Kip, this is your first time here? Yes. Welcome. And what is your name again? Carrie. Carrie? Welcome, Carrie. Anybody else? Oh, and Justin, first time here? And Judy, first time here? Welcome to Judy and Justin and Carrie and Kip. Anybody else? Oh, and Rosie, first time. Welcome, Rosie. The name of this place is No Abode, which comes from an encouragement from the Buddhas to Bodhisattvas, to beings who wish to attain supreme perfect enlightenment for the welfare of all beings. The Buddha recommends if you wish to attain enlightenment, then then you should practice the perfection of wisdom.

[01:04]

Because the perfection of wisdom is the mother of all Buddhas. And then also, in order to practice the perfection of wisdom, the Buddha recommends that the enlightening being gives rise to a mind that doesn't abide anywhere or in anything, the mind of no abode. So that's where the name of this temple comes from, referring to this mind which doesn't abide in anything. It doesn't abide in ideas. It doesn't abide in colors, smells, tastes, tangibles, sounds. It doesn't abide in anything. So, you know, like when seeing a face, you wholeheartedly see it.

[02:05]

you wholeheartedly need it without clinging to it, without abiding in it. This is the kind of mind which realizes perfect wisdom. And then this practice of perfect wisdom, lately I've been bringing up the teaching that the that the path of enlightenment is the path of perfect wisdom is the path of good friendship. That in by relying on good friendship we can we can actually practice perfect wisdom.

[03:07]

The Buddha, the historical Buddha is supposedly somebody who lived in India about 2500 years ago and supposedly his attendant who was his cousin, came to him one day and his tennis name was Ananda. And Ananda came to the Buddha and walked around the Buddha and paid his respects to the Buddha and then sat to one side of the Buddha with the Buddha. So they're sitting together And Ananda says, this is half of life. Or I could add maybe, this is half of the practice of perfect wisdom.

[04:11]

And the Buddha said, don't say that, Ananda. This is half. Oh, excuse me. And then Ananda goes on to explain what he means by this. He says, this friendship, this good friendship, this admirable friendship, this admirable camaraderie, this admirable this is half the practice. And the Buddha said, don't say that, Ananda. this good friendship is the whole of the holy life. Let me rephrase it. This good friendship is the whole of the perfection of wisdom. And the Buddha says,

[05:17]

By means of good friendship, one can be expected to practice the Eightfold Noble Path, Right View, and so on. The whole path of freedom can be practiced by means of this good friendship. And so I've been talking about examples, stories about good friendship for a few months. So last time I talked about the friendship of ancestors in the family lineage, which leads to, for example, the San Francisco Zen Center and this temple and so on. So there's almost all the lineage, almost all the families in the huge, many, many families of the Zen school.

[06:25]

In one sense, they're all one family. They're one family which is devoted to taking care of the perfection of wisdom, which is the mother of Buddhas. So then you could say there's sub-families. So in this family, sometimes when things arise, I tell you, even though I wasn't expecting to tell you before they arose. For example, I was recently watching whales in a lagoon in Baja, California. I was out in a boat with some other people and we went out and whales would appear around us.

[07:29]

Sometimes pretty far away, but you could still see them. But sometimes they would appear quite close and then sometimes they would come right over to the boat and sort of put their head right next to the boat and turn his face to the side because whales have their eyes on the side of their heads. So the first time I went, the first day I went out, one turned his head to the side and just laid there and looked up at me. And I reached down and petted his soft skin between his barnacles. and I went out six times with my group and every time we went out the whales came to the boat. We weren't chasing the whales, we would just go out there and if we saw some whales at a distance we'd go over near them and then we'd slow down.

[08:31]

And some of the times we were out there and I thought well maybe they won't come today. But every time they came, they don't always come, but every time they came. And also sometimes the mothers would come and on the other side of them was their baby. And then sometimes the mothers would come with the baby between them and the boat. But usually they'd come maybe to check out the scene. But it seemed like the mothers, well, the mothers, yeah, the mothers were like, I guess the mothers wanted to be with the humans and the babies go with the mothers. And then sometimes the mothers seem to want to make it so that the baby can be closer to the humans than she is. So right near two. And one of the males that was right near the boat played with the boat for a little while. Pushing it around.

[09:33]

So I thought I was talking about families And one of the things that one of the naturalists said that is when you have subspecies that can mate, they're in the same species and they're subspecies and they can mate, they're in the same species as their subspecies when they mate, they have offspring which can reproduce. but if they have offspring that can't reproduce, they're different species. For example, horses and donkeys can mate and have offspring, wonderful offspring, but the offspring cannot reproduce. Mules cannot reproduce. They're wonderful creatures, amazing creatures,

[10:38]

And I guess they're not really a species, though, because they can't reproduce. But donkeys and donkeys can make donkeys that can reproduce, and horses and horses can make horses that reproduce. So horses and donkeys are different species. So I'm just thinking, if Buddhism can mate and produce fertile offspring, then they're in the same species. Wow. And if they mate, produce fertile offspring, they're not the same species, you could say. So I say this because we have this, so a lot of different species come from the same source, right? Like horses, maybe horses and donkeys come from the same source.

[11:44]

So you can have a species that produces a variety of subspecies that are still in the same species and then from that you can also get different species, right? So the story this month, the story was coming from the one teacher, the sixth ancestor of Zen in China, Hui Nung, coming from that teacher, you have many disciples and two of the main disciples, their names were One's name was Chingyuan Xingzi and the other one's name was Nanyuan Huairang. Nanyuan Huairang and Chingyuan Xingzi, two main disciples of the great sixth ancestor.

[12:53]

And he had many disciples, but those two disciples also had many disciples. And on one side, Nanyuan, no, Nanyue, Huairang, one of his disciples was named Matsu. He was also called Horse Master, Horse. And his name was not Ed. It was Matsu, which means Horse Master. And then on the other side, Shinsa, he had many disciples, but his main disciple name was Shurto. And I say main because these two had the most offspring, and their offspring come down to the present day in this world.

[13:59]

Some of the other disciples were great disciples, and they had offspring, but their offspring didn't make it 1,500 years. Those two have offspring that make it to 1,500 years. So, one of our ancestors in this particular family named Yaoshan, which means Medicine Mountain. So the last time I told the story of Yaoshan, a wonderful person devoted to the Buddha Dharma, studying it, practicing the Bodhisattvas, but feeling that somehow he was just not understanding what the Dharma was, still being not at peace in his life. But with the faith that if one correctly understood teaching,

[15:01]

one would realize perfect wisdom, and this perfect wisdom would be birthed to Buddha. He longed to realize Buddha's enlightenment. He was devoted to it, but somehow he just felt like he needed help. He needed some friends And this wonderful person manages somehow to meet Shirtou. He manages to meet the great student of one of the great students of one of the great students of the source of the Zen school. He meets Shirtou. Shirtou's name is... His full name is Shirtou... I forgot. Just a second. Shurto, by the way, is kind of like a lot of Zen teachers have their part of their name refers to where they live.

[16:12]

So maybe someday people will call me no abode. So my Dharma name is Tenshin Zenki, so they might call me No-Abode Tenshin or No-Abode Zenki. Zenki means the whole works, so they might call me No-Abode the whole works. So, Shurto means on top of the rock. His temple was a rock. apparently a flat rock, not a pointed rock. So his name is on top of the rock or rock head. But it means that he sat on the head of the stone. And his Dharma name was Shijian. Shijian. Shijian. Okay, so last week I told the story about Yaoshan looking for a teacher, looking for a friend, and he's managed to meet one of the greatest bodhisattvas in the Zen tradition, Shirtou.

[17:35]

And he goes to Shirtou and meets Shirtou. And if I tell you what that will take up the whole talk again. So, please excuse me for not going into detail, but he met Shirtou and And he didn't, even though he met Shinto, even though he met this great friend, he didn't understand, still didn't awaken to perfect wisdom. And Shinto sent him to Matsu, the other greatest teacher of the time. So here's this person who gets to meet the two greatest teachers. And so these two apparently were in the same species. mated and their offspring was Yaoshan. Yaoshan went to Shirto, Shirto sent him Matsu, and together they produced this new enlightened being, Yaoshan.

[18:41]

And Yaoshan was able to reproduce. So Matsu and Shirito are the same species. They might be, they're actually subspecies of the Buddha, species as the Buddha because they can reproduce. And one of their mutual offspring is Yaoshan. produces the lineage coming down to us here. And Shurto had another disciple, another great disciple, whose name we now call him

[19:48]

Tian Huang Da Wu. His diamond name is Da Wu, and the name Tian Huang, he became the abbot of Tian Huang Monastery. But before he was the abbot of that monastery, we would call him Da Wu. So here's the story of Da Wu, and now I'm going to talk about friendship. So previously I talked about the friendship that Yao Shan had with these two masters, and that friendship with them gave rise to the maturing of perfect his life. and then this person is directly our lineage. So I'm trying to emphasize here that this particular lineage is a lineage which brings together two from the sixth ancestor.

[21:02]

This won't be possible all the way down but at the sort of the beginning the lineage is sort of like reinforced. The lineage splits and then it rejoins on one side. And then another place it splits is between Shurto has... What's one of Shurto's disciples? What's his name? Do you know one of Shurto's disciples' names? Yaoshan. So Shurto has a disciple called Yashan, but he co-parented this person with Matsu. But we say that Yashan is the successor of Shurto rather than Matsu. And when he goes to Matsu, I'm telling you about these family styles, okay? When Shurto goes to Matsu, enlightened with Matsu, And Matsu says, yes, you're enlightened with me, but Shirtou is your teacher.

[22:07]

In other words, you will be in his direct line even though you woke up with me. And he stayed with Matsu for two years. Shirtou had another disciple, which I have told you about. And his name is Dabu. Okay? Okay? So Da Wu, which means the way or enlightenment, and Wu meant to awaken to the way, to awaken to enlightenment, Da Wu. He wanted to become a Buddhist monk when he was 14, and his parents didn't like the idea. A lot of parents don't want their sons to go away and not have any kids and stuff. They want them to have biological kids only, not just spiritual offspring.

[23:11]

So he wanted to go and become a monk. His parents wouldn't agree. And in the Buddhist tradition, usually it's recommended to get the support of your family if you're going to go become a monk. In the early days in India, when the Buddha became known, a lot of people went away from their family responsibilities to study with him. And then when they did, their families came. You shouldn't let our children leave us and go study with you without our permission. So the Buddha said, okay, from now on, I'll tell them to get your permission. So then when people would come, I think, if they were young, he would say, you know, did they have the support of their family? And so they sort of, there was a tradition to get your family support if you're going to go and practice in the Buddhist monastic community.

[24:13]

So this boy wanted to be a Buddhist monk. His parents didn't like it, so he went on a hunger strike and got pretty skinny. And finally they said, okay. So he went and went to the monastery and lived there for quite a while. And he, when he got older, like about nine years later, he got fully as a monk. And then he studied with his first spiritual friend. His first beneficial friend was named Ming Zhou, Ming Zhou. And then his next spiritual teacher was national teacher, Fa Qin. And then his next spiritual teacher was Sher To.

[25:19]

His next spiritual teacher was Ma Tzu. So he had three spiritual friends before he met Shinto. And one of them was Matsu. And Matsu, he received the teaching of the national teacher, and the national teacher said he had a good understanding of his teaching. Who is this again? Davu. Tian Huang Da Wu. So he gets to meet the national teacher. After having some other teachers, the national teacher teaches him and approves of his understanding. Then he goes to Master Ma. And Master Ma, and he lives with Master Ma for two summers, which means two years. And Master Ma also confirms his understanding.

[26:22]

And then he goes to meet Shurto. And upon meeting Shurto, this new friendship, now we have a dialogue of some dialogues about their friendship. So I'd like to tell you this conversation they had when they first met. Would you like to hear it? So this is a more intimate description between Dawu and Sirto. And he says to Sirto, by what method do you reveal liberating wisdom to people? By what method do you reveal the perfection of wisdom to people?

[27:24]

So here they go. Here's the method. I have no, Shurto says, I have no slaves here. From what do you seek liberation? What method do you have to reveal liberating wisdom? I have no slaves here. And Da Wu says, well, then how can it be understood? Do you follow that? No? What method do you have to reveal liberating wisdom?

[28:33]

I have no slaves here. From what... From what do you seek liberation? Okay, I got it. Got it? Got it? No? That sentence. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Hmm? Somewhat? Yeah. I'm wondering about how do you... You say, I have no... Nobody here is not liberated. Everybody here is liberated. What we know... From what are you going to get liberated? Okay? Got it? That's the kind of... This is the teaching. This is how... This is... He wants to know how do you... How do you... Wisdom. Well, the way I teach it is by saying that nobody here is unliberated. That's my first response to how I teach. Okay? And then what does Da Wu say? Well, how can people understand that?

[29:38]

How can people understand what you just said? That there's nobody here who's not liberated, so... I mean, I understand, but how can one understand that? In other words, what method do you have to reveal liberating wisdom? So what the method is, and he says, well, basically, here I am. I'm here. Hello. I'm with you. I'm here with you, you, your person who is not unliberated. He didn't say you're liberated. He says there's nobody unliberated here. Because this guy isn't liberated yet, in a way. And he kind of gets that, but then he says, but how am I going to understand that? In other words, the same question again from the beginning. And then he says, are you still trying to grasp emptiness?

[30:41]

Are you still trying to grasp the void? Can you see that? Here's the void, right? There's nobody here who isn't free. Oh, you know, How are you going to get... How can you... How can you get liberation? Okay, how can I understand that? Are you trying to grasp... Are you trying to grasp the void? Are you trying to grasp perfect wisdom? And Da Wu says, I won't do it again. Now, remember, this guy has been practicing for a while now, right? Got ordained when he was 14, got fully ordained when he was 21, studied with Ming Jiao, studied with the national teachers.

[31:41]

This is quite... Now he's probably in his early 30s after being studying for about 15, 20 years. So, if you ask him if he's... He knows he's not supposed to be grasping emptiness. He knows he's not supposed to grasp perfect wisdom. He knows that his teacher kind of caught him at it. He said, okay, I won't do it anymore. Things are moving along here. This friendship is developing. I don't know how long the space was between the sentences. It could be eons. It could be eons. Or it could be just like today, perhaps. From today I won't do so again. No more grasping at emptiness from me. No more trying to figure out and get a hold of how you teach people liberating wisdom.

[32:47]

No more. And then Shirto says, I'd like to know when you come forth from that place. I'd like to know, I'd be interested to know when you come forth from the place of never doing so again, never doing, never trying to get liberation. Of course we wish all beings to be We understand that we need this mind which doesn't abide in that wish. The wish that all beings liberated flourishes when we don't abide in it. But you have to take care of it and not abide in it. And Shurto would like to know when he comes forth from that place of not grasping. I'd like to know when you come forth from that place.

[33:51]

And Dawo says, I haven't come from that place. That's pretty good. The teacher says, I want to know when you come forth from that place. I'm not going to abide in that place. I'm not going to come from that place. I'd like to know when you come from that place. I'm not even going to come from that place. Pretty good. And then Shirato says, ...know where you come from. And then Dabu says, Master, how can you slander people that way? The translation is, how can you falsely accuse me of that with no evidence? And then, your body is revealed now, right here.

[35:05]

And Dabu says, okay, although it is thus, how, okay, okay, body is revealed right here now. Okay, okay, I got it. But still, if this is the revelation of my true body, how can I show people this? How can I teach people generations about this? How can I reproduce? And Shirtos says, Tell me, who are those coming later? Who are they?

[36:08]

Or who is the one coming later? and you know what happens next. What happens next is he has, Dawu has a great awakening. He has a great awakening and this great awakening dissolves the mind that he had attained with the previous teachers. That's one translation. Another translation is He had a great awakening, and it dispelled his doubts about what he had attained with the previous teachers. So he did attain something with the previous teachers, and I guess they felt, it seems, what he had attained was authentic, and they let it go.

[37:25]

They accepted that he was still maybe kind of abiding there a little bit. They confirmed his understanding. They confirmed the mind he realized with them. And then he left. And now Shurto dissolves the mind that has attained anything, that abides in anything. And another translation is, And he finally understood what the other teachers had taught him. The other teachers had taught him and confirmed his understanding, and yet he didn't really understand it. And now he completely understood it. And the way he understood it was that the mind that he had understood it with dissolved. So this is his story. of the friendship that led to that disciple's realization of perfect wisdom.

[38:35]

And that disciple, his name is Dawu, that disciple has a disciple. who I've told you about before. And they had a really good friendship, which I've told you about before. Dawu's disciple is named Dragon Pond, Lung Tan. And I've told you about their friendship. They had a very nice friendship. Do you remember me telling you about them? You don't? So, I'll begin my story about Lung Tan Again, some of you probably remember the story of Dragon Pond meeting his student. Dragon Ponds also reproduced. And his student was named Dushan.

[39:39]

Do you remember the story of Deshan meeting Lungtan? Some of you do, some of you don't. You don't? So, I'm, you could say, I'm attempting to teach, but also I'm just basically of our family, right? So, one of the stories is of this fellow named Deshan who was an expert on the teachings of perfect wisdom. In particular, he was an expert in a scripture called the Diamond Scripture of Perfect Wisdom. And his friends called him, because he was an expert in the Diamond Sutra of Perfect Wisdom, they called him Diamond Joe. His family name was Joe, so they called him Diamond Joe or Diamond Sutra Joe. And he was devoted to the teachings of Perfect Wisdom. He wanted to understand Perfect Wisdom.

[40:47]

And maybe he thought he did understand perfect wisdom. Just like the story I just told you. Da Wu kind of thought he understood perfect wisdom and two great Zen masters confirmed his understanding. Now you could say that confirmation was just a setup for him to meet his next friend. Not a lie. But they thought, okay, you understand well enough, I'm not going to ask you to dissolve the mind which you just understood that with. But we must dissolve the consciousness which correctly understands the teaching in order to perfectly harmonize. But first of all, we have to understand them. And he did. He did understand them. Da Wu did. And then he has a disciple named Lung Tan And Lungtan had a disciple named Deshan who was also very interested in perfect wisdom.

[41:50]

And Deshan is the one who's traveling to go south to destroy the Zen school because he is undermining the teachings of perfect wisdom. So he's on his way. to refute and dethrone the Zen teachers from their teaching seats. And on the way, he stops at a refreshment stand and meets a lady who sells these cakes. I've told you that story. Do you remember that story? John, you've heard that story, haven't you? Yes. Mine? Mine is cake. Well, actually, they're called... The name of the cakes the lady's selling would be pronounced dim sun. But dim sun means dot. Put a dot on the heart. Dim or... In Mandarin, it's tian xin.

[42:53]

Tian means make a dot. And xin is heart or... So the cakes hit your heart or hit the spot. They refresh you by dotting your mind, dotting your heart. So it means refresh. They're refreshments. So this lady is selling the cakes, right? This lady is a person in our lineage, but she can see she's part of the family dynamic that makes... enlightened people. You've heard that story before, some of you? I'll tell it again until you... until you can tell it again. But I won't do it right now. Back, climb back up out of Dishan, back to Luang Tan, back to Da Wu. So there's a story about how Da Wu helped Luang Tan.

[43:56]

And then we have the very famous story about how Lungtan helped Dazhan. And then Dazhan helped a monk named Shreyfeng. Dazhan helped the great Shreyfeng. And Seppo had a friendship with Disang. which means—seppo means snow summit, snowy summit. And ditsang is jizo. Like in jizo basatsu, it means earth. And ditsang led to Fa Yan, which is one of the schools of Zen. And then the other person that Deshan helped, not the other person, but Prei Fung, also led to Yun Men, the other school.

[45:06]

So from these teachers, from Yao Shan, comes the Soto school. From Tianhuang comes and the Yunmen School. So three of the five schools of Zen come from Shirtou through Yaoshan and Dawu. I have this vision of some people sitting in front of me who are really my mind, and they look like they've heard a lot of stories and are having trouble, are struggling to understand them all. So there's a lot of... Another thing about whales that I could tell you a little bit more about is that they have these barnacles.

[46:38]

And how do the barnacles get on the whales? Well, barnacle... I think barnacle larvae have a kind of cement on their head. And that cement, when it touches whales and peers... And what else can they go on to? Boats. Huh? Rocks. Rocks. Boats. Buoys. I've cut myself on barnacles that are on buoys. Anyway, they're floating around in the water. After they hatch, they're floating around in the water with this goo on their head, and when it touches them, it can stick so then they can then they can have a stationary place and then once they get that place they start to secrete and work with the calcium in the water and on their soft body with a hole in the top and out of the hole are little arms and feet that can grab food

[47:49]

And again, the reason I'm bringing it up is because it relates to what I've been talking about. Beings are hermaphrodite. They're hermaphrodite. And I don't know if some hermaphrodites can fertilize themselves. I don't know if they can. But barnacles cannot fertilize themselves. They're fertilized by themselves. but they can fertilize other barnacles. And other barnacles can be fertilized, but they can also be fertilized by other barnacles. So they can be fertilized and they can fertilize. So barnacles also that way are similar to bodhisattvas, to Zen students. Zen students The idea is that they can be fertilized and that they can fertilize.

[48:58]

Yes, Tracy, did you want to say anything? You made a face. Huh? Yes, go ahead. It's not about the particles. What? It's not about the particles. I was talking about the face when I was talking about Zen students. When you're listening. It was about something else. Oh, something else. Simultaneously. Okay. Okay, just something not related to what I was saying? Not at that moment. Something you said a little earlier. Something I said? What was it? First of all, I got caught not paying attention just now. I got caught paying attention. Second of all, I was trying to see how... Not to say I was stuck to that or anything. I wanted to see how to phrase this, which is that, you know, you're my teacher. I respect you. That's my point, too, is I don't know why you're telling us all these names.

[50:04]

Oh, why? Three is I don't like that you tell us all these names. Well, the reason I'm telling you the names is so that you understand friendship. I'm trying to help you understand friendship. By saying all these names? Yeah. When I was at the beginning of this event here, we had people say their names. Did you notice? Yes. You want to ask me why we say the names? No. You don't? Is the reason you want to ask because you understand? Because I think I understand. What's your understanding? That it creates connection. And so you have a sense of being. Right. That's why we do it. I forgot all those Chinese names. So it's like, it's annoying. Okay, do you know the names of everybody in this room? I don't know them. Do you know all their names? No. Yeah. That's because you haven't heard them enough. I know everybody's name here because I've done this over and over.

[51:08]

And it doesn't mean just because I know somebody's name I have a close relationship with them. It doesn't, right? But by saying it over, day after day, year after year, it's one of the things that might help develop a relationship. It seems like the story is what penetrates my little barnacle mind. Not the names. The names, they just fly away. I'm not familiar with Chinese. Every time you say one, I get annoyed because I know I'm going to remember. And so your name is Tracy. And you have the same name of a person I've known in the past, who I've met in the past. Remember your name. But not everybody knows your name, because they haven't met you as many times as I have. Your last name, I guess your last name is Apple, because that person who I used to know was also called Tracy Apple.

[52:13]

And if you speak English, Tracy Apple might be easier for you to remember than Tianhuang Dawu, right? Reasonable. So not only am I teaching you the names of the family of perfect wisdom, but some of them have foreign names, like Shakyamuni Buddha and Shogaku Shinryu Suzuki. These are foreign names. They're hard to... Even people who knew Suzuki Roshi had trouble remembering his name and pronouncing it. And sometimes when you're learning something and you... are having trouble learning it, but you want to learn it, you feel frustrated and uncomfortable. And also when you're learning something and you're not even sure you want to learn it, you feel frustrated and uncomfortable. So I think you're articulating that. So I said your name because you are a person who performs a friendship thing for the Sangha, of articulating not liking things sometimes, like you just did.

[53:24]

So you're speaking on behalf of all the people who didn't like me saying all these names. The reason I'm saying these names is so that you intimate relationship with these names and having an intimate relationship with these names will foster understanding the stories. I say that to you I mean, I feel like all the stories... Well, you don't need... The name, you don't need the name, but you do need to completely overcome your resistance to learning these names. I mean, these stories, these stories, to understand them is very deep matter. And if you have any resistance to anything, that resistance will hinder your understanding of perfect wisdom.

[54:35]

I'm not trying to do things that you will resist, but I seem to succeed. But because you respect, because you have respect, you don't just run away from everything you resist that I offer you. If everything I offered you, you didn't resist, that might be fine. If that everything else that was offered to you, you didn't resist. But fortunately, unfortunately, I offer you things to say I'm resistant. And then I can show you, maybe, I have a chance anyway to show you, that the door to wisdom is not so much to learn the names, but to overcome any resistance you have to them and learning them. Because if you have...

[55:39]

I'd like to learn the story, but not the names. It's like, okay, I'll take this part of the teaching, but not that part. Well, I'm glad you want this part, but if you want this part, if you really want to understand it, you have to not resist the other parts, to turn to the other parts and say, I have a problem with this, which you did, so you're saying I have a problem resisting. It's facing the resistance that's conducive to understanding these stories. Yeah, so we say the names at the beginning of these meetings to offer an opportunity for other people to recognize and for us to recognize other people and to this mutual recognition and we have a chance then to watch to see do we have any resistance to anybody in this group? And if we do, we know what to do with that, namely practice compassion with it. This story is about a person whose name is Tianhuang Dawu, who actually went to great teachers and opened to their teachings, but he didn't completely open to their teaching, apparently.

[57:01]

They were just as good teachers as Cherteau, but at his level of development with them, he could open to part of it, but he wasn't yet able to open to dissolving the mind that he used to understand their teaching. He wasn't ready for that. And they didn't resist him not being ready. They recognized how great he was at his present level, but he had not yet understood their teachings. And they confirmed his teachings. They've confirmed his understanding, even though his understanding was immature. He hadn't had enough friendship yet. He wasn't ready for any more friendship at that level. So then he went and had some friendship with Shirtou, and Shirtou now was able to finish off the Chinese. So it may be that these Chinese names, it isn't necessarily that you have to memorize them, but if I bring them up and you feel resistance to them,

[58:18]

that resistance. And it isn't just that you have resistance to names, it's I think you have resistance to hearing names that are hard to remember and that you don't understand and so on. Yes? I have a question about the friendship here to this sort of stage of development when someone like Da'u got to a state of conscious attainment and then transitioned to unconscious attainment. He didn't say he didn't transition to unconscious attainment. He transitioned to not abiding in conscious attainment. So he maintained conscious attainment, but no longer abiding in that consciousness. Exactly. Like, he still knows the address of Matsu's house, you know. He still remembered Matsu's... Matsu told him.

[59:21]

He remembered what it was like to be with him. He remembered his... And he knows his understanding. And that understanding, which was pretty... This is... Somebody who has a lot of understandings... Now he comes to meet Shirtou, and he asks Shirtou, how do you, like I learned from the other guys, how do you do it? Now he's ready to sort of present it in a way that he won't be able to get a hold of. And he's mature enough now so he can get this teaching. He wasn't mature enough before. And they have a very similar understanding now, but now... to dissolving the mind that understands, you know, not abiding in it. But it isn't that... You still remember, he could still tell you what the teachings were in the names of the places he got it. But now he doesn't abide in the names or the places of the teachings. He attained finally with this teacher.

[60:22]

So was it necessary to attain that with a teacher? Or I'm thinking of other stories where somebody who has that level of conscious attainment hears the ping of a pebble on a bamboo. Right. So that a non-sentient being also could. So he's referring to another one of the family stories of where a monk hears a pebble hit bamboo and understands. But what he understood was what someone taught him. So the person who taught him this teaching, and the teaching that he was taught was, he was actually taught the teaching of, the teacher said, dissolve the mind by which you understand the Buddha's teaching. He didn't say it that way, but that's basically what he's saying. What he said was, I want to hear something from you before you were born.

[61:24]

This is the teacher's teaching. I want to hear something. I want you to say something to me from before you were born. This is a friendship between two humans. It doesn't have to be between two humans, but there's a friendship there. And he can't do it. He keeps trying to answered the question from after he was born. He keeps trying to answer the question from his career as a Buddhist monk. The teacher said, no, no, no, no. He keeps going back to his book, no, no, no. And then he finally gives up. He finally disparages. Actually, you could say he disparages worldly affairs. In other words, he just disparages trying to get enlightenment from his mind. You don't get enlightenment from your mind, you get enlightenment from not abiding in your mind. So he disparaged that and he said, okay, I'm giving up, I'm not going to do that anymore, but would you please tell me?

[62:26]

Please tell me. And the teacher says, I know how, but it's just for me that I know how. If I show you, it will... What's the word? It will... your attainment, and you will revile me for it later if I would tell you how. I could tell you how, but that would hinder you." So then he goes away, and he's not going to try to get a hold of any teachings anymore. He's like, he's like Shirtogi says, What do you say? Just a second, I'll find it. Will I find it? Not on that page I won't find it. From today, I won't do it again. He says he won't. That's a vow. I'm not going to do it again. What am I not going to do? I'm not going to try to grasp myself before I was born.

[63:29]

I'm not going to do it anymore. That's a vow. He still hasn't attained it. So this other monk says, I'm not going to try to get anything anymore. You've given me a teaching, so I'm not going to try to get you to solve them. So he goes, and he's taking care of this monument for another national teacher. He's sweeping the ground. The pebble flies through the air and hits the stone, and he understands the mind, the dissolved mind. He understands himself. So that sound is a friend. It's not a human, but it's a friend. It's through that sound, but that sound touches his ear and he understands what a human told him. He understands, oh, there's where I was born. And then the first thing he does after he hears the sound is he does what the teacher told him to say. So he hears the sound and understands the teaching, and then he does what the teacher asked him to do.

[64:37]

He starts talking to the teacher. And he turns toward... First of all, he bathes, and then he turns in the direction of the teacher, in the direction of his friend, and he bows, and he says, I'm so grateful to you that you didn't tell me how to do this. Otherwise, I wouldn't... So the friendship's all around. The friendship is totally surrounding hearing sounds, seeing sights. They're all part of the friendship. The friendship isn't really like, my friendship was just two humans. The friendship isn't like just two human beings. It's the whole of the path is the friendship. But there's humans involved too. But everything that else happens in our life is part of the friendship. It's part of the... Like learning names.

[65:42]

Names. Like hearing the sound of a Chinese name. That may be what you'll have enlightenment when you're here someday. Tianwang Dawu. Oh! Yes. I have a question. Before my question, I want to point out that you have the advantage of having notes and even a book that you can look at. Yeah. The names get confusing. I sort of recently had some way. Visual aid. Visual aid. Sure. It's all clear. Well, I hear you and... I'm not sure exactly what response to make to that, but you could just get this book and bring it to all my talks. You can stop listening to me and start looking in the book and see how that goes.

[66:46]

I got it from this book, so you could look it up in the book. When I start talking, you say, where in the book can I find what you're talking about? Well, then you can look at it while I'm talking. It's fine. Yes, Judy? I am the opposite of Tracy. I hear these names all the time, Thielman and Da Wu and all these things. My issue is I don't remember the stories behind them. What's the name of your book? The name of this book is, the new translation is, Zen's Chinese Heritage. And the translator is Andy. And the way to learn the stories is to read them and tell them and listen to them over and over and over, just like they used to recite

[68:03]

the Iliad and the Odyssey. And before that, Homer heard other stories which he then made his own version of. Storytelling is part of the But then there's stories also to facilitate the study of the scriptures of perfect wisdom. So I made the point of, last fall we had a Zen stories class, and I made the point that The Zen school, as I just said here today, again, the Zen school is focusing on realizing perfect wisdom in order to give birth to Buddhas. That's the point of the Zen school, to make Buddhas, you know, compassionate. But the perfection of wisdom which gives birth to Buddhas is something that's surrounded by tremendous turbulence.

[69:11]

Ordinary karmic consciousness is turbulent, but perfect wisdom also has turbulence around it. It's around precious things. So we have the Zen school, which is a family tradition, which is trying to take care of something very precious. So when the family is trying to take care of something very precious, it's difficult sometimes for the family to stay together. All families precious things, like children are precious. Sometimes people even think parents are precious. But families often have something that they really care about. And there's a lot of stress around the things, around the children, around these precious beings. If they get sick, if they behave badly, all this stuff is a big issue, right? And even when they're not pooping, they're sitting at the table. And the parents ask the kids how school was that day, and the kids are texting their friends who are not in the room.

[70:15]

Parents say, would you put down your phone? Other kids are watching video games. The kids are having food fights. So anyway, after a little while, nobody's at the table anymore. So how do you hold a family together? You hold a family together. One of the main ways you hold together is having stories. And the stories can be about... Or they can mention, this is a story about Auntie Tracy. This is a story about Auntie Elizabeth. This is a story about Auntie Abby. This is a story about Uncle Paul. And what was Paul's last name? Grace. Uncle Paul Grace. To learn the names is part of the thorough understanding of the family stories which hold us together and create the friendship in which we can cultivate perfect wisdom.

[71:17]

So it's an... to develop these things for the sake of developing perfect wisdom. And just like at the table, the kids sometimes don't want to hear any more stories about Uncle Reb or Auntie Rose. That reminds me of a story about a kid who did not want to hear the names. There was this woman who used to come to the retreats and just hated the Chinese names. And then we had this conversation, you know, and she understood and the mind dissolved and she opened to great awakening and she had many disciples who she taught those names to. So the stories help us do this work. And if the stories have no rough spots on them,

[72:20]

then what are we going to do when the rough spots show up? Because there will be rough spots. Well, we have stories about rough spots and how people dealt with the rough spots and didn't get turned away. They didn't quit when they hit the rough spots. So, by the way, what's his name again? His name is Tianhuang Dawu. I said that without looking at the pleasure. Tianwang Dawu. And what was his disciple's name? Lung Tan. But Lung Tan's other, his Dharma name is the name of his place. His Dharma name was... which means respect and faith. So you need to have respect and faith in a friend in order to tolerate dealing with things that you resist. Like in my case, unfortunately or fortunately, I had almost no resistance to Suzuki Roshi.

[73:29]

And I, it wasn't like I, it wasn't exactly, I sort of thought, but in the stories, usually the students have some resistance at some point. I don't have any difficulty with you. Am I missing something? And he said, no, you will. But he died. He died before I could really resist him. Was his death not difficult? You know, it was. And I felt actually that although his death wasn't so difficult for me, I cried, but I didn't cry when I thought I should cry. His death was not difficult. I felt like he died so that I could have difficulties after he died. I died, which I might not have been able to have while he was still alive. In the glow of his presence, I had kind of an easy time. I was a pretty good boy when I was near him.

[74:33]

Took him away, I could become kind of a bad boy. Or sometimes you can talk about bad boys as people who are having trouble being a good boy. So I think, in some ways, Suzuki Roshi's death really stimulated his students to grow up painfully. So we've had a hard time growing up But we have grown up, I think, pretty well. Well, it's a long talk today. May I have one full script? Sure. Thank you. Not long ago, I read a rather long book. I think the nobody knows my name. And it was about an African slave in the 18th century. and by the end of the book I understood how important names were and in the African and that the only thing they had left when they came over on the boat was if somebody actually knew those two syllables that was everything to them and that was the story of their whole home and that kind of moving forward to African Americans here who take on very distinctive names which I always used to think that's a weird name I now appreciate

[76:02]

the territory a name can hold. So you'd think I would have not had that reaction. Names are things which we usually need to abide in. And therefore, drawing our attention to names is part of the way to become liberated, not so much from names, but from abiding in them. But I think it's very deep in our human inheritance with names. I watched my two-year-old granddaughter. She says my name a lot. Of course, if she wants my attention, she might say, she says, granddaddy, to get my attention. But she says it in a lot of places where it doesn't seem necessary. Like she might say, this is a cup, granddaddy. Whereas I think when we're adults more, we might say, here's a cup of tea.

[77:07]

But she would probably say, here's a cup of tea, Tracy. She puts the name of the person she's talking to all over the place in the sentences. Tracy, come. Mommy, come. But also, look at this, Mommy. What is this, Mommy? Mommy, what's doing, Mommy? Everything your mother does is really interesting. So she said, if your mother does anything she doesn't understand, she said, what's doing, Mom? What's doing, Granddaddy? What is that, Granddaddy? Here, Granddaddy. Come, Granddaddy. She adds that in and nobody tells her to do it. So somehow there's something about names of people that's part of our nature and we sometimes add names as much as we did when we were kids. But if you start adding back in, you'll find that's a different life.

[78:10]

Tracy? Yes, Elizabeth? I've always thought the book Well, Frankenstein is the name of the doctor. Frankenstein is named after my granddaughter. Her name is Frankie. Frankenstein is the name of the doctor, and the monster never gets named. I've always thought that's why he ends up killing his father, because he never gets named by his father. Would you say that again? Frankenstein... Well, Frankenstein is the name of the doctor who creates the being. Yeah, it's Frankenstein's monster. Yeah, and then he never gives the monster a name. So I've always thought that was the root of the monster's need to kill. She always thought that the root of the monster's need to kill, the father never gave him a name. Very interesting.

[79:11]

Thank you, Elizabeth. Thank you. Well, another amazing thing. Another amazing thing. One amazing thing after another. Are you guys amazed? Yeah. Me too. Another amazing thing is that Breck's here. Isn't that amazing? And Breck, you might not be amazed that Breck had a father, and only one father. That's maybe not so amazing. But his father... Only Brecht can tell you, by telling stories about his father, how wonderful his father was. But anyway, his father, towards the end of his life, got rather old. And it turned out that he died recently on his 100th birthday, which is Valentine's Day.

[80:23]

Isn't that amazing? He died, he was 99 one day, and he was still alive. And then he made it into the next day. What time did he die? 1.45 a.m. 1.45 a.m.? Valentine, into his birthday, and he was 100. And he passed away peacefully. So Breck's very happy to have had such a father and to have... lots of Chinese names to learn, Dharma, so he could really have a wonderful time with his father towards the difficult end. So now, gosh, I can see his dad's eye. His dad's name is Hunt Jones, and I can see Breck's eye there. It looks like the whale. I see just one eye here, and I see Breck there.

[81:24]

And so we can do a memorial service for Brecht's dad now, if you would like. Would you? Okay, so let's end this event.

[81:37]

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