So, you know, we have these stories and history isn't the point. Anyway, and maybe Dogen took these stories literally, it doesn't matter. He says, how could blinking the eyes at Vulture Peak be a special occasion? Breaking into a smile has never ceased.

[28:36]

So someone here broke into a smile. Four or five thousand willows and flowering trees along the street. Twenty or thirty thousand musicians play strings and winds in the balconies. And I think that refers to a story Dogen tells earlier too, but it doesn't matter. He's celebrating Zazen here. So, One question is, when we are sitting, when the mind ground opens with itself, is that using objects to guide people? Is that using objects to guide yourself? When Jaojo or Dogen or I say, please,

[29:42]

Continue sitting. Please enjoy your sitting. Enjoy your breath. Is that using objects? What is our relationship to conditions, to this world? Or what are the conditions' relationship to us? How does the mind ground open up itself? A cypress tree in the park. Another play, Stogen, gives three different verse commentaries to this story.

[30:48]

A monk once asked Jayaja, what is the meaning of the ancestral teacher, Bodhidharma, coming from the West? Jayaja said, the cypress tree in the garden. The monk said, Master, do not use objects to guide people. Jayaja said, I'm not using objects to guide people. The monk again asked, what is the meaning of the ancestral teacher coming from the West? And Jayaja said, the cypress tree in the garden. And Dogen has three different poems about this. And again, these aren't going to help, but I'll read them anyway. So the first one goes, the cypress tree without roots hangs in the empty sky. Is the ancestor's intention in coming from the West before or after? The ancient Buddha protects the stump when branches and leaves have fallen. On his behalf, this saying naturally appears. So I'll read that again.

[31:54]

The cypress tree without roots hangs in the empty sky. Is the ancestor's intention in coming from the West before or after? The ancient Buddha protects the stump and branches and leaves have fallen. On his behalf, the saying naturally appeared. So maybe this ancient Buddha is referring to Jaojo. and maybe protecting the stump. You know, one way to read this is, the branches and leaves have fallen. Zhao Zhou has no lineage, no branching streams, but the stump is there, sitting on our altar. On his behalf, the sinning naturally appeared. That's one kind of literal way of reading this, but I think there's more to it. And... How do we take care of this stump sitting on our cushions? The second verse, with what plan did he sit immovably as the years passed by?

[33:03]

Through snow and frost, a single bone is here in the garden. Jaoja does not speak the meaning of coming from the West. How could his ability in the ancient gnarled be on his own? With what plan, with what intention, did he sit immovably as the years passed by? Speaking of Bodhidharma. Through snow and frost, a single bone is here in the garden. Xiaoxiao does not speak the meaning of coming from the West. How could his ability in the ancient Nara be on his own? Dugan's third poem. A monk once asked Old Zhouzhou about the way. He only spoke of the cypress tree in the garden. Although his precise words are marvelous, still I regret the delay in arrival of the ancestral teacher's mind. That guy's pretty funny. A monk once asked Old Zhouzhou about the way.

[34:04]

He only spoke of the cypress tree in the garden. Although his precise words are marvelous, still I regret the delay in arrival of the ancestral teacher's mind. So, we're still sitting here wondering about all this. Why did we bother to come? Do you have something better to do? Is there somewhere else you'd rather be? Probably some of you are saying yes.

[35:05]

I want my mind to be on something else. We imagine there is something else. We do. We have to confess to ourselves that we think there's something else. We think there's somewhere else. We think there's someone else. We might even make up stories about somewhere else, or someone else, or somebody else we want to be, some better place that we could be on a Thursday morning in Chicago.

[36:07]

All kinds of wonderful things are happening out there. The cypress tree in the garden. So, there's more in the Book of Serenity commentary. I don't know if I should mention this. I don't want to give you too much and get indigestion. deal with this cypress tree, this old stump.

[37:09]

And we should remember that Zhao Zhou's successor said indignantly, the White Master really didn't say that. Please don't slander him. What was the point of Bodhidharma, or whoever it was, somebody else by the same name, coming from the West? and opened up the mine ground in itself. But I will go on and read Hongzhe's first comment to the story of the cypress tree.

[38:29]

The bank eyebrows lined with snow, the river eyes contain autumn, the ocean mouth groans waves, the boat tongue rides the current. The ability to quell disorder, the strategy for great peace, old Zhaozhou, old Zhaozhou. stirring up the monasteries, never yet stopping. So partly the story just, you know, I imagine stirs, can stir up all kinds of thoughts and questions and, you know, and if I've done that, well, when Jojo? or you can forget it. But anyway, useless, and this first part of this verse, the commentary goes into intricate Interpretations of the bank eyebrows, lying in the snow, and the river eyes, and the ocean mouth, and the boat tongue, and so forth.

[39:30]

Hongzhu is this very accomplished poet, and there's interesting interpretations there. But I think I'll skip that. The last two lines, uselessly expending effort. Still the cart is made to fit the groove. Originally without ability, still it fills the ravine and gullies. Some of the commentary... Wansong... I've recently gotten to appreciate Wansong more than I used to. He talks about... Wansong says that Hongshu uses a technique for quelling disorder and a formula for great peace. Jauja once said, sometimes I take a blade of grass and use it as the 16-foot golden body of a Buddha. Sometimes I take the 16-foot golden body and use it as a blade of grass.

[40:31]

This saying originally solved someone's doubts, but now how many people have doubts about it? Did Jauja want to stir up the monasteries? Seems to have done that. He's still doing it. People see Jauja's answer, responding immediately as the question is voiced, as if not needing effort. Only Jiang Cheng, it says, but that's Hong Zhe. Hong Zhe knows how he traveled for 80 years with the resolution to study from anyone who was better than him, even be it a three-year-old child. This was work done in free time, but to use in a busy time. So there's a story about Zhaozhou. He lived to be 120 years old. In China, Being old is very highly respected longevity and seniority and there's a great deal of respect for age. So, of course, Zhao Zhou is highly respected, but when he went, after he had done his studying, they say, there's different stories about Zhao Zhou, and of course, we don't know exactly the history, but they say that he

[41:43]

traveled around visiting different teachers for a long time before he settled down and became a teacher himself. But as he was traveling, he said that if he found a young child who he could learn from, he would study with them. And if he found an old elder who he could teach, he would teach them. So he undercut that Chinese sense of age. Anyway. Unless you're someone who has suffered hardship, you won't know that the lying wheel has talent. It can cut off a hundred thoughts. Confronting situations, mind is not aroused. Day by day, enlightenment grows. So this is about just meeting situations as they are. The sixth patriarch said, I have no talent. I don't cut off the hundred thoughts. Confronting situations, mind is repeatedly aroused.

[42:47]

How can enlightenment grow? So this is something that's relevant to a number of you who've been wondering how to cut off the hundred thoughts. The Sixth Ancestor said, I have no talent. I don't cut off the hundred thoughts. You can try and get rid of thoughts and just live in this kind of pure space of openness. Confronting situations, mind is repeatedly aroused. Sixth Ancestor said, according to Wansung, how can awakening, how can enlightenment grow? Sixth Ancestor didn't seem to be concerned with that. Wansung says, when you look at it in this way, what about that which fills the ravines and gullies? Now it is thrown into West Lake, the clear wind of unburdening, to whom is it imparted?

[43:41]

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