If it was in the kitchen, it could come. Wouldn't have to make any special arrangements. But the short classes seem to be kind of wrenching. Because I guess it takes the setup kind of time, and then just about when we're ready to go, time to stop. So today we thought we'd have a longer class. See how that works. Okay, ready for a longer class? Yeah, it was happening right where he'd run a hundred-thousand-million-car boats. But he had to see and listen to every man where he had to accept. And it was hard to take us to Trinidad to talk into the slums.

[01:00]

I have some copies of Case 56 here, which you can have. I thought, as I said before, that Case 56 was a good case to start with, to get perspective on, different perspectives on... on Zazen.

[02:33]

Of course, there's more perspectives than just those two, but Uncle Mi's perspective and Dongshan's perspective. And also, I feel that Case 56 kind of brings up two different ways of looking at colon study. So I've told this story many times. And I told it recently. I'll try to tell it again today, which isn't too long and too repetitive for people. But anyway, it's a story about a young man who runs away from home one day and gets lost. And he probably was looking for him, but can't find him.

[03:36]

And his son actually never I shouldn't say never. The son wanders for a long time, for like 15 years. I think he even forgets that he had a home. He wanders and wanders and wanders. It turns out that his father, even though his father kept looking at him for all those 15 years, his father was, almost inconceivably well-to-do. And then, as the son was wandering about looking for some way to support his life, he just happened to stumble back into a town. Not back into, but into a town where his father was living. And from the son's perspective, when he came into the town, he saw this place where his father lived.

[04:48]

At his perspective, he thought, I probably should get out of here and not be hanging around such nice neighborhood because the people who live in that palace might put me to service. Might make me a slave if they see me. That was his perspective on seeing his father's house. His father was there in his house and just happened to look out and see his son when his son walked by. And even though his son had become 50 years older and emaciated and destitute, filthy, and desperate and frightened and so on. He still recognized his son as his son, and he was very happy to see his son.

[05:49]

And he dispatched some messengers, a couple messengers out to get him. And I think the son looked up and saw the messengers come running and... He thought, oh, here they're coming to get me, just like I thought. He started running away. But they caught up with him, and they put their hands on him and stopped him. And then, you know, he was really frightened, and what he was done for, that maybe they were going to kill him or something. And at first, he was angry, actually. He said, what are you doing? Leave me alone. I didn't do anything. And he didn't say much, and he was taking him back to his father. He thought, you know, he thought he'd been in big trouble and he'd fainted. And his father saw this from a distance and realized what was going on, and he called his messengers off. Actually, I think he

[06:58]

People told him to sprinkle him with some small insults or something and let him go. Anyway, he woke up free and ran off. And he ran to some other area and said, maybe there I can find, he said, maybe there I can find some work. And by my own hard work, I'll be able to support myself. So the father got this idea. And he had some other of his retainers, some real skinny ones, dress up in rags and go offer his son some work. So they found his son, and they said, we've got some work for you. Shove him in the excrement. So the son was very happy to get this job of shoveling excrement.

[08:09]

It wasn't clear whether it would be human, elephant, or what, but he took the job. And I didn't go into details about how rich his father was, but just let your mind imagine about as rich as you can imagine as how rich his father was. So then the guy, the son, uh, is working, working at the, uh, shoveling his shit, and one day the father gets dressed up in rags and goes down and says to the son, work hard, don't loaf, be diligent. Son's just, okay. And then another day this father comes back and says, hey, you're working pretty well. You can do an informant on this crew, the son says. Okay. And then he does his work for 20 years, the shoveling ship work. And then after that time, the father comes and says, you know, this time it's probably not just an ad, but you've been doing a good job here.

[09:23]

I'd like you to come up to the palace and learn how things work there. The guy says, oh, okay. Goes back in the same place that he was totally frightened to get into, but he's still living outside the palace and still not really, still having kind of a low opinion of himself and feeling kind of insecure. But anyway, he goes in and he learns the business. And the father says to him, you know, I'm going to teach you the way the house works, just like if you were my son. The man says, okay. He learns all about it. And then after some number of years, things have been going on for quite a while now. Father says to the mother, well, we're not going to be around much longer. I think it's... We want to make sure that our wealth doesn't just get dispersed, and that somebody can take care of it.

[10:28]

So I think it's about time to, like, give the responsibility for all this wealth to our son. Maybe he's ready. So... I think he had his son organize this meeting at this point and invite kings and queens and ministers and other officials and various people from all around the country and from other adjoining lands to come to a big meeting. They came to a meeting and the father said, this guy's been working here for quite a while. I've been training him just to stay here with my son. And now I'm going to turn over all my wealth to him. And by the way, he is Mexican, and always has been. And his son was very overjoyed to hear that he always was his father's son.

[11:34]

His competence had been gradually developing over all these years of training, but then in the end he found out that he always was. but he just somehow, you know, couldn't believe it. So his father resorted to this, what's called, skill and means to help him be able to accept what was finally a very happy news. But at first, it was just inconceivable, frankly. So that's kind of what this story's about, about the generations of nobility temporarily falling into destitution, fear, and self-concern, and pettiness, and all that. So... Usually the practice is, as it says in this case, sometimes in regular teachings they talk about two gates.

[12:51]

One gate is the gate of cultivation and the other gate is the natural gate, the spontaneous gate. So in one gate you're an ordinary person and then you work to become a sage. The other you start First you're enlightened, and then you go among ordinary people. So the gate of cultivation is the gate of a commoner directly appointed to be a prime minister. And there are all kinds of wonderful stories about commoners becoming prime ministers. This other gate is, you're already awakened and you go back among the common, into ordinance.

[13:53]

But, you know, your nature was intact throughout the process. Your Buddha nature isn't like it manifests after you practice, you cultivate, and then your Buddha nature is there. It's there all the way along. For example, it's there right now. But if you look at your life through a dualistic lens, then You look like an individual person, which is kind of a tight, threatened form of existence. It's a form of existence which is going to be over pretty soon.

[15:05]

And between now and its end, it's going to continue to be threatened and constricted is strangled by this dualistic view. And as long as we have dualistic view, we're always going to be subject to seeing things in terms of I do this and I do that. In other words, when we hear about Buddhist practice, it's almost reflexive or instinctual to interpret it in terms of, oh, there's Buddhist practice now. It's over there. I'm over here. And I'll do it. And so when you go through that little article that I wrote about the ceremony of zazen, go into detail about this point of view of that zazen, I'm me, I do zazen, and approach to practice. But, you know, that's to be...

[16:07]

forgiven. We forgive ourselves for interpreting practice as karma. Interpreting karma as karma is also okay. But we even convert the activity of the Buddha, or the activity of our own Buddha nature, as something that we can do. And we have trouble not doing that. So that's the poverty situation that we've temporarily fallen into. And in that situation of being somebody, in one sense we're very arrogant. We think we can do something by ourself. And at the same time that we're overestimating our, we're overestimating, we're tiredly making up, we're dreaming up our ability to act independently.

[17:22]

At the same time we do that, we feel bad about the way it feels to act like that, because it's uncomfortable to be in contradiction to reality. So we're always feeling pressed by reality. Reality's always pushing on us and saying, and saying, you know, something's wrong with you. Something's wrong with you. And then we can react to that by saying, yeah, and there's something right about me too. So we go back and forth between something's wrong with me, something's right with me, something's wrong with me, something's right with me, back and forth. What's wrong with us is not because there's something wrong with us as we manifest. What's wrong with us is our independence is wrong. So our independent existence is always threatened and is ultimately going to be destroyed. But we also have a, there's also an aspect of our existence which is not independent and will never be destroyed.

[18:30]

And that indestructible, permanent nature the interdependent quality of our existence, that nobility has temporarily fallen into time and space and limited individual existence. And the kind of, what do you call it, very complementary way of looking at it is that This unbounded, indestructible freedom nature willingly comes into limitation in order to prove itself. Freedom wants to see if it can continue to function freely under circumstances like this.

[19:41]

and and it is challenged right it's challenged we have you have some some difficulty understanding how to be free under in prison we're all using the prisons right we have like 60 prisons 60 normal prisons six-feet-walking, walking persons. Can freedom come into these prisons and still express itself fully? And the answer is yes. That's when it says yes, but hard. hard because the hard part about the prisoners is that once you come into prison, you can't see straight anymore, so you're trying to figure out how to, you know, it's freedom under excessive delusion.

[20:49]

How do you be free when you have to also put the delusion pill to get into the body? It's tough. One of the main things you can do is realize you can believe it. That's not deluded. And some people can say, well, in what way am I deluded? What's deluded and what's not deluded? Well, what's deluded is not deluded. And what's not deluded is deluded. The things you think are your delusions, the things that you think are your delusion, you're right. That's not deluded. The things you think are true are delusions. And so there you got it. And, of course, true means what you think is true and your truth. You'd say, well, what about if my truth is your truth, or the same as your truth? Then is it okay? Even if all of us get together and agree, it's still a delusion.

[21:54]

It's not a delusion because you see it as a delusion. That's okay. And in the commentary on this case, toward the end, the commentator says that that's his name. brought up a wonderful metaphor. He likened the royal family sinking into obscurity and poverty and then becoming accustomed to it, like that kid. After a while, he forgot about it. He had this real nice little nursery here before he ran away. It was nice and he had all kinds of nice toys and stuff. I got in his car. I leave the hiker's car. It's kind of red with a gray interior. That was the color of one of my rooms when I was a kid. Red and gray go kind of nicely together.

[22:58]

I had some nice nurseries. I'll tell you. And by the way, this is a little bit of a distraction, but I'm going to check with my mother. But do you know what I did when I was a little kid? I had a crib, and you know what I did? I took some shit that came from my body and threw it around the room. And when my mom came in, I was very proud of what I did. Hey mom, look what I did. But then she said, I think she kind of like, although she appreciated the story and thought it was really cute, she gradually told me that it wasn't so cute. I've been having some devil problems. Anyway, so he had this really nice little, he had this really nice, what do you call it, nursery, and he ran away from it. And after a while, he forgot he had a nice nursery. He got used to living in really bad conditions. So even a royal family, after a while, gets used to living in poverty and obscurity, and it becomes good and natural after a while.

[24:06]

Later, when they are recognized and recovered and restored to their original status, they still have to relearn the cultivation of the three tips. Three tips, this is a patriarchal society, right? Three tips are sword tip, brush tip, tongue tip, swordsmanship and generalship, calligraphy and poetry, writing historical commentaries, and eloquence, singing, music. So you have to relearn the three tips. Three tips are brush, sword, and pawn. And the six arts, ritual, music, poetry, writing, writing, and arithmetic.

[25:10]

Now it's been called the advanced mathematics and quantum mechanics. We have to learn that stuff in order to like, you know, in order to resume and fully exercise your true status. So you have to relearn these things before your power and action is complete. So like this son, you know, he was recognized, but he couldn't even come into the house yet. His status had been reinstated. This is the kid. This is the next generation of the whole deal. But he couldn't accept it, so he had to get trained. And he didn't have to do ship shoveling before he even learned the arts of the house. So you're, in some sense, one way to look at what's happening here is you're learning the arts which you've known from the beginning as current in the world.

[26:28]

You're learning arts so that your status can express itself. Because without being able to stand upright in the middle of You're not really able to express yourself fully without being able to stay present when beautiful, poor people are yelling in your face trying to get your advice, but your status is not able to express itself. So it's a little bit different perspective. A lot of times people think, oh, you do this training so that you can be a great person or a wonderful bodhisattva. The other way is you are a wonderful bodhisattva, but you need input-output material, equipment, in order to express it.

[27:37]

And actually, now you have input-output equipment, which actually almost blocks your functions. Maybe you have the software around it, and then also input output stuff. You have to retrain the surround so that you can express yourself, rather than you have to become a different person as soon as you're able to do it. It's a different point of view. So we do have training here, but the training is so that you realize what you already are. And when you complete the training, and when you do quite a bit of the training, you start to realize What you always were and what you always knew was just right. Like you couldn't believe it. So you had to train for a long time in order to believe it. And also train a long time in order to remember and express it. Like I was telling some people yesterday when I was about 13, I realized that I had some problems and I said, all you gotta do is just be kind to people and you'll have no problems.

[28:43]

But I couldn't remember that when I went to school because I hadn't been trained of how to be at school. Nobody told me how you can, like, remember your bodhisattva vow in school. How you can remember your bodhisattva vow in the middle of hormones. How you remember your bodhisattva vow when people are coming up and saying to you, you know, Christina, I think you did a much better job in your talk than me. Yeah. So I said that to her and she didn't know, you know, she didn't know what to do. How did you feel when I said that to you? Like, did you not talk to your daughter? I... You talked to your mother, didn't you? You talked to your mother, didn't you? Yeah. Like, did you say anything to her?

[29:44]

How did you feel? Like, was it all just an interesting thing? Yeah. So even in a joke, it's a little bit confusing, right? So it's better to me to have real examples. So let's have some real ones. Pass out some real awards, and then see if you can not be fooled by that. There is somebody, you know, that you really are, who's not caught up in this stuff, but you have to retrain yourself before you can accept that responsibility. So this is really, I think this is a really important distinction between becoming a prime minister, and if you've been an empress or an empress,

[30:52]

you know, a kind member, a kind noble person, you've gotten used to being tight and selfish, and now you need to be, now that you've been recognized, now that you've started to practice again, now that you've recognized, and Buddha has recognized you, and you train yourself, so you can see this responsibility. And you're still surrounded. Even if you have a glimmering of this, of this dependent, the chlorozy, infinite being that you are, you still have these voices all around you which are talking about you being somebody else and who you are. You still have that, you still have that, that word in your, that petty word and that petty sentence about being somebody else.

[31:57]

Which other people who had that voice in their ear told you over and over, you should be this way, you should be that way. You shouldn't be this way, you shouldn't be that way. And before they told you how you should be and you shouldn't be, before they told you you shouldn't be selfish, they told you you are a self. First they taught you to be selfish and then they taught you not to be selfish. First they praised you for figuring out who you were and that you were different from your brother and your sister and then they told you you shouldn't be selfish after they told you how to be selfish. So this is the world that you came into to test your enlightenment. And after a while you got used to this world and forgot about it. And now that you're being told by Dungsan that you're being rediscovered, now you have to train yourself to fully recover. So I don't know, maybe these verses that Tien Tung wrote are helpful.

[33:26]

Maybe they're not. Want to hear? How many people want to hear my singing? People don't want to hear. Really? Nobody doesn't want to hear? Okay, now I could pass this out to you, but I think it's better if I say it to him and don't understand, and then later try to figure out, see if he can remember what I said. These verses, I think, I've always liked these verses, particularly like the story, but I must admit that today is, this time going through case number six, about the first time I think I actually understood what these stories are about. Okay, so here's the first. Matching strength with snow and frost. walking evenly through clouds and sleet. Xia Hui left the country. Xiang Gru crossed the bridge. Chao and Cao strategy was able to establish the Han.

[34:30]

Chao and Xu wanted to avoid Yao completely. Favor and disgrace are a dispersement. Profoundly trust yourself. In the real state, one mixes tracks with fishermen and woodcutters. So the commentary is, reeds crave rain and dew. Pine and cypress can stand wounding frost. When the year is cold, you know the pine and frost, the pine and cypress are the last to wither. This is matching strength with snow and frost. Okay? Understand? The pine cyclists are great. They can stand with frost and snow. But the poor little reeds crave rain and dew.

[35:34]

When the cold comes, you know what happens to those reeds. You know what happens to them? They wither. So that's the temporary quality of the skin. Right? Today it's not so cold. And even when it gets cold, we have indoor facilities. But in ancient times, sometimes some of the teachers taught outdoors. Bodhidharma, for example. He never knew the disciples. Even great Bodhidharma had about four disciples. The fourth patriarch of China, however, had indoor facilities. And the Sangha grew.

[36:38]

Explanation. Not only indoor facilities, but Anyway, have we fallen into, you know, a state of real likeness? Then there's these, then there's these, you know, pine trees and cypresses that stand outside and they just stand there and they don't really, they don't rip out during the cold winter storms. Okay? See the comparison? This is kind of like God. Uncle Mee's point of view. Walking evenly through clouds and sleep. Now, this is Mee's, this is Mr. Jung's point of view. We have a hard time here with the clouds and the sleep. We walk evenly through them. We learn how to do that.

[37:43]

That's our Buddha nature. Not getting into, like, Big and strong so you don't get bothered by the cold. You are bothered by the cold. And if you're not bothered by the cold, you have to make it cold until you are bothered. And when you're bothered, find a way to remember your nobility in your bothered state. And your nobility doesn't take away your botheredness. You're bothered. but you're free of it. In this state of walking evenly through cloudy skies and snow and sleep, you directly transcend the stage of enlightenment. Do you know what transcending the stage of enlightenment means? Does anybody have any idea what that's about? Any idea what that's like?

[38:45]

I'm not getting it. Perhaps How do you express your non-effectiveness? How do you... You see right here, ladies and gentlemen, this is transcendence of enlightenment. Think of how you do it. And then this is how you... This is just it. Everybody's perfectly showing pretty much, except for a few sneaky enlightened people who are like stuck in enlightenment. From what I could tell, a lot of you people have turned into enlightenment. And you've come down into a situation where you're bugged by little things, like little, little things.

[39:50]

Little things about other people bug you, and little things about yourself bug you. Minor imperfections that have to get to you. You've transcended, like, public freedom from small-scale issues. You are concerned and bothered by small-scale issues. Others of you have not transcended enlightenment beyond such things. Cold? No problem. Hot? No problem. Insult? No problem. Compliments? Okay. What? I don't think I spoke about that. Those people have not yet transcended. Those are the pine trees and the cypresses. So, when you've transcended enlightenment, Even that's too slow. So once you transcend enlightenment, and you even transcend it in such a way that even transcending is too slow, then you hardly recognize that your traditional nobility was always there.

[41:09]

So you hardly notice it. And to remember it, it's really petty. Noble people don't go around remembering that they're noble. Now, there are some people who are, who have, what do you call them, noble licenses. They've never said such and such, so and so, they're noble, they've got the . But they go around thinking that they are. I knew a princess once, and she has always reminded me that she's a princess. She was actually a princess. I mean, like a princess of her country. She had her own country. She was a princess. How would she remind you? She would tell me, you know, she would mention, you know, that she was a princess. She would say, I'm a princess. And she would introduce herself to people as, I'm Princess So-and-so. And the very first thing she would remind me, she had this gorgeous, she had this gorgeous partner that's absentia.

[42:21]

Here's absentia. course. But it was not on the property where the apartment was built. And I lived on the property. And she came to visit me one time and she walked into my apartment and she said, now I know where I stand around here. She was a wonderful person, but this is not the way we really expect mobility to act. Right? Don't we expect mobility to be able to go down a little bit? Isn't that more noble? Hello? What does noblesse oblige mean? What about for yourself? About lowering yourself? Is that what it is? You go down? Yeah, that's good. So the next story, I like these next two stories.

[43:22]

This one guy, his name was, well, it says there, his name was Sha Wei. And this is in Analects. So Liu Sha Wei was a criminal judge, and three times he got fired from his job. So someone said, hey, judge, how come you don't leave town? And he says, He said, if I serve the people honestly, where could I go and not get fired three times? If I serve the people crookedly, what need would I have to leave my native place? You understand? Any other questions about that? You don't? You don't understand anything about if I serve honestly, how could I fail to get fired three times? You understand that part? No. You know, you want me to stop?

[44:23]

You want me to stop? Anyway, you see how hard it is to transcend enlightenment and actually enact the fact? Not understand. Here's the answer. Here's how it works. If you're honest and serve the people, you get fired. That's the way the world works. You don't get fired every time But over a period of time, you get fired about two times because being honest and serving the people doesn't please people. So if you're a judge and take care of and be honest, people who are above you, they'll fire you three times, okay?

[45:32]

All right? Okay? That's what he means. So they say, why don't you leave town? If you went someplace else, You get fired there, too. There's no place you can't get fired if you serve honestly. All right? There's no way to avoid it. You always get in trouble at John's. I shouldn't say always, every time, but you eventually do. It's hard to say what the percentage is at. Now, if you're crooked and you get fired, there's no problem. Because you're getting rich. and powerful, and getting fired is no problem there either, so why leave and go someplace else when you're perfectly successful being crooked in your own place? So that's why you didn't have to leave. Okay? Whose perspective is that? Uncle me or Uncle Bill? Huh?

[46:32]

That's the future. You understand? Well, let me tell you the other story, and then I'll come back. The other story is about this guy. His name was Sean Grew. And his full name was Shimon Sean Grew. His nickname was Doggy. When he was young, he lost his parents. And at nine years old, took care of pigs for somebody. He heard about a guy named Lian Xiangru and changed his name. No, he heard about a guy named Lian Xiangru, in other words, a commander, who had become... So then he, you know, well known, what do you need to do to be a prime minister?

[47:44]

Got to learn the three tips, right? in the six arts. So he abandoned his pig-caring job. He ran off and went to find this guy who had some books. The guy who he used to work for found him and beat him up. But the guy with the books recognized that the kid had some intelligence. He recognized the kid had some intelligence. and gave him some books. And the kid studied. He lived in a hut outside the guy's estate. He kept passing books. After some number of years, the guy had no more books to give to him. And the kid left and headed for the capital, where they had the examinations for the ministers. And on the way to the capital, he crossed this bridge, which is called the Bridge for Ascending Immortals, for the Immortals Ascending.

[48:50]

It's called the Bridge for Ascending Immortals. He went over that bridge. And before he went over the bridge, he wrote on one of the pillars, I will not cross this, unless I'm riding in a four-horse carriage, I will not cross this bridge again. And then he wrote something called The Idols of Zhishu. And one of the Chinese generals was reading it. And when he was in the capital, he would read it at night and recite it in the palace. The emperor of China overheard him and said, oh, so beautiful. I wish I would have been able to be contemporary with such a writer. And the general said, this guy's actually still alive. The emperor said, really? Go get him.

[49:56]

And the capital was, you know, in Xi'an. So he sent the general to Shu, which is Sichuan. The general went and got the guy and brought him back to the capital. And as they're riding back, Xi'an grew a dog, he said. By the way, this was a four-horse carriage. And the Chinese, China, they have four horses. They put them up in a line. Not one, two, three, four, five. Not one, two, three, four, or two, two, but four in a row. So they said, would you please drive over that bridge? So he went back to the capital over that bridge and became a prime minister. So that's the story about Khamenei becoming a prime minister. Pig herder, without any parents, who, first of all, get beat up for giving up being a pig, studies hard, intends to be a prime minister, and becomes one.

[51:08]

The other story is about what? It's about a noble person who gets fired two times, and doesn't run away from it. And realizes there's no way out. Either way, there's no way out. If you're corrupt, there's no place to go. If you're honest, there's no place to go. Are you getting it clearly? Hmm? You get it clearly? Does it mean he's fallen just because he got fired? No. It doesn't mean he's fallen because he got fired. He got fired because he was honest. If you're crooked, you don't get fired. What's the fallen part? Not getting fired. What else is the fallen part? Huh? Running away? Thinking about running away? Anyway, being in a world where you get fired, it's not because you're following that you get fired, but you live in a world where you get fired.

[52:19]

Where people are always picking at you and telling you to be this way and that way. And asking you, why don't you leave town? Why did you put up with this? And stuff like that. So, right in the middle of that tight, petty situation, he was able to maintain his nobility. Not maintain it, but realize And the next story is, this is just not really much of a story, but Shao and Cao, their strategy established the Han. These two guys, these two administrators, advised, you know, advised the government, and they made it possible for him to establish the Han Dynasty, for example, of work hard, become a great prime minister, establish a dynasty. The other story, the next story is that, what is it, Zhao and Shu wanted to avoid Yao completely.

[53:28]

So these are two gifted people. The emperor comes to them, offers them jobs as prime ministers. Well, actually, he offered... He offered Zhao a job as a prime minister. And what did Zhao do when the emperor offered him the job? He went over to his stream and stuck his head in the water to wash his ears out, to wash the emperor's offer out of his ears. And then this other gifted guy who didn't get offered the job but didn't want to be affected by it. He watered his oxen upstream so his oxen wouldn't drink water that had those opera of the emperor in the water. Understand that story? Hmm? What? What do you mean?

[54:32]

It also puts a fear in you. It's washing the offer to be made into a prime minister. It's washing the words out of its ears. Okay? You want to be a prime minister? Be a prime minister? Want to be a Buddha? Someone once offered me, if I could touch it, he'd make me a Roshi. Up here. So right here's where the words went in, right here's the pain. So up here, the pain's going this way. Up here, you need to water your toxin right here. What was your question? I don't know. We all heard that. How do you watch the street? Well, if I went into that street, wash my hair, that's where I'd wash them off.

[56:04]

Okay, you're awesome. This is called, these are called, this is what you call ceremony of death. Okay, because there are two ceremonies of death. All right? First one, you go put your head in the water at the ceremony to walk as a symbol that you wash away all gaining idea. You cannot lift yourself up out of your pettiness. As soon as you try to lift yourself out of your pettiness, you go deeper into pettiness. So when someone says, We can get you out of this pettiness. You've got to go. If you have any, you know, any leaning that way, you've got to go wash your ears at the ceremony. I'm not, I'm too stupid. I didn't understand. And then if anybody else hears about this, we do a ceremony called washing of water in an ox upstream.

[57:09]

We didn't actually hear it. myself, so we're not so vulnerable, but our oxen... Anyway, this is another story in what somebody... Anyway, there's a number of stories about this. And even in our Shusso ceremony, at the end, the Shusso says, wash your ears in the clear water of Tassajara Creek. But they usually say, wash it from the words that I said. And Shusso says, And then the last line. So again, the first one is, pines in the cypress are me, the reeds, and just walking, being an ordinary person, walking through sleet and snow that bugs you. The judge who wouldn't leave town,

[58:13]

Dung, and the very successful, wonderful Doggy, who became Prime Minister, is me. The guys who helped establish the Han Dynasty are me. The guy who won't co-opt, won't get involved in this, won't do something to lift himself up. The last two lines is actually a quote from Lao Tzu. Favor and disgrace are disturbing. Favor is disturbing. Disgrace is disturbing. And the last line is the real state one mixes ranks with fishermen and woodcutters. So traditional Zen, particularly after you finish your training, to go live in a humble situation and live with the woodcutters.

[59:19]

And people ask me about what story turned me towards Zen, and one story that turned me towards Zen was the story of a Zen teacher named Hakumen who responded with, is that so? When he was blamed or disgraced, he said, is that so? When he was praying, he said, is that so? But I think that, for me, that I understood the story that he was bothered by being discredited. He was bothered by being prayed. Both of them bothered him. But we find a way to be noble even while we're being bothered by, we are bothered by, We are bothered by the script. That's our, we've fallen into that situation. I was also talking to someone today about, and she was telling me how she's feeling urgency, urgency. You know, she heard the clock ticking in the room.

[60:23]

Tick, tick, tick. This is kind of like, isn't this kind of, isn't this kind of like . disgraceful that we have to live and tick every moment we're affronted by another second going tick [...] And some of them say, hey, we're going to make a little connoisseur. We're going to promote you to some place where there's no more kicking. The time doesn't run out for you. Both of those can be disturbing. But to find a way to respond evenly in that situation. Yes?

[61:25]

Well, my father said that y'all put it with me. The alternative? Yeah. Pardon? The alternative to the ticking is disturbing. Yeah. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. The ticking is disturbing. To be relegated to a position where you get pushed around by time, that's somewhat disturbing. No? You don't get it? Well, maybe if I thought about it, But the lack of it is disturbing too. That's what he's saying. Phrase is disturbing. Discretion is disturbing. Either way you go in this world, it's disturbing. because we have self-concern about this person.

[62:32]

Either way, he could be bothered by gold, or he could be bothered by one, but anyway, they're both disturbed. And then finally, the commentator criticizes Tian Peng for his last two verses, because he says that those two verses are still, he's still falling into steps and stages himself, the verse in his last two lines. We feel like it's setting them up. As, you know, it's better to be among, you know, to be down there with ordinary people. But that's a little bit better than to, like, be concerned for praise and gain, praise and disgrace. It's kind of important. One's better than you. Well, if Soto Zen is just playing, you know, Buddha Dharma, no, there's no preference.

[63:36]

So that's a good question, you see. So what we're talking about here is no preference. That you're in a You're in a destitute, limited, tight, petty, threatened, self-centered, genetically programmed, selfish life. You've decided you've come into such a bag. OK? Soto Zen, or Zen, or real Buddhism, is for me not to prefer for you to take your hand off your nose, for me not to like you. Buddhism's not preferring delusion over enlightenment, or enlightenment over delusion.

[64:41]

If you're in an enlightened state, to not prefer it means you transcend it. Do you have a preference here? She prefers to keep the plaza in her room. We have one diluted person in her room. Not for you, actually. For me? We could put the fan on, also. That was my other practice. You didn't want to make too much of a disturbance because? Because you're a nice person, right? How come you didn't want to make a disturbance? I didn't want to interrupt your talk. Why would we make a distraction? So what do you do when you want to have fun, but you don't want to distract me?

[65:50]

What's the problem? Well, I don't know. I was thinking about that. Do you do? Yes. You interrupted me. Wasn't I talking about something important? I was. Yeah, you missed if you were thinking. You know what I was saying? I was saying that Buddha... Buddha doesn't prefer enlightenment over diversion. But in delusion, of course, Buddha doesn't prefer enlightenment over that. So, for example, this state which you're demonstrating, all this preference and stuff like that, Buddha does not prefer enlightenment over the way you are. And also, Buddha doesn't like being this way over enlightenment either.

[66:53]

Do you agree? Do you agree? Pardon? What part transcended me? Buddha. I couldn't quite follow what you said. Say it again. Buddha. The preference will stop. Buddha doesn't like, doesn't prefer enlightenment over delusion. I said that. So what's your question? Buddha preferences, being in the world of preference is delusion. Right? So Buddha doesn't prefer freedom from preferences to being in a prison of preferences. Is that not preferring transcending enlightenment?

[68:05]

No. It's transcending enlightenment without preferring it. You see? You don't prefer transcending enlightenment. You don't prefer enlightenment. You don't prefer delusion. When you don't prefer anything, you transcend where you are. If you're in delusion, if you're in a world of delusions, For example, I don't know if anybody has an illusion, but if you're in such a world, if you don't prefer that world, or prefer to be out of that world, if you don't prefer to be in a different world from the one you're in, and also you don't prefer to stay in the one you're in, you don't want to say, okay, I don't prefer enlightenment over this, this is fine with me, but also you don't indulge in this, you don't prefer where you are, you don't prefer someplace else, You can't stop transcending where you are by that. At that point, you have realized freedom. Okay.

[69:14]

Yes? Disagreeing one? Wait a second. Are you willing to be trapped? I'm just... Are you willing to be disturbed? Then you're willing to be trapped? Fun? Once you're trapped, you can talk all you want from your prison cell. Which story are we talking about now? It's offering two different keys? It feels like two different keys, yeah. One is called the key of cultivation, the other one's called the natural key. It's impossible.

[70:19]

You find it impossible to look at this story without doing what? Okay. So when she hears these two ways, she hasn't, so far anyway, she hasn't been able to avoid trying to choose between Uncle Me and Uncle Dung, right? And I think somebody's coming to your aid here. Yes, do you want to help? There's no choice. There's no choice. That's what you think, but she's not like... I know. She can't avoid... She's like... So she's saying she can't... When she hears of these two options, one option is... Well, actually, one option is the option of I choose to be in a higher state and I want to do a practice to get there. Okay? Okay. other one is i'm in a situation where i can't help but think about trying to choose but i remember okay something i understand something what do i understand i understand that this choosing business which i can't help do is exactly my situation it's not like

[71:42]

It's not like my choosing is actually going to have any effect other than basically keep me there. The other case, I think, okay, I choose liberation and I'll do the practice to get me out of here. This case, even choosing to get out of here keeps me. But I'm willing to be in a world where I keep thinking that way. I'm so noble. I'm willing to be involved in that. So you're very noble to admit that you can't help but get caught up in trying to choose. And also, what you're choosing between? You're choosing between one situation where you think you can choose and that will do some good, and the other situation where what you're being told is you are temporarily in a world where you think choosing will do some good and you can't help but get involved in it. That's your prison. You're living in a prison, picking and choosing. And you can't stop. What you maybe can understand that the picking and choosing is exactly the problem. So if you try to choose between those two, it'll be the same thing as staying in a prison.

[72:50]

From the world we're in now, from a petty world, that's what we think the priest has made. He's choosing to do good. rather than that you are good. So we're all kind of picking up on this approach, whether we like it or not, right? People here are. You know, when you say, I want to do all good, you're taking on the approval of neither approach. I want to do good and realize either way. From your poverty-stricken situation, from your low opinion of yourself, you think that you're choosing this In your low opinion realm, you're in the realm of choosing, which is actually, ironically, arrogant of you to think you can choose the way the world's going to go.

[73:53]

But that's what we do. Because we're so arrogant, we're extremely poor. That kid ran away. He arrogantly left his house. So because we go away, we think we can operate on our own, and because we think we can operate on our own, we think we can choose. And now we're making a choice, we're choosing a good choice. But the precepts ultimately is that even while you're in a state where you can't help choose, you are good. And those precepts are the way you are. Not something you choose. You have no choice about those precepts. If you violate them, you feel miserable and no other way. If you live according to them, you feel happy and no other way. But the reason why you're happy when you practice the precepts is because the precepts are what you are. In the world where there's a choice, you're miserable.

[74:55]

If you live in accord, you're happy, but you're still miserable. Maybe I should say you have conditional relative happiness in the world where you do or where I do the precepts. I'm relatively happy. And in the world where I don't do them, I'm relatively miserable. But in the world of Buddha, precepts are what I actually am. They tell me what I am, not what I do. And the Buddha doesn't do these precepts. Buddha is these precepts. These precepts are what you actually are. Not killing is not something you can do. But that's your noble position. In your noble state, you cannot kill. But moment by moment awareness is leading to decision. Moment by moment decision in the realm of poverty and isolated existence.

[76:11]

If you're a human being, you're involved in moment by moment decision. Always you're making decisions in this petty little world. And these decisions are always selfishly motivated because the whole situation is self-centered by definition. And everything you do there backfires on your happiness and promotes your self-preservation to the best of your ability. In your noble state, the unfallen quality of your existence You don't do the precepts. You are the precepts. No feeling of decision. Exactly. The Buddha does not do karma. The Buddha's arms and legs move. The Buddha speaks. But the Buddha isn't sitting there thinking, I'm talking and I'm moving. And The Buddha expresses not killing.

[77:15]

The Buddha expresses not stealing. Buddha's arms and legs and mouth show not stealing. Other people standing right next to the Buddha also practicing not killing, not stealing, but they're doing it karmically. And then next to them are some people who are practicing killing and stealing, karmically. So this person is practicing killing karmically. This person is practicing not killing karmically. This person is not killing, not doing. This is the good. We have fallen from this state into the realm where we think of ourselves as separate. And here, when we practice the precepts, we decide to do them. When we don't practice precepts, we decide, usually, unconsciously decide not to do them. Dung Shan is saying, part of the nobility of the Buddha is not only is the Buddha able to understand interdependence and that he doesn't act by his own karma and that practice is not something he does but practice is an expression of his true nature but she also comes down just to test to see if she really trusts and really has confidence in her interdependence she comes down into a limited

[78:31]

package which is built to deny interdependence human consciousness which says i'm an independent person and interdependence i've heard about it but actually when it comes down to it i don't believe it i'm interested in this person not that person or that person helps this person can you remember interdependence when you're in an environment which is constantly saying independence, independence, independence, or dependence, not interdependence. Can you remember? You have to really be awake to stay in that. And that's what Buddha chooses to do. Arhats don't. The Arhat ideal is get out of this body, get out of this prison, get out of this terrible neighborhood where you're constantly being told by your genes that you're independent. That's the only way to be free. Buddha says you can come back into a human body and realize freedom in a human body and show other humans how to do it. But you actually have to listen to the bad message to test to see if you can remember why you're getting this.

[79:35]

And not even uh-huh, but actually stay calm. So like I had this picture on my desk, which I didn't bring. It's this picture which I showed people at Ringo's one time. It's a picture of a Buddha It's got pockmarks all over its face. And this is a picture of a Buddha statue that lives in Hiroshima. And that Buddha sat through the atomic bomb. Very calm, got pockmarked. Buddha comes into the fight of human delusion. somehow manages to not prefer. Yeah, there it is. Doesn't prefer the fire of human delusion over being out of it. But rather gets tested by it. That statue got tested. And there it is.

[80:38]

Great encouragement to what we could possibly do. OK? Yes? Yeah, so she... Dualistically, may you finish, you mean? Like, on your own side, do your thing? Sure. No interaction here. Just stay on your track, do your thing, forget about me, yes? I want to. I am. Yeah. You just be a good boy, sit there and talk. I think that's fine. Before you think you're finished. You know, you said that if you communicate without the precepts for being empty, that's a perfectly good sentence.

[81:49]

I think we can start right there. We all put them in order. You said that we can find that view also. I haven't reflected with the capital. We haven't been structured. You know, at least then, for me, it's not going to be a debate. I know, I know. If precepts, sometimes the way that they were written on, Well, it's not so much creating it, but it's keeping it going. Just a wisecrack about the priestess one way or another. It's not going to throw somebody right into small-mindedness. Yeah, promoting, yeah. Definitely, definitely can do that. Yep, sure can. also talking about him in another way can too but anyway it's true that the presets are dualistic when there's when somebody who has a dualistic mind hears them then they're dualistic but no things aren't dualistic you know this isn't dualistic except that you say this is not that but when you see this

[83:02]

your dualistic mind grasps this as something separate from its surrounding, then it's an opportunity for dualistic thought. I'm saying, yeah, the Buddha is the precepts. I didn't say the Buddha doesn't kill. I said the Buddha doesn't kill. But that doesn't mean the Buddha does this thing called not killing. The Buddha is not involved in the karma of not killing. The Buddha does not do the karma of anything. Oh, that's what I said. No, no, the Buddha does not kill. No one can kill. But people can say the Buddha kills, and the Buddha can even say, yes, I kill. But the Buddha cannot kill, because the Buddha has no basis for karma. Right. I'm still thinking of that. Yeah, he can. Yeah, there's one Jataka tale of the Buddha killing, right?

[84:07]

Killing five, no, killing somebody. But he wasn't a Buddha in their story, by the way. He's a Bodhisattva. So, if you show me an example of a Buddha killing, that'll be fun to see. There's no examples of Buddha's killing in the scriptures that I've ever seen. Have you seen any? I've never seen anybody, and since we have a long study period, maybe some people can search the scriptures and see if they find any stories of like ordinary old Shakyamuni Buddha or any other Buddhas in any Buddhist systems who have actually exercised the option. And other countries, too. But are there stories of a Buddha killing? I don't think so. Or a Buddha lying? I don't think so. Bodhisattvas, yes. It takes that sometimes to make a Buddha. But anyway, back to the Buddha, okay? The Buddha never does karma.

[85:08]

Let's stay on the Buddha for a little while, okay? Let's stay on the Buddha. The Buddha does not do any karma. And these precepts are about karma at the level of of violating. We're not talking about non-karmically violating the precepts. So I'm just saying, just a minute, Helen. You didn't let me interrupt you. Actually, you did let me interrupt you, so go ahead and interrupt some other. But I did say it. The Buddha, in the story, the story which I've told you a number of times, this wonderful sutra called Fear and Dread. I will now restrain myself from telling you the whole sutra. I'll jump to the end of the sutra where Buddha says, basically, now you may think, Senor John Sober, that I'm not really enlightened because I'm still doing the practice that the monks do.

[86:16]

And he could have also said you may not think I'm enlightened because I'm still practicing the precepts. If you look at Buddha's life, he kept practicing the precepts. He said, but I don't need to practice the precepts. I don't need to do the meditation anymore. And in another scripture, the Buddha said, these precepts are for my disciples, not for me. I don't need to practice these precepts. The Buddha doesn't need to. He said, but I do anyway. And I practice the meditation practice, which I don't need to do anymore because I'm liberated. But Buddha doesn't need to also because he can't do the practice anymore. Buddha can't do anything. Buddha cannot do any karma anymore because the Buddha has lost the belief which makes karma possible. He doesn't believe he's an independent person. You've got to believe you're an independent person to do karma. Karma, unfortunately, needs that. You've got to hold on to your belief in yourself. Otherwise, your karmic apple cart is going to get flipped over and you're going to have karmic apples all over the street.

[87:23]

And then it's going to be this big mess of your karmic life. And you won't be able to do any more karma to pick the apples up even. Buddha cannot do karma. Buddha cannot stand up, cannot sit down, cannot walk right or left. Buddha can't talk. Buddha cannot do anything karmically. Buddha can't practice the precepts or not practice the precepts. But Buddha is not killing. Buddha is not stealing. That's what Buddha is. No. Buddha is not killing. Buddha is not killing because life is infinite. Buddha is infinite life. That's what Buddha is. Infinite life. It cannot be killed. It cannot be stolen. It cannot be lied to. It cannot be abused.

[88:25]

That's what Buddha is. Buddha is infinite life. Buddha is all sentient beings. That's what Buddha is. All sentient beings is not killing. Buddha is not this small-scale little critter that does stuff. That's not what a Buddha is. Now let's hear this. Now just stay with this one. What are you going to say now? What sounds dualistic? What sounds dualistic? Because you're saying he is not killing. So, at the same time, I mean, he is everything. Buddha is not killing. He has to be. He is not killing because life is infinite.

[89:28]

Yeah, death is infinite too. Yeah, but then he's killing us. No. No. No. It isn't that life gets killed and turns into death. That's not Buddhism. Death doesn't kill life. They both coexist eternally. Exactly. That's what I'm saying. Yeah. That's what I'm saying, too. And that's Buddha. Buddha understands it. That's why Buddha doesn't get involved with killing life. Because it's not possible. But in the dualistic realm, Buddha says to people who are in dualism, he says, don't kill. And they understand it as don't do the karma of killing. And he says, fine, think of it that way. Manjushri said to Buddha, but isn't the whole universe the Bodhisattva precepts? Isn't the whole universe actually not killing life? Isn't that really what's happening? Buddha said, yeah. But people don't understand that. So when I say don't kill, don't kill life, they understand it as don't do the karma of not killing.

[90:29]

So I say fine. If you practice the karma, dualistically practice the karma of not killing, you will eventually understand what that precept means. Namely that the whole universe is actually what the meaning of that precept is. This precept of not killing is a universal truth of Buddha. It's not something Buddha does. And the precept and the action, the karma you do of not killing is not the full meaning. But if you keep practicing that way, you'll gradually open to the full meaning. Buddha is not not Dharma. Buddha is Dharma. And if you think that's doing this, go right ahead. But from the point of view of Buddha, it doesn't look like that. We should stop pretty soon because the kitchen has to go, right?

[91:34]

We have to go pretty soon? So, this was a longer class, right? It wasn't so wrenchingly short, was it? But I see there's still some questions. I see you. There's one over there, too. How many questions are there? One. Yeah, it's a comment. Yeah, there's some comments. You have a question or a comment? Okay, so on the count of three, please, everybody ask your question and comment at the same time. One, two, three. Good, that's good. Good. So I think I have to stop now, but if you want to read this wonderful case. And one thing I didn't get into was how does this case apply to koans, koan stem. So next time I'll talk about how I see it applying to koans, Betty, unless you want to talk about this issue here.

[92:39]

We've got a super, super, super, super koan. Is that enough, do you think? And so, also, I'd like to go through that little, that, I wrote that article in the window. I'd like to go through that, and you can ask questions as we go through. There's, like, there's this big, there's this big issue about calm and about how you, how, how is that, is there, is not calm, but more than that, heading. I mean, before that, let's talk about calm and calm. how this koan is in some kind of destruction on, I would say, the Soto and Rinzai approach. You know, conventionally speaking, the Soto and Rinzai approach to koan.

[93:47]

I'm going to tonight have a little kind of like a dialogue with a physicist about consciousness. in Monterey. And then tomorrow, I mean, I'll give a talk on karma and how zazen is, you know, not karma, how to meditate on karma and saturate and be free of karma, which is what I'll be talking about here. I'll be back tomorrow night. One more thing I want to say, one more very important interaction that I wanted to say to you, and I'll post this on the bulletin board later.

[94:50]

One day, Uncle Mead and Dengshan were walking along, and they came to a stream, and Dengshan said, On the occasion of crossing the stream,

[95:04]

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