What are you thinking of in the immobile state of sitting? Master replied, I think of the unthinking. The monk asked, I think of the unthinking. Master replied, non-thinking. And Dogen Zenji says, this having been confirmed as the great teacher's saying, let us study immobile sitting and transmit it correctly. Herein lies a thorough investigation of the immobile sitting and the down-and-to-the-ear way. Let us study immobile sitting and transmit it correctly.

[01:12]

Herein lies a thorough investigation of immobile sitting and the down-and-to-the-ear way. Although thoughts on immobile sitting are not limited to a single person, Gyeshan is Sometimes thinking is the skin, flesh, bones, and marrow of Dogen. Sometimes unthinking is the skin, flesh, bones, and marrow of Dogen. So Dogen Zenji thinks that although a lot has been said about the state of stillness,

[02:17]

that Gyeshan's comments are the most helpful. I thought about this the other day. Why does Dogen Zenji think that this is an essential artist's argument? Anyway, he really, really liked this teacher. So a lot of respect for him, even though I don't understand him very well either. I'll keep studying. Anyway, Gyeshan Hongdao is not in English. He's a Yakuza in the Yanagihara Shogunate. And I thought I'd give you a little background on this teacher. He's called the Bipolar Archer.

[03:20]

Who do you think he is? Huh? You saw it, right? Don't ask. Let's go with Gyeshan. Let's go with Gyeshan. He lived from 700 to 790. Yakuza in the Yanagihara Shogunate lived from 745 to 823. Of course, he lived in China. But Gyeshan, or Yakuza, I think is very interesting. His training is very interesting because he first, he went to see a technical school. I know something about the canonical teachings of Buddhism. But I've heard that in the South,

[04:25]

they point directly to the machine mind, and see its essence, and realize Buddha. I really don't understand this. I beg you to be so compassionate. Sekito says, this being, no, being just so won't do. Not being so won't do either. Being just so, or not being just so, won't do at all. What about you? Master was at a loss. Sekito says, your affinity is not here. Go see Master Ma. Go see Master Ma. So this teacher, this Zen monk,

[05:29]

Gyeshan, he just happened to live at a very great moment in the history of Zen. He lived at the time when Sekito was alive, and Matsu was alive. And he went to Sekito, and had this dialogue, and Sekito sent him to Master Ma. Before he went to see Sekito, he had already studied Buddhism for a pretty long time, and he had some understanding of the canonical teachings of the sutras and so on. And he heard about Zen. So he decided to take it up. He went to see Sekito and had this dialogue, and then Sekito sent him over to see Matsu. Now, I want to talk about the position that this teacher had,

[06:37]

because if you imagine here, here's the sixth ancestor, the great sixth ancestor of Zen. He had many disciples, thousands of disciples. But his two main disciples were who? Sixth ancestor's two main disciples. Seigen Ryoichi, and Nangako Eijo, or in Chinese, Qingzi and Nanyue. From Seigen and Nanyue, come almost all the Zen teachers. Two big teachers. Each of them had two really outstanding students among their men, too. Nanyue, the main disciple, most of the Zen disciples, is Matsu.

[07:38]

Seigen's outstanding disciple is Shifu, or Sekito. Then comes the generation of Yakuzan, or Yaoshan, who gets to inherit the two main disciples of the two main disciples of the Zen family. So, he goes to be the first, and the first ten minutes to the second. Can you imagine such an auspicious top ten minutes? So, he goes to the second. He scoops up the two vital lines of this one great founder of Zen. So, this is really a great opportunity. And also, our lineage gets to partake of this articulation of the sixth ancestor, and the recollection, or the inclusion of the two streams in this person, Yaoshan. First he visits Sekito, then he goes to Shifu, then he goes to Matsu.

[08:44]

Then he goes to Matsu, and then what happens? Oh. So, he goes to Matsu, following Shifu's instructions, pays his respects, and says four things. The same question. I don't know something about this particular Buddhism, but I've heard that in the South. Now, the South refers to South China, where the sixth ancestor taught. Sekito actually studied the sixth ancestor, and then he studied the sixth ancestor's name, Ichishenryu. He was only fourteen, though, when the sixth ancestor died. The sixth ancestor told him, he said, as he was dying, he said something to this little boy, and the little boy thought he meant, just sit still and contemplate, which he did. And the sixth ancestor's other main disciple, Nanyure,

[09:49]

once saw the boy sitting near the ancestor's tomb, and said, what are you doing there? Your kid is dead. And he explained what the teacher told him. He said, oh no, he just understood what he said. He said, go study with Sekito. The way you would say, go study with Sekito in Chinese is not similar to the way you would say, just sit and contemplate. Did anyone study Sekito? No. Then Sekito went and studied with Seki. But in the south, where the sixth ancestor was taught, they had the teaching of directly indicating the nature of mind. And thereby, by seeing, by realizing the nature of mind, one obtained, through his mind, one obtained Buddha. So he studied the canonical teachings, and he heard that they have a school that actually realizes the mind,

[10:54]

and he came to it. So he comes to ask the Zen teacher, and he says the same question again. Further in the south, he points directly to the human mind, to its essence, and realizes Buddha. I really don't understand this, and I beg you to be so compassionate as to teach me. And master says, sometimes I make him raise his eyebrows and blink his eyes. Sometimes I don't make him raise his eyebrows and blink his eyes. Sometimes raising his eyebrows and blinking his eyes is right. Sometimes raising his eyebrows and blinking his eyes is not right. How about you? As he's learned, the master was not at all. He bowed. Immediately he bowed.

[11:57]

The master said, What truth have you seen that you bowed? The master said, When I was with Sekito, I was like a mosquito climbing up on an iron pole. The master said, You have realized the truth. Guard it well. Your teacher, however, is Sekito. The master stayed with Matsu for three years. Later, one day, Matsu said to him, How are things today? The master said, Having shed my skin from the skin completely, there is only one way out. Matsu said, Your realization has truly been set in the core of the essence of the mind. It has permeated your whole body. Since you have come to such a realization, you can bury your lies and live in the mountain.

[13:02]

Wherever you may be. There will be... ...difference. The master said, Who am I to presume to live in the mountain for the future? Matsu said, Otherwise, there is no constant going without stopping. No constant stopping without going. If you stay here, you may want help, but there will be no help. And though you try to act, there will be nothing you can do. You should make a vote. Don't stay here. The master left Matsu, and went back to his first teacher. So, contrary to my usual way of thinking, he meets his first teacher, gets sent to another teacher, James Enlightenment, and goes back to his first teacher. His first teacher is really a teacher. And, of course, they're both teachers,

[14:10]

but his first teacher couldn't bring about this experience. He goes back to his first teacher. He becomes a successor to Sekito, not a successor to Matsu. And I might also mention that another very interesting case of cross-fertilization here, or whatever you want to call it, is that... So, you can get a picture of this chart, you know. Here's the big ancestor. Here's Dagen. Here's Nangaku. Here's Sekito. Here's Bato and Matsu. And they come together in the Aoshin. And you have a young man, and he's from Matsu. Matsu has three big disciples. Nanshuan, Shifan, and... Baijuan. There's a young man named Yunyan,

[15:11]

who goes to study with Baijuan. He studies with Baijuan for 20 years. And then Baijuan dies, and he goes and studies with Daoshan, this young man named Yunyan, who's gone and gone and gone. So again, you have a person who studies with this side of the lineage, this main branch of the lineage. There's also a person called Huang, of the big ancestor, who studies with this side of Huang, and he comes over and becomes a successor on the other side. And then the next generation happens again, and that's Daoshan, Yangjie, goes on to Yokai, also studies with Nanshuan, another disciple, the same of the three main disciples of Matsu. And he comes over and studies with Yunyan, and he becomes a successor. So you have this thing that repeats three generations in a row, that a person studies with this branch, becomes a successor of this branch, studies with this branch,

[16:12]

becomes a successor of this branch, studies with this branch, becomes a successor of this branch. Three times. Daoshan, Yunyan, and Damshan. Three generations in a row, they bring the lineage together, again, reunite the two main clans, which is what it is, and the process is also a little bit different from what students sometimes think about understanding the lineage. Actually, I was talking to David about this a couple of years ago, but there is horizontal extension. You should work the teaching up horizontally, in other words, among the contemporaries. You should study horizontally, but also vertically. So we have a vertical lineage, but also at various points in the vertical lineage, people in our lineage have brought the horizontal coexistence of the schools

[17:12]

into their studies. So it repeats three generations. This is the three generations which are leading to the foundation of the Soko Zen. You have this integration of the two main branches. This is some background on Daoshan. Daoshan One day, Daoshan was doing Daoshan, and a section fellow said to him, what are you doing? And Daoshan said, I'm not doing anything at all. And the section fellow said,

[18:16]

are you sitting idly? And Daoshan said, if I was sitting idly, I would be doing something. And Daoshan said, you said you're not doing, now what aren't you doing? And Daoshan said, even the sages don't know. He felt crazy in following a person. So we've been living in the same place. I don't know his name. We go along with the flow of nature, just as he does. Even the eminent sages since antiquity don't know. How can a careless rabble understand? Later, the section fellow said,

[19:22]

speech and activity miss the point. Master said, silence and inactivity also miss the point. He said, speech and activity miss the point. Master said, silence and inactivity also miss the point. He said, with me, not even a needle can enter. Master said, with me, it's like planting flowers in a rock. But we don't do that. Later, he lived on Daoshan, or Yaksha, and he taught for a group of disciples there. So this is the auspicious light that led to this man saying, and I'm not asking,

[20:25]

what are you thinking of when you're sitting still? He was saying, I think of the unthinking. After all this auspicious training, what does he do with his time? He sits there and thinks of the unthinking. He was willing to waste his time like this, after all these great opportunities that have appeared. However, as some of you know, he tried to waste his time this way, and not a lot of people figure out how to do it. It is a little bit easy sometimes

[21:25]

to figure out how to get up on your legs, move your platform, and cross your legs, and try to sit up straight. You may not be able to sit up straight, but at least you try to understand how to thrive. But it's not even easy to understand how to thrive when you think of the unthinking. Now, sitting and observing, sitting up straight, and trying to sit still, and observing your posture and breathing, is something you can consciously try to do. But it's not easy to figure out how to throw yourself into the ocean of life. Sometimes, what he was trying to do at first was doing something like sitting,

[22:27]

and observing your posture and breathing. He was sometimes referring to that as carving a track. And this refers to an old story, which you may have heard of. It's a story about an old Chinese guy. I do not know what he said, but he lived a long time ago. He was still alive. He was 2,726 years old. He was a connoisseur of painting and sculpture, and he was a wealthy man, so he had lots of paintings, and he was supported by lots of people. So his house was full of them. One day, a real dragon happened to be in the neighborhood, which inspired him to visit this museum of dragon artifacts. And he flew down to the house,

[23:32]

into the house, and the man painted himself a real dragon. So, there's an ancient tradition of painting as being a real dragon, even though you may like dragons, you may like carved dragons a lot, and that's interesting. But when somebody says, think of the amphibians, this is a real dragon. But, you know, it would be necessary for a dragon to be a bird. So, some of the people I mentioned have been trying to do this, and they've been concerned about what would happen if they were a dragon. So then he said, this is natural, but this is spiritual. He said, never, that you must learn

[24:33]

that both the carved dragon and the real dragon have the ability to bring about clouds and rain. You know, real dragons fly around in the Chinese sky, and create all this. Dragons have actually a problem. They don't just, they have hot air inside, right? They create wind and clouds and rain. Both the carved dragon and the real dragon have the ability to create this. The carved dragon sitting on this pond, sitting up straight, following the rain and so on, that also creates the same thing as the real dragon, sitting on the pond. Thinking of the unthinking. Non-thinking creates clouds and rain,

[25:37]

and sitting, whatever way you try, every little carved image in the dragon creates the same wonderful thing. And he said, he said, neither esteem the distance, neither, yeah, neither esteem nor despise the distance, neither become, no, neither esteem nor despise the distance, rather become proficient at the distance. Neither esteem the near, rather become proficient at the near. So the near is your body, your posture. Don't esteem or don't despise or esteem it, become proficient at this body, at this breath, at this thinking.

[26:38]

And as for thinking of the unthinking, this is kind of far away for us. We don't exactly understand how to do it, but don't esteem it, and don't despise it, just try to get good at it. And I would paraphrase Dogen by saying, loving the posture of Zazen, loving following the breathing, we should proceed to loving non-thinking. We should proceed to loving thinking of the unthinking. Posture and breathing are the form of Zazen.

[27:41]

Thinking of the unthinking is the conscience. Sometimes we say, there's a meditation called, it's also from the Avatamsaka Sutra, Now I am Vairochana Buddha, sitting on a thousand-petaled lotus flower. Upon each petal, a Shakyamuni Buddha sits. This is the contents of Zazen too. Everybody is, everything is Buddha. This is thinking of the unthinking. Someone asked me,

[28:44]

is the unthinking that which thinks us, or is the unthinking thinking? And I say, no, the unthinking is not doing the thinking. How is thinking, is doing the thinking, is thinking through us. The unthinking is how is thinking. You know, H-O-W apostrophe S. The unthinking, or that which doesn't think, is how is thinking. The thinking which how does is called thinking, which how does is called the unthinking, or the thinking which how does is called that which doesn't think.

[29:51]

The way that how thinks, how thinks exhaustively, how thinks thoroughly, how thinks so exhaustively, so thoroughly, that thinking is unthinking. It's not that that which doesn't think, that which doesn't think, it's not that that which doesn't think is not thinking. Thinking in its exhaustive thoroughness is that which doesn't think. And that's the way how thinks. Yoga Vinaya also says, it is not that thinking, the unthinking, and non-thinking are three things, are three stages.

[31:01]

They are one. They are one life. What life really is, is these three. Our life is not just thinking. Our life is not just that which doesn't think. Our life is how is thinking is the unthinking. All three, thinking, the unthinking, and the transcendence of the two, or the dynamic dance between thinking and the unthinking, that's what life is. That's why we're willing to get involved. It's so much like that. So again, he says,

[32:08]

don't, he also says, don't be afraid of the real dragon, but also don't trash the carved dragon. The carved dragon is inseparable from the real dragon. There's no place in the universe, there's no place where there's not a carved dragon. So, don't be against your thinking, don't despise it or praise it, just get good at it. And also, this distant and impossible, almost impossible thing to do called thinking of the unthinking, don't despise it, don't esteem it, just get good at it. Just love it. That's his recommendation. And be careful, you know. Don't, don't get discouraged if you can't figure out how to do it, just keep it.

[33:15]

Try to learn how. One person was saying, talking to me about it, anyway, he made a slip and he said centuries. It may take centuries to learn how to do this. I don't know how long it will take us to learn how to do this. But, anyway, that's the, that's the encouragement to do it. And this is, this is the essential art of Zazen, Dogen Zenji said. And, like painters and sculptors and calligraphers,

[34:25]

you know, when you're trying to do something in your artwork, sometimes you, sometimes you get frustrated. Sometimes you might have a nice piece of jade, even, and slip, and cut it the wrong way, and ruin it, after you did all that work. So, of course, you may just want to pick that piece of jade up and smash it to smithereens. Anyway, it's, it's hard to be patient with this, with this attempt. But artists have to be patient. Zazen artists have to be patient with their efforts, and be generous with ourselves, and

[35:35]

try to ease ourselves into the study of immobile sitting. Ease ourselves into the study of Yao Chan's teaching. Today, it just turns out, everybody's kind of, pretty much awake during this talk. So I just thought I might tell you something that often occurs to me.

[36:41]

Sometimes when I'm giving talks, particularly at the beginning of the talk, not at the very beginning, but after people get a little cozy and warm, people start to, you know, catch up on their nap, on their sleep time. And I always, that leaves me with this sort of dilemma, because, you see, I'm talking about something, and I know that in the 20 minutes or half an hour they'll wake up, right? So I think, well, what should I do? Like, if I talk for three hours, then everybody will be awake towards the last hour and a half, right? But then also, everybody will, most people will be really angry, too. But everybody will be really alert, so I think, well, I, you know, just sort of say something unimportant for about an hour or so. Some good jokes or something. And then give the real stuff when everybody's sort of living. And then I think, well, another possibility is to try to do something entertaining at the beginning

[37:44]

to wake people up, but then they'll fall asleep later. And then also the people who are already awake, well, what about them? But it's kind of a problem, what to do. Anyway. The thing which I often slip into, which makes things simpler, is I just assume that it sinks in anyway, even if they're asleep. Everybody's pretty much awake. Another little miscellaneous thing which comes to mind, just because I was talking this morning about it, which I think applies here, too, is that, you know, we're all here, and in some sense we're here because we have similar interests, you might say, but in another sense I think we're here just because it's our fate. We just happen to have the fate of being in this valley together for a while. And again, the image of the cauldron,

[38:49]

of the vessel, the transformative vessel, in Shakespeare's play, at the beginning of the play, there are these three female beings standing around this cauldron, right? And what are those three women called? Anybody know? The Weird Sisters. You said Weird Sisters, though, didn't you? Yeah. Usually, I think, when people think of that thing, they refer to them as the witches, but actually they're not called witches, they're called the Weird Sisters. And weird means, in Anglo-Saxon, it means fake. They are the triple goddess, and the fate is a triple goddess, it's the fates, right? In Latin, or in Roman, in Roman Pantheon,

[39:55]

they're called something like Tripto Fortuna, the triple goddess of fate, or the Tri Fata. And in Norse, or Anglo-Saxon, etymology too, weird means fake. They're the three fake sisters. Standing around this valley, this cauldron, is the three fake sisters. That's really why we're here, it's just our fate. We have all of our agendas and so on, but if you think of our interests, we don't exactly have exactly the same interests in this situation. So we're fated to be together for three months. Carl, bless his heart, I told him before he came here, I basically told him, you're just not fated to be here. You have no idea what it is, so how can you commit yourself to something when you don't know what it is? Please, come for a month beforehand and see what's going on here.

[40:57]

He said, I know I can do it. I said, I'm sure you can do anything you want to, but you don't know what it is. It was not his fate. So he left. He saw that, and that was good. But I think it's everybody else's fate. And again, there are these three triple goddesses watching over us, making sure that none of us jump out of here. On the other hand, there is another thing, you know, sometimes we talk about a sangha. A sangha is a group of people that are studying Buddhism together, right? And it is possible to have contemporaries, in other words, people who live with you, who are in some sense, of course, we're all connected, right? We're all in the big sangha together, but there's such a thing as, you know, like, adults love children, and children love adults, right? They love us to come and play with them sometimes,

[42:01]

and we love to go play with them. But there's some things that we want to deal with that they don't want to deal with. And there's something that they want to do that we don't want to do. They want to meet us sometimes, but sometimes they get bored with us and want to go off and play by themselves. Also, we sometimes get bored with them and want to go off and play with our adults. So, sometimes there's a time of meeting, and that's wonderful, and we love each other, and other times we want to go play with some other groups. That's also going on, and that's okay. Hopefully the different generations can live together and have a place of genuine meeting, even though sometimes we don't want to be with each other, because we want to be with more our own generation. And as Harold was saying, the children will, as long as it's fun, they'll hang out with us.

[43:01]

And as soon as it stops being, they know that they can go have fun with each other, so they go. But same for us. We sometimes get bored with them, with their repetitive activities. And if you think I'm suggesting to you that I'm an adult and you're a child, I don't mean that so much, because it could be easily the other way around, that I'm a child and you're an adult, because I'm willing to do certain repetitive activities that I find to be fun, that you don't, maybe. Because I don't know who's the child and who's the adult in this scenario, I'm just saying that there are these times anyway when we can meet, have a good meeting, but the fact that we also want to go away and do something else for a while, that's really just naturally part of life, and not to feel that there's something wrong with you if you don't want anymore. Does that make sense?

[44:02]

Yes. No? Yes. I'll give you another example, okay? Here's an example. I made a big effort to come to California to study Buddhism with Suzuki Roshi. When I got here, I made a big effort to get a chance to spend some time with him. And when I got to spend time with him, almost all of that, for a little while, I wanted to get away. Okay. So, it's just... I guess I'm just trying to point to a fact of nature, that there are such things as different generations in various dimensions, and they don't necessarily hang out with each other all the time. Same with men and women. Men and women like to get together sometimes, but some men and some women

[45:02]

don't like to be together all the time. Sometimes men like to go and be with men, and women like to go and be with women. And that's okay, I think, that men and women don't want to be together all the time. But I think... I guess what I'm probably thinking is that I think there might be an assumption in my mind, or in some of your minds, that we should be able to be together all the time. That you should be able to be with your parents or with your teacher all the time. Or that your teacher should be able to be with you all the time. But sometimes your teacher might want to just go, you know, do something that can't be done with you, or you might want to go do something that just can't be done with your teacher. And I think that just... that's okay. Do you understand me? Yes. Suzanne, do you still have some questions?

[46:05]

I understand the general sense of what you're saying, but I still don't think that you're saying you wouldn't want what you're getting now. Well, I'm just saying that I like this stuff that I'm talking about. And you may like it just a little tiny bit. So after I'm done talking about it, you may not want to ever hear about it again until you see me. Okay? That make sense? This is what I think is really interesting right now, this think of not thinking. But when I'm done talking about it, you may go do Zazen and never think of this until I bring it up again. That's okay. Well, there's a line from Shalom Aleichem, even eating pastry becomes tiresome. Right. I think that's what you're saying. You're saying that? But I'm also saying that this type of pastry is one that I like, and you may never have it except when you're at my house. Okay? That's also what I'm saying. But I may have it every day at my house, a little bit. Or I may have it more often than you would like to,

[47:06]

and it's okay. So I'm trying not to pressure you into studying the One Practice Samadhi, even though I keep bringing it up. Okay? I'm just offering it. Okay? That's kind of what I mean too. But I mean that about lots of things that I offer, that I'm just offering them because I find them interesting. Sometimes I slip into thinking, particularly about meditation on emptiness, I think, Bodhisattvas are supposed to be meditating on emptiness, therefore I should teach people about meditation on emptiness. But I try not to think that way so much, because I try not to be teaching about what I think you should know. Rather, I teach what I'm interested in, and you can take it or leave it more. It's not that you should be interested in what I'm interested in, but rather, I'll try to tell you what I'm interested in today, what I think is fun to study, and then you take it or leave it as you wish. But don't feel guilty

[48:07]

if you don't want to do anything with it, or don't want to follow up on it. That's clearly all right with me. However, I can slip into another way of thinking that you should know this, and therefore, after I tell you about it, you should be studying it. But I don't really stand behind that kind of teaching. I'm more of the school of it's a lovely day today, and whatever you've got to do, well, it's a lovely day to do it by two. But if whatever you've got to do is something that cannot be done by two, well, it's a lovely day anyway. So... May our intention equally penetrate every being and place with true care, love, and praise

[49:10]

to do all that we can say and do for all that we can say and do OM NIRDHO SEKHAM GAKSHU NIRDHO NIRDHO SEKHAM YOD [...]

[50:15]

NIRDHO NIRDHO SEKHAM YOD NIRDHO NIRDHO SEKHAM YOD

[50:26]

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