There is eating food before and after enlightenment. There is practice before and after enlightenment. It's not like you eat and practice and then you get enlightened and don't have to eat anymore or don't have to practice anymore. The Buddha demonstrated that she ate before she was enlightened, actually she stopped eating and then started again and became enlightened, continued to eat afterwards.

[01:02]

and also practice up to the point of enlightenment and continue to practice afterwards. Some people think, you know, that they won't have to eat anymore after they're enlightened. Some people might also even think that after they're enlightened they won't have to feel any feelings. But I don't agree with that. I think the Buddha feels feelings. It's just the Buddha has no craving in the feelings. The Buddha has feelings, has sensations, but no craving and no suffering. So the Buddha can feel pain. An awakened person can feel pain or pleasure, but they don't suffer with pain or pleasure because they don't have no desire. because they continue to practice. Although we live in a shell, we are not determined.

[02:15]

We are never determined about the shell which we're living in and which we think is real. We're still not determined, even though we're totally fooled by our mental constructions. We're still not determined. And even though we're never determined, we also never really change. Of course, in a sense we're changing all the time, but basically we don't change. We continue to live in the world of illusion. However, we realize complete freedom and joy in teaching others about this. We do not break our bond with the world when we become free. And yet we are truly free. We go beyond the limitations, which never really did limit us.

[03:18]

They never really limited us. But we don't cease our bond with the world that appears to be limiting. So, the chick inside the egg, the hen outside, peck, peck, peck, the chick becomes free of the shell. But the hand never really did get separated or ceased to be in the shell. The hand just understands the shell is just a construction. And the hand also understands that that construction is completely given and therefore is completely constructed and therefore we can be free. And we are So I promised to start telling you some stories about another lineage of chicks and hens, didn't I? So now I start, but we probably won't be able to finish this lineage because it's a long one.

[04:26]

So I told you about once upon a time There was a monk named Xiang Yan, and he studied at Bajang. And at the same time that Bajang was teaching, there was another teacher who lived in China who was kind of like, you know, they were contemporary great teachers, and the other teacher's name was Yao Shan. Yao Shan, which means Medicine Mountain. Now, the lineage of this temple and the San Francisco Zen Center comes directly down from Yaoshan. We respect the lineage of Baijian and the people in our lineage studied some of the successors of Yaoshan studied with Baijian, but didn't become in his lineage. So we have Yao Shan, who's one of our great ancestors, and he had, there's three of his students that I want to mention.

[05:40]

One's name is Yun Yan, Yun Yan, which means cloud cliff, and he is a direct ancestor of this lineage. He had, and then his Dharma brothers are Da Wu and Da Chen. So those three are the three most noted students of Yaoshan. And Yun Yan is the person through whom the Soto lineage comes down. They all studied with Yaoshan. Da Chen studied with Yaoshan closely for 30 years. and practiced the way of the Buddha with Yao Shan and with these two close friends, Da Wu and Yun Yan.

[06:46]

When he left Mount Yao, when he left Yao Shan, he said to his Dhamma brothers, you too must each go separate ways and uphold the essence of our teacher's path. Your nature, my nature, is undisciplined. I delight in nature and do as I please. I'm not fit to be head of a monastery. That's what Dachshund said. But I'll keep in touch with you and let you know where I am. Are you following me? He's leaving his friends. He's going off now. He's studied 30 years. He's going off, done the monastery. He's a successor of his teacher, but he's going off.

[07:49]

He's not going to go and start a monastery. But I'll tell you where I am. And if you come upon a who is really ripe, and I would say parentheses, or maybe not parentheses, brackets, who is just about ready to break out of the egg shell, close brackets, send him to me. Following this? Good. Let me teach him, or her, and I'll pass on everything I've learned from our master in this life. In this way I can repay the kindness of our late teacher." Yashan died, and when Yashan died, Deshan said, okay, I'm going to go do as I please now, now that my teacher's not here to help, for me to serve him.

[08:55]

So Da Qian departed and went to Hua Ting. And Hua Ting is Hua Lake. It's a big lake in China. And there he lived his life rowing a small boat across the river. Next time I tell this story, I'll tell you the name of the river. But anyway, a river came out of this big lake, and he took people across the river. So they called him the boatman of being the boatman of Chinese Zen. When you say boatman, this is the person we're talking about. He ferried people across the river. like all bodhisattvas vow to do.

[10:07]

I'll just mention here that one time, the people on the river that he was taking across, they did not know that The fairy person was a person of far-reaching knowledge and ability. In fact, a genuine successor of one of the great masters of Buddha Dharma in China. They did not know that. He didn't tell them. He just gave them rides. He probably asked them to pay him something, too. And so one day an official, a government official came to the river and asked him, and I think maybe this official didn't know, also didn't know that he was talking to his Zen master, What do you do all day? And De Chan held up his oar straight in the air and said, Do you understand?

[11:08]

And the official said, I don't understand. And De Chan said, If you only row in clear waters, you will find the golden fish. We don't know, it doesn't say what the official thought about that, but then De Chan gave him a one, two, three, four, five, six stanza poem. which is probably really good in Chinese. If I tell this story again next month or later, I'll read the whole poem, but I'm not going to read the poem. I just tell you he did this long poem to this official.

[12:13]

Okay, can I just skip the poem now, please? Okay, later, Da Wu, remember who Da Wu was? Hmm? No, probably not. Yeah, Da Wu is one of his Dharma brothers, who he told, if you see somebody who's really ready for the teaching, send them to me. So Da Wu, traveling around, in a monastery called Jingua, where he happened to see a monk named Jia Shan. Shan Hui, give a lecture. And a monk came up to the lecturer, whose name was Jia Shan, and asked him, what is the true body of Buddha? And Jia Shan said, the true body is formless. The monk said, what is the dharma eye, the eye of truth?

[13:19]

The monk said, the eye of truth is without defect. When Da Wu heard this, he laughed out loudly in spite of himself. In Chinese monasteries in those times and even later, you weren't supposed to laugh during the talks. Unlike here. Go ahead, laugh. Thank you. You can laugh here, but there, you weren't supposed to laugh, but he did anyway. He couldn't help himself. He says, in spite of himself, he couldn't help himself, he laughed out loud at the lecturer. Now, this lecturer apparently was quite ripe. He wasn't totally arrogant. He was a teacher, but he was somewhat aware of making slow progress and not really understanding completely. He wasn't totally arrogant, even though he was giving talks.

[14:19]

That's another joke. So, when Da Wu left, Jia Shan got down from the lecture platform and went over to Da Wu and said, Something I said in my answer to the monk was not correct and it caused you to laugh out loud. Please do not withhold your compassionate instruction about this." And Da Wu said, You've gone into the world to teach, right? Do you have a teacher or not? And Jia Shan said, No, I haven't had a teacher. May I ask you to be my teacher? And Dawu said, I can't speak of it. But I invite you to go see and watch him.

[15:22]

Jaishan said, who is he? And Dawu said, above him there's not a single roof tile. Below him there's not a ground to plant a hoe. Remember a guy who couldn't plant a hoe? He's another guy like that. Can't find any place to put his hoe. If you want to see him, you must change into your travel clothes. So after the meeting, changed into his travel clothes, packed his bag and set out for Hua Tien, the big lake. When the boatman saw him coming, when the boatman saw Jashan coming, he said, your reverence. So he looked like this kind of like maybe a monk. The boatman maybe looked like a monk, but maybe he didn't look like a monk.

[16:30]

Who knows? Anyway, Jashan knew that he was going to meet this boatman. And the boatman saw there's probably this very elegant monk big Buddhist teacher. But he still said, Your Reverence, in what temple do you reside? And Joshan said, I don't abide in a temple. I live in a temple of no abode. Where I abide is not like... And Diasan interrupted and said, Not like? Not like what? And Josh said, It's not like the Dharma that meets your eyes. This translation could be different.

[17:32]

The word dharma could be teaching, but it also could mean thing. So it could also be translated as something that meets your eyes. Where I abide is not like something that meets your eyes. And Darshan said, where did you learn this teaching? And Darshan said, not in a which eyes or ears can perceive. And just on Dachang, the boatman said, a single phrase and you fall into the path of principle. Then you're like a donkey tethered to a post for a thousand eons. So he's saying this stuff, which is the Dharma, but he's still looking at the shell. And the boatman is calling him on this. Then Deshan said, you've let down, excuse me, then the boatman says, you've let down a thousand foot fishing line.

[18:45]

You're fishing very deep, but your hook is still three inches shy, three inches short. Why don't you say something? As Jashan was about to speak, the boatman knocked him into the water with his oar. And I would say, the boatman watched him to see if he could swim. It's very important when the teachers knock the people in the water that they keep an eye on them. and they should have life-saving instructions. So he had studied with Yashan for a long time, and Yashan taught him life-saving skills. So he could push people into the water, and if they couldn't swim, he could help them. But this guy, Yashan, was able to clamber out of the water, back into the boat, and the boatman yelled at him, Speak, speak!

[19:47]

Yashan tried to speak, but before he could, the boatman struck him again. Suddenly, you know what happened then? Josh broke through the shell without making a dent in it because the shell is totally insubstantial. You can break through without cracking it. And after he... He had the great breakthrough. He nodded his head three times like this. Something like that. And then the old man said, now that you're one with the pole and the line, just act on your own. and don't defile the clear waters.

[20:51]

Okay, so now the hen has broken out, the hen, excuse me, the chick has broken out, the hen and the chick are both forgotten. And then the new hen says, what do you mean? And cast down the pole. And the boatman said, the fishing line hangs in the deep green water, drifting without intention. And Joshon said, there is no path. whereby words may gain entry to the essence. The tongue speaks, but cannot speak. The Boa Man said, when the hook disappears into the water of the river, the golden fish is encountered.

[21:56]

It sounds really nice in there. Then the old man said, that's it, that's it. Encourage Jashan by saying, hereafter conceal yourself in a place without a trace. If the place has any sign, don't stay there. You know, like a sign. Zen master here. You know, you might go sit at some place where there's a place without a trace and people might come up and put a little sign above you. This is really, look who's here. So anyway, don't stay. And then the boatman said, I stayed with Yao Shan for 30 years and what I learned there I pass to you today.

[23:08]

Pretty fast, huh? That's the advantage of getting a ripe one. Send me a ripe one so I can finish her off fast. I've just given you all that I learned in 30 years today. Now that you have it, stay away from trouble. Instead, plant your hoe deep in the mountains. Find one person or half a person who won't let this die. I just want to let you know that he does find one person or half a person later in the next chick that comes. You'll hear about that later. Joshon then bid the boatman goodbye, and as he walked away, he looked back at the boatman.

[24:18]

The boatman said, Your Reverence. Joshon stopped, and the boatman held up his oar and said, Do you say there's anything else? And he tipped over his boat and disappeared into the water, never to be seen. So that's a story about a chicken, a hen, and a chick, and how they worked that out. And then there's several more generations to come, which I hope to tell you about in the future. We have ten more seconds if you'd like to say anything.

[25:21]

Nine? Yes? Why did he tip the boat over and disappear? I don't know. I don't know if he died. Actually, I started to tell these stories when you asked me. some stories about how Zen masters related to death, or how they taught as they were dying. And these next three stories, these three stories, each one ends with the teacher dying. And quite amazing. So the way they, in all these stories, The teacher works for the student, the student becomes a teacher, and then the teacher dies in all these stories. So there's both how the teacher taught, but actually how the teacher taught as the teacher was pretty close to death. In some cases, we don't know for sure that he died, just that he went under the water and wasn't seen again, so maybe he did.

[26:28]

He'd been studying with Yashan for thirty years and then he'd been working as a ferry person for however many years helping various people across the river who were asking him what he could do. Who knows how many people he helped carrying across the river. We don't know how many years that was. But if you, you know, he probably was pretty old by the time his successor was sent to him by his brother. So maybe he did die because He paid his teacher. So, you know, there's helping people, and there's also finding somebody else who will take care of the tradition. So he did both. He was helping many people across the river, and finally he found a successor. Without having a monastery, just a boat, an oar, and the water. You know how to use that stuff?

[27:30]

So I hope you learn how to use your stuff.

[27:34]

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