I heard from somewhere that Asanga, student of the future Buddha Maitreya, teaches that bodhisattva ethics have two sides, the householder side and the monastic side. the side of the household lifestyle and the monastic lifestyle. And both of these sides practice these threefold bodhisattva ethics. Both of them practice the precept of presence. and the forms and regulations for the lay side and the monastic side are somewhat different.

[01:10]

But they both use forms and ceremonies to train outflows. There are some forms and ceremonies, however, which many lay or household practitioners share with the monastics. So for example, they're not completely the same, but very similar. So for example, during this retreat, and particularly in the Zendo, the lay training, the lay form and ceremony, and the monastic form and ceremony are very similar. The body posture is very similar. The main difference is the clothing. The priests have to deal with a different type of cloth, different cloth formation to deal with.

[02:15]

And there are forms and ceremonies for that cloth that are different from the cloth of the householder. But aside from that, the sitting practice is the place where, in this tradition, the householder and the monastic are almost identical form and ceremony and regulations. And in that practice, we speak of wholehearted sitting for both householder and monastic. And by wholehearted sitting we mean to sit upright without seeking any gain or seeking to avoid any loss. And to sit in this wholehearted way without any concern for gain and loss

[03:23]

is also called dropping off body and mind. So to sit with body and mind dropping off is to sit, not trying to get anything from the practice. And being totally generous with your life, giving your whole life to the sitting at this moment. And this is the same for the lay side bodhisattva and the monastic side bodhisattva. That's how it seems to me. There are some other ways which the forms and ceremonies are different. So for example, when I'm

[04:31]

When I'm working, I offer the precept to people who wish to train as priests. The form, the ceremony of practicing residentially here at the beginning of their training to practice residentially here for five years. That's a form that I, that's a precept. It's a An example of the first bodhisattva pure precept is five years of residential training, working closely together. And then after that, other precepts could be given. And whereas with lay people, I have different people who have different understandings with me about what forms and ceremonies, what regulations, what agreements we have about their training. But it looks to me like, well, I think I mentioned this to you before, that one Zen priest said to me, if your mind's big enough, one form is enough.

[05:48]

So if you have a really big mind, just one form would be sufficient to train your presence on. And so in that sense, you might think, well, monastics really have tiny minds because they have more regulations. But even those who don't need lots of regulations still can demonstrate they don't need it by practicing them. Now I can offer you this river tooth, this story which I read quite a few years ago in a text called The Pure Rules of Eheji, Ehe Shingi, and the part of the text that deals with the

[06:56]

actually the regulations or the form of monastic positions. So these different positions in a temple, like director, tenzo, ino, work leader, treasurer, all these different positions in a Zen temple or Zen monastery that can be used there. to work together with the Sangha and the teacher to develop no outflows around the position. So in the position, I told the story of the position and the way this excellent monk practiced with the position of Tenzo together with the teacher. And now the story I want to bring up is a story about a monk in the position of director.

[08:03]

So the monk in this story, his name is Yang Chi. And Yang Chi followed, or you could say served, another priest whose name was Si Ming. He's also known as Shi Huang. And so Yang Xi served by taking care of all the affairs of the temple, by supervising all the affairs of the temple. And Ziming moved from among a number of monasteries and every monastery he went to with him, or the monk Yangshi went with him and served as director.

[09:26]

So he worked very closely with his teacher, and the teacher worked closely with him, watching how he took care of all the affairs of the temple. So, yeah, Yang Chi was always helping Sun Ming in the temples he was teaching. Although he had been with Sun Ming for a long time, he still had not yet aroused realization. even though he was working closely with, now this is my comment, even though he was working closely with Tzu-Ming, he had still not met the Buddha.

[10:32]

And whenever the director, Yang Shi, made inquiries, of Tzu Ming about the Dharma, I think, again, me interpreting, I think when he made inquiries like, you know, Teacher, do you think we should have an assembly of the monks this afternoon? When he made those kind of inquiries, I think Tzu Ming would have said, good idea, let's do that. But whenever he tried to inquire about the thing he had not yet understood, Atsumi would say something like, Director, go now and attend to the profusion of activities of the temple. Please go and do your job, which you're so good at. And again and again, Yang Chi would ask something about the Buddha Dharma.

[11:46]

And Siming would say, as before, Director, sometime your descendants will cover everything in the skies. What's the hurry? And now comes the part that really struck me and what really made this thing stick. There was an old woman who lived in a shoe. She had so many children, she knew what to do. Do the people in Germany know that story? Is it a Mother Goose story rhyme? There was an old woman who lived in a shoe.

[12:48]

they usually say, who had so many children she didn't know what to do, but I changed the story. Anyway, there was an old woman who lived in the mountains near to Tzu Ming's temple. There was an old woman who lived near Tzu Ming's temple. And nobody could fathom, nobody could understand her insight into the Dharma. And they called her Old Lady Tzu Ming. And it says in the story, Tzu Ming could find time he would go visit her. One day, it suddenly began to rain.

[13:54]

And Yangshi, his eyes on the teacher, saw that something was about to go out into the mountains, probably to visit the old lady. He is watching. And he went ahead of the teacher and waited for him on a narrow trail in the rain and the mud. The teacher appeared on the trail. Yangshi grabbed the teacher and held him by the sleeves of his robe. And he said, today the teacher is going to talk to me. And if you don't, I'll beat you.

[15:07]

And Sun Ming said, director, you already know Completely. How to take care of things. Give it a rest. Before Tzu Ming finished that sentence, or those two sentences, Yang Chi entered into great enlightenment. He then proceeded to perform prostrations. He stood up. And he asked, teacher, how is it each other on this narrow path?

[16:23]

And Sun Ming said, If you see me coming, better step aside. Hearing that, Yangshi went back to the monastery. The next day, with full ceremony in the temple, he visited the Apid's quarters and made prostrations of gratitude for the teaching he received the day before. So Ming scolded him and said, not yet. He was greatly enlightened. He came to express his gratitude.

[17:27]

And Sun Meng said, not yet. Enlightened. And the teacher says, not yet. Sometime later, there was a scheduled meeting between the teacher and the assembly of monks. And for a long time after breakfast, the drum signal was not heard. the director who takes care of everything, went to the teacher's attendant and asked, why haven't you struck?

[18:39]

And the attendant said, our teacher has left and has not yet returned. Yang Chi, I mean, yeah, Yang Chi said, okay, I know where he is. So he took a path to the old woman's place and he saw the teacher tending the fire of a stove while old lady Tzu Ming was cooking gruel. Yang Chi approached and the old lady, who were younger than me, according to the record, probably in their late 40s, he approached the teacher and the old lady and said, the assembly has been waiting for you for a long time today.

[20:04]

to have a Dharma meeting. Why don't you come back? Sun Ling said, if you can give me one pivotal moment, I will go back with you. Yangshi put on his straw hat and took several steps backwards. Suning was very delighted and went back to the monastery with Yang Chi. The story goes on, but I think I can stop here for a while and tell you the rest a little later.

[21:17]

I should say, may I stop now and spend the rest of my life telling you the rest of that story. That story goes on to this day, and I'll tell you about it. But I just wanted to comment that of the teacher, I should say, this might be a story. I don't want to say that you should think that the way Tsumeng was teaching was really the activity of a great bodhisattva. I don't want you to think that. I'm not going to say I don't want you to believe that. But I do want you to wonder if that was the case. Is this a story of a great bodhisattva? Is what Sun Ming did training his student in the precept of restraint? Was this of the teacher training the student using the form of being director, watching him, helping him be director,

[22:30]

giving him feedback on being director, and watching how Yangshi was trying to get something maybe, trying to get some dharma in addition to performing his job, which he performed very well, but yet he still thought there was something more. And even when he was enlightened greatly, the teacher kept training him enlightenment by saying not yet kept testing the great enlightenment so the teacher could i should say i said he was but maybe that's what he was doing that's what it looks like to me i wonder maybe that's what was going on it looks like that is it this person was such a good teacher Anyway, the story ends, not ends, but comes to the point where finally the teacher just can't restrain his joy anymore to see how deeply entered his student, his director student has been into the precept of not trying to get anything from life.

[23:50]

This monk had been serving the community very well and he had served other communities very well. Serving the teacher by serving the community. What a wonderful attempt to practice generating wholesome dharmas and caring for beings. And the teacher, perhaps, was constantly to help the director perform his duties without outflows. He was trying to mature his student, supporting him to do all these good things without trying to get anything. Just like the story I told you of Tsongkhapa's great disciple, Dram, who told the the senior monk in his monastery, you know, you're doing such a great job here taking care of the monks.

[24:57]

It would be nice if you did something spiritual. So the director's trying to help beings, trying to develop the bodhisattva precepts, trying to do it without trying to gain anything, but looks like he's trying to get something at the beginning of the story and in the middle of the story. end of the story, maybe he had finally learned how to practice wholeheartedly without trying to get anything with the help of his teacher, who was also not trying to get a well-trained disciple. However, it looked like one was given to him. But again, I say it looks like you'd wonder, is that the case?

[26:03]

Is this possible? And is it going on now? In this neighborhood? In these mountains? I wonder. So after this... great delight for Tzu Ming, he goes back to the monastery. However, he keeps going out to visit the old lady. However, after this, the director is continuing to watch the teacher, make sure the teacher was getting all the help he needed. He would watch him when he went out in the mountains to play.

[27:04]

In the story, it does say go out and play in the mountains. When he came back, when the teacher came back, he would have the drums struck and assemble the monks. And Tzu-Ming... expressed himself angrily and said, how dare you, you know, do this? Where did you get this regulation of back from the mountains and assembling the monks for me to give a talk? And Yangshi said, I got it from the regulations of your teacher. and I've been doing some research to find out did Su Ming's teacher actually have this regulation?

[28:10]

I haven't been able to verify it yet but that's what the director said and then a Dogen commenting on this story said based on this we now have the form of striking the drum in the evening and having a nenju ceremony which means a ceremony of a ceremony of chanting to remember nenju means a remembrance chant We do that in Soto Zen monasteries, and apparently at the time of Dogen, they had that ceremony of chanting to remember, remember what?

[29:11]

Remember why they entered the monastery, and then have a Dharma talk. But now, after we do the chanting, Eno says, Ho San, In other words, Eno says, there's not going to be a meeting. The teacher's not going to give a talk. So I haven't really verified but it looks to me like our ceremony we do now is based on the past one which was set up by Yangshi of having an evening assembly after the chant where we say the names of the Buddha and walk around the room to reenact our entry into the monastery, to reinitiate our entrance into the practice period or the intensive, to remember our aspiration

[30:23]

And then there was usually a lecture by the teacher after that, but now we say there isn't going to be one. And we've been continuously saying there isn't going to be one for centuries. So this is a story of how, it's a story of how supposedly Tsumen worked with Yang Chi, the director, to facilitate his maturing. This is how he matured beings. This is how he practiced the third bodhisattva precept. Assuming that his success in maturing the director based on his practice of the other two bodhisattva precepts. of how Tzu Ming worked with Yang Chi to facilitate his spiritual maturity.

[31:51]

But I'll tell you that later because I think this story is already elaborate enough for you, probably elaborate enough for me. I think the reason the story stuck with me so much was because it has this story of going to visit the old lady out in the woods. It resonates with all that deep folk tale, you know. It's like, you know, the story of the two children, Hansel and Gretel, go out in the forest and discover the lady out, you know, with the gingerbread house and she's got an oven and so on. And it also resonates with Macbeth with the three sorceresses stirring the pot

[33:06]

of fate for Macbeth all these images of people out in the woods cooking Zen masters live in the monastery with all these regulations but sometimes they go out in the woods and visit the witches and wizards they have some friends out there and the Buddha did that too daytime in the monastery, but at night the Buddha invited some guests who are not regular monks to come and visit him. Wizards, witches, demons. He talked to them at night. They weren't monastics. They were householders. As far as I know, there's no monasteries in the heavens.

[34:13]

These are like, you know, divine powers, divine beings, the Buddha worked with non-monastically. And so, some Zen teachers, and also in Tibet, some tantric teachers, who live in the monastery, go out of the monastery, Other students, like Milarepa, was not a monastic. You know Milarepa? He was a yogi adept, Buddhist. He was a disciple of Nagarjuna. He was a disciple of Asante. But he was not a monastic. However, he had great students who were monastics. So the non-monastic and the householder in the Bodhisattva tradition work together to create Buddhas.

[35:16]

And Buddhas can be monastics. And Buddhas offer monasticism and non-monasticism for the welfare of the world. So The more I study, meditate on the story, well, the better. So thank you for allowing me to discuss this with you, and I look forward to further your wish about this story. And there's other ones about this family. the Si Ming family, the Yang Shi family. This is the most vital in terms of longevity.

[36:18]

This is the tradition coming from Rinzai. All the other lines of Rinzai died out. This is the one that made it, that led to the present. that made it all the way to the 21st century, coming through these people, through Tzu Ming and through Tzu Ming's teacher, which I will tell you about if you want. It's a little bit more scary than the story, but maybe if you're ready for it, I'll tell you about how Tzu Ming got trained to train Yangshi this way. And then Tzu Ming had two disciples, and from those two disciples, all the living Rinzai-Linji lines come. Again, I told you the other story of a Linji teacher who saved Soto Zen from extinction. Could you pull up the guest facilities?

[37:31]

Good morning. Welcome, former Tenzo. It was a long time ago. I've heard that I would like to talk about the Tenzo story. I heard this many times before and I had a different interpretation and I think, um, I enjoyed your telling of the story and I think I learned about it. But it, for me, it reminded me of myself when I was little. Um, And the way I responded to the abuse of my mother, that I did not scream and run away, but I just stayed there and let her abuse me. And I was...

[39:27]

I wanted something. I wanted to be strong. I felt that I was strong and I was not giving away. You felt that you were strong. Not giving her anything. You were not giving her anything. Right. Okay. You did not want to be generous to her. I wasn't, no. So, and she said, you have no feelings. And I said, I didn't say anything. I just thought that And I was, she didn't know me. And she could do anything to me, but she couldn't, she didn't have any power over me. And I felt the same way about the monk, the tenzu. I felt about him. He was saying that the teacher didn't have any power over him. Yeah, and so he said, okay, I did this, but now you punish me, but you can't do anything to me.

[40:35]

You can send me away, and I will not cry. I will do whatever you say, but you can't get me. That's how I felt. And now I understand it differently. I think that these people had what I didn't have, compassion and wisdom, they were able to deal with this in a different way. But if that doesn't happen, I think what happened to me, I became arrogant and cruel. And in many relationships in my life, I was not compassionate and I dealt in the same way as I had as a child and teenager. And only when I had my children and when I came here, I found love and acceptance.

[41:44]

And I was able to surrender. And I now feel I would like to support anybody, too. to not have outflows, because it's a better life. And I also was struck by the meal verse, this line that we say all the time. we reflect, no, the other one, we regard it as essential to keep the mind free from excesses such as greed and the excesses are the outflows. So it's right there. Thank you very much. You're welcome. Thank you very much.

[42:48]

With reference to the story of Siming, perhaps I'm taking the line that the monks referred to the woman in the forest as Old Lady Siming. But frankly, it occurred to me that perhaps Siming's motivation for going to the forest was a desire for a little domesticity. For some domesticity? Yes. After all, from running a monastery, what would be better relief than to go off to a nice hut in the forest and have a quiet bowl of gruel with somebody whom you regarded as your equal, and only to be distracted from it when your principal student shows sufficient enlightenment that you have to go back and do something sinister. indeed I half expected the story to end with him turning over the martyrs what you just said although it can't be repeated try to repeat for the sake of the people in the back is this better can I speak for you may I try to repeat

[44:51]

I heard him say, perhaps the reason that Tzu-Ming went out in the forest was because he had the experience of domesticity to spend some time in a comfortable environment having some delicious gruel with a person he considered his equal. Can you hear that? Only to be distracted by his principal excellent disciple coming to the monastery. Is that fair? Yes, it is. And indeed, I sort of thought the story might go on, that at that point he would turn the monastery over to Yangtze and then retire to the forest. But after all, all of the stories about monks living by themselves, spending all day meditating, are fine in terms of location and isolation and scenery, but a little bit lonely. And if you had one more person, perhaps it would have been perfect. I simply wanted to offer this as an alternate reading.

[45:59]

I'm always nervous when I come up here, even if it's something of almost no consequence. And I confess that I came up here to get something. I think it may actually not be negative or harmful. So if I remember correctly, in the ninju ceremony, there is a point at which one of the people conducting the ceremonies steps up to and says something privately. And I've always been very curious about that moment and wondered if it was something that had to be secret or something that could be shared. Actually, I believe it says in the Pure Rules of Eheji, it says that Eno comes to the head monk and tells the head monk,

[48:43]

tells the head monk that there's not going to be a meeting, that the assembly is released. Ho means release and San means meeting. So the assembly is released from the and then goes and says it loudly to everybody, but first quietly mentioning it to the head monk who might say, let's have one anyway or whatever. And as Zen Center, we've switched it to tell the leader of the practice period. So we've changed the tradition here and changed back to the former version. Just like the ho-san was a change from the previous, there's going to be a meeting. San. Teacher, san. We're going to have a meeting. Teacher, san. And then they change it to ho-san. That's the story. I was really hoping it was something a little trickier.

[49:50]

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