Our core story for this session has turned out to be Yaoshan meeting Shirtou face to face and Yaoshan meeting Matsu face to face. When Yashan was a young monk, he received Buddhist precepts and studied and practiced the precepts scrupulously. However, he lamented his practice and felt that somehow there must be some way apart from this scrupulous attention to trifling actions.

[01:15]

So he went to Sher To and entered Sher To's room and explained the situation and asked Sher To to, out of compassion, Show him the way." And Shurto said, being just so won't do. Not being just so won't do either. Being just so and not being just so won't do at all. How about you?" The young Yashan was speechless.

[02:24]

he had received the precepts but the way he was practicing them wasn't working for him. He still hadn't completely surrendered his body and mind to the precepts. He was still doing it himself and he was very sincere and applied himself fully, but the action was coming from him. And such a practice still lacks complete surrender of self to the Buddha. He hadn't yet thrown his body and mind into the womb of light of Buddha's wisdom and compassion.

[03:38]

And he sensed that this wasn't the true human heart and the way of realizing Buddha. So he went and asked for help. And the help he got was just like that. The way you've been practicing, the way you're practicing won't do. Not the way you're practicing won't do either. Both the way you're practicing and not the way you're practicing won't do at all. How about you? At that moment, in that face-to-face meeting, the conflict was dropped. The conflict was resolved.

[04:41]

but he didn't know it. And he had to go to Master Ma to receive basically the same instruction again, but then the situation was right for him to understand, and he did. With Master Ma, he completely dove into the Buddha's ocean. And then, releasing and forgetting his self, letting the functioning come from awakening, you need no strength and no thought. you are freed from birth and death and you become Buddha."

[05:47]

So he did. And then from then on, he trained and trained. And when he taught, he spoke for this surrendered self. He spoke for this self which is given over to awakening. He spoke for the self which practices the Buddhadharma for the sake of the Buddhadharma. Practicing the Buddhadharma for the sake of the Buddhadharma is called not doing anything at all. Not doing anything at all is to practice the Buddhadharma just for the Buddhadharma. all selfishness has vanished, and there's just the practice. So here is our ancestor, Yaoshan, the 36th ancestor.

[07:05]

And he had some great disciples, notably Yuen Yen, our direct ancestor, and Da Wu. These guys had a practice of not lying down, ever. They never let their ribs touch the ground, which may mean that they leaned against a pole or something occasionally. They always were standing or sitting or walking. They never did the lying posture. Maybe Yaoshan got to, but they didn't. And Keizan Zenji said, when you see a place like that, you know that there's enlightenment in the temple when people act so weird.

[08:10]

Anyway, these two guys, Dawu and Yunyan, are very close. They're brothers, both disciples of Yaoshan. And I will come back to them later. So I want to give you the after Yaoshan and the before Yaoshan. I'd like to take one step back now to Sekito, to tell you more about Sekito, Shurto, Stonehead, who wrote The Merging of Difference and Unity that we chant every morning. And then, so here's Yaoshan and here's Sekito. Sekito wrote The Merging of Difference and Unity. And then after Yaoshan comes Yunyan, And after yin-yang comes Dungsan, who wrote the Julmira Samadhi.

[09:19]

So the Julmira Samadhi and the merging of difference and unity are these poems which express our central story. Just like it says, turning away and touching are both wrong, for it's like a massive fire. Turning away, not being just so. Touching, being just so. They're both wrong. It's a massive fire. You enter without turning away and without touching. So Sekhito said, here, not even a needle can enter. And Yashan said, for me, it's like planting flowers on a stone.

[10:25]

Or sometimes they say, like snowflakes falling into a furnace. This is the path of compassion, the selfless path of compassion that they're talking about. They're getting down to the nitty-gritty of how it is to practice the Buddha way without holding onto a self. In the lineage which goes through Dogen, the Buddha is seen primarily as a compassionate person. And the teachings of Buddha are the teachings of compassion. This lineage sees one thing that all the ancestors shared.

[11:33]

The one thing that they shared is the vow to save all beings. Otherwise, they vary greatly. They all have this vow. And in order to fulfill this vow, they have teachings like the ones we just heard. For example, you want to save all beings? Don't move. You want to save all beings all day long? Don't do anything at all. As soon as you do something, as soon as you move, a self arises and interferes with your motivation. And again, the practice of not moving, the practice of throwing yourself into the precepts, surrendering yourself to Buddha's precept, that is motivated by compassion.

[12:45]

If it weren't for compassion, you wouldn't have to throw yourself into the Buddhist precept. You could hang on to yourself and become a famous Zen master. And do all kinds of fantastic things. You could become very virtuous and high-powered concentrator. But what we're doing is not something by our own power. Still, these guys take long walks to visit teachers. They're not lazy. They're not lazy.

[13:49]

They're very enthusiastic. They're so enthusiastic that they release and let go of the self and enter Buddha's ocean. One day, Yao Shan was reading a scripture. And a Zen teacher came up to him and said, you shouldn't fool people. Yashan rolled up the scroll of the scripture and said, what time of day is it? The teacher, Bayan, said, It's just noon. Yashan said, this pattern still exists?

[14:56]

People often laugh at that point. this pattern still exists? Bai Yun said, I don't even have nothing. You know that song, I got plenty of nothing? Nothing's plenty for me. Bai Yun says, I don't even have nothing. And Yashan said, you're too brilliant. And you remember the next part, Jordan? Remember the next line? No, then after the part where Bayan says, I got plenty of nothing. Oh, the next line was,

[16:12]

You're too brilliant. Remember it now? Oh. And the next line, then Bhayan said, I'm just thus. How about you? Yashan said, I limp along. ungainly in a hundred ways, clumsy in a thousand. Still I go on like this. So Shurto, the monk on the rock. When he was a boy, when he was in his mother's tummy, she lost interest in pungent tasting vegetables and meat.

[17:34]

And when he was wrapped and carried in a papoose, he didn't give his wet nurse any trouble. He was a confident young boy. And in his area of China, there were aboriginal hunters who were afraid of spirits when they were hunting. So they would occasionally sacrifice oxen to the forest deities, slaughter them and pour wine over them. So he found out about this and he went to these altars and released the oxen and destroyed the altars. And it's not clear whether the different translations, one translation would be they did this practice 10 or 12 times a year.

[18:46]

Probably that means that they did it on the moon, some relationship to the moon. So it's not clear whether they did this frequently, and each time they did it, he went and released the cattle and destroyed the altar just before they did it, or whether he just did that, and then they just happened to do it that often. But anyway, apparently, he did it sometimes, and maybe he did it every time. And somehow, I don't know why, they didn't kill him. They somehow realized that he was an unusual boy and they couldn't do anything about it. The one thing that all these ancestors share is the vow to benefit, to save beings. But here's one of those people who, even when he was a boy, he really was concerned for the welfare of these oxen and also these hunters because preventing them from killing this way was also a kindness on his part.

[19:58]

Anyway, he became a monk when he was 13, same age as Suzuki Roshi, and he went to see the great sixth patriarch, number 33. Now, when he arrived, the sixth patriarch was already pretty old, and he didn't stay very long and didn't receive full ordination. But he had access to the ancestor, and he said to the patriarch when he was about to die, if I still have some doubts about it, who should I rely on? And maybe the patriarch was not so strong and kind of fading. And he said something like, it sounded something like, go and think about it. So he did. The ancestor died.

[21:04]

And then he was just, he went at the ancestor's temple. And the temple of the sixth patriarch is called, the name of the place is called Sao Chi. So he stayed at Sao Chi after the Patriarch died, and he was sitting there all the time, thinking about it, investigating it, what he wasn't clear about. The Sixth Patriarch had two great disciples. His number one disciple's name is Ching Yerong, Shing Sa. His other great disciple, main disciple, is Nanyuan Huirang. So Nanyue Huirang was still at Tsao-Chi. He had become in charge of the temple after the teacher died. And he went up to the young monk and said, well, what are you doing here, sitting around like this?

[22:12]

And he explained, the ancestor told me to go and think about it. And the teacher had some, could see, and he saw that this was not correct understanding of what the ancestor had said. He could see this wasn't quite the right practice for the boy. He said, oh, he wasn't telling you to go and think. He was telling you to go to go and think. Go and think is the meaning of Chingyuan Xingzi's name. Xingzi means go and think. So he said, the young boy said, who should I rely on? And his ancestor said, Xingzi. which means go and think or walk and think. That's the other great disciple's name.

[23:16]

So Nanyue said, you should go see, go and think. And they called him Go and Think. That was kind of a nickname. They called him Go and Think. Also, the word Xing means go or walk or practice. And Se means think. They called him Go and Think because he was always going and thinking. He was always thinking of our sponsor. he was always thinking about awakening. Every step he took, he was always thinking about awakening. Every action he did was sealed, was circled, was girded by the Buddha, the Buddha, the Buddha. So they called him Walking and Thinking of Buddha, Shinsa, Shinsa.

[24:20]

So he went to see Shinsa. Seigen Gyoshi, we say. Seigen Gyoshi. Gyoshi is going and thinking. So he arrived to visit, walking and thinking. And Chingyuan, walking and thinking, said, where are you from? And during these interviews, these Zen teachers often would have these whisks in their hands, which is one of the implements of a Buddhist monk. It's a fly whisk. It's so you don't have to kill him. But then it became kind of a... a symbol of a teacher.

[25:24]

So they held them sometimes when people came to talk to them in their room. So Xingzi says to the young monk, where are you from? The monk replied, I come from Caoshi. Xingzi used to live at Caoshi too with the sixth patriarch, right? He had left, he was an older disciple, he had left a long time before this kid came. So he never met him. So it's like, it would be like, you know, if one of us left Zen Center and then some young monk was sent to us at some other temple and they came from Zen Center. And we say, where are you from? They say, I'm from Zen Center. I'm from Green Gulch. I say, are you from Green Gulch? So he says, he raised his whisk and he says, does this exist at Saoshi? And the young, this is a young man, right?

[26:31]

He said, not only, it is not only non-existent at Sao Chi, but it doesn't exist in India either. Reminded me of when I was in psychology class, my first psychology class as a freshman in college. They had these films of kids in IQ tests, you know, And they asked this kid, they asked this one kid, he was about five years old or something like that, he says, what is orange or something like that? And he said, well, it could be either a color or a fruit. Sharp little guy. Does this exist at Sao Chi? Not only is it non-existent at Sao Chi, it doesn't exist in India either.

[27:37]

So walking and thinking said to him, you haven't been to India yet, have you? And the young monk said, If I went, it would exist." Singsa said, "'That's not good enough. Say more.'" And the young monk said, "'Master, you should say half of it and not depend on me completely.'" Singsa said, I don't refuse to speak to you, but I'm afraid that if I do after this, no one will be deeply awakened.

[28:48]

The young monk said, it's not that it will not exist, it's just that no one will be able to express it. Singsa hit him with the horse. Yes. And he was awakened. Who was awakened? Shirtto, the young monk. He wasn't yet called Shirtto. He was called Shidchen at that time, which means universal awakening. That was his monk's name. Later he was called Shirtoh because he sat on the rock, got that nickname. Shirtoh Hirshon, the monk on the rock. So he was a, you know, there he was, you can see, quite a young fellow.

[30:16]

He had spent time with the Sixth Patriarch quite young, got to spend a little bit of time with Sixth Patriarch's great disciple, Nanyue, and now he's visiting this other wonderfully compassionate Buddha named Singsa. He can talk to them like that. Can you imagine? Being able to do that when you were a young person, go up and meet such a person and have such a dialogue. But he was still, you know, there. But very close to not being there too. And then he was hit with the whisk. And he forgot for a moment who he was and he understood who he was. But in order to forget who you are, you have to be that much who you are.

[31:22]

So that when a whisk hits you, you forget who you are. If you're kind of who you are and sort of there, My teacher says, where are you from? And you go, hmm, you're not really going to say. But maybe you say, okay, I'm from Green Gulch. And the teacher said, do they have this at Green Gulch? Actually, you have a response to that. You do. But who will say it? Would you say... Does this exist at Green Gulch? Would you say, not only it doesn't exist at Green Gulch, it doesn't exist in Japan or China or India either. Would you say that? You might. You might say it. Why wouldn't people say that? Because they don't want to really put themselves on the line and be themselves.

[32:25]

Actually, you do have wise comments like that. Everybody does. We do. There's a little wise person in there who can say stuff back when asked questions like that. Totally unexpected questions. But you have to connect with yourself. again and again and again so that when the whisk touches you, you forget that self that you're connected to. If you're not connected to yourself, when the whisk touch, it doesn't do its job because you're off to the side someplace. You can't forget yourself from slightly in the neighborhood of yourself. You forget yourself from yourself. You forget the limited self from the limited self. You drop your body and mind from your body and mind, not from a little bit off to the side of your body and mind. The dropped off body and mind is the dropped off body and mind of the body and mind that is sitting on the body and mind.

[33:35]

So here this boy was very much present. Could you see how present he was? Imagine. Actually, a lot of kids are like that. They just don't often have conversations with such people. But most kids don't get into situations where they care enough to talk to Zen teachers. They mostly talk to other kids, and when it comes time to talk to kids they care about, they often stutter and back off where they are, too. So he forgot his self and understood the self. This is called being alive in the midst of death. This is called coming alive in the midst of the death of your limited self.

[34:40]

Really coming alive. And you understand then who it is that makes those eyebrows raise and the eyes blink. This is what you call the intimate reality beneath this robe, beneath this patch robe, this life in the midst of the death, this understanding in the midst of forgetting. But true forgetting only happens to those who completely remember what a limited person she is. Step by step. I'm this limited person. I confess it. I'm this limited person with these responsibilities and these hassles and these clingings.

[35:45]

That's who I have to admit I am. I confess step by step. then I'm primed for a slight twist, a slight turn, which makes the difference. As Dogen says, to act and witness everything while carrying a self is what we call, quotes, delusion. to approach or to act and witness what's happening, like right now in this room, to act in this room like you're sitting, breathing, thinking, to act here and to witness what's happening here while carrying a self,

[36:59]

Are you carrying a self? Well, I'm not saying you are, but if you are, please notice it and admit that you're carrying a self. That's, quote, delusion. It's, quote, delusion because it's not actually delusion. It's just what we call delusion. There's not really such a thing there. That's why it's not really delusion. This self which you're carrying is not really there. It's not really something you're burdened by as you witness and act in this world. That's why it's not really true that you are deluded if you do that. But if you want to know what we call delusion, that's what we call delusion. Delusion is not real. to act and witness all the things that are happening while carrying the burden of one self rather than the burden of all selves.

[38:22]

That's delusion. The same situation, slightly different, is acting and witnessing oneself in the advent of all things is enlightenment. And that is not quote enlightenment because enlightenment is real. Notice this slight shift to act and witness everything while carrying a self. That's delusion. To act and witness oneself, oneself, in the arrival, in the advent of everything, that's enlightenment.

[39:29]

See the difference? to act and witness everything while carrying a self, versus to act and witness the self while everything is delivered, while everything arrives. Enlightenment is to witness the self as in the arrival of everything. The self has been tossed has been released, has been forgotten. And then you witness a self, one self, as the advent of all things. It's the same situation, just a turn. In one situation the self is born as all things arrive. The other situation is you carry the self and put it on to everything arriving. Everything's arriving, he put his self on it, that's delusion.

[40:36]

To witness the self as everything's arriving is enlightenment. One day Shirtou was reading a Buddhist scripture called the Jao Lun, which is a commentary on the Prajnaparamita scriptures. by a monk named Zhao, Sun Zhao. He was reading it and he got to the part where it said, only a wise person, it is only a wise person who understands that myriad things are herself. It said there, only a wise person understands that myriad things are himself. everything's happening, you understand, oh, that's myself. That's myself.

[41:39]

That's myself. Only a wise person, it is only a wise person who understands that he's myself. in the advent of all things to witness oneself. That's a wise person, to witness that way, to see that way. Everything is the self. He struck his desk and said, for the sage, there is no self. And there is nothing that is not herself. There is no thing called a self that you carry to situations.

[42:43]

And there is nothing that is not the self. Everything's a self and there's no self. I want to, before I forget, make clear that my talk is not only am I talking for the one who doesn't have words, but also I'm not exactly telling you about something, really. I'm just trying to encourage you to go towards it. I'm not really saying what it is exactly. I'm just trying to make it sound so good that you'll try for it. So good or so important or so necessary that you'll go for it. And I'm saying things about it, and they're not really meant as lies, but I don't really think that what I'm saying about it is the way it is.

[43:49]

And I'm saying and I'm talking about it in an attractive way. I'm not telling you about the difficulties to scare you away from it. If you run into difficulties, then we'll be there to encourage you to keep going. So I'm making it sound good, and I'm not lying, but I'm doing it primarily to get you to go towards it, towards the Buddha way for the Buddha way. And also, I'm concerned with helping you go through the gate to it. So mostly what I'm talking about is to get you interested and then help you go through the gate. When you get to the gate, you'll find out that what I said wasn't exactly true. But, you know, I didn't mean to lie either. Like the story of the Buddha... using the example of a person who has a parent who has a bunch of kids inside of a burning house, and he says, hey kids, the house is burning, come on out, and all that, but because of the fire, various kinds of dangerous and poisonous animals are getting... Anyway, they won't come out of the house, so the parent says, hey, I got you this brand new whatever, you know,

[45:08]

In those days, he said, I got you these brand new chariots, carts, you know, beautifully decorated with gorgeous bells and beautifully stuffed cushions and gorgeous animals out in front. I got you goat carts, horse carts, and deer carts. Children say, wow, you know. And they come running out. When they get outside, he says, well, here it is. And they say, well, these aren't what you said, Mom or Dad. This is just a white bullock cart, which is a pretty good cart too, but that's not what he said that he had for them. They wouldn't have maybe come if he had said that. So I'm not exactly saying what it is, I'm just trying to get you interested and help you go through the gate.

[46:16]

So he hit the table and said this, for the sage there is no self and there is nothing that is not herself. And he said some other stuff. The Dharma body is formless. Who can speak of self or other? The round mirror reflects clearly the wonderful forms of myriad things. Knowledge and objects are not two. Who can say they come and go? how true the words of the treatise are. Only a sage understands that all things are herself.

[47:35]

He rolled up the treatise and unexpectedly fell asleep. And while he was asleep, he had a dream. And he had a dream that he, Cherteau, and his first teacher, the sixth patriarch, were riding on a turtle in a, what, in a deep lake. And when he awoke, he thought that it meant that he was riding with his teacher on wisdom, on knowledge in the ocean of what's happening. So then, to express his joy about this, he wrote The Merging of Difference and Unity, which has become popular throughout China, Japan, and California.

[48:58]

So someone said to me, why isn't being just so, what's the matter with being just so? And I thought, who said there was something the matter with being just so? And he said, well, it says being just so won't do. It's true that just so won't do, but there's nothing the matter with being just so. Nothing to matter with being just so. It's just that it won't do. There's also nothing to matter with not being just so. It's just that it doesn't do. So if you're just so, don't worry about it. If you're not just so, don't worry about that either. Just don't think that that will do. Just don't think that it will do. In other words, just don't put a self on it. Being just so is fine as long as you realize that it doesn't do.

[50:19]

They didn't say that there was something to matter with being just so. It just said that isn't it. There's nothing to matter with the way you are. It's just that that's not it. What's it is how are you? Not this way of being you and that way of being you. It's how are you? How are you? We don't know your name. We've been with you from the beginning but we don't know your name. We're always going along with you and you're always going along with us. Your name is really whatever's happening moment by moment. Boom, boom, boom. You know, the word for suchness in Sanskrit is ta-ta-ta.

[51:34]

Ta-ta-ta. And Pali is da-da-da. Da-da-da. So our practice is not to be such and not to be not such. Our practice is to not do anything at all. Meantime, you're this or you're that. But if you don't do anything at all, then the this or the that that you are is simply witnessed and acted upon as the arrival of all things. And then all things are the self which you understand when you forget this other self, this limited self.

[52:38]

So also someone asked me about, you know, are Buddhas, you know, are we supposed to be able to have unwavering attention? Are Buddhas always, you know, never distracted? And I thought of the characteristics of Buddhas in the sutras. It doesn't say that Buddhas are always in samadhi. It says that Buddhas are always mindful. And what are they mindful of? What are Buddhas mindful of? What do you think? There's two choices, basically. What could Buddhas be mindful of? What it is. What it is, one choice. What else could they be mindful of? What they're mindful of. What they're mindful of? Yeah? That's a... Huh? What it isn't? Well, actually, he thought of... There's more than two, I guess. Anyway, basically, what I thought Buddhists could be mindful of is they can be mindful of what's happening for them, in other words, themselves.

[53:44]

Right? Just mindful of what's happening. Here I am, this person, this person, this person. Or they're mindful of Buddha. But if a Buddha's mindful of who a Buddha is, then a Buddha's mindful of Buddha, isn't he? So in fact, a Buddha being mindful of what's ever happening to her moment by moment is simply to be mindful of the arrival of all things. Be mindful of the arrival of all things. Mindful of the arrival of all things. Witnessing not just the arrival of all things, though, ladies and gentlemen, the Buddhas do not just witness the arrival of all things. The Buddhas do not just witness the advent of all things. They witness and they act upon one self, which is the advent of all things.

[54:48]

The Buddhas witness one self. and they act from one self, which is the advent of all things. They're always mindful of this. And this self, or the acting upon and the witnessing of this self, which is the advent of all things, that is Buddha. So in fact, they are always concentrated on Buddha by being mindful on what's happening. So they are unwavering. And yet, they're paying attention to the constantly changing advent of all things. So in some sense, their mind seems to be wavering because it's going from thing to thing, from thing to thing, from myriad thing to the next myriad thing. The advent of all this stuff, that's what they're paying attention to. So they're not paying attention to one fixed principle, some limited fixed thing, and yet they are always paying attention to the same thing,

[55:55]

namely they're paying attention to the self, the one self that is the advent of all things. That's what they're always meditating on. Which is the same as the self which you're always clinging to. The Buddhas just do this slight twist on that same thing. So to study the Buddha way is to study and learn this self. to learn this forgotten self, to learn the self that happens right on top of the regular self, which is a slight twist, turn, from dropping and releasing this usual self. But again, to release the usual self happens right at this self you're holding onto. So in fact, realistically speaking, rather than just try to release the self, the first thing you should do is connect again, which is the same as confessing that you're holding onto the self.

[57:03]

And when you catch the self you're holding onto, then you have a chance of letting go. And the practice of admitting and catching that self is called not doing anything at all or just sitting. It is also riding on a turtle with the sixth patriarch in the ocean of suchness. Does this come along this way? No, don't touch it. Don't touch it. You like that?

[58:10]

This is no problem, right? Mm-hmm. Did anybody move this tape?

[59:32]

No. Oh, I see the problem. Oh, she may be weary And young girls, they do get weary Wearing that same old shaggy dress Yeah, yeah When she gets weary Try a little tenderness You know she's waiting Just anticipating

[60:44]

For things that she'll never, never, never, never forget. But while she's there waiting, without them, try a little tenderness. That's all we've got of you. It's not this sentimental, no, no, no. She had agreed to care, yeah, yeah, yeah. But the software, they all spoke so gentle now. It makes it easier, easier to marry.

[61:58]

You won't regret it, no. You won't forget it, no. You won't forget it, no.

[62:10]

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