But tonight, we might look at the poem, which celebrates this case. But before we do, is there any question you have before we do that? No? I have a question. You know the term, the expression, at bay? At bay. Does that mean to keep away? So what would the expression, turn at bay, mean? You're turning at bay. What would that mean? It's not like completely away, it's just in its place. Oh, turning at... How is it used? turning at bay, turning at bay to the vengeance of life.

[01:10]

I'm not, if I remember correctly. Maybe turning at bay It's used in hunting, isn't it? The animal turns at bay, faces the hunter. So it turns at bay means turning face the hunter? Turning at bay. Like backed up into a corner or a cliff or something. Turning face the hunter. Pray in terms of faith. Yeah, that would work. When we're quartered and there's nowhere to go. Yeah, that works. Do they bake? They do. They do. One other thing in the commentary that just happens to pop out here is that Jidzal came to confront

[02:42]

his old friend, his old fellow student. And he dealt with this teaching of among the myriad forms, a solitary revealed body. He dealt with that in the same way that they used to deal with when they were young students together. But then Fa Yan challenged him, and he fell apart. And then he kept trying to seek a rescue, and all the more showed his incompetence. One might say a defeated army can't be swept away with a broom.

[03:50]

Does that make sense to you? Does it? Pardon? Yes? Yes? Yeah, what, you know, like, it's kind of like, well, what comes to my mind is, although he was defeated, it's, you know, a defeated army is like, what do you do with it, right? It's not so easy just to sort of evaporate. You've got to, like, kind of, where do you put all this equipment, you know, and stuff like that. It's kind of embarrassing. The Marshall Plan. Yeah, the Marshall Plan. Yeah, I was trying to, yeah. So that's a good example. Zhejia, I mean, Fa Yan sort of established a little Marshall Plan at that point. Marshall Plan is a plan about how to deal with the defeated German Empire after the Second World War in a way that they could recover.

[04:52]

And they did. The Marshall Plan was successful in certain ways. So, Zhejiao and his group were ashamed and withdrew. Fa Yan then had him stay and said to him, stay around for a while. He said, if you kill your parents, you can still repent and reform. But if you repudiate great wisdom... it is virtually impossible to repent and reform. So killing your parents is, you know, in China it's a pretty bad thing to do. In Buddhism it's bad too, but it's a doubly bad Chinese where, you know, your parents are like a veneration of the parents, a very strong part of their culture. But even so, if It is possible, even if you do the worst thing, the worst kind of karma, to repent and reform.

[06:03]

But if you repudiate great wisdom, it's almost impossible. And that's one of the reasons why sometimes the teachers, when they're offering great wisdom teachings, if people don't want them, they don't offer them, because if people repudiate them, it's like you're repudiating the core where you can recover from ignorance. So sometimes it's even worse to turn away from the teaching of perfect wisdom than it is to do any kind of karma. I thought that was an interesting point there. After all, Giza had no reply. Henceforth, he studied with Fa Yan, discovered his own insight, and didn't open a teaching hall anymore. The ancients would respond to the wicked with good, respond to the angry with kindness. After that, they would open them up and awaken them with equanimous Buddha wisdom.

[07:10]

This refers to one of the important lines in the Lotus Sutra, that the Buddhas opened people up, showed them the Dharma, awakened them, and helped them enter the Dharma. help open them up to Buddha's wisdom, show them Buddha's wisdom, awaken them to Buddha's wisdom, and then help them enter Buddha's wisdom. This huso, that monk, Jidzao, succeeded to Paya. But this was still not enough to requite Paya's profound virtue or to purify his own beginner's mind. And by the way, the word there for beginner's mind is that word that Suzuki Roshi used for beginner's mind, Soshin. And you know, the name of Zen, the temple in San Francisco, they call it beginner's mind temple, don't they, sometimes? But the name of the temple is Hoshinji.

[08:16]

And that's because all the Zen center people wanted to name it beginner's mind, using the expression that Suzuki Roshi used, you know, Zen mind, beginner's mind. The term that Sukhārāśa used for beginner's mind, not the same term as hōshin. Hōshin means hōtsu shin. It's short for hōtsu bodai shin, hōshin. And Covincino suggested that we say hōshin rather than sōshin, thought it sounded better. But hōshin is like Like I said, short for hotsubodai-shin, hotsubodai-shin means giving rise to the bodhi mind, which means giving rise to the wish to attain unsurpassed enlightenment in order to help all beings. That's the bodhi mind.

[09:20]

So hoshin or hotsubodai-shin is to give rise, is the birth of that mind. But Sikarashi used Soshin, which is a more beginner's mind than that. It's like a more primitive and childlike approach to Buddhism. You haven't yet necessarily thought of this, discovered this great mind of the altruistic intention to attain enlightenment. You just maybe want to get a good meal at Zen Center. You've heard they have, you know, vegan diet there and you want to come and, you know, live in a nice environment and get some good food. That's beginner's mind. But that's what's in this book here. It's beginner's mind. It's not the hotsu bodai shin mind. It's the beginner's mind, that very simple, still very kind of deluded mind

[10:24]

You're actually giving rise to the Buddha mind there. It's in the seed form. It's the beginning of it, but it actually is Buddha's mind. That's why it's called Bodhi mind. It's just a start, but it actually is the same as Buddha's mind. The other one is just ordinary human's approach to Buddhism. In the commentary right before this point about telling your parents, it says, right in the middle, human sentiments and the power of the way are as disparate as sky and earth. Yes. And it seemed like White Ant is showing human, maybe these are not human sentiments, they say he has kindness. He responds to anger with kindness. Okay, just right there. Kindness is not human sentiment. What are human sentiments?

[11:28]

Sentiment means... I'm just kidding, but it's related to sediment. Sentiment is a customary or habitual mode of your feelings. That's a sentiment. Sentiments aren't the same as feelings. Sentiments are more like habituated, customary modes of feeling. You mean like when you're sentimental? Yeah, like sentimental. It's more like your dispositions of your feelings, of your sentiments, like you, you know, some people, their sentiments is when they think of high school, they go, yuck, that's their sentiment. Other people, when they think of their high school, they go, oh, great, you know. Some people were cheerleaders, so they're really happy when they think of high school. Other people were like, didn't make the squad, and they just feel totally humiliated and almost vomit every time they think of high school. But that's their habit, right? That's a sentiment. It's not like a fresh approach.

[12:30]

So human kindness is not a sentiment. Kindness isn't like you see somebody and then you sort of fall into some habitual way of feeling about them. You kind of like are there for them as they are. That's his kindness, right? That's kindness. Compassion is not a sentiment. In a sense, it's a feeling, but it's not like a routinized habitual feeling. You don't plan beforehand how you're going to feel about the person. It's a dependent co-arising. So kindness is not a human sentiment. Kindness is a feeling that a human can have. But in the Dharma, you can't like bring your habitual modes into the realm of Dharma. You have to leave them behind and enter the place where feelings will still arise, but they're not the ones you drag into the situation by habit. That would be a sentiment. So your sentiments can't be brought, human sentiments in the sense of not feelings that humans can have, but the fact that humans usually, a lot of their feelings are conditioned

[13:36]

They feel certain ways about people, and that's pretty much the way they feel about people. And other people, they feel other way, and that's kind of the way they feel about them. And they keep being the same way about certain people. Year after year, day after day, minute after minute, that's a sentiment. But to meet someone and have a feeling arise, that's like, just happens because, you know, there you are together. That feeling is not necessarily sentiment. That is a source of kindness. That's what I think. Human sentiments have to be given up. and enter into the sentiments of reality, whatever they are. Thank you. So the Chinese character, I don't know where it is, but probably the combination of human with whatever that character is, even though the character might not be sentiment, the combination of that, I would guess, human with feeling means that human beings, generally speaking, their feelings are not just fresh, but they're habitual.

[14:42]

But, you know, like past circumstances, they're not fresh. Okay. So, ready for the verse? So this is a verse. It says that Piantong just uses Zhejiao's question and Fa Yan's final statement to versify this case. Naturally, right from the beginning. All right. Naturally, right from the beginning. Okay. Transcending. So the first statement is a nice little statement. You can just sort of install this in your heart if you want to. Separating from thought or leaving thought behind.

[15:51]

See Buddha. So if you're transcending thought, Character there is that character, li, which means to be separate from, or to depart, or be distanced from. Which also, another way to say it would be, you have thought arising, so separate from means you don't grasp it. So you have thoughts arising, thoughts arising, thoughts arising, just like this, right? When you don't attach to anything that's arising, you see Buddha. Not out there, not in here. So that is Buddha, actually, not attaching to thought. But that which is Buddha sees Buddha. Buddha sees Buddha. So staying away from thought, transcending thought, departing from thought, not attached to thought, see Buddha.

[17:02]

And this is supposedly kind of a quote from the Complete Enlightenment Sutra. And there was a translation of it, a new translation of it done. And I wanted to look up to see if I could find that expression in the translation, because it says in the commentary that that expression you know, departing from thought, see Buddha, that it wasn't a prologue, so I thought it would be easy to find. So I went into the office and I asked the people in the office if they had a complete enlightenment. And they said they didn't. They were all out. And I told them that I thought I saw it in the office a while ago. And they said, no, we don't have it anymore. And one of the office people said, I think maybe it's in the closet. So I went in the closet, I looked around, I said, I see almost everything in here but Complete Enlightenment.

[18:12]

And they said, we would like to sell you Complete Enlightenment if we had it. And then I think somebody came in, maybe was it Miffin, and said, oh, here's Complete Enlightenment. So I got it. But I couldn't find this... They didn't translate the prologue, so I couldn't find... It's not complete. I couldn't find the... Yeah, it wasn't complete. I would ask for the money back. You would ask for your money back? It's not complete. It's a robot. Now, there's one person here who is very... excited about being called on. Yes? Hello. I was wondering, because I thought the verse was kind of provocative, whether you could have, like, a reading with the whole verse before we get too far into talking about it. Oh, you want to read the whole verse? I want Jeremy to read it. LAUGHTER LAUGHTER Sometimes greatness is forced upon you.

[19:23]

Transcending thought to see the rip. Hiking down in Adam reduces scripture. The family law pleasant with becoming. Who establishes a school? The moon follows the boat along the river's silken clarity. Spring rises along with the grasses into the green and burnt patches. A facing... not effacing. Listen with care. The three paths have become overgrown, but it's still possible to return. The pine and the chrysanthemums of yore are still aromatic and fragrant. By the way, before I forget, I wanted to show you this t-shirt. This is a t-shirt from the year of the ox. I guess it was last year, right? Was that last year? 1997 was the year of the ox? Huh? 97. So this is 1997. So there's the ox, and what it says there in Chinese is, in the midst of the myriad forms, a solitary revealed body.

[20:30]

Do you see it? In the bookstore? I checked and I tried to get, you know, I thought maybe they had some left over so I could give each one of you one. But you'll just have to use your own. Sure. Thank you. You are all ready! Thank you. Could we have that redone? We could have it redone. Take orders. Take orders for the colon class. How many people want one? How many people want one? Who doesn't? Who doesn't? Who doesn't? Okay, that's true.

[21:33]

Wow. The original politically is in the possession of a tea house, so who's going to do a little fundraising here for the tea house? Yeah. I'd be willing to negotiate. All right, so how should we do this? Maybe there'll be a report next week from Maya or somebody. I think Stuart's the only one who doesn't want one. He has two of them already. Okay. And I can take these and sell them all over the world. Okay, so breaking down an atom to produce a scripture.

[22:38]

This is from the Avatamsaka Sutra, where it says, in each atom there's a scripture. You break an atom open, there's a scripture inside, and the scripture's the same size as the universe. Okay, so. I mean, they don't say atom. Well, they say dust moat, dust particles, dust particle. Inside of each dust particle, if you break open it, sort of you smash a dust particle, break it open, there's a little scripture in there, and if you look in the scripture, it's actually, the whole universe is in the scripture. That's what the Avatamsaka Sutra says, someplace, which I don't know where it is set at. So it says breaking down a moat reviews the scripture. It actually says breaking down a particle of dust. What's a particle of dust? A particle of dust is a particle of dust, but also means everything you're aware of. Dust, generally speaking, means objects of awareness. They get dust, like dust in your eye.

[23:42]

When you see things as objects, when you understand things as objects, then that obscures your vision. If I look at Eileen, I think she's an object, and I can't see reality. because she's in my eye. But if I understand that she's not an object, then I see reality. And where's reality? When you break down Aileen, there's a scripture there, same size as the universe. So in other words, everything teaches you Dharma if you don't see it as an object. You've got to break down the object You don't like to destroy the person. You just break down the objective quality, the externality of what you're seeing. You understand that it's not something out there. It's actually something inseparable from your subjectivity. You say you break down the sentimental aspect.

[24:49]

Yeah, you break down your sentimental aspect. Sentimental is usually used for feeling, but you break down your sentimental philosophy that things are out there. Your habitual way of feeling like things are out there, you break that down and you see that everything is teaching you about the universe. So it's kind of the same thing as the first sentence. I seem to remember something originally originated in Buddha, which is the world in a grain of sand. Blake. Buddha Blake, Blake Buddha. Yeah, somehow I guess he stumbled upon that over in England too. I guess they had the same situation there. Huh? I remember this quote that you said some years ago from Ben Okri about sentiment curing yourself.

[26:03]

Do you remember that? That if life doesn't cure you, sentiment death will. I guess I was a kid at this time. You can't take your Cadillac to heaven. How does that go? You can't go to heaven in a Cadillac. Something like that. No, you can't. No, you can't. You can't go to heaven in a Cadillac. [...] Cadillac will bring you back. Come on. Right, so you can't get to heaven in a sentiment, in a sentiment. How about, I'm going to take a sentimental journey, I'm going to take a journey home.

[27:15]

If you break that sentiment down and don't make it objective, even a sentiment, then sentiment can work for you. Anything, even a habit, When you become aware of it, if you become aware of its objective quality, then you can become aware of your sentimental attitude towards that object, even that sentiment. Fundamental sentiment is that we think we're separate, that we have a subjectivity and awareness here which is separate from what it's aware of. that there's a subject or a self here which is separate from what it's aware of. But there is no such thing as a subjectivity separate from an objectivity. Whenever subjectivity arises, objectivity comes right with it. There's no such objectivity waiting for subjectivity to come meet it. They all come up together. So when things are always together, they're really one thing.

[28:16]

At least that's Some people say that. What is Ailin? What is Ailin? For you? For you you mean? You. Ailin is you. there's just Eileen and no you in addition to Eileen. That's what Eileen is. So either Eileen is you or for you there's just Eileen. So when for you there's just Eileen, then you won't identify or disidentify with Eileen anymore. Then there won't be any there or here or in between and that will be the end of suffering. Remember? Do you remember that teaching?

[29:19]

to teach the children teaching? The family law, presently becoming. And that presently becoming is the expression You know, genjo, as in genjo coin. So it's the genjo presently manifesting family law. OK? The presently manifesting family law. Family law, family teaching. or it actually says family, in this case it says family law or family dharma, family teaching, presently manifesting family teaching.

[30:23]

So that's like, what's that? That's this case, right? This case, presently manifesting family style. This case is a koan, okay? It's a koan. The koan is a family style. It's a koan. It's a public example of the family style, of Fa Yin's family style. So this is a presently manifesting family style. This is a presently manifesting koan. This is a Genjo koan that we have here. This is a story about family law, family teaching. So when he talks about it, he's talking about this case, but he's also talking about right now. So is, I guess, for you, is this case manifesting right now?

[31:34]

this case, this family teaching of Pali, is it currently manifesting or is it being realized right now? Again, you can take it in both cases. The case we're discussing, the presently manifesting case we're discussing, and also right now is it manifesting here? And another nuance here is that the origin of this expression, , another way it was originally meant when it was first said was a teacher was talking to a student about a story, a koan, and the teacher said, Chinese teacher said, . So they're talking about a koan, teacher and student are talking about a koan, or teacher and teacher are talking about a koan, and the teacher says, the koan is manifested right now.

[32:45]

They're talking about it, right? He said, that's what's going on right now, he said. In other words, this is the solution to the koan. In other words, this koan has been understood. This koan's understood. It's finished. Koan's finished. It's understood. Or this is the understanding. See how you see it? This is the understanding. The koan's understood. Usually when we say the koan's understood, we might think, oh, I understand the koan, rather than This is the understanding of the koan. Or, this is the koan. This is it. You want to know what the koan means? What's going on right now is what the koan means. Okay? That's the way the expression originally, it was like a conversation, right?

[33:50]

Now it's translated as various ways, you know, like manifestation of ultimate reality and so on, but the original thing they were just talking you know and he said that they're talking about the koan which is a public case of ultimate reality koans are public are we're taught we have stories here to discuss ultimate reality so i'd say ultimate reality is understood it's finished we got it the story is understood the public case is finished let's go on to the next one So he's saying, kind of rephrasing it here as the family dharma, in other words, this koan is presently manifested. And then he says, who establishes a school? In other words, family style, this koan is presently manifested.

[34:53]

Who's going to make this family style into a school? People do that, right? Then they make it into a school. Who's going to do that? And a more literal translation is, okay, this family style, this style of teaching is presently manifesting. Who's going to lay out one's front garden? Who's going to establish a garden? It's another way to talk about a school. Okay? You understand the teaching? When you make a garden where people can come, you know? So like, what the Maya's trying to do is raise money for tea gardens so people can come into the school, the tea garden. You know? Actually kind of bad thing to do. Yes? Yes?

[35:53]

or more literal interpretations, who sets up the gate? Who sets up the gate, yeah. Who sets up the gate for the school? Who establishes the school? Or who sets up the gate by which you'll pass to demonstrate that you're at the school? Right. The front gate. The front garden. Okay. Now we come to this thing about the moon... Yeah. Might be off. So, I don't know, I don't know what my God actually means, but like, you know, the gateless gate, is that like the realization of ultimate reality? Is the gateless gate the realization of ultimate reality? Sure. You can't pass through it because you're already there. Maybe don't. Uh, The moon follows the boat along the river's silken clarity.

[37:02]

The moon follows the boat along the river's silken clarity. Okay. And then that kind of goes with spring rises along with the grasses into the green in the burnt patches. So one analysis of this is that the moon and the spring are images for the single revealed body.

[38:08]

So the moon chases or follows the boat. in the boat is you know all different forms in the spring enters the grasses grasses are also all different forms and So I don't know which image to work with first. I'll maybe just go in order. This is our characteristic of this Chinese poetry is oftentimes when Chinese Zen people make poems, they often use part of an old poem.

[39:22]

You're kind of supposed to use an old poem. In some ways, you're not supposed to. make it entirely new. You're supposed to actually pull something from something ancient and have that in there, and then do something new. In writing dedications for ceremonies, when you're making them up yourself, you often take something ancient, some ancient expression, and then put something new in with it. So this poem is taking part of an old poem. The old poem is, the river cuts through the hills and disappears. The river cuts through the hills and disappears. Okay? The spring enters the burnt patches of green. So this one poem is kind of like, is part of the material for these next two lines. Okay?

[40:24]

The river enters the hills and disappears, and spring enters the burnt patches, green. And as I mentioned, that's happening now all around Green Gulch. We have these burnt patches, this grass that got burnt last spring, and green is starting to come up through the patches. You can see it. You have to get up close. From a distance, you see the burnt patches, but if you come up close, you can see there's little green sprouts under all the burnt grass. The burnt grass was once green, but it's not green anymore. Okay? So once upon a time, there was life, and then it got burned. How did it get burned? From the sun. What's the sun? It's kind of like the mind looking at things.

[41:37]

It burns them. When the mind sees objects, it's like the sun and it burns the grass. So things happen, you know. And then When the mind sees them as objects, they get burned. Like the sun burns the grasses, which were originally green. That happens. Nature is kind of like showing us what we do. And we show nature what it does. But really it starts with us. So because we burn the grass in our mind, the sun burns the grasses on the hills. But actually, new grasses come up again. And also, the river flows through the hills, but the moon shines on the boat and chases the boat

[42:48]

When the boat may disappear, but the moon chases it. The moon's on the river all the way. Even though we can't see it anymore, the boat seems to go away down the river. Why? Because it's out there. Right? But the moon doesn't lose the boat. The moon chases it down the river. The river's never without the moon. But we see the boat disappear down the river. but actually it's always in the light. I was wondering if it was important that the boat have a human being aboard, because it is beings, you know, that make these trees trees, so they're not just things, sort of things, for whom the moon is, I'm not sure, for awakening. Depends on what kind of person you're going to have aboard. If you have a sentimental person, That person gets lost in the, you know, that person goes out in the, you know, through the hills and they lose that person.

[44:00]

That person becomes very desperate because they can't remember the moons on them the whole way. You have an unsentimental person, that person saves the boat whether they're on it or not. We need some unsentimental persons who understand That no matter where the boat is, the moon's on it. Where's that go? Windless, weightless. The abandoned boat. And this goes back, by the way, to case 59, the verse there. has this abandoned boat in it. You might check that one out. Not right now, just for later. Case 59. Look out, there's an abandoned boat back there. The boat, the abandoned boat is swamped in moonlight.

[45:01]

The boat that you're attached to, somehow, you lose track of that one being swamped in moonlight. Yeah. Yeah. I'd like to say something about the line that includes spring, the line about spring. Yes. I feel the art in this poem is that the words of old are being used, words of fathers, so to speak, in others. But something, at least to me, something very different is being expressed. The old poem, spring enters the burned patches, mama green. Do you think it sounds like causal power, something like a causal effect? Spring. Spring enters the burned patches equals green. Maybe I can compare it with the poem, the actual poem here in the case.

[46:12]

I feel the artist and seemingly their words suggest the objects. It's kind of an alliteration, like spring, grass, green patches. And this feels more like all of this dependently coalescing. There's this shift from the old line, maybe thinking in terms of all the effect, It says that spring rises along with the grasses, but the spring is nothing itself separate other than the spring is the grasses. It's not something extra that's arising with the grasses. Yeah, it is different. And that's what Dodin says too, right?

[47:24]

You know, spring is the flowers. It's not like there's spring and then flowers come up. It's like one, two, three, flowers. That's spring. And what is winter? Snow. but we tend to think there's winter and then it snows. That's kind of one of our sentiments. Rather than like winter. Spring. Craft. And also, where it says the burnt patches, it's a direct quote. In the original, it said, enter burnt patches.

[48:24]

This one says, just burnt patches. The first one says, enter burnt patches green. This one says, burnt patches green. Take the word enter away. But it's the same characters. So direct quotes. Pulling out these ancient chunks, putting them in. Now, are these ancient chunks burnt grasses? Maybe somebody thinks so. And now the green comes up through them. This is that. Now, are these things on the paper here, are these burnt grasses? Is the green coming up? Now if these aren't burnt patches, that's fine too. If this is like, this whole case is just like all totally green, that's okay. Like somehow it's just all coming up for you, that's fine.

[49:28]

It's like the Drake slipping case, right? That it's just, it's only burnt grass or green grass depending on how you relate to it. Right. But, there sometimes is a phenomena of burnt grass. There's that too. So, either you look up in the hills, sometimes you look up in the hills and it's just all green. Right? You don't see any burnt grass. The green has just overwhelmed the burnt grass. The burnt grass is like, just like what they call mulch for the green grasses. You don't see any burnt grass. It's down there, but you don't see it. Then later, because you see the green, it gets burnt. Excuse me, summertime, I burned you. Sorry. I couldn't help it. You were so lovely, I looked at you. Bye-bye. Autumn. California, winter comes fast.

[50:33]

Called rain, in our case, down here, which means now green. Pretty soon, they'll just be green. They won't see the burned grasses anymore. But this is part of the cycle, you know, is that there is, there is seeing things, burning them, and then there's spring there. So how does this relate to this case? How does this spring, rising with the grasses into green, in the burnt patches. How does that relate to this case? Yes? I thought holding up a whisk was sort of a burnt patch. Yeah. Holding up a whisk is a burnt patch. First of all, there's a burnt patch of this.

[51:35]

First of all, the burnt patch is amid the myriad forms, solitary revealed body. That's a burnt patch. Could be. Or do you think it's just green? So one person saw it as burnt and he raised something else burnt. Then, Fa Yan says that you could say it's green or not. What do you think? Is it green? Hey, you did that before. We did that. We had that. We did that before. Is that green? Or is that just rain? Huh? Green? Green. Okay. Or is it rain? I don't know. Anyway... Depends on how you look at it. Then, what does he say? He says, you know, we had this before. How about you? What does he say? What does he say, Carol? I forget. He doesn't say anything.

[52:37]

Oh, he's just... I can't remember because he didn't say anything. He didn't have anything to say, right? Poor baby. Couldn't come up with any greens. Let's have some green, please. Some green. No green. I can't see any green at all. I didn't even know this was burnt grass. I thought this was like regular grass that you're talking about here. I mean, I thought that whisk was pretty green. It was once. It was once, yeah. Maybe. Maybe. We don't know. We weren't there. Fa Yan couldn't see the green, so he split, right? But we don't know. Maybe it was green. Depends on who's look. But the kids couldn't see the green. They couldn't see the green. When they looked at it, it was like, oh, the teacher's thing. So they grabbed for burnt grass.

[53:38]

The teacher's teaching, right? They killed it. Jizel was so used to burnt grass, He didn't know any better. He was used to eating straw. He wasn't into the delicate little green shoots that Fa Yen had gotten some of Dietz on. So anyway, he comes back. So then Fa Yen says, OK, we'll bring this up. See if it's burnt grass for this guy. So he brings up the whisk. Looks like that's burnt grass now. Oh, yeah, he sees this burnt grass, but there's still some possibility of green here. How about some green? Show me the green under your whisk. Show me the mold in your whisk. He says, I couldn't see anything green. Poor baby. Okay? Okay, I'll give you another chance. Ready? Concerning all this stuff here, all this burnt grass, okay?

[54:39]

Okay? Wiped away or not wiped away? He was referring to another conversation, but anyway, wiped away or not wiped away? And the ancestors didn't wipe it away, right? So he said didn't wipe away. Burnt grass again. Yes, Martha? If he had held up the whisk after that, would it have been burnt grass? Or would it have been derivative of the growth? You mean the second time around, if he had... He said, what about the myriad things? And Giselle raised the broom... I mean, raised the whisk again? No, not again. The first time he raised it. The whisk. Then, instead of before. He did raise it the first time. Say he didn't raise it. In the story, he didn't raise it there, but after that, Well, it depends on what he did. So what did he do the first time? What did he do?

[55:43]

You mean that he did some other kind of like dead thing? Some other kind of burnt grass thing? Just relationship. How the whisk could have been used. If he passed up on the whisk the first time, then he might have been able to use it the second time. Yeah. Right. Well, yeah, because then the second time it wouldn't have been the way they did it before. It would have been ridiculous probably the second time. Twice. What? What if you'd done it twice? Yeah, what if you'd done it twice? The second time, it might have worked. Because, right? Because he said, well, what about this stuff? A face or not a face? In other words, here's another trap for you. I already went through this. You weren't here. But you heard about this story. It's a face, not a face thing. Yes. Would it have been possible for him to hold up the whisk the first time it happened and not eat burnt grass? It seems to me that... Would it have been possible?

[56:46]

Yes. Okay, thank you. But it wasn't possible. Not this time. Because he said... Because he said, well, that's what we had before. How about you? If it really was alive at the time, doing exactly the old-time thing that the teacher used to do, if it was alive, then he could do his thing. But it wasn't alive, so he couldn't do anything. He had nothing. It was dead grass. He didn't see any green grass, so he asked for the green grass. Palyan asked for green grass. He didn't have any. Just, you know... Well, he got the green grass of him not being able to talk. That was pretty green. He was shut up, the big master. The big head monk couldn't say anything. That's pretty green. So, like, if Klaus has a ceremony and can't answer any of the questions, that'll be very green. People will remember that ceremony for a long time. He had no answers. If you want to see it, come. Totally green. None of those old Zen phrases, you know.

[57:48]

Just sit and stuff like that. Keep practicing. He didn't say any of that stuff. What did he say? He didn't say anything. It was really green. Okay, so there you are. He couldn't say anything. So then he says, well, okay, we've got these myriad forms. Now, do they get... do the ancestors wipe them away? Do they disregard them? Do they efface them? Or not? This is going to... this is harder than the first question. You can't go to an easier question once in a semester. You have to go to a harder one. So what does he do? He says, he falls into this useless conversation. He says, not a face. And then another piece of burnt grass comes up.

[58:52]

This one, two. Another piece of burnt grass. You don't get this? That's green. Well, was it green? But it looked like burnt. It looked burnt. It's an old one. But since Farian did it, it must be green. It must be some green there. It must be green because he already said the old was burnt. And then the students say have faced. And then he says the same expression, right? The same, pulls up the big wad of burnt grass. There are five little green shoots. Yeah, there are five little green shoots. Five little green shoots. And the original thing, there's six. So, you know, there it is, you know, it's like, in the burnt grass, okay, the spring's entering, right now the spring's entering the burnt grasses, ladies and gentlemen, it is happening.

[60:23]

All the burnt grass of your entire life, whatever, any burnt grass you got, guess what? Spring's entering the burnt grass of your life. Check it out. Also, these little boats that have disappeared into the mountains, the moon's shining on them all the time. Check it out. You can't see it, maybe, but it's there. The moon's there, the spring's there. So then he says, Wiping out, not wiping out, effacing, not effacing. Then he says, listen with care. The Chinese is interesting too. I looked it up. It has a character for listen and it has another character which means to repeat in order. It means listen, listen, listen. Effacing, not effacing. And then underneath it, it says, under facing and not facing, it says, turning must go both ways.

[61:33]

And then it says, under the listen, listen, it says, can't be too meticulous about things. Where does it say this? Where do you say it? Yeah, it's in Chinese. It says it underneath it. Added saying. Oh, back here. Added saying. Between the lines of the verse, it says, Come on in. Or do you want to stay up there? Want to stay there? No, I'm coming. Coming? Okay, good. Facing, not effacing. Underneath, listen with care, it says, can't be too meticulous about things. And you know, It can be. You can be too meticulous. So one of the problems of Soto Zen is that you can be too meticulous. Sometimes we're too meticulous. Not that any of you would pick up on that or anything. Just in case you're thinking of becoming too meticulous, being like the leader in the group of being meticulous, you can be too meticulous, so be careful.

[62:45]

But I wish somebody would be too meticulous and we'd get on that one. Actually, some people do get too meticulous. It's nice. Thank you. What does erasing mean? It means wiping away. Is that the only thing? Erasing. The Japanese or the character? The Chinese character. The Chinese character. Does it mean, what are some other things? That it could mean? Uh-huh. Besides wiping away? Uh-huh. Erasing. Disregarding. Disregarding. Scattered. Scattered. So we have these burnt patches. We have these old examples. Okay? We have the old example. So do we face the old examples or not face them? We look carefully. We study them carefully. We look at them carefully until we see that the koan is happening now.

[63:50]

So, here it is. You should study this koan until you see it happening now, greenly. See this koan happening greenly. You see the first part of the koan, you see among all the things happening, you see the solitary revealed body. Also you see, how about you? Can you watch yourself reveal it? You see your manifestation of it. Or you remember other people's manifestation of it, and then you do yours, and you keep moving forward that way. All these new spring versions of this story which is this moment always, whatever this moment is, this is the green of this case. What did that shirt say again? What does it say?

[64:57]

In English, you mean? English. It says, in the middle of myriad forms, A solitary, revealed body. I wore this in China and asked Chinese people what it meant. It's interesting what they said. One of them said, it means that this bull, no matter what happens, it's always just like being itself. That's one interpretation. There are some other ones. They were speaking in Chinese, so it's hard for me to understand what they were saying. They liked it. They were happy to see this bullet. Which bullet? I think the teacher, the Chinese bull, not me.

[66:07]

So again, the commentator says, according to Yip Tien Tung's verse, a facing and not a facing is extremely coarse-minded. That way of talking is extremely coarse-minded, according to his verse. Now, I guess he's reading it when he says, if facing not a facing, listen with care. This is his way of saying that that's extremely coarse-minded, according to the commentator. I didn't see that, but it is extremely coarse-minded. the commentator says, but I don't get it. This thing is a little bit coarse-minded to me. But this statement is also related to what I just said, you know. You don't disregard the old stories.

[67:19]

When you write a poem, when they write poems, they use old examples. They don't disregard the old examples. But also they have to do something new. We have to recognize we have to use the old and we have to find the new. We can't get rid of the old. We have to recognize that we have looked at things and killed them. We have to confess that we've done that. This is our world. There are sentiments, there are habits, and the world has died because of this. But there can also be not a facing, a new birth. Yes. And then there's one more line, two more lines. Ready?

[68:21]

The three paths have become overgrown. pine and chrysanthemum of yore are still aromatic and fragrant. It sounds redundant, but aromatic means they still have a smell. They still have a smell. These pines and chrysanthemums of yore still have a smell and they're fragrant. Yes? Go ahead. The book reads, the three-part book reads, the three paths have become overgrown, but it's still possible to return. I'd offer an alternative reading on that, which is, when the three paths are overgrown, then one can return. Okay.

[69:28]

So this relates to an old story, right? About this guy who went away for a long time and came back home to his home, in his garden. And his garden was overgrown. And the garden had pines and chrysanthemum in them, and they were still there. But there were three paths, even though the garden was overgrown, he could see three paths running through the garden. So this is, he actually came home, he returned home and found his garden overgrown. and the pines and the chrysanthemums were still there, and there were three paths in the garden. So he wrote this poem. The three paths are overgrown, but the pines and chrysanthemums remain. How does the story of Fa Yan and the elder relate to these verses?

[70:31]

Relate to what? These verses. How does, how does it, you know, we got, in other words, what are these, you know, what, is there any new information in these last two lines about this story? Those myriad forms. Hmm? Those would be the myriad forms. What are the myriad forms? The, um. The vegetation? The past. The past. Yeah, the past. The past. And the past. The past and the past. Mm-hmm. So, I just, this is new to me, though. I mean, some senses sound similar, that you have this overgrown situation, again, it's like burnt grasses or overgrown situation, but you can still return. In other words... Hope springs eternal. Yes, there's possibility for spring. Yes? Rahu's... Interpretation I'm giving has a little bit of a twist to it in that I think that when they talk about the three paths, it's an allusion to the three worlds.

[71:41]

And the three worlds are very often recited by Zen masters. They say, in the three worlds, the Buddhists do this and that. Yes. And the three worlds are the past, the present, and the future. So I think that when one gives up the past, the present, and the future, when they're gone, then it's possible to return completely to the original state. And in the original state, the chrysanthemums and pines of yore are still smelly and fragrant. Yes.

[72:43]

I have a question about at the top of this page on the left where it says that this was still not enough to purify God's virtues or to purify his own beginner's mind. I'm wondering how you understand that it wasn't enough to purify his beginner's mind in light of the verse. Well, the verse, does the verse refer to the story? Yeah. So who is the beginner's mind? Hm? Yeah. So he declared Phaon his teacher. He succeeded to Phaon. Yeah, but in the story. So a simple approach is he couldn't require the virtue because he lacked in beginner's mind?

[73:52]

Yeah, it seems like that's what he's saying. So you have a question about that? Does that not make sense to you? Yeah, well, the way I was understanding this verse, the pion presentments, if you are still aromatic and fragrant, that beginner's mind is always there. Yes. Was there a deficiency in Jesus' practice that somehow... I mean, what is it to purify the beginner's mind? I think I'm asking. And, yeah. If he's feeding the pion, it seems like... he would have done whatever purification he needed to do. I just don't understand that it wasn't enough to purify his beginning of mind. Oh, I see. So you think that if he succeeded, that maybe would have purified his beginning of mind. It says that the tape is out inside.

[75:16]

Or like he got it. You stop being confused. He's not up here trying to get his money. Did you say... not being confused, is to purify the beginner's mind? Is that what you said? Oh. Did you ask what is purifying the beginner's mind? Is that what you said? Well, that's a big question. What is it to purify the beginner's mind? What do you think, Alex? I don't know. Listen. Listen. Confess.

[76:20]

Confess to mistakes, to misunderstanding. Confess to mistakes, to misunderstanding. Isn't it the beginning is not pure already? Is it pure already? Yeah. It is. Realize that. So, how do you purify it? How do you purify something that's already pure? Don't bring anything else in. Don't bring anything else in? Yeah, that would be fine. Don't try to purify it. Don't try to purify it? Call it pure. Huh? Call it pure. Call it pure, or don't call it pure? Call it pure. Call it pure, will that purify it? It will? Huh? Are you saying that you think calling the beginner's mind pure will purify it? Is that what you're saying? Recognizing it as pure will purify it. Gretchen.

[77:23]

Thanks for saying that. Because you all know what that will do, right? Do you see now? You do? You do? But it's okay to burn the beginner's mind. The grasses get burned. Why not burn the beginner's mind too while you're at it? Burn the whole universe. In fact, your mind can burn the whole universe, burn the stars, turn those stars into dead stars. There are lights still coming, but you killed the stars. But the grass is coming. So what he called the work, the play, is to stay, always be concentrated on this process of nature, of your mind.

[78:49]

is that there's green grasses coming up, getting burned, and green is coming up in the burnt. And as soon as we look at it, we burn it. As soon as it's an object, it's burned. But that's not the end of the world. We're allowed on the planet. We can be the way we are, okay? But you've got to keep track of something, and that is that in a myriad forms, there's always this... one revelation constantly happening, and as soon as you look at it, it's burned again. It sounds like the preferring green grass over burnt grass. Prefer it, not prefer it. But please remember the green and the burnt. Recognize the burnt. as burnt, and you understand the green.

[79:52]

If you prefer the green, that burns the green. But we already, you know, generally speaking, prefer the green. So we look at it and we go, oh, springtime, and then autumn. But autumn is like green autumn, fresh autumn. Spanking new autumn. And we say, oh, autumn. Then we kill autumn. We get winter. But then because we get winter, we get spring. So preference is very similar to looking at something as an object. Ladies and gentlemen, when you look at something as an object, you prefer it. Among all the things you could make into an object, you're making this thing into an object right now. what greater compliment could you give than of all the things in the world to objectify and say are separate from you, you have chosen this thing to kill with objectivity.

[80:59]

So, you do it. You confess it. You say, this is burnt grass. And now you watch. Right there is the grief. The Solitaire bodies, come here. You prefer the solitaire body? Burned. Right in the burned? Solitaire body. You like it? Don't like it? Can you look at it without making it into an object? No. Can you not look at it without making it into an object? Yes. But then you can't see anything. Then there's no myriad objects. And then there's no revealed solitary body. But as soon as you look at it, you've got burnt grass and spring tide.

[82:02]

I mean, burnt grass and spring tide. No reveal, okay, no myriad objects, no revealed myriad, excuse me, no revealed single body, but still a single body, just not revealed, because there's no myriad objects to reveal it. You lost me. Okay, so, K65, here it is. It's a great one. It's a great one. K-65. Come and get your copies. Here they are. Read them. Read them. But please, don't forget K-64. Don't forget. Concentrate on K-64, please.

[82:58]

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