Returning to the story about the Chinese ancestors, Doan Kanshi and Ryozan Enkan Daisho. Ryozan was serving as minister to the teacher, Doan Kanchi, and as Ryozan was passing the teacher the robe, the teacher said, what is the business under the patch robe? And Ryozan had no answer to speak.

[01:05]

And then Doan said, now you ask me. And then Ryozan said, what is the business under the patch robe? And the teacher, Doan Kanshi, said, intimacy. Intimacy. the business, the practice of where the robe of the Buddha is, the practice, their business, their work. Their work is intimacy. And intimacy is the reality of our life. it looks in this case like intimacy is the way things are and intimacy is the work.

[02:11]

The business of the Zen school is the practice, the business is intimacy. It's the business of realizing the reality of intimacy. We don't get intimacy, we realize it's already here. We practice in a way that realizes it so that the and reality are the same. And yet, if there's a hair's breadth difference, it's like they're different. So in the story, the teacher and student are intimately together, and yet there seems to be a little difference, and yet there isn't really. There's no difference, no real difference in intimacy. There's no way to get a hold of any difference.

[03:15]

And yet it's almost like if we think that we can get a hold of something, it's almost like it disturbs reality. But by the end of the story, there was no separation. They worked together and realized intimacy together. So all phenomena are in intimate relationship with all phenomena. How can we practice in a way to realize that? Well, by being compassionate to all phenomena leads to the unsurpassed insight which realizes it.

[04:19]

Another story which seems to be begging to be told is a story about another Chinese bodhisattva name is Shershuang. And there's two famous Shershuangs. He's like the second one. I also call him Si Ming. So Si Ming is the teacher of two monks who formed the two main schools of the Rinzai line in China. So there were five schools, five main schools of Zen that are talked about in history.

[05:32]

One of them is Rinzai, and Soto is another one, and Yunmen is another one, Fa Yan is another one, and Gui Yang is another one. So those are the five. In the Rinzai line, after Zi Ming, the two main lines were his two students. One of the lines, I think, is called... I think Huang, Huang, Huang Long. Does that mean yellow dragon? Or some kind of dragon. Anyway, some kind of dragon was one of his students. That line leads down to Dogen's teacher, Myozen, Dogen's first Zen teacher in Japan, Myozen.

[06:34]

we are actually an inheritor of that line. That line comes through Dogen. Even though it's Rinzai, Dogen has a Rinzai teacher first, and then he has a Zao Tong or Soto teacher in China. So from Ziming, we are in the lineage of Ziming in this temple. Rinzai line coming through Dogen. Sun Tzu Ming, very important teacher for us, wonderful, yeah, wonderful bodhisattva. And he was in charge of a number of different monasteries, one of them being Shershuang. So they call him Shershuang after that big monastery that he was the abbot of. And he had a student, whose name was Yang Chi.

[07:42]

His Japanese name is Yogi. Yogi. And... So, Tsui Ming had Yang Chi. Yang Chi was like his... you know, his director. Wherever he went, Yang Chi was the director of the monastery. So he was at this monastery and the students served as director there. He went to another one, he was director there, he went to another one. So he was the director at a number of monasteries and when the teacher went, the student went with him. So now they're at the monastery And all this time, this wonderful student asked the teacher questions, and yeah.

[08:48]

And according to the story, every time the director, Yang Chi, would ask him questions, he would basically say, Director, do your director's work. And again, the story is that things got more and more urgent. And Yang Chi's questions to Zimeng became more intense. And finally, one day, Zimeng said, director. someday your students will cover the earth. What's the hurry?

[09:54]

And then my comment would be, someday your students will cover the earth. Enjoy your free time. And then in some versions of the story, the next part goes, one day it was raining and Sun Meng took a walk. But a more extended version, there was an old woman who lived in a house. She was friends with Suming and Suming with her. So the master used to go visit an old woman in a monastery.

[11:01]

And again, one translation says, whenever he got a chance, he would go visit this old woman. And they say that her understanding of the Dharma was unfathomable. None of the monks could understand the depth of her dharma understanding. And they called her, in patriarchal society, they called her Grandma Tsiming. So one day it started to rain and Tsiming went out for a walk. And the director, being a sharp fellow, kept an eye on the teacher all the time. And when he saw the teacher going out, he rushed ahead on the path and waited for him. And when he approached the path, the director stood in front of the master and said, no, he didn't say, he grabbed him and held him and said, if you don't reveal it to me now, if the old man doesn't reveal it to me now, I'm going to beat him.

[12:16]

He got really intense about all this. And you might be able to guess what Sun Meng said, his usual thing, Director, you're very good at taking care of the business of the monastery. Give it a rest. Before Sun Meng had finished, Speaking, Yang Chi understood the intimacy. He kneeled in the mud on the narrow path and prostrated himself in gratitude Comment?

[13:21]

The teacher gave pretty much the same teaching as he always gave. Director, do your job. That's enough. But Yang Chi didn't believe it. He thought there was some intimacy other than taking care of this and this and this. Some intimacy other than your question and the teacher saying, do your job, director. Over and over they practiced intimately Finally, in the rainy day on the narrow path, Yangshi accorded with the intimacy which had been there all that time.

[14:29]

Then later, back at the monastery, Yangshi robes and with full formality went to the teacher to express his gratitude and the teacher said not now one day later a Dharma talk had been scheduled But the drum, which is usually struck by the anja, the attendant to the teacher, the drum was not struck. But Sun Ming went to the anja and said, well, why didn't you talk?

[15:41]

And the anja said, well, the teacher went for a walk. Yangshi guessed where he might have gone to visit the old grandma. So he went down the narrow path to where the grandma was. And sure enough, there was the master feeding firewood to the stove of the old lady. And the old lady was making gruel. Yang Chi The enlightened Yang Chi went over to him, them, and said, Teacher, we're, you know, we're expecting you to give a Dharma talk and here you are out in the woods again. Will you please come back and give a Dharma talk?

[16:43]

And Siming said, If you can give me one turning word, I'll come back right away. If not, you can tell the assembly to go. Now the director, having realized intimacy, pulls his straw hat off face and take several steps backwards. Tsilang is delighted and said, okay, let's go right back now. Yangshi was known for teaching that there's no Zen Buddhist path, other, separate from taking care of our daily life, which might include sitting, or being a director, or being a cook, or being an attendant.

[18:06]

Of course, this echoes with another important ancestor named Tetsuo. He had the same problem. He couldn't believe, and he was like the Tenzo, and when Dogen was dying, he was the director, and he didn't understand, he couldn't believe that being director was the same as being Buddha. He was the director. BILL MOYERS Now, Timon doesn't have that problem, So nothing other than daily means could be said as, in all the actions of your daily life, express intimacy.

[19:30]

In all the actions of your daily life, impress intimacy on each action. The way all things are intimate with each other, impress that on your physical gestures, your vocalizations, and all your thoughts. The intimacy is always right here. Express it through every action. Sitting in the zendo, bowing, chanting, eating, walking, standing, thinking. every action is an opportunity to express the Buddha mind seal. If you wish to realize the intimacy of the bodhisattva vehicle, every moment is an opportunity to express it by whatever you're doing.

[20:31]

And if you're mindful of this, you might notice on what you do. For example, if you're driving a car and you're using the driving to express awakening and someone tries to rudely cut in front of you, you might generously let them and say, I wish I could get all the other cars in the road off here for you so you can have no hindrance on your path to Nirvana. And if by any chance you think blank, blank, blank about that person who's cutting in front of you, you might say, oh, dear driver, you're so silly. We love you so much for hating that person.

[21:36]

Not for hating that person. Even though you hate here for you, Thanks for coming out and showing yourself so we can practice compassion with you. Someone just recently told me about a story that she read in Being Upright about this, I think she was a nun. Her name was Reverend Aishun. And she was practicing with men in Japan, I believe. And she was somebody who a lot of the monks kind of fell in love with.

[22:38]

And one of them a letter requesting a private meeting. And so when the teacher was giving, after the teacher gave a Dharma talk, she stood up in front of the assembly and said, if you come and embrace me right now in front of everybody. And, you know, It doesn't say what happened. But someone thought that that was kind of mean of her, hurt him. And I thought, maybe, it's possible. He was already in trouble. He was secretly, in his own secret way, obsessing on her, which is quite common that people are privately obsessing about somebody. But what she did was she said, well, bring it out in the open.

[23:45]

Show us your obsession. Show me and the teacher and everybody, show me this love you have so you can become free of it. Not to get rid of it, to bring the light on it. The obsessions are back there. They'll destroy us. If you get them out in front with witnesses, we can wake up to them. You know, if you don't reveal it to me now, I'm going to beat you. Director. You're really good at doing things. That's enough. Wake up. Look at what you're doing. Let me help you put the light on this. But again, the person said, but couldn't that have hurt his feelings?

[24:49]

Maybe. But he was already in really bad shape with nobody to help him because it was like in his own little pit in the back of his mind trolling him. But now let's get it out in the open with respected witnesses and then we can wake up. And I said, it's like one time this little boy who now looks down on me from a height and still calls me granddaddy. When he was a little guy, he came to Tassajara to spend four days with me. It's the first time he was away from his mother twice. But he was up for it. So he came to Tassajara and we took really good care of him. Parentheses, I can tell you more about that later, close parentheses.

[25:57]

And then after two days he said to me, I want my mommy. I want my mommy, I want my mommy, I want my mommy, I want my mom, [...] I want my mom. And I didn't laugh. I just, I witnessed him. He got his thing and I could witness it and he could too. And I said, okay, you can go home tomorrow. You don't have to stay four days. And he would calm down. The next day as we were getting ready to go, he said to me, remember yesterday? I want my mom, [...] I want my mom. And I said, mm-hmm. He said, wasn't that silly? I was happy to help him witness himself, and he could witness himself, and then he could say, hmm, that was kind of silly.

[27:03]

I could have just said, I want my mom. Can I go? Yes. But he wasn't that way. He was obsessing on it. He was compulsing on it. And he got it out in the open and we all became free and lived happily ever after. Until the next obsession, which was quite soon. So intimacy sometimes requires that we say something to our friends and neighbors witnesses that helps us understand the intimacy. made you.

[29:59]

Is that okay? This is to make up, I think, in my sweet ball waiting, this tree when I first... Could you hear her? No. Would you say it again more slowly? This is to make up. I didn't make three bows to you when I first came for this trip. Did you understand that? Yes. Those are makeup bows? Yes. Okay, I understand. Nice opportunity. Thank you for your devotion to the Buddha Dharma. And I wish I had a chance to make three bars to you when I did this trick so we can make a connection for next time.

[31:11]

Okay, thank you. You can leave it on in case somebody else needs it. I often feel the urgency of this director, and yet I've heard of other stories where there are people with this urgency, they hit the teacher.

[32:43]

They hit the teacher? Or they threaten to hit the teacher. And then they end up doing it because they're not satisfied. So why am I here right now? A microphone. Can I put this down? What's the secret to inviting everything, including this particular self-praise? Inviting self-praise? You know, letting it be where it's at. I've seen that, I'm very tense around even having a thought that I might be better than another, which comes... Such a thought might come up? It does. Like the thought is, I'm better than somebody? Okay, so when the thought comes, say, Oh, great compassion, please come and join us.

[33:46]

Invite Great Compassion to come. And then, now, Great Compassion, please observe this view that somebody's better than somebody else. Or, you know, we also sometimes just say, O Bodhisattva, Mahasattvas, please concentrate your hearts on me while I have this thought. that I'm better than somebody. How does that work with energy? How do I do that with energy? Baker! Do your work! I know that is the thing that I want.

[35:42]

And you're saying that intimacy is also the thing that is. But why sometimes do I refuse it and throw it away when it's presented to me as if I wish that some better form of intimacy could come along and Well, you said it. That's a pretty good reason right there. It comes. You think, hmm, let's see. And so you look away from it. You're missing the intimacy. But that thought, there might be, maybe there's a better one. You turn towards that and you miss this. But then you could recover on the next one and say, okay, that's enough. I'll work with this. Then you've recovered. Called by another one, actually there's a better one than that. So these thoughts in our mind

[36:47]

they come to us and they're offering us intimacy and then another thought comes and we don't realize that's offering intimacy too. So it's like, it's almost like everything distracts us from the intimacy because we don't realize that everything is an opportunity. Or we say, well this is an opportunity but then we don't avail ourselves of it wholeheartedly. So we're training to really try to work completely with what's been given to us and not try to take something that hasn't yet been given. Because then when the next thing is given, then we do the same thing with that. So if you notice that you missed the opportunity, then you sort of can say, oh, I missed, I'm sorry. And there's a golden light. in that, oh, I missed, I'm sorry. By saying that, the root of that getting distracted from intimacy will melt away. But there may have to be many moments of, here's a chance, just a second, I think there might be a better one coming, I'm sorry.

[37:54]

You did miss, that chance isn't coming back. And say, you know, I got distracted, I'm sorry. And that, every time you do that, with a missed chance, you get more and more ready to accept completely the chances that are being given to you. That's why we have to train.

[38:23]

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