For a few months now, we have been contemplating a song, a samadhi song, a song coming up out of a samadhi, about a samadhi, a song enjoying, it's a song of a samadhi that enjoys itself. Sometimes we call this samadhi the self-enjoyment samadhi. In this case, the samadhi is called the precious mirror samadhi. And this is a song about a samadhi which enjoys itself. It's a song about the self enjoying itself. It's a song about a precious mirror. It's a song about the teaching of suchness.

[01:05]

As I mentioned earlier today, the teaching of suchness is intimately communicated by Buddhas and ancestors. The teaching of suchness is intimately communicating Buddhas and ancestors. The Buddhas and ancestors are intimately communicated by the teaching of suchness. The teaching of suchness is the Buddha ancestors intimately communicating with each other, with all of us,

[02:23]

The teaching of suchness is the intimate communicating. Intimately communicating is the Buddha ancestors teaching of suchness. Buddhas and ancestors intimately communicating. Now, you have it. Now you have it also. Now you have it also. Please take care of it. This teaching of suchness I also mention according to the song. The song sings the use of this teaching. the use of this intimate communion is a guide for all beings.

[03:39]

And its use removes all misery. Some people might think, or actually do say, I would like some guidance. And they might think, I would like somebody to guide me or some teaching to guide me. This teaching of suchness guides us. And what is the teaching of suchness? It is an intimate conversation. It's not somebody outside, it's a conversation. That is actually the guide. to be in this intimate conversation. In that intimate conversation, we are guided, or that is the guiding. That is the relieving, to be in this intimate conversation. Someone said to me recently,

[04:51]

Sometimes I take notes on what people say to me. Somebody said, I don't understand how the teaching works. Don't know much about the teaching. Don't know much about transmission. I said, well, I'll talk about that. And he said, now? I said, no, in the talk today. I'm talking about how the teaching works. And it works quite well with don't know much about how it works. In the song, there's a line which can be translated something like, it is bright at midnight.

[06:24]

Literally, it's, you know, the Chinese character is night, middle. which we sometimes call midnight. It is bright in the middle of the night. So the middle of the night, the middle of the night, but also to be in the middle of the night. That's where the intimate conversation is bright. Today I'd like to talk about the midnight. where this Buddha ancestor intimate entrustment of the teaching is bright. The entrustment is already going on.

[07:31]

You already have it. You're being invited and encouraged to take care of it. But the brightness of this entrustment, which has already, which you already have this entrustment, the brightness of it is in midnight, at midnight. Some other good news from one of our friends is there is calm and ease, periodically, in the midst of anything. You could all stay in the midst of everything, but anything is slightly different. No matter what it is, there's periodically calm and ease.

[08:35]

I don't know if the person then said, working within. At the end of the scripture, at the end of the song, it says, practice secretly working within. Like a fool, like an idiot. Or practice secretly working within at midnight. How foolish to practice at midnight. But... Some of you who don't know me so well maybe would benefit by me explaining what just happened. Oftentimes funny things occur to me and I laugh before I tell you what it is. This is one of those times.

[09:51]

What was I talking about? I was talking about working within, in the midnight. That's where the transmission is bright. That's where the teaching is bright, is it at midnight. So then this cartoon appeared in my mind from ancient times. The cartoon is a cartoon where there's two men talking to each other, I think. No, no. Two men, I think, are looking at the ground under a streetlight, and a policeman says to them, what are you doing? And one of them says, we're looking for our watch. And the policeman said, did you drop it here? And one of them says, no, we dropped it off the street, but the light's better here.

[11:01]

We like to look for... We like to look for stuff where there's light. And we're going to probably continue. This teaching is saying, even when you're looking for things in the light, still there's a possibility of working within the midnight of the moment. This is a teaching for big kids. It's a teaching for adults, or at least parental guidance. So, I hope you have some parental guidance or that you're just straight out ready to be a parent. But parents in this tradition are also children. The bodhisattvas are parents to all beings and also they're children of the Buddhas.

[12:09]

This midnight teaching Tomorrow at Green Gulch I'm going to give a talk to the children and afterwards I'm going to give a talk to the adults. And I'm going to talk to the children about what the Zen Center is about. And I'm going to tell them we're going to try to teach people how to help, how to be helpful, how to be kind, how to be good friends. That's what we have Zen Center for is to make friendly kind, gentle people and make friendly, kind, gentle plants that are helpful. And I'm going to tell the adults how to learn how to be friendly. But I'm going to just tell the children what the point of the temple is, what the charter of the garden is.

[13:17]

And then they can go off and get some more education in the children's program. And then I'm going to talk to the adults about what I'm talking to you about, which is how do you learn? Where do you learn? Where's the guidance? that actually leads us into the good friendship which brings peace to this world. And it's in the midnight. The author of this song about working within the midnight the author of this song about taking care of how you already are in such a way that you realize how you already are.

[14:29]

The author of this song is a Chinese person. His name is Deng Shan. Deng Shan is the name of the monastery where he was teaching most of his teaching career. And yang jie means good servant. We have a tradition that he wrote this song about the precious mirror, samadhi. And this precious mirror samadhi was where he already is You could also say where he already was. This precious mirror samadhi is where you already were and where you already are. But if we don't take care of it, we could possibly miss it. So we want to encourage the care of this samadhi.

[15:35]

Samadhi is a kind of awareness. It's an awareness that's not distracted. It's an undistracted awareness of the precious mirror. It's the undistracted awareness of undistracted awareness enjoying undistracted awareness. Back in China, Deng Shan had a teacher. His teacher's name was Yun Yan, which means cloud cliff. Good servant is a student of cloud cliff. And Cloud Cliff told the good student, I mean the good servant, he said, I now give you the precious mirror samadhi. You now have the precious mirror samadhi. We already are this way, but yet we must receive it.

[16:43]

and he did receive it, his teacher says, you actually are this Samadhi, that's who you are. You're a good Samadhi servant. And then, having become this Samadhi, he sang this song, which People have been singing for more than a thousand years in China and Japan, Korea, Vietnam, the United States of America, Canada, Europe, South America. Maybe it's made it back to China again. Dungsan was younger than his teacher and his teacher passed on.

[18:04]

And sometime later, the good Samadhi servant was performing, was conducting a memorial feast for his teacher, Cloud Cliff. And a monk said to him, what did you receive when you were at Cloud Cliff's place? And Yuen Yuen said, although I was there, Good servant said, although I was there, I didn't receive any teachings.

[19:12]

Although I was there with my teacher, I didn't receive any teachings. And the monk said, well, if you didn't actually receive any teachings, why do you conduct memorial service for your teacher? And good servant said, how can I turn my back on him? And the monk said, you began by meeting Nanchuan. He's referring to the meeting between good servant and Nanchuan, which means south spring.

[20:25]

He met a great famous Zen master named Nanchuan. And Nanchuan recognized him when he was a young monk and said, this good servant is worthy of carving. And that word got out. He became, the boy became, the young man became famous as being publicly recognized by a great teacher. And so this monk who knew about that said, you were first recognized by Nanchuan. the great non-chuan. So why do you conduct a memorial service for this kind of relatively unknown teacher who didn't give you any teachings? And a good servant says, it's not my teacher's virtue or his teaching of the Buddha Dharma that I esteem.

[21:31]

but only that he did not directly teach me anything. And then the monk says, well, since you are conducting the ceremony, do you agree with your teacher or not? And Dung Shan, good servant, said, I half agree and half don't agree. If I agree completely, The monk said, why don't you agree with him completely? I half agree and half don't agree.

[22:34]

Why don't you agree with him completely? If I agreed with him completely, then I would be ungrateful to my teacher. May I go over this story again? Starting in the back. If I agree completely with my teacher, I would not be intimate with him. Yuckies. So the student and the teacher are together and the student is intimate with the teacher and doesn't agree completely with the teacher. It's kind of yucky. I half don't agree with you, teacher. Why don't you completely agree with me? Because then I wouldn't be ungrateful to you. I would not be intimate with you.

[23:35]

But I am intimate with you, so I just half agree with you. Because this is midnight, man. Say it louder. Yucky. It's kind of yucky to be sort of really close to somebody who doesn't agree with you. Yeah, go ahead. I thought the yucky was to be 100% in agreement. That's even, that's super yucky. We don't have that situation, right? In this tradition... The students don't completely, the disciples don't completely agree with their teacher. And therefore, they're not really disciples of their teacher. If they completely agree with their teacher's teaching, they kill their teacher's teaching.

[24:40]

I agree. Completely? Do you agree completely? You get to agree half or one-third or two-thirds. Dungsan was half and also half-not. But be careful. If you're half, make sure you're not just copying. Or if you're copying, make sure it's at midnight How does it kill it? It kills it by the same dharma according to the same dharma by which being intimate with the teacher takes care of the teachings.

[25:53]

And how does being intimate with the teacher take care of the teaching? That is bright at midnight. How does completely knowing what the teaching is, how does that kill it? How that kills it is bright at midnight. If you want to be clear and know completely How knowing completely kills the teacher's teaching. And you go for that, then you kill it again. This teaches for adults. Where there's yuckiness all around. Is agreeing completely touching?

[27:07]

I would say agreeing completely with the teacher. And what's the teacher? The teacher is a great mass of fire. What's the student? A great mass of fire. What's the intimate communication? It's a great mass of fire. To agree completely with the great mass of fire is like touching it. But also it's turning away from it. It's both. It's not being upright with it to agree completely. Why not? Why not? Why not what? I don't understand that last sentence.

[28:11]

You said that if you're agreeing completely, that's not being intimate with it? Pardon? You say you're not being intimate with it if you're agreeing completely? Right. But also agreeing with it half is also not being intimate. What do you mean? It's bright just at midnight. Practice secretly working within like a fool, like an idiot. In that foolishness, the uprightness will be bright. And I imagine that there were quite a few meetings between the teacher who said, you are the precious mirror awareness, please take care of it.

[29:27]

And even at that time or before that or after that, I imagine that the teacher said to the disciple, I don't want you to be my disciple. To help him be upright with being the samadhi. Do you want him to be anything else? Anything else from what? He didn't want him to be his disciple. Did he want him to be something else? No. Matter of fact, he wanted him to be his disciple. Therefore, he said, probably, although I can't tell you where he said it, he probably said, you are not my disciple. You are my disciple. I don't want you to be my disciple. He probably said all that, but I don't remember that he did.

[30:31]

But some people have said those things. Some people have said, some Buddha ancestors have said, you are not my disciple. And who did they say that to? They don't say it to just anybody on the street. You are not my disciple, they say. Sometimes they say, you are my disciple. And sometimes they say, I don't want anybody to be my disciple. Does that mean they don't want some people to remember their teachings and transmit the words? Does it mean they don't want that? No. What does it mean? It means that if they happen to be transmitting the words of the teacher, they do it at midnight. They don't know what they're talking about. But they love to talk about this teaching

[31:32]

which they do not know what it is. They're so happy. It's so bright. Being an idiot. Like being a Zen priest and not knowing what it is. And realize that it's kind of ridiculous to put on robes and everything and not know what you're doing. Now most people, you know, put on their Like when you put that sweater on today, you know, people might come up to you and say, oh, that's a nice sweater. What are you doing wearing that sweater? And you might say, I don't know. And they might say, okay. Or you might say, well, I don't need to know what I'm doing wearing the sweater. I'm fine with that. That's more like not being a disciple. But to get this fancy outfit on, with all the effort that went into making it and taking care of it, and then not know what a Zen priest is, it's kind of ridiculous, embarrassing, foolish.

[32:48]

So if I don't wear this outfit, then not knowing what I'm doing won't be so embarrassing. If you're going to draw this much attention to yourself by dressing unusual ways, you should know what you're doing. No, it's the opposite. I'm kind of advertising being an idiot. Whereas if I wore, you know, just some simple outfit, I'd still be an idiot, but it wouldn't be like such a public demonstration. Because people wouldn't think, well, he's an idiot. for wearing, you know, some black pants and a black shirt. But even before I talk, if I wear these outfits, some people might say, what a fool. And then, yeah, right. You're right. And now my cup is empty. Yeah. No, thanks.

[34:01]

Please stay. How are you doing up there? You can see the drops on your head. Yeah. Can you see the moon in it? Oh. Stories about conversations at midnight.

[35:11]

stories about conversation when the teaching is brilliantly shining. Someone said to me just the other day, once upon a time there was a woman named Ling Xingbo. And she went to visit her friend, Fubei. to pay her respects to the teacher full bay so she went and sat with him and they drank tea together and they sat together and she said A true word can't be spoken no matter how hard you try.

[36:19]

So how do you teach? Following her instruction, he was silent. So then she says she was not satisfied with the way he followed her instruction. He told me, he gave me the teaching, I'm trying to fracture it. She wasn't satisfied. So then she put her hands like this in her robes, she was wearing robes, put her hands like this inside her robes. And she said, she cried. There is grievous suffering even in a blue sky. And Fubei was silent.

[37:22]

And then she said, being a human is to live in yuckiness. Now you can be a human and not live in yuckiness, but that's rather drab, actually. You say, well, I can live without yuckiness. I can live without calamity. I can live without distress and turmoil. yes you can but will you be fully alive without it closing the door on midnight turning the lights on but not finding your watch but you know it's a good place it's nice to have the light but it's yucky over in the dark and slimy but something is bright there

[38:40]

That's the end of the story, she says. To be a human being is to live in calamity. It's also to be calm and at ease periodically. It's also that. And working within like a fool. Where? In calm and ease, working within. working within the mind that is periodically, and maybe even now, calm and at ease. Working within that mind. But not knowing completely what it is. And it's the same when it's just flat-out yucky, flat-out distress.

[39:51]

Work within that. How? In midnight. Not touching it and not turning away. There it shines brightly. There is the true human which doesn't completely know what a true human is or what a true human isn't. In this place, the teaching is not killed. It is cared for and nobody owns it. So those are two stories about practicing at midnight and taking care of what you already are by entering this intimate conversation where one party is talking and the other person's talking

[41:12]

Or sometimes one person's talking and the other person's silent. And the other person cries and the other person's silent. And the other person cries again. This is a conversation, but I don't know what it is. And the story doesn't exactly have an end. It's just that the last word is yucky. The last word is calamity. The song doesn't say this, but another song says that this, this intimate communication, which you have already, you have the intimate communication, you have

[42:22]

the teaching of suchness already. And this intimate communication is Buddha ancestors. Sometimes you say it's between Buddha ancestors, it's between Buddhas and Buddhas, but I'm suggesting that this intimate conversation is what Buddhas are, or it is what Buddhas are doing. Buddhas are what they do, and what they're doing is intimate conversation. And sometimes they say, only Buddhas do this only with Buddhas. But what are Buddhas? Buddhas are intimate entrustment. But it's not intimate entrustment by yourself.

[43:24]

It's intimate entrustment with intimate entrustment. And what is intimate entrustment? It is the enlightenment of all beings. It is the relief and freedom from suffering. Liberation is in conversation with liberation. The liberation of all beings is in conversation with the liberation of all beings. This is going on most rightly at midnight. It's going on in the light too, but it's dark in the light. In the light you can't see it. Yes? So when there is the intimate communication, does that mean... that doesn't mean there's no longer yuckiness. There's still yuckiness. Yeah. Because your dearest friend doesn't completely agree with you.

[44:30]

And sometimes when they don't completely agree with you, they're quiet about it. But sometimes they say, I don't agree with you. Or even something else like, you're wrong. Or you're off track, teacher. Or you're not my teacher. Or you're not my disciple either. Well, you're doubly not my teacher. You're even more not my teacher than I'm not your disciple. Oh, you are my teacher. I changed my mind. I don't want any disciples, especially you. Like that. It's yucky. It's stressful. I don't usually say that to people. You're not my disciple. Because... What?

[45:33]

But fortunately, they think I'm saying that all the time. But now I'm also adding to the list of all the times I said, you weren't my disciple. I'm saying, I pray that I don't have any disciples who will kill my teaching or the teaching. And then somebody says, oh, let's go start a school called, you know, let's kill his teaching, then we won't be his disciple. No, we would be. No, wait a minute. If we are his disciple, we kill the teaching. If we're not his disciple, we take care of it. So let's start a school called Not His Disciples. And that will be the truth, disciples. So that's an esoteric teaching. We are the true disciples who are not his disciples. And the ones who say they are, they are killing it. And we've got proof, scriptural proof, that all those who are his disciples are killing the teaching.

[46:36]

And all the great Zen disciples were not the disciples of their teacher. And we've got more stories like that for future discussion. But that's a lot for now. Isn't those two stories enough? But it's not always yucky. Sometimes it's ducky. This is so ducky. It's so ducky to be with you, teacher. Oh, I agree. This is so ducky. My teaching has been destroyed. Anything else this morning, this early afternoon? Is that enough? Yes. Can you tell me your name again? Faraday. Faraday. Yes, great. What a name. Thank you. Forgive me for saying this, but I still... You're forgiven. Thank you. I still don't understand what you're saying. You get your best answers at midnight. Is it literally midnight, or is it at the darkest time?

[47:39]

Which one are you regretting? It's not even necessarily the darkest time. It's just like right in the middle of the night. It might be not the darkest. I don't know. Actually, in midnight, I don't know if it's even midnight. So you're in rough times for the brightness. I doubt that I understand what midnight is. I doubt that I understand what intimate communication is. I doubt that I... I doubt that I'm practicing, I've entered into the awareness of the precious mirror. I doubt that. And I don't know whether my doubt is just the right kind of doubt, the right amount of doubt, or whether I'm overdoing it a little bit or underdoing it. So I don't know really what midnight is. I don't completely know what I'm talking about.

[48:42]

But I don't know if that's... And I'm not sure that that's midnight. But I think maybe it is. And at midnight, there's no clinging to this wonderful fire of our life. And everything is included and everything is helping everything else be free and at peace. And that's going on at midnight in the dark. And this is what we already have. There's some things which we don't have yet, like we don't have next year yet. In the light, we don't have next year. But in the darkness of midnight, maybe we have next year.

[49:47]

I don't know. And maybe we have yesterday. But in the light, I lost yesterday. Or anyway, yesterday passed away. And my teacher passed away. And Dung Shan, the author of this song, he met many great Zen teachers, but the one he venerated most was the one who never directly pointed out what good night was, who he was, what they were, what ducky is, what yucky is. He never directly pointed out. And you say, was that because he was such a kind teacher? Yes. Was that because he didn't know what it was so he couldn't point it out directly? Maybe. How about wondering about this for the time being?

[50:51]

How about for the time being wondering about the intimate conversation which is Buddhas and ancestors, which is the guide for all of us. How about wondering about that, which we already have? How about helping each other remember to wonder? Yes, Carol? Is it like diversity is the flavor of life, and therefore to penetrate diversity is like to wear the robes? Because you're always in penetration of... Penetrate the diversity, yes, and be upright with it. After you enter it, don't touch the diversity and don't turn away from it. Diversity is like a great mass of fire. You're like a great mass of fire.

[51:56]

I'm like a great mass of fire. And you and me together, in a way, is who we really are. And that allows the diversity of yucky and ducky. And this wonderful diversity, again, we did not turn away from it. We have Zen teachers who teach lots of good things, and then we have yin and yang who doesn't really teach anything. We let him be a teacher. We let the people who aren't, who are teaching us a lot of stuff and pointing stuff out, we let them be here. They're welcome. We let those who would like to point things out but don't know how, they're allowed to be here. We let those who know that nobody can point anything out not point anything out. And we let those who know that nobody can point anything out point things out. All that's allowed here in this wonderful fire of what?

[53:06]

Of being like a fool, like an idiot. Not a real fool. A pretend fool. A real one. Okay. How's that? Is that enough? Going once? Going twice? Going three times. Sold American. Sold what? American. American tobacco company. Who makes Lucky Strikes. Yucky Strikes? Yucky Strikes. Yucky Strikes. Yes, they are Yucky Strikes. Now, when I swing and I miss, it's a yucky strike to me, but to some people it's beautiful. Ducky strikes. My strikes, are they yucky or are they ducky?

[54:11]

When I miss the ball, some people think it's yucky. Some other people think that's really ducky and they clap. And some other people go, he's swinging away. And he keeps striking. One, two, three, you're out at the old ballpark. Like a hammer striking emptiness. Like a hammer, like a baseball bat striking emptiness. May our intention equally extend to every being and place. With the truth in it.

[54:54]

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