I don't know if you noticed, but we have a visitor today, two visitors, two people who have come to California and Zen Center from the Soviet Union. One person is a Buddhist Rinpoche who lives in the part of Russia which is just north of Mongolia and where there's a long tradition of Buddhist practice. And he's come to America to try to make some connection, some links with American Zen and other Mahayana Buddhist practice centers. So we're very happy that he's come on this mission and we hope to have some exchange in the future where students from Soviet Union will come and practice here and some of us may go to Mongolia or part of Russia north of Mongolia.

[01:05]

And also his translator here He's a person from Leningrad and they're both here and will be sitting today and tomorrow probably with us. Thank you for coming and joining us. Also, I might mention parenthetically that while you've been sitting here, this planet has gone through a major crisis. In the Soviet Union, by coincidence, there was what was called a coup. That's what we heard. But it actually is over now, and we now heard. But there was a major upset, and a committee called the Emergency Committee was formed. And for a while there, it looked like the whole thing was going to get turned around by right-wing militarists. But apparently they've fled, and the situation has stabilized again.

[02:12]

But that's been happening while we've been sitting. So thank you for sitting through that. and for everything you've done to stabilize the situation. I haven't strictly followed a plan, but somewhat what I've been doing over and over, what we've been doing over and over, is making our aspiration, receiving Buddhist precept, and entering into the Buddha's mind. That's sort of the pattern of my talks. So we start by making this aspiration, this vow. Then I talk about what is the Buddha's precept, what is the precept of Buddha. And then we enter into the world of Zen.

[03:12]

Zen practice is kind of strange if you don't understand its context. Because we are totally dedicated to the welfare of all beings, because we are devoted to help all beings become free of suffering, therefore our ancestors acted so wild. Therefore they did all these fantastically amazing things. sometimes quite ordinary, but the stories are often of quite unusual things that they did in order to help each other not take themselves seriously. But it's in that context that these stories occur. So again, you read the vow, Dogen Zenji, and I also hope that by telling these stories to you, you will be able to hear in the stories a line, a thread which runs through the stories.

[04:28]

A thread of aspiration and a thread of practice and a thread of realization. Each generation, the practice, the realization, and the aspiration is the same, and each generation it's different. So if you understand what the aspiration of the Buddhas have been, what their precepts and practices have been, and what their realization is, and see what it is in each generation and see how it changes and how it's the same, then you will be able to understand in this generation how your aspiration, your practice, and your realization is the same, must be the same, and also must be new and unheard of and shocking, perhaps, probably, especially to your teacher.

[05:37]

The aspiration, the thread which runs through all the Buddhas. And by the way, you know the word sutra, which is a word for scripture. Sutra means thread, like in the word suture. It means a thread that, you know, in Chinese and Indian texts, Sanskrit texts, the thread that they run through the page of the scripture is called sutra. The thread that runs through the sutra is called sutra. And in Chinese, too, the word jing for sacred text also means the thread that runs through the wood blocks. So what is the thread that runs through all Buddhas and ancestors? It is the aspiration to save all beings, all beings. And today I want to emphasize to save all beings before myself.

[06:48]

All Buddhas have this vow to save all beings before themselves. They all have that vow. Another thing that all Buddhas do is they all sit. All Buddhas sit. As a matter of fact, Buddhas are always sitting. And the way they realize this aspiration of saving all beings before themselves is by sitting and doing nothing. That what saves all beings is for you to make that aspiration and then not move from what you really are. What you really are is what saves all beings. Strange as that might seem to you and your friends, Your authentic, genuine, real self is what saves the world and brings peace to the world. But it is very difficult to not move because we take ourselves seriously and we think we're a big deal, therefore we think we have to do something.

[08:00]

What you actually are is what does the work. What you do is just your own vanity. What I do, everything I do is just vanity. But what I am saves the world. And what you do also is simply vanity. But what you are is inconceivably inspiring to all beings. I see you sit here You are very inspiring, very beautiful. You have various opinions about yourself and think you must do this or that. I don't care. I don't know about that. All I do is I see you sitting still and quiet. I see your sincerity. I see your commitment.

[09:02]

And that is what encourages me to continue to do my practice and what encourages your neighbors your various opinions about yourself. Fortunately, they don't know. And to tell you the truth, I forgot sometimes that you're in pain. Sitting here, you're sitting so quiet and calm and still. I sometimes forgot you're in pain. I knew I was in pain. And I mentioned it to you, but I thought that would be sufficient homage to pain. But, of course, I can easily be reminded that when a person sits still, they become aware of their pain. Everybody in the world has pain. But if you sit still, you feel it.

[10:06]

And you learn it. You learn all about your pain if you don't move. So our practice is to sit still, be ourselves, feel our pain, and in that situation of not running away from our pain, a great, beautiful lotus germinates, stands up, and opens. This lotus of compassion Compassion is born out of the mud of our suffering and it grows when we don't run away from ourselves. We don't make these retreats so you will suffer. But you do. We just make them actually so we can sit. And then we remember, oh yes, when people sit, they suffer. Our intention is not, let's have one week and get everybody to go in the room and suffer.

[11:13]

We forget about that. We can't remember that part. We only can remember, let's have a retreat where everyone can sit still for a week or try to sit still. And then we could probably remember, oh, but if they do that, if they don't move, they'll probably feel a lot of pain. Oh, maybe we should call off the retreat. But fortunately, we always forget that part. Just like a mother who gets pregnant, forgets how painful it will be to give birth to the baby, unless of course she takes drugs. Because she can't move out of the way of her own body. She's right there. Every millimeter of change she has to feel, and that is painful. And while she's in there, she thinks, how did I get into this situation? How stupid of me to provide my body for this torture.

[12:15]

And then for seven days of that, some women say this is harder than childbirth. But if you feel the pain, man or woman, if you feel the pain, you may learn that if you stay in the present, it can't hurt you. And if you think of the future or the past, it can become horrific. But in the present, the pain hurts but doesn't damage you, and you can handle any pain in the moment. You learn that. But also, more important than that, compassion starts to grow up in you by just simply sitting in pain. And the vow to drop your body and mind, the vow to let go of yourself, gets stronger and stronger the more you sit in your own and others' pain. All Buddhas do that. They don't sit... Buddhas can go into high yogic states where there's no pain. They can do that. But they don't sit in these high yogic states.

[13:19]

They come down to what we call Jamvudbipa, which means flower apple island, which means India in those days. They come down and they live in that continent where there are suffering beings and they sit in the middle of suffering beings, suffering human beings. And there, sitting with suffering human beings, the vow to drop all clinging gets stronger and stronger. I was in a yoga class a while ago, and the yoga teacher said, I think we were in a posture when she said it, she said something like, if you stay in the posture long enough, you will, and I thought she was going to say, find some great bliss, which I thought, yeah, maybe so. But she didn't say that.

[14:21]

She said, if you stay in the posture long enough, you will notice that you're uncomfortable. She said, I don't care what posture it is. I thought she was going to say, if you stay in the posture long enough, you'll learn a way to do it that you won't have any problem. You'll find freedom and bliss. She didn't say that, though. I thought that was worth the whole class. She said, you will find it's uncomfortable. She said, look at a person who's sleeping. They're constantly moving. Why are they moving? Even when they're asleep, they're uncomfortable. Trying to find a more comfortable place to sleep. Get the perfect place. Because we're uncomfortable. Sitting in a real comfortable easy chair. Sure, if you sit there for a while, but after a while, even in a comfortable, beautifully designed, beautifully padded, pretty soon if you sit there for a while and you don't move, you get uncomfortable. You want to move. No matter what yoga posture it is, no matter what sitting, standing, walking posture it is, if you stay there long enough, you become aware you're uncomfortable.

[15:24]

The difference between yoga and ordinary life is ordinary life, people move. In yoga, you become aware of the pain. So it isn't that we do the yoga to become in pain, it's that we stay in the posture long enough to find out we're uncomfortable. Why are we uncomfortable? Because of our mind, which is always saying, this exists, this doesn't exist, this is real. And therefore, it doesn't match up with this, which is supposed to be happening. and people aren't doing what I want them to do, and so on, and the pain starts to develop. I have this much sensation and I'm supposed to have this much sensation. Pain is not that much different from pleasure sometimes. A slap in the face is not that much different from a nice stroke. But that little bit of difference, we calculate and say, that's not bad, this is nice, and I won't do it,

[16:31]

That's painful. We calculate. Because we calculate, we come up with these things. Therefore, that's what our situation is. Our vow is to help people like us. That's Dogen Zenji's vow. And he says it's the vow of all Buddhas and ancestors is to help these people who are doing these calculations all the time and coming up with pain, suffering, frustration. Even though they're moving all the time to get away from it and running everywhere to avoid it, and their life is nothing but a torture chamber of running away from the pain they're all calculating, still, everybody's feeling it. Uneasiness. So he says, awake or asleep in my grass hut, what I pray for is to bring others across the waters of suffering before myself.

[17:38]

The Bodhi mind is not only to vow to help other people, but it's to help other people before yourself. And this, in California, I've had a lot of problem with. After lectures, people say, yeah, I know helping people is good, but can't you do it for yourself at the same time? At least, does it have to be other people before you? If you want to help other people, that's good. That's a good thing. But Buddhas want to help other people before themselves. Before. Not the same time as before. If you want to help all people, if you want to save all people from suffering, this gets qualified as the thought of enlightenment. You get on the chart, so to speak, for the thought of enlightenment, if you want to help all beings be free of suffering.

[18:43]

But that desire, that thought, is a little different from the actual mind of Buddha. But Dogen Zenji says, if you want to help other people before you, then your thought, your mind, is equal to Buddha. Anyway, there is for us a big difference between I want to help all people and I want to help all people before I help myself. So this great Zen master, Dogen Zenji, he wrote this, all these wonderful treatises. And he also wrote a few little poems now and then about his own humble little life, like the one I just read you.

[19:48]

He also said, whether asleep or awake in my grass hut, what I say is, Homage to Shakyamuni Buddha. Take pity on me. Every day we bow down to this great Zen master. How did he spend his time? He says, asleep or awake, what does he say? homage to Shakyamuni Buddha, take pity on me. Great Zen master saying, take pity on me. I align myself with Shakyamuni Buddha. Great compassionate one, take pity on me, help me. I want to read you one more poem now by Dogen Zenji.

[20:57]

But before I read it, I want to tell you about what are called cicadas. You know cicadas? Yeah, it's a bug. I hate that word cicada. Just a word. It's such a big word for a little bug for me. It's hard to say or something. I don't know. Anyway, cicada is the English word for a bug that they have in Japan. In Japan, they have a much nicer word for it. It's called semi. And cicadas in Japan are this big, this long, and they're about like that. They're about as big as, you know, many of you know those, what do they call it, Almond Joy? You know those things? There's these pieces of candy, they're about this big. That's how big semis are. A big bug, and it's a beetle, looks like a beetle. Very beautiful, gorgeous. Gorgeous.

[21:58]

And they're like crickets, sort of. They go at night. And when you're out in the countryside in Japan, out in the deep mountains, because most countryside in Japan is mountains, at night, these cicadas start singing. And it's like thunder. You can go to sleep, but it's like louder than the city. You know, truck traffic and stuff. You're just like... He's a semi. So for a lot of Japanese poems, they talk about these chikada. It's better to say semi. Sounds that... The semi noise is out there, very strong in the countryside. So he's out there in the mountains, right? Dogen Zenji. And he says... On the peaks, on the ridges, deep in the mountains, the evening semi, herald the nightfall with their singing. As if they lament for my daily life passing in vain.

[23:05]

Dogen Zenji was very aware of his own weakness and shortcoming. he practiced repentance and confession of his own weakness. He was able to recognize his shortcomings and acknowledge them. So part of what was not transmitted to us at the beginning of Zen history in the United States, part of what wasn't transmitted was that Zen masters are aware of their shortcomings, aware of their weaknesses, and They can and do acknowledge them. I think that was perhaps part of skill and means of the Zen teachers who transmitted Zen to the West, is that we didn't want any people coming from the East saying, oh, I'm just a poor, weak sinner. I can't do anything. I'm just a bum. We didn't want any of that. We wanted somebody who would say, you want to see a Buddha?

[24:13]

Well, guess where? You got one now. I'm from Japan and I'm a Buddha. I got a practice called Buddha. And when we practice Zazen, I'm really Buddha. Come and be Buddha with me. And we Americans thought, no, that's more like it. Let's go sit with those Buddhas. They look like Buddhas, too. They sit like Buddhas. They can sit there all day. That's great. They don't move. Wow, they must be a Buddha. If I could do that, I'd be a Buddha. It was a good device to attract us. Very good. Whenever Buddhism moves to a new country, it often does something to attract the natives. Like when it went to China, some of the first Buddhist monks were great magicians. And the Chinese people already had a great religion called Confucianism and Taoism.

[25:23]

But the Buddhist monks could fly and stuff. So they thought, well, these people must have something good. So the Buddhist monks did these fantastic things, some of them. And then after the people got their attention, then they started saying, Little by little, letting them know that what they're about was suffering beings and helping them, and that actually everything was empty. Very unattractive to hear that at the beginning. Little by little, they let them know the Dharma in its total depth, in its awesome implications, which are that you should save all sentient beings before yourself. They finally let them know. But at the beginning, you don't walk into somebody's house and say, you have to save all suffering beings and before yourself. You don't say that right off. Because people say, oh, I feel uncomfortable. Would you please leave? You shouldn't be laying this responsibility on me.

[26:26]

I have enough responsibilities. But now I feel it's time for us to recognize that our ancestors... As great and sharp-witted and calm and alert and kind as they were, they also were aware of their own shortcomings and their own weakness. And they confessed it. Even such awesomely brilliant teachers as Dogen Zenji. Right. When Dogen Zenji was dying, the great sitter calligraphed Buddha, Dharma, Sangha jewel on a scroll and hung it on a pillar in the middle of his room and walked around taking refuge in Buddha, Dharma and Sangha.

[27:32]

When he could barely walk, that's what he did. In the beginning, it's taking refuge in Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. In the end, it's taking refuge in Buddha, Dharma, Sangha. The Buddhist precepts which we receive before we enter the Zen world, the first precepts are Buddha, Dharma, Sangha. The last precept is don't abuse the three treasures. In the beginning and the end is the three jewels. Amish to Shakyamuni Buddha. Like, what's his name? Chingyuran Singsa. Walking and thinking. Walking and thinking. Walking. Amish to Shakyamuni Buddha. Amish to Shakyamuni Buddha. Amish to Shakyamuni Buddha. Like that. At the end, Amish to Shakyamuni Buddha. And take pity on me for my weaknesses and help me do my work of

[28:34]

Saving all suffering beings before myself. Help me. Take pity on me because actually I don't want to save them before myself. So help me save them before myself. Protect me from my selfishness. Boss. Like Yao Shan. Such a smart guy. Such a great Zen master. Reading the scripture and the other Zen teacher says, You should not fool people. He rolls up the scripture and says, what? I imagine him looking in the guy's face, you know, kind of like. It reminds me of this movie. I saw this movie one time starring Kevin Kline. Well, it wasn't a very good movie, but the way he played his part I loved. He was a police officer who had a very unusual way of being a police officer. And like he had his room, his office was painted with birds all over the wall, and he had an artist as his main assistant, a painter.

[29:40]

Anyway, he came back to the police force after being suspended for some unjustified, for some unreal or dishonest reasons. People framed him, in other words. He came back, and this one policeman who hated him stood in him and yelled at him and yelled at him and yelled at him. And he looked up at the guy's face kind of like, gee, what is this yelling at me? Didn't say anything, but he looked at him kind of like, what is this? Not like I'm being offended or somebody's insulting me. He kind of looked in the guy's face to try to figure out what was going on. He really didn't know. He didn't say, oh, this guy's insulting me or not insulting me or complimenting me. It was like he really felt like he was trying to find out what was happening. So that's the way I imagine Yashan after this guy comes up and says to him, you should stop fooling people. Yashan looks in his face and says, what time is it now? And the guy says, just noon. And Yashan says, this pattern still exists?

[30:45]

And the guy says, I don't even have nothing. And Yashan says, you're too brilliant. And the man says, I'm just thus, what about you? And Yashan says, I limp along, clumsy in a hundred ways, ungainly in a thousand. Still, I go along like this. There can be a combination of unshakable commitment to benefiting others before yourself. And when you have that, you feel totally in alignment with all Buddhas and ancestors. You feel tremendously supported. You feel light. You feel great. You're doing Buddha's work. You're so happy. It's not your own strength. It's the strength of compassion that's working. It's not coming from someplace else. It's coming from what's human nature in its deepest reality.

[31:52]

Compassion is sustaining you, and you can make this commitment. And when you make this commitment, you can practice Buddha's Way for Buddha's Way. You can do it. Not you can do it. It can be done. At the same time, you're limping along. I'm limping along. I've got a problem. For example, I have problems saving other people before me. I even have problems giving other people, letting other people get in line for dinner before me. Or, you know, butt in front of me at, you know, Toll Plaza or whatever. I got some limitations here, folks. But even though I've got limitations, my ancestors, who also had limitations, made a vow, and I, with my limitations, make the vow. They had a practice. of sitting and not doing anything, I joined their practice of sitting and not doing anything. They saved all sentient beings, so I joined their project. So again, to try to give you the Zen, what I'm saying now is characteristic not just of Zen.

[33:12]

It's characteristic of all Buddhas, India, China, Japan. It's characteristic of all Mahayana schools, this commitment to benefit, save at all costs, save all beings from suffering before yourself. This is Mahayana Buddhism. This is the Bodhisattva way. It's not just Zen. Zen is a particular style. within that school. Okay? So, we have Yaoshan. You remember him? We have his teacher, Stonehead. And we have his teacher, always thinking, right? We have always thinking of Buddha. We have sitting on top of the rock. And we have Yaoshan. Now, Yaoshan had this little gang of people that hung around with him, right? I told you about these people who, for 40 years, never let their ribs touch the ground, always sitting or walking or standing.

[34:17]

Two of these people I want to mention in particular I did before. One's name is Dawu. The other one's name is Yunyan. Dawu means great awakening. It's his Buddhist name. And yin-yang means cloudy cliff or misty cliff, something like that. These are two Dharma brothers who studied with Yao Shan. How many of you have not heard of these guys before? Oh, okay. So these two, and the yin-yang is what we say when in the morning we say, ungan donjo da yo sho. Okay, that's yin-yang. And Da Wu is his brother. They both studied with Yao Shan. And yin-yang Before he studied with Yao Shan, I think when he was like 14 years old, he also went and studied with Baijian Waihai.

[35:29]

So you have the sixth patriarch here, and you have his two main disciples. One is always walking, Xingzi, and the other one is... Nanyue Huairang, these are two main disciples. Coming down from Nanyue is Matsu. Coming down from Shinsa is Stonehead. Stonehead and Matsu, Master Ma, Horse Master or Cow Master, they're the two main progenitors of Zen. And we already talked about how Stonehead studied with the Sixth Patriarch and also was with Nanyue and, of course, with Xingzi. So there's a cross-breeding here. Then the next generation coming down from them is Yaoshan and Baizhan. Yaoshan's a teacher of Yunyan.

[36:38]

But Yunyan, before he was with Yaoshan, was over here on the other side of the tree. He studied with Bajon for 20 years, from the time he was 14 until he was 34, right next to Bajon. What was he doing there, folks? Day and night, he was sitting. Day and night, he was praying that he could save all sentient beings before himself. What was Bhajan doing? Same thing. But the way they did it is very interesting. That's why we tell these stories, so you won't think some limited idea of how they sat there and always thought of Amitashakyamuni Buddha, I want to save all sentient beings even though I'm an ignorant person. How did they do it? See, the abbot sits in the abbot's seat, and then usually the jisha, we don't do it that way here, but the jisha has a little stool here.

[37:39]

It sits next to the abbot. The jisha doesn't necessarily get to cross her legs or his legs. So he's sitting there, sometimes even behind a screen so nobody has to see how ugly he is. Sorry, Jim. Anyway, some little guy there who gets to be close to the old master and always with him, the jisha. Yuen Yuen got to hang out with this great Zen master, Baijian, for 20 years, from 14 to 34, but, they say, without success. In other words, he didn't kind of get it. What didn't he get? He didn't understand what the self was. He was always trying to work on his vow to help all people, but he didn't understand what he needed to know to really go to work. namely, what the self is. What is the self, by the way? They say the sages know that the self is myriad things.

[38:47]

In other words, the sages have forgotten the self and therefore myriad things wake them up. Everything that happened wakes them up because they see that everything that happens is who they are. They see there's no self and they also see that there's nothing which is not the self. This is what the sages understand. Because they understand that everything in the world, all over the place, is nothing other than the self, of course it's easy for them to go to work to benefit everyone because benefiting others is benefiting yourself. That's why you should help them first. Because if you try to help yourself directly, you get more and more confused. But if you try to help yourself by helping other people first, you get more and more clear. So Buddha's minds get clearer and clearer the more they try to help other people.

[39:51]

And people who try to help themselves get more and more confused. Right? Try it. Anyway, he didn't get it, this young boy. So that was that. His teacher, Bai Zhan, died at 94. He had no more teachers, so he left Bai Zhan and went to study with Yao Shan. Oh, by the way, while he was with Bai Zhan, I remember one time he was sitting next to Bai Zhan, and he... he was sitting there and Bajon spit into a spittoon. I don't know, we don't have spittoons anymore, but in those days they had spittoons for some reason next to some of these abbot's seats. I don't know why, but somehow, and he spit into it.

[40:54]

I don't know if he picked it up, but anyway, he spit into the spittoon and the little, the young boy said, the young man said, what's that about? And Bajon said, It's not your realm. Anyway, then he went and studied with Yaoshan after his teacher died. And he went to Yaoshan and And Yashan wanted to know about Baijian. They never met, but of course they heard about each other. So he said, oh, now I can find out about Baijian from this student of his, close disciple. So he said, where do you come from? That's a standard thing to say when a monk comes. Where do you come from? They can say whatever they want at that time.

[41:56]

He said, I come from Baijian. Baijian is the name of the place and also the name of the teacher. Yaoshan said, what does Baijian say to his monks? And Yunyan said, he usually says, I have an expression which contains 100 flavors. 100 flavors. Yashan said, salt tastes salty and water tastes bland. What is neither salty nor bland is the right flavor. What is the expression that has 100 flavors? Salt tastes salty and water tastes bland.

[43:04]

What is neither salty nor bland is the right flavor. What is the expression that has 100 flavors? Yao Shan asked Yun Yuan. And Yun Yuan could not answer. He continued his unsuccessful career right off the bat. And then he said, then Yao Shan asked him again, what do you intend to do about birth and death right in front of you? And Yuen Yuen said, there is no birth and death in front of me. Yao Shan said, how long were you with Bai Zhang? Yuen Yuen said, 20 years. Yao Shan said, you were with baijian for twenty years and you still haven't gotten rid of your he insulted him your commonness so here we have baijian great great baijian disciple of great great madsu and so on we have yaoshan the great zen master now we have this kind of really limpy guy

[44:28]

who couldn't understand from, he hung out with the great teacher for 20 years and couldn't understand. Now he's coming over and right off he doesn't understand with this guy either. And this is one of our ancestors. So, I think I'll leave you with this view of him. There is, of course, a success story coming up down the line a little bit. But I'll leave you with realizing that here we have somebody who studied for 20 years right in the presence of a virtual Buddha and didn't understand the Dharma. And this guy's no slouch to make that effort, but somehow he didn't really get it. And now here he's with another great teacher and he's not getting it either. Does this remind you of anybody you know?

[45:31]

Of course, the difference is you don't have any great teachers to hang around with. So... Aww. Thank you so much. Although I'm not a Buddha, I would, foolish as I am. It's about yin-yang and Da Wu. And then some stories about Yuen Yuen, the teacher, the wonderful teacher he became after this long struggle of being an ordinary human being trying to understand the very subtle Buddha Dharma. So I too, foolish as I am, take refuge in the Buddha and the Dharma and the Sangha and vow to

[46:38]

save all beings before myself. May our intention

[46:57]

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