So on Sunday I offered a little slogan of settle, bloom, and meet. Settle into your experience. Or like it says here, sitting there watching success and failure standing there examining birth and death this is settling this is a voluntary act that you can make an effort at moment by moment It's your personal responsibility as a Zen yogi, as a Bodhisattva yogi.

[01:13]

Next part is balloon. This is something that's a gift to you. It comes to you spontaneously. It's given to one who sits upright in the midst of her experience. The next part is meet. Meet is half voluntary, half involuntary. You must make an effort to go forth, but you can't make the meeting all by yourself. It has to be somebody else who's also willing to come forth. the part that you can do is you can take up your place and your time and you can recognize somebody else that's worthy of your respect.

[02:20]

But then again, it's a gift if someone else is willing to be who he is or who she is and recognize you. So that's kind of summary of Zen practice, and it's also the way what's going on in this story can be described that way, too. Now, it's also true, another way to look at practice is instead of, like, settle, bloom, and meet, you can also say settle and meet together. You settle and then you meet, settle and then you meet. And in either way you look at it, this blooming, the blooming is there always. The blooming is there in seed form even before you settle.

[03:27]

But somehow, unless you're settling, you don't necessarily witness the seed and not witnessing. Somehow the seed, even though it still may germinate, you won't notice that it germinates and you won't notice that it sprouts and blooms. If you don't notice that, then you go to meet as a beggar, as a poverty-stricken person. So you need to go to meet saying, I'm here, there's somebody here, a worthy guest is here, I have something to offer, which I've witnessed being born while I was sitting and standing in my life. One thing I wanted to make clear also in one of the past stories was that when Jung Ja came to meet the Sixth Patriarch at Sao Chi, at that time, it may not be clear from the commentary, but at that time he walked around the Sixth Patriarch three times and stood in front of him, just like in this story.

[05:12]

Now, did anybody form any theatre groups last week, this week? No? What is the reason that the theatre groups were not formed? Did you get a copy of the cartoon? I got a copy of the cartoon. That was delivered before the assignment was given. The person who made that cartoon had an operation and it was a successful operation. Martha Wax. She had an operation and she's doing fine. So no theater groups, huh? Wow, this is a real disappointment. We shall go on.

[06:27]

Anyway, could you give us your name, please? Marilyn Fink. Marilyn. And what is your name, please? Oh, yes. You were here before. What's your name? Deborah. Deborah, that's right. You were here too. Deborah and Peggy. And what's your name again? Thomas. Thomas. Don't tell me Thomas. Okay, tell me. Thomas what? Burns. Burns, that's right. He said that I thought of George Burns because Lee Lomia's book by George Burns. And what is your name? Leah. Leah. Any other new people? Oh, yes? Eleanor. Eleanor? Eleanor. Is that all? Okay. Leia, Eleanor, and... I forgot. Yeah. Merlin. And Thomas. Okay, well...

[07:38]

Would someone be willing to act out this little drama? Anybody willing? You willing? Could you be Hermit Young? Huh? Yeah. The Hermit Young? And of Dung Peak? And would someone, who would be willing to be shun, I mean sung, shun-shi? Who would be, you want to be sung? Who do we need to know this? You can, just come up here, sung. And who is willing to be librarian Wei? Librarian Wei? Okay. And who is willing to be Chan Master Nan?

[09:11]

That's an easy one. Okay, Chan Master Nan. You can just stand up there if you'd like. Okay. Okay. Now, the national teacher Yuan Tong said, Magu is right, Nanchuan is not. Does everybody know this story, by the way? Do people know the story? You know the story? Well, this monk came to see his elder brother, monk His name is Magu. He came to see his elder brother. He was carrying the staff like this. And he walked around his elder brother, whose name is... What's his name?

[10:14]

John Jing? John Jing. He walked around John Jing's sitting mat, sitting on a sitting mat, walked around three times, stood in front of him, and just stood like this. And John Jing said, Wait, wait, wait. And Zhang Jing said, correct, correct, or right, right. Then he went to see Nanchuan, did the same thing, and Nanchuan said, incorrect, incorrect. And he said, Zhang Jing said, right, right, you say wrong, wrong. What's the reason? And Nanchuan said, Zhang Jing was right, you're wrong. And... This state that you are demonstrating here is something that's overturned or dispersed by the wind. It inevitably disintegrates. Okay?

[11:15]

So now, the national teacher, Yuan Tung, says that Nanshuan was wrong and Magu is right. And this saying is just like the following story. This is Hermit Young of Dong Pic, who asked the monk Sung Shun Chi, I haven't seen you for a long time. What have you been doing? Recently, I saw Librarian Wei and found peace. Try to recount it to me. So he's... Go ahead. Go ahead. Tell him about your reality. Tell her about your reality. Beyond words. You're right.

[12:18]

Wei's not right. So he couldn't understand this. So he went back and reported this to Wei. Go back and tell Wei about this, would you, son? Who's Wei? He's Wei. Tell Wei about this. Um, Yuan Tong just called? No, no. Oh, yeah, she's... Hermit Young. Hermit Young just told me that... Tell her, tell her the whole story. That you're not right. Tell her the whole story. The whole story. You went to see her, right? No, she... You met her. Is she a he? Isn't she a he? She said something, Hermit Young? You went to see Hermit Young, okay? Okay. Tell her what happened. You went to see her, and she said to you what? That, um... that I'm right. No, no, she said... She said, where have you... Tell that part, here.

[13:24]

Okay. Hermit Young came to me and said that... You went to Hermit Young. I went to Hermit Young. And Herman Young said to me, I haven't seen you for a long time. What have you been doing? And I responded, recently I saw Librarian Wei and found peace. Herman Young said, try to recount it to me. So I recounted it. And Young said to my chagrin, you're right, Wei is not. So I confided it. And I came to you. Never let one step wrong. So, Sanchi went running to ask Master Nan.

[14:27]

Go ask Master Natan. Should I tell them the story? Do whatever you do. What would you do? Run. Go run and tell the seers. Tell her about this. Neil. [...] Pull the other way. Three times. You got to do this. I think this is good. Women. No, I didn't bow. Herman Young came to me and said, I haven't seen you for a long time. What have you been doing? I said, recently I saw Librarian Wei and found peace.

[15:43]

But Herman Young, and then Herman Young asked me to account. So I did. And Young said, you're right. Wei is not. I couldn't fathom this. So I went to Wei. told the story, and Wei laughed. Oh, I was taken aback. You are wrong, Yang is... Wait, you're wrong, Yang is not wrong. Beginnings. So I can relate to you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, son. Could you follow that, ladies and gentlemen? So... You want this verse? Well, not yet. So... So... When... When Shun told Wei, Wei said... No, when Shun told Yong, Yong said that Wei was wrong and he was right.

[17:09]

She said he was wrong and he was right. And he went and told him, and he disagreed and said that you were wrong and she was right. Right? That's what happened. And you heard about all this, right? So what did you do? I made verse. Good for you. What did you say? Light and dark intermingle in the activity of killing and reviving. The sphere of a great being universally good one knows born of the same lineage not dying of the same lineage falling over with laughter the old all in the hut is this born of the same lineage not dying of the same lineage is that referred to an earlier story or is this the origin um It refers to earlier stories.

[18:11]

I don't know if this is the origin. There's certainly the same story, the same expression. But whether this is a take-off, whether you borrow this or not, I don't know. Okay. Okay. So here, the national teacher heard about this story of Magu visiting Zheng Jing and Nan Xuan, and he also visited, as it says above, another national teacher named Hui Zhong. And so Yuan Tong heard about this, and he said that Magu was right and Nan Xuan was not. So, What this is saying is pretty simple, in one level. Namely, Manga went around and talked to one teacher.

[19:12]

He said, right, right. He talked to another teacher who said, wrong, wrong. Then later somebody heard about this and reversed the decision. So here's a story, too. Another example, very simply, where This monk was explaining to this hermit about the peace he realized, about the state he realized, and this person said, the person you realized it with was wrong, and you're right. He went to see the person he realized it with and told him the story, and this person reversed it. Laughed and reversed it. So it's, on one level, it's pretty simple. Well, he reversed it and he didn't, you know, he said, you're wrong, Jung's not wrong. Well, yeah, it's a little bit different, isn't it?

[20:14]

Yeah, it's a little bit different. Okay, now the verse, which you can probably explain, right, since you wrote it. Light and dark intermingle in the activity of killing and reviving. Any comments? Well, my first comment would be that we wanted to keep him from holding on to his realization or from grasping it and making something of it. So not to get too attached to Yong saying, you're right. So when he went back to the teacher, he first recognized him.

[21:17]

The teacher really felt him carrying something, holding something. which is what I think the killing and reviving is too, in order to really thoroughly realize he has to let go of it. That seems good. He had to kill him in order to revive him. He was alive and he became dead, so he needed to be killed in order to realize he was dead, in order to be alive. In the Blue Cliff Record, case 31 is the same story, and therein it says that these people, all these Zen monks were going around visiting various teachers to see if these teachers had eyes, to see if these people sitting on these wooden chairs had eyes. And they say, observe how Magu went to Zhang Jing, circled the meditation seat thrice, and stood, and shook his staff once.

[22:29]

Zhang Jing said, correct, correct. And then the commentator says, to use the sword that kills people and the sword that brings people to life, one must be a master in her own right. So, if you see people that need to be killed, and you kill them in order to also bring them alive, this is a double-edged sword, right, that we're talking about. Manjushri kills people to revive people. But to use this sword, you have to be able to do it on yourself, too. It's fair, doesn't it? Therefore, a lot of times you might not be able to do that much because if you look at yourself, you say, wait a minute, I'm not even willing to die myself. I'd better not be telling other people. Yeah.

[23:35]

This last verse just, it seems to act as a reminder that all these stories are about people just trying to figure out about being people. How so? Well, maybe it's only so in my own head. I don't know. Light and dark intermingle in the activity of killing and reviving. The sphere of the great being, the universally good one knows. To me it speaks of what are you being born into and being born out of? Is there such a thing as doing this? The sphere of the great being... The sphere? The sphere of the great being, the universally good one knows.

[24:40]

It sounds like to me it's saying that There is nothing to be born into or out of, and this is why light and dark and killing and reviving are all part of the same thing, and this is something to ponder. So I say this is just people trying to figure out about being people. Yeah, that's what this is about. So light and dark intermingle in the activity of killing and reviving. Does that make sense to you? Do you understand how they do that? Well, I don't. If he's talking about killing and reviving, this guy's coming and he gets told you're all wrong, and so his idea is chopped up, and he goes running back for confirmation, and it gets chopped up again.

[25:49]

And that's the... It's who he thinks he was or what he thought he had. If he is suddenly switched and it's gone, he's left defenseless or confused. He goes running back for reassurance and he gets slapped. Am I missing...? No, I think that's right. By the way, the universally good one, I think that that means is Samantabhadra. bodhisattva of intense practice, practicing by vow. Light and dark can mean discriminating consciousness and emptiness. It could also mean good and evil. It could be right and wrong, too. I'm wondering what this right and wrong means.

[26:52]

It's changing around so much, you know, it just seems to be some little fishy kind of, what's the yardstick? We're deciding it's right now, it's wrong this time, it's wrong, you know, and back and forth. It just sounds like it's a play on these words, right and wrong. I mean, because they're in various ways, right? Right and wrong, and then the next time, look, Ma Gu is right and Nan Xuan is not. Instead of wrong, he's not. Then it's, then later on it's, Yang's not wrong. What if it has the same sound in the Chinese characters? Yong's not wrong. Anyway... Yong sounds like Yong in Chinese. What's the yardstick? What's the yardstick? What's the yardstick?

[27:54]

Awakening. What's that? It's a good question. Thank you. That's the answer. It seems like the yardstick is steady with right and wrong hard. It has a lot to do with holding or not holding, carrying or not carrying, being attached to a thought or an idea or a self or not. It does. And that can change in a moment. He's changing fast. Flashing back and forth. Is it faith? Is the yardstick faith? Faith? How do you describe faith? Faith is like... Faith is the person lining up with the yardstick. Yes. The yardstick is not faith exactly. The yardstick, I agree, the yardstick doesn't move.

[28:59]

Right and wrong do. But it leaves a mark, though. Yajna leaves a mark? At the mark it leaves. Well, the one who has arrived at thusness, this staff leaves a mark. The one who arrives at suchness? At suchness. Even, I can't remember, but even then the staff leaves a mark. Is that different from the ghosts? Where did you get that? I guess it's in the booklet record, or is it in this one? It's in this one. Where did you get that? Slication. Yeah. Back at the other guys. The precious staff of those who arrived at dustness itself leaves its mark. There we go. Precious staff of those who arrive at dusk.

[30:06]

So even that, even this precious staff of those who arrive, this maybe even causes trouble. But the one who arrives does not leave any mark. If he shakes the stick, there's no... Maybe the shaking the stick leaves a mark because people are attached to that. I want to postpone something and tell something else now. I want to postpone this business about what we do about the precious staff of the ones who have arrived. I want to postpone that a little bit, okay? But I want to come back to what do you do about the fact that these precious, these ones who have arrived have done something. They've done stuff like this. And most of all, the most important thing they did is they talked.

[31:09]

I want to talk a little bit later about what do you do about that stuff. First of all, I want to deal with the most important thing, and that is, what is the yardstick? Yeah, the yardstick is a meaning. What is a meaning? Is that anything at all? It's nothing at all. And yet it's also not nothing, right? And what is it a meeting between? Recognition? And what is it a recognition of? And what's on the two sides of the recognition? A Buddha and a Buddha. I was just going to say two entities that are like pure attention, that are not caught in hindrance. Exactly. Two entities of pure attention not caught in hindrance. It's not just one entity of pure attention not caught in hindrance, it's two of them, because one of them you still might be... Some people would say, there's that one, but it's even more subtle than that because it's the meeting between... It's the meeting between two entities of pure attention not caught in any obstruction.

[32:24]

That's the yardstick. It's not even a being... of pure attention not caught in obstruction, as they are, is because the meeting between the two is so subtle, so ungraspable, so intense. Because the meeting... I mean, there's a moment in our life, right? That's pretty fast. But then the moment of a meeting is even faster. Or, of course, it's actually the same. But you can see how, for yourself, some of your moments are a little bit last... You might last for a while, but in a meeting... That's even faster. That's how fast the fast really is. That's how fleeting it is. And that's why speed is really no speed. It's really fast. It's so fast that nothing can move at that speed. That's why it's still. That's the yardstick here.

[33:27]

It's the yardstick of authentic being. It's the yardstick of who you are, of being truly human. And you cannot get a hold of that. And yet, in the moment it arises and lives, it lives. And it lives so fast that it can't move. And that's it. And right and wrong are bouncing around it all the time. And if you hold on to the slightest, it's dead. So, each of us has to settle into our own authentic being, but still, as we settle, we still have some kind of sogginess around that, probably. And to get to the core of our own authentic being, it is found in the meeting between ours and another's, which is even more quintessentially fleeting and ungraspable.

[34:42]

And that is the yardstick against which everybody is right and wrong, back and forth, all the time. And everybody's like witnessing, and then clinging to a little bit, and then gets cut down and revived, and again recognize it, and again stick to it a little bit, or try to hold onto it, or try to carry it, and again needs to be killed and awakened again, and revived again. and awakened to it again and revived from the clinging to it and again and again and again, this is the way we draw. And it says down at the bottom, falling over with laughter, the old awl in the hut. You know what an awl is? It's like a poke, like for poking holes in leather. It's an old owl. What's an old owl like? Not very sharp. Not very sharp.

[35:44]

It can't... And you notice that was also back in case six. Remember? When who? Magu's teacher, right? The teacher of Magu, Nanchuan, and Zhangjin. The teacher of them, old master Matsu, The monk comes and asks him, beyond the hundred negations and the four propositions, what is the meaning of the ancestor coming from the West? And the old owl says, I'm kind of tired out today. Would you go ask Brother Tsang? This is so fast that sharpness can't reach it. It's so fast that, of course, dullness doesn't reach you either, but you can't get it by your sharpness.

[36:46]

You can't get it by your sharpness. It's not a matter of being sharp. That's why Samantabhadra is the one whose sphere this is. Only your vow can reach it. Not your wisdom. Your wisdom can't reach this, can't get a hold of this. Only your vow can reach it. Only the spirit of practice which is eternal can reach this place. And the spirit of practice which is eternal is, fortunately, exactly who each of us is. Who we are can reach this. And who we are can stand not to get a hold of it. Who we are can resist the temptation of getting hold of right and wrong. can live between right and wrong, and survive right and wrong, and allow itself to be killed and revived.

[37:48]

I must say, you know, I really hate to involve you in trashy TV series, but I just saw the concluding episode of Twin Peaks that someone sent me a tape of. And in the final episode, the hero, who is a man who by all accounts is a man who definitely I think pretty definitely, but not so roughly or grossly, holds to the good. Dale Cooper, A.J. Cooper. And not in a dumb way, but brilliantly and cleverly and flexibly holds to the good. The FBI. And he goes down into a realm which perhaps he shouldn't have gone into because he wasn't skillful enough to take care of himself.

[38:56]

But anyway, when he finally got there, there came a time when he was asked, he was told that if he would give up his soul, his lover would be saved. And he said, OK. This was in the show? Yeah. Huh? Yeah, what? He said, I think he said, I will. I'll check it out. He definitely said yes or I will or okay. He did it. And anyway... the way the story's played out anyway, that, in fact, it did save his girlfriend's life, but in fact it didn't save his girlfriend's life because he then became a great affliction to his girlfriend.

[39:56]

It's not that you won't give up your life for your love, but you can't give up your soul for your love. I think that's At least that's the way it looks in this story. You can say, I'll give up my life, but I won't give up my soul. And what is your soul? Your soul is nothing at all. So, he really can't give it up. So he should have said something like that. There's nothing there to give up. But all through that scene, I was wondering, what is the authentic way to confront the pit of evil? What is the way to conduct yourself under those circumstances? I thought I was right with him, you know, because he was sitting... It's interesting, he was sitting in a chair a lot of time, and he was sitting like this, which is the posture of Abraham Lincoln, you know, in the Lincoln Memorial.

[41:08]

It's a posture of a sovereign. It's a sovereign posture. And those chairs, you know, chairs, these guys, these eyes sit in these chairs. And, you know, chairs originally were at the base of chairs in the early days. When they first discovered chairs, chairs usually had claws at the base of the chair, which were usually holding some animal. Chairs started off by having, you know, like eagle feet or something like that, or eagle claws. The idea is the chair is something that a person who's a conqueror sits in. And so the chairs have this feeling that this is a sovereign presence. And arms of the chair, you know, you duplicate the arms of the chair with your arm when you're a sovereign. So you're a sovereign, you're an authentic sovereign sitting in the face of evil. But you must not hold on to good when you're sitting in the face of evil.

[42:18]

What is the authentic presence in the face of ultimate evil, which is simply the opposite of ultimate good? What is the presence that will take care of you in that situation? when demons, and also there's various scenes where demons would run at him and go, you know, just like Mara challenging Buddha. What did he do? How do you take care of yourself when it comes on to you like that? He didn't move. Buddha didn't move. And Dale didn't move either for a long time. And even when he left the room and when he was attacked, he didn't feel like he was really running away. He was more like saying, it felt he was saying, I'm going to check out another room. That's okay. You don't have to sit there for this stuff, unless you've decided to sit and you're being challenged to your seat. He wasn't actually sitting on his seat at the time that he was challenged by these demons. But anyway, I think this right and wrong business, how do you conduct yourself in the face of right and wrong, particularly how do you conduct yourself in the face of wrong, of evil, of darkness?

[43:31]

How do you take care of yourself? Do you hold to the good? Do you chant mantras? Maybe chanting mantras is okay, as long as you aren't holding on to good when you're chanting those mantras. Chanting the mantra of, what is it? What is the authentic presence that I should have under these circumstances? Where is my authentic self in this life? What is my true heart? And again, not holding on to my true heart, clinging to it, And if for a moment there was a fleeting realization that I had sat, that I had met my true authentic self, then not to hold on to that experience and to go again in the next moment and look for it again. What is it? And maybe you can even carry a stick. At the moment you carry a stick, at the moment you're there at that place, meeting another, you shake your stick right at that point

[44:36]

You can do that. Buddhas can do that. They can shake their stick, they can say, they can yell at that moment. It's okay. But when they shake their stick, or when they yell, or when they say hello, or nice day today, then we have this problem of the traces left by what they express at the moment that they're there. Which, again, I will deal with that in a minute. So we get exposed throughout the day to right and wrong, to good and evil, and our job, when nobody else is around, and also when other people interact with us, both from the outside and also from our own projections, either way anyway, inside, outside, all around the town, we get exposed to right and wrong. The constant question is,

[45:41]

What is it? What is that way? And that is our vow. Our vow is, that question is our vow, that way of being is our vow. And although we can't get a hold of it, we must be impeccable In other words, you're impeccable, you don't grossly, sloppily slop over into just being evil or slop over into being just good. You don't adhere to evil and you don't adhere to good. As you get better at not adhering or grasping evil and not grasping good, as you get better not to fall down into either of those, you approach this ineffable path, which again, You don't grasp that. It is ineffable. You cannot get a hold of it. And from that ineffable path, some word will come. Some gesture will come. Then, now I switch into this other thing.

[46:49]

Then when that happens, we have the deeds, the postures, the postures, of the ancestors, and we have their words. And in this case, in the Blue Cliff Record, it says a master named Lung Ya. You know, we chant this thing sometimes, you know? What's his name? Dogen's Hotsugamon. He quotes Lung Ya's vow. Remember that, Mark? Chan Master Lung Ya said. This is Lung Ya. Lung Ya said to his monks, those people who penetrate the study must pass beyond the Buddhism ancestors, the Buddhism patriarchs. You must pass beyond them. And then he cites this Chan Master Lung Ya.

[47:52]

who said to his monks, if you see the verbal teachings of the Buddhism patriarchs as if they were your mortal enemies, only then will you have the qualifications to penetrate your study. If you see... the words and phrases of the Buddhism patriarchs as your mortal enemies, only then will you be able to have penetrating study. These stories that you're studying right now are your mortal enemies. While I'm talking to you now, which will mean your true life is at stake. The most important part of your life is at stake. So this is the hair's breath deviation and I'm going to fail. Is that it? You're going to fail because of what? Because I'm off a little bit.

[48:59]

And how are you off? I mean, that's why this is a mortal test. And in particular, what are you supposed to be afraid of in terms of the Buddha's words? Believing them, grasping them. The devil quotes the Bible. The authentic words of the Buddhism patriarchs are the most dangerous. Isn't that because they're stuck in time, and all you have to protect you is the moment, and you're grasping something new some other time, you don't have the protection of the moment. All you have in that space is the moment, that's the only thing that's safe, whatever is fresh, whatever it is. Right. And if there's anything that'll tempt you, the evil might tempt you. But something might tempt you more than evil.

[49:59]

Look at him again. He was tempted by evil a little. But what he was tempted by more than evil was, for example, to save the life of his girlfriend. Which the Buddhists always tell you, you should save people, right? You should help people. You should give your life for people. If you can pass beyond them, beyond these Buddhism ancestors, then you will... If you can't pass beyond them, then you will be deceived by the Buddhism patriarchs. If you can't pass beyond what these Chan teachers are giving you, if you can't pass beyond them, then they will deceive you. And they'll deceive you more than anybody else, because the devil or some evil person may deceive you, but they won't deceive you as badly, because, you know, if you look at it, you can see this is just evil.

[51:05]

But you can't, if it's a Buddhist statement, it's not evil. Therefore you really can be deceived, therefore it's worse. Because these words were uttered from the present, originally. They were uttered from this ineffable, ungraspable, meeting place. Therefore, you can't discount it by ordinary means. The monk said, do the Buddhism patriarchs have the intention of deceiving people or not? Lungya said, tell me, do rivers and lakes have any intention to obstruct people? Although rivers and lakes have no intention to obstruct people, it's just that people now can't cross them. Therefore, rivers and lakes, after all, become barriers to people.

[52:10]

You cannot say that rivers and lakes do not obstruct people. Although the patriarchs and the Buddhas have no intention to deceive people, it's just that people cannot pass beyond them. So the patriarchs and the Buddhas, after all, deceive people. Again, you cannot say that the patriarchs and the Buddhas do not deceive people. If one can pass beyond the patriarchs and the Buddhas, this is the person who surpasses the Buddhas and patriarchs. Still, one must completely realize the intent of the Buddhas and patriarchs Only then can you be equal to those transcendent people of old. If you have not yet been able to pass through, if your study of the Buddhism patriarchs, if your study of the Buddhism patriarchs, in your study of Buddhism patriarchs, then you'll have no hope of attaining the 10,000 eons. So you have to pass beyond them, but you first of all have to realize their intent.

[53:15]

Then you have to pass beyond. You have to realize this profound intent, and that's what makes them so difficult to pass beyond. But they're like mountains and rivers. You must not let them stop you. And all the words in this story we're studying right now You must not let this story stop you from your work. But at the same time, this story may have helped you start your work. And now that it's helped you start this work, it's even more dangerous. Now that it's been helpful to you, it's all the more easy for it to deceive you and for you to think you see now how to do it. So why are you doing this?

[54:24]

I'm doing this to make clear, to help us realize what the intent of the Buddha's ancestors were. We must realize that intent. In this class we can realize intent. We can also in this class, after we realize the intent, we can also then warn ourselves to not let this intent become something which we're deceived by. Once we see the intent, as soon as you realize the intent, then the intent becomes your mortal enemy. The verbal expressions of this intent, once you hear this intent in words, once you can see that the words you're hearing are the intent of the Buddhas, then you're in trouble. You're in worse trouble than you were before. Because before, you were washing around in confusion and so on, But you hadn't met the true opportunity and held to it. You were just holding to various erroneous ways anyway, which is just fine that you didn't attach to them real hard.

[55:38]

And you didn't want to because they weren't that good anyway. And the loop they throw you for is not so subtle. The loop this throws you for is very difficult to see. That's why this is a big loaded presentation to make you really not even afraid. To make you avoid this without even being afraid of it, because fear is even too much. Loving this or being afraid of it, both are too much excitement around this issue. So how do we adopt a koan? I mean, can we still adopt it, make it our own, stay here for a hundred years? What do you mean, so how can we adopt a koan?

[56:44]

Well, you've been urging us to adopt a koan. Yes. So... Well, here's Kaan, right here. Adopt this one. So how do you adopt this one? You must realize the intent of this Kaan. Now, have you realized the intent of this Kaan? What? Have you? Yes. And so now, if you've realized the intent of this koan, now this koan is a real barrier to you. And if you would realize the intent of this koan more deeply, it will become more of a barrier. So, you must find a way not to be stopped by this wonderful intention here. This is the most wonderful intention, isn't it? This intent to find a place that can be called correct or called incorrect, it is correct.

[57:49]

This intention is the intention, the correct intention. The correct intention can be called... If the correct intention is called incorrect, you say, oh, is that so? If the correct intention is called incorrect, you say, oh, is that so? If it's called correct, you say, oh, is that so? In other words, The correct intention is never shaken by all the names in the universe, all the insults, all the compliments, it's never touched. No words can reach this intention. And one who lives with this intention doesn't hold to it and therefore acts spontaneously And once one has a sense of this, then that sense of it is like the traces left by one who has arrived. This precious staff, these precious words, then become mortal enemies.

[58:50]

And the realization, and any confirmation you've ever had, becomes also a mortal enemy. So maybe this monk really was there at that time when he first got the correct. but he blew it when he went to the second one. Now there's more in this koan. There's a verse. And also I think that this born in the same lineage and not dying in the same lineage Does that make you scary? Does that make you happy? Well, it's inevitable. You mean it inevitably deteriorates?

[59:54]

No, but the lineage branches. Two brothers, they're born of the same father. They forget their own lineage. That's true. It's inevitable. It's also sad, isn't it? You want me stuck? Not sad? Really? Only if you cling to your old age. Yeah. Don't you cling to your old age? You're lucky so far. Why do you say you blew it? Huh? Why do you say you blew it? Well, I'm not going to cling to that, but I think he came... We have several stories of monks coming. We have the story of Lungja coming to the Sixth Patriarch. Lungja has had some kind of realization. He's had some sense of his own authenticity.

[60:55]

He goes to the Sixth Patriarch, walks around the Sixth Patriarch three times and stands in front of him. And the Sixth Patriarch says, he walks around him but doesn't bow. And the Sixth Patriarch says, Here's a fuller rendition of that. A monk is to have a thousand modes of dignity and 84,000 refinements of conduct. Where have you come from, O worthy one, that you bear such self-conceit? The Sixth Patriarch says that to Lin Jia, who walks around in a distanza rather than bowing. There's a sutra called the 3,000 Majestic Conducts. There's 3,000 majestic styles of behavior that monks are supposed to practice. And one of them is walking around the Buddha three times, bowing and stepping to the side. So he says, how come you're so conceited?

[61:57]

And then Lungja says this thing about the story we told before. There's one. Now here, in this story, Magu's coming with that same presence. Younger brother going to older brother. Here I am. This is my authentic self. And the older brother says, correct. Now actually, already, probably it wasn't correct. He probably already was holding on to it. But his older brother... saying, oh, okay, well, I'll just confirm it now. And somebody else at that moment said, that's wrong. His confirmation is wrong because he shouldn't be so soft on this guy. He should have said wrong right away. But then it looks like he carried not only his own authenticity, but his confirmed authenticity to the next teacher. And the next guy was even nicer. He said wrong and then explained it.

[62:59]

He said, you know, what you've got here, this state you've got that you had before, that your authenticity is something which is subject to being turned over by the winds, inevitably disintegrates. He's even nicer. He's wrong, too. Neither one of them killed him. So he went to see another person, the national teacher. And the national teacher said, Since you're capable of such conduct as this, he's doing the same thing, right? Since you're capable of such conduct as this, what further need is there to see me? And Magu shook his staff again. The national teacher said, you wild fox, get out. Finally he met someone who was really kind. Then this other story again. This young man has some realization. He finds peace within the presence of Librarian Wei.

[64:02]

And he goes and meets an old friend, Hermit Young. And Hermit Young says, where you been? He says, well, I got peace with Librarian Wei. And he says, oh, no, you didn't. You were wrong. So he goes back and says, hey, Librarian Wei, and so on. So I say whatever I said then, but basically, it looks to me like he was wrong, that the monk was, in the first case, was already off, but the other guy, the original teacher, Jiang Jing, was kind of nice to his younger brother and said, right. But I think he was off, and I think Jiang Jing was off, too. But how is that nice? Older brotherly, you know. Oh, how wonderful. You have a sense of your own authenticity. That's great. You're happy to see that, right?

[65:05]

That's right. I understand that feeling. People come and show me their joy at realizing their own authenticity. I want to say right. Especially if it's the first time. I want to say right, rather than Here you've realized it and you're holding on to it. How sad. How sad. You were so close and you blew it. That's killing and reviving. When the person feels that killing, at that moment that they're killed, at that moment right there, their new authenticity is born if they can spot it. But I don't think he did it. I think Zheng Jing, like I would feel a lot of times, oh, they just realized it, let's let them have it, rather than no. Then he goes and sees Nanchuan, who says no, but then still is being nice to him. Still being nice, he explains why it's no.

[66:09]

He says, now you've come here and you're holding on to that realization, you can't go on to this kind of thing. He's still coddling him, he still didn't kill him. I don't think. Yeah, yeah. Why is that not killing him by explaining it? Because he gives him something else to be attached to? Instead of just going bang and knocking him out of it, he's explaining what happened? I think so. I think he's explaining too much. In fact, he says no and he tells him why no. I think that was still... very sweet, even more doting, it says here, it says in the commentary in the other case, it says, he was even more doting than the first one. They're both doting on their younger brother. Can you imagine? They're doting on their younger brother, being very sweet. That happens sometimes. And people need that sometimes.

[67:10]

And in fact... were right because magu grew up to be a wonderful great zen master they were right but they were also wrong they could have done something real vital right then and they didn't so he went to see the national teacher the national teacher did cut him down if a person has a but i'm not attached to this stuff i could tell the story a different way really i just representing For your sake, I'm representing that position. I want you to see what it's like when somebody represents that position. I don't really hold it, though. Yes? If a person has a realization of their own authenticity, do they have the... feeling that's there, authenticity? Is there the concept of it being there? That's a low-quality realization of authenticity if they haven't had anything. That's what I wondered. So it sounds like, I thought of this today another time, this liar's paradox.

[68:13]

If a liar says he's lying, he's telling the truth. They're always lying about being a liar. So he's telling the truth. So if someone has a, it sounds like somehow in this wording, you know, if you have a realization of your authenticity, you have some concept of a self. Yeah. That's wrong. Yeah, and even if you don't have a concept of self, if you're holding on to the slightest bit to even that, this is not right, right? The slightest flicker. or any kind of holding doesn't work. Because, in fact, that's not who we are, really. Really, who we are does not have the slightest cleaning. That's our most authentic being, is not the slightest. And that's why these guys go to meet these other people, because the actual self, the actual authenticity is not personal.

[69:16]

That's why it's the meeting that's the most authentic thing, because it's the meeting if you don't own the meeting. And then the meeting, you can try to get a hold of that. And that would be the ultimate thing to hold on to, because that is the most selfless. So one thing is to have your own sense, your own personal realization that you're carrying around, then even worse than that would be then to have that confirmed in a meeting and then carry that around. Because this is the, if you're going to, that is the most precious thing to hold on. This is the traces of the Buddha. And in some cases the traces of your own Buddha which is born in this kind of meeting between two authentic beings. Okay? Now, let's go on to the verse, because the verse is now talking about how difficult these stories are.

[70:21]

Yes? So, can you have an awareness of this thing without meaning? It sounds as if, as soon as you're aware of this, of this in itself, then... This meeting is not an awareness. However, this meeting does not happen in mid-air. There always is awareness when these meetings happen. But the meeting is not an awareness. The personal realization is not an awareness either. And the meeting is even less of an awareness because how could there be an awareness of the meeting? I mean, how could the meeting have an awareness? A meeting is not an awareness. A meeting is reality. Reality is not an awareness. But reality has no meaning outside of awareness because reality coming into the realm of awareness is what saves beings. Or it's the reality of awareness that saves beings. But the reality of awareness is not an awareness. Just like the reality of stupidity and the reality of confusion is not confusion.

[71:30]

It is non-discriminating wisdom, which is nothing at all. It is simply liberation from confusion. And liberation from confusion is the nature of confusion. Confusion is liberated by itself. The only thing that can liberate confusion is the nature of confusion. We don't have like wisdom coming down from Mars and pulling people up out of confusion. The nature of confusion saves people from confusion. The nature of confusion gives wisdom. So that meeting is not an awareness, but two beings who have awareness and who have been working at becoming aware of their awareness and who have been sitting in their awareness, watching their awareness day out, night out, after day out and night out, they do this all the time, these beings

[72:32]

are the beings who realize the authentic being of awareness, watching gain and loss, watching success and failure, watching birth and death, all the time, which are concoctions of awareness. These beings then meet, and their realization, which is not an awareness, meets another realization, which is not an awareness, which creates the most thorough awareness, which is not an awareness. And that, then, would be the thing you would most want to hold on to, because it would be... it's the top of the line. It's the end of the road. It's the point of the whole thing. It's what the universe has been waiting on all this time. How is that a state? How is it a state? Only by name it's a state. What is a state? It's a state that receives enlightening beings.

[73:39]

It's a state that you get at Matsu's place. What is it? It's a state that leaves traces. Whenever you do anything from this state it leaves a trace. Everything you people do all day long leaves traces. But if you ever had a moment of awareness wherein awareness was seen through, and then you met someone and you did something at that time, that would leave quite a trace. For thousands of years people would talk about that. And then the stories about that moment would become then obstacles to generation after generation of Buddhist disciples. But there's no way to get around that except to tell people, Look at these stories of these people who had these meetings, realized the intent, that met the intent, and liberated all beings, and don't be obstructed by that. But don't avoid it either.

[74:41]

Go right into that dark lodge. Go right in there. Now, if you can't handle it yet, don't go in. Check with your teacher before you enter. But if you go in there, you've got to be careful. So let's read the verse now, shall we? Right and wrong. Watch out for the trap. Right and wrong, watch out for the threat. Seeming to put down, seeming to uphold. Just like me. Did you see me do it? I was just acting. It's hard to tell who is the elder brother and who is the younger.

[75:46]

Conceding, he adapts to the time. Denying, what's special to me? One shakes the metal staff, standing out all alone. Three times around the seat, a leisurely romp. The monastery is agitated. Right and wrong are born. It seems like they are seeing ghosts in front of their skulls. This is the dark lodge. and the players are great bodhisattvas. No evil intent here, and yet the slightest deviation is a great evil. Here's another translation. Yes and no, watch out for traps. It seems to be putting down, seems to be approving.

[76:55]

Who is the elder is difficult. Who's the younger is difficult. He knows to release when it's time. What's special about my snatching away? Thumping the golden staff all alone. Circling the rope mat thrice, he plays at leisure. Being agitated, a monastery spawns right and wrong. I reflect. than a demon seen in a withered skull. Now here's the Blue Cliff Records verse. This right, I mean this wrong and that wrong. It's important not to take them away. Then the waves are calm in the four seas. The hundred rivers return to the ocean tide.

[78:01]

The standard of the ancient rod is lofty, with twelve gates, twelve rings, twelve gates. In each gate there is a road, empty and desolate. Not desolate. The adept should seek medicine without disease. So this story is also closely related to some of the stories you studied before. It's closely related to case eleven, right? Zen sickness. Zen is a practice where it is a sickness to think you're not sick. Right? So the verse is pretty simple.

[79:08]

Do you have any questions? I mean, I shouldn't say it's simple then. Maybe you don't want to ask any questions. But anyway, I think it's not that difficult. It's basically sympathetic to the situation which we've just discussed. What time is it? Well, if nobody has any questions, let's read some commentary. I have a question. Okay. The monastery is agitated right now. Yes. The monastery is agitated. I bet you it's somewhere else later on, too. I don't know. I don't know. In the added sayings verse, it says, a midget walks with a fly.

[80:10]

Hey, there's a midget in the dark. Yeah, there you go. That's nice, isn't it? So you have monasteries, right? This isn't exactly a monastery, but tonight is sort of a monastery. And midgets are watching this play. When the midgets watch this play, I mean, I'm not criticizing anybody, but if the midgets watch this play, they probably would think, right and wrong, right? Midgets get agitated, get excited and upset about this stuff. And then, right and wrong. Right and wrong about themselves, right and wrong about others. Such, anyway, right and wrong are spawned, are born, they pop up when you get agitated about this stuff.

[81:11]

Does that make sense? So what's your question? I think that answers the question. The monster is agitated just means this inquiry that we're engaged in can be agitated. Yeah. You know, the people in the room, each one of us, What was the ultimate translation of that line? Do you have another translation? The monastery is being agitated, or being agitated. The monasteries spawn right and wrong. Whose translation was that? Who did it? A guy named Neil Donner. So he translated the case and the verse, not the commentary. Okay. Okay, let me just read the commentary and see if there are any questions when we read it. This public case is entirely in the right and wrong.

[82:20]

These days everybody says Magu was being teased by Zhang Jing and Nan Chuan. Only Da Gui Che has said, Zhang Jing's saying right fell into Magu's target range. Nanchuan's saying wrong also fell within Magu's target range. It's like a diamond in the sun. Its color is not fixed. Tiantong said, watch out for the trap. Seeming to put down, seeming to uphold. It's hard to tell who's the elder, brother, who's the younger. Tiantong is saying, that when you take a look, they seem to be putting down, seem to be approving. When you examine further, it's hard to consider one elder, hard to consider one younger. It's sickeningly complex and subtle.

[83:27]

You know, the student comes with some realization of authenticity, the teacher is moved by that realization, and you know, you're in trouble. If you say, oh, it's so cute, right, that's not so good. If you cut them down and say, you know, wrong, that's not so good either. It's a mess. And not only that, but you're a human being, so you're affected by their excitement and their happiness at the realization of the fact. If you don't have those feelings, you're out to lunch. You haven't returned to the sea in which they live. The Buddha comes back into the sea of suffering so that he can relate. And you come back, so you get these feelings, sympathetic feelings.

[84:30]

And then what do you do with your own sympathetic feelings? You kill them to give them birth? Yes? You do that at the same time that you let the student get by with it? Maybe. It's really subtle. It's hard to tell who's, you know, who's on top. The student in some ways has it easier. All they got to do is come and say, hey, I'm happy, I found something out. That's pretty clear. They don't have to figure out, the teacher's got this more complicated situation. What will be most helpful? A little confirmation and then later cut them down? Just go with my immediate response? Hold back my immediate response. It's so fast. What? Don't you have to trust the moment from your intention? Your intention that puts you there in the abbot's seat or whatever, and that that place is going to tell you what to do in that moment? Yeah, and often what it does is it puts you in a place of thinking what to do.

[85:32]

But sometimes either way is okay. Yeah, definitely. I mean, it's anyway, I'm just saying it's hard to tell. What I'm trying to say is that I think what they're saying here is that in fact the older brother has got quite a hard job too. Not how, you know, they've got their own jobs and they're both having a hard time living up to their responsibility. It's not like one's sitting there having an easy time And the other one's like sweating. They share the difficulty, they're in the same boat. They're trying to meet. And I really think that neither person can be better at the relationship. The onus is on the teacher. Michael just comes along and he just walks around and there's a bop and then the guy says, right. So he goes over here and he goes, bop, and the guy says, wrong.

[86:40]

And he says, hey, you know, the other guy says, right, how come you're saying wrong? And then the other guy says something and then... He said, this is great, I think I'll go over to it again, you know, just to the national teacher. So he's just a bodhisattva presenting opportunities for the teachers. Right. Yeah, and trying to see are there any teachers around here. Yeah. So being a student has certain advantages, doesn't it? It does. So let's all be students. Yeah. But while being students, you have to go meet somebody who's a teacher. So somebody has to play the role of teacher. Oh, it's so sad. They might leap out of their seat and beat you with a stick. Yeah. Only if you're lucky. There was that one guy who, every time somebody came to him, he would leap on him and drag him into the hut and throttle him and throw him out.

[87:54]

Different approach. And we're still talking about him. John I, son of Chen Yuanfang of the Eastern Han Dynasty, was Chen Jun. This is basically telling you who Chen Zhen is, all that stuff. He and Jiang Feng's son, Xiao Guang, were each discussing their father's respective merits. As they argued, they couldn't decide the issue, so they asked Tai Chiu, Taichu was a Chen Shi, father to both Yuan Feng and Ji Feng.

[88:55]

So I guess they went and asked their grandfather. Is that right? Yes. These guys are cousins, right? So they go and ask their grandfather. Tai Chu said, it's hard to consider Yuan Feng, the elder, hard to consider Jian Feng, the younger. So apparently this problem has been going on for quite a while. This means that Jian Jing was half a pound in the left eye, and Nan Xuan was eight ounces in the right eye. What's that? Is eight ounces half? One shakes the metal staff, standing out all alone.

[90:02]

Jung Ja's Song of Enlightenment said, It's not, this is not showing form for useless, this is not showing form for useless concern with control. The precious staff of those who arrive at dustness itself leaves its mark. Sway Do said, Sway Do's the commentator in a Blue Cliff record, the way the ancient rod is lofty, The way of the ancient rod is lofty, with twelve gates. In each gate there is a road, empty and desolate. That's what I just read. The Ringstaff scripture says the twelve rings on the head of the staff are used for remembrance of the twelve causes of conditional existence and cultivation of the twelve gates of meditation. The twelve conditions are well known, the twelve gates...

[91:06]

are the four meditations, four immeasurables, four formless gates. The four meditations are, you know, the Rupa Dhatka meditation, it has four levels, and the four immeasurables are... What are they? I think they're... I think they're loving-kindness and so on. That's what they're referring to there. And the four formless things are the four formless meditations, traditional yogic practices. The way of the ancient rod is lofty, with twelve gates, is the same as standing out all alone. The Sixth Patriarch also said, a monk fulfills 3,000 standards of conduct and 80,000 refinements of action. Where do you come from, great virtuous one, conceiving such self-conceit?

[92:10]

That's what he said to Jung Ja when he came to him. Tien Tung means to say that this is neither representing a form nor self-conceit. And it's past 9 o'clock, so maybe you want to go into that. Anyway, I think there's a few more subtleties in here, I imagine. But nonetheless, I think we made some effort on case 16 of the Blue Cliff record, case 31 of the Blue Cliff record, and case 16 of the Book of Serenity. And I wish us all the best. We've got some good material here to not be deceived by. If you people can realize the intent here and not be deceived, Buddhism will be thriving in West Marin, maybe even East Marin.

[93:22]

Maybe even tracing. Yes, sir? Do you think there's some similarity between this case and case 9, the non-schwan? What's that? They're identical. I was going to say, go back and start reading some of the commentary on that one. In both cases, you've got this old wong, old non-schwans here. This is very important. So next week, we will start studying Fayen's air breath. Okay, so please study Fa Yan's hair breath as soon as possible. Maybe you could read it tonight before you go to bed and have some dreams. Dreams of your authentic self and how you can live in it without holding on to it. Then you have to forget the dreams. No, you don't have to forget them.

[94:26]

That's a way of holding on. Just like you don't have to forget this staff. It isn't that you forget these traces, it's that you do not be obstructed by them. But if you try to forget this Buddhist teaching that you've heard, that's another way of being obstructed by it. That's probably a better way of being obstructed than to hold on to it, though. You have to choose one of those extremes I recommend forgetting everything you've heard. But a better way is remember it, realize its import, and don't be deceived by it. That also makes more effort. And it's good to make an effort. It's better to remember it, and remember it, not forget it. Because if you forget it, You try to forget it, you don't realize you still know it. So you're stuck. But if you grasp it, at least you know you're grasping it.

[95:31]

If you remember it, at least you have a chance to realize that you're remembering it and that maybe you can notice that you're holding on to it. So please memorize these stories. Yes, sir. Yeah, that's another one. That's the story of Dushan. You know Dushan? Remember him? Case 14. That's not the case of Dushan. This is the story of Judy. Judy, one-finger Judy. Whoops. There was a Zen monk named Judy, and when everybody asked him, he raised one finger. One time when he was studying, a nun came to see him. And she came in, and she didn't take her hat off, which nuns are supposed to do when they meet people, not to mention another monk.

[96:42]

And she came and walked around him three times and said, if you can say something, I'll stay. Otherwise, I'm leaving. no I'll take off my hat and he couldn't say anything and then she started to leave and he said it's getting late it's dark out there it's cold outside baby so please stay and she said if you can say it's a good word I'll stay and again he couldn't say anything and she left and he said although I seem to have the body of a man I don't seem to have the spirit of a man." And then he was going to leave his meditation hut and give up, give up. And then that night, in a dream, I think, Manjushri came and said to him, it's okay. Pretty soon somebody's going to come and visit you and help you out. And somebody came.

[97:46]

And they had a meeting, and then after that he ran like this all the time. He woke up a lot of people. And he woke up a lot of people. And then one person grabbed a hold of that and clung to that and then he cut that person's finger off.

[98:04]

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