At the beginning of the Precious Mirror Samadhi, it used to say, the teaching of suchness. What does it say now? The dharma of thusness. The dharma of thusness. Is the dharma of suchness? So this is the central teaching of this school, is the teaching about suchness. Suchness. And the sutra says that by really thoroughly contemplating suchness, one moves along the

[01:03]

bodhisattva path to Buddhahood. First of all, we have to be able to actually get in touch with it. That's a big step, to actually contact it, see it. Then we can contemplate it all the way to Buddhahood. The sutra tells us things about suchness, but it also says how to get in touch with suchness in dependence on not strongly grasping dependent phenomena as being the imputational. Dependence on not strongly clinging and holding to the imagined character of things as being

[02:14]

the other dependent, or grasping the other dependent as being the imagined nature. The suchness is known, thoroughly established character is known. And Bodhidharma came up with his way of teaching, of helping people give up grasping our life as our imagination of it, by his teaching of mind like a wall. So we've been going through some of the ancestors in our blood vein, looking at how they also

[03:23]

tried to help people. Yesterday we saw how Master Ma, by talking to Bajang, and by twisting Bajang's nose, and then talking some more, how Bajang was able to open to suchness, awaken to the thoroughly established character of all phenomena. Bajang continued to study with Matsu more, and was his attendant some of that time.

[04:25]

He saw Matsu's whisk sitting on its stand and said, if someone uses this whisk, can he also not use it? And Matsu said, in the future, you, if you travel to some other place, how will you help people? Whoops, yeah, that's what Matsu said to Bajang. Bajang picked up the whisk and held it up straight. Matsu says, if you use it this way, what other way can it be used? And Bajang put it back on the stand.

[05:31]

Matsu suddenly let out an earth-shaking shout, so loud that Bajang was deaf for three days. This, from this thunderclap came a great vibration. It's been vibrating now, it's still vibrating. It's still vibrating. Twelve hundred years later. When I look at the lineage before Matsu, I don't see much physical interaction of the level that he introduced.

[06:57]

Twisting people's noses and other kinds of very high-energy impact between the teacher and the student. Verbally, high decibel, and actually tactilely and visually, strong physical impact. Matsu seemed to have started in the Zen tradition. We do see the physical impact in the story of the sixth ancestor and his teacher of, you know, tapping the sieve and stuff like that. But this is a sort of very strong end. Matsu was very successful in helping people become wise.

[08:05]

He had 139 successors. 139 successors. I think 89 of them get like recorded in the history, the Zen history books. So anyway, that was his way and so now we see some ramification of his way for a number of generations. You'll see this way of enacting. Someone said to me that they feel like I'm restraining myself. I do feel the impulse in a kind of friendly way to swat people now and then, but I don't do it because of the grievance procedure.

[09:11]

Because, you know, then if I go to the grievance procedure, do I have to restrain myself too? Like not swat people during the grievance procedure? But anyway, I encourage people to, if you feel like I'm restraining myself, at least say, you know, I feel like you'd like to swat somebody. Not me, but I feel like you'd like to swat somebody right now. You can call me on it and I can at least say, well, yeah, I do kind of feel like I'd like to, but you're right. I'm scared of what will happen to me and you if I should happen to do that. Anyway, Wangbo and Baijiang and Matsu, that little group there, those three generations, there's going to be quite a bit of hitting coming up here. Not to mention Linji.

[10:14]

So later, after this thunderclap that deafened Baijiang for three days, but then he recovered, I guess, a prominent lay person invited Baijiang to come to Xinwu district of Hangzhou and serve as abbot of a monastery on Mount Daxing. This was a place of high and precipitous peaks, so the place was called Baijiang, which means a hundred times ten feet tall, a hundred fathoms.

[11:16]

Before Baijiang had passed even a month at the temple, new students seeking spiritual guidance came from every quarter. Foremost among them were Wangbo and Guishan. This is just my view, but I always kind of felt like if you saw Suzuki Roshi over in San Francisco when Zen Center was near Japantown, if you saw him walking down the street, or anyway, if I saw him walking down the street, I would probably think, even with his robes on, I would probably think, oh, there's a little Japanese man.

[12:25]

Want some feedback? Want some feedback? Way over to the what? That's right. So if I saw him, I would think, oh, there's a little Japanese man with no hair. I wouldn't think, oh, look at the Zen master. Maybe you would, because sometimes you have really good vision. But I don't think I would have. But if you saw Suzuki Roshi at Zen Center with the group of people that practiced with him around that time, you'd think, who is that guy? How come all these really big young American people are around him? Not that, but that particular group of American people, like one of his students was voted most inspirational player on the Stanford football team

[13:35]

and was one of the leading apes in Planet of the Apes. If I was asked to characterize Suzuki Roshi's students at that time, I wouldn't say that they were exactly nice people, but generally speaking, they're very high energy, very passionate people. So if you see this little Japanese guy and all these big passionate Americans around him, you might think, what is that? So the students make the teacher sometimes, so imagine if Wong Bo came to study with you, what would happen to you? Wong Bo came pretty much as Wong Bo. He wasn't, you know, in the stories of Wong Bo, I tell you beforehand, there's very little, nobody's hitting Wong Bo.

[14:43]

Huh? Lin Chi hit him. Yeah, but not so far. Not until after he's the teacher. Nobody, no teachers are beating up on him. He doesn't have any big enlightenment experiences that I know of. He sort of came enlightened, Wong Bo did. Pretty much. As a matter of fact, Guishan asked Yongshan, or Yongshan asked Guishan, well, do you think Wong Bo just came that way naturally? And one of them said, well, I think half he came that way and the other half he got from his teacher, but he's kind of a naturally, he's one of these kind of people that make you think reincarnation, rebirth does make sense. Because he sort of, he was kind of naturally amazing, a function, great function, he had a great function.

[15:51]

Anyway, so he comes to study and Guishan, another great one, they come to study with this new teacher. So this new teacher has to grow up fast. And then Baizhang teaches his congregation and says, the Buddha Dharma is not a trifling matter. Formerly the great master Ma shouted so loudly I was deaf for three days. When Wong Bo heard this, he stuck out his tongue. You know, in shock. Baizhang said to him, in the future you will carry on, oh, in the future will you carry on Master Ma's Dharma? And Wong Bo says, there is no way I could do so. Today, because of what you said, I've seen Master Ma's function,

[16:57]

but still I haven't glimpsed Master Ma. If I carry on Ma's teaching, then our descendants will be cut off. If I carry on Master Ma's teaching, our descendants will be cut off. And Baizhang said, just so, just so. The one who is her teacher's equal has diminished the teacher by half. Only a student who surpasses her teacher can transmit the teacher's Dharma. So, how does this student surpass the teacher? Without refraining from hitting his teacher, Wong Bo bowed. Yeah, didn't hit him. I added that part.

[18:13]

I don't understand, without refraining? Well, like right now, I'm not refraining from hitting you. You're hitting me? No, I'm just not refraining myself from hitting you. I'm not, really. I'm not. I'm just like this, okay? So, a monk asked Baizhang, how does a person attain freedom? And he says, if you want, if at this moment, you attain this moment, you've attained it. If you can instantly cut off emotions from the self, with the mind like wood or stone,

[19:20]

thoughts spared from worldly entrapment, like an elephant crossing a river, engulfed in the rapids, but taking no misstep. Like an elephant walking through the swiftly churning conceptual imputations without getting caught. Like a lotus in the muddy water of conceptual thought. Growing on mistaken conceptions that are not being grasped. Every day when Baizhang gave a talk in the hall,

[20:36]

there was an old man who would attend along with the assembly of monks and sit in the back. One day when the congregation had departed, the old man remained. Baizhang asked him, who are you? The old man said, I'm not a person. Formerly, in the age of Kasyapa Buddha, I was abbot of a monastery on this mountain. I was, you know, just like recently, like today or yesterday,

[21:40]

when I read that line I thought, well, maybe so, more than ever before. I always thought, well, this is just mythology, you know, that on this mountain in China, where Baizhang was, that at the time of a former Buddha, there was a monastery there. We don't think that there was Buddhism in China at the time of Kasyapa Buddha, do we? But what do we know? Maybe at the time of Kasyapa Buddha, there was the Buddhadharma in monasteries being practiced on Chinese mountains. This guy said it was. Where did this story come from? Who told this story first?

[22:45]

Did Baizhang tell this story? Did the monks tell this story? It's kind of amazing, you know, that we have this story. We have Baizhang saying that somebody is coming to talk to him like that, or somebody is saying that, and now the story goes on. At that time, a student asked me, does the great adept fall into cause and effect or not? So in our studies now, what does fall into cause and effect mean? Well, we live in cause and effect. What does fall into it mean? Yeah, grasping. It means grasping cause and effect as your idea of cause and effect. Then you fall into it. Then you get churned around in it.

[23:49]

Yes? I feel like I should warn you before you go on with the story, that Linda taught about this story last practice period, and she told about when Wang Bo hit Baizhang, and she woke up the next morning with a black eye. What? Please go on. Especially yesterday when you were sort of inviting people to come up and... Anyway. Maybe I won't go on. Does the great adept fall into cause and effect? At the time, a student asked me, does a great adept fall into cause and effect or not? I answered, saying,

[24:53]

the great adept does not fall into cause and effect. Okay? What's this? What's that called? What? Yeah, but what type of story? Nihilism. That's nihilism. But you don't fall into cause and effect if you're greatly enlightened. Thereafter, for five hundred lifetimes, I've been reborn in the body of a fox. Now I ask the Master to turn this phrase about cause and effect on my behalf so that I may shed the fox's body. Baizhang said, ask the question.

[25:55]

The old man said, does a great adept fall into cause and effect or not? Baizhang said, the great adept is not blind to cause and effect. Upon hearing these words, the man experienced unsurpassed enlightenment. This is how Baizhang helped him. Now I have shed the body of a fox. I've been living behind your mountain. Please go there later and provide funeral services for a monk who has died. Baizhang then instructed the temple director to tell the monks to assemble after the next meal for a formal service. The monks were all mystified by this

[26:58]

because there was no one who was ill in the temple infirmary. So how could this be? After the meal, Baizhang instructed the monks to assemble beneath a grotto behind the mountain. He then brought out the body of a dead fox with his staff and proceeded to cremate it according to the established ritual for monks. In the evening, Baizhang entered the hall and brought up for discussion what had transpired. Wang Bo said, when the ancient spoke of a single phrase incorrectly, he fell into rebirth 500 times in the body of a fox. Originally, had he answered correctly, what would have happened? Baizhang said,

[28:02]

come closer and I'll tell you. Wang Bo did come closer and then Wang Bo hit Baizhang. Baizhang laughed and clapped his hands saying, it is said that the barbarian's beard is red but there's yet another red-bearded barbarian. And that's where Guizhang says later, do you think Wang Bo had this naturally or did he get it from somebody else? And Yangshan said, he got some of it from his teacher but the rest was his natural ability.

[29:05]

And Guizhang said, just so, just so. And Yangshan said, just so. Baizhang, trying to help people, went up to the hall to give a talk. When the monks had assembled, he suddenly leaped off the Dharma seat and started chasing them with a big stick. They stampeded towards the door and when most of them were on the verge of going out, he yelled at them. When they turned around, he said, what is it? You've already heard that Wang Bo taught,

[30:15]

basically he taught over and over, very simply, give up conceptual grasping, give up conceptuality, give up conceptual thought. Stop. No grasping, no seeking. Over and over. And again, this is, see this starting with his ancestors. No seeking, no seeking. Students come seeking the Dharma and they get taught no seeking. Students come to gain enlightenment and they get taught no gaining mind. Wang Bo said, seeking is birth, grasping is death.

[31:17]

No seeking is birthless, no grasping is deathless. Still, Wang Bo did things like this bow to the ground, to Buddha statues. When he was head monk at somebody else's temple, not Bai Zhang's, it turned out that the future emperor of China came to practice at that temple incognito because his older brother was trying to kill him. So he was practicing Zen in the same temple as Bai Zhang, I mean as Wang Bo. And one day he saw Wang Bo, the head monk, prostrating himself to the Buddha

[32:19]

and he knew Wang Bo taught not to seek anything, not to seek anything from Buddha, not to seek anything from Dharma, not to seek anything from Sangha. Of course we need Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. Of course we take refuge but we take refuge without seeking, according to Wang Bo. So there he is bowing to the Buddha and the future emperor says to him, not seeking Buddha, Dharma or Sangha, how come you're bowing to Buddha? Or you don't seek Buddha, Dharma or Sangha so why are you bowing to Buddha? Or actually I said it wrong.

[33:44]

Not seeking Buddha, Dharma or Sangha. When you bow like this, what are you seeking? And Wang Bo said, not seeking Buddha, Dharma and Sangha is how I bow. Or, I bow to Buddha as my way of not seeking Buddha. And then the young emperor, future emperor says, then why bow? And Wang Bo hit him. And the young emperor said, the future emperor said, you're really too crude. And Wang Bo said, what places this we're in? For such idle chatter. And hit him again. And this story is called,

[34:46]

the emperor's, the future emperor's hit three times. But I only see two. Somebody see a third one in there someplace? One's missing. You see the missing one? Where is it? It's up to you. Really? I wanted to say something that I forgot to say and that is, today's etymological revelation some of you may already know this because I told some people already, but anyway, do you know what the word host, what the root of the word host is? Go ahead.

[35:51]

Even those of you who know can say it. What? It's guest. The root of host is guest. The word host originally meant guest. The Greek word host the Greek word for guest is host. So, the people who took care of the guests came to be called the hosts. The people who took care of the hosts came to be called the host. Host means guest or stranger or enemy in Greek. So, it's a good word for Zen, don't you think? The host thing. So, anyway, playing in the role of the host I just wanted to say before this talk started which I forgot, is that this suchness that we need to meditate on

[36:55]

for liberation must be based on an unadulterated moral commitment because as we meditate on suchness as we transcend concepts we can slip into losing track of moral commitment unless it's very strong. For example, if you're practicing giving up conceptual clinging you need to be committed to the precept of not slandering. And the precept

[38:02]

of not praising self at the expense of others. Because as you start to explore transcending concepts like that you might feel certain words coming into your mind which have been allowed to come up because of letting go of conceptual grasping. And you might feel the vitality of that function. So you have to be committed to, you know, not praising your own vitality at the expenses of other people's vitality. You have to be committed to not taking the opportunity that's not given in this process. The other side of the story,

[39:17]

in other words, the other lineage across the landscape, the parallel lineage to Wong Po emerging with the assistance of Bai Zhang is Yun Yan emerging with the assistance of Bai Zhang and Yao Shan. So our ancestor in the Soto lineage, Yun Yan, actually is a student of both lineages. When he was apparently very young he went to Bai Zhang and was Bai Zhang's attendant, they say, for twenty years. But again, we see that attendance doesn't necessarily mean that you're the only attendant, but anyway, he was in attendance upon the teacher for twenty years, apparently from the time

[40:19]

fourteen years old until thirty-four when Bai Zhang died. However, they say that even though he studied with the great teacher for twenty years, he didn't attain realization. And then later he went to study with Yao Shan. So he studied with Bai Zhang and then later went to study with Yao Shan. And in the record of his interactions with Yao Shan, it starts out by Yao Shan trying to find out from this young man about this great teacher

[41:20]

who is, again, his relative in Dharma. So he asked this young man about, well, what did Bai Zhang teach? What did you learn from Bai Zhang? And Yuan Yan said, he often said, I have an expression which contains a hundred flavors. And Yao Shan said, something salty tastes salty. Something bland tastes bland. What is neither salty or bland has a normal taste. What is meant by a phrase, by the phrase, one hundred tastes are contained

[42:21]

in one taste? And Yuan Yan couldn't answer. There's a lot of stories about Yuan Yan not being able to answer. This is our ancestor. Didn't get enlightened with Bai Zhang and then comes to see Yao Shan, Yao Shan, asks him about Bai Zhang's teachings and he doesn't have much to say. And so on another occasion, Yao Shan said, what did Bai Zhang say about birth and death right before our eyes? And Yuan Yan said, he said there's no birth and death before our eyes. And Yao Shan said, how long were you

[43:23]

with Bai Zhang? And Yuan Yan says, twenty years. And Yao Shan says, you spent twenty years with Bai Zhang but you're still like this? Somebody spends twenty years with one of the greatest Zen masters of all time and they're still like this? Could that happen? Well, it's right here in the history books. Is that encouraging? Not to mention forty years with low quality teachers. And yet the story goes on.

[44:27]

That's the main point. Zen enlightenment is the story going on. Misery is the story stops. It's this. It's this. Even wonderful story, it's this. This misses the point. This tradition is about, it keeps going. It doesn't stop. It does not stop at this story. On another occasion, Yao Shan asked Yuan Yan about Bai Zhang's teachings and Yuan Yan said once in an attempt to help people he went up to the hall

[45:29]

to give a talk and when the monks had assembled he jumped off his seat and chased them with a big stick. They stampeded to the door at which time he yelled at them. When they turned and looked back he said Bai Zhang said why didn't you say this before? Today, thanks to you I've finally seen my elder brother Hai Bai Zhang Upon hearing these words Yuan Yan attained enlightenment. Now we have some scenes

[46:45]

from heaven. I heard that some people think you know some people of the western religious traditions think that heaven is where you get to go and like work out with God. It isn't like you go to heaven like oh I'm in heaven it's there is when you really start to live it up. You don't use God just to get to heaven you use spiritual practice to get to heaven to be with God and in the Buddha way enlightenment isn't really the end of the story it's the beginning of the story. So now Yuan Yan is enlightened so one day Yao Shan says I've heard

[47:47]

that you can tame lions is that so? I didn't know he could tame lions I thought he was kind of a mediocre student and so I was surprised to hear that Yao Shan that Yuan Yan said yes I do know how to tame lions. Yeah maybe that would solve the problem. Yao Shan said how many can you tame? and Yuan Yan said six. And Yao Shan said can I tame them too? and Yuan Yan said oh no excuse me that's better but anyway Yao Shan said I can tame them too and Yuan Yan said

[48:50]

how many does the master tame? and Yao Shan said one. Yuan Yan said one is six six is one. Later Yuan Yan visited Mount Gui and Gui Shan said to him I've seen I've heard it on the grapevine that when you were with Yao Shan you did some lion taming is that so? and Yuan Yan said yep. Gui Shan said were they always under control or just sometimes? Yuan Yan said when I wanted them under control they were under control when I wanted that to let them loose they ran loose Gui Shan said when they ran loose where were they? Yuan Yan said

[49:51]

they were loose they were loose and of course you all know the story of Yuan Yan's friend Da Wu who when Yuan Yan was sweeping the ground of the monastery Da Wu said too busy and Yuan Yan said you should know there's one who's not busy and Da Wu said then there's two moons and Yuan Yan said raised up his broom and said which moon is this? and Da Wu left but then later they had tea

[50:55]

and Da Wu said who are you making the tea for? and Yuan Yan said there's someone who wants it and Da Wu said why don't you let him make it for himself? and Yuan Yan said fortunately I'm here to do it so far no hitting seen on this side of the lineage it's safer over here pardon? a lot of talking the next two generations are

[52:07]

the generations where the school starts the next generation on this side is the generation of Dong Shan and the next generation on the other side is the generation of Lin Ji when the two this is the two people that where the character of the school seems to be like sets in place these aren't the two greatest teachers their ancestors are equal to them of course but by the time you come to the next generation you kind of see the quality of the two schools the difference becomes kind of like well well realized but I'm showing you I'm trying to show you how they're really very closely related and they're coming from two brothers who really have very similar teaching but whose personality is a little different

[53:12]

so then the lineages vary a little bit as they get four generations away so we'll see when we look at how Dong Shan was trained and how he taught it's quite different than the way Lin Ji was trained and the way he taught um but still you know it's wonderfully connected the two different ways so that's probably as far as we need to go during this session so sometime later I'll discuss with you Dong Shan and and Lin Ji okay is that okay? so maybe if you now are in classes

[54:13]

if you want to think about how and talk about how contemplate how these Zen lineages work with this teaching that we're studying please do so I myself part of the reason why I'm offering these teachings about the sutras I think they help us understand sort of the the subtle inner workings of the minds of the ancestors just like the sutras about what was going on in Buddha's mind when Buddha taught certain ways I think the sutra also helps us understand what the ancestors were actually doing when they made these creative responses to beings where the real pivotal opportunity is where

[55:14]

what it is about what it is about the mind that can turn towards affliction or turn towards liberation where's the point that it sticks or comes loose I think these stories show ways to help people in daily life and the sutra shows or it clarifies what it is to be stuck and what it is not to be stuck and the infinite subtleties of how we can get stuck and how we can get released the bigger the blockage the bigger the release .

[56:27]

@Text_v004
@Score_JJ