Do you know Linda O'Royan? She's a member of this group, of our koan group for many years. She's also Sabrina's grandmother. And her husband died on Sunday. And tonight, there's a, as far as I know, there's still an execution scheduled at San Quentin. Unless we hear otherwise. And there's a vigil starting there this evening. And also after this class is over, if any of you would like to go and sit in this endo as the Green Gulch version of the vigil, you're welcome to do so for however long you'd like to sit there. How's the drive of the car?

[01:06]

It's okay. Okay. Would you mind moving this way?

[02:15]

No. Would you mind? Could somebody fill in those spaces there? Mahin, could you sit over there, please? Does anybody need a copy? Did anybody not get copies of this case? Did you have your copy? Yeah, I did. You didn't? Okay. I'm married over there. I just want to mention that this time of year tonight, the M.E. Ferguson is going to be doing a slideshow of Chinese masters and scriptures from China. And it's kind of an in-house thing, but I thought some of the people in this class might be interested. interested in dealing with Bradshaw. So I just wanted to make it 7.30 during the night. We'll work then. Pa Yin is in this book at several points.

[03:44]

He's in case 12. And in that case, that's the case where he's traveling around with some of his friends. He's on pilgrimage. So Fa Yan studied with Chongqing for, yes? Yeah, but if you look in the commentary just below there, you'll see the story of Fa Yan traveling around with his friends, and they're traveling around the big lake, and there's a big rainstorm, And they go to Ditsan, the temple Ditsan. And one of the main people with them is named Xuchang.

[04:48]

And so they're huddling around a little fire, a little brazier. And Ditsan comes up and says, you know, I have a question I'd like to ask you. Would that be all right? Is that right? Can you find it? Something like that. There's something I would ask about maya. Yeah. And then Sushant, does Sushant respond? Yes, he says, if there's some matter, please ask. Yeah, he says, if there's some matter, please ask. And then what does he say? Are the mountains, rivers, and earth identical or separate from you elders? So Disang asks the group, are the mountains, rivers, and what? Earth. Earth separate or identical with your elders? And what did they say? Separate. And then he goes like this, right? Good. So, and then Dittang says, I mean, then Shishan says, nothing much?

[05:52]

Identical. So anyway, then Shishan doesn't like Ditsang very much, so he's going to leave. But Fa Yan says, well, you guys go ahead. I'm going to check this guy out a little bit more. He may have some strong points. If it turns out that he's not so good, I'll catch up with you later. So the three of them leave. The other three leave, and he stays and studies with Ditsang for a long time. And then those three... get word that he's been staying there the whole time. And they come back to visit. When they get back from the south, Ditsang says to Shishan, where have you been? He says, in the south. And he says, well, how is Buddhism in the south? And they said, well, there's lots of discussion going on. And Ditsang says, well, how can that compare to me planting the fields and making rice bowls? And then Shishan says, well, what about the world?

[07:01]

And Ditsang says, what do you call the world? So if you listen to that story, you'll see that kind of way of working will be reflected in later stories. And then in case 17, you see Fayan asking Shishan again, right? So now Fayan's talking to Shishan, and Fayan says, if there's a hair's breadth difference, it's like the distance between heaven and earth. And then he says to Shishan, how do you understand this? And Shishan says, if there's a hair's breadth difference, it's like the distance between heaven and earth. Which I would say is a pretty good answer, right? But then he says, yeah, that's good, but how do you get it that way?

[08:07]

And Shishan says, well, I'm just like this. How about you? And Fa Yan says, I hear a breath difference. There's a distance between heaven and earth. And Xu Sheng acquiesces. And then in case 20, Fa Yang goes to Di Tsang and says, I'm going. Bye-bye, teacher. And Di Tsang says, where are you going? He says, I'm going on a pilgrimage. And Di Tsang says, what's the purpose of the pilgrimage? And Fa Yang says, I don't know. And Di Tsang says, not knowing is most intimate.

[09:10]

or not knowing his closest. That's a very famous story. And then he's also in case 51. Oh, he's also, excuse me, he's also in 27, I believe, isn't he? Is it 27? Raising the blinds? Is that 27? Yeah. So he also, he had these two monks with him and he says, he points to the blind and they go over and they both raise the blinds together on both sides. He says, one's right and one's wrong. It's another big story. and in 51 and 74. So he's in a lot of stories in his book. Hung Ger, the compiler of this book, really likes him.

[10:15]

So now we're in case 64. In case 64, if you look at it, you can see a lot of echoes from the previous story with the way of working with people. And you know, I think actually, although this story is the main case, I think my feeling is that there's a story in the commentary which I think came first. Historically speaking, I get the feeling that it came first. And that is where Elder... Elder Jia Feng comes from Chongqing. So we already talked about that. Fa Yan studied Zen with Chongqing. Chongqing is the disciple of who?

[11:17]

Shui Feng, right? Chongqing is a disciple of Shui Feng. And Fa Yin studied with Chongqing for a long time. He studied together with Zhe Zhao. And this monk was coming, this elder, the same Zhe as in Zhe Zhao. This is Zhe Fan. So Zhe Fan comes to see Fa Yin. And that's the story I think came first. I think the story of the main case, my feeling is it came after this. So Jifang comes and... and... Jeevong asked, I mean, Vajrayana asked him about this teaching, you know, that in the midst of myriad forms, ten thousand forms, which means in the midst of all forms, in the midst of all forms, a solitary revealed body,

[12:48]

clearly translates as single body revealed. But literally in Chinese, the character means single, but also means solitary. Like Doksong, the Doku of Doksong. Solitary, revealed body. In the midst of everything. Solitary, revealed body. He asked Jeff Long about this, and Jeff Long raises his whisk. So Chongqing taught this. Chongqing taught this expression. So Fa Yan heard this at Chongqing. So when Jiefeng comes, he asks him about this saying of his teacher. And Jiefeng raises a whisk. And Fa Yan says, how can you get it that way?

[13:52]

And I looked up the characters, and that's exactly the same characters that he used when Shishan said, if there's a slightest difference, it's like the distance between heaven and earth. He said, how can you get it that way? The same question, same characters. He now says, when Jiefeng raises the whisk, So you might guess that what he's doing by raising the whisk is that that's what Chongqing taught. In the midst of myriad forms, there's a solitary, revealed body raises the whisk. That was his demonstration.

[14:56]

Jiefeng comes and does the same thing. It's pretty good, but how do you get it that way? And Jiefeng says, well, what is your opinion? And Fa Yan says, well, what do you call the myriad forms? Remember, what do you call the world? What do you call the myriad forms? And Jie Feng says, the ancients didn't wipe away or didn't efface the myriad forms. And Palyan said, in the myriad forms, a single revealed body, why talk about a facing or not facing?

[16:14]

And Jaya Phong woke up suddenly. And this success, this successful interaction became well known and then people started coming to see, to check out the teacher. One time when I was a kid, I got invited to a birthday party. And I liked this guy. So I spent almost all my money in buying him a present. It was a pretty good present. And the other boys at the birthday party saw the present I gave him. After that, I got many, many invitations.

[17:21]

But I didn't have any more money, so after that initial burst of invitations, they dwindled. So what happened after this is that people heard about this wonderful teacher and so they started to come, you know, and they came very strongly, these guys, to check him out, very boldly presenting their understanding. And... Well, there's another story, too, about him, you know, that's the one where where he, what do they say, where they broke down superintendents. That's the one where, another one like that. I think it's, I think it's the superintendent, he asked the superintendent why he never comes to see him. And, you know this, Derek? The superintendent says, oh, didn't you know?

[18:29]

I kind of like got it together with so-and-so. And, Do you understand, Carol? I got it together with so-and-so. I was enlightened with so-and-so. I was studying with so-and-so, and I understood. So that's why I don't come to see you. I'm just like, I'll take care of the monastery, but, you know, I'm cool. So then Fa Yan says, well, why don't you tell me what happened? And tell me if I get this story wrong, but he says, well... I asked I asked so and so such and such and so and so said to me when when the fire god comes bearing fire or when the fire god comes to get fire

[19:37]

And I woke up on that. And Falyan said, oh, uh-huh. That's what I thought. And he says, what? He said, you don't understand. The superintendent got a little irritated and said, you know. see you later, and split. And as he was walking away from the monastery, he was, you know, the director of the monastery resigns over something like this. This is a good reason to resign, don't you think? Basically having your understanding, you know, shot down by the abbot or the teacher, whatever. So he's walking along and says, well... Maybe he's not so bad. He might have some strong points. I'll go back and give him another chance. So he goes back and he sees Fa Yan and he says, well, I came back and so let's go into this a little bit.

[20:53]

And Fa Yan says, how's it going today? Just what is the student and what is the Buddha? Oh, yeah. What is the student, what is the Buddha? No? What is the self of the student? What is the self of the student? And Bayen says, fire god comes seeking fire. To this particular style of teaching, you don't need to know anything. You just, you know, you just work with whatever people bring, you know, you don't have to know any scriptures or anything. Did he finally get it? He got it. He broke down. The superintendent broke down. So this technique or this way of working with people, somehow he was very strong and subtle.

[21:59]

The hair's breadth difference is like the distance between heaven and earth. How do you understand? The hair's breadth difference is like the distance between heaven and earth. That's good, but how do you get it that way? This is what I have, you know. What do you think? A hair's breadth difference is like the distance between heaven and earth. He looked at people like that. Very subtle. But, you know, most people could appreciate it finally, his way. So, now we have this story. which is a very strong kind of story in a way. So now the person who's coming is the head monk from Chongqing's place. I don't know if Chongqing's still alive, but anyway, the head monk's coming and he's bringing a group of people with him. and he's coming to see his old Dharma friend, his pal, Fa Yan, who's been away for a long time and become a well-known teacher.

[23:09]

But he's a little bit resentful that his former friend sort of left their teacher and went to study with somebody else. When it comes to dharma, it's not really a matter of how long you study with somebody. And I was also just reading the story of where the Buddha taught the monk Bahiya. He said, you know, train yourself thus. In the seen, there will just be the seen. In the heard, there will just be the heard. In the tasted, there will just be the tasted. In the smelled, there will just be the smelled. In the touched, there will just be the touched. And in the cognized, there will just be the cognized. That teaching? And what I found out is that at the end of that little teaching, bahiya became completely enlightened, or at least it became an aha, just like that, from that one teaching, the first time they had talked.

[24:20]

And it's interesting. to me that this other sutra that I talked about last spring about the Pukasati who was staying in a certain place and the Buddha was traveling around and asked if he could stay in the same little pottery shop with Pukasati. Pukasati said okay and they sat in meditation and the next morning the Buddha said, would you like me to give you a Dharma discourse? And the guy said, yeah. But he didn't know it was Buddha. And And the Buddha said, you know, under whom are you practicing? Who is your teacher? And Pukasati said, Buddha. Yeah. He said, Buddha's my teacher, Shakyamuni Buddha, the enlightened one. He lives in the north there a little ways. And the Buddha says to Pukasati, have you ever met your teacher?

[25:22]

And he said, no. He said, would you recognize him if you met him? And he said, no. As I mentioned before, when I was reading the scripture, I thought the Buddha was going to say, well, have you met the teacher? And he was going to say, yes. And what did he tell you? But Pukasati told the truth. He was Shakyamuni Buddha's student, but he had never met Shakyamuni Buddha. So here... Well, he didn't know who this person was. But, you know, Shakyamuni Buddha appreciated him and he appreciated Shakyamuni Buddha. They sat in meditation. They checked each other out during the night. And so he said, yeah, go ahead, give me a discourse. I'll listen. This person who had given a discourse was a monk. He could see he had not yet become a monk, even though he was a yogi, a good yogi.

[26:23]

He hadn't become a monk yet. So then the Buddha gives him this discourse, which is the discourse on the elements, which is a nice little sutra. And then towards the end of the discourse, Pukasati, before Buddha finished, Pukasati woke up. And he didn't say, that's enough, I got it. He sat through the rest of it. And after he woke up, he also woke up to who was talking to him. He realized, I did it. And then when the sutra was done, he was enlightened. He wasn't completely enlightened, but he was like, he became a never-returner, which is one step away from full-hour hardship. And he said, you know, I didn't know who you were. I'm really sorry. I've been looking for my teacher. I know my teacher has come. And I'm so happy. I'm really sorry that I didn't teach you respectfully. and I want to become a monk. And the Buddha says, well, do you have your robe and bowl? Because the monks would, in those days, if monks wanted to become monks, they'd have to get a bowl and a robe and come and say, I want to join.

[27:30]

And the Buddha would say, come. Come, monk, for the ordination. So he said, no, I don't have a robin bull. He said, well, go get him. So Bhukasati went to get somebody to give him a robin bull and a wild, a stray cow killed him. And Bahiya, everything worked out really well. And Bahiya, also right after the Buddha gave him that teaching, right after that teaching was given, He was also killed by a cow. This is dangerous stuff. Well, in India, you know, they don't discipline the cows, right? They don't like to know. They're very gentle with the cows because the cows are holy, right?

[28:31]

These two monks who were enlightened so quickly, they both died shortly right after the... one yogi and one monk, they were enlightened right after, I mean they were killed right after they were enlightened. And the Buddha actually said that he said that bahiya was foremost among those who attained enlightenment quickly. So we have many Zen stories of people getting enlightened very fast, it seems. And here's, in the Theravada literature, it's not so common, but here's two stories of people who were enlightened very quickly, and then they both were killed by cows. Just kind of interesting little thing there. I'm not kidding. Kokusaki and Bayou. Roshi, do you think it was out of good karma that they were enlightened so quickly? They've been working on this stuff for a while. Out of good karma?

[29:32]

Yes. Good karma, but I think more than, you know, in particular, as I've been mentioning lately, I think not only good karma, but I think they also did You know, love isn't exactly karma. Loving people isn't really karma. Now, if you intend to think loving thoughts, that could be a karmic act. But the actual feeling of love for people, I think they also had that, that they were able to, you know, take care of themselves as the Dharma was coming. and not become frightened as the world started to become a lot different from the way it usually is. As the diamond screen started to come up, they didn't flinch. I think they also, more than just good karma, I think they had a very compassionate and loving way of caring for themselves, and they were very patient too.

[30:42]

Again, patience isn't really karma. Maybe if you intend to be patient and you do patient things, they can be karmic acts, but patience is not necessarily a karmic act, it's more of a practice. And you can be patient just like a buddha. So I think they were doing the Buddhist practice also so that they were ready for this dharma to enter and wake them up. So this story, the main case is a little bit condensed. But basically, we have the story of the head monk.

[31:46]

By the way, literally, it's the shusou. The Chinese character is shusou. But Klaus is a head monk now. In those days, I think, the head monk was usually a head monk a long time, not just, you know, for one practice period, but for many practice periods. Maybe they might be head monk until they would often become abbot or pan-abbot someplace. In Japan, you had to practice 30 years before you could be a shuso during a certain phase of Japanese history. So anyway, this guy was the shuso. He's coming from Chongqing's place. with a group. And he comes to, and he meets, and Fa Yan hears about him coming, comes out of the temple, down into the plain to meet him. So two groups meet. Two teachers, and both are carrying whisks, I guess.

[32:48]

And both have attendants. Okay? Okay? So the shusso, Jijal, asked Fayan, when you opened the hall, when you became the head of this temple, to whom did you acknowledge your discipleship? To whom did you say you succeed? And Fayan said, to Ditsang. And this is the part that's abbreviated. In other words, we studied together for a long time with Chongqing, and we studied his teaching, and we basically agreed. So now you're very much turning your back on our late teacher, Chongqing. or you're being very disrespectful to say you succeed to someone else.

[33:56]

He said, Paiyin said, I didn't understand one saying of Chongqing. Literally, I didn't understand one turning word. So this teaching, when he was with Chongqing, the teaching in the midst of myriad forms, a solitary revealed body, for example. He didn't understand that. He didn't understand that when he was there. He maybe agreed with Jijao, but he understood later that he didn't understand at that time. So what can I say? I've been there, but I didn't understand anything. For example, remember how we used to talk about his teaching in the midst of myriad forms, in the midst of all forms, a solitary revealed body? Remember that one?

[34:57]

Okay. We thought we understood that, right? Well, guess what? Tell me how you understand. So then Jijao raises the whisk. Falyan says, Yeah, uh-huh. Well, that was okay back then. That's the way we used to do it when we were kids. We used to play study dharma, dharma study together. That was nice. But, you know, but how about you, my friend? So that was, he couldn't, he couldn't respond, right? He didn't understand either. So, Ba Yan gives him another chance.

[36:03]

Here we go. Okay. How about in myriad forms a solitary revealed body? And is this effacing forms or not effacing forms? Interesting also that the whisk, right? This effacing means to wipe away. Okay? In myriad forms, in myriad forms, in the midst of everything that's happening, there is a solitary revealed body. Now does that wipe away all the myriad forms? Or not wipe away myriad forms? In other words, when you say among all this diversity there's just one body that's revealed by all this, does that efface all you?

[37:11]

Does that wipe you all away? Or not wipe you all away? And the head monk says, doesn't wipe it away. And then, Fa Yang says, two. Remember that one? From way back, his first meeting with his teacher, two. So then, monks do the same thing that happened in the previous story. They switch their story. And his attendants, the head monk's attendants say, wiping away. And then Fa Yun says, in the midst of myriad forms, a single revealed body with many explanation points, which means what?

[38:19]

What does that mean, those explanation points? Jerk. Jerkovernian. Yes, Anna? The two, could that be both? I mean, the two, could that also mean both? It could, but that would be two. You get two on that one. No, I thought because of the character, I thought maybe, you know... Oh, the character, could it be the character which means both? I believe it's the character for two rather than the character for both. Well, but the explanation marks that, don't they? Yeah, well, there are explanation marks for why he put six on my text and five on yours and other people put one, you know, there is an explanation, but...

[39:25]

Maybe his typewriter just said... How many of you have an ear? Five. I would say he probably meant to say, have no doubt about it, you've got to believe it. Are there any explanation marks way back in K17? There aren't, are there? Where he says, where he finally, his punchline is, a hair's breadth difference is like the distance between heaven and earth. Is there an explanation mark there? Do Chinese have exclamation marks? Yeah, well, they have character, which means exclamation mark. They don't have that thing. That thing there is like... There is a character with that, I think. A vertical character, but it doesn't have a dot on the knee. Did you look at the original translation and see if there was multiple versions of that character? No, there's not multiple. There's not enough five or six of those things. Yes. Oh.

[40:28]

Is he kind of maybe stressing that the outcome of the situation itself is sort of answering the question? Yes. It's just one exclamation mark. That's it. Sort of like saying, don't you see, like, this, this, what just happened is that, is the single body being revealed from myriad forms. That was just a facing. That was what? That was the wiping away. Everyone shouting out the students. On the two different paths from this problem of two teachers. You know what I mean? It's like a literal revelation. Well, he said, I think, what I would say in the previous story, he says, what's this talking about, facing or not facing? So, you see, if you take it this way, that first Jiefeng came, and Jiefeng says, the ancestors don't efface the myriad forms.

[41:39]

He's the one who brought it up, right? So he had this interaction with this other monk who brought up this effacing business. And then he says, myriad in the midst of myriad forms a single revealed body why are you talking about a facing or not a facing so that guy brought it up and he's saying why are you talking about it but then he brings it up after his friend can't talk anymore he brings it up it looks in this case i get the feeling like it's a trap now maybe a loving trap but a trap because he's asking him a question about something that he said before was kind of a waste of time. He said, let's talk here. This is a waste of time. You want to talk about it? And he does. He's also given him the opportunity to say, why talk about that? Yeah, he gave him a chance to, right? But he didn't say, why should we talk about this, you silly boy?

[42:45]

Yeah. I mean, they're both calling each other jerks. But he had a chance to call him a jerk, and he didn't. He missed it. He fell into it and said, not effacing. But I think that this is, you know, I don't mean to say that they're really doing that. Like, you know, really selling a trap or anything like that. But it looked like that. Because... Because, like, you know, It was a trap. Which he fell into. Could you also say that the myriad forms are revealed by one body? Could you reverse? The myriad forms are revealed by one body? You can do that. That's okay. I mean, could you translate that what you mean? Mm-hmm.

[43:46]

Well, it's all the same thing. There's not two. The myriad things are revealed by a solitary body? Mm-hmm. That probably would be okay. Going from Chinese to English, you can do that, I think. Maybe some person would argue with you, but... Why is it in the head, but... Going back to 17 years... What's the difference between, in the midst of all the things that are happening, there's a solitary revealed body, or a solitary body is revealed, or... But you see, the thing is, it says, in the midst of the myriad forms... It's a preposition. The body is a problem. Yeah. It's like, it's very clear that in the context of everything... In the context of all things, in the complex of full multiplicity, there is one solitary, there's a solitary body revealed or a solitary revealed body.

[44:59]

Interesting, the word revealed means do also. What? You? It means do. V-E? Yeah. It means do and revealed or uncovered. Kind of interesting, I thought, the character. Oh, and speaking of interesting characters, I have one to tell you about in a minute. No, I'll tell you about it now. When I was looking up the character for, like, you know where it says, it says, listen? You know where he says, he says, listen? Listen? with care. I was looking up that character, and right underneath that character was another character that was quite interesting. But underneath it, I saw this other character underneath it, which I thought was kind of interesting, because it had the character for dragon on the top, and the character for ear on the bottom. Dragon on top of the ear. I thought, I wonder what that character means. So I looked it up, and it means deaf.

[46:04]

Deaf. A dragon on top of your ear. A dragon on top of your ear is deaf. They had fun making those characters. So this one, this character is about listening. So this is the basic story, okay? You got the basic story. So what do you think, folks? Want to work it out a little bit here? Yes, Jeremy? Okay. Just a tangential thing that you raised with this character for death, but it makes me wonder about, you know, if you get to the dragon, you stop using the six gates. There's a relationship between the senses and the dragon in deafness. There's a relationship between not relying on sense data and contacting the dragon. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Maybe the deaf person would be enlightened?

[47:13]

Well, I don't know what you want to do with this, but anyway, that just occurred to me in the connection between cutting off, something about cutting off the sense of connecting with the drive. Well, a deaf person might need six exclamation marks. Hey, Vernon, can I borrow that structuralism for beginners again? No, the next one is semiotics. Oh, can I borrow both of them? Because the one for beginners has pictures of dragons in it. Do you see the dragon? They're very tiny dragons. They're very tiny. They're in the ears of Lacan and people like that.

[48:14]

Ooh, a hint. I think also I wanted to point out to you just another piece of information for you which just happened to come up, and that is, Part of it is autobiographical, and part of it is historical. When I was a kid, I thought that devils were approximately five to seven feet tall. Probably about six feet, I thought. Somewhere between five and six feet. But then I found out that in the days when devils were a really important part of the world, where people were into devils, Devils were tiny. Tiny devils. So lots of them could fit in your ear. And most people have quite a few devils sitting in their ear telling you various things. For example, you're not worthy of love, and she certainly isn't.

[49:23]

What are you doing wasting your time practicing religion when you could be out beating up peasants? Stuff like that. So devils are those little voices in your head that are saying all those things that are telling you, you know, be a bum and stuff like that, or you're better than the bums. So I think that, I find that actually that makes more sense than big devils out there that, you know, those aren't really devils. Those are people. You should love them. The devils are the ones who are saying, don't love the people. Now, what about the people who are saying, don't love the people? Well, there are still people who have devils in their ear and they're just telling you what the devils have told them to say. People are the devils. Do you love the devils? What? Do you love the devils? Definitely. Definitely.

[50:25]

Although it's, you know, it's hard to love them when they're telling you not to love them, but you should say it. Okay, so here's the story, and, you know, where's the important part to work on it, I think, is just that main teaching is right there. So, in the midst of myriad forms, a solitary revealed body, or a solitary body is revealed. Now, I'm not saying that that's such a great teaching, or not a great teaching, but it was something that Fa Yan knew he could relate to these people about because he knew their, in the case of Jiefeng and Zhejiao, he knew their teacher, he studied with their teacher, so he knew that that was a teaching that they could relate to. So he takes what he knows that they're working with and he pays it, brings their attention to it, and he says, okay, there it is, what do you do with it?

[51:29]

And that's In that sense, it's a nice teaching because that teaching would say that's what you should do, right? If myriad things reveal the solitary body, or the solitary revealed body, then that teaching would be, in all other teachings, would be worthy to look at and say, okay, here's a form, here's one of the forms, How is that worthy of our attention? How is that the solitary revealed body, the single body revealed? How is everything the single body, the single body revealed, or the single revealed body? How is that? And then, in their case, they have a nice situation because their teacher showed them an answer.

[52:34]

Now, you've heard some answers, so you could use the same answers that they used. If you had a whisk, you could use it. But then, after you get that over with, then what do you have to say? So then you could say something. Right? You often say something now. You basically got it, so... I understand it, but I don't get it. Pardon? I understand it, but I don't get it. Well, I mean, but I don't mean you get it. I mean, you got the message. Now, you're telling us you don't understand. No, I do understand it. Oh, I see. You do understand it. But I don't get it. Okay, so you don't get it. You don't have to get it, but you understand. That's good enough. So, let's see how you get it. Vernon, it's time to show. Well, it's, we all know we all come from an egg, and and just one, and, you know, makes a whole bunch of things, and we are all these myriad things, and we all know it's just one, and when you're thinking about it, there's one, there's nothing there, and it's all very nice, but I don't get it.

[53:41]

What do you, what do you, one to ten, what do you say? do i hear do i hear a three one to ten you get it for you now did you realize we're too soon are you telling the truth Isn't that amazing? Well, how about that? From one to ten. That's a ten. That's a ten? He did a ten or a two, wouldn't you say? You meant two from the story, that's what I mean. Did you actually mean that? I didn't know you were that bright. Now I know. I mean, he's telling the truth. Are you telling the truth, really? God, that's amazing. Isn't that bright? Wouldn't you say that's even brighter than Vernon? That was brighter than me. Yeah. And Vernon was pretty good.

[54:42]

And actually, you weren't really a two. You were, I would say, more like a seven. But that's a ten, wouldn't you say? Okay, now let's see if anybody can top that one. No, you can't, right? What did you say? I didn't hear. That's an 11. Some people are going into withdrawal. So should I call on them or leave them alone? Oh, yes. Yes. Well, I saw a moving truck today. It said one big man at the moving truck and One big man moving company. And I looked around to see if there was... You wanted to see this big man? Did you see the big man? No. Just the truck. There were two little guys. I don't see them. Did you say shut up?

[56:10]

Yes. Thank you. in this great big world, a solitary revealed body.

[57:32]

How do you understand? I just wanted to, just last Thursday, I was looking, reading from this book, Gratefulness, the Heart of Prayer, and he talks, one of the days he talks about God as the silent core, as the source. There's two verses from the poem I look up. I read just the four and it seems that, well, I don't know if I read it. Whoever reconciles the many contradictions of his life gratefully gathering them into one symbol, expels the noisy crowd from his abode, and in a different kind of festive mood, receives you as his guest on gentle evenings.

[58:35]

You are the other in his solitude, the silent center for his conversations with himself, and every circle drawn around you makes his compass span beyond the realm of time. Words will not help abandon all effort. Once again, please. Words will not help abandon all effort. A solitary, revealed body.

[59:51]

Yes? I was going through this really short experience of when I heard the termite thrush calling outside. And then I heard the bell that was there. And it's funny, because you didn't talk about this calling this morning, but it was mostly back in my mind, because there was a type of sound that was in each of the sounds that to clear the space that allows the sound to actually be. I think there's more of feeling that thought. It's like that spaciousness of an outfit is what makes everything possible. That's how I'm interpreting this, this solitary body. Solitary revealed body. Yes? So there's a question saying that I really think that there's this complex way of thinking of it where we include the entire universe to be this one body.

[61:03]

And like there's a ear, a nose, eyes, mind, blah, blah, blah, blah, visit myself. And this is how to deal with the generic objects of being. Uh, solitary, revealed body. No separation. No separation. Solitary revealed body. Everybody's seeing different things. One thing in different bodies.

[62:08]

Yes. Would a solitary body be revealed? without myriad things? Would a solitary body be revealed without myriad things? No. You didn't mean that as a trap for Vernon, did you? No, I think I meant it as a reason why we're here. Also, it was a double entendre. You know, would that you, blah, blah, blah. Do you have your hand raised, Carol?

[63:13]

Please. This is a comfortable chair. Yeah. Does everybody have a comfortable chair? Yeah. It's cold and dank and there's stuff going off the ceiling, so... His name is Original Dragon. This reminds me of Dogen's... the myriad things that advance and confirm the self as enlightenment. Yes. May I add something to that? I've been thinking on the same lines. I just felt that during Zenji, like this case, I feel as if I'm on the Buddha, where he says the whole universe is nothing but the true body itself.

[64:26]

And it's very interesting because I always understand it as My word is an invitation to simply listen. Because he says something like, if you ask, if you ask, what does that mean? Like here, that please just say, the whole universe is nothing but a true body of the self. So I feel very much, this very much comes for me. That's why I also have overly feeling in the back of my head. So that's what I would like to say. I can't get this. I can't know this. I can repeat it and listen to it. I can't get this. I have a deep feeling of that, because I can't get this.

[65:29]

There's a German philosopher, who said, the oneness, the one, oneness is Eli. It's part of his thinking. And I don't see this contradiction to what's being said here, but as a warning to be cautious. I also think that this case just happens to be one that I think we can see fairly likely had a big impact on Dogen, because in the later part of the text, the word genjo koan appears.

[66:38]

And also, the image of the boat. moving to the water in Gendro Koan, where you're traveling by boat and you look out and you think the shore is moving, but if you look closely at the boat, you realize that the boat's moving. Because you don't look at the boat, you think the shore is moving. That's from this case, right? It's right by the part where it says Gendro Koan. So, I think Dogen read this, you know, in So I think this case, this case, I think did have a big impact on him. And this case also, the poetry of this case is this kind of play on using, you know, on using a tradition, you know, like using a phrase from the ancient and then

[67:42]

doing your thing. So part of what this tradition is about is that one of the ways you show your originality is by using something that somebody else used in your way, rather than just act like this is my thing, not realizing that it's not your thing. And using something that's not your thing in a way that nobody used something that wasn't theirs before. So the poetry here is like that, the case is like that. You know, you get a teaching and then you do it, you get it just the way it's been given, you don't alter it at all, and then you do your thing without changing it. So it's very, you know, this whole case is about this subtle thing between accepting the teaching and not touching it, not changing it, and being creative without manipulating anything.

[68:47]

Yeah. I think maybe the case also is trying to root out where people are attached, that there's unity and there's multiplicity, but it's like your mind can't really rest in either one. So the minute the answer tries to rest in that unity, it's only, you know... there's only one body, then the multiplicity will arise to knock you out of that certainty. And then the minute you think that there's just multiplicity and there's no unity, then the single revealed body arises. So I see so the interchange is trying to, you know, make the point that, well, you know, in fact it's both and neither, or however you can state it. You can't say it's all one and you can't say that it's all men. That's where you want it. Yes. Kathleen?

[69:52]

Yes. When you were talking about the Chinese characters and that Chinese characters are still grounded and grounded in the anime, or the essentials, the living world. They have not become abstract words. They have not become literary literature. They haven't separated subject from object. So I think that that in itself is what's happening in this story. And what I'm hearing and talking about here is that the subject and object It's separated by word. And in the experience of language, as it was in Chinese characters and in languages before the printed word, the experience was not separated from the expression. So there's something that's interesting to me here about that these originated with Chinese characters where they were still doing that.

[71:00]

and we're reading abstract words, and it's a difference between language and words. Am I clear? You're clear after your single body's revealed. Yeah, but this time I don't have a great solution. But what has just come to me, and I think some of it was because of what Aaron was saying, and I just bounced off, and that made me think with my children. And when an interaction with a child, and suddenly a moment that I realized it's something that I've been doing for this child for years, which has been hurting this child for years, and both of us together, realize that.

[72:04]

And the whole of the report disappeared. I just knew it. And I was like, what the fuck? God, God! Seems to me there's a very unusual energy tonight in the class. And there's a lot of circumstances that I think could be pointed to about that.

[73:13]

But what I'd like to say is that what Aaron said really affected me quite a bit. And part of that arises from I was struggling with the text that we're reading. Because the actual Chinese characters say in the middle, of the myriad forms. And I was struggling with the idea of whether that really was in the middle of the myriad forms or in the midst of the myriad forms. And when Erin made her statement, it coalesced. Because I was tending to think it actually means the middle rather than the midst. But it didn't seem to go along with the explanation I was hearing evolving in the class. And it seemed to be kind of assumed. And when Erin made her statement, Suddenly, it seems as though he really is in the middle. And at that form, that kind of understanding really rings a clear voice of the ancestors to me.

[74:19]

Rather than... Because that understanding seems to me to be the closest to human experience. Which is what seems to me the ancestors are always really pointing at. May I? I'm just wondering It's one body with different parts, but also The middle or the center of the body is you.

[75:33]

You're not just one part, you're the middle of it. So yeah, you're one part, but you, for you, you're the center of the one body. You're always a center in Samadhi. Always. Or anyway, every moment. But even though I am, I remember so are you. I have to remember so are you. In that sense, they're not parts.

[76:38]

They're centers. They're the center of the solitary body, the revealed solitary body, not the hidden solitary body. I have a question for Andy to clarify what he was saying about in the middle. Is that in the sense of at the heart of everything or at the core of everything, the one solitary body? The character means middle, yeah, and it doesn't necessarily mean heart.

[77:50]

It's actually the same character that is used for the word China. People have probably heard it. where China means the middle kingdom. It's the same character. So it's... It is... Rather than... In the midst of kind of sounds to me like diffused within the myriad forms is the single... Or the myriad forms are themselves the single body... Which is that I think the understanding, I kind of read in this originally, but I was struggling with that term, well, the middle, rather than the same as, or something like that. I don't know if that explains it, but that's the problem. Is that like saying, here I am in the middle of all these myriad forms? And it says it really, exactly like Rep said, in the middle of the myriad forms, a single body, a solitary body is revealed.

[79:03]

That's what it says. It doesn't say, the Chinese doesn't, as I've said before, one thing about the Chinese language is that it doesn't tend to be clear about Subjects and objects, you know, it often puts in verbs and adjectives, and you kind of supply your subject and object sometimes. It's a little bit like that. So you can't say, well, does it mean you? Well, you know, it doesn't appear to, textually, in context. It doesn't seem to be saying that. But it's also an abstract language, which is... attracted to things about it. But I would say, my reading of it, the way I interpret it, is it does not say, it is not implying you are in the middle. I mean, that's not clear from the way it's presented to me.

[80:06]

Although, you could extrapolate and say that. It's very much exactly like it's been said here. In the middle of the myriad forms of solitary bodies revealed. Another way to read it is, in the context of myriad forms, the solitary body is revealed. So that the solitary is revealed in the context of multitude. Let's see. Carol? Did you want to say something? If you'd like to say something, yeah. I'm struggling with other facts. I want to speak to the intimacy of one's death, the death that would speak up.

[81:15]

are very near to the person. The person is very... That's what's hard might be being separate from it. But that... But love, I guess, is... Did you say it would be painful? You said hard. Do you mean painful if you were separate from it? Yeah, I think the grief is all part of it. This is where I... It's something that I said to comfort myself when there's someone's death that I find hard to bear. You say what to comfort yourself? It belongs to them. They have to just say... I believe that my part in it isn't scary.

[82:29]

I can't help but feel that it's comforting that I see what they're struggling with. It's not only someone else's that's not running. The dying person's death not belonging to the dying person? No, not belonging to the group. Not belonging to the observer? Not being able to help it, share it, prevent it. So the observer feels separate from their own death? No, I hope not. That's my hope. My hope is not that... Well, if the observer wasn't separate from her own death, would she be separate from anybody else's? That's the question I'm asking you. That's between the two.

[83:35]

Mm-hmm. Well, it's just about time to stop. But living in the Bay Area, springtime is already happening. Even though we haven't got to the solstice yet, the green grasses are coming up through the burnt grasses. So we have burnt grasses, actually, on our hills here. burnt by the sun, and right now the green grasses are coming up through the burnt grass. So that's part of, there's many things going on in this story, according to the poet. One of the things is that in ruins, or in burnt grass, green grass is coming up.

[84:42]

And in that green grass, spring is one of the ways that spring expresses itself. It's something that's going on right now. And then there's the moon. So please enjoy seeing this case in everything for the next week. and then we can go on to the rest of the case later.

[85:15]

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