Case 76, Shoshan's three verses. That's a little bit more than you need. Introduction, one phrase illuminates three phrases, three phrases illuminate one phrase. And the three, have nothing to do with each other. Distinctly clear, the road going beyond, but tell me which phrase is first. The case, Shoshan said to the assembly, if you attain at the first phrase you will be teacher of humans, of Buddhas and ancestors.

[01:07]

If you attain at the second phrase, you will be teacher of humans and gods. If you attain at the third phrase, you cannot even save yourself. A monk asked, at which phrase do you attain? Shoshan said, the moon sets midnight going through the marketplace. There's two seats up here. We read this case last time and Some of us have studied the case without trying to find out any background on what the three phrases might be referring to.

[02:12]

Some people picked different parts of this case to contemplate. The commentary suggests that the origins of these three phrases come from Baizhang and that the source of his comments, there's a space up here, way up here, and that his three phrases, although he didn't call them three phrases, come from the Diamond Sutra. So he put the three phases in different ways.

[03:25]

So one way of talking about it is, as it says in this quote here, to explain that the present mirroring consciousness is your Buddha nature, is good in the beginning And then not dwelling in this present mirroring awareness is good in the middle. And making an understanding of not dwelling is good at the end. Excuse me, not making an understanding of not dwelling.

[04:32]

in the present mirror awareness is the final good. So the present mirroring awareness And to understand that present mirroring awareness as your own Buddha nature, to explain it that way, is good at the beginning. Not... Not dwelling in that thing which you've just explained is your own Buddha nature, is good in the middle.

[05:43]

And not making an understanding of that not dwelling is good at the end. That's one way that Bajang put it. Another way to put it is, virtuous mind is good at the beginning. virtuous mind is dissolved, is good in the middle. And only the final good is really good. In other words, not even saying anything about dissolving virtuous mind. Another way to say it is, virtuous mind is a mind that understands that this present consciousness is your Buddha nature. And therefore, because you have this virtuous mind, this virtuous understanding, that this present mirroring consciousness is your Buddha nature,

[06:56]

There's not grasping. There's no grasping. You're not trying to grasp anything. So virtuous mind is an understanding that there's nothing to grasp. And it is also not just thinking that, but actually understanding it so that there's not grasping. That's good in the beginning. And Susan asked last time, Susan Black asked about, you know, what kind of meditation do we do? And so at the beginning, the meditation you do is you try to learn how to not grasp anything. And the principle for not grasping anything is that there's nothing to get because you're already what you want to be. And also that the Buddha doesn't use anything to get enlightened.

[08:06]

And also when the Buddha gets enlightened, the Buddha doesn't get anything. So you train yourself in that sense just to be like a Buddha. That's virtuous mind. That's good in the beginning. That kind of practice is good in the beginning. And even before the beginning, there's a beginning before the beginning of trying to learn how to be that way, because you actually, you know, perhaps some of you think there is something to gain, and perhaps some of you don't think that this present mind is a mirroring mind, in which there's nothing to get, nothing to attain. And so you maybe have to practice, in some sense, confession and repentance for a long time. You know, not just a long time, but wholeheartedly, so that you can actually accept the virtuous mind, which understands that there's nothing to get and therefore realizes non-grasping. All that's at the beginning.

[09:08]

So the beginning could be going on for quite a long time. Then the next phase or stage would be that once one has realized non-grasping, once one really understands that this mind is a mirroring mind and there's nothing to get and no way to get it, then one doesn't abide in that. That's good in the middle. the virtuous mind is dissolved. And therefore the virtuous mind is mature. Like, you know, what is the image of a persimmon? You know, it gets ripe. And then it's ripe, right?

[10:10]

That's good. That's good in the beginning. But when it falls off the tree and splatters on the ground, that's good in the middle. And then the next phase would be not even having any intellectual, any conceptualization of this whole process. Somebody cleaned up the mess of this great attainment and liberation from this great attainment, and there's not a sign of it left. So this is the This is the good at the end. In other words, one way of end is at the end or the final point, but another way is after it's all over. There's not even any... nothing left. So those are some ways, you know, that bhajan can be typified. And another way that he talks about it is in his extensive record he says,

[11:15]

go again from the starting over if you no longer if you no longer love or grasp and I put in quotation marks I won't put a quotation mark I'll just say if you no longer love or grasp anything yet you abide in not loving or grasping anything, and consider not loving or grasping anything correct. This is the elementary good. This is good. Not grasping or loving anything is good, and considering that to be correct, that's good. But it's the beginning, it's the elementary good. Again, this is something that if you haven't gotten this good, it would be good to get this good.

[12:26]

But also understand, even before you get there, that you're working towards an elementary good. I don't know if you'd be willing to work for an elementary good, but you're being warmed ahead of time. It's this elementary good. This is abiding in a subdued mind. This is the disciple, or the, you know, the shravaka, as we say, the listener to the Buddhist teaching. She is one who has found the raft, and will not give it up. This is the way of the two vehicles, and this is a result of meditation.

[13:30]

You have to meditate to get to this place. This is actually a meditation fruit, and it's a meditation sickness. Pardon? It's a sickness because you won't let go of the meditation practice that got you to this good. Meditation sicknesses are sicknesses of successful meditations. The problems you have before being able to meditate in such a way that you realize non-grasping, the problems you had before that are not called meditation sickness or, you know, Zen sickness. They're more like hindrances to the meditation or obstacles to the meditation. This is a sickness of the meditation itself, but the main problem of the meditation is not that it's been successful, but that you're abiding in it.

[14:39]

You think it's correct. And that's good that you think it's correct, but that's an elementary understanding of correctness. So it's called—this is the first kind of meditation—well, this is an early meditation sickness. But again, meditation sickness affects successful meditators. You don't get meditation sickness until you're a good meditator. The raft is that you've actually ridden the raft across the waters of attachment and you stay in the raft. Once you don't grasp anymore and yet don't dwell in non-grasping either, this is the intermediate good. And then he says, this is still the formless vehicle.

[15:43]

Excuse me, this is still the formless realm. Though you avoid falling into the way of the two vehicles, in the previous case, you avoid the previous meditation sickness, you're still following into the way of the two vehicles, which are the disciple and the Pratyekabuddha, the one who's enlightened by hearing and the one who's enlightened by conditions. Oh, sorry, take it back. In the previous case, you've fallen into the two vehicles. In this case, you don't abide in the detachment, so you avoid falling into the two vehicles, in this intermediate one. And you also avoid falling into realms of demons. But this is still meditation sickness. This middle stage is the bondage of a bodhisattva

[16:49]

Once you no longer dwell in non-attachment, see, you realize non-attachment and you don't dwell there, see, once you do that, and do not even make an understanding of not dwelling in non-attachment either, this is the final good. So this is the Bhajan's background material. Now, it's possible that Shoshan was talking about Bajang's three phases, but I think that he actually used a term which makes us think that what he's talking about is the three phrases which people often attribute to Yunmen. But as you see in the commentary, The commentator thinks that actually Yun Men didn't actually tell people about these three phrases.

[17:56]

He said his disciple is the one who told people about the three phrases and then his grandson wrote the verses on the three phrases. So the three phrases may be related to these three phases or these three stages. this is something for you to discuss maybe, how you see the three phrases as related to the three, Bajjong's three phases. But as an introduction to the three phrases, as you may have already read or heard, they say that when Yin Man talked, whenever he talked to his group, whatever phrase he said contained three phrases. So, in the final good, in Bajang's final good,

[19:00]

it's possible to speak in such a way that all three phases are there. When you're in the final phase, the previous ones are there because you've gone through them. You've realized non-attachment, you've realized non-abiding and non-attachment, and now you speak in such a way that you don't even have an understanding of your attainment of non-abiding in the virtuous mind of non-attachment. And you can speak and act in such a way that your speech and actions carry first, second, good in the beginning, good in the middle, and good at the end. Like the Dharma itself, it has all three. So Yunmen, like the Buddha, like Baijian maybe, whatever he spoke carried all three.

[20:05]

So there was non-attachment, there was non-dwelling and non-attachment, and there was forgetting about the whole thing and just the final good, which leaves no understanding of non-abiding and non-attachment. So what came out of his mouth carried these three phases or three phrases every time he said anything. And his disciple characterizes, instead of saying that everything he said was non-abiding, non-dwelling and non-abiding, and not even have any understanding of not dwelling and non-abiding, he said that everything he said had these qualities of containing the whole universe, cutting through all, cutting off, well, this order that usually comes in is the other way, containing the whole universe, following the waves, and cutting off all streams.

[21:14]

But it doesn't matter which word they are. Everything he said had these three. So there's a little bit of work to be done there about how is it that that's trying to tell us about these three things, or do you think he's talking about something different? Okay? So how is containing the whole universe, going along with the waves, and riding the waves, and cutting off all streams, how is that related, how are those related to Bhajans 3? Do you see that? Well, if you don't, maybe you will next week.

[22:18]

And then when you think you do, then you can read the verses. I would suggest don't read the verses until you think you have some understanding of what these three phrases are. Now, yeah. Would you say it louder, please? Yeah. The second sickness is the good in the middle, the intermediate good, which is realizing non-attachment and not even dwelling in it, that there's still a sickness there. Do you see it? Do you see it? Do you see some sickness in that wonderful state of not even dwelling in non... Well, first of all, wouldn't non-attachment be great?

[23:20]

And then not dwelling in that, that's even as... That's more, you know, the next stage of good. What's the problem? How is that a sickness? How is that a meditation sickness? Can you see how that might be a meditation sickness? No? You don't see it yet? You just heard about it, right? Right? Anybody want to just say how they see that as a... And how would the idea of not dwelling be set up in that story? One could have that idea, but, you know... Huh? Pride, yeah. One could just have the idea of, like, you could say, First of all, you could say, oh, non-attachment. And I didn't even grasp that. Then you could have non-attachment has dissolved. And just to see, just to have an understanding of the dissolving of your non-attachment, just that understanding that you have achieved the second phrase.

[24:37]

that there's some illness there. Now, where the illness is, you might look at case, I believe, number 11 of the Book of Serenity, not right now, but later, and that has Yunmen sicknesses. That's about Yunmen sicknesses. And what he talks about there is the light not fully circulating. So when the light fully circulates, when the light partially circulates, when it starts to circulate, it shows us the mirror awareness and illuminates non-attachment. Then it circulates more and then it shows non-abiding and non-attachment. But that's not the full circulation. The first full circulation is to even wash away any conceptualization of non-abiding in non-attachments. So meditation sickness means not the full-scale, thorough working of the illumination of the practice.

[25:41]

Why do you call that a sickness? You refer to it as the bonding to the fully exhausted. Yeah, so how would that be a bondage for a bodhisattva to obtain the intermediate good? Do you have any inkling? I'll give you a hint. You do. You're welcome. You do. But can you say what it is? How that rather lofty attainment would be a bondage to bodhisattvas? Yes? Yes? No, the emptiness isn't the bondage. Doesn't the bodhisattva need to be compassionate? Can you be compassionate in the middle stage? Can you be compassionate in the middle stage? Yes, but bodhisattvas are compassionate. They want to help all beings, right? So anything that interferes with their work is a bondage for them.

[26:49]

So this intermediate state goes very nicely with bodhisattvas. For them to have non-attachment will help them. For them not to abide in it helps them. But there's still something interfering with them helping beings in this state. What is it? It's the very idea of bodhisattva. Well, the idea of being a bodhisattva, the idea of this non-abiding. Just a concept. Just a concept in general. There's still a little bit of attachment in the form of this image, this idea of their non-abiding in non-attachment. The first one, they've gotten over the separateness, pretty much. The second one, they don't even abide in getting over the separateness. But if you have any idea lingering about this intermediate good, it interferes your ability to work, it hinders your skillful responses.

[28:02]

It makes you a little constricted. The light of this attainment is somewhat blocked. So for bodhisattvas, basically their bondage is when their skill is behind their wisdom. Their wisdom is a little ahead of their skill, and their skill is being impeded by having some idea of their wisdom. Because they've got two levels of wisdom now. They've got the wisdom of non-attachment and the wisdom of not even abiding in non-attachment. So the Diamond Sutra says, you know, what is it? dharmas dharmas as no dharmas are they taught by the tathagata okay that's non-attachment right therefore we say dharmas that's not abiding in non-attachment now don't even now just forget about that whole thing but before you forget about the whole thing that teaching is a little bit of a hindrance to the bodhisattva's work

[29:14]

So that loftiness can be a hindrance because the skill and means hasn't caught up. The skill and means requires to not even have an idea of your wisdom. So what does the state of mind of a bodhisattva look like in this third picture? There's no idea? What kind of ideas are happening in the mind of a bodhisattva? Is it just response, appropriate response to the moment? There can be ideas, but they're not ideas about having achieved the intermediate good. They're not ideas about being a bodhisattva. They're not ideas about helping people. Or there can be those ideas, but they're like homogenous with all the other ideas in the universe. At the third phase, what's possible at the third phase is to say something that contains the first, the second, and the third.

[30:21]

So the story is based on the idea that there's one phrase or one action, one expression, which contains all three. So when the bodhisattvas are talking, the words are there, but these words are words which don't even have an idea of how free those words are even from non-attachment. So those words contain all three phrases each time. Does that make sense? There are no moorings. Pardon? No moorings. No moorings. Yes? When a body suffers, it relies on a partial pardon. Is she the second page or the fifth page? Anything else? Other questions?

[31:24]

Just... I don't understand the mirror. You don't understand the present mirroring consciousness? Well, we could say mirroring consciousness, this present mirroring consciousness, or you could say the present mirror-like consciousness. Everybody's, what do you call it, everybody's got the present mirror consciousness, right? Did you know that? We've all got this present mirror consciousness, or mirror awareness. Mirror, in this case, is M-I-R-R-O-W, that mirror.

[32:25]

Okay? What? What? O-R? What did I say? O-W. O-R, yeah. Everybody has that, which means that your awareness, everybody's got this awareness which perfectly reflects the universe. Everybody's got that kind of awareness. And that kind of awareness, if it's revealed to you, then that kind of awareness shows you that there's nothing to attain because everything is one mind. You know, all sentient beings and all Buddhists have just one mind. So the awareness, the mere awareness is that awareness, is to understand that one mind and that there's nothing to grasp.

[33:30]

So when that mind is understood or realized, then you've realized non-attachment. That's pretty good, right? And that's the, what do you call it, that's the virtuous mind. Non-attachment, due to understanding that this mind is inseparable from Buddha's mind and that what Buddha's mind and all sentient beings' minds together is the mirror awareness or mirror-like awareness. So then training in non-attachment realizes that, realizing that one is free of attachment because there's an understanding that there's nothing to attach to because there's no dharmas outside mind and no mind outside dharmas. This kind of understanding is the mirror-like understanding or mirror-like awareness. This is the initial good that Bhajan's talking about.

[34:38]

Hey, was there another comment over there? Yes? When someone has entered the beginning phase, is that actually cut off by going back to attachment? Or can they go back and forth towards the beginning phase, meaning that that's already stopped completely? Can you go back to attaching to the kinds of things you're not attaching to? Can you go back to reattach to things that you're not attached to now? Yeah? Irreversible stage? The irreversible stage is the third stage. The third stage is irreversible.

[35:45]

The third stage is irreversible. The other stages are reversible. The first two are reversible. It's a bodhisattva, right, but the bodhisattva now has, what do you call it, their skill and means is now balanced with their wisdom. What? Yeah. You've gotten over meditation sickness in the final good. The first one you're just attached to the meditation, and the second you're attached to not being attached to the meditation.

[36:55]

I'm just thinking like in the past. Yeah. Once you've entered the Darshanamarka, you don't go back? Right. That's the first phase. So that would be like the third phase. I would say that's the third phase? No, I wouldn't say that's the third phase. I would say that that is the first phase. Isn't that more interesting? So I guess I'm elevating the first phase

[38:20]

I mean, from your point of view, I'm making the first phase kind of quite an attainment. I guess your difficulty is that I said you could regress from it. Okay. If you can't handle that, I'll take it back. But I think you can regress. Now, some people say that once you have that insight, you never revert. You know, that once you have Darshan Amarga, once you have that kind of penetrating insight, that there's no reversion, no, you know, I disagree. But I would say that this first stage is like stream entry or, you know, actual insight and you actually really are on the path of, you have realized selflessness in the first phase. I would say that. and that at Darshana Marga you still have these problems of abiding in Darshana Marga.

[39:36]

So you have had a deep understanding of non-attachment, but you're still abiding in it. So the non-attachment is not complete, but there is a level of complete non-attachment, but there's also a level of attachment to non-attachment, or abiding in it. And some people would say, you'd never slip back from the first real non-attachment. I would say, you can slip. But I'm not the only one who says that you can slip. Well, in the Abdharmakosha, a lot of people say, you know, some people say, no, you don't slip back. And other ones say, you do slip back. You can. It is possible. I prefer that that way. Do not make you think that you're going to get to some stage there and it's going to be like, you're done. But other people say, no, you're done then. But I think basically you're done right now in the sense that all of you are going to be Buddhas.

[40:41]

You can't stop that. But I think you can slip and slide quite a bit on your movement towards Buddhahood, as my feeling is. However, there is a certain stage which I think I just can't logically get my way out of seeing that you can't stop it at a certain point that never slips up to a certain level of understanding. Okay, so now this case is about being able to... you know, that some teachers, some yogis are able to speak in such a way that all three, that all three of these are expressed every time they talk. And the case itself is then also going into talking about these three, some three phrases, some three phrases. So, and there's some other things he says that are sort of interesting, that if you attain at the first phrase, do you send people to hell.

[41:42]

Is that right? Is that what it says? What does it say? If you attain the first phrase, what? What? No, no, that's in the case. But then in the commentary it says, if you attain by one phrase, or if you expound one phrase, you send... you cause sentient beings to go to hell. If you expound one phrase, you cause sentient beings to go to hell. I haven't expounded one phrase, have I? Huh? I didn't expound one phrase, did I? Because if you expound one phrase, you send sentient beings to hell. If sentient beings expound all three, they send themselves to hell. Huh? Go on your own. So be careful. Don't expound all three. Huh? Are you attached to not going to hell?

[42:44]

Hmm? Are you attached to not going to hell? Am I attached to not going to hell? Me? Or should we be? I don't want to send you to hell. But I'm not attached to going to hell myself. Or not going. Or not going. Well, if I'm going to hell, I am attached to going business class. Martha wants company. Under what circumstances do you want company? If you're in hell, you want company? Well, then that's not hell. That's interesting, Red, that you're saying that, you know, what's his name? This man... What's his name? What's his name? That's my name. He can capture all three phrases in everything he says.

[43:45]

And then it says here that if you expound all three phrases at once, all sentient beings go to hell by themselves. I think that's interesting. Does it say if you expound all three? It says if all three phrases are expounded at once, sentient beings will go to hell by themselves. Right. But that's different from saying that his phrase contains all three. A little different. It's one phrase that contains all three. One phrase that contains all three is different than expounding all three. So we want to be careful of expounding all three. But I think we want to find the one phrase that contains all three. I mean, maybe you do. That's the... that seems to be the possibility here that the real, what is it called, the real, the best method is a method that contains all three.

[44:47]

And supposedly Yunman had this method and the question is does Shoshan have that method and how? And are his three phrases the same and even if they're different, is his statement did his statements contain all three? And can you tell us about how, can you give us statements that contain all three about how wonderful it is that his statements contain all three? Did you? No? Come on. No talking? No, you didn't do that? What are you doing? Trying not to scream. Try not to scream.

[45:43]

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