Now, this is a story about a Chinese Buddhist priest whose name was Xiangyan Jirishan, and he was a very sincere practitioner who studied the teachings and listened to the teachings a lot, and I think he, yeah, he first went to study with our great ancestor, Baijiang, Baijiang Waihai. He was extremely intelligent and quick-witted, but even though he was studying with this

[01:16]

great master, Baijiang, he still couldn't penetrate to the heart of life. And after Baijiang, I guess, passed away, he studied with one of Baijiang's senior students named Guishan, who we've heard about earlier today. So, Guishan, we've heard that he has a notable disciple whose name was Yangshan, so Guishan asked Yangshan, if someone suddenly comes to you and says, all sentient beings just have karmic consciousness, how would you test this teaching and experience? Remember that story from this morning? So, now, another student who was a student of Guishan's teacher, Guishan's teacher,

[02:36]

his name was Baijiang, so Xiangyan was also a student of Baijiang, but I guess by the time Baijiang passed away, Xiangyan had not actually heard the true Dharma, and was still involved in worldly affairs, I guess. One day Guishan said to him, I'm not asking you about what's recorded in what can be learned or what can be learned from the scriptures. You must say something from the time before yourself was born, before you could distinguish objects. I want to record what you say.

[03:36]

So Xiangyan tried to say something and basically Guishan said, that's not what I'm asking for. He did speak, but I guess he wasn't speaking from before his self was born, or before consciousness can discriminate objects. And so finally he gave up and went back to his room and started studying his scriptures again and came back to talk to Guishan again and Guishan said, no, that's not what I'm asking for. Anybody remember what happened after that? You do? What? You think he sent him to find another teacher? That's close. The student decided to go, not so much find another teacher, but kind of give up the line

[04:47]

of inquiry which he was involved with. I don't know if he would have said, I'm stuck in worldly affairs, but he was apparently. Kept trying to grasp, try to get this mind, get to a place before he was born, he kept trying to think his way there. And, so he went to Guishan and said, I'm going to just go and just be, you know, basically a beggar monk, a mendicant monk, and either he left all his books or burned all his books and headed off. And he went to take care of the monument of one of the national teachers in their lineage, national teacher Zhang Nanyang, national teacher Nanyang, and so he went to the memorial site

[05:57]

and I guess he found some way to stay there and he just took care of the memorial site, keeping it clean and cutting the grass and stuff. One day while he was cutting grass or sweeping around the monument, his broom sent a pebble flying through the air and the pebble hit bamboo and went, poof! And when he heard that sound, he entered the time before this self was born. One detail I forgot to mention is that after he couldn't respond to Guishan's instruction, he said, would you please explain to me how to do it? And Guishan said, well, you know, it wouldn't do any good if I explained to you how to do

[07:03]

it because that would be how I would do it. And also, if I told you later you would revile me for giving you that explanation, basically distracting you from what I asked you to do by giving you more words by which you could try to grasp something ungraspable, so I won't tell you. So when he heard the sound, he was very happy and liberated and he said, he turned, oh actually, he took a bath and offered incense and bowed in the direction of his teacher Guishan. And he said, the Master's kindness is greater than that of my dear parents.

[08:08]

Back when I was with you, if you had explained, then how could I have come to this realization? So kind not to do his work for him. And so he just quietly studied his mind, studied his mind, so that when he heard that sound, he found the path of no abode. And then he composed some poems, which he then had some messenger monk take his poems to Guishan. And if you want to, I'll tell you what those poems are tomorrow, but basically, he said something from that place, so he went to the place, he came out and he expressed his gratitude

[09:14]

and then he wrote something, which he sent to Guishan. And when Guishan read it, he felt that these words came from before words, before objects are distinguished, before the self was born. However, Yangshan, his older Dharma brother, didn't go for it. So I'll tell you the rest of the story later.

[09:42]

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