I just want to say again that I'm deeply inspired by your practice this week. It's a great support to me and makes it possible for me to continue doing something so useless. although it's useless, I get tremendous assistance. So you people, along with all those great Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, are helping me personally. And I want to thank you very much for your brilliant and wholehearted efforts. and also for your impressive insights and faith and your compassion for each other and for yourselves.

[01:20]

When I see you make this kind of effort, I... I don't feel very stressed by my responsibility. Because you're carrying part of the weight, too. By the way, what do you think, Subuddhi? There's not much to Wang Bo's Zen. Also, I'd like to say that you don't have to come to the abbot's room and Gudok San. It's not mandatory, but I welcome you to come. And also, if you're

[02:34]

uncomfortable for some reason with the awesome formality of the whole thing, you can just, you know, come in informally and sit down and just tell me a little bit about how the session was. You don't have to have some great understanding to present or anything. Just a little contact is fine. And if that's even too much, you can just drop me a note. And if that's too much, you can drop somebody else a note. But it's important to make some contact about what happens in your practice. And sesshin is just another opportunity for that. So again, here we go into the dragon cave, into the mysterious cave of our mind.

[03:55]

And this text which we're using is like a cave. And I'd like to now start walking into it with you. It starts out with once when the great teacher, Yaoshan, was sitting. A monk asked him, what are you thinking about sitting there so still? And Yashan said, thinking of not thinking. The monk said, how think of not thinking?

[04:57]

Yashan said, non-thinking. Yashan weighed in. Yakusan Igen Dayosho, disciple of Sekito Gisen Dayosho. As I mentioned before, he studied the canonical texts and the treatises extensively and followed the precepts strictly. But at a certain point he decided to go study Zen and he went to see Sekito.

[05:59]

Sekito means stone head because he used to sit on top of a rock He went to Sekhito and he said, I know something about the canonical teachings of Buddhism, but I've heard that in the South they point directly to the human mind and see the essence of the human mind and realize Buddhahood. I really don't understand this. I beg your compassionate instruction. And Sekito Stonehead said, being just so won't do. Not being just so won't do either. Being just so or being not just so won't do at all.

[07:04]

What about you? Master Yaoshan was at a loss. And Sekito said, You don't have an affinity here. Go see Master Ma. Master Ma and Master Sekito, those two, lived at the same time, and they are the two disciples of the sixth ancestor of Zen from whom almost all the living lineages of Zen came from. They're the two main waterfalls

[08:08]

And they sent people back and forth between each other. So Yashan did go over. Wei En, Yaoshan Wei En, did go over to Matsu, paid his respects to Matsu, and basically asked the same question. And Matsu says, sometimes I make him lift his eyebrows and wink. Sometimes I don't make him lift his eyebrows and wink. Sometimes raising the eyebrows and winking is right.

[09:14]

Sometimes raising the eyebrows and winking is not right. What about you? The Master was greatly enlightened. And he immediately bowed to Master Ma. And Master Ma said, what did you see that you're bowing? And he said, when I was with Sekito, I was like a mosquito trying to bite an iron bull. Matsu says, you have realized the truth. Sekito, however, is your teacher.

[10:18]

He stayed with Matsu three years and then went back to Sekito and became Sekito's successor. So he went to Sekito. Sekito taught him said, there's no affinity here, send him someplace else to an uncle. And the uncle sent him back and he became a successor in his father's house. In the next generation, by the way, the next—Yao Shan's successor first studied with a disciple of Master Ma named Baijian Waihai. He studied with him for 20 years. And then he came over to Yao Shan and he couldn't become—he wasn't able to become

[11:24]

realized in his practice, after 20 years of studying with the great master Bajon, he came over to Yaoshan and studied with Yaoshan also for a long time and couldn't understand his teaching either. And then one day as Yaoshan was asking Yuen Yuen to explain Bajon's teaching, Yashan understood Bhajan's teaching through Yun-Yen. And then Yun-Yen was enlightened. So in these days there was a big family that was an extended family that was very intimate, relative, sending people back and forth using various means to help each other. One person told me that she heard me talking about these stories and felt a little bit like she'd come into a family meeting and she was an outsider because some people obviously know these people quite well.

[12:35]

And I told her that that's true in a sense and if she would hang around longer she probably would feel more and more like the family because this family is the kind of family that makes people feel more connected to people. This kind of family is the kind of family that makes you feel closer to your blood family than your blood family could make you feel to your blood family. Matter of fact, a lot of people who feel alienated from their blood family come to this family. After being in this family for a long time, you start to really appreciate your parents, even if they abused you. And part of being here actually, part of this family is maybe to help you realize that they did abuse you. And then to learn how to forgive them and help them, as incredible as that might seem. You know, I almost know stories about my grandfather.

[13:46]

For some reason or other, either of my grandfathers, My parents, or my grandmothers, I knew. But my grandfathers, neither of them did I ever meet. So I depended on stories, but I didn't hear any. My parents didn't think enough of them to tell me any stories. So now I'm in a family where I have stories not just of my grandfather, but I have stories going back 91 generations. And not only do I have these stories, but all you do, and so do a lot of other people that I never met. So I like this family. And the more I study this family, the more fortunate I feel to be in this family that basically tries to promote and include more and more people in it. And this family considers all beings to be part of it. But at first, when you first see it, it may seem somewhat exclusive and I understand that. So here we are with the story about Yaoshan and what he was thinking about when he was sitting still.

[15:00]

So here is at the beginning of this text, which is called Zazen Shin, admonitions about Zazen, encouragements for seated meditation. A story, a human interaction is being used to help us. A narrative presentation is being used to help us understand the zazen mind and the zazen body. As I said earlier, some people say that the content of just sitting is what is called genjō koan. In other words, the case or the subject matter of just sitting is the koan that is manifesting at this moment.

[16:33]

It is the thing that's happening right now, which is before anything existed. The true manifestation of reality right now. That's the content of just sitting. That's what's in the awareness of the one who's sitting still, which is called non-thinking. or thinking of that which doesn't think. That's the so-called proper content. So then some people feel like you shouldn't put these old stories, these old koans in there. But Dogen Zenji obviously is bringing up these old stories as a guide into the heart of just sitting.

[17:48]

So in a way, again, I see it as like a cave. And as you come into the cave of Buddha's mind, along the walls of the cave and hanging from the ceiling and coming up from the ground in this cave are many things, maybe some old Zen stories that you can use to move deeper into the cave. However, as soon as you first enter the cave before you even run into a Zen story, there is the Genjo koan right away. Reality is completely and perfectly manifested before you even enter the cave. But still, these stories can be what you walk through to get deeper and more adept at this mind. In one sense, they encourage you to go deeper. In another sense, they're like little lights that you can turn on and dare to take another step, and then they get blown out.

[19:06]

And another light goes on, and you say, oh, good, and take another step, and it goes out. So Dogen Zenji says, please come into the mind of stillness. And what's it like here? It's like thinking about the unthinking. How? Come in. How? It's how. How is another encouragement to go deeper? And then he keeps offering more stories as we proceed into the zazen mind, more stories to draw us deeper.

[20:15]

And these stories are perfectly good examples of Genjo Koan because when you read the text, what's happening to you is you're reading these stories. The next story in this text is a story about Master Ma and his teacher, Nanyue Huirong. When the Chan Master Da Zhi of Changxi was studying with the Chan Master Da Hui of Nanyue, Da Zhi of Changxi is a posthumous name for Master Ma. When Master Ma was studying with Nanyue, After intimately receiving the mind seal, he was always, he always sat in meditation.

[21:25]

One day Nanyue went to Master Ma and said, worthy one, what are you figuring to do sitting there in meditation? And I might tell you that the original text just says that Master Ma was always sitting in meditation, sitting zazen, and Nanyue came and asked him this question. But Dogen Zenji adds a little biographical note at the beginning, which is not in the original. The biographical note he puts in there is that he had already received the mind seal and approval of his teacher.

[22:28]

After this approval, he continued to do meditation all the time. So this meditation he's doing is post-realizational meditation. So after realization, his teacher sees him meditating and says, what are you doing sitting there? What are you figuring to do while you're sitting there? And he says, I'm figuring to make a Buddha. Buddha. And then Nanyue goes someplace nearby, picks up a tile and starts polishing it. And Matsu says, what are you doing polishing the tile? And Nanyue says, I'm trying to make a mirror. And Matsu says, how can you make a mirror out of tile?

[23:35]

And he says, how can you make a Buddha out of a sentient being? by sitting zazen. Today I'm not going to go into that story deeply. I'm just going to look at the first sentence. Namely, what are you figuring to do sitting there in meditation? what are you figuring to do sitting there in meditation is basically the same question as what kind of thinking are you doing sitting there so still? But when you first hear the question, Dogen says, when he says, what kind of figuring, Dogen also says, you should calmly give concentrated effort to investigate this question.

[24:46]

What are you figuring to do there, sitting in meditation? He recommends you should investigate that question. And then he says, does it mean that there must be some figuring above and beyond the seated meditation? Does Nanyue mean that while he's sitting there, there must be some figuring over and above his just sitting there? Is there no path to be figured outside of seated meditation? Should there be no figuring at all when you're in seated meditation? Or does it ask what kind of figuring occurs at the very moment when you're practicing seated meditation? Many people think and have heard the Zen expression, no thought.

[25:56]

Does no thought mean there is no thought? Or does no thought mean there shouldn't be any thought over and above the practice? Or does no thought mean the kind of thought that occurs while you're practicing? And so on. And he says again, you should make concentrated effort to understand this in detail. He just gives a few examples of questions you can ask about what does it mean when you ask, what kind of thinking are you doing when you're sitting still? What kind of figuring are you doing? Yaoshan said, I'm thinking of not thinking. Master Ma said, I'm figuring to make a Buddha. But again, it sounds like he's trying to make a Buddha.

[26:57]

That's the way his teacher understood him and did this thing. But again, I'm not going to go into that. I'm just going to say that then Dogen Zenji says, again, you should make concentrated effort to understand this in detail. And he says, rather than love the carved dragon, you should go on to love the real dragon. Okay, so we're going into the dragon cave, right? down into the dragon cave of Buddha's mind and body.

[27:58]

And this dragon cave is full of carved dragon. This refers to a story, a Chinese classical story, about a man whose name is the Duke of She. You've heard of the Duke of Earl? This is the Duke of She. And he loved dragons and collected them. His house was full of them. His attic and basement were full of them. He had wooden dragons, marble dragons, lapis lazuli dragons, coral dragons, paper dragons. He loved them. And because he loved these dragons, a real dragon decided to come and visit him.

[29:10]

When the real dragon came to visit into his house, he couldn't handle it. He had startle response and fainted. You know what startle response is? I remember in my first psychology class, they had this picture of what, you know, have somebody come in a door, you know, of a room, and then shoot a gun off or something next to their head. And they go, huh. It's kind of characteristic. Everybody does it, I guess. So sometimes people think, well, this is a story about whatever it's about, but it's also a story about how we do meditation practice.

[30:24]

We do our little meditation practice. We make our carved dragon. And, but if the real dragon, we do our carved dragon, a Buddhist meditation, but if the real dragon, a Buddhist meditation, should appear, we have a startle response. That's one way to look at it. Another way to look at it is that Dogen Zenji is giving you some instruction about how to read this text. Namely, when you first start looking at this story or this text or this question, what are you figuring to do when you're sitting, your first attempts are you're carving some dragon.

[31:42]

But we should proceed from loving our original interpretation, we should proceed from there to the real significance of this question. But there's many other significances here. For example, and I want to bring up this little image that I think I mentioned before, I want to bring it up again, of the circle of water. Okay? When you go out in the ocean, if there's no islands, and you look around, the ocean looks like a circle of water.

[32:47]

But the ocean is not a circle of water. But as far as you can see, that's what it looks like. The ocean is infinite in characteristics. It's not square or round. But it only looks that way. As we try to understand what Buddha's mind is, from our eyes and our ears and our thinking, it looks like a circle of water. That appearance, the practice, this little practice we do in the middle of the ocean, is like a carved dragon, which we, let's say, let's propose that we love this meditation practice we're doing. We love doing it this way.

[33:51]

and really put our whole hearts into it. All of you, even those of you who are doing your first sashin and don't know if you'll do another one, you loved it a lot to do this sashin. And even if you're not sure you'll do another one now, it's kind of like having a baby. Right after the baby's born, a lot of women say, I'll never do this again. But then a few years later, they say, oh, they're kind of cute, aren't they? Men don't, with their bodies, have a chance to have babies, as far as we know so far anyway. But that's one of the nice things about being a Buddhist teacher, is you can have disciples. And there's actually formal ceremonies for having disciples. And after I did four of these one time, I said, I'll never do this again. I was really pissed off. It was so hard. But then, you know, a few months later, I thought, well, they are kind of cute.

[34:59]

Why did I bring that up? And before that, why did I bring that up? Sitting again. Huh? Sitting again. Oh yeah, sitting Sashin again. Okay, so you people love Sashin whether you know it or not. You all made many little carved dragons this week. And because you make carved dragons, the real dragons are there. They come to visit you And they also, they don't come later. You don't make one and then they come. At the moment you make them, they come. That's why we don't have these carved dragons coming in and scaring people, these real dragons coming in and scaring people, because the real dragons arrive right at the time you're making a carved dragon, so you can't see them as separate from your carved dragon. So nobody gets scared out of here, fortunately.

[36:20]

And then Dogen Zenji says, you should learn that both carved dragons and real dragons have the ability to produce clouds and rain. In the West, in Western mythology, I think dragons usually symbolize the self-imprisonment. They're the big, bad, self-cherishing that's got the little lady back in the cave and won't let her out. You have to come and kill that dragon. to release the damsel. But in China, dragons are symbols of the released damsel. They're wonderful beings. And as they move about in their daily activity, they produce lots of steam, you know. They're hot. They dive in the water and a lot of steam comes out their nose and fire and stuff, and they make clouds and steam all over the place. we should learn that the car dragon and the real dragon both produce these clouds and steam.

[37:42]

While we're down here in this little circle of water doing our practice, simultaneously, the real dragon's right there with us. So you think, well, the real dragon's up above us someplace or up behind us someplace producing all these winds and clouds and stuff and doing all this fantastic stuff. But it's really not just the real dragon that's producing these clouds because the real dragon wouldn't be there if it wasn't for this person making this carved dragon. Just like there's not a mother without a baby. Mothers don't produce milk all by themselves. It's the baby and the mother together that produce the milk. They can say, well, some women don't have any babies and they're still producing milk, but it's when the baby appears that the stuff squirts out. Sometimes mothers are walking down the street and they hear another person's babies cry and it gets wet.

[38:47]

the mother and the baby together, the real dragon and the carved dragon together produce the wonder. You never have one without the other. There's no Buddhas floating around unconnected to sentient beings, and there's no sentient beings who aren't connected to Buddhas. And not only that, but when we make our little Buddha here, when we do our little seated meditation, the actual, real, meaning and significance of seated meditation is right there. It's not the same as what we're doing, but it's not separate from what we're doing. You don't identify what you're doing with it, but you don't separate from what you're doing from it because it cannot be separated because it's that kind of a thing. Buddha's meditation only arises in relationship to our life and our suffering and our practice.

[39:52]

There's no disconnected Buddhas. There are sentient beings who don't believe that. But there's a Buddha who's connected to that sentient being who doesn't believe that. So, you should learn that. You should learn that what you're doing and what complete perfect enlightenment is doing together really make the wonder of the clouds and the rain appear. And then he says, do not value that which is far away and do not despise that which is, oh no, do not value that which is far away and do not despise it. What's far away? The real, actual realization of Buddha's mind.

[40:59]

It seems far away, because it's not you. It's not far away, but it seems far away. Don't value that. Don't say, you know, I value that. Also don't despise it. Don't esteem or despise it. What do you do about it? Become familiar with it. Become adept at it. And he says, don't value or esteem what is near. Don't value or esteem the carved dragon. Don't value or esteem your own perception of your practice. Don't value it. Don't despise it. Rather, become familiar with it. Become adept at it. It says,

[42:04]

Do not take the eyes lightly. Do not give them weight. Do not take your sensory information lightly and do not give it weight. Do not give your ears weight and do not take them lightly. Make your ears and eyes sharp and clear. Do not take this little circle of water lightly. Do not give it weight. Do not take the carved dragon lightly.

[43:11]

Do not give it weight. Do not take your seated meditation lightly. Do not give it weight. Do not take your perception of your seated meditation lightly. Do not give it weight. Rather, make your perception of your seated meditation clear and sharp. Become familiar with this near perception of what practice is without esteeming or despising it. and learn that this limited perception of what you're doing has the ability to produce clouds and rain just like the vast, complete truth of what you're doing has the ability to produce clouds and rain.

[44:12]

And that actually the two of them together are always simultaneously functioning. Learn that. How do you learn it? By becoming familiar with what you're doing right here. Not giving it weight, not taking it lightly. Whatever is appearing, it's clear in all its details. and everything's in its original place. The mind stays, you stay on this carved dragon at this moment for 10,000 years and you don't dwell in it. You're completely engaged in this little circle of water and you don't dwell there.

[45:14]

D. H. Lawrence said something like this, This is what I know, that I am I, that my known self is a little clearing in the middle of a dark forest, that occasionally deities come out of the forest into the clearing for a while, and then they go back. I'm not going to let anyone fool me, and I'm going to have the courage to let them come and let them go back. Okay, so once again, we walk into the text a little deeper, past a few more stories, and we get to a hunger's lancet of seated meditation, the essential function of all Buddhas, the functioning essence of all the Founders.

[46:38]

It knows without touching, it illumines without facing, it knows without touching things, it illumines without facing objects. Knowing without touching things, its knowledge is inherently subtle. Illumining without facing objects, its illumination is inherently mysterious. Its knowledge inherently subtle, it is ever without discriminatory thought. its illumination inherently mysterious, it is ever without the slightest, ever without a hair's breadth of a portent or sign. Ever without discriminatory thought, its knowledge is rare without peer.

[47:42]

Ever without a hair's breadth of a portent Its illumination comprehends without grasping. The water is clear right through to the bottom. A fish swims lazily along. The sky is vast without horizon. A bird flies far, far away. So yesterday I talked about the title, about the functioning essence and the essential functioning, about knowing things without touching, and illumining without facing objects, And Dogen Zenji says, this illumining without facing objects is not, does not mean the illumining of luminosity or of spiritual illumination.

[49:31]

It's not like you're sitting here and all of a sudden this light comes shining in. There are such things, I guess. It means simply, this illumining means simply without facing objects. It's not like there's an illumining without facing objects. The illumining is simply without facing objects. That's what it is. the illumining does not change into the object. For the object itself is illumining. This world of, this object that you're aware of right now, this is illumining that we're talking about.

[50:46]

Without facing means it is never hidden throughout the world. Throughout the world, this is illuminating. There's not something hidden behind this. This is the world of light. Right in this light is the darkness. Don't try to see the darkness someplace here. Nothing's hidden. It does not emerge when you break the world. It's not, again, like there's this world here and you break through it and suddenly this light comes shining.

[51:56]

I guess there are such appearances, but that's not what we're talking about here. It is subtle. It is mysterious. It is interacting while not interacting, like it says in the Merging of Difference and Unity. Well, I'm at one of those tough places where I feel like you can't take any more, but there's more.

[53:15]

But maybe you can't take any more of this, but maybe you could take more of something else. back to the circle of water, back to the little clearing, okay? In that little clearing, you see something like maybe your campfire. Or if it's a circle of water, maybe you see a piece of driftwood or a piece of cork floating on the surface. Now, you know the cork is not the whole universe, right? It's not.

[54:26]

It's just a cork. You might think that the whole circle of water was the whole universe, but you know this piece of cork is not the whole universe, and you know this little rock in your campfire is not the whole universe. But it's all you can see, and not right now. You're just looking at that little thing in front of you. But the way that cork is bobbing around in the water or the way that rock is formed there in front of you would not be that way if there was not a dark forest all the way around or a whole ocean all the way around. Whatever appearing in that little clearing The entire dark forest is surrounding it, and this thing would not be the way it is if it wasn't for the darkness all around it.

[55:32]

Right in that light is the darkness. But if you try to look into that little thing in front of you and try to see the darkness, to see the whole forest, that won't work. right in the way this thing is behaving, right in the way your limited mind is behaving, the entire story is revealed. So, Don't take your eyes lightly means don't think that you should study something deeper than just this simple perception before you. Don't give it weight means don't think that what you're seeing here is anything more than it is.

[56:35]

Rather try to let this function of mind simply be the thing that it is or the object that it is. And when you're able to use this kind of this mode, use this non-thinking, use this seated meditation. When you're able to use it, in other words, when you're able to not touch the cork and not face the object, you will be illuminated. I mean, that cork will be illumination.

[57:42]

That cork will be the illumining. That rock will be the illumining. That's putting it to use. That's putting seated meditation to use. That's putting the essential function to use. That's the functioning essence. And Dogen says, when you put it to use, it is, in Japanese, which is an expression for a fish, you know, when it jumps out of the water. It breaks the water surface and goes, and then it goes, right? that fish jumping out of the water and falling back in, and how they sort of wiggle in the air and come up and go down.

[58:53]

When you leave things alone, when you don't touch them, and when you don't face objects, the thing, the object, is illumining. It is the knowing, which is very subtle. But this knowing, this leaving it alone, is like this. It has tremendous energy, this leaving things alone. What do you think, Subuddhi? What do you think about this kapatsu-patsu? Are you Kapatsupatsu?

[59:58]

You are? Ladies and gentlemen. Kapatsupatsu. Any other Kapatsupatsus around here in this late morning hour? Dogen also says, when you make a dragon, it does not matter whether it's inside or outside the yu gate. There's a gate in the Yellow River that fish, as fish swim up the river, up the river, against the current. Before they go through that gate, they're fish, and after they go through the gate, they're dragons. He says, when you make a dragon, it doesn't matter whether you're before or after that gate. The important thing is the patsu-patsu, is this vigorous jumping.

[61:10]

That is, the vigorous jumping, what is that? That's no doubt. That's no doubt in the way your body and mind are functioning right now. No doubt means not touching, means not facing, means you trust things as they appear and you don't feel a need to mess with it or improve it or avoid it or hold on to it. Pain is a great test. Can you just leave it alone? Leave it alone means not just forget about it, not just avoiding it. Can you just clearly observe it in such a way that no word can reach it? Can you observe pain so that the word pain can't reach the pain? Observe it so clearly that you can see pain is always sitting there, brilliant,

[62:16]

And it has a little neighbor called the word pain that always wants to jump on top of it. And if you can observe pain without letting the word be mixed up with it and see that the word for pain and the pain are always separate, this is kapatsu-patsu. And this is, you have no doubt, this is the mind that all Buddhas have realized. This is what we call just sitting. Not just not avoiding pain, but really just really leaving it alone.

[63:26]

And when you leave pain alone or whatever it is, you can see that the way it's behaving in this little circle of water is just like that. And when you see how it's behaving that way, you understand the entire dark forest. But you can't see the dark forest. If you think that when you see that pain or whatever it is in the little clearing, if you think that's a dark forest, you're giving too much weight to your eyes. But if you think you have to do anything with what you're seeing in order to understand the dark forest, you're taking your eyes too lightly. To not esteem what's in front of you and think that it's the whole universe, and to not despise what's in front of you, to say you need to see more than this or something better than this,

[64:39]

To do that, you understand the whole universe. And that's kapatsu-patsu. Yeah? Yeah, right. Leaving it alone is like dancing with it or playing with it. Not touching things, you could call playing with them. So, again, if you have the idea not touching means you can't dance with people, that's not what it means. You can dance with people, you can play with people, you can interact, but without interacting. You're engaged with everyone, intimately, without dwelling. You spend 10,000 years with each moment of meeting a person, and you don't meet anybody. This is kapatsu-patsu. Watch the way those fists jump.

[65:43]

They're totally engaged, but they don't have time to hang out anyplace. Their illumination is just simply their intense bodily movement and splashing. Yes? Is it just for a moment, or is it something that you can sustain? It's just for a moment. Nothing in the universe can be sustained. That's why it's ka-pa-tsu-pa-tsu rather than ka-pa. It's ka-pa-tsu-pa-tsu. Ka-pa-tsu-pa-tsu. It's really vigorous. Now, I promised to tell another story about that, that I'd finish that story, but... who you're on.

[66:44]

So maybe you should make yourself comfortable. This is an extremely long story. Because in order to understand this story, I have to tell you a bunch of other stories about this guy, so you realize this. So you understand how weird he is. You might think this is, and how weird Rinzai is. This is Rinzai. See, can you see how weird he is? This is a great Zen master, Rinzai, Linji. So cute. And I'm bringing this up because Dogen says that, where did he say it? Oh, up above, I already told you about that.

[67:48]

Not touching things, okay? When you're not touching things, when you're a kapatsu-patsu. Do I have to wait to tell this story until you get back? The not touching things is this intense and vigorous not touching things. this totally alive, not touching things, means when they come in the light, I hit them in the light. When they come in the darkness, I hit them in the darkness. Okay? That's why I'm telling this story about this guy who said that. Right? See, it's all very well organized. It's getting dark in here. What? Did you tell a joke? Okay, so one day the guy who said this was with Rinzai.

[68:58]

They were both attending a dinner at a patron's house. Now dinner in Minnesota is held at noon. Lunch is held either one or two hours before or after dinner. and supper is held in the evening. Traditionally, Buddhist monks would have dinner at lunch, at noontime. So we'll assume this is a noontime dinner, but actually it's a little bit more romantic if it's at night. So Rinzai and this guy named Pu Hua, which means universal flower, were attending this feast And again, you know, this is just my image of it, but I kind of see, the image I get is kind of like two mafiosa guys at a dinner party.

[70:03]

Because Rinzai is kind of a tough guy. He beats everybody up all the time, and his puhua was really wild. Anyway, I just get these kind of rugged, rough guys. Anyway, they're standing there at this dinner, right? And I just imagine, imagine at a mafioso dinner, two kind of gang members talking to each other like this. One of them says, Rinzai, what is it, what do they call it? Oh, Don Rinzai. Don Rinzai says, a hare swallows up the great ocean. And a mustard seed contains the cosmic mountain. Can you imagine sort of leaning over, sort of over in the potted plants? Is this the marvelous activity of the supernatural power?

[71:11]

Is this, you know, is this the functioning essence? Or is this the original substance? Is this the essential function as it is? They asked him this. And Phu Hoa kicked over the dinner table. That's why I sort of got this mafiosa kind of thing. Imagine there's talking like this over in the potted plants and one of them guys just tips over the buffet, you know. And then the other guy says, how coarse. Don Rinzai says, how coarse. And then Universal Flowers says, what place do you think this is? talking about coarse and fine.

[72:17]

Now, the next day, Don Rinzai and Universal Flower attended another dinner at another patron's house, and I thought, they got invited to somebody else's house after this? But again, that's what they do. They keep inviting these mafioso people to party after party even though it causes trouble, right? They understand. That's their line of work. They're wild. This is kapatsu kapatsu, right? Can you believe this is not touching things? This is not facing objects without facing objects? If these guys aren't doing it, who's doing it? These are supposed to be the people who have realized this way. Okay, so the master, now Don Rinzai says, how does today's feast compare to yesterday's? And Universal Flower kicked over the dinner table.

[73:34]

Was this catered? It was catered, yeah. Definitely. That's my image. Nice white tablecloths. All these delicious Chinese goodies out there. Little old ladies came in from the mountains with these little dot hearts, you know, and putting them on the table. Going around saying to people, which mind are you going to eat this with? Rinzai said, good enough, but how coarse. And then Pouvoir said, blind man. What has Buddha Dharma got to do with coarse or fine?" And Rinzai went, . Okay, so that's a background to the fact that every day when Pu Hua came to beg, he came into town to beg,

[75:01]

You know, Buddhist monks, when they beg, they have these little staffs with these little rings, these little metal rings on the top, and they shake them when they come to get people's, donors' attention. So they walk, and they hit it on the ground, and then it shakes the rings. Jingle, jingle, jingle. And then he would sing. He would yell. When it comes in the darkness... Or when they come in the darkness, I hit it in the darkness. When it comes in the light, I hit it in the light. Coming from the four quarters and the eight directions, I hit like a whirlwind. Coming from the sky, I lash out like a bullwhip. So Rinzai sent his attendant. He said, next time he comes to town and he does that, as soon as you hear these words, grab them and say, if it's not, if coming is not thus at all, what then?

[76:14]

So the attendant went and did that. And Pu Hua, you know, pushed him away and said, there will be a feast tomorrow at Ta Be Hiron, which is a a nice little garden area where they have feasts. The tenant went back and told Rinzai, and Rinzai said, I've always held wonder for that guy, he said. And he organized a special feast and invited Pu Hua to come. And Puhua came to the feast, and Rinzai had this food laid out. And Puhua took the food that was set out for him and put it down on the ground and got down on all fours and ate it, like, with no hands. And guess what Rinzai said? Of course. Of course. And Rinzai said, you're eating like an ass.

[77:30]

And Pu Hua went, hee-haw, hee-haw. And Rinzai went... And Pu Hua said, the master has just one eye. Ah, you know, this is seated meditation. In that case, you shouldn't copy them, I shouldn't copy them either. Sometimes I thought I could and I got in trouble. Good point, I actually thought they weren't. Not touching is not holding back. Not facing objects is not restraining yourself.

[78:32]

It's your full vitality. And yet, it's not messing with what's happening. It's leaving things alone and fully expressing yourself simultaneously. Hard to understand, but anyway, you're doing it. You're practicing it. And this kind of silent illumination where you sit still in silence and leave things alone has this kind of energy and this kind of wild freedom sometimes where people do things like this. He wasn't on the bus. He was waiting for the bus. He said, he said, I'm 100 years old. And the Lord withholds nothing from one who sits upright before him.

[79:43]

And Henry David Thoreau said, you know Henry David Thoreau? Do you know him, Thoreau? Do you know Thoreau? You ever heard of Walden Pond? You haven't? Well, there's a very important book in American literature called Walden Pond. It's about a guy who lived in a pond for a few years. Walden Pond. And when he got there, no Walden appeared. and no pond was to be seen. And he wrote this book called Walden about that experience. And all of Walden comes down to something he said. He said, all you need to do is sit in an attractive spot in the woods.

[80:53]

And all the inhabitants in turn will exhibit themselves to you. And if you can sit still, you will be able to respond. He didn't say that, I'm saying that. Anyway, the thrust of all this is trust yourself. Trust that you don't have to do anything to live your life. Trust yourself and express yourself. And seated meditation is our way to learn how to really be ourselves and forget ourselves and be free of ourselves.

[81:59]

And this is all about compassion. This is all about where the energy that we need to be compassionate is born. They are intentions.

[83:17]

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