Practicing together in this valley, what appears, what is appearing is our transient, other-dependent life. How it appears is our imagination, our story. Every moment we have a story of what's happening, a fresh story. Here comes another one. Someone told me recently that they spent a whole day here in the valley without thinking

[01:16]

of how many more days there are in the practice period. A whole day without thinking, there are a blank number of days left. Have you ever had a day like that? Somebody told me they spent one hour without thinking how many more days there are in the practice period. One day, a monk named Bai Zhang accompanied Master Ma on a walk.

[02:31]

Bai Zhang probably had a story in mind about what he was doing. But, maybe he wasn't strongly adhering to his story as being what was actually happening. Taking a walk with Master Ma, perhaps you might consider that your story of what was

[03:52]

going on as you walk with him step by step, that maybe your story is not what's happening. Maybe something is happening that's not your story. And, walking in this way with the teacher, you may be ready. Walking with the teacher, you may think, there's just a few more steps before we get to the meditation hall. Or, this walk will probably take ten minutes.

[04:54]

But, I wonder what's actually going on here as I walk with the teacher. I'm going to experiment with not strongly adhering to what's happening here, to make myself ready to see emptiness. This time of year, sometimes in this valley, wild geese fly overhead. Sometimes they even fly over in December on a full moon night with a clear cold sky. They had wild geese back in China during the golden age of Zen, too, and they flew overhead. And, Matsu said, what's that?

[06:05]

And, Bai Zhang said, wild geese. Did I say geese? I'll stick to that. And, Matsu said, where'd they go? And, Bai Zhang said, they flew away. And, Master Ma took a hold of Bai Zhang's nose and twisted it so hard that Bai Zhang cried out in pain. So hard that Bai Zhang cried out in pain.

[07:17]

Ow! Ow! Harder than that, though. I think harder than that. So, Zen Master should carry a little napkin to get a better grip that way. Otherwise, it slips off just when you're getting good traction. Chinese people don't have big noses, either. You know, they're kind of flat, so they're not that easy to get a hold of. Like, you know, a Greek, a Roman nose would be good. So, where'd they go? They flew away. He twists the nose, and Bai Zhang cries out in pain. And, Matsu, the great Zen Master says, so you say they've flown away?

[08:32]

So, you say they've flown away? So, you say they've flown away? And, at that moment, Bai Zhang woke up. He understood the absence of his story, of his life. He returned to the attendance room.

[09:38]

He was an attendant to Master Ma, and there were some other attendants. He apparently had three of them, or more. He returned to the attendant room and was crying loudly. So, his fellow attendant said to him, are you homesick? Thinking about how many more days of the practice period. And, Bai Zhang said, no. And, the other attendant said, did someone curse you? And, he said, no. Then, why are you crying?

[10:38]

Then, Bai Zhang said, Master Ma twisted my nose so hard that the pain was unbearable. The other attendant said, what did you do to offend him? Bai Zhang said, you ask him. The attendant went to Master Ma, courageously, and said, what did Attendant Hai do to offend you? He's in his room crying, please tell me. The great Master said, he himself knows, go ask him.

[11:44]

The attendant returned to Bai Zhang's room and said to him, the Master says you already know, so I should come here and ask you. Thereupon, Bai Zhang laughed out loud. The other attendant said, a moment ago you were crying, so why are you laughing now? Bai Zhang said, my crying a moment ago is the same as my laughing now. Another translation is, before I was crying, now I'm laughing. The other attendant didn't understand Bai Zhang's behavior. The next day, Matsu went up to the hall to address the monks.

[13:08]

As soon as they were assembled, his attendant, Bai Zhang, rolled up his bowing cloth, or his bowing mat, and Matsu got down from his seat and returned to his quarters, followed by Bai Zhang. When they got there, Matsu said, just now I hadn't said a word. How come you rolled up my sitting cloth, my bowing cloth? Bai Zhang said, yesterday the Master painfully twisted my nose. Matsu said, is there anything special about yesterday that you noticed? Bai Zhang said, today my nose doesn't hurt anymore.

[14:11]

Matsu said, then you really understand what happened yesterday. So, my story for you at the moment, as it was yesterday, is I'm telling you a story about how teachers help students give up conceptual grasping superimposed on our life. Our nervous system naturally superimposes concepts on our life,

[15:16]

naturally superimposes a story upon what's happening moment after moment, and we naturally, automatically believe these stories. The Buddhist traditions are trying to help people give up this grasping. This is a story about that. After Bai Zhang's enlightenment, see how relaxed he was with laughing and crying, or see how he could laugh and cry fluidly in response to the stories that appeared about his life. Sometimes teachers use semi-miraculous methods to help people,

[16:29]

but I don't like those methods myself so much, so I don't like so much making robes very heavy so people can't pick them up. And the Christian tradition I grew up in, I didn't like the stories about Jesus doing miracles, and I didn't like the stories of saints doing miracles. What I thought miracles meant was doing things that I had no way of being able to do. When I read the Zen stories, I liked them because they seemed to be something that a normal person could do. So if people are walking around believing their story about what's happening and holding to it, you know, some teachers would walk by and just elevate themselves a few feet off the ground

[17:35]

and fly around a few times around the meditation hall and then land again, and then the person would go, oh, I get it, my story is not really something to hold on to. But I like things that are more conceivable that we would be able to do. However, even looking at this story about twisting somebody's nose, most of you could twist somebody's nose, especially if you had a little handkerchief to assist you. Most of you could twist somebody's nose, but even that's kind of a miracle. Like these days, you know, could we really twist somebody's nose hard enough to make them cry out in pain and not, you know, have a grievance procedure brought against us thanks to people like Sala,

[18:38]

Sala and Tova, you know, who are like making it impossible to help people. Because you do one thing, you know, that doesn't go according to their story and they can sue you. Hey, you violated my story! But anyway, in the old days, it seemed like before I came to Zen Center, twisting somebody's nose seemed possible. Yeah, I could twist somebody's nose, yeah, or my nose could be twisted. Are we being told by this story, which we shouldn't hold to, that a great Zen master would spend his time twisting somebody's nose as a way of teaching the inconceivable Buddhadharma? Squeezing the fingers and twisting the nose to teach, to reveal, to help somebody see the thoroughly established nature of phenomena.

[19:56]

To twist somebody's nose to help them be wise. And the story says he was successful, it actually worked. This story, this teacher, Matsu, who Suzuki Roshi called Baso, Japanese pronunciation, was one of his favorites. And this story was one of his favorites, and I remember him telling this story. And when he got to the part about twisting the nose, he would just say, and Baso twisted his nose really hard and Suzuki Roshi would laugh. And I don't know exactly if I'm making this up, but I think of him laughing quite a bit at that point, almost bringing tears to his eyes. And I didn't laugh, I didn't understand what was so funny about that. I kind of wish I could see his face again, telling that story and laughing.

[21:15]

I think I would look more closely at what he was up to. I might even get up and go over and twist his nose and see what he would do. But no, you know, there was quite a few of us in the room at the time, but none of us got up and went and twisted his nose. I'm not laughing. I noticed a little fear yesterday when I was talking about doing things to help people get over grasping their conceptual version of what's going on here.

[22:23]

And I think what I was afraid of was that if I encouraged you to do that, or have it done to you, but particularly for you to do it, to let go of your conceptual version, I guess I was just afraid of nihilism. So some of the stories which we haven't seen yet, when the monk lets go, when the monk transcends conceptual grasping, they flip into nihilism. So there'll be some stories like that, to go too far. But now that I told you that, go ahead, transcend conceptual grasping, give it up. And again, based on, what will protect you from nihilism is based on, if you excuse the expression, walking together with the teacher.

[23:31]

That you're living together, taking care, paying attention to the daily life, grounded in transient, interdependent arisings and ceasings. This is that we're grounded here, we're grounded in taking care of these things, and based on that, go ahead and give it a try. Okay, loosen the grip a little bit on your belief that this story is the way things are. And again, it's not so much that the stories stop, but rather that they arise and cease, that the stories flow.

[24:38]

That other people can join in the authoring of your story. Okay. Matsu has many great disciples, one of them is Baizhang. Baizhang was Matsu's attendant for 20 years.

[25:46]

Here's a story about the Soto Zen lineage. It comes down from Shirto, Matsu's cousin. And then after Shirto comes Yaoshan. And starting at Yaoshan, this interesting thing happens is that Shirto's first and main disciple is someone who Matsu helps him with. So, Yaoshan is also a cousin, like Yaoshan's uncle in a sense.

[27:05]

I guess he's not really an uncle though, right? No, not really an uncle. What is your father's cousin? Yeah, first cousin once removed. So Matsu is Yaoshan's teacher's cousin. And Baizhang, you'll see, also then of course is somewhat related to Yaoshan. And then Baizhang's student, Yanyan, also gets help from Baizhang. So these next two generations are generations that are created interdependently between these two lineages. So in a sense Soto Zen needs two lineages to make an ancestor.

[28:11]

Our own lineage sometimes isn't enough. It's kind of an interesting thing about this lineage. So anyway, Yaoshan, the next disciple in our tradition after Shirto, comes to see Shirto. And he says he's already studied a great deal before he comes to see Shirto. He's an experienced monk. He studied the precepts a great deal. Practiced and studied them a great deal. He says, in general, I have an understanding of the three vehicles and the twelve divisions of scripture. He was very scrupulous in his conduct. Now I want to find out about the southern teaching pointing directly to the mind,

[29:17]

seeing the self-nature and becoming a Buddha. Truly I am not clear about this teaching and I ask the Master's compassionate instruction. This is Yaoshan talking to Shirto. Shirto said, Being this way won't do. Not being this way won't do either. Being this way and not this way won't do at all. How about you? Yaoshan couldn't say anything. And Shirto said, Your affinity is not here. Go study with Master Ma. And Charlie asked Andy Ferguson how far away these two temples were.

[30:32]

And Andy thought about 350 miles, which is a really long distance in old China or new China, because it's a very mountainous country. So it's a long ways. So maybe it wasn't that far. But anyway, Yaoshan leaves Shirto and goes to see Master Ma. So he paid his respects to Master Ma in accordance with Shirto's instructions. He then posed the same question, asking for the same compassionate instruction to Matsu that he'd asked Shirto. And Matsu said, Sometimes I make him raise his eyebrows and blink.

[31:34]

Sometimes, Sometimes, and that's also translated as, Sometimes I raise my eyebrows and blink. So Zen teachers, their activities are often described as raising the eyebrows and blinking or winking. See? They're sitting there, you know, really calmly, right? And then a student comes and they go. They become animated and sometimes they don't. But the literal translation actually is, rather than sometimes I raise my eyebrows, it's sometimes I make him raise his eyebrows and blink. That's also what the Buddha did in a sense, when Mahakasyapa raised the flowers,

[32:38]

he kind of raised his eyebrows and blinked or winked. Sometimes I make him raise his eyebrows and blink. Sometimes I don't make him raise his eyebrows and blink. Sometimes raising the eyebrows and blinking is right. Sometimes raising the eyebrows and blinking is not right. How about you? Yashan woke up. He then bowed to Matsu. And Matsu said, What principle have you observed that makes you bow?

[33:40]

Yashan said, Now I see that when I was at Sherto's place, I was like a mosquito trying to mount an iron bull. Matsu said, Since you are thus, you should uphold and sustain this well. However, and in parenthesis, even though our interaction woke you up, Sherto is still your teacher. Yashan stayed with Matsu for three years

[34:44]

and then went back to Sherto. He comes to say, You know, I've studied Buddhism a lot and basically I have a good conceptual understanding of Buddhism. I've got a great story about the Buddha way, but my story about the Buddha way is between me and the Buddha way. Please show me a way directly in. The Buddha way. The first one says, Being the way you are won't do. Being the way you are will not do. If you're interested in actually directly accessing the path of enlightenment,

[35:47]

being the way you are will not do. And not being the way you are won't do either. And being the way you are and not being the way you are won't do at all. How about you? That was Sherto's try. Didn't work. Wasn't time. And that's what Sherto said. The conditions aren't here. And I'm not going to try again tomorrow. Just leave and go see the great Zen master Matsu, my cousin. And Matsu does basically the same thing. You want to understand the Buddha way?

[36:48]

Okay. You want some instruction about understanding the Buddha way? Sometimes I make him raise his eyebrows and blink. Sometimes I don't make him raise his eyebrows and blink. Sometimes raising the eyebrows and blinking is right. Sometimes it's not. How about you? Do you have a story about your life? About your practice? Here's another story about your life. Sometimes I make him raise his eyebrows and blink. Is that about your life? Or is it some other story that's more applicable?

[37:52]

Like 29 days left? Or is it 30? Who knows the actual number? Do you know? Charlie doesn't know. Barbara knows? Yes. So that's Barbara's story. And Charlie's story is he doesn't know. But being the way Charlie is will not do. And being the way Barbara is won't do either. How about you? This is another story. But the purpose of the story that Matsu tells and the purpose of the story that Shirto tells is to help you get over stories. So you're pretty well grounded in the daily life of the practice.

[38:57]

Now you can actually experiment with getting over your stories of your life. You can try on an ancient story about how somebody tried to help somebody get over his story. What do you think? The bowstring is drawn.

[40:26]

It's being held. It's being held. Are you ready for it to be released? Are you ready for your nose to be twisted? Will you sign a waiver? Grasping. Grasping. It's the best I can do at a distance. Can't tell if I did.

[41:41]

I didn't. That's the problem with distance. You don't get to tell. You don't get to know. What's the essential meaning of the Buddha way, they asked Shirto? Not knowing. Not attaining. But even though, but even though or even so, still you can get some nice, you know, traction on the skin if you squeeze it. You can tell if you got a hold or not. And then just turn it a little bit and see if it works.

[42:44]

And if it works, you don't need to know. I think maybe you people should go see Master Ma. Obviously there's no affinity here. Yes? I think there are conditions there are conditions coming together to make a day. I kind of feel a day happening. A day is being dialed in for you.

[43:47]

You can enjoy it. I can enjoy it with you. And you can watch the great activity arise from these conditions. As rendered by the great activity by your mind. And I told you now, story after story, that you can become free of what you think is happening. And again, that's just a story too. May our intention be pre-emptory.

[45:12]

May we be in a place where the truth is the truth.

[45:20]

@Text_v004
@Score_JJ