I said that this temple is a place of welcoming, that our practice here is to welcome all beings. So again, I welcome you all. Thank you for coming. And I imagine that Some of you have been coming here for many, many years. And some of you perhaps are here for the first time. And some of you who are here the first time are maybe just learning about the practice of Buddhadharma. And some of you who are here the first time have already been practicing for quite a long time. I welcome the second abbot of Zen Center back to Green Gulch again.

[01:04]

Thank you for coming, Baker Roshi. And my old friend, Paul Rosenblum and Elizabeth Baker. And I welcome, I think, many Korean monks, female monks. Is that right? Yes. Coming here all the way from Korea. You're very welcome. Thank you for coming. I really appreciate your practice of Buddhadharma in Korea. And all of you are very welcome. And I wanted to say that on these Sunday morning talks for a year or so, I have been focusing on the great vehicle in the talks. I'm inspired to concentrate on the great vehicle by an Indian Buddhist text by the great ancestor Asanga.

[02:16]

This text is sometimes called Embracing the Great Vehicle, could be called Unifying the Great Vehicle, or the Summary of the Great Vehicle. So I'm trying to concentrate on the Great Vehicle. The Great Vehicle is an expression for the practice of caring for all beings, to help all beings become free and enlightened. This teaching is for those who wish to live for the welfare of all beings. Beings who have this wish and take care of the wish become what we call bodhisattvas. So this teaching of the great vehicle is to help bodhisattvas help all beings.

[03:22]

Again, I'm walking around this teaching of the great vehicle with you. Some ancient teachers say that we cannot comprehend the great vehicle subjectively. And by that statement I understand them to mean that it's

[04:44]

The understanding of the great vehicle is not something that is had from the side of the conscious being. But the understanding arises through the meeting of the subjective being and what it knows. That in the non-duality of subject and object the great vehicle is comprehended. The subject is involved, subjectivity is part of the life of understanding but it's not just on the side of the subject and it's not on the side of the object. It's not on the side of knowing and it's not on the side of the known. In the non-duality of knowing and known the great vehicle is comprehended. And one Zen teacher, I think in China, said

[05:48]

you may be able to discern the method of teaching the great vehicle, of teaching the way of comprehending the path of benefiting all beings by a poem. This is a poem, again, I think written by a Chinese woman, about a Chinese woman. I will not say it in Chinese. Here's one translation. Trying unsuccessfully to depict the scene, in her chamber she sets forth her sadness. though she calls to her maid, little Jade, little Jade, over and over, it does not matter.

[07:04]

She just wants her man to hear her voice. So I could imagine this woman in her chamber, maybe she's writing some poetry, trying to depict the scene that perhaps she sees out the window. But she's not successfully depicting the scene. And she's sad not to be able to depict the scene. with her writing or her painting. So she writes about her sadness of not being able to depict the seeing truly.

[08:10]

And she calls out, again and again for her maid. Not because she wants her maid to come. The meaning of her calling is not, Little Jade, Little Jade. The meaning of her call is, I'm here. Come to meet me. And in this meeting, we can depict reality. So a Zen teacher said that this maybe gives you an idea of how Zen teachers teach or how the great vehicle is conveyed. But I would suggest maybe this is also how the Buddha taught in India. There was the Buddha and then there were five disciples.

[09:16]

And the Buddha taught, the Buddha said, I have found a middle way a middle way that avoids addiction to sense pleasure and avoids addiction to self-mortification. And many people think, oh, the words of the Buddha, those words are the Dharma that he was teaching. But this poem is suggesting that what the Buddha's doing is saying, little jade, little jade, and what the Buddha's really saying is please come and meet me in the Dharma. And the Buddha's saying that to those monks at that time in India to invite them to meet with the Buddha and in that meeting to realize the Dharma.

[10:20]

And they did. We say, the meaning is not in the words that the Buddha says. The meaning, and what's the meaning? The meaning is the liberation of living beings. The liberation of living beings is not in the words the Buddha said. But the Buddha does say words But the Buddha's words are to call beings to meet and in the meeting to realize liberation. Wonderful words, Little Jade, Little Jade, I have found the middle way which brings peace and calm and nirvana. Those are the Buddha's words. But the meaning of those words is not in the words.

[11:23]

The meaning is when sentient beings come to meet when they hear the words. And so many words have been said. But sometimes the Buddha doesn't speak words. Sometimes the Buddha sends out a light from her forehead and illuminates. But the meaning is not in the light. The meaning is when beings come forth to meet when they see the light. The meaning is the meaning comes forth when we bring our energy to meet. There's a story that an Indian monk whose name was Bodhidharma traveled from India and went to China.

[12:39]

They say he had a mission in life, and his mission was to liberate living beings who were sunk in delusion. To liberate living beings like us who are trapped in their own version of reality their mental story about what's going on. To liberate living beings who are addicted to telling stories to make sense of life and then believing those stories. Bodhidharma's mission was to liberate them from those stories. And he thought The people in China, I think, would be able to understand this great vehicle teaching. So he went to China. But I'm suggesting this morning, he went to China, but the meaning of his trip was not in his trip. He made that big effort and he showed the Chinese people, I'm here.

[13:48]

But he did that called them to meet him. He went to see the emperor of China, supposedly. And then they had a meeting. But in the meeting, the emperor didn't come to meet him. The emperor said, what is the highest meaning of the holy truths? And Bodhidharma said, vast emptiness, no holy truth. And the emperor looked at those words and tried to find the meaning in the words, but he couldn't. And then he said, who is this before me? And Bodhidharma said, don't know. And again, the emperor tried to find the meaning of Bodhidharma's call in the words, don't know. Then Bodhidharma left and went and sat facing the wall for nine years.

[14:57]

Again, he was calling, Little Jade, Little Jade. The meaning is not in his sitting facing the wall for nine years. The meaning comes when somebody comes to meet him. When they see him sitting or they hear about him sitting or they hear him crying in his cave. and they go and they meet him and finally someone did come and meet him and his mission was accomplished I found a middle way vast emptiness no holy many words and gestures by the teachers But the meaning of the words and the meaning of the teacher are not in the words and not in the teacher. The meaning comes forth when the life energy comes to meet.

[16:10]

I imagine Bodhidharma was, what is it, Bodhidharma was sitting in the room of compassion. Bodhidharma was in the room of compassion and he wore the robe of gentleness and patience and he sat on the seat of vast emptiness, no holy. Bodhidharma is not the teacher of Dharma. The teacher of Dharma is the room of compassion and the robe of kindness and patience and the seat of emptiness. There's no Bodhidharma except vast emptiness enrobed in kindness and patience in a room of compassion. And those words are inviting us to enter the room of compassion and put on the robe of kindness and patience and sit on the seat of vast emptiness and meet the Buddha and realize liberation for all beings.

[17:45]

All day long, we're all calling the maid, just like the Buddhist teachers. Someone said to me that, she said that she asked her teacher, she said, are you a Zen master? She asked her teacher. And her teacher said, unfortunately, no. And she was impressed by how emphatically he said it. And then he played a joke on her. And he said, when you go to Gringotts, you can meet a real Zen master. So she came to Green Gulch and she asked, are you a Zen master?

[19:08]

And the person she asked said, don't know. And he didn't mean to copy Bodhidharma, but in a sense he did. What is a Zen master? Those words, the meaning of those words is not in the words. The meaning of those words will come forth when we go and bring our life to the question, what is a Zen master? What is a Buddha? What is your body? Let's bring our energy to those questions. And then the Buddha gave some instruction. What is a phenomena? What is a Zen master? A Zen master has three characteristics. In the great vehicle, everything has three characteristics.

[20:12]

Zen master has an imaginary characteristic. has a fantasy or an imaginary characteristic, has an other dependent characteristic, and has a reality characteristic. The imaginary characteristic of a Zen master is what you see. If any of you have ever seen a Zen master, what you saw was the imaginary characteristic. What we know about Zen masters is their imaginary characteristic. And all Zen masters have imaginary characteristic. However, they have another characteristic upon which the imaginary characteristic is based. The other characteristic is that Zen masters depend on things other than themselves. Zen masters do not depend on themselves.

[21:19]

They depend on things other than themselves in their existence. This is their other dependent characteristic. We know the fantasy. We know the imaginary version of the Zen master. And these imaginary versions of Zen masters are often fantastic. Sometimes super fantastic and sometimes slightly below average fantastic. But we know them. We know them. Then there's another characteristic of Zen masters that we don't know, that's a total mystery. It's the way they just depend on things other than themselves to appear to exist. For example, Zen masters depend on expressions.

[22:23]

They depend on bodies and so on. And then the next characteristic of a Zen master is Zen master has a reality characteristic, which is that what the Zen master is, is completely free of any idea we have of a Zen master. We do have ideas of Zen masters. We do have ideas of Buddhist teachers. We do have ideas about everybody, and that's how we know everybody. But Zen masters and everybody are completely free of any idea we have of them. The way that things exist depending on things other than themselves is completely beyond any idea we have of them. That's the third characteristic, which is also called vast emptiness, no holy. Zen masters are completely free. And in the Zen master, there's a total absence of any idea we have of them, like holy or unholy.

[23:34]

These are the three characteristics of everything, and I'm just choosing Zen masters today. How does it... That's the characteristic of any Zen master. Now, how do Zen masters arise? Well, they arise... Zen masters arise also dependently, and they arise by a meeting. When there's a meeting, when there's a call, and there's a coming to meet... In the meeting, there's a Zen master. And who is that Zen master? They asked Bodhidharma, and the answer was, don't know. Again, you can go back and make up a story about who the Zen master is, but the teacher said, don't know.

[24:47]

And the meaning of don't know, you will find if you go meet If you bring your energy to don't know, and when you meet there, the Zen master will be there. And you won't be able to grasp it, and it won't be able to grasp you. There will just be liberation. But we like to grasp things, so forget about all that stuff, and let's just grasp the Zen master we know. That's not where liberation will be. That's where bondage is. So I once was acting as Baker Roshi's attendant and there was a person who came from Japan and his name was Mumon Yamada

[25:51]

And the word was, he is a Zen master. And I remember going to his hotel with Baker Roshi and visiting him in his hotel in San Francisco. And I saw a person who I understood was a Zen master. I was told that. And I thought, oh, this is what a Zen master is like. And I watched him. And I think he had a calligraphy brush in the hotel on the bed. He had a calligraphy brush and he had ink And he had paper, and he was doing calligraphy, sitting on the bed, holding the paper in his hand, doing beautiful, apparently beautiful calligraphy.

[26:57]

I thought, how amazing he could do it, just sitting in the bed, you know, with the paper in his hand. Maybe Zen masters can do that. Like magic. And he was leaping around the room from his bed to the floor, like a little elf. He looked like an elf. very light and joyful. I was happy with this story of the Zen Master. And yeah. And then I have another story that he came here to Green Gulch and he gave a talk in the library here. In those days, early days of Green Gulch, we often had visiting teachers who would give talks in the library.

[27:57]

He gave a talk to a few students, and afterwards he went with his attendant out of the library over there into the dark night. And... somebody that looks like me, except much younger, was walking behind them. But they didn't know that I was, that person was walking behind them. And the Zen master went over to the side of the road in the dark. And the road he went on is the road you drive in when you come in the parking lot here. He went to the edge of the road there, right over by the stop sign he is. And he lifted up his robes and I heard this sound of water, of liquid hitting the landing on the earth. And he looked around and giggled and ran off.

[28:58]

And I thought, is this a Zen master? Is this his teaching? And is the meaning of the great vehicle in that action? I say no. The meaning is bringing our energy to what's going on here. And then about four years later, no, no, two or three years later, I went to Japan and then, and then later, I think, Bikuroshi came to Japan and we met in Japan.

[30:18]

And we went to a temple, a beautiful Zen temple in the hills above Kobe. And this was one of the temples where Mumonye Mataroshi was teaching. And we went there and we got there on the day of his birthday in July in Japan. Beautiful temple. And we were invited to go to his birthday party. And I think Baker Roshi was sitting to my left and I think I was sitting to his right. on a tatami mat in a beautiful room. And I could see, and then on the other side of the, and we're sitting in a row on tatami mats, there was a man sitting next to me, I think from France or Germany or someplace like that, not a Japanese.

[31:29]

And across, yeah, on the other side of the room was Munmun Roshi and some of his senior monks and supporters. And then beyond him was a beautiful open doorway looking onto a lovely garden. Beautiful scene of looking over at what people said and imagined was a Zen master. And then beyond him what people would imagine as a beautiful Japanese garden, Asian garden. There I was, how lovely. And then they brought the food. This meal was, I believe, like 20-course vegetarian feast. And then they brought sake and beer, which I did not expect in the Zen temple.

[32:31]

In Green Gulch, we do not serve sake and beer, as you may have noticed. Afterwards, they probably won't give you sake and beer. They'll just give you tea. Probably. But suddenly, his monks were bringing sake and beer to Baker Roshi and me. And everybody else on this side. I noticed Mumu Roshi was not drinking. They weren't bringing him any sake. I don't remember him drinking any. They were serving it to us. And they came over and they said, would you like some? And maybe we said, no, thank you. I don't know. I don't remember. But maybe we accept it. You know, sake cups are little. So maybe we held out our little sake cup and then they filled it. And then we set it down, maybe. And then they came over with the bottle again and gestured to drink it so they could pour again.

[33:36]

They forced us to drink the sake. It wasn't just that we would receive it and set it down. They're coming with the bottle again, wrapped with a towel because it was hot, pushing the bottle at us, drink, drink. So we drank. And as soon as we drank, they filled it again. And then if we didn't drink it right away, they would come back soon. And I remember Bhikkhu Rinpoche turned to me and said, if you accept, they'll leave me alone. So I accepted. And they left him alone. And they just focused on me. And they kept at me through 20 courses. enormous amounts were forced on me.

[34:44]

And I was sitting there, saving Baker Roshi and everybody else from intoxication. And I was looking and wondering, what is going on in this world? Is this Zen? Zen? What is Zen? And I looked out at the beautiful garden, you know, how beautiful, how wonderful. And at some point the meal ended and they stopped bringing me those liquids. And Mumon Roshi was going to do some calligraphy. And he was going to do the calligraphy where we were sitting, so we needed to get up and move to the other side of the room. And I did get up and walk to the other side of the room and watch this calligraphy demonstration, wondering, what is a Zen master?

[36:01]

I didn't ask people, is that a Zen master over there doing calligraphy? I didn't ask them. I was wondering, what's going on here? What's the point? Well, of course, the point is to liberate beings. And then when the calligraphy was over, the party was over, and we left, and I was totally amazed. I didn't feel the slightest bit intoxicated. I didn't want to get intoxicated. I didn't want to not get intoxicated. But I drank tremendous amount of liquid. And then we walked down to the hill, down the hill from the beautiful temple where the male monks were living.

[37:12]

And down the hill was another temple where female monks were living. And we went to the door, the front door. We stepped inside and they came to greet us, the female monks. And they were smiling and happy faces. And I looked behind them and I could see the altar of their temple. And I was... It wasn't a blinding light coming from the altar. It was a great warm light I felt. I was totally amazed by the warmth that came from the altar all the way over to the entryway. I just felt... So much energy went into this altar by the nuns, by the female monks. I thought, maybe that's a Zen master.

[38:17]

I'm walking around trying to focus on the great vehicle. Turning away from it is not what I want to do. I don't want to turn away from the great vehicle. But I don't want to touch it either. I want to focus on it without grasping it or forgetting it. If I touch it, I will be burned. If I turn away, I will freeze. I want to take care of it, but I don't know what it is. And nobody, even great Bodhidharma knows what it is. But even though we don't know what it is, if we focus on it, if we remember the great vehicle, The meeting will happen.

[39:36]

What is the Zen Master? Four years later, I think, we went back to Japan together again. Pikoroshi and I and some other people from Zen Center, we went to Japan for a ceremony. where Mumonyamada Roshi was made the abbot of Myoshinji. He was already the abbot of the temple we visited, beautiful temple, and some other temples. He was already the abbot of those, but those were relatively small. Myoshinji is a monastery that has many temples in it. And he was becoming the abbot of that whole monastic compound of many temples, which each one has a compound. And there were thousands of people there for the ceremony. And the emperor didn't come, but the emperor's representative was there.

[40:47]

I don't know if the prime minister of Japan was there, but it was that kind of thing. very big honor for Munmun Yamada Roshi. And we were there to pay our respects to what? To a Zen master? Yes. But I didn't know what a Zen master was. But I went along anyway and they didn't force any alcohol on me. There were too many people. And then, after that, we went back to the United States and we would sometimes hear about Munwanyamada Roshi. And at one point I heard from one of his students, he's getting very old. And then, this is like nine, eleven years after he's becoming abbot of the great temple, I went back to with two people from Zen Center, and we went to visit Munwani Madaroshi.

[41:53]

And I went into the temple, and they brought me into his room, and he was sitting in a beautiful lacquered chair with all of his robes on, And he wasn't saying anything, but he was drooling. Drool was coming out of his mouth. And his eyes were open, but it didn't look like he was seeing anything. And his attendant said, Roshi, Roshi, look who's here from San Francisco. Look, do you remember him? This is, remember Tenjin-san? Here he is. And there were some of his students there, some of his students were there and they were crying.

[42:57]

And I was, I really was struck. I thought, what is a Zen master? Is the Zen master still there? When he can't recognize anybody? He can't put on his clothes by himself. He can't take them off. He can't eat by himself. Is a Zen master there because people are taking care of him? Is that the Zen master? Is a Zen master there because a Zen priest is wondering what a Zen master is? Is that what makes a Zen master? I don't know. What makes anything? I have stories, but I don't know. But I walk around this I don't know. I walk around Bodhidharma's I don't know. I walk around what is a Zen master?

[44:00]

What is a priest? What is a woman? What is life? Walk around that. I don't touch it. I don't turn away. But I wonder and I wonder. And I try not to wander. I try to walk around and stay concentrated on the great vehicle. Every meeting with everybody is very important. Every meeting with everybody is an opportunity to wonder, who is this? What is this meeting? And are we meeting? I don't know. I have ideas. Yes. But that's fantasy. Our actual meeting is completely free of what I think our meeting is right now.

[45:02]

What I think is happening here, I do think something's happening here. But what's happening here is free of what I think is happening here. And I don't know that. But I honor that. I do. I joyfully walk around, I don't know what's going on here. And I don't know who I'm meeting. And I don't know who you're meeting. This is my attempt to take care of the great vehicle. This is my attempt to take care of the practice of Bodhidharma. And all our great teachers who we don't know who they are. But not knowing who they are doesn't mean we don't know them. I should say, it doesn't mean we don't meet them and realize liberation together with them. So wonderful things are said.

[46:16]

Like, for example, people say, please practice Zen meditation. But I suggest that when they say, please practice Zen meditation and liberate all beings, that they're really saying, little Jade, little Jade, please come. Please come and meet when I say, please practice Zazen. I'm laughing because I just thought of a song. And whenever I think of a song I often think, should I sing it or not? I wonder. Elizabeth, when you think of a song, do you sometimes think, should I sing it?

[47:23]

Well, I don't remember it, but it goes something like this. Something like this. 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 hold you tight And longs to hold you tight. To you I'm just a friend. That's all I've ever been. No, you don't know me. That's the song that came to me.

[48:38]

That's a Bodhidharma song. Now, I'm not saying Bodhidharma wants to hug you tight, but maybe he does. But he's polite. He'll ask your permission first. Thank you for coming to meet.

[49:03]

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