Sashin [...] Can you hear me in the back? Sashin can be spoken of as mindfully mindfully embracing and sustaining body and mind. And for body and mind, mindfully embraced and sustained. caring for and remembering stillness.

[01:05]

In stillness, everything's going on, and the way everything's going on is called the pivotal activity of all Buddhas. The pivotal activity of all Buddhas is living in stillness and silence. Stillness and silence is available for remembering and clearly observing. The story that I postponed is a story that I discovered in a commentary of the story called Wong Bo's Dreg Slurpers.

[03:10]

For the people who speak English as first language, do you know what dregs are? Do you know what dregs are? Timo, would you tell people what dregs are? So if you let wine, if you have a wine in a bottle, it settles, there's sedimentation at the bottom of the bottle. Does that make sense? And then sometimes they pour the wine out and remove the dregs, maybe. Anyway, it's the sediment of wine, wine enjoying. And slurper, slurper means like to drink. The slurp, slurper. So it's a story about

[04:20]

being accused of slurping the dregs. And so in that commentary there's a story about a Chinese aristocrat, I think his name was Ji Hong, he was reading I think a Confucian classic. And outside the hall there was a wheelwright. Do you know what a wheelwright is? It's someone who makes wheels right. It's also the name of one of our buildings here, the Wheelwright Center. So it's an English word for people who make wheelwrights.

[05:22]

So there was a wheelwright outside whose name was Lun Pian. And he put down his — he was working on a wheel — he put down his chisel and his hammer and said to the Lord Ji Hung, What are you reading, sir? And Ji Hung said, I'm reading teachings of the ancient sages. And the wheelwright said, well, then you're, are they alive? Are these sages alive? And Ji Hung said, no, they're dead. And then the wheelwright said, well then you're slurping or you're drinking the dregs of the ancestors.

[06:31]

And the Lord Ji Hung said, when a sovereign is reading a book This is not usually something that a Wheelwright would comment on. If you have an explanation of this behavior, all right. If not, you die. And the Wheelwright... Well, I look at it in terms of my work. When I'm planing up a wheel, if I go slowly, it's easygoing but not firm.

[07:39]

If I go fast, it's hard and doesn't fit in. Without going fast or slow, it comes into my hands and accords with my body. without going fast or slow, it comes into my hands and accords with my body. I cannot express it in words. I can't teach it to my children, and my children can't learn it from me. Therefore, I've been going for seventy years, growing old, making wheels right.

[08:46]

The ancient sages and what they didn't transmit . Therefore, Your Majesty, you are slurping the dregs of the ancestors. Going too fast or slow is going on in stillness. It comes into our hands and accords with our mind.

[09:58]

Perhaps the ancient teacher, Wang Bo, heard this story about drug slurpers. One day, he went to a teaching hall with his staff, And he said to the assembly, what do all of you people want to seek? And then he ran at them with swinging his staff. And they didn't move. They didn't run away. And he said, if you travel like this, how will you have today?

[12:46]

Do you know that in all of China, literally in all of Tang Dynasty China, there are no teachers of Zen? One monk came. One monk among the paralyzed assembly came forward and said, What about all these places where people are guided? And Wang Bo said, I didn't say there was no Zen in China. I said there were no teachers, just that there's no teachers.

[13:53]

Zen is living in stillness and there is no teacher in the stillness other than Zen. The activity of all Buddhas is living in stillness. And this pivotal activity of all Buddhas has no Buddha or sentient being. Zen is a form of is a reality and it's the name of a school where there's lots of stories about great teachers and people around the great teachers and this great teacher says, Do you know that in all of China there are no teachers of Zen?

[15:13]

the assembly needed the teacher, I guess, to tell them that there were no teachers of Zen in all of Zen China. Around the time Wang Bo lived, as was often the case throughout the Tang Dynasty, there was an emperor.

[16:58]

And the emperor had two sons. And then the emperor died, and one of the sons became the emperor. And his brother did not. And that emperor had three sons, all of whom were potential heirs to the throne. And so was the brother. So, quite concerned that the that the brother of the emperor, when the emperor died, would try to usurp the throne from his nephews. Each of his nephews became emperor

[18:03]

And each generation of emperors became more and more afraid of the uncle until the uncle kind of had to go into hiding because his nephew was maybe going to kill him out of fear of him. And to me it's kind of amazing that the place he went into hiding was a Zen monastery, where there was Zen . And the head monk of the monastery was, can you guess? You dreg slurpers! His, huh? Well, yes. It was Wang Bo. The uncle of the emperor was in hiding in monastery where Wang Bo was the head monk.

[19:11]

Wang Bo, he had this habit of bowing a lot. bowing to Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. The very astute new monk in the monastery, the uncle of the emperor, approached Wan Bo and said, I've heard that you do not seek anything from Buddha that you do not seek from Dharma, that you do not seek from Sangha. What's all this bowing about?

[20:18]

Wang Bo said, I do not seek from Buddha, I do not seek from Dharma. I do not seek from Sangha. I just bow like this. The uncle of the emperor, who by the way didn't become emperor, The uncle of the emperor said, What's the point of this prostration? Why are you bowing? And Wang Bo slapped the uncle of the emperor. And the uncle of the emperor said, Too coarse. And Wang Bo said,

[21:22]

Is this a place to be discussing course and fine? And slapped him again. When this person became emperor, Wong Bo a title, an imperial title, which was course action monk. the activity of all Buddhas, the functioning pivot of all the ancestors is living in stillness and silence.

[22:33]

Right now, we have an opportunity to and enter it. by embracing and sustaining body and mind, and by our body and mind being embraced and sustained. We have this opportunity. We are so fortunate to hear about it. I wish us well. And also, I wish the animals, I don't know what kind of animals they are, that are eating my tulip bulbs, I wish them joy and safety. This is a new wish for me.

[23:37]

I wish the animals that are destroying Green Gulch joy and safety. I wish the people that are being endangered by the rats joy and safety. I hope the rats and the mysterious tulip bulb eaters may all have joy and safety together in this silence and stillness. I'm a little surprised that I haven't been consistently wishing the rats joy and safety. Sometimes when we're afraid of rats we get distracted from stillness.

[24:40]

But then we remember, oh yes, stillness, and then in stillness loving kindness and compassion are revealed. They're always there waiting to be practiced. But we have to remember stillness sometimes for them to have a chance. Do I remember stillness?

[25:25]

@Transcribed_v005
@Text_v005
@Score_89.03