I don't know. I don't want to tell you what it is, but I feel that we need a little bit of... I feel that we really must be grounded in order to study this case. This case can get really heady if we're not careful. So... Sometimes it's said that... well, concentration or being settled without insight is just dullness or delusion.

[01:14]

But insight... without being settled or without being absorbed is actually kind of insanity or this is crazy. So this case seems like a really high insight case. The emphasis on insight seems really strong here to me. I think that some of you may be able to make something out of this case with your brains, with your intellect, which is fine. But I warn us, unless we are really settled. A lot of us, fortunately, wouldn't be able to make anything out of this anyway. In that case, being absorbed will help you tolerate your frustration and pain Yeah, with this case. Either way, I think whatever your problems, it's good for me to say to you that in this class, and when you look at this case in the future, if you ever do, that you really be absorbed into your state of human suffering.

[02:27]

I don't think there's a shortage of suffering in this group, from what I know from talking to you, some of you. Some of you I haven't talked to much, so I don't really know. But the ones I do know, I know you have a lot of pain. However, even among those who I know are having a lot of pain, are experiencing a lot of pain, even among those, or even among us who are like that, I do not feel that we, moment after moment, accept this. And I'm not criticizing us, I'm just saying I think that's very difficult to, moment by moment, accept this world of human suffering. I don't exactly believe that the people in this story had really done that kind of work.

[03:39]

I don't believe that they did, but in a way I consider it a possibility that they were taking care of that kind of work. And that's why these stories are so interesting, because these aren't just airheads here. These aren't just smart people talking. The level of precision that's being discriminated here or the level of precision and the discriminations in this case are intense or high. But again, that kind of looking that carefully and that thoroughly what's happening without being grounded in our basic suffering can blow your fuses And so I think that these people probably were pretty grounded. But I'm not sure. Maybe not.

[04:43]

But I think we have to be in order to study this case in particular. I didn't feel that way so much for case 21, to tell you the truth. In a way, I see case 21 as a kind of tip on practice in general, but particularly about how to study the next case. This is a case, I feel that case 21 is a very busy case. Very busy. And the busy mind has to be employed to embrace it. But the unbusy mind has to be there too, in a sense, right with it, in a sense of staying with this busyness and not getting ahead of it or behind it. So again, basically I say let's be aware of our suffering right now.

[05:49]

Let's try not to get out of touch with it through this class. And if you study this case after the class, first of all, before you start studying the case, check yourself out. See how you're feeling. See if you feel any pain, any discomfort, any anxiety or fear. And before you start reading this case or thinking about this case, settle yourself into this material and maybe don't even look at the case until you feel that you've really settled. And if you never get to the case, it's okay. It's good work anyway. But if you feel settled, then read the case and see how it is for you. Don't be in a hurry to get settled. It's an urgent matter, but don't rush. And then when you feel settled, then open the book and read the story and see if it's talking to you.

[06:57]

So I'm going to go ahead with this class, even though I'm not necessarily saying we're all settled. I'm going to go ahead with the class. But I just say this to you, that... try to stay with that level of your experience while we're doing this case. Now, part of what I want to say about this case is that what's going on here to some extent is some different styles of Zen. All three styles, there's three, not all three, but there's various styles of Zen, but there's three kind of, there's five main houses of Zen in China.

[08:02]

And there's three main houses. Does somebody want to do the blackboard? Hey, Marjorie, you want to do the blackboard? Yes. Use your Chinese a little bit. I can't write the characters. No, but can you write pinyin or something like that? Okay. Okay, would you go up to the board, please, Marjorie? I take your suffering with you, of course. Yes, sir. Okay, so there's five main houses of Zen. So, what are the five houses of Zen in China?

[09:05]

Well, you're going to learn something tonight. One of the houses is called House of Dongshan. Hey, that blackboard is working. That's nice. Nice writing. That's one house. And it's called, and then the name of the school is called, in Japanese it's called Soto. Enjoy Soto under there. In Chinese it's pronounced Cao Dung, Cao Dung, which is made of Cao and Dung, the Dung of Dengchuan. In Chinese it's called Cao Dung. Sao Dung, S-A-O.

[10:23]

Well, the Pinyin way of doing it is C-A-O-D-O-N-G. In Pinyin, which is the official romanization of the People's Republic of China, C is like T-S. Sao. Looks like cow dung. But actually, Sao Dung. Sao Dung. That's the lineage that comes down to this particular temple. Another main school is called, is a school of Linji. And it's called the Linji school, or Rinzai. That's right, Linji, that's fine. Linji right there. You can write over your writing again. The eraser above your head. Okay, Linji school.

[11:26]

Linji is a Chinese way of saying it. Rinzai is Japanese. Oh, that's not like Dongshan. No. Rinzai school got named after one person. The school of Dongshan got named after him and his disciple. Next school is the school of Yunmen. Yunmen school. I can't remember what that's got going on. Well, it depends on which romanization system. And in Japanese, they say umon. Umon. Did you say it louder? Umon. Un? Un, like the cloud. Umon. It means cloud gate. Is that wrong? Umon. Yeah, but you're right. That's right. Umon. You and umon. It's U-N, but when you're Roman, but you don't say, you can't say that. Un-mon. You can't say un-mon. You say un-mon. Anyway, Cloud Gate.

[12:29]

So those are the three main schools, and there's two other schools. One's called the, another one's called the Fa-Yen. I might write those down below, quite a ways below. They're not going to be featured tonight too much. Fa-Yen. named after Fa Yan, who we met in the Harris-Brett Deviation. Remember that guy? Case 17. The old Harris-Brett Deviation. Fa Yan, Dharma High. And then the other school is, it's called the Gui Yang. Gui Yang, which is, again, combined two people's names, Gui Shan and Yang Shan. Guiyang. Guiyang. Made from Guishan and Yangshan, master and disciple. So those are the five main schools. Okay?

[13:31]

Excuse me, what is the Chinese for Linji? Chinese? It means near the, sort of like, it's by the river embankment. How would you say it in Chinese? Linji. That is the Chinese? Yeah. I thought you meant with the Chinese characters. I think his temple was like near the riverbank, by the side of the river. His monk's name was Yi Shren, which means sort of like meaningful mystery. or significant darkness. OK. So let's see. I think that's enough.

[14:37]

Thank you, Marjorie. Why is it not called the school of Dongshan? Pardon? Why is it not called the school of Dongshan? It is sometimes called the school of Dongshan. But it's usually called, more often it's called by the name of him and his disciple. And the disciple is named after, whose name is combined, is not a disciple whose line survived. But he was very famous for a while, so maybe that's why they put his name in there. Now, do you know who, I guess you probably know who Dung Shan's teacher is, right?

[15:48]

Hmm? Who? Yunmen? No? Yunmen's over there. But you're close. Yunyan. Yunyan. Yunman means cloud gate. Yunyan means cloudy cliff. So Yunyan, from the previous case, is Dengshan's teacher. Okay? And... And who was Yunyuan's teacher? No? Yaoshan. Yaoshan. Maybe tonight's class won't be so hard after all, because it looks like you're going to be learning about our family here a little bit, which is quite easy.

[17:02]

This is the easy part of Zen, learning about the family. What the family does is rather kind of hard to understand sometimes. I think it's important to learn this stuff because, like, let's say we were, you know, in New York right now, or Paris. and we were a bunch of painters, you know, and we were trying to study and discuss painting among ourselves. It would be very important to understand who each of us, or who the painters we're talking about had for teachers. Do you know what I mean? It would be very important to know who their teachers were. It would be very hard to understand them without knowing who their influences were. It's the same here. These people do not make sense all by themselves. They make sense to a great extent in response to their teachers. These people are completely inseparable from their teachers.

[18:06]

So that's why I feel it's important for you to know who these people's teachers are and know who they are, not just know the name, but know stories about their teacher, plus know stories about the student and the teacher. So do you feel okay about this? about getting a little bit more familiar with what's going on here, the people involved, so you can sort of have a family sense of this whole thing. All right? It's kind of necessary for this case, I really think. But even if we never study this case, I think it would be somewhat useful. Is that all right? So tonight's class will be kind of a class in lineage study. Is that all right? Okay, so... Dongshan's teacher was Yunyan, and so you know something about Yunyan, right? Case 21 is about Yunyan. And you know about Yunyan's teacher, Yaoshan?

[19:13]

Do you know a story about Yunyan's teacher, Yaoshan? Do you know a story about Yaoshan and Yunyan? Okay. Do you know who Yaoshan's teacher was? If you know, just say so. No. His teacher was The great and famous? Deshan. Deshan? You know, I really like it when you guys just blurt that stuff out. That's good. His teacher was? Matsu? Just blurt it out. His teacher was? Actually, one of his teachers was Matsu, but his main teacher was Shirto, Sekito. Okay? Sekito means what? Stonehead. Yaoshan means what?

[20:21]

Medicine Mountain. Yuen Yuen means what? Cloudy cliff. Cloudy cliff. So Cloudy, and Dung Shan means Mount Dung. I think Dung means soft, soft. It's not East Dung. It's not East, if not, no, it's not East. It means soft, I think. Yes? I think maybe Marjorie would, as you say, it would help me to actually see it. Okay, why don't you, if you have notepaper, why don't you have one page, now you've got those three, those four or five schools, okay, now why don't you have a page for Dung Shan, all right? Okay. I'll give you a page for Dung Shan, a page for Lin Ji, and a page for Yun Men, and so on, okay? Yeah. Yeah. I think I know what their opinion is.

[21:25]

I can correct you, I think. So you can make room now for it. Why don't you write, erase it all, and you can write this lineage. And I'll tell you stories about all the people in the lineage so you can have a sense of the feeling for the lineage. Okay? And before I do this, I'll read you something, okay? This is something a Sao Dung teacher wrote. about these three schools. These three schools which are in this story. Okay? I'll read this once. I'll read it over. I just want to give you a feeling for this. This is kind of cute. In the school of Yunmen, the enlightened ones attain it out of a paradoxical combination of reticence and incisiveness. Incisiveness, a paradoxical combination of reticence and incisiveness. The deluded ones lose it out of discrimination and impulsiveness.

[22:34]

Those are the people who go to the Yunmen School. Incisive. I think it means like penetrating and precise expression. An incisive comment right to the point, on the mark. So in the Yunmun school, they have this comment, they work with this paradox of being reticent, quiet, withholding, terse, and then being very precise, going like Yunmun. It said, what was the teaching of Buddha's whole lifetime, Yunmun said, an appropriate statement. What is the meaning of the patriarch coming from the West? A piece of shit. This is an incisive and reticence. That's the way you get it in that school. And you lose it by a combination of discrimination and impulsiveness. You see the relationship between discrimination and impulsiveness and reticence and incisiveness?

[23:43]

They're very close. Hairsbreadth deviation there. The second school of Linji, the illuminated ones attain it by headlong daring. And the obfuscated ones lose it out of recklessness. What's the difference between headlong daring and recklessness? Precious. Precious little. That's the Linji school. Headlong daring is how they attain it in that school. Headlong daring is how they attain it. And I have a nice story about that. And then recklessness is how they lose it. And in the Sao Dung school, our school, the wise ones attain it out of fine insight. and the stupid ones lose it out of involvement in minute details.

[24:44]

These are the three schools of the story. Okay? Now, the lineage of this school starts with, might as well start with, after the sixth ancestor, right? After the sixth pioneer, it splits off into the great teacher, What's his name? Of this lineage? Huh? Way before, way before Dung Shan. Shurto? Close. His name is? Shansyo. Say it again? Shansyo. His usual, the way I would say it would be, Qingyuan Xingzi. Qingyuan Xingzi. Or Seigen Gyoshi. Qing.

[25:53]

C-H-I-N-G. Qingyuan. R-U-A-N? No, no. Y-U-A-N. Yuan. Qingyuan Xingzi. S-I. Seigen Gyoshi. Seigen Gyoshi Daisho. Okay? Seigen Gyoshi Daisho. His disciple is what? Seigen Gyoshi Daisho. Sekito Gisen Daisho. that's it you got it okay so after the next one is after that is shirto yeah that's sekito gisen shirto is sekito okay means stone head

[27:04]

Shingyuan means like pure source. And Shingsa means walking thinking. He was always walking around thinking. He was always thinking of Buddha. That's why he got that name. You have a question? Where are they in there? Yeah, this is the Soto school now. No, these are leading up to Dungsan. Dungsan, the school is founded at that point, right? Sagan founded a whole bunch of schools, right? Chinese, this is all Chinese. We're in China. It's the English translation. That English translation, when you say, yeah, right. How do you use that? How do you use that? Yeah.

[28:07]

How do I use the names? Or, and or, to understand, I suppose, the origins of why they're called that. Well, this is a little off the track, but I'll just say a little bit, okay? And that is, by studying, if you look at the lineages, which I have done, and particularly I've done it, of course, more because I give people's names, right? So I look over the lists of all these past, I look in these books, you know, of names of Buddhist monks for, you know, for a long time, and there's a book I have on names of Chinese Buddhist monks. And when I look at lineages and I see there's patterns in lineages, certain, there's, you know, people often name their disciples somewhat after themselves, play on words and stuff. Like in our lineage, there is a oftentimes you have a name, and then you have a successor, and then you have another name which uses elements from the grandfather's name.

[29:10]

Sometimes it actually repeats from the father's name. And certain lineages will have certain kinds of imagery repeating a lot. Certain lineages have a lot of clouds in them. Other ones have a lot of water in them. Other ones have a lot of mountains in them. Other ones have a lot of swords in them. Different lineages have different motifs. Hmm? Hmm? What kind of motifs are repeated a lot in ours? There's a lot of clouds in ours and a lot of mountains and a lot of softness, a lot of precision. Animals. Animals? Yeah, there's a lot of animals. Quite a few dragons. Not too many, not a lot of birds. in our lineage that I can think of. Although I've had quite a few birds sprouting out of my ordinations. Anyway, I could go more on that, but actually one thing I might mention to you just briefly, which I'd like to talk about in more detail later, is that there is a tradition in this school around here of making four character Buddhist names.

[30:29]

Usually Chinese Buddhist names are four characters, two parts. And the teaching I received is to make names in two parts, and one part's kind of like a sacred name, usually the first part, and the second part's like a Dharma name. And the distinction between Dharma and sacredness is kind of the difference between, in some sense, philosophically pure Zen and popular Zen. sacredness has to do with a particular place in time. There's like sacred mountains and sacred springs and sacred stars and sacred valleys and stuff. Sacredness is kind of like localized, whereas dharma is more all-pervasive, or the truth is not usually localized, or I shouldn't say it doesn't refer to a particular place. And our names that we give often have these two elements in it.

[31:30]

which also contrasts between two dimensions and religion, between kind of like official religion or kind of like, in some sense, elitist religion and common religion. But I'll get into that more later. Anyway, Qingyuan, Sekito, then Yaoshan, okay? So always walking, Leads to Stonehead. Leads to Madison Mountain. Leads to Cloudy Cliff. Yuen Yen. That's fine. And Yuen Yen leads to Dongshan. Well, Y-A-N. Yuen Yen leads to Dongshan.

[32:32]

Okay? So, and I think, like I said, Dengshan, Deng means something like soft. Soft mountain is where his temple was. All right? So, so here's a story about, let's see. a story about Yaoshan going to Sekito. When they first went, when Yaoshan first went to see Sekito, Yaoshan had been studying Buddhism a long time and was an expert on precepts. And But I would say that to him, in his studies, the precepts were still something out there that he was studying, some kind of like rules or something.

[33:47]

He didn't yet understand that the precepts are something about our core, that they're about the way we really are. So although he was an expert on the precepts, his study was not really working on him yet. And he heard about the Zen school where they have a practice which points directly to your nature and you wake up through this vision of what you really are. So he went to this Zen teacher, Stonehead, and said, please, teacher, please teach me. Please help me. And do you know what Stonehead said at that time? Do you remember what he said? He said, sometimes... Oh, no, he didn't say that.

[34:51]

He said, being just so won't do. Not being just so won't do either. Being just so and not being just so won't do it all. How about you? And Yaushan, Madison Mountain, couldn't say anything. And he said, please, tell me more. And Stonehead said, there's no affinity here. Go see Master Ma. Go see Matsu. So he went to see Master Ma, and told him the same thing and also told him what happened with Stonehead. And Horse Master said, sometimes I make him raise his eyebrows and blink. Sometimes I don't make him raise his eyebrows and blink.

[35:52]

Sometimes raising the eyebrows and blinking is okay. Sometimes raising the eyebrows and blinking is not okay. And that time, Yashan woke up. And he bowed. And Master Ma, Horse Master Ma, said, what did you see that you bowed? He said, now I see that when I was with Stonehead, I was like a mosquito trying to bite an iron bull. And Matsu said, you know, basically, you're just fine. However, Sekito is your teacher. However, he stayed with Matsu for three years and then went back to Sekito to finish his practice. Remember that story? It's a story about them. This is how Sekito cured Yashan.

[37:14]

And he also, he gave him the teaching, but Yashan couldn't use it, so he sent him an art teacher to turn it again. But he actually, he was the one who showed it to him. And then he told the other teacher, and the other teacher did the same thing and made it work. Took two times. Of course, he had been suffering for many years and really studying himself for a long time, so that when he came there, he could use these opportunities. How are you doing? OK, so ready for another story? So then we have this another monk here. So now we have Yaoshan has become a teacher and we have another monk named Yunyan. And this man, he went to study then with the great Baijian. Baijian, who you'll see on the next page.

[38:21]

Baijian was one of the greatest Zen teachers of all time, and this young man, when he was 14 years old, somehow got to be the attendant to Baijian. And he was his attendant for 20 years, from 14 to 34, and then Baijian died at 94. During that time, of course, they were very close, and Yunyan was there next to the great teacher all that time. But they say when he left, he still had not understood So his teacher died, and then he traveled, and he went to Yaoshan. And they spent quite a bit of time together, and Yaoshan also made him his attendant, made Yunyan his attendant, partly, I think, to try to find out about his, what do you call it, his colleague. his great colleague who had just died, he wanted to know through this person who had been so close to him something about the teachings of this great teacher.

[39:25]

So he would ask him questions, say, well, what did he teach? And Yunyan would tell him stuff that he taught. And then Yashan, after he told him, Yashan would ask him questions about it. And from the stories, he was not too happy with Yunyan's understanding. But after a number of occasions like this where he would ask him what Baijian taught and Yunyan would tell him, one time he said, well, tell me again, tell me something else he taught. And Yunyan said, well, one time he came up into the hall and all the monks assembled. And then he chased us. He came running at us with his staff, you know, big stick. Came running at us with his staff. And so we all ran out. And just before we got to the door, just before we got out of the door, he called to us, hey, you guys.

[40:28]

And we turned around and he said, what is it? And Yashan said to Yunyun, why didn't you tell me this before? Now, today, through you, I understand, Brother Baijian. And Yunyan woke up. So Yunyan was kind of a slow guy. And in a way, his slowness is, his slowness and ordinariness is in a way the, kind of like the hallmark of this tradition in a way.

[41:36]

Carefulness and slowness, not so spectacular. So this is a school where the wise ones attain it by fine insight and the stupid ones lose it out of involvement in minute details. This school emphasizes minute details. Emphasizes what we call menmitsu no kafu. The house school, the house style. Kapha means house style. It actually means house wind. House wind. Or the style of the house. The wind of the house is the style of the house. Okay? And the style of the house of Soto is minute attention to detail. Okay? So the stupid are the ones who in this practice of minute attention to details get caught by the details.

[42:43]

And the wise are those who in the process of taking care of minute details have fine insight. They somehow see the details, they keep track of them, but they don't get involved. very uh can you go i think the pop is too disturbing i think i'll listen to a tape later it's up to you um it's okay with me if you keep coughing are people getting the flu and stuff is that happening The great sharing. The great sharing. What?

[43:51]

Yeah. I asked you if Master Pajang is recognized in any lineage. I think he developed the rules of the Vinaya. He is recognized in the next lineage. He's Rinzai's grandfather. He's Linji's grandfather. So Dungsan was not slow. He was a real sharp kid, real sharp. Like when his little boy was chanting the Heart Sutra and when they got to the part where it says, no eyes, no ears, no nose, no tongue, no body, no mind, he said, but I have a nose and eyes and so on. And his teacher at that time said, I don't think I am, I don't think I can handle you.

[44:57]

And he sent him to another teacher. Just because he's Just because he said that. That doesn't, that doesn't strike you as amazing to say that? It doesn't? Not for a kid. Huh? Not for a kid. Yeah, any kid can say that. However, I mean, I would say, hmm, It's not so hard for a kid to say that, but when a kid's in a Chinese culture, and he's a little monk, and he's supposed to be learning this stuff, it's kind of, it apparently was amazing at the time. It's kind of bold, and it's honest, and he's aware of himself. The guy who held up the cat and supposedly cut it in two.

[46:02]

And Nanjuan was a disciple of Master Ma. Mansu. And Nanchuan was the teacher of the great Zhaozhou, who we've run into earlier in this book. So when Dongshan was traveling, he went to see Nanchuan, and Nanchuan was preparing to do a memorial service for his teacher, the great Mansu. And he said to the monks, You know, like we do ceremonies here, the night before we do a memorial service, we do a memorial service the night before, too. That's kind of a preparation for the real memorial service on the day of the death. So, the night before, in our preparations for the ceremony, he said to the monks, I wonder if Master Ma will come tomorrow or not to the memorial service we're going to do.

[47:05]

And none of the monks said anything. This young man, we don't know how old he was, he might have been a teenager, I'm not sure, but anyway, this young man came forward and he said, he will come if he has a companion. And Nunchwan said, this... This young fellow is, he said, worthy of polishing or carving. And the word he used for worthy was one of the characters from Dung Shan's Buddhist name means worthy servant. And the character he used was a character in his name. I had a little play on words there. And he said, this young man's worthy. And... And Dungsan played on words there too and said, don't disgrace or degrade someone who's worthy.

[48:16]

In other words, don't tell these people that I'm so good, otherwise you'll disgrace me. So then he left there and he went to study with the founder of one of these other schools I told you about, the Guiyang School. He went to study with Guishan. And he had an interaction with Guishan. But I think that story maybe is too long to tell you, so I'll skip it tonight. And Guishan referred him to Yunyan. And then he went to see Yunyan. And in his initial encounter with Yunyan, he had a significant awakening. And he stayed with yin-yang for quite a while after that, for further training, and he became yin-yang's successor.

[49:16]

And later, actually, one time he was doing a memorial service for yin-yang, and one of the monks in the assembly of his students said, why do you, you know... You study with various teachers. For example, you study with Guishan and Nanchuan. When you were a young man, you were recognized by that great teacher. Why do you do memorial services for this relatively unknown monk, Yunyuan? Why do you value him and hold him to be your teacher more than these more famous teachers who recognized you? It may be hard to understand this kind of thing now because we don't have nationally famous Zen teachers. I mean, we don't have nationally famous any kind of teachers, do we? Can you think of a religious teacher of any faith that's nationally recognized and nationally revered in the United States?

[50:29]

Billy Graham, sort of, yeah. Who else? Dalai Lama. Who? Dalai Lama. Dalai Lama. Martin Luther King. Martin Luther King. Any bishops or cardinals that are considered the popes? In some parties, except for political things, it's considered this kind of value. But anybody in America that's nationally known Maybe so. I don't know where those people are. I've heard some famous names, but they're not really respected that I can think of. I guess Billy Graham is somewhat respected, but do people respect Billy Graham? Do you consider him your teacher? Thomas Merton. Thomas Merton, yeah. Joseph Campbell. Matthew Fowler. yeah yeah so that that's that's about it right but you know but these people are controversial too a lot of these people you mentioned anyway in china they had a situation where there were like people are as famous as these people but that were apparently i mean really uh

[51:54]

highly respected and people knew about him all over the country. So this is a case where he visited several of these people and they recognized him publicly as, you know, this guy's really good. And Yuen Yuen, who's not well known. So then you can imagine if you were someone who had gone around and visited these people and been recognized by them and then you were doing memorial services for them, which is also not a common thing to do in America, right? We don't do memorial services for our teachers usually. as part of our devotion to their teaching. We don't usually do that, right? I mean, we might remember the day that our teacher died if we knew a teacher that was important to us. But this is China, too, and China has ancestor worship. So to do a monthly memorial service for your teacher was not so... It was part of the Chinese culture. Anyway, so this monk says, why do you do it for him? He said, it's not sort of the depth of his teaching or the vastness of his realization that impressed me.

[52:58]

What really impressed me was he never taught me anything directly. So again, that becomes a hallmark of this school is not teaching things directly, not pointing, not directly indicating what's going on. But by working on the minute details of everyday life together, providing the opportunity for getting it. And also to work together to notice when we get caught and involved in minute details to help each other get free of that. So we have a lot of that at Zen Center, actually. We have a lot of minute details here. And how we help each other with this stuff is a big part of our practice. Sometimes it's not so clear who is caught or how we're caught.

[54:01]

So that's that lineage there. And that's part of what's going on in this story here, 22. Dung Shan is commenting on this main case here. And so there's discussion of his style in the commentary. All right. Okay, so the next school, are you still with us? The next school is the, is this Yunmeng School? It's not actually the next school. Maybe the next, let's do the Linji School next. So, again, after the sixth ancestor, the other great, the other big teacher after the sixth one is named Nan Yuan Huaihai.

[55:18]

Nan Yue. N-A-N-Y-E-A. Y-U-E. Nan Yue. No, this is like, take the six patriarchs, okay? So on one side, the six ancestors, okay? On one side you have this Sagan, right? This Ching Ran from the previous page. That was the previous page. It makes sense? And then the other big disciple he had was Nanyue Huairong. H-U-A-I R-A-N-G. And his big disciple is? What, who? What, who?

[56:20]

Matsu. Matsu. Yeah, right. Do it that way. And he had 139 enlightened disciples. 139. But for all practical purposes, for this story, his main disciple was Bajang. B-A-I-Z-H-A-N-G. Bajang. Bajang. Huh? Is that their name? You mean in Japanese? Hyakujo. Baijan Waihai. What century was he born into? Baijan was born in 720 and lived until 814.

[57:21]

Yuen Yuen was 14 when he came to see him and 34 when he died. So Yuen Yuen was born in 780. No. 784. No. 14... Plus six. No, he was born in 786. 784, right? No, 794. Wouldn't that be it? 794 to 814. Is that right? Yeah, 794 to 814. Anyway, so baijian, and baijian had lots of disciples, but it's hyakujo, not shakujo. Hyakujo?

[58:42]

I've been around a lot lately. Hyakujo, that means, by the way, 1,000 feet. Hyaku is 100, or bai is 100, and jian is like 10 feet. His mountain, the name of the mountain was 1,000 feet tall. Okay, so then Bajon's main disciple for these purposes is Wang Bo. H-U-A-N-G-B-O, Wang Bo. He died about 1858. 850, when he died. And his main disciple, for our purposes, is Linji, Rinzai. Okay?

[59:45]

That's that school. This is the school Rinzai was famous for shouting, shouting at people and hitting them. And Matsu started that stuff. Matsu kicked Bajang one time and broke his leg. And he yelled at him another time and he couldn't hear for three days. And so they started that kind of stuff there. And we have a story, Case 13 of the Book of Serenity. is about, after Linji comes a number of disciples, but particularly comes a disciple named San... San Sheng, right? San Sheng. I'll try San Sheng after there, and write Case 13.

[60:47]

S-H-N-C-H-E-N-G. You got it. C-H-N-G. No, no, you got it. S. S, sorry. S. You got it. San-sheng. So, in that case, case 13, you remember that case? Rinzai says to San-sheng, he's about to die. Rinzai's about to die. Linji's about to die. And he says to his disciple, okay, I'm about to die now, so after I'm... After I'm gone, after I pass on, don't destroy my treasury of true dharma eyes. In other words, don't destroy my teaching. Don't destroy my treasury of true dharma eyes. And Sanchang says, how would I dare destroy the teacher's treasury of true dharma eyes? Or how would I dare destroy the teacher's treasury of eyes of the truth? Now, Linji's practice, what he's famous for, is yelling, right?

[62:08]

Shouting. So Linji says to Sanchang, later, if someone suddenly asks you about it, what will you say? And Sanchang yelled. And Rinzai said, who would have thought that my treasury of eyes of the truth would perish with this blind ass? So this shouting and stuff perishes with Sanchong. Sanchong yelled, and after that there was no more authentic yelling in that school, they say. He put an end to yelling, but he put an end to yelling by yelling. He yelled a yell which ended yelling. He killed his teacher's dharma. by using his teacher's dharma. This is a perfect example of the enlightened get it by headlong daring, and the foolish lose it, or the obfuscated lose it by restlessness.

[63:27]

It could have been quite reckless. Can you imagine, just imagine, from what little or a lot you know about Rinzai, this incredibly intense person he must have been. It could have been quite reckless to yell at him, even if he was on the verge of death. Or even all the more so if he was on the verge of death. The great teacher's on the verge of death and saying, don't destroy my dharma, and then you scream at the guy. So here's another case of, it was headlong daring, it wasn't recklessness. But it looks, it's pretty close there. That was the transmission of Dharma between them, that story. Okay? So, that's that lineage. And that's that style. Are there no more Renzai stories after that? There are, but some people say that after that it's all just phony. Particularly, the lineage of the Book of Serenity says that Rinzai was fine and Sancheng's shout was authentic.

[64:46]

After that, there were no more authentic shouts. After that, everybody just copied these guys. And that's what the people writing this book say. That's their opinion. Okay. Pardon? It's a different lineage. And also it is... It is... What do you call it? It is prior... to San Xiong's shout by three and a half minutes probably. Okay, next lineage please. This lineage, I'm sorry to say, unless someone has a Blue Cliff record.

[66:04]

Does anybody have a Blue Cliff record here or anything like that? There's not a lineage chart in the back of the Book of Serendipity, is there? No. Well, I'm sorry to say, I'm not sure about the early parts of this lineage, so I'm going to start with... Let's see. I'm going to start with a man named Lung Tan. Remember Lung Tan? Our old friend Lung Tan? Dragon Pond. Remember Dragon Pond? Lung Tan. That's okay, I guess. I am too. I think maybe it's a U. He said it's L-O-N-P-I-N-G. He just got back from China. L-O-N-G-T-A-N.

[67:05]

Lung Tan. Dragon Pond. And he's a distant disciple of the... He's another branch of this Seigen Gyoshi split off from the six patriarchs. And then after Lungtan comes Deshan, who we've seen in a number of cases previously, and we see him here again. He's already appeared three times, twice before in this book. So Deshan, and Deshan's the guy, the famous guy who ran into that old lady up in the mountains who was selling the tea cakes. And he was with with Lungtan and he was up one night late with him. And Lungtan said, well, it's late. You should go to bed now. And he walked out the door and said, it's dark. And Lungtan brought him a paper lantern and gave it to him.

[68:06]

And just as he took it, Lungtan blew out the candle. And Deshan woke up. He was enlightened. So Lungtan is also Guishan. Is that right? No. Lungtan is not Guishan. Guishan is another living being. So De Shan, he is a disciple. He has two disciples, two big ones. One is Xue Feng. Snowy summit. And his other big disciple is Yen To. Y-E-N. Y-E-N. What is it? Y-A-N, sorry. Y-A-N. Our present story. And then, the disciple of Xue Feng is Yun Men.

[69:08]

So Yun Men is the name of the school, and this is the school where the enlightened ones get it by a paradoxical combination of reticence and incisiveness. Okay? What? Oh, and they lose it by discrimination and impulsiveness. So here again, you can see that perhaps at play here in this story. Is this discrimination and impulsiveness? Oh, that's so good if you think about this story. Is it discrimination and impulsiveness or is it reticence? and incisiveness. Think about this story now, okay? So you got it? The stage is set. So, the first part of the story is of this lineage.

[70:16]

The story is between Deshan and Yanto. Alright? So we'll test out now to see do we have here reticence and incisiveness, or discrimination and impulsiveness. All right? So, Vishnu and Yantou were Dharma brothers? No. No, I don't think so. I think Shui Fung and Yantou were Dharma brothers. They're both disciples of Deshan. And actually, Shreyafang was awakened by his Dharma brother. And Shreyafang also, to make things all the more interesting, Shreyafang studied with Dungsan.

[71:30]

They say Shreyafang climbed Dungsan nine times. And Deng Xiaon kicked Shui Fung out. You know that story? Shui Fung was a cook. He was a monk and he was also a cook. And he went around from monastery to monastery and he dropped by and said, I'm a cook. He carried his ladle with him in his pack. And one time I think he was talking to, he was in the kitchen and and Dung Shan comes up to him and says, do you separate the rice from the grit or the grit from the rice? You know, the sand from the rice or the rice from the sand? Know that story? Well, what ensued was Xue Feng tipped the rice bowl over and Dung Shan kicked him out. And then he went and studied with Dushan.

[72:37]

But it wasn't Deshan that woke him up. It was Yanto. He was a super hard zazen sitter. They say he wore out seven zafus, completely pulverized them. And one time he was sitting really hard. They were camping out, they were traveling, they were camping out, and he was studying really hard. And I forgot what Yanto said, but some kind of wisecrack about, you know, lighten up, man. And he woke up. So anyway, now, this is a story of where Yantar was with his teacher, Darshan, okay? And the introduction is, people are probed with words. Water is probed with a stick. Pulling out weeds and looking for the way is what is ordinarily applied Suppose there suddenly leaps out a burnt-tailed tiger.

[73:45]

Then what? Okay, so, you know, I was thinking about this when I was in Minnesota in terms of the three pure precepts. You have, you know, avoid evil. You know, follow carefully the rules and so on. Avoid evil. And practice all good. Practice all good means practice giving ethics, patience, enthusiasm, concentration, and wisdom. Practice all these good things. Abandon your body and mind, or abandon your attachment to body and mind. All these good practices. This is what we call ordinarily pulling the weeds out or parting the weeds to see the way. But there's a third precept, which means the precept of maturing beings.

[74:49]

In this school, the way to do it is by incisiveness and reticence. In other schools, the way to do it is by headlong daring. Another school is by fine wisdom. Okay, so now, in this school, that's the ordinary way. Now, how about this way? What if suddenly a burnt-tailed tiger appeared? What are you going to do? So, Yantou came to Deshan. He straddled the threshold and asked, is this ordinary or holy? Is this ordinary or holy? Straddling the threshold, is this ordinary or holy? Holy. Do you people ever straddle a threshold? Anytime we got thresholds here, straddle them. And when you go in the kitchen, straddle a threshold and ask somebody nearby, is this ordinary or holy?

[75:55]

Darshan immediately shouted, Was that reticence and incisiveness, or was that discrimination and impulsiveness? Is this straddling the threshold and asking that question, is that reticence and incisiveness, or is that discrimination and impulsiveness? It could be looked at as discrimination, couldn't it? It could also be looked at as resistance. It could be looked at, and the yell, it could be looked at as incisiveness, or it could be recklessness, impulsiveness. It's right there. Can we actually tell that without being in that person's spot?

[77:09]

Can we do it? Well, that's the part about I told you at the beginning, you know. You've got to ground yourself in your own misery. Otherwise, or I've got to ground myself in my own misery. Otherwise, I'm just playing with words, you know. I hear some words and I think, oh, that sounds like this or that sounds like that. But basically, we don't know what we're talking about if we don't. It's our own grounding that makes it so we can tell. These words then, you can tell with these words if you're home. They're not any longer accidental words. What they mean to you is, you know, there's a completeness there, and it's not just discrimination. But if we don't have this grounding, then our talk and what we say and what we hear, it's pretty much just, I don't know, it's very thin and of not much use.

[78:10]

I mean, all of our practice then becomes very thin and flimsy. And just talk. All of it. I mean, you know, just like straightforward stuff too, like, you know, I'd like to be helpful or, you know, what's wrong with me today or I did a bad thing or, you know, any kind of just straight down to earth stuff even becomes very flimsy. But if you ground yourself in this, and you really feel the pain of it, and you really see the cause of it, then things aren't flimsy anymore. And then these words, I think, they'll be more, in a way, tangible, even though they're not graspable. So here's where the story gets a little bit tricky. Then the next line is, suddenly, you bring in another school. This story was interesting enough so it spread around town.

[79:16]

And over at Dengshan, Dengshan hears about this. Dengshan is a little bit older actually. No, Dengshan is a little younger than Deshan and a little older than Xue Feng and Nianto. So he hears about this story and he says, anyone but Yantou would hardly get it. Okay? He says this to his boys or his girls and word spreads around town that he said that. I don't know how long it took, but anyway, it moved, got back to Yantou When he heard this, he said, Old Dengshan, because Dengshan is older than him by about, what, 20 years, 21 years older.

[80:23]

Old Dengshan doesn't know good and bad. At that time, I was holding up with one hand and putting down with one hand. So is this incisiveness and reticence or discrimination and impulsiveness. Then, in the commentary here, which you will read, the Rinzai school is brought up. Okay? And he tells the story about Rinzai and this monk named Pu Hua. Pu Hua, which means universal flower. So then they tell the story about Rinzai and Pu Hua, and then they compare the story of that style of school, which is this Headlong Daring School. That style, those people are now commenting on this story too. So what's happening here is they're using these different styles of schools to talk about the same matter, the same issue, but from these three different styles, and they're being compared.

[81:38]

So that's why it's quite complicated, this story. All right. and the commentary. And you can stay away from the commentary if you want to. If you want to avoid some complications, stay away from the commentary and just stick with the case. You don't have to get in the commentary. Just stay with the case and think about the case. And just think about the Dungsan school and the Yunmen school. Okay? Okay? And if you get into the commentary, be careful, it's really a mess. Now, if you don't want to get into commentary by yourself, that's fine with me, but we're going to get into it. And it's going to be a case of the Soto school, which gets into minute details. And we'll try to do it without getting involved. And it's going to be hard.

[82:39]

You know, then there's Tiantong's verse, right? And... It's a mess. This is really a complicated case. So you don't have to get into this mess outside of class. I don't necessarily recommend it. It just might blow your fuses. If you want to, though, be sure you're meditating before you start reading this case. I think I would suggest don't just read this case without meditating, getting yourself in a meditative state. And if you only have time to get yourself in a meditative state, that's good, too. And then all you gotta do is just straddle thresholds. Straddle thresholds.

[83:53]

How's that sound to you, straddling thresholds? Huh? Horrible? Horrible. Do people have a horrible life? It's a razor's edge. And is it holy or ordinary? Nobody shouted. It's time to go to bed. You don't want to shout before you go to sleep? Good luck to you. threshold straddlers.

[84:42]

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