So, case... That was case 30. One before that was 29, right? And those are the cases we've been studying this summer, right? We spent a long time on 29, right? And a little bit of time on 30. This case... I think I've said over and over that Case 29 is about talking about how this mind, this mind which has this self and other dimension, subject-object play, how the way that comes together is the mind seal of our practice, of our teachers, of the Buddha. Yeah. the way the subject-object actually works through this mind seal. So that's what, basically what that case 29 is about, is the meditation on the mystery of self and other, subject and object, mind and nature and all that.

[01:09]

Case 30 is a little different. Case 31 is again about this mind-object meditation. And case 32 is about this too. They have a cluster of cases that are meditating on this sense of self and other subject-object, mind and environment, coming at it from various angles. Of course, that also bears on case 32. but I think what, in a way, what I feel Case 30 is really about is it's about a monk who didn't understand very well the teaching about the cyclic nature of the universe. He thought the narrative of the history of the universe was something...

[02:14]

that occurred some other time than right now. So he asked that question. The teacher watched him and tried to help him. And the monk didn't get it. And he bounced back and forth from coast to coast for a while. So really what that case is about, besides the monk's misunderstanding of the simultaneity of everything, it was about the teacher trying to work with him. It was about how we try to pay attention to each other and try to understand each other and respond to what we see, which is such a fast-moving, intensely demanding occupation This is what I felt was really brought out in that case. And I think Martha said she wanted to look at that verse there a little bit.

[03:21]

Is that right, Martha? So the verse at the end of this case is sweet and also sour. It's not the actual verse. No, it's not the end of the case. It's before the regular verse. where the first part of this is actually a quote from an earlier time of a Tang monk named Jing Zun. And he said, clearly there was no other truth, only the way sealed out. Huay Nung of the South, only the way sealed Huay Nung of the South. One saying, it all goes along with the fire, sends a monk running over a thousand mountains.

[04:24]

So, you know, this is referring to the sixth patriarch of Zen received this mind seal of approval from the fifth patriarch. But he's saying here that it isn't really the other person that gives you the... gives you the seal. It's the way that seals us. We are sealed by the way. We're not approved by the other. We're approved by the way. Oh, I missed two people. Roz and... Roz and, don't tell me, Bart. Right? Sorry. That's my interpretation of what that's about. Again, this verse refers back to the previous case in this business about sealing.

[05:35]

And then he says one saying, and the saying, the key saying here is it goes along with it, which is written on that blackboard outside. Remember? It goes along with it. This is the... This was the teacher's compassion. Um... It is the teacher's compassion towards this monk. It is also the teacher's expression and proof of his own practice. It goes along with it. Does anybody know of any stories of Buddha where he did any kindness besides speaking? Yes? He held up his hand to a charging hole. Mm-hmm. He held up his hand up like this and passed it by the elephant.

[06:46]

The elephant was drunken. He was drunk. He was very drunk. Isn't there a story about him taking care of a sick monk? Taking care of a sick monk? What did he do? He went to visit lots of sick monks. But there's one particular monk that the community wasn't taking care of. So I'm not sure, I don't remember whether he did it himself or he arranged for it. He might have arranged for it. And when he arranged for it, he probably talked. Any other examples? Once he held up a flower. He held up a flower, yeah. Sat under the golden tree. He sat. Sat in the middle of the road to save the Shakyas. Well, I don't think he did that to save the Shakya. I think he did it because they asked him to. Because they asked him to go back and do it again, and he said no.

[07:49]

He saw that they couldn't be saved. But anyway, he did sit in the road because they asked him to. Yes? He once expressed the Dharma to a person who came forward by saying nothing. Uh-huh. A number of times he didn't say anything when he was asked a question. He got down from his seat. He got down from his seat. But usually, by and large, what he did was he talked. Most of what he gave was verbal instruction to people. And most of the cases you raised, he did not enlighten the people. His words are what usually enlighten people, his verbal instruction. And also it is by verbal instruction that people usually demonstrated to him how they were doing.

[08:54]

So the case 30 is really raising up this phrase, it goes along with everything, as this demonstration of a mind that understands or that can speak with authority like the capital is not more than a tiny step away and the mountain weighs three pounds. How do you dare, what phrase, upon what phrase can you dare to talk like this? Well, this is the kind of phrase. He goes along with everything. So he said that to the monk. The monk didn't understand. So the monk walked from Sichuan over to the east coast of China and back. He crossed a thousand mountains because he couldn't use what he was given right at that time. That's the first part of this poem. And I might point out that it's one of the, a Zen, I don't know if it's Zen or Chinese, but anyway, in Zen, the way you often make an address is that you give a, you quote a poem from the past and then you say something yourself, something new yourself.

[10:03]

So you both connect. with the tradition and offer your present thing. So then, Suedu's present statement is, a cold cricket cries in the surrounding leaves on a silent night, bowing to a lamp in a crypt. When his lament is finished in the moonlight, At the solitary window, he wanders back and forth, unable to overcome his regret. So, this is about that monk. Years of regret for somehow not being present for what the teacher offered. This is, I think, a sign of a gentle, fairly gentle and soft-spoken way to encourage us to be present.

[11:08]

That's what I feel. Is there anything else you'd like to talk about here, Martha? Yes? I just was taken with a first willing full cricket prize in the tsunami leaves. Yeah. Referring to the deep longing in human beings for reunion. Stuart? In thinking about the second line of the poem... Who's poem? Oh, yes. I was wondering why he raised Hui Nung. And it occurred to me that it was perhaps because of Hui Nung's startling teaching on permanence and impermanence and the impermanence of Buddha nature.

[12:13]

Yeah, that's definitely why he did it. By the way, don't forget that section in the commentary about Hui Nung talking about impermanence is the Buddha nature. I suggest you memorize that paragraph. That's really a good one. I kind of want to go on to the next case, if that's okay. Because I heard this in the last class, is that right? Last class, I'm surprised. I'm all surprised. So here's a copy, some copies of this case, the next case, 31. Does anybody need some? I guess not. I mean, I did my six weeks and it's supposed to stop, you know. People want to have other things happen. Is there going to be a new class?

[13:29]

Well, there's going to be Sashin, and then there's going to be, you know, vacation. And then there's going to be September. And when September comes, then there's going to be another class. And it's going to be probably on case 31. But maybe not. It might be on case 32. Depends on what happens in the next month or so. The reason why I always surprise when the class ends is because I'm so in awe of this teaching in this book and in this companion, The Blue Fifth Record. These stories are so incredibly brilliant that, you know, I forget about time, actually. In the middle of the week, when I'm not studying the cases so intensively, like around Wednesday or Thursday, sometimes I think about time again. But when I'm studying this class, I can't remember, I can't imagine that we're going to stop this tonight and not study this anymore.

[14:38]

This case here is, you know, what do they say? Although there's no inferiority, this is an extremely great case. This case doesn't, in the Blue Cliff record, this case does not have a preface. 83. It doesn't have a preface. It just comes out and we have the case. The moon monk just blurts out, talking to his monks, that the ancient Buddha and the pillar merged. What level of... It actually says mental activity here, but anyway, what level of activity is this? Yes. And... So that's that. That's his question.

[15:40]

That's what he said. And in one sense, what he's saying is he's probably in his lecture hall and there's probably a Buddha statue there. And there's a pillar there. You know, they had pillars in these Buddha halls holding the roof up. So he's saying that that Buddha up there, that old-time Buddha which sits there and looks at these pillars all day and all night for centuries, that the Buddha and the pillar merge. And he's saying, what level of activity is this? And the character that he uses for activity is this character which we've seen many times before. which can be translated as activity. It's that character in my name, Ki. Activity, function, change, working, dynamism.

[16:48]

It also means a loom or a machine, or there's herb. And it also means to seize an opportunity or an opportunity. So when it says what kind of activity is what kind of a change is this? What kind of a function is this? What kind of energy? It also means energy. What kind of energy is this? But it can also be when this energy it also means movement and it also means the origin of movement in the universe. It also means that. What kind of movement? What kind of energy? What kind of opportunity is this when the ancient Buddha merges with the pillar. But it also means when yin-men merges with them, those monks. It also means when your mind is unified.

[17:49]

So he says, what kind of activity is this? And this case, apparently, the way it's recorded here is a compression of what actually happened. what actually seemed to have happened is that then a monk said, what do you mean? And he said, a belt worth 30 cents. And again, the monk didn't understand, so he said, on the South Mountain, clouds crop up. On the North Mountain, rain falls. So when they recorded the story, they took out the middle part of the interaction, apparently. It seems like the reason for taking out the middle part was, like one interpretation is that he asked the first question and really the interaction which followed was not particularly effective.

[19:02]

He tried but it didn't work on that occasion. Even a great Buddha like that was not successful on every try. So then after that was over he sent us a message. Yeah. He sent us a message to open up a route of entry for us which I felt that way when I read that, before hearing about the middle part. The ancient Buddha merges with the pillar. And then, as a way of entry, south mountains, clouds crop up, north mountains, rain falls down.

[20:05]

So, I don't know if I should explain this or what. Eva, would you mind sitting up here? Roz, would you mind sitting up here? So, there is this situation where there is a level of whatever, you could say mentality or mind functioning. There is an energetic level of life where Buddhas and pillars merge, where subject and object are integrated.

[21:20]

So, in the Blue Cliff Record, they ask, you know, tell me, what is yin-men's meaning? And they say, just make the mind and objects one thusness. Just make mind and object one thusness. How do you do that? Well, the way I felt about it was that I somehow thought of this pillar, you know, not exactly me being a Buddha, but meeting a pillar. One pillar. And then when I heard about the, on South Mountain, the clouds coming up, and on North Mountain, the rain coming down, I kind of felt like it was a breathing pillar. In that sense, I felt this instruction about my own breathing. as a way of entry into this... Merging?

[22:32]

This merging into this level of activity that he's talking about. Another way to put it is that the activity of the weather system, the meteorological activity that's going on, is a way to enter into this level of activity. It's like there's a simultaneous rising up, falling down. You had talked about turning. Yeah, yeah. Is there a particular reason why the clouds and the rain are falling in different amounts? Can I think of that? Well, to me, somehow it just made more of a circle, you know, like clouds going up there and the rain coming down over here. Like that.

[23:33]

Or the other way. From your point of view, this is a clockwise circle. But you can also feel it in one place, like this. and it's going up and down right here. But sometimes separating it is nice to create a sense of spaciousness. Well, that's just the way it hit me. I could hear it as an instruction of meditation on breath as a way of entry. But it can be a meditation on anything as a way of entry. It doesn't have to just be breath, but for me it worked for breath as a way. I just felt like breath was a way to enter this place, this place where these Buddhas and pillars are merging.

[24:34]

And I also saw this cycle there, you know, the clouds coming up and the rains going down. I saw that as a way of describing that Yunmen is... He tried to get some response, he failed, so now he tells the future people how to work with this case. Over and above his original statement, he gives you this additional instruction. Okay? And then the commentators will give further instruction on top of that. If you don't get it, if this isn't enough material, they'll give you more, which they do. This present case, it says, is like sparks struck on a stone, like flashing lightning. In fact, it's a spirit appearing and a demon disappearing. The librarian Ching said, is there such talk in the whole great treasury of the teaching?

[25:42]

This isn't a blue-cliff record I'm reading. Is there such talk in the whole great treasury of teaching? This isn't disrespectful of the, for example, Shakyamuni Buddha, it is just very respectful of Yunmen, that he would use, that he could use this question, these images of a of this communion, and then further encourage us or show us a way of entry into this by these images from nature. It occurs to me, as you were talking about it, as being young men, is there such talk anywhere? You know, young men's talk is always spectacular in that it... it reverberates in many different directions. And recalling that almost always his comments reflected that immediate situation, then that's another way, again, of seeing on South Mountain rising clouds, North Mountain falling rain, is the interaction between him and this Ascendant.

[26:59]

It is the interaction. The interaction between him and the Ascendant. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah. He is also clouds cropping up and his relationship of rain falling down. You know, one of my favorite teachings from Yun Men is when he said, what was the Buddhist teaching his whole life? And he said, an appropriate response, an appropriate statement. And literally it means, one, meets, or meeting one, teaching. So he always had this quality of teaching just for this specific situation. And so maybe at that moment he just saw, he was just sitting there and he just saw the Buddha and the pillar and just said, boom! He saw them merge. He saw them dancing. He said, hey, what's this? and then ended by this image of the clouds coming up and the rain falling down.

[28:13]

Also, his name means cloud gate. His name means cloud gate, yeah. I also get this sense that he's saying that This moment of merging is a reminder that it's still made up of two. It's supposed to be merging, but don't forget that they're still colored in the Buddha names. There's still a South Mountain and North Mountain, something different happening in each place. It's that kind of not one, not two, just happens on the planes that they've been in. Don't get lost in the fact that this Buddha pillow part are not different, they are also different. Right. Going back . Right. And that makes me think again, in the Blue Cliff record, the final line of the verse celebrating this case is, who says that gold is the same as shit?

[29:26]

And this refers to an ancient story of two Chinese gentlemen who were very close friends. They were so close that they said, compared to the purity and depth of our friendship, shit and gold are the same. And later, because of various political things that happened in their lives they got on different sides of a political event and had to fight each other and one of them actually basically in the process killed the other one. They were so close they forgot the boundaries. Now of course most people have a problem the other side but anyway They got so close, there was no difference.

[30:32]

They denied differentiation, and it wasn't a healthy friendship in that way. What case is that in the record? 83. So I've said this over and over, I'll say it again, and in the realm where old-time Buddhas merge with pillars, it won't be a problem that you hear things over and over. The problem is misunderstanding what the self is. which is the same as misunderstanding the relationship between self and other.

[31:34]

Misunderstanding of the relationship between self and other can go on if we don't study this relationship between self and other. If we don't study the interaction between self and other, then we can maintain our misunderstanding of what self is and what other is. which is usually that self is not other, is our very primitive understanding. Or another one is, self is other. It's another primitive understanding, which is a problem those guys had when they said, gold is the same as shit compared to the unity of our friendship. The unity or the integration of self and others does not mean that there's not self and other. There cannot be a self without the other. Their unity is not obliterate the two.

[32:41]

Their unity is the correct understanding of what they are. Their unity is not that they're the same thing. The unity of the ancient Buddha and the pillar is not that they're the same thing. It's by understanding what the ancient Buddha is and what the pillar is that you understand how they merge. So what should we do now? with this wonderful story. There's so much material in these two cases too, so many nice verses. Like the verse in this case 31 is, one path of spiritual light has never been concealed from the first,

[33:54]

Transcending perception and objects, it's so, yet nothing's so. Going beyond emotional assessment, it's met. Do you have this met? Oh, you have meat? It's meat? It's meat. It's meat, yet nothing's meat. I think what we have here is, what does meat mean? It's meat. What does meat mean? Huh? Appropriate? Appropriate, in this case? Are we following this? No? It isn't meat in the sense of meeting, okay? That wouldn't be proper English, would it?

[34:57]

It's meet in another sense. What is the other sense? The other sense is appropriate or adequate. Matching? Matching? Is that the way you do it? I don't know. Anyway, it's adequate without adequacy. It's appropriate without appropriateness. Again, the appropriate teaching is appropriate without appropriateness. There's no, like, appropriateness sitting out there. It's just appropriate now, and that's it, or not. Going beyond emotional assessment, which is also going beyond common sense. Not degrading emotional assessment, not degrading common sense, but the warning for this case is that most people approach this case on a sort of emotional basis.

[36:05]

We make an emotional interpretation. And according to the emotional interpretation, here's an emotional interpretation. Buddha is a guide for the three realms, past, present and future, or whatever, kamadhatu, rupadhatu, arupadhatu, the world of gross forms like this, the world of subtle forms and the world beyond forms. Buddha is the guide, the compassionate guide for all these realms. The compassionate father for the four orders of being. Why then... Do the ancient Buddhas merge with the pillar? This is an emotional interpretation. Do you understand that emotional interpretation? May I? Well, how do you feel about Buddha emotionally? Tell us about how you feel about Buddha emotionally. You don't have much emotion for Buddha?

[37:23]

Or are you just keeping quiet? I'm keeping quiet. Okay, now would you please talk? Let's have a little emotional interpretation of Buddha, could we please? Gratitude. Gratitude for what? Okay. Anybody else have any emotional interpretations of Buddha? I think he's terrific. Terrific? For what reason do you think Buddha is so terrific? Well, he's really nice. Really nice. What? He helps lots of people. He helps lots of people, yeah. Jay? He makes a good statue. He makes a good statue. Yeah? If it wasn't for him, maybe we wouldn't be. Yeah, yeah. Any other emotional interpretation? This is not actually an emotional interpretation so far.

[38:25]

This is just an emotional take on Buddha. A really, such an incredibly great teacher, like Yunmen, you know. Like, what is it, Yunmen they say. His teachings were direct, solitary, and steep. Buddha had really great teaching. The more you study Buddha, I think you'll find that. Such wonderful teaching. So helpful. So great. The emotional interpretation part is that next line. What's his business about Buddhas merging with pillars? What? Yeah, right. That part doesn't fit into our emotional picture. Right? It's too terrific. Right. And then also some other people say that what Yunman's doing is calling out from nothingness, it says. When I was in college, I liked William Burroughs.

[39:32]

I didn't really like him, I just thought I was supposed to, so I worked at it. I really did like, what is it called, Nova Express, I did like that. And I worked on Naked Lunch, but anyway. So recently, there was this movie made about him, about Naked Lunch, right? Which is autobiographical of this literary junkie. At the beginning of the movie, Burroughs looks at the camera and says, you must extinguish discriminatory conceptual thought. And then... Anyway, I don't recommend the movie, unless you cut off right away, early part of the movie. If you did that, probably it'd be a good movie. Anyway, people say these things about, they say, you know, well, Buddha's such a nice guy, or Yunmun's such a nice guy, what's his business about merging with pillars?

[40:36]

And then they also say stuff like, Yunmun's calling out from emptiness. Yes. calling out from the interconnectedness of all being, calling out from this great place. Okay, so there it is. How are you gonna cut off all this stuff and enter into the correct state where we correctly understand what the self is? That's our problem. It's this place where it's this path, right? This one path of spiritual light. And it's never been concealed. So here it is. This is it. The one path of spiritual light. Do you see it? Do you see it right now? Does that mean no or yes?

[41:44]

It means no. It means no? How many no's? How many yes's? How many abstentions? How many people didn't raise their hand for either one of those three? Well, in the commentary it says, thoroughly see all things without seeing anything. Right. That must be the one path of spiritual light, huh? Just that it doesn't always look the same. Sometimes you see it as the sun, sometimes you see it as the moon, sometimes it's a lamp in a crypt. But you didn't really mean exactly what you said then, right?

[42:48]

It isn't that it looks like that. That's what you're looking at when you see it. Right? It isn't that it's Stuart. I'm looking at Stuart now. So that's where I'm going to see it. It's in the action of seeing Stuart. It's in the action of Reb merging with Stuart that this one path of spiritual life will be realized. And what level of activity is this? Can you believe that the commentator in the Blue Cliff Record had a teacher who said, you know, I don't think Yanman had much guts. I would say that the level of activity is level number eight, which is the eighth of the ten levels of bodhisattvic development. Do you want to get into why this thing about talking about Yun Man not having much guts?

[43:51]

You do? You want to tell us why he didn't have much guts? Does anybody want to talk about that? Yeah. He didn't say. He just said, I don't think Yun Man had much guts. I'll give him an eight. Well, maybe not. As I've mentioned a number of times, the most common rhetorical device in Zen is irony. Eight is the level where bodhisattva is irreversible. where they have realized the patience or the forbearance that nothing happens. They're patient with the fact that nothing actually ever happens. They can accept that.

[44:55]

Most of us have trouble accepting that nothing happens. Right? On the eighth level, they can accept that. This is something like, this is one of these things that's right in front of us all the time, but we just don't accept it. We have a million reasons for not accepting it, but at the eighth level you do accept that finally, that nothing actually happens. And then there's nine and ten after that. No, and they don't. They never do start happening. They never happen. However, there is a constant appearance of things happening. that's happening all the time is that we think things are happening clouds rising up clouds rising up yeah we take when we say the clouds are rising up or the rain's falling down we get into that rather than that this is a relationship and really nothing happens it's like if so yet nothing so yeah right and what is it it's adequate without adequacy

[46:30]

Some big effort. Make some big effort. And then see that it didn't really make any difference. Situations like that, sometimes people have this feeling of, oh, but to settle in that and accept that is even more challenging, more difficult. However, that's not the end of the story. What could there be beyond that? Or is that any of our business here? Well, did you see what was beyond that? Something was beyond that in a way, wasn't there? Or wasn't there? I don't know. Where did this thing about the mountains come from? I sort of What flashed for me when Taigen said young men was cloud, we didn't say cloud, but cloud, cloud gate, is that actually it was the relationship between these two, the relationship between these two people, the monk and the teacher, maybe South Mountain, rising cloud would be young men, and the rain falling, the relationship between those two creating it.

[47:57]

Their lives were the mountains. And what happened to them was sort of the cloud and the rain. The thing that I think about with the mountains is the end and the full rising again. How so? What do you mean? you can't have one without the other. They are cause and effect. And the same teaching of self and other, the constant sense of self arising in relationship to other. Yeah. Okay, now there's a half an hour left. You want to go to 32nd?

[48:59]

No, I'd like to enter this case. I think I'm going to keep talking about this during Sesshin, but still, I want to... How do you work with this? Do you cut off all conceptual thought and then work with this? You talk about it. You talk about what you can't talk about. Okay. And so how are we going to do that? How are you going to... What? Maybe we should read the verse together. The verse in Case 31? Okay. Ready? Okay. One path of spiritual light has never been concealed from the first, transcending perception and objects, yet so is it packaged so.

[50:07]

Going beyond devotional assessment, it is near to get at the feasting age. The scattered flowers on the clearing, even at these houses they may come in, the richness of Now what, Linda? So what do you see next in this transformation? The actual merging of your object with the sun. Flowers become honey.

[51:11]

The grass is not as beautiful as it was here. The flowers in a bee's house become honey. And the Do you have thickness of grasses or richness of grasses? Richness. You have richness? I have thickness. Or the nutrients of the grasses. I have an earlier translation. The nutrients or the richness of the wild grasses in the deer, in the musk deer, become perfume. You know, become musk. What's that about? Yeah. All what cause and effect your inquiry and response. And how does that work in your relationships with people, in a daily basis? How does that happen? It's the arising of self on the meeting of others.

[52:17]

Arising of self? On the meeting of others. On the meeting of others, yeah. This seems like it's a perfume of compassion. Perfume of compassion and what is... So the sentient beings, living beings in Buddha's house become honey or become... this scent of compassion. How do we take in what's happening to us into our stomach, so to speak, so it can be digested or converted into honey or perfume or compassion? How does that happen? By realizing that we're of the same essence. Well, I don't think so.

[53:20]

Just sitting upright. So, just sitting upright with what? Emptiness. Pardon? Emptiness. No, no. Sitting upright with what? Sitting upright is acceptance. What? Sitting upright with all beings. All beings is for us the grass, or for us is the pollen. Do bees collect something besides pollen from the flowers? That's the get, right? Or they get the nectar. They get the nectar and the pollen. It's the nectar, right? So for us, living beings are nectar. We don't take the emptiness of the living beings, we take the form of them, we take it in, right?

[54:26]

And we digest it and we turn it into, not emptiness, the digestion is the realization of the emptiness of all sentient beings. And then it gets turned into like honey, right? It gets turned into sweetness and light. Is this the uniqueness of being human? Is this the uniqueness of being human? This function. This is the unique opportunity of the human life, yes. Is this function of taking in living beings understanding them, understanding what the self is by taking them in and producing sweetness and light. Without losing the distinction. Without losing the distinction. Without the distinction, there would be nothing to eat. And you need to know where to put it in.

[55:31]

You can't put it in your ear. Got to know where it goes in. In every relationship, where does it go in? Where does the person come in? There's a proper way for them to come in and an improper way for them to come in. We have to be alert to what is the proper relationship. Should we touch her or not? Should we talk now or listen? Yes? I just saw it as... kind of the mystery that I think exists, like the interrelatedness that we don't quite understand yet, conceptually. And I related it to when you said that nothing happens, and I think maybe in our minds we can't exactly see what's always happening. And I looked at it like you see the scattered flowers and you see them and you don't... I wouldn't necessarily know what they're related to that is happening and that they're related to the bees that make the honey and a surface mystery and a relatedness that I don't think humans are entirely aware of yet.

[56:52]

And so I saw it with that, with the expression, nothing happens. Well, I don't know if I understood you, but I did think something when you were talking. What I thought of is that for me, it's good for me to watch bees interact with flowers and watch them when they go back and watch them make honey. That's good for me to see. But that isn't what I do. That's not my way. But I want my way to be like that. I want to go get something and make it into sweetness and light. I don't think we understand how bees do it from the onset, but what we can understand, which bees can't understand about us, is we can do the same thing with each other. And I think that once we understand how we do the same thing, that we will, if we need to know more about bees, we'll know it. But I think our way is different from bees, but basically I think this is the same process. I think our way is different from musk,

[57:56]

from musk deer. And I don't know, it's our duty, I think, to realize ourselves so that we can protect bees and musk deer. They're already protecting us by being the way they are. And they're protecting us... They're protecting us to practice Dharma. I guess I don't really understand... what you mean by saying nothing happens, then? Well... Did I say that? Huh? Well, that's good. I'm glad I said it. You don't understand what I mean by that? What it made me think of was the lecture that we had here last night and the discussion of what it might mean to take action to care for this earth that we live with.

[59:02]

And I'm wondering what the words, nothing happens, how they relate to that discussion. That's exactly what this is about. It says, you know, nothing happens means make object and mind one dustness. Make it means realize that object and mind are one dustness. If object and mind are one dustness, nothing can happen. There's just one nothing, one dustness. That doesn't happen. Okay? Just let me finish. And then it says, then, once you make things this way, then, good and bad, right and wrong, won't be able to shake you. Then, it will be all right whether you say, there is or there isn't. Then, it will be all right whether you have mental activity or you don't. When you get here, each and every clap of the hand is a true imperative.

[60:08]

So, yeah. So the proposal here, which I think is something like what he's saying too, is that he said sort of modestly, I think that he being Fritjof Capra last night, I think having developing ecological awareness is good in itself. And then Michael's asking, what are you going to do? What did Al Gore do about this or that, right? My faith is that when you develop the proper understanding that then you will do the right thing. And before that, it's speculation always about what's right and what's wrong. But after you realize this one thusness, then you will be able to do the right thing. And the one thusness is realized through relationships, through, you know, putting garbage here rather than there. getting it all in the pot or part of it in the pot.

[61:12]

It's developed through washing dishes and talking to people. That's where you realize this thing. You can realize also by yourself, in your own meditation, watching your mind work with objects. You can do it without talking to anybody or moving a muscle. But then you must take that understanding once you think you have it, you must take your ecological understanding and bring it into a mirror of another person because it's with people particularly that we do this. For us, people are the grass and the flowers that we really finish this off with. Once that understanding is there, then all the actions which we have previously been doing, we've been acting non-stop all the way up to that point, our actions then will be the true imperative. Every clap of the hand will be the true imperative once that's realized. That's the proposal. That's the theory of Buddhism. Or theory of the Zen school, anyway.

[62:13]

Realize the way and then see what you do. In the meantime, you're going to be doing things non-stop anyway. If you watch how you do things and watch how you interact with people, And if you watch every interaction as though this interaction is the opportunity for realizing the way right now. There's no better opportunity. There's nothing which ever said that there's a better opportunity than this. How can you watch this? How can I watch this? How can I realize that this surly teenager who doesn't want to talk to me is... you know, rounding out the moment that I could possibly realize the way. It's a matter of faith. And by studying these situations, the proposal is you will understand the relationship between self and others.

[63:19]

You will understand the self. You will realize the true suchness. And then, every clap of the hand, that's what you're doing. Every sneeze, Every thought, every vocalization will be sealed by Buddha's mind seal. And the whole... That will be the true imperative. Why... I mean, I understand what you're saying about seeing this in other people, but why... Seeing what in other people? Well, in realizing this with each other, with self and other, why do I get the feeling that it can't be realized just with one human and nature? It can be realized between one human and nature. I mean, but that's not the way of Buddhism. It sounded like it was just a set. No. If I'm sitting in a meditation hall and with nobody in the room or 20 people in the room, I'm basically aware of myself and nature.

[64:26]

Nature, you know, wood platforms and people and birds out in the trees and frogs in the pond. That's me and nature. That's the way I feel about it. It's really mind and mind, subjective and objective mind, but, you know, the objective mind is called nature or the environment or the city or the people or whatever, you know. subject-object, self and other, anyway. Once you understand that, then you need to go and talk to somebody about it. Because what you've understood is yourself. But you can't see your own face. So you need to talk to somebody else. So it is a teaching of the Lotus Sutra, and the Zen school very much backs up on this. that only a Buddha and a Buddha can really understand this. You cannot do it by yourself because what you understood was, if your understanding, if it was a correct understanding, it was always that self and other are non-dual.

[65:37]

That's the understanding that all Buddhas have come to. There's no exception to that. But you could be sitting on your cushion and say, oh, I get it. I'm non-dual with all sentient beings. Of course that's correct. That's the answer to life. But do you really mean that? Or is that just like, well, that's a really cool idea and I feel happy thinking it. You know, and I really feel like I understand it and I feel great, I feel liberated by the understanding. But if you go talk to somebody, they maybe can give you a little reflection on that, whether you really believe it. Like they could act perhaps in a way that you might feel like, Oh, I really don't believe it. Now I do think they're not me. I'm not going to be that way. This is a creep. And you find out you didn't really believe what you realized, or you didn't really realize it. Or they might be real nice and just ask you to do something to prove it, like cut off your arm.

[66:41]

Something like that they might do. you know, and then not do that too. They won't always do that, but they might ask you to do something just to test. Or they might ask you to say, you know, say something to express this. Not just say that over again, but say it. Let's have a few words about this. And you might say some words and they might say, no. And you might say, you know, okay, I get it. You're right. And go back and work some more. It looks like, anyway, that everybody needs this confirmation. People have incredible insights. Like one guy, his insight was, he saw up in the sky, you know, a scripture written in silver. Huge silver letters in the sky. That was a great awakening he had. It was authentic. And he was sure after that. But he still went and checked it out with his teachers. And his teacher said, good.

[67:45]

You, you, you is going to be a big one. And he was. That's part of the deal. But it's a minor problem. Once you have that realization, it's not such a problem to go talk to somebody about it. Yes? Yes? When you say that every hand clap is a teaching, every sneeze, every whatever, now it seems that everything is appropriate. Everything is neat. So I understand this, yet nothing's appropriate. Well, I said, when you realize the one thusness, when you realize mind and object are one thusness, then everything you do will be the true imperative. Every hand clap, every little chortle, every little thought will be the true imperative.

[68:48]

Okay? And that imperative, or that appropriateness, or that adequacy is totally, it's so adequate that it doesn't even like back up against some kind of like rigid principle of adequacy or appropriateness. It's completely free. You know, it is like completely free. It really can be like you are. Not checking with anything else other than what's happening. You are really then appropriate, so appropriate you're beyond all ideas of appropriateness too. which is really the way you always are, but we have trouble accepting that because it is subject-object split. Would that then mean that nothing happens? When you realize that nothing's happening, okay, then everything's appropriate.

[69:51]

However, that's the eighth stage. It's not just that you realize that nothing happens and then everything's appropriate. There's something that's appropriate. And that unfolds. That's beyond just realizing this acceptance of nothing happening. Acceptance of nothing's happening, at that point, basically your mind is purified. You're okay. You can go to work now, but you still haven't gone to work. You have to go to work beyond this. That's why, in a sense, I don't know if he meant it, but that's why, that's not really that much guts just to get to that stage. You have to then go beyond that too. Which is what the versifiers are doing, what the poets here are doing. They're going beyond Yunmun even. We have these great teachers, and now we have to try to figure out What they were talking about, we have to go beyond them.

[70:52]

So, going beyond is according to kind, three feet, or ten and six? Yeah. But before we go on, we've got to get to the source of Yuen Mun's mind. So, I guess, I really do want to get to the source of Yuen Mun's mind. I would like to really do that, or have that happen. Yes? When he asks what level is this, then it kind of seems like he's going to work there in a sense, so that he's trying to in some way bring other people into this realm of nothing's happening. Isn't that a way of going to work? Yeah, it sounds like it, doesn't it? Maybe we'll give him up to nine before we're done.

[71:58]

That does sound like that. And then what he said at the end is very kind, too. I find that very helpful that he said that at the end. It really encourages me to study his mind. Yeah, right. That's right. Wow. I have five minutes left. Yeah. And so why don't we think a little bit now about what do you want to do with the rest of your life? Do you want to understand a mind from which appropriate action comes?

[73:04]

Do you want to realize an understanding from which Kindness will come. A mind which no longer has to be restrained because there's something wrong with it, but actually is restrained because minds are restrained by being minds. Janine? Does all that have to do with being in the present government? Yes. And we're restrained by all this. Only by our restraint. Our restraint is basically, and most actively, sentient beings. Sentient beings are what are really restraining us. And they're also the reason why we say, well, gee, I can't just like drop right down into Buddha's mind now and just, you know, I got to, because if I do that, what will happen to these sentient beings?

[74:22]

Will they be cared for? I can't like really, I can't like really have this, I can't like really have this interaction with this person all the way. I got to save a little bit for later because it's, you know, I might never even be able to end this conversation. And I'm on call waiting. And there's a part of me, I feel that if I really do that, relax into this completely, I won't be needed anymore. you won't be needed anymore, or you might not fulfill some responsibility, or people might think you're crazy, or, you know, millions of things you could imagine might happen if you actually took care of what's right in front of you. And the reason for making such a radical shift is because it looks to me like the indications, as far as I can see, are saying that's what you should do if you want to know the mind of these guys.

[75:32]

There's good reason, good encouragement to do that, but when you come up against it, even with the most deep intention to do this, even being quite a wonderful person, as soon as somebody says something, you get spun around and forget it. Even a great person gets turned by the flow of words. Like I've said over and over again, you know, when I was 13 years old, I was sitting in my bedroom and I just realized, all you gotta do is be kind to people and all your problems will evaporate. I mean, just have that be what you do when you go to school. Just be kind. That has nothing to do with worrying about getting good grades or doing your homework or not doing your homework or being better or worse than anybody else or asking somebody else or having somebody like you. You just concentrate on being kind. I could see that's all that was necessary. But as soon as I opened the door of school, I forgot all about it. Thousands of beautiful, ugly faces running around and screaming at me.

[76:37]

I couldn't remember a thing until I graduated from high school. And then there was a little break there. How can we keep our mind on the beads? on this level of activity here. It, you know, is simple but difficult because it requires giving up absolutely everything. You can't hold on to anything. You have to give yourself totally to what's happening. You have to eat this grass and this nectar, and nothing but this, and give yourself completely to this, if you want to make a nice perfume and nice honey, or compassion.

[77:52]

This is called the genjo koan. This is called working with the present manifestation of ultimate reality. This is what is recommended as a way to enter yin-men's... the source of yin-men's meaning. And at that place, then you have this stuff happening. Like, we already said it's not hidden, so then you transcend perception and objects, You go beyond emotional assessment. And then, the way you do it is by the way bees and deer and Buddhas do it. You're doing it the same way.

[78:55]

Okay? When you say give up everything completely to this, is it the same for this that was destroyed in the previous case? No. See, now how, when she says that, how can I stay on the beam? How can I give her words, you know, give, give, give, not her words exactly, but give the experience of her talking to me my full attention and not get, you know, flipped into I don't know where from that place. How am I going to do this? Should I go back now to page 30 and look at that thing again? How am I going to deal with this question? How am I going to stay with this, with yin-yang's, you know, without clinging to it?

[80:02]

What can I do? You know, I can't hold on to it. Don't ask me that question. I'm not ready for that one. No, what am I going to do? So this is what I did. This is what I did. How well did I stay with it? Because what I'm staying with is not something I can think of. It's not a thing I can think of. It's not like a thing I can think of, like I hold on to. How am I going to stay with something that I can't hold on to? How am I going to stay with this intention? even though I keep wanting it to be something I can get a hold of. And then she asked me, is this thing I'm doing, is it that thing over there? And I started looking, whoa! It is just necessary just to go through the process of it, without trying so hard, but just to notice it and be aware of it, and make the mistakes.

[81:08]

get wailing, then come back, just like breathing and meditation. So, thinking of things like that. Eventually, maybe she comes to breathing. I kind of have a mixed reaction to what you're saying. Partly I feel like, of course you're right, and on the other part I feel like, are you trying to make it easy on me? No. Are you trying to make it easy on yourself? What's going on? Perhaps make it easier on myself because I do have that problem. Because what? Remembering to stay on the being. You have what problem? You don't have a problem? Staying true to my intention. You do have that problem? Of course. Yeah. So, in a way, it's forgiving myself for doing that, even though I try hard.

[82:14]

And when I forget, I go off. I remember that I'm off and I come back. And you forgive yourself for being off. Yeah. So we have this one path, right? One path of spiritual life. That's what we're talking about here, folks. But it's past nine o'clock and, you know, there's no end to this path. It's an endless path of spiritual life. So I guess I'm just going to look at myself and see if I can stay on it between here and my house. Okay. or even before, see if I can stay on it until I get out of this room. Where is the path, the single path of spiritual life? Anyway, thank you for looking for it with me for six weeks, and shucks, you know.

[83:23]

Thank you very much for your devotion to this teaching of the Book of Serenity. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Fish.

[83:36]

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