I mentioned this morning that there is a proposal which I am betting on that Buddhas are present in our life now. And someone said, are you saying that there's some Buddha external to us that's present in our life? I'm not saying that. The Buddhas that are present are not external to our life. They're also not internal. Our actual life is Buddha. That's what we mean by Buddha is the reality of life, and it's not external. And the suggestion that good friendship is the content of the life, the true life of peace and freedom goes with another teaching which people have heard from the Buddha, which is, be a light on

[01:19]

That statement is, a lot of people really like that statement, and they think it means, you know, you don't need a teacher. The Buddha did not teach you don't need a teacher. The Buddha said, in dependence on a good friendship, and in particular in dependence on me, among your good friends, you will be able to practice the way." And the Buddha had teachers. Not in this particular life where he's the Buddha, but in many previous lifetimes he had teachers, he said. And many of his students He used to practice with him when he was practicing with his other teachers. But anyway, Buddha did not say you don't need a teacher. And some of the places, you know, you can go this phrase about be a light unto yourself.

[02:28]

And some of the places, they think it means to... You don't need a teacher to practice. But other ones, they point out, I think, rightly that be a light unto yourself can be interpreted as do not go for an external refuge. Do not go for the triple treasure as something external. I agree with that. We go for refuge in Buddha, but not as an external thing. there is some distinction between me and Buddha, or between a living being and a Buddha, or between a bodhisattva and Buddha. Bodhisattvas have a long career of honoring good friends, of honoring the Buddhas, but they do not abide in the difference

[03:31]

The expression be a letter to yourself is, I don't know if I'll pronounce it right, but it's D-E-E-P-A-B-H. That's A-P-P-O, and then this is a romanization, D-E-E-P-A-B-H-A-V-A-H. A-P-O-D-E-E-P-A-B-H. Be a letter. And that sounds maybe like in contradiction to we proceed on the path by spiritual friendship. It's just actually, I think, a guiding principle in our practice together. And, Athena, were you going to ask a question? Yes? Right now? Yeah. You were talking about Suzuki Roshi and him requesting you to see teachers in Japan.

[04:41]

Louder, please. You were talking about Suzuki Roshi asking you to go to Japan to study with teachers. Yes. And you didn't get a chance to. Oh, yeah, right. And he wanted to know how you felt about that and if you pursued studying with those teachers later on. Yeah. So, Suzuki Roshi. Like I said, he hired a tutor for me in Japanese, and he told me the names of a couple of teachers he wanted me to study with in Japan. And then after I'd been studying, he said, I want you to go to Japan. And I think he said it in kind of a funny way. He said, like, in not more than a month. or something like that. He didn't say in less than a month, he said, and not more than a month. So I said, okay. And I went over to the Japan company and, you know, went in there and got some forms to fill out for, like, sponsors so I could stay longer than just a tourist visa.

[05:51]

And I brought back the papers, you know, and I said, I said, I got these papers from the He said, he took, he said, what is it? I explained, he said, oh, okay. And then he just took the papers and walked away. And that was the end of, that was the end of that. So I got the impression like, you know, I, you know, I went, what do you call it, I bit too quickly at the bait or whatever, at the offer. So, From then on, when people offer me things, I usually just say, Oh, okay, I see. And I wait for them to give it to me before I reach for it. Not always, generally speaking. So that's what happened with that. Who were the teachers? One, his name was Noiri Roshi.

[06:55]

And so Suzuki Roshi studied with... his main, his first teacher, he grew up with and became his Dharma successor. But after his teacher, his first teacher died, he studied with a noted Zen teacher named Kishizawa Iyan. And the three senior disciples of Kishizawa Iyan were Suzuki Roshi, Noiri Roshi, and... No, um... Niwa Rempo Roshi, who was abbot of the Heiji later. Roshi actually performed Suzuki Roshi's funeral in San Francisco. So those three were the main students of Kishizawa Ion. So Suzuki Roshi wanted me to go to Japan and study with

[07:57]

actually his Dharma brother. And that Noiriyoshi sort of took over Kishizawa Ion's temple. And one of the people wanted me to go study with. And one time I was in Japan and visiting Siddhigarshi's son after Siddhigarshi died, and I asked about, maybe, could I go visit him? And Siddhigarshi's son looked scared at the prospect. He said, he sort of said, like, if you call Noyaroshi on the telephone, you call and say, hello, and there's no answer on the other end. kind of an awesome, awesome teacher. But anyway, that was the name. And the other one was Kamatani, who was a disciple, one of the main disciples of, what's his name, Hashimoto Eikoroshi.

[09:10]

So those were the two people Sugarshi mentioned. But I did not study with either one of them. And I was very happy that I didn't, in a way, because then I got to be... At the time Siddhartha Gershwin was talking about that, I didn't know that he wasn't going to be around much longer. So I'm happy that I was with him at the last period of his life. Were there any other questions dangling in the Sangha from this morning? Okay, so I thought I might continue the story of Yakusan Igen. When we last saw Igen, he was with who? Who was he with? He was with Ma. He was still with Ma. So Shurto had sent him to Matsu, the great Master Ma.

[10:16]

He was still with Master Ma after the awakenings. These glasses are broken, in a way. So, and then, you know, Shirito said, when I was at Shirito's place, I was like a mosquito trying to mount an iron bull. And Matsu says, since you are thus, uphold and care for this well. And then Yashan saw Matsu as attendant for three years. One day Matsu asked him, What have you seen lately? And Yashan said, Shedding the skin completely, leaving only the truth.

[11:20]

Matsu said, Your attainment can be said to be in accord with the body-mind, spreading through its four limbs. Since you're like this, you should and go traveling to other mountains." And Yashan said, so Yashan maybe thought he was saying, you should go and to some mountain and be available to start it. And Yashan said, I'm not, who am I to speak of being the head of a Zen mountain? And Matsu said, that's not what I mean. He says, those who haven't gone on a long pilgrimage can't reside as an abbot.

[12:22]

So he's actually telling him to go study with another teacher, to go on pilgrimage. And then he said, there's no advantage in seeking advantage. Nothing is accomplished by seeking something. You should go on a journey and not remain in this place. So Yaoshan left Matsu and went back to Shoto. Okay, so he awakens to the mind of no abode. He's enlightened about the mind of no abode. And somebody told me that mona in Sanskrit means silence. The mind of no abode is silent. doesn't abide in silence, doesn't abide in sound.

[13:30]

It is silence and stillness. So having realized this, now he goes back to Shirtou. And at one point, he's sitting. And Shirtou comes to him and says, what are you doing here? And he said, I'm not at all. And Yashan said, well, then are you idly sitting? And Yashan said, if I were idly sitting, I would be doing something. He's maturing. And Shurto says, you say you're not doing anything at all. What is this not doing anything at all? And Yashan said, even the 10,000 sages don't know.

[14:38]

And then Shurto says, we've been living together now for a long time. just going along according with conditions. Practicing like this since ancient times the ten thousand sages don't know who he is. How could hasty And then Shirito said, words do not encroach upon it. Yashan said, no words do not encroach upon it.

[15:45]

Shirito said, here, I can't stick a needle into it. Yashan said, here, it's like I'm growing flowers, bare rock. Shirto agreed. So, here's a Zen version of the pilgrimage of the Bodhisattva. And here I see a person who had deep faith in the Mahayana, you know, listened to the teachings and went to the teachers and did the practice and he matured and he matured and finally he was able to enter wisdom.

[16:56]

And then he becomes the teacher of the next generation. And in his case, the next generation is a monk named Yuen Yen. And here a kind of paradigm occurs. So you have Shirito and Matsu. working with Yaoshan, Shirtou working with him, sending him over to Matsu, back from Matsu to Shirtou, and then he becomes one of the successors of Shirtou. The other one I'll talk to you about later. His name is Tianhuang Dawu. And then there's the next generation of Jun Yen.

[17:58]

He starts on the other side with the disciple of Matsu. So you have Matsu. He has a number of great disciples. One of his disciples is named Baizhang, Waihai. So Jun Yen starts with Baizhang Waihai. He starts over on the Matsu side and he studies over on this side. And he studies with the other side, sort of, of the sixth ancestor. So, Shirito side, Matsu side. This monk, Yunyan, starts over on the Matsu side, studying with Baizhang. And he's his attendant. And they say he was his attendant for 20 years. So apparently he started when he was fourteen and he was his attendant until Bai Zhang died. He didn't mature enough.

[19:03]

He was working with his good friend but still in twenty years of study from fourteen to thirty-four, I guess, he still wasn't mature. And we here that he understood that, and so he went from Bajang, after Bajang died, he went over to Yashan. And Yashan, happy to meet him, coming from the other side of the family, and they're working together. And And so I'll tell you the story about how Yun Yan matures under Yaoshan. Now I'll show you how Yaoshan matured under Shirtou, Matsu, and Shirtou. Now I will tell you later the story of how he matured under Baizhang and how he matured under Yaoshan.

[20:07]

And one of the ways he matured under Yaoshan is Yaoshan asked him about his practice with Baizhang. So he didn't... When he was with Bajang, he didn't mature enough, but Bajang was giving him teachings. Now he brings those teachings with him, and the next teacher goes over the teachings with him, and as he goes over the teachings with him, he matures more. Should I do it next time, or should I do it this time? It's kind of getting late. Have you had enough to eat, huh? Okay, I'll do it now. When you say mature, you mean when they totally embody it? What's maturity? When you're able to physically and mentally enter the teaching and act from the teaching.

[21:11]

So when he would... he was a pretty young guy, 14 years old, so the first 20 years he couldn't enter the teaching. The teaching couldn't fully enter him. But still, he's a good student, so he goes to see the other major teacher available that he knows about, Yaoshan. And Yaoshan is very interested to hear from him about this other teacher who I guess he wants to know how the other teacher teaches. So he's happy to receive teachers from the other side. So we have these wonderful bodhisattvas and we have stories about them when they were immature.

[22:18]

We go over the careers of our ancestors, the parts where they didn't seem to understand. So here's a major figure in the history of Zen who studied for twenty years, was a great teacher, and the great teacher and he were not able to bring about his full understanding. But he did study for twenty years with him. And then he didn't stop. So then he goes over to Yasha. So again, as I said, Yaoshan, I mean, his full name is Yunyan Tan Xiong, and his lay name was Wang. He left home at a young age, like I just told you, around apparently 14, and went to live at Xiumei.

[23:19]

He studied under Bai Zhang Waihai for 20 years, but did not meet the source. After Bai Zhang died, he went to study with Yao Shan. Yao Shan said to him, where have you come from? And what did he say? Yeah, I came from... Bai Zhang is the name of the teacher and it's also the name of the place. It means a thousand feet high. That's the name of the monastery, Bai Zhang. And it's also the name of the teacher. And so Yashan says to Yunyan, what did Baijiang teach to his disciples? And Yunyan said, he often said, I have a saying which is, quotes, tastes are complete.

[24:22]

That's what Baijiang taught his students, one of them being Yunyan. Did you get that? I have a taste. The hundred tastes are complete. The hundred tastes are complete. The hundred tastes are complete. Don't ask me what that means. But Yashan asked Yuen Yuen. Sometimes salty tastes salty. Sometimes bland tastes bland. What is neither salty nor bland is the normal state. What is meant by the phrase, 100 tastes are complete? Yin and Yang couldn't answer. Yashan said, What did Bhaijaan say about life and death before our eyes?

[25:28]

Yunyan said, He said that there was no life and death before our eyes. Yashan said, How long were you at Bhaijaan's place? And Yuen Yuen said, 20 years. And Yao Shan said, you spent 20 years with Bai Jiang, but you still haven't rid yourself of your immature ways. One day, Yuen Yuen was serving Yao Shan as attendant. Yao Shan said to him, what else did Bai Jiang have to say? Yuen Yuen said, once he said, go beyond three phrases and enlightenment's gone. But when the six phrases, but within the six phrases, there's comprehension.

[26:35]

Yuen Yuen said, go beyond three phrases and enlightenment's gone. Within six phrases, there's comprehension. And Yao Shan said, 3,000 miles distanced, the joy can't be felt. Then Yao Shan said, what else did Bai Zhang say? And Yan Yan said, once Bai Zhang entered the hall to address the monks, everyone was standing. Then he took his staff and started swinging at everybody. When the monks reached the door, he yelled to the monks and they looked back at him and he said, what is it? Yashan said, why didn't you tell me this before?

[27:39]

today, thanks to you, I finally see elder brother Bajang Waihai." And Yuen Yuen understood his teacher, both of them at the same time. So this is his process of maturity. You see how He really didn't understand. For years and years he didn't understand. He kept working with him. And finally he tells the teacher about his other teacher's teaching, and the other teacher understands this teacher, and he joins the great teacher's understanding of his teacher. I often think it's like Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson. Do you know Sherlock Holmes? So, Dr. Watson, you know, says various things and Sherlock Holmes has these insights.

[28:53]

Oh, my God! And Dr. Watson doesn't know what he said. So, this is the comes from Bajang and tells Yaoshan about Bajang, and Bajang understands what he's conveying. And then when Bajang understands, he understands without, in this case, having to explain what he understood. I get it. And then he got it. He got what he had seen many times, you know. He got all these teachings. They all came to him. This is how friends help each other. There's other ways. And, by the way, we would be able to see also the way other students of Baijian do the same teaching.

[30:01]

of swinging the stick. Some of his other students did the same practice. Some of his successors did the same thing with their successors. So driving the people out of the hall and then saying, what is it, gets transmitted, but not through Yuen Yuen, through others who understood it at the time. So now we have Yuen Yuen, the next, and then And then we have the next generation is Dongshan. And then across next to Dongshan is Tianwang Dawu, who leads to... Longtan Chongxin, who leads to Deshan, who leads to two of the schools of Zen. He leads to two of the other great Zen masters in China.

[31:05]

So I will continue next time with these stories, filling in these stories of friendship. And you can start to see how the family works with different people in different ways and how it's kind of all the same family style of bringing people to maturity and wisdom by guiding them to this place of no abode. Any things you'd like to say this time? It's getting close to our closing time, but I welcome any comments. Yes? So, if I understood or remember the story correctly, none of the monks that were chased out of the... were enlightened at that time. Is that right? but it was in the telling of the story later that the realization occurred.

[32:15]

It's not that none of them were enlightened, but our hero was not enlightened. Our pilgrim, he didn't get it. It may be that there was somebody else in the congregation whose name is Wong Bo. He was there too. And Wong Bo because Wang Bo then transmitted that same practice to his students. They were all dregslepers. All dregslepers. All dregslepers at dregs. Yeah. So, Bai Zhang has a student, Yun Yan, and didn't understand, but then he went to study with Yao Shan, and with Yao Shan he understood. But on that same occasion, his elder brother Wang Bo was there, and he may have understood. Who's his elder brother?

[33:20]

Yun Yan's elder brother. Yao Shan has Bai Jian, has Yun Yan as a student, but he also has Wang Bo and Gui Shan. these two great students. And Wang Bo may have been there, and he may have understood. Then when he became a teacher, he went into the hall. And when all the monks were assembled, he took his stick and went running after the monks. And when they got to the door, he said, What is it? And nobody could answer. And then he said, If you're like this, how will you have today? You're all dreg slurpers. In other words, you're all living in the past. If you're like this, you can't be in the present with me. It's not that easy to be in the present when somebody's big guy's chasing you with a big stick, swinging it at you.

[34:26]

If you're, you know... How could you be elsewhere? That's what I think. Right? This is a big one, isn't it? And he says, Don't you know that in all of China there's no teachers of Zen? So here he was, the big guy with the big stick, chasing the people. And they freeze when he says, you know, when he says, what is it? He said, don't you know there's no teachers? In other words, don't you know there's no external good friend? Good friends, don't you know that the teacher's not external to you, that me here swinging the stick to you, I'm not external to you?

[35:28]

Don't you understand that? What about all the monasteries? Yeah, what about all the Zen monasteries? I didn't say there's no Zen, I just said there's no abode. See how they're trying to guide them? This is guide them to the place of no abode. There's no teachers of Zen, and realizing there's no teachers of Zen means realizing there's no external teacher. or internal teacher, and that's Zen right there. And we're trying to help each other find that place. We have to have good friends to help us realize that the good friends are not external. We have to be good friends to realize that good friends are not external. We're trying, aren't we?

[36:31]

We're trying to be good friends. May our intention equally extend to every being and place. With the true merit of Buddha's way, beings are numberless. I vow to save them. Delusions are inexhaustible. I vow to end them. Gates are boundless. I vow to enter them. Way is unsurpassable. I vow to become it. This is kind of a Minnesota joke.

[37:33]

This is, what is this? No, this is John coming. Thanks for coming. Thanks for coming. One of my friends, a very dear guy, his name is John Crook. He's one of the disciples of Shen Yen, the Chinese teacher who teaches taught in New York and so on. Anyway, I met John Crook in England and he came to visit us at Green Gulch a couple of times. And one of the times I went back to England, And he told me that he paid his grandsons to sit meditation. He paid them 50p.

[38:28]

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