Perhaps this morning I told a story about a disciple named Xiang Yan who was given the instruction, you have to say something from before you were born, before you discriminated objects. And it looks like in the story that this disciple worked on that instruction compassionately for some time. And finally, he heard the true Dharma and was released from the brilliant prison of his own mind. Or not even his own mind, but mind. And then he expressed his gratitude to his great teacher.

[01:03]

And he wrote a verse. And I don't remember the verse, but it was something like, perhaps some people who heard me say it recently can help me. It goes something like, one strike and all knowledge is forgotten. No more pretense of practice. No more idle devices. And anybody remember more of this first poem? So anyway, he wrote this poem, sent it by monk messenger back to Guishan and asked the monk to recite it to Guishan.

[02:08]

So the monk recited to Guishan. Guishan listened to it and said, the disciple has penetrated the teaching, the practice. And Xiang Yang's elder Dharma brother a great disciple of Guizhan named Yangshan was there and said, I don't know about that. I'll check him out the next time I see him. So Yangshan did meet his younger brother, Xiangyang, and said, please demonstrate in an experience that you understand the teacher's practice. And so Xiang Yang recited that verse again. And Yangshan said, well, you could have made that up from what you already knew from the scriptures.

[03:14]

Let's have something right now. So then he said, last year's poverty was not real poverty. this year's poverty. Finally, his genuine poverty. In last year's poverty there was a place, there was still a place to plant my hope. In this year's poverty there's not even a hoe to plant. And Yangshan said, that's good, but that could still be what we call an understanding, a fresh understanding based on the scriptural teachings. He still haven't understood what's called ancestral Zen. So he said, that poem you just recited, that's good to target to Zen.

[04:21]

But how about ancestral Zen? You haven't demonstrated that. Talking to Zen is kind of like an expression of understanding that's completely ordinary. There's no signs of anything other than daily life. And not only ordinary, but ordinary within a particular family. You know, not just ordinary, but ordinary to you and your circumstances. So then he said something like, I got a working, a working's got me. It appears in the flickering of an eye. Anybody who doesn't see it has no way to say I haven't. Something like that. Or also, as I said, a touch of heart.

[05:37]

Kind of like, you know. You give your hand to me And then you say hello And I can hardly speak My heart is beating so And anyone can tell You think you know me well But you don't know me No, you don't know the one Who dreams of you at night? Who longs to know your scent without holding tight? To you I'm just a friend. That's all I've ever been. No, you don't know me. And then Owen Youngshot heard that 1,200 years before it was written. He said, how wonderful the disciple has realized the talk to Zen.

[06:46]

Oh, and then another poem I don't remember. I thought I had the book or I had it written down, but I don't know. Later, Xiang Yang wrote a poem which goes something like, which is kind of like a poem about his relationship with Guishan. It goes, the chick pecks from inside... The hen pecks from outside. The chick breaks through the shell, breaks through and free of the shell, and meets the hen. When both chick and hen are forgotten, we have true meeting. and they do not stray away from the original path. Singing together, the mystical song goes on forever.

[08:04]

So, Xiang Yang was pecking from inside. He may not have known it, but he was pecking from inside. So Guishan pecked back and said, I don't want to hear anymore about your great learning. So he was living inside the palace of Buddhist teachings. And he was pecking at the walls of the palace. as he studied the scriptures. Do you understand? It was a wonderful place, and when he looked at the scriptures, the energy of his study was strong enough so that the cage he was in started rattling. And the old hen, Guishan, could hear that he was trying to break out of the sutras.

[09:20]

He really loved the sutras. He was really studying so hard that people outside that were free of the sutras could hear him trying to get out. He was strong enough to be heard beyond the enclosure of the mind by someone who had become free of it. So he said, oh, he wants me to say something to you, which is, I don't want to hear any more from you about the walls you're pounding against so diligently. I want you to say something to me before you got into this mess. So he pecked back. Still, he's still pecking from the inside of the shell, though. a little more confused than before, because he wasn't supposed to peck into the old places. He wasn't supposed to peck, you know, the Lord Sutra, the Diamond Sutra, the Heart Sutra.

[10:28]

He's supposed to do something, say something, but not the usual stuff. So he tried something, and the teacher could hear him. The teacher pecked back. No. Pecked again. No. So he went back. into the inner sanctum of his cage, of his trap, got his more sutures out, looked at them, and went back and pecked again. How about this? Did he peck back? No. This is getting the cage, this is weakening the shell a little bit. And he realizes that he's not going to be able to break out of the cage with the stuff that the cage is made out of. So he decides to just listen to that peck that he got and just deal with that peck, with everything that comes up.

[11:35]

And then cleaning the ground, and cleaning the ground, and cleaning the ground. cleaning the ground, and breaks out, and gets to see what it's like outside of mind, or free of mind. And then he sings a song that he's been asked to sing. But he had gone far away from Guishan, so Guishan couldn't hear, so he had to send a message to him. And Guishan already thought, great, he's found the place I asked him to find. But his tough siblings are not quite teacher. I'm a bit more tested with this guy to see if he's really free. Okay? And this chant is by...

[12:37]

This chant we chanted a little while ago. It's a vow that's written by the main disciple of Hakuin Zenji in Japan, Tore Zenji. And when you're reciting it, I heard you say, even though someone may be a fool, be warm and compassionate towards that fool, right? But I just want to stress, I'll say something that might not have occurred to you, but that occurred to me, is that even if that fool happens to be yourself, be warm and compassionate to yourself when you're a fool. Some people tell me that they think that they themselves are fools, and some people tell me that they think some other people are fools, and some people tell me they think both themselves and others are fools.

[13:41]

And they also think that it would be not appropriate to be kind to all these fools. And I sometimes say, well, what about if you had a grandchild that was a fool? And they often say, oh, yeah, I can be kind to a foolish grandchild. I say, well, do the same to yourself. You're a grandchild too, really. So... Treat everybody as though they're your precious grandchildren or great-grandchildren, etc., including yourself, even if you're a fool. And if by any chance such a person like yourself should turn against you and become your sworn enemy, and abuse and persecute you, you should sincerely bow down to him with humble language and in reverent belief that he or she is a merciful avatar of the Buddha, your own self.

[14:45]

When you're doing something abusive to yourself, it doesn't mean you should pretend like it's not abusive. It's foolish. But practice the bodhisattva practices with that. This is a teaching of a Zen priest who went through a very rigorous training of Zen and came out all compassionate like this. He already vows to be that way. Maybe he never got to this point. This is his vow. I never met him, so I don't know if he was really like this. But this is the way, this is what he aspired to be. And then he also points up, he thinks that if he could be this way, that then on every one of these fools, every one of these fools would turn into a lotus leaf.

[15:49]

And on top of each one of those lotus leaf fools would be a Buddha. Isn't that like real clear and a little bit amazing? Fools can be turned into lotus leaves with Buddhas on top if you treat them in this way. Inner fools, outer fools, in between fools. You know. I got a gang, you got a gang, everybody's got to have a gang. If it's only one gang, that's for me. Good old Buster Brown. Where did you grow up? I know the Buster Brown commercial, but I don't get how there is any. You don't? I'm Buster Brown. I live in a shoe. Yeah, I'm Buster Brown. I live in a shoe. This is my dog tag.

[16:52]

You can find him in there, too. So what don't you get? You got it. You got it. That's it. You got it. I'll stop worrying about it. You're going to stop worrying about it? This is a lotus leaf we've got here. I'm actually worried about something else in there. What? That thing about, you know, if somebody's abusing me, you know, that part, that part the way you think. Right. Yeah. Sworn enemy. Yeah. You turned it into if that's yourself. But what if it's not yourself and it says it's my fault and my karma that that person's abusing me? What did you say, what if it's not yourself? Yeah. Well, some people work themselves, they can't do it, and they can do it with other people. Some people can do it with other people, not themselves. So do it inwardly and outwardly. So, in other words, are you going to let anything stop you from compassion?

[18:00]

This is actually a discussion. It's probably not a good thing to do right now. Why not? This says it is a good thing to do right now. Because this is the lotus leaf we have right now. Although I'm not saying you're a sworn enemy. No, I'm not your enemy. And I'm not saying I'm your enemy either. But this is what's happening now. It's not so much... It says even if someone is your sworn enemy. It doesn't say you can't practice this way. It has... I'm thinking of people who are actually being attacked. If you tell them it's just their own karma, that isn't nice. He's not telling them it's just their own karma. He's saying this is what he's going to do. This is what he's saying to himself. He's not telling you this. This is his fault. Not me. You're recommending this to all abused people?

[19:07]

Am I recommending this to all abused people? No. I'm recommending this to Bodhisattvas. This is for Bodhisattvas. He wants to be a Bodhisattva. So what he wants to do is whoever is talking, right now, he wants to use that opportunity, not someone later. It's just like, well, this person is not, this is not what I'm going to practice. I'm going to practice later when I get a little bit nicer person or a little bit more difficult person. No. If the person's not being mean to me, I'm going to do it. If they are, I'm going to do it. Even, he didn't say even if a person, you're sworn devil, you're sworn benefactor. He didn't say that, but he could have said that too. In other words, don't skip over people that are being kind to you. Be kind to them too. Some people do, you know.

[20:08]

They can't help it. They take for granted all the people that have been kind to them and they only are kind to people that are cruel to them. It's not a problem to be kind, that they're being kind there. They skip over the nice people like you. So this is a bodhisattva vow. This is not to tell to somebody who doesn't aspire to be a bodhisattva. You're right. So this is being recorded now on an iPhone. This will go out on the internet. But Linda Hess warns you, do not follow this instruction unless you want to be a bodhisattva. If you want to be a bodhisattva, this is a possible vow for you. Because if you practice like this, you will become a Buddha. However, you've got to have this kind of aspiration. Do you want to open up to all beings? Do you want to be devoted to criminals? Bodhisattvas have that kind of vow.

[21:10]

This is a bodhisattva. So thank you for pointing that out. And see, it was good to talk about it. Because otherwise, if you just go on the internet, then they wouldn't have heard what you had to say. That's good. Hold it for a second. Apropos of this, I have this place is full of little gifts. I have a gift here for somebody. I don't know who wants it, but it was a gift. I found it here. And it's about half of a sutra. Half of a sutra, actually. And the other half, I don't quite remember what the other half is, but I sort of remember what it is. And I'm going to tell you what I sort of remember it is. and part of it is the name of the sutta. It's, I think, a Pali sutta. There might be a Sanskrit version, but I think it's a Pali sutta. I think the name of the sutta in English is something like, I think it's called Half the Holy Life.

[22:12]

And I think it starts off something like, Ananda says to the historical Buddha, the historical Buddha, as opposed to the Buddhas that will pop up in the lotus leaves, He says, Master, is it the case that friendship is half or an important part of the holy life? And the Buddha says, no, it's the entire holy life. Friendship is the entire holy life. It's all about friendship. If you want the holy life, what's it about? Friendship. It's about relying on and associating with good friends, good comrades.

[23:16]

The entirety of the holy life is good friendship, good companionship, good comradeship. That's the entirety of it. Something like that. That's how the first part of the scripture goes. And so following that, by relying on this method, good friend, Ananda, what's the method? Do you remember the method? Huh? What? It's by, it's by, the entire holy life is good friendship, good companionship, good comradeship. By relying on that method, good friends, Being subject to birth are freed from birth. Being subject to aging are freed from aging. Being subject to illness are freed from illness.

[24:24]

Being subject to death are freed from death. Being subject to sorrow, lamentation and pain, displeasure and despair are free from sorrow, lamentation, pain, displeasure and despair. What about being subject to an intellectual understanding of the sutras? Well, that is also true. That if you are subject to intellectual understanding of sutras, for example this one, if you use this method you will become free of an intellectual understanding of what I just read to you. Wouldn't that be fine? Wouldn't it?

[25:29]

No. Okay, so I found this in this place, This is the next part of the sutta. By following... It's kind of a misprint. By following method, it says, it should be, by following this method, Ananda, it may be understood how the entire... Oh, I've kind of followed. It should be this. By following this method, Ananda... it may be understood how the entire holy life is good friendship, good companionship, and good comradeship. By relying on me as a friend, by relying on me, good friend Ananda, so now the Buddha switches from relying on this method of good friendship Now he's saying by relying on me.

[26:33]

It's the same thing. By relying on the method of relying on me, of good friendship, good comradeship with me, me the Buddha. So you do it with everybody and do it with the Buddha and you become free of all this stuff, including free of intellectual understanding of what the Buddha is teaching you. So I don't wish this to be a raffle. I will give this to anybody who wants it. And you can take care of it if you like. And I know everybody's being polite. So I don't know who is going to receive this. I'm offering it. There's more where that came from.

[27:35]

Where's the $100 bill? I don't know. It's back in the dope sauna. Maybe we should bring it up. Do you finally go get it? Yeah. You saw that there was more interesting. You can stay on the shelf all day long. Anybody know anything about this historical thing here?

[28:41]

It actually could have been mine. I had so many of those involved. But I don't clearly remember it, so I don't play it. It wasn't there last night. Oh, wait, it's not mine. Last night. It wasn't there last night. I don't know. It was there at 4 o'clock this morning. It wasn't for you. Not me. It's certainly not mine. So here it is, folks. This is one of the things we found in this place. I think it's a Buddha on a lotus blossom. Huh? I think it's a Buddha on a lotus blossom. Benjamin Franklin thanks you. Yes. I'm more concerned as far as when you mentioned about abuse. I don't go too far in the criminal world, but I personally think any unkind act to myself or others is...

[29:49]

is a crime. It is not... Sure. Unkindness is a crime. I agree. And what does the Buddha do to crime? He has the compassion. He practices friendship towards it. Buddha always practices compassion and friendship with any crimes that are offered to her. And Bodhisattva's vow... to become Buddhas, vow to learn to meet crime with compassion, with friendship. At the same time, you know, you don't necessarily go and hang out with criminals because you might not be able to meet the meet the criminal function with compassion.

[30:51]

So bodhisattvas vow to meet all beings with compassion but at the same time they mostly concentrate on working with the numerous people who want to practice. So they're mostly working with people who want to practice. And people who don't want to practice, they don't actually spend much time with them because people don't really want their attention. So it's not recommended to go hang out with people who don't want to practice. But if somebody shows up who wants to practice and they're a criminal, then we give Dharma. And Buddha did meet some criminals. according to the story, and met them with compassion, amazingly. And they sometimes didn't see it as compassion, and tried to attack the Buddha, and the Buddha met them with more compassion. And some of them woke up, and some of them did not. Some people didn't.

[31:54]

The Buddha even still couldn't wake them up. But the example is always this amazing example of friendship. Not to say it's not a crime. Cruelty is... Cruelty is the basic crime. And that crime is based on suffering and delusion. Wise people are not cruel. Some compassionate people are not yet wise. But if they keep practicing compassion, that compassion will break through the shell and they will become wise. And then they'll be compassionate and wise, and then that wisdom will make their compassion even more, you know, more unheeded by any kind of cruelty or whatever they see.

[32:59]

So I was trying to understand the source of unkindness, because I couldn't understand why as humans sometimes we're not... The source of unkindness is delusion. That's what exactly... Yeah, and human beings are born deluded. We're born with the mind that arises... in a way that it deceives itself. We're born with the mind which arises and says, this thing, this mind constructed thing is more than a mind construction. This thing which seems to be separate is not just an appearance of separate, it's really separate and really substantial. That's the way the mind naturally arises, and therefore it naturally tries to grasp, suffers, and then is at risk It isn't always cruel, but it's at risk of being cruel because of all the suffering and fear that more suffering will come.

[34:06]

So this mind has to be trained. And in the training process, sometimes in the mind, in the mind of delusion, a thought arises, I would like to do something compassionate. Deluded beings can think that thought wonderfully. It's amazing. Deluded beings can think, I would like to be compassionate. Still, deluded beings But it's the seeing which will make a Buddha. But then they have to train more because once that thought arises it can be forgotten. Some of you may have forgotten that. It arose in you and you felt so happy to feel it and then somebody insulted you or whatever. Or you got a headache and forgot it. That's why we have to train to protect that thought that arises in our deluded mind. And then that thought can grow and grow and start pecking on the shell. And then Buddha starts pecking back and pecking back and breaking.

[35:08]

You get realized. But we have to train this deluded mind. in order to allow this thought to arise and then bring it to maturity. That's a story. The language here could be misleading to sentient beings and in a harmful way. That's something I would like to say. Yes, the language in this reading, this chant that we did, that particular part that I got stuck on, I feel it could be misleading and lead people in harmful ways to themselves and even to their persecutors. So I'm not ready to let that go. Well, if you give us the example, we can talk about it, and that will protect beings from this misunderstanding.

[36:11]

Go ahead. So if I read that, and I really desire to be a child of the Buddha, Yes. I would perhaps someday be in a situation, or somebody else might hear it, and be in a situation where they were being beaten up by somebody cruel, and they would remember this line and they would bow down thinking that's what they should do. And they would say, this is a device to emancipate me from sinful karma. And then they would actually be doing something unwise. Not necessarily. It might be really helpful to do that, what you just said. This upsets me, so perhaps I should consider it further. Yeah, if somebody's beating me up, and I use the device of prostrating to them, it might really be helpful.

[37:15]

That's what he did when he was being beaten. He bowed down to these people and they snapped out of it. So sometimes that's really helpful. to when somebody's beating you up, to, like, bow it out of them, you know? And this story, like Woody Allen in one of his movies, he's in prison, you know, because he tried to rob a bank, but he wasn't very good at bank robbing, so he wound up in this prison. And the guard is, you know, the head guard is threatening him with abuse unless he follows the rules. And Woody Allen says... And the guard says, the head guard said, do you have any questions? Shouts it out, and Woody Allen raises his hand, trembling. And the guard said, what? And he said, do you think it's okay to have him on the first date?

[38:16]

You know, that could be really skillful. And the guard didn't want to do it. He didn't beat him up. In fact, the guy, I think he woke up a little bit at that moment, and so did I. So, in other words, you don't just strike back. You might prostrate. You might tell a joke. You might... Here's another one that I was struck by. There's a movie called The Kite Runner. This is just a story, right? A story that Kite learned. And he did this terrible thing when he was a kid. He let his best friend be abused. His best friend be abused. A person who would do anything to protect him from harm, he let his best friend be harmed.

[39:18]

And that was the worst thing I ever heard of in my life. that anybody did. I thought, I just couldn't believe this is like the perfect horrible thing. It's worse somehow than in doing it himself. But anyway, he did that. And then the person who abused his best friend later became very powerful. And he wound up in a situation where this person who abused his best friend in a terrible way was now abusing him and beating him almost to death. And in the middle of being beaten, he started laughing. He started laughing because how funny that this is exactly what he had been hoping for for 30 years. And nobody would do this for him. Nobody would say, you did a terrible thing. And finally he was feeling it, and how wonderful. And then the guy was beating him.

[40:19]

so shocked he stopped and then he got away and he got away because the son of his best friend who he allowed to be abused learned how to do a slingshot really well like his dad did and hit the guy in the face and he got away so how this works is that we're actually proposing that to be flexible and to do something really surprising like bow down to somebody when they're beating you up, might be the way to wake that person up and benefit beings. So, this could be misunderstood, but I think what basically we're saying is that the most amazing thing, the thing that turned me towards Zen was somebody who, when attacked, could come back with compassion. And then, you know, which wasn't like, you know, it wasn't like... This is not an attack. This is like, oh, I'm being attacked. Right. I got it.

[41:24]

And then he didn't fight back. He just accepted it. He survived. He might not have, but he did. He took care of what he was told to do after being attacked. Then after two years, he came back and people praised him. They treated the praise the same way. Just like, oh, okay. So, yeah, it's like not like there's something wrong with me when I'm being beaten up. When I'm being beaten up, here's a chance for me to inspire Rev Anderson to practice Zen when he hears my story. Hundreds of years later. I want to do something that will inspire people to break out of their habit. And most people... When they get beat up, they don't prostrate sincerely or ask if they can have a pen on the first date. Most people, like, try to defend themselves, which is, you know, it's normal.

[42:25]

Or they try to fight back. They try to run away or fight back. Well, that's what most people do. How about, like, turning around, facing it, opening your heart and saying, what do you think of this? Here. or eat me too. Again, another story turned me towards it is the robbers coming to abuse and attack Ryokan, right? Gonna break into his house, beat him up and steal his stuff. But before he comes in, Ryokan throws his stuff out the window and then he says, I'm sorry I can't give you the full moon too. This is like, whoa, I wanna learn that. So this is like, I aspire to learn an amazing response to cruelty. That's what I'm saying. It's not like, I'm a bad person, that's why this is happening to me, so I should learn to do it. No. If somebody did mean to me, I'm going to come back with like, hey man, this is like the center of the universe, and you are meaning a bodhisattva.

[43:27]

This is a bodhisattva here. I'm here to show you what a bodhisattva's like. That's what I aspire to. And bodhisattvas come back with compassion. You didn't think anybody was going to come back with compassion when you beat him up, but here he is. You know, and hit me again. Just kidding. Or hit me again on our second date. Or whatever, you know, anyway. I miss like, you know, you never saw anything like this before. That's who I want to be. I want to wake you up. Not just you. I want to wake me up. I want to wake everybody up. I'm not afraid of you because you are my opportunity for a real life. I'm not a bad person. You're not a bad person. You're just being cruel right now, and I'm going to wake you up. Oh, yeah? Yeah. Well, how about this? In the stories of the Buddha, too, you know, he's practicing patience. Somebody comes and sees him and says, what are you doing here? He says, well, I'm practicing patience.

[44:30]

Oh, yeah? And how about that? I'm still practicing patience. Oh, yeah? That's what makes a Buddha. It is generosity and so on. What do you say now? I say thank you. Thank you. Yeah, pass it along. And I thank you for bringing out the dangers of this teaching. Everything's dangerous, including this teaching. This is a teaching for people who are in danger. And if you see some dangers, bring them out. Let's talk about them. And let's get them on the Internet. And then let's have more dialogue, right? Dialogue, dialogue.

[45:32]

More people come to know a boy. Oh, yeah, Red Vantage, let's go get him. He's really crazy. Thank you, but I still have more settling to do about this passage. Hey, I'm not in a hurry for you to get done with your settling. All right, well, let's very slowly together. Yeah, right. No, let's not hurry. Let's go slowly at your rate. Okay. Let's not hurry. Let's walk steadfastly and urgently. Without hurry. Okay? Yeah. All right. Well, thank you so much, everybody. Any parting comments? How about bodhisattva vow? Yes. And he did start a line up for us.

[46:20]

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