It's an interesting experience to speak to you people because I can't see your faces. Can you see mine? No. I really don't have anything to talk about tonight, so I thought I would give a traditional lecture. And from a book called The Book of Serenity, the 13th story. The name of the story is Linji's Blind Ass. I think that's ass in the sense of donkey.

[01:04]

Before I tell this story, though, I want to give you a little bit of background on the person named Linji. His name is also pronounced Rinzai. A Japanese pronunciation of his name is Rinzai. Linji was one of the most creative Buddhist teachers in history. In particular, he quite frequently behaved something like, for example like this. He would be coming up into the hall like this and sit down like this in a chair. And then monks would come up to him and ask him a question. And then he would often say, come closer.

[02:21]

And then he'd grab them and slap them or grab them and yell at them and say, speak, speak. And many of the stories, monks didn't have anything to say. And he'd just push them away and call them something like, I hate to say what he said. Maybe I don't want to start out with swearing. Anyway, he would talk very roughly to these monks. And he was considered to be, as I said, among millions of teachers. He's considered to be one of the most compassionate, one of the most creative people at finding ways to wake people up out of their... out of their what? I guess out of their thinking that they know what's going on.

[03:27]

Or maybe they don't think they know completely what's going on, but they certainly know better than most people. He could wake people up out of this and set them free into being what he called a human being. You heard about that? A human being, a person of no rank. This was his person that he taught people how to wake up to. Anyway, he was very effective. And he really conveyed the heart of love beyond everybody's idea of love. And he was really wonderful and really rough. And he shouted and got by with it. In a country that has very clear rules of etiquette, and if you break them, especially towards somebody superior to you, you could easily have your tongue cut out, be branded, killed, and so on. For small errors in etiquette.

[04:33]

And he would sometimes even insult court officials and things like this in order to help them. So that's a little bit of background on this person named Linji. A fierce manifestation of skillful compassion. The introduction to this case is something like this. Entirely devoted to helping others, you don't know there is self. You should exert the truth to the fullest without concern that there's no people. For this, it is necessary to have the ruthless ability to snap a wooden pillar in two. When about to go, when about to die, then what?

[05:41]

So I want to underline the first sentence. Entirely devoted to helping others, you don't know there is self. Zen practice is about being entirely devoted to helping others. But if you are entirely devoted to helping others, you don't know there's a self. If you don't know there's a self, you also don't know there's another. If you don't know there's a self, you don't know anything. Entirely devoted to helping others, you don't know anything. You've given up the conceit of knowledge, and you go into the world of suffering beings without holding on to any fixed idea of anything.

[06:55]

You don't even know who you are. If you're totally devoted to helping others, that's how you are. You can be quite devoted to others, or somewhat devoted to others, and still know what's right and wrong, what's helpful and unhelpful, who you are and who they are, and all that. You can be quite helpful. But to be totally devoted to that, you have to drop holding on to the knowledge of what something is. To exert the truth completely, you don't even know that there is another person. You're not concerned that there aren't any people. Totally devoted to helping others, to helping all beings become free, while not having the idea that there are any people to help.

[07:57]

Or at least not holding on to that idea. This is the introduction to the case. So here's the case. Here's the story. When Linji was about to die, he's about to die now, he calls perhaps one of his greatest disciples to him. His disciple's name is Sanshun, which means three saints. And he said to Sanshun, After I pass away, don't destroy my treasury of the eye of truth. And Sanshun says, How dare I destroy the teacher's treasury of the eye of truth?

[09:03]

And Linji said, Okay, now if someone suddenly comes up to you and asks you about it, what will you say? Sanshun immediately shouted. Linji said, Who would have known that my treasury of the eye of truth should perish in this blind ass? There's a lot going on in this story, and I won't keep you up too late tonight. I'll just tell you a little bit about what I see here. First of all, this expression, the treasury of the eye of truth.

[10:16]

This is a term that's appears in various places. The word treasury, by the way, could also be, I like to translate it often as womb. It means treasury or storehouse can also mean womb. Womb or treasury of the eye. And this is like the eyeball of, it says truth, but of the correct truth, of the very truth, of the authentic truth. In Japanese it's called Shobo Genzo. And the founder of the lineage of this temple in Japan, Dogen Zenji, his work, his work of 95 chapters is called,

[11:23]

Shobo Genzo is called the treasury of the eye of true dharma. So, Linji has this, has his treasury of eyes, or treasury of the eye of the true dharma, which he's now going to pass to his disciple. And he's going to die, and he wants his disciple not to destroy this. He sort of says that anyway. Don't destroy this treasury, or this treasure, storehouse or this womb of the eye of the true dharma.

[12:26]

And the student says, how could I dare to destroy the teacher's treasury? And then Linji says, okay, so you don't think you'll dare to do it? Okay, we'll see if you dare to do it. Now, let's say somebody comes up to you and asks you about this treasury. What will you say? And Sanchang shouted. And Linji said, who would have thought that my treasury of the true dharma eye would perish in this blind ass Okay, so have you memorized that story? Do you know it? Hmm? Got it now? So could you say it to me now?

[13:34]

As when Linji was about to die, say it. When Linji was about to die, he said to Sanchang, he said to Sanchang, what do you say? After I pass away, after I pass away, I'll destroy the true treasury of the eye of the teacher. Right. Sanchang said, Sanchang said, how could I dare to destroy the treasury of the eye of the teacher? How could I dare to destroy the teacher's treasury of the eye of true dharma? How could I dare to destroy the teacher's treasury of the eye of true dharma? And Linji said, if someone suddenly questions you about this, how will you reply?

[14:38]

And Linji said, if someone suddenly questions you about this, how will you reply? Sanchang, he immediately shouted, Linji said, who would have known that my treasury of the eye of true dharma would perish in this blind eye? So what is this eye? What is this correct dharma eye? What is that eye? It's the eye of one who is totally devoted to helping others.

[15:43]

And what is that eye see? Does that eye see a self? No. What does that eye see? What does the eye see? Huh? Connectedness. Hmm? Connectedness. It sees connectedness, yeah. Okay. This is the eye of a blind ass. This is the eye that sees at the center of everything a great mystery. This is the eye of an ignorant person. Somebody

[16:46]

who doesn't know anything. I heard this example of this, that, you know about that oil spill, that Exxon Valdez oil spill? I heard that cleaning it up caused more damage than the oil spill. First of all, there was oil spill which did a lot of damage. Cleaning it up, the way they cleaned it up is they came on the beach and they steamed the beach with steam. And by steaming the beach they killed all the microorganisms in the sand which are washed from the sand down into the ocean and feed the plants. So they killed the whole beach and also all the plants that the beach fed

[17:48]

by cleaning up the oil spill. Cleaning up the oil spill did not remove the damage of the oil spill. It created more damage. Now, some stupid person might have said before they cleaned up the oil spill with the steam, a stupid person, an ignorant person might have said, do we have to clean up the oil spill? But who would dare to ask that question? Almost everybody knows better than to ask that question. Don't they? But if somebody had walked by and asked that question, maybe somebody would have thought of that. Somebody with some power might have said, hmm. Like for example, you know, sometimes I, you know, my daughter's room gets to be messy and I ask her to clean it up and she almost never asks me why should I clean it up? And sometimes she does,

[18:53]

maybe I say, well, because I want it cleaned up. Or, I think, well, you can do your homework better if the room's cleaned up. But actually, I don't know if she can do her homework better if the room's cleaned up. Now, I myself wouldn't be able to study, you know, lying in bed with my feet, you know, all over all kinds of piles of clothes and books and candy wrappers and, you know, posters falling off the wall. I wouldn't be able to study in that situation. But, she seems to be able to. Part of what I see in this story

[19:54]

is this, this, this thing I call this storehouse of true Dharma eyes and he's saying, don't destroy this. True Dharma eye, the eye that doesn't see anything. Don't destroy this eye that doesn't see anything. How could I destroy an eye that doesn't see anything? Okay. If someone asked you, what would you do? He shouts, what does that shout do? What is that shout doing? They say that this was a great shout. It was a shout that expressed the true imperative and the compelling urgent matter is

[21:02]

what is the great imperative? What is the true imperative? What should you be telling yourself? Bigotry is knowledge. Bigots know what's happening. They've figured everything out and they're intolerant of those who have not figured it out the way they've figured it out. They know

[22:13]

what the world is and they know who's at fault for any problems and they can figure out who should be punished for the problems. Tolerant people have not figured out the world. They don't think they know better than other people. They don't know who's at fault. They don't know who to blame. They don't know who's the helper and who's the helped. And if they dedicate themselves to benefiting all beings with that ignorance

[23:13]

they have to be very careful because ignorance can easily turn into knowledge and then you can know and then you can blame and then you can help and others can be helped and you can know what's happening and then it's all over and you're a bigot. And then if you're lucky you meet somebody like Sangshan who will yell at you who will say snap out of it. Nobody knows what's happening. Nobody knows what's happening.

[24:21]

Buddha doesn't know what's happening. Buddha understands ignorance and is not trying to make ignorance into anything better than that. And at the center of ignorance is a great mystery. At the center of everything is a great void. And this correct Dharma eye is the one which concentrates on this void which keeps a firm hold on the void. And

[25:27]

this the center of ignorance. If you take care of your ignorance your ignorance will take care of you. If you take care of your mind which can stand the mystery of life that mind which can stand the mystery of life will take care of you. Totally devoted to helping others she doesn't know there is a self. Exerting the truth to the fullest one is not

[26:42]

concerned that there's no people. It's okay you can keep grumbling and bitching and complaining just don't blame anybody else. And don't blame yourself either. That song blame it on the rain. Yeah. Yeah. But whatever you do don't blame it on you. And the people who sang that song is that is that Millie Vanillie who sang that song. Nobody knows such ignorance.

[27:44]

Amazing. You don't know that song. Well I have 14 year old so I know that song. And then at the end Rinzai says after Sanchang shouts he says

[28:46]

my my treasury of true Dharma eyes has perished in this blind yelling ass. Whatever whatever whatever there is to this great teacher's treasury of this eye that doesn't grasp anything whatever there is to that has now just perished in his disciple. There's no more of Linji's treasury of true Dharma eyes. Gone. Of course it always

[29:49]

was gone moment by moment but now it's really gone. And how is it gone? It's gone by that shout. And he does the same thing that his teacher did. He used the same technique as his teacher. Rinzai's main way was to yell. So someone might say well why did why did Rinzai's way perish when his disciple was still yelling was still shouting. If Rinzai's way was conveyed by the shout and the disciple did something else like raising his hand or something then Rinzai's

[30:49]

shout would still be there. It's by doing the same thing that the teacher did that you destroy what the teacher did. Because no matter how you do it you never do it like the teacher. You always do it a little wrong. But you're doing it. You're the one who's alive now. The teacher is hidden by your life. The teacher perishes. And the teacher does not find this pleasant even though the teacher knows this must happen. For a child to carry on the family tradition the child must

[31:54]

use the tradition and do it in her own way which will be different from the previous generation's way and therefore the previous generation will be gone. This is the true life of the tradition but still if there's anybody in the previous generation still alive they will feel left out and it will be somewhat difficult for them. So like a child if they do what their parents like if they do what pleases their parents they're still doing their parents thing or not doing their thing therefore they still haven't achieved independence. They must

[32:59]

do something that their parents don't accept otherwise they never know that they've done their own thing and the parents must really not accept it they can't sort of say oh I don't accept that just for the child's sake the child will feel that. They have to actually not accept it and the child the child's life needs to find that thing which the parents do not accept really and if the parent or the teacher has been trained and done the same thing herself and has been told by this story for example that this must happen on a deep level you allow it and you know that the true life is going on

[34:00]

through this break but it still hurts and if it doesn't hurt the next generation does not have a way to tell that it's been successful so he says who would have known that my treasury of true Dharma eyes would perish in this blind ass it must be a blind ass someone who doesn't understand who doesn't know what my teaching was this is the person who can take care of it because this is the person who will destroy it and then the

[35:04]

teacher must say you are a blind ass in other words you have succeeded me I have to admit it and the very difference the very painful difference is I knew it had to be there and I don't like it and you got me and it's very interesting so interesting that I can't stand it I

[36:19]

any more I so King Lear is about this, it's an ancient pattern. And it's similar to women having children. They get pregnant, and if things go along in a certain way, they stay pregnant for about nine months. And all through that time, life keeps developing this baby. And this baby comes, and it is a painful delivery. And during the delivery, if you did a survey among the mothers and asked them if they wanted

[37:21]

to do this again, most of them would say probably, you know, thank you, or don't bother me. But basically, they're having a hard time, but there's no choice. The same way in teaching, it's painful, like childbirth, and during or maybe even right after the childbirth has occurred, the teacher or the parent says, I don't want to do this again, it's too hard. But the life of dharma makes it happen again anyway, just like a pregnancy makes it happen

[38:21]

again. So this story is partly about how we should persevere through the difficulty of a step of realizing independence, and it's also about how to keep your eye on the mystery of life. And it's also about how to keep your eye on the mystery of life. And then, because you're keeping your eye on the mystery of life, you're going to start behaving in such a way that the person who taught you how to keep your eye on the mystery of life is going to start having problems with you. If you keep having your eye on the mystery of life, you're going to keep doing what's

[39:22]

going to make you become yourself. Does anybody have a song that goes with this lecture? Teach your children well. What? Teach your children well. How does that go? I don't know how long you'll live with that kind of education. You'll slowly become yourself because it's just a big problem. Hey, that's great. Can you say that again? No. What's the theme song of King Lear? Never, never, never, never.

[40:34]

That's a good one. Keep your eye on the prize. No song that goes with this? There probably is one that encapsulates it just perfectly. I know, just reuse that one a little bit later. No? Okay, well then we'll just choose our regular one then.

[41:34]

May our intention equally penetrate every being and place. Give the true merit of love's way. May our intention equally penetrate every being and place. Give the true merit of love's way. May our intention equally penetrate every being and place. Buddho, Buddho, Svayam, Buddho Beings are numberless. I vow to save them. Illusions are inexhaustible.

[42:37]

I vow to end them. Dharma gates are boundless. I vow to enter them. Buddha's way is unsurpassable. I vow to become it.

[42:59]

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