I must thank Brad for inviting me to come. He's not here, but I've already thanked him. And I thank all of you for coming. Yes, I can. I will. I'm very happy to be here. Thank you for coming. Can you hear me now? Good. From the record of Rinzai, Rinzai came up to Mount Obaku in the middle of the fellow session. Seeing Obaku, his old teacher, reading a sutra, he said, I always used to think you were a real lamb, but now I see you're just a black bean-eating old teacher.

[01:10]

stayed a few days, and then tried to take his leave. Obaku said, you came in violation of the rules of the summer session, and now you are trying to leave before it's over? What is this? Binzai said, I came for a little while to pay my respects to you. old teacher. Obaku hit him and chased him out. After he had gone a few miles, Rinzai, quite thinking it over, returned to finish the summer session. One day, later on, When the session was over, he took leave with his teacher, Obaku.

[02:11]

Obaku said to him, where are you going? Famous question. Where are you going? Rinzai said, if I don't go to Honan, I'll return to Hopei. Obaku hit him. Rinzai seized Obaku and gave him a hit. Laughing heartily, Obaku called to his attendant and said, Please, bring me the armrest. Bring me the backrest. Bring me these things that belong to my old teacher. Rinzai said, attendant, bring me five. Let me burn them up. Obaku said, be that as it may, you may want to burn them up, but take them with you just the same.

[03:32]

Later, another monk said, Rishan asked Yangshan about this matter and said, didn't Rinzai abuse his teacher Obaku's trust? Not at all. Well then, what do you think about it? Only one who recognizes beneficence can requite it. From ancient times to the present, has there been anyone like him? Yes, there has, but he lived so long ago that I don't think I want to talk about him. Well, be that as it may, I'd like to know. Please try and tell me. At the Surangama Assembly, Ananda, in praising the Buddha, said, with my

[04:40]

whole heart, I shall serve all beings throughout the myriad world. This is called requiting the Buddha's beneficence. Isn't this also an example of requiting beneficence? Just so, just so, replied Klaishan. One whose insight is the same as his teacher's lacks heart, of his teacher's power. Only one whose insight surpasses his teachers is worthy to be his heir. sitting in the Soto Temple talking about Rinzai.

[05:42]

Okay? It's all the same. I may not know how to get up on your town gracefully. I may not know what some of your wonderful forms are. But our hearts are all in the same wonderful place. And we are all here for the same beautiful reason. So, this Rinzai, we are told a lot about him. And this Rinzai is not anything or any person but ourselves. Our study of these ancient masters, ancient stories, not ancient at all. Contemporary story, Rinzai here, us. His problems, our problem. His enlightenment, our enlightenment. his way of teaching to help us in our life.

[06:46]

So we are told that when he was very young, he was very brilliant. He had exceptional intelligence, as all of us then students do, of course. He studied hard the sutras, the shastras. He memorized texts. But he realized, to use his own words, that this approach to Buddhism was a medical prescription for saving Nan Khan. It did not make any fundamental difference to his way of being, to just read, to just study. In the same period, you all know I'm sure about Toksan, who was the great student of the Diamond Sutra. He was a contemporary of Rinzai.

[07:48]

And he too found out that all this scholarly investigation was not the way to bring about any fundamental change in him. He carried his notes and his books around on his back Trying to convince others, however, that this was a good path. Just read the Diamond Sutra and you'll be okay. Wherever he went, and as he was traveling, he was searching for a teacher who would confirm his realization. Someone who would say, you're okay, what you're doing is just fine. And one day, you must know this story, he stopped at a tea house, and he there found an old woman who was the caretaker of the tea house, and he asked her if he could have lunch to refresh his mind.

[08:57]

He asked him about the pack of books and papers on his back, and he told her very proudly that these were commentaries on the Diamond Sutra. Would she want to read them? She said, well, Your Worship, I have heard about that Diamond Sutra, and it seems that in there it is said that past mind cannot be held, present mind cannot be held, Future mind cannot be held. With what mind are you going to be refreshed? Oxon was dumbfounded. No answer. That old woman. Put him in a place where he was stuck.

[09:59]

So was Rinzai the same. Rinzai found no... fundamental answer to this study. So he went to Obaku's temple, Wainpo in Chinese, and some of you may know the wonderful teaching of Wainpo and believing in mine, John Glowfowler's edition of that wonderful book. Anyway, I will call him Obaku. And he went and he was among the assembly of monks at Obaku's temple. And the story is told that he sat with pure and direct attention and intention. Simple, straightforward, clear. One day, the head monk saw him and asked him,

[11:02]

How long have you been sitting? Three years, answered Rinzai. And Bokshu, the headmarker, said to him, have you ever been to have an interview with the master? No, said Rinzai, I have not. I don't know what to ask him. So Bokshu said, go, quickly, get up. Go immediately to the Master and ask him, what is the heart of this great matter? What is the essence of Buddhism? Go, right now. Joe Rinzai got up, went. Before he could finish his question, Obaku hit him. And he came back to the head monk and said, I don't know where I am at all. but he would not answer me.

[12:04]

He would hit me. Voxhu said, go back, quick. Second time, again, hit. Third time, again, hit. So he was very discouraged. We all would be. No, nothing but being hit. Confused, discouraged, thinking he must have some terrible karma, but he could never do this. Does it sound familiar? He apparently was not a person capable of enlightenment. You know all the sad stories we tell ourselves sitting on a cushion. So he decided to leave. And before he left, the head monk said to him, go and say goodbye to Obaku. Don't, you mustn't leave. in an angry state with him, go and say goodbye and see what advice he has for you.

[13:09]

So he went. And Obaku said, go to Daegu. He'll help you out. He'll be a good person for you to see right now. Go. So off he went. And he went to Daegu and he said to them, I don't know what I did, whether I was wrong or not. But every time I asked my teacher a question, he hit me. And Daegu looked at him and said, Ogaku was so exceedingly kind to you, forgetting his dignity, he hit you. Why did you come here with all this stuff telling me about this? Whether you were right or wrong, were you good or bad, were you this or that, what does that have to do with anything? Suddenly Rinzai understood.

[14:12]

Now let's go back a little bit. Rinzai didn't know what to ask. What should I ask about? are we doing here? What are we really asking about? Does it seem inconceivable that he should not have something to ask about after three years of sitting on the cushion? But what is the question? It certainly is not, am I right or wrong? Am I sitting straight as my breasts doing something you notice. It's not that. If the question also is just in our heads, no good.

[15:15]

If this question is not in every pore of our being, it doesn't mean a thing. The ultimate question which will make clear for us and for Rinzai the essence of this special transmission from mind to mind, heart to heart, hara to hara. This fundamental question is what we are here for. This bokshu was a wonderful help to Rinzai in it. He too did not explain to him, he did not say, this and this and this is so about the essence of Buddhism, here's a prescription for you. He simply saw and expressed this essence in his own behavior, expressed so vividly something in helping compassionately this fellow monk.

[16:30]

and saying to him, go, see the teacher. It was also Bokshu who had gone to Obaku and said, please send him to Daegu. He'll know what to do. His presence will help him. This is our wonderful Zen teaching. I feel it from each one of you when I come. Yesterday I was at Zen Center and greeted so irritably such wonderful gentlemen Caring people who come with tea, with my help and my awkwardness and how to deal with all your wonderful forms, with warps, with all of these things that are expressing your practice in the most profound way. So is book shoot. Great Zen compassion.

[17:38]

So, when Rinzai went to see Obaku and asked this question and was just struck, let's think about this matter, not just think about it, feel it in your bones. Three times, just struck. Why did Obaku strike him? Each of Obaku's blows was intimate, strong contact with Rinzai. Of course he was not pitting him to reprimand him, say, you're a bad boy, you haven't come here for three years to talk to me. He was intimately connecting with him. So the pit is a symbol. Many people are disturbed by our Rinzai tradition that we're always pitting and yelling. Not so. Direct, intimate, strong, warm contact.

[18:46]

So he hit him in this way. Intimately thinking. Moved his mind. Moved him past some ordinary condition. Cutting off. Stopping. Saying, what's happening right now? That head monk, too, knew that there was great quality in Rinzai and that there was no need for him to explain these hits that Rinzai would understand the intimate, warm, wonderful thing that he had received. When Daigle listened to Rinzai, he heard something wonderful from him. he heard a great doubting question.

[19:53]

What have I done that I shouldn't have done, but not in that way? How do I not understand? Why is it that I don't see clearly? This great doubting question. And he was deeply struck by Rinzai's humility, his feeling that he needed to go deeper, that he must understand, that his intention was pure and direct in nature. And of course, he wasn't really asking anything except this fundamental question. So these wonderful teachers heard him. And Daigou said to him, Obapu is such a grandmother, such grandmotherly kindness.

[20:55]

He has utterly exhausted himself with your troubles. He has let go of his dignified place and come in direct contact with you. What more do you want? he went back and greeted Obaku. And as he came to greet him, Obaku saw him coming, saw a transformed Rinzai, and said, here comes that guy again, coming and going, coming and going, when will it end? And they greeted one another with slaps and pits of a wonderful kind. Now you know these slaps and hits of a wonderful kind.

[22:01]

We all do. Some great blow in our life wakes us up. Some friend patting us on the back warmly or caringly at some point helps us. Some warm, attentive word, which is a blow, of a kind, a contact of a kind. All these things are what are talked about in this story. So when Odaku hits him this time, it is with another kind of intimate contact. And off Rinzai went. In the story that we read this morning, We hear that Rinzai has come back after traveling around, visiting other places, seeing what was happening.

[23:04]

Came back to visit Obaku and what did he find? There was his old teacher sitting, leading his sutra. And he gives him this kind of bantering fellow to fellow. greeting, I thought you were a man of substance, a teacher of substance, and that your teaching was this transmission without words and letters, and there I find you reading the sutra. What does that mean, hmm? Black bean nibbler. Black beans, of course, are these characters on the page, nibbling. Wonderful teaching Rinzai gave us about this. Let me read to you for a little bit. What is dharma?

[24:09]

Dharma is mind dharma. Mind dharma is without form. It pervades the ten directions. and is manifesting its activity right before your very eyes. Since we lack sufficient faith in this, we accept names and phrases and try to speculate about Buddha Dharma from written words. We and Dharma, heaven and earth, are far apart. Followers of the way, when I, this mountain monk, expound the Dharma, What dharma do I expound? I expound the dharma of mind ground by which one can enter the secular and the sacred, the pure and the dirty, the real and the temporal. But mark you, you are mistaken if you suppose that you're real and temporal, secular and sacred, and attach your name to everything real and temporal, secular and sacred.

[25:20]

The real and temple, the secular and the sacred, cannot attach a name to this man. Followers of the way, grasped and used, but never made. This was called the mysterious principle. Of course, we read the sutras. Of course we study the sutras. Of course we use our wonderful intellects. But we absorb the sutras in reading them. We become the sutras with every four of us. Not seeking to find some secret word or passage which is going to emancipate us.

[26:23]

The ancient story of the Queen Ng being enlightened by hearing the Diamond Sutra, of course, is a wonderful story. But his mind was already ready. And the hearing of those words was simply tuning in to what was in him. Nothing outside. Being with the sutra, just being, One day, later on in this history, a distinguished visitor came to see Rinzai at his temple, and he asked him this question. Do your monks read the sutras here? Rinzai said, no, they do not. Well, then, do they practice Zen here? No, they do not. The visitor was...

[27:25]

very confused. If your monks do not read sutras, or do not practice Zen, then what in the world are they doing here? And Rinzai said, all I do is help them become Buddhist and patriarch. Wonderful. Sutras aren't read And Zen isn't practiced. They are lived. Practicing is for something ahead. This is now. No rehearsals for now. Our Zen is lit. Again, from Nindva. Someone asks, what about the true Buddha? The true Dharma. and the true way. We beg of you to disclose this for us.

[28:29]

The Master said, Rudra is the mind's purity. Dara is the mind's radiance. The way is the pure light pervading everywhere without convince. The three are one, yet all are empty names and have no real existence. with the true person of the way, from moment to moment, mind is not interrupted. In this story, we also heard that Rinzai has come back to visit his old teacher and says, I'll just hang around for a few days. He just came to pay respects and then off he will go. Obaku is not very pleased about that.

[29:33]

He senses something arrogant in this. You came in violation of the rules of the summer session and now you're taking leave before it's over. Something's lacking in that attitude. We all learn something from this, that we are constantly beginning. We are always open, always fresh, never speaking as if we could not do endlessly treats ourselves. Never done. So, He, in order to show Rinzai that he was not very happy at what was happening, did his usual thing. He hit him. And Rinzai, as when he was a young monk, did not understand.

[30:38]

Why did he hit me? I have some understanding. I am out on my own in the world. Why did he hit me? Why did he chase me out? And as he walked along the road, he thought about it, and he went back. He thought, there must be some reason that my old teacher had given me that kind of hit, but not the kind of hit that said go, was the kind of hit that said something else. Think it over. Back he went. And he stayed, as we heard in the story, and finished the training period. Then, when it was finished, he went to say goodbye to Obako, who asked him the famous question, where are you going?

[31:42]

Where are you going? You, you, you. Where are we going? And Rinzai said, if I don't go to Bonan, I'll go to Hopay. This answer, of course, has nothing to do with direction. Northeast, Southwest, Hopay, Bonan, New York, Boston, San Francisco, nothing to do with that. It means that he is free to go anywhere. The whole world is his home. And Obaku sees this, that he is now really expressing his free way of being. Free to go, free to stay, free to grow old, free to die, the whole thing, free.

[32:44]

So he didn't again, but this is a different hit. of love, of appreciation, of gratitude, of joy that this wonderful student is going off on his compassionate journey. Happy to let him go this time. a hit that says, go out on your journey of true compassion to freely meet and mingle with all the world and help them become Buddhists and patriarchs, not just black people eating old monks. So Obaku called this attendant, a very important moment, and he said,

[33:52]

Bring me the backrest and the armrest that belong to my old teacher. These were the sign of transmission. Transmission of the Dharma. Then I said, bring them up. I have no need of them. The living Dharma is sparkling everywhere. Who needs some sign? need the sign that I have it or you have it or he has it or she has it, whatever. Do you need a piece of wood for this? It is said that Shakyamuni's robe and bowl were transmitted down through the ages to the sixth patriarch at which point they were lost. Good. This loss is significant.

[34:56]

Much harm has come from being overly concerned about this matter and transmission. Do we need a paper certifying an awakened state? Inzai says, true awakening builds the whole universe. Acknowledgement in Zen is certainly different from having a diploma from the university. This Zen matter, this acknowledgement is precious and intimate. A special transmission outside the scripture from mind to mind Do I have a transmission certificate?

[36:02]

No, I do not. So when Roshi left no such piece of paper, he gave me a beautiful scroll, and we did have our walk on the road together, a most unconventional kind of transmission ceremony. When I heard him say in the course of our walk, please tell everyone I have made you a Roshi. Johann Roshi, he said. There was no need for that. I did not ask for it. I did not expect it. I never thought of it. And said to him, thank you. It's just a name. It doesn't make any difference. My students call me Lauren. But for the sake of the Cambridge Buddhist Association, as teacher in that American temple, it was a sign of acknowledgement of what was and is going on there.

[37:18]

This I am perfectly sure of. We have a wonderful lineage in the Cambridge Buddhist Association. Starting with Daizet Suzuki, Shinichi Hizumax, Eltsinichu, Shimyo Warioka. All of these great people were people that I talked about with Tsouan Moshi when I saw them last. He told me that Hizumax had been one of his best teachers, wonderful teacher. His commentaries on the Rinzai Rocco, he had learned a tremendous amount from. So, when he told me that he had this wonderful connection with Kismats, I reminded him that it was he who had put me in touch with Elsie Mitchell.

[38:20]

When I left New York, he'd say, don't be so sad. Go. in Boston, where you are now to live, go to the Museum of Fine Arts, commune with the minds of the patriarchs there, and find Elsie Mitchell, and you'll be all right. Indeed, I found a great friend and a wonderful teacher. So we talked of all of these people, and so I am sure that it was out of deep respect and acknowledgment of that lineage, that Tsouan Roshi said to me, go and teach me on Roshi. The fifth patriarch handed over the roll and bowl to Hui Ming in his private room in the middle of the night.

[39:24]

Nobody knew about it. This seal of approval, Ms. Inca, qualified him to become a teacher on his own. There is a saying, do not walk in the shadow of your teacher. You must have your own insight. In the Rinzai Rocco passage that we heard this morning, we heard him say, your insight must surpass your teacher to be worthy. Now, this is not said in any competitive sense, ever. It simply means that in addition to the wonderful insights that we have from our teachers, we have our own.

[40:24]

I pass that on in true Zenly spirit. At the Sarangama Assembly, Ananda in praising the Buddha said, with my whole heart, I shall serve all beings throughout the myriad worlds. This is called requiring the Buddha's beneficence. Followers of the way, mind is without form that pervades the ten directions. In the eye, it is called seeing. In the ear, it is called hearing. In the nose it smells odors. In the mouth it falls converse. In the hand it grasps and seizes.

[41:28]

In the feet it runs and carries. Fundamentally it is one pure radiance. Divided it becomes the six harmoniously united spheres of sense. Since the mind is non-existent wherever you are you are emancipated. All the rest of the way. If you wish to see Dharma as it is, just have no doubt. Spread out fills the entire Dharmadhatu. Gathered in, the smallest clear cannot stand upon it. Distinctly and radiantly shiny alone, it has never lacked anything.

[42:32]

No eye can see it, no ear can hear it. Then by what name can it be called? A man of old said, who speak about a thing is to miss the mark. Just see for yourself what it's doing. I can keep on talking forever, but each one of you must strive individually. Take care of yourself. Thank you.

[43:12]

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