a little copy of a talk I gave, which is inspired by Case 49, which a lot of you have already seen, but if any of you haven't, it's called Just This Person, and it's a copy of Subjectly Life. Also, there's another translation of the Jewelmere Samadhi, written by Dongshan. That's also on the table here if you'd like to pick it up later. So tonight we have the, in one sense, happy and in one sense sad occasion to start studying Case 50 of the Book of Serenity. It's happy that we made it this far and happy that we have Case 50 to study, but sad that Studying the past five years is gone.

[01:02]

Only said, of course, if you have any attachment to the past five years. And all those lovely cases. So tonight we'll start studying page 50 and this will be our last class for a while. As far as I know, it will remain for the rest of this year. We'll start again in 1997. Probably with the same case, so save your copy to Case 51. Have you seen it being saved up here? Is that it? No?

[02:05]

Yes? You sit here, Michael. You see way up here, Andy, if you like it. So here we are, let's read this case, shall we? This particular one I thought it would be nice to actually read the introduction too. Anybody need a coffee if you want?

[03:15]

At the last word And last class, you finally reach the impenetrable, unpronounceable barrier. Yan To was so sure of himself that above, and looks like in Chinese, In Western text, we mean, does above mean previously in the text? And below means later? Do we redo it? I think in Chinese, above means later in the text, and below means earlier in the text. Okay? So, Yan Toh was so sure of himself that above, that is in Case 55,

[04:39]

He doesn't agree with his own teaching. Do you want to look at Case 55? Yeah. Yes? I went to the bathroom. I can't remember those names. No, you didn't, but she was dribbling in, so we didn't do the names there. Are we going to do it? Yeah, we'll get her. So you see Case 55? So Shrey Feng was at Dashan. That means he was at his teacher's temple. His teacher's Dashan, and Dashan's also a place. So he was at Dashan, working. as a rice cook. One day, in the morning and late, Deshan came in to the teaching hall, holding up his bowl.

[05:48]

Suifeng said, Old man, the bell hasn't rung yet, the drum hasn't sounded, where are you going with your bowl? Deshan immediately returned to his room. Yan To, Suifeng reported this to Yan To. Yan To said, Even Dishan, so great, doesn't understand the last word. Okay? So, Yantao's teacher is Dishan. Okay? Shreyfung and Dishan Shreyfung and Yantao's teacher is Dishan. Got that? So, Dharma brother Shrey Fung tells the teacher to go, you know, get out, don't come begging around here for food before the meal's ready. And so he leaves and his disciple says, even my teacher, so great, doesn't understand the last word.

[06:56]

So that means above he doesn't agree with his own teacher because he's so sure, and below he doesn't agree with his Dharma brother Shrey Fung. And that's in case 22. He doesn't agree with... No. I got it wrong. Wait a second. Case 22. Is that right? Yeah. He doesn't agree with... I know he's 55 where he doesn't be his brother and 22 where he doesn't be with the teacher. So there's some problems here.

[08:17]

So Yantou is so sure of himself, he doesn't agree with his teacher and he doesn't agree with his dharma brothers. So here are three Zen masters. And the central figure, Yantou, is kind of very sure of himself and doesn't agree with his teacher in one case, doesn't agree with his dharma brother in another case. So now we're in the present situation. Do you think this is forcibly creating subdivisions? Or then again, is there a special operation? In other words, do you think that maybe Yan To is forcibly creating subdivisions in the teaching language? Or is there some other kind of operation here? So this story is about teachers and disciples, but also about Dharma brothers and Dharma sisters who come from the same lineage, but then when they get to the last word, at that point, they split into different lineages.

[09:44]

And this is a kind of a, I don't know, in a sense it's kind of a difficult point. I mean, you know, we're all friends, right? We're all Buddhist friends. We're all disciples of Buddha. And then we're like, maybe we're even disciples of the same person, same teacher, previous generation. Like most of the people at Zen Center are, in a sense, disciples of Suzuki Roshi. But, when it comes to the last word, I may have to say I don't agree with some of my Dharma siblings. I may have to say, I don't see it that way. And in that sense, I'm in a different lineage from them. I'm splitting from them. We're not in the same lineage.

[10:49]

And if we both have students, or if several of us have students, maybe they're all in different lineages. This is part of the, you know, this is what happens. And I think something like that happens genetically too, doesn't it? Brothers and sisters, their children, unless there's incest, don't have the same genes, right? They're different. So that's part of what's going on here, is this difference, this thing about starting in the same lineage, being born in the same lineage, but not dying in the same lineage. Even not dying in the same lineage as your teacher. It's kind of a painful issue. Also, the last word... of this story is the last word referred to in case 55, and it's the last word in case 49, in a way.

[11:59]

Just this is it. And in case 49 we understood that just this is it means just this person is it. So in a way, you know, in a way Zen is pretty simple. that use these major teachers. Dungshan, by the way, Shreifeng studied with Dungshan a lot. And Dungshan finally said to Shreifeng, maybe you should go study with Dishan. Dungshan said to Shreifeng, maybe you should study with Dishan. Dungshan's teacher's last words are, just this person is it. And Yan Toh's teaching, just this is it, rather than what is it.

[13:01]

So these very simple expressions of the last word are being offered to us right here in the middle of the text, case 49 and case 50. So we're ending our class at this point, and so you can take away, in a sense, a very concentrated expression of the last word. Just this person is it, or just this is it. An expression of Zen which is characteristic of more than one lineage. However, the understanding of that last word can be different. And so that's, in a sense, the nut or the jewel that we're contemplating here is the last word and how we work with this last word and how that can create a separation, an usher separation. Again, it's a funny thing in Buddhism that Buddhism is about

[14:13]

pain that arises from feeling that we're separate. And resolving that delusion of separateness should then be different among people creating another painful separation. Except this separation somehow seems more real than the separation like we're separate people. While understanding that we're not separate people, they're separate dharmas. Is that so? What's up? Okay? is a little bit of warm-up for these kids. All right? Do they just sound different? Are they really different? They just sound different? Well, they create different lineages. And the lineages different or just sound different? Well, there's this temple over here and there's that temple over there. Are they really different or they just sound different? There's a seat up here laying, yeah, up here, next to Michael.

[15:17]

So, as they say in the National Public Radio business thing, let's do the numbers. Lena? Lena. Lamisha. Sonia. Quiet there, quiet tonight. They're dying away. They're suffering lineages. Can you say your name tonight? Susan. Susan. Michael. Michael. Alec. Alec. Mia. Mia. Her. Evelyn. Evelyn. Charlotte. Charlotte. Martha. Marissa. Jennifer. Marlene. Ardi. Linda. Mir. Miriam.

[16:19]

Kirim. Ardi. Ardi. Cynthia. Cynthia. Henry. Henry. Father. Michelle. Amanda. Renee. Renee. Grace. Grace. Martha. Martha. Jonathan. Jonathan. Senator. [...] ... [...] Leigh. Caroline.

[17:21]

Sarah. Sarah. Bob. Bob. Liffin. Megan. Teresa. Teresa. Wolfgang. George. George. Caroline. Will. Leo. Kat. Kat. Andy. Albert. Albert. Sue. Sue. Ben. Ben. Laurel. Andy. Andy. Raksha. Raksha. Raksha. Takaya. Zika. Nikanda. Ligs. Liz. Reggie. Reggie. Bruce. Magasa. Green. Leigh. Who's this? Maybe Alyssa. Risha.

[18:22]

and Liyan. Liyan. Okay, so let's read the story. Pardon? When Shreifeng was living in a hut, two monks came to pay respects to him. Shreifeng, seeing them coming, opened the door, popped out and said, what is it? Of course, he said it in Chinese. What does it sound like in Chinese? You could say, you could say, shima. Something like that. How does it say it, Andy? Of course, he said a different dialect in modern things.

[19:26]

But anyway, then later a monk also said, so the way I would understand is later another monk came to see him, okay? Another monk came to pay his respects to Shreifang. Shreifang stuck his head out of the hut again, and just as Shreifang was saying, what is it? The monk said, what is it? They said, what is it at the same time? The old man stuck his head out, the monk said, what is it? When Shreifang said, what is it? Then that monk, later that monk, came to Yan To. Yan To is his young brother of who? Shui-chan. Right. And Yan To said, where have you come from? And the monk said, south of the range.

[20:26]

Now, again, case 22, or case 24, excuse me, That's where Shreifeng says, you know, watch out for South Mountain, right? So Shreifeng's monastery is on South Mountain, south of the range, right? His hut is near his own monastery on South Mountain. So the monk said, south of the range. Yantou said, did you ever go to Shreifeng? The monk said, yes. Yes. Yanto asked, what was said? And then the monk said, well, I went there, and as I was coming, he popped out of his hut, and we both said, what is it at the same time? And Yanto said, what did he say? And the monk said, he didn't say anything, he just lowered his head and went back in his side.

[21:34]

Yan Toh said, too bad, I didn't tell him the last word before. If I had told him the last word, no one in the world could affect old Shrey Fung. And that's the same thing that Yan Toh said at the end of that dialogue in Case 55, where he kind of upbraids his teacher. He says the same thing about his teacher. That finally no one will be able to affect Dasha. And it's interesting, in this translation here, you know, of the Jewel Mir Samadhi, It says, you know, we say, the meaning is not in the words, but it responds to the inquiring impulse.

[22:43]

You know that expression? The meaning is not in the words, but it responds to the inquiring impulse. Or the meaning is not in the words, but it responds to the arrival of energy. In other words, when words come, when speaking, energy comes as words, but words come as... Words are a form of energy coming to us, right? When we hear them. See that energy? And then I say, you! See that energy in the form of a word comes to you. The meaning is not in the word but the meaning responds to that energy of me speaking and you hearing, okay? Another translation here is the mind not resting in the words accommodates what arises. So the meaning is not in the word but it responds to the arrival of the energy.

[23:46]

The mind which doesn't rest in the word or upon the word can accommodate to the energy when it comes. So this is not affecting, this not being affected by anyone in the world means that whatever words come you can respond appropriately because you don't rest in the word so when you hear what is it or just this is it when that word comes to you you can have a mind that doesn't rest in the word that doesn't look for the meaning in the word and the word then doesn't push you around which is the same as looking at someone's face and not getting spun around by their face. This is energy, this is visual energy, this is electromagnetic radiation coming into you, you know.

[24:49]

But you then make into a word and then do you put meaning in the word? Does your mind rest in the word? If so, you're affected. What is the mind which doesn't rest in the colors, the sounds, the smells, the touches, the taste? This is the mind which is not affected. This is the mind which is not affected, which sounds cold, right? But the mind which is affected can't respond appropriately. The mind which is affected is enslaved by the words. The mind that's not affected can accommodate to what comes, accommodate to what arises. So not being affected means not being enslaved, means being able to respond appropriately to the final word. And so part of what this lineage business is about is what's the accommodating response to the word?

[25:59]

So that's why words are important, and you put up certain phrases up there, and one person responds this way, and another person responds that way. And this is the difference between schools and teaching. The way one person interprets the mind of, you know, no abode, another person, it's different ways of responding. Is the final word being used as the final word before enlightenment? No, it's the final barrier. The last word is the impenetrable barrier. The word you come to that you can't penetrate, you can only respond to now. So this is the word that we're going to like... This is the final test. Just this is it, it's the final test. This is the test. This is the final test, and this will now make people who were born in the same lineage die in different stages.

[27:16]

The Enlightenment is the appropriate response to the Word. The work of the Buddha is to make the appropriate response to the arising of the Word. That's the Buddhist teaching. Okay. Something's trying to arise. Something's trying to arise, or should I try to respond? Both. Both. Okay, good. What school are you in? Yes, 26. All right. At the end of the summer retreat, the monk again brought up the foregoing story and inquired further about it. Yantou said, why didn't you ask before?

[28:17]

What have you been doing all summer? The monk said, I didn't dare take it easy. Take it easily. Yan Tho said, though Shreifeng was born in the same lineage as me, he doesn't die in the same lineage as me. If you want to know the last word, just this is it. So the commentary starts out simple, kind of historical. Yun Yan and Da Wu. Yun Yan consulted Da Wu. Case 21 and other cases, Yun Yan and Da Wu were Dharma brothers. Yun Yan consulted with his older brother, Da Wu. We can see there were consultations at various points. Shrei Feng consulted with Yan To.

[29:22]

Yan To is Shrei Feng's older brother. And actually, On one occasion, while, you know, Shrey Fung and Yen Toh were on a cruise. They traveled around and they were camping out, you know, up in the Sierras. And they, Sep Po was a real hard meditator. He was sitting up all night. Yen Toh was sleeping. And he woke up, he'd wake up quick, occasionally in his sleep and say, What are you doing? Anyway, one time while Sri Fung was meditating hard, Yan Toh asked him that, and they had a little dialogue, and through that dialogue Sri Fung had his first big enlightenment experience through his brother, Yan Toh. So Yan Toh, his Dharma brother, was the one who actually was there and had the awakening dialogue with him. So the superior man is not ashamed to ask humbly.

[30:27]

In other words, the younger brother is not afraid to ask the older brother questions. And now the ways of Yunyan and Shreifeng, the younger brothers, are flourishing greatly. This too is the superabundant blessing of withdrawing oneself and deferring to others. These are strong Zen practitioners who became great masters but who humbly asked and deferred to their elders and greatly benefited by it and became great teachers. Their elders also were great teachers, though, too. But they demonstrate this quality. Now, Yantou was extraordinary by nature. putting down and holding up his teacher Dasan's way, he went freely under heaven with no one daring to face him head on. It's because his insight was clear and his comprehension and his development was complete that he could be like this.

[31:37]

Okay, so for now I rest and ask you how you're feeling about this heart-rending story. Yes, Miriam? What is the impenetrable barrier? You said just this is the final barrier, the final test. So, is it impenetrable? Well, in the original story, the impenetrable barrier was, you know...

[32:51]

These monks went to visit Shui Thang, right? Shui Thang says, what is it? That was the impenetrable barrier in that occasion. And then the monk brought this barrier up when he talked to Yan Tao. But when Yan Tao heard that his Dharma brother was using what is it? Then he said, too bad I didn't tell him the last word. The last word, in some sense, some of these teachers, they use a last word on their students. These monks come. These monks are coming, you know, these monks are coming to study Buddha Dharma, right?

[33:54]

So what does the teacher give them? They come, they walk a long ways to see the Buddhist teacher, right? Teacher of the Buddha way. They walk a long way to pay their respects to a teacher of the Buddha Dharma. What does the Buddha Dharma teacher do? He sticks his head out and says, what is it? He doesn't say, they've come to pay their respects, and he says, the four noble truths are. He doesn't say, the twelve lengths and causation are. He doesn't say, the three teachings are. He says, what is it? That's what he's offering these people to work with. When the Buddhist teacher's brother hears that he's teaching like this, he says, too bad I didn't tell him before, you know, the last word that he should be offering his students. If I told him the last word, no one would be able to affect him.

[34:59]

That's what he said to the monk. The monk listened to that, right? And then all summer... He didn't come back and talk to Shui Feng about it. He didn't come back to talk to Yan Toh about it. At the end, he comes back and Yan Toh tells him what the last word, what his last word is. His last word is, just this is it, which is similar to Yun Yan's last word when Dung Shang was leaving. His last, when Dung Shang was leaving, Yuen Yen, Dung San said, what should I tell people for your teaching? You know, after you're dead, what should I tell people for your teaching? What's your last word to me? What's the barrier you want to transmit to the next generation to work with? Just this person is it. That's what he gave his student. The last teaching he gave his student, the last obstacle he gave his student, the student didn't get it. Then when he walked on, he woke up to that teaching. He crossed the barrier. He entered. He responded. But this is like perfect inquiry and response come up together. What is it?

[36:02]

Justice is it. They said they didn't come up together. They're mediated through a person. But as a teaching vehicle, they came up together. I'm not getting into this. If I had told him the last word, no one in the world would affect you. I don't know what I don't have a feeling for that. What's the effect and why would it make a difference? What's the effect? The effect is that when somebody says something to you, when you hear something, your mind alights on the word and you get spun around. Or somebody, you know, glares at you and your mind rests on the visual image and you get spun around. Or somebody, you know... breathes on you and you kind of wither by the breath that it is.

[37:03]

Or if somebody spits on you. Anyway, something happened to you and someone touches you and you're affected by it because your mind like rests on it. Played? Not picking that? Not affected means that if he had had this, if he had had this, if he somehow could have come up with this, with my wonderful thought, my barrier, then nobody could affect him. And he could transmit this barrier which could then help others develop a mind which doesn't rest, doesn't abide, doesn't dwell, and therefore isn't perfect.

[38:08]

And is this the separation of certain school, school, though? Is that what he was saying, too, but too bad? Like, if it was... Yeah, I think he's saying, he's saying, my Dahmer brother is still, is still getting affected. He, he, he, but if he had my, if he had my teaching, then maybe he wouldn't. But he doesn't, so maybe we're in a different lineage. Maybe we're, maybe we're not in the same lineage anymore. And it doesn't say it here, you know, but in case 55 it says, doesn't it say in case 55, although we were born in the same lineage, we don't die in the same lineage. In case 50 where? Of the end again. Oh, in the end, I see. Oh, I see, yeah. Though we were born in the same lineage, we don't die in the same lineage. Okay? That's to say, the way I have to go in order to not be affected and not get stuck, now I have to separate myself from my brother.

[39:15]

So there was... Who was it? Was it... Was it you, Martha? Where did your hands go? Something over here I have to remember. Martha, May, and Charlotte. May, and Martha, and Charlotte. Martha, May, and Charlotte. The three... I wonder what about, what is it about what Shui-Fu did that makes him think that he's still being affected? What is it? Yeah. My question. His question. But couldn't Shuefang's final word be, what is it? Shuefang's final word was, what is it?

[40:20]

And then he said, no, what? That's what's the problem with that. What's the problem with that? [...] What's the problem with that for me, young toe? Yeah, yeah. I was young toe, I think you said he was invented. It was because he went into the house, wasn't it? He lowered his head. He said everything. [...] Well, he gave up. We have another ingredient here, too. We have this monk here, who was there at the time, and what kind of a monk we have here. Huh? What kind of a monk we got here? Huh? Basket case. Basket case Buddha, who was there, you know. Now, you see,

[41:21]

This is an awfully rough way to talk, but to say that if he had had my last word, nobody could affect him, means if he had had my last word, you wouldn't be acting like you're acting, young man. You wouldn't come to me, uncooked, if you had met me before. I would never let you come here and talk like this to me. I would have told you something different. So that's why I think, you know, my brother is still effective because of what happened between you and him and what I see here before me right now. That's one way to understand this. He didn't teach you. He didn't help you, young man. But instead of putting it that way, he said, too bad he didn't have my last word. Him not being affected by anybody means he could have helped more people. It means he can help people everywhere. So he's seeing the results of the conversation, this guy right here. And he's got it, this guy is, what's this guy?

[42:24]

This is a problem here, this board needs help. But who helped him? That's what he's saying. That's what Yento's saying. But Yento doesn't have any more luck, it seems. We don't see the luck being transformed. Well, we don't know, but probably you're right because it says the monk. What else is there to say, though? It just seems so final. It is? It's like there's nothing else to say. Nothing else to say? Just this. Is it? And it's like there was a revelation somewhere between Shui Feng and Yang Tu. And it just seems that that is it. That there just can't be any more last word, like for art.

[43:28]

Well, I was just thinking how... It just seems like the two different lineages are the difference between what is it and this is it, and that's just two different styles, one is more young, one is more definitive, the same this, and what. They both ultimately lead to the same place, different styles. Yeah, and straight-lung actually flourished me more. In a way. Shreipong is a teacher of Yinmen, right? So, pretty successful retard. Yes? I think that Yantau implies conviction, whereas Shreipong just... And so it's left with conviction.

[44:40]

The end of the story is left with conviction. Do you think? We feel that Yantou has more conviction than Shui Fung. Well, in this situation, Shui Fung and Shui Fung is, in a sense, softer than Yantou. They often have that. Shui Fung is very sincere, but Yantou is very certain. I think it's coming across. Yantou is certain. Let's see, I think next, unless somebody, did I miss anybody over there? Next thing is It looks to me like, I don't know what you want to do, it's pretty different, but it looks to me like case 50, it's 48, 49, brought together. Case 48, what is it? It didn't have a dance with case 49, but it was just this, which ended up in a drill there.

[45:40]

They got little pants that sort of brought together at 50. It's unclear to me, it's unclear to me chronologically, in their relationship together, where time happened. Relative to Case 55, they're apparently together. at Deshaun's. Yeah. But where time are they in their relationship here? I think that this story comes after the story with Deshaun. I think this story comes when they're both independent teachers. Independent. I think so. So then the assumption, I make the assumption that the Shui Fang later on evolves or advances his understanding.

[46:42]

closer to just this. This is the latest, I think case 51 and case 50 is the latest one of the three. I didn't mean that. What did you mean? If I understood that just this was more advanced teaching, Well, you can understand it that way, but we don't necessarily have to understand this in more advanced. One thinks he's right and thinks the other one's wrong. But not better. Just different and he's wrong and I'm right. Well, one's a question and one's an answer. That too. But, you see, if we're only... Is it only by being, if we're right, is it only the people that are the same as us, that are as good as us?

[47:55]

Or can somebody be different from us and wrong from us and be just as good? Can you, like, really vehemently disagree with a Dharma brother or, you know, anyway, a fellow student of Buddhism? drastically, intensely disagree and totally support them at the same time, and not think there's anything wrong with them, but vehemently disagree and put them down. Is that possible? If not, then what happens to the Dharma when those things happen between these people? This is part of the painful situation here. It's close relationships who really disagree about how to handle certain matters. I don't know if you can say exactly that. If he takes the position, if he thinks, if his mind alights in the thought, I'm better than you, or I'm right and you're wrong, if the mind alights in that, then he's not a Zen master.

[48:58]

So a Zen master can say stuff like, he's wrong, I'm right, you know, blah, blah, blah. They can say these things supposedly without their mind alighting in the words that they're speaking. This is possible, supposedly. I don't know whose hand is up next. Maybe the next one is Renee. It's possible. Do you think maybe you're next? I don't. You want to go? Yeah. Go. Well, I think at the end he's saying that we walk the same path, but I don't follow in your footsteps. We walk the same path, but I don't follow in your footsteps. Or we walk the same path and we're walking in divergent ways on the same path. We're different schools, we're different lineages on the same path. So part of what I think you're probably somewhat willing to deal with is to look at... Oh, Michelle was mixed.

[50:21]

To look at issue of where are you going to line up on these stories? Are you going to think these are like You know, I could say, well, I study at the Zen Center and we're not, you know, we're in the Dungshan lineage, so I don't have to worry about these guys, whether their brothers are different. But still, even of another lineage, a particular lineage has an understanding of stories from other lineages, too. So how do you feel about these last words? Where do you come up on that? And what is the reason for life feeling like what is it, or this is it, or just this person is it, that this for you is a better thing to work with for you. How is it that such a phrase is a better test for you of how you don't abide in that phrase? What's a better way for you to test yourself

[51:24]

on where you dwell and where you abide. And some of you may say, well, God, I abide in everything, so anything would be fine for me to test. So then maybe you're not ready to even have such a discussion. So maybe you just need to work longer at becoming aware of how you settle, how you abide in words. Get more familiar with how you do settle and how you do abide and how you are stuck. And then when you get to a place where you feel like you're starting to not stick, then you might say, well, here, this is more helpful to not stick. Even though I'm not sticking in this, this is more helpful for not sticking than this. I can use this word better to test my sticking and to work with people on not sticking than this word. And maybe you can, in an unsticking way, talk about how it is. I would like you, since this is the last thought, I would like you to take up these little short phrases and see how you can work with them as tests to your mind getting stuck in words.

[52:37]

Why not? Major consequences coming from getting stuck in words. So you did have your hands raised a little while ago, didn't you, Michelle? I did. I didn't call you, so please, if you want to. I was actually going to address the issue of a young two and what I was perceiving it as being arrogant in thinking that his way was right. You see, you addressed that in saying that it actually wasn't right or wrong. It was just a difference. Well, even if they say right and wrong, okay... When we bodhisattvas are supposed to have a mind which doesn't alight in right and wrong, even when we say right, wrong. Zen teachers do say stuff like this, right, wrong, wrong, right. They say stuff like that, but does their mind, do they actually like reside in that when they say that?

[53:41]

When they hear somebody say something and they respond with wrong, do their mind alight on the words that they heard wrong? When they see somebody, is their mind a light in what they see? Well, the idea is that bodhisattvas have become free of that mind. They have another mind, kind of an alternative mind, which sort of sits on top of the regular minds making discriminations. Like I was saying, awareness of discrimination is not discrimination. Awareness of karma is not karma. So there's a mind which doesn't alight in prejudice. And that's the mind which can say, can let all kinds of things come up through it, like right and wrong. Well, I was thinking in response to how you addressed it before is could this perhaps be another one of these sort of twisty tests that are in these conversations that perhaps if the student doesn't buy into that and just accepts it's a test to see.

[54:53]

It seems like all these things are ongoing tests all the time. Right, but everything is a test all the time. That's the way the world is. You're constantly being tested. Your life is constantly being tested. The world, since you have Buddha nature, the world is constantly testing your understanding of that. That's what you're here for, is to be tested and realized. And where I'm going next with that is, and could it be that there is no last word? That this is just all the same thing of... There is no last word, no. There's no such thing. And therefore they could use this last word. Because there's no last word, we have last words to use. Lost me right now. That's the mind that can't follow this, the one that got lost. Last words, you know, last words.

[55:55]

As no last words are they taught by the Tathagata. Therefore, in the Zen school, we have last words. But what are last words? Last words are no last words. Buddha. Buddha. As no Buddha is taught by the Buddha. Therefore, we have Buddha. We don't start with no Buddha. We start with Buddha. But what does Buddha mean? Buddha means no Buddha. The mind which is following this is the mind we're trying to develop. The mind which is not following it is the mind which we watch all the time, carefully, to make sure she doesn't get in trouble. The mind which can follow the other kinds of conversations, that's the same mind that the mind that can't follow, is a conversation that the mind of no abode goes along with very nicely but doesn't abide in. Oh, so I was just a perfect example of attaching, and that's what your example is. Yeah, of not attaching. Yeah.

[56:57]

So I was resting in that rather than just being brilliant. Perfect. Thank you. You're welcome. Yes. The black reminds me of myself. How sweet. Warrior. In Asian theater, as far as I know, right in the middle of drama, there's often comic interlude. in shakespearean also shakespearean too yeah please whatever it's like a lot of the classical things got that this is what i think of being this like right in the middle at the beginning of the second part there's something like comic interlude from you what is it like what's the comic part well the comic part is

[58:01]

this monk worrying all summer, because he thinks it's so serious, comes and the teacher says, oh, you want to know my last word? Just this? And it's so unique. And what do you think it means when it says, I didn't want to take it easily? I didn't dare to take it easily. What do you think he meant by that? He wasn't afraid. Huh? He wasn't afraid. Afraid to... Just like me now. Pardon? Just like me now. Do you want to tell us what you're afraid of? Afraid to laugh or afraid to be laughed at.

[59:03]

So all summer long he was afraid to, you know, he didn't dare take it easily. In other words, he didn't dare go up and ask the teacher a question, which is kind of like maybe a little too relaxed, okay? So what was he doing all summer? Can you imagine what he was doing, sitting around the coffee area, smoking cigarettes? I don't know why. What was he doing? What was he doing that he felt comfortable with? Worrying. Worrying, yeah, probably worrying. Being a fool but not wanting to show his foolishness. And that's kind of maybe what he was doing. We don't know. Now, finally, anyway, he's coming forth. So this is a Well, this is again the point, you know, are we afraid to, in some sense, do we take it easy by being afraid to take it easy? Do we take it easy by being afraid to approach and discuss and be foolish and sound foolish?

[60:06]

Well, yeah, we are afraid. Like that story I told the other day, you know, I train hard to get an opportunity to be in You know, Suzuki Roshi sent me to get trained at something, and I got trained at it. Then after I got trained at it, he could train me, he could work with my training. Rather than him first training me, he could have somebody else train me, and he could come in and adjust the training. It's very efficient, you know. So then he could come in and adjust. But when he was, after I did all that work and got all trained, so he could come in and modify the training a little bit. And he was so kind to do that, that I wanted to get out of there. So, you know, when he was doing that for me, So don't embarrass. I want to get out of there, even though I've been trained. So it's hard for us to come forward and offer an opportunity for ourselves and offer an opportunity for somebody else like that. So don't wait too long. Summer's all over. I think there's somebody before Susan, though.

[61:08]

I registered Susan. Somebody else have your hand back there? Carol. Carol? Carol? Speak, please. Well, my comment was really good. A few months ago, which was, he must have been awfully curious. Because the teacher said to him, gee, too bad I didn't say X. He must have been awfully curious. Too bad I didn't say X to who? So it was fun. When Ingma must have been awfully curious what the aunt Ho's last word was. Are you being ironic? If he was curious, why would he wait all summer before asking again? He did it all himself. Yes, he was afraid.

[62:08]

Trying to figure out himself? Well, if he's trying to figure out himself, why didn't he figure out himself in one day and come back? Took him all summer to figure out what he thought? To figure out what those last words might need. Might take a long time. Might take several years. And that's what I would use it, easily. He didn't want to take it easily. He didn't want to care for those last words. He didn't want to what? He didn't want to just care for those last words. He wanted to kind of sit with this and figure that. Uh-huh. So maybe Yanto is not really saying why it would take you so long. Maybe he knew that sometimes it takes a long time. Yes? As what? He asked.

[63:12]

He was afraid to ask humbly. But he was curious, even so. What sign of curiosity do you see again? And then he went away all summer and worried about and thought about and had this question. I think this monk, I mean, he's the perfect person to maybe experience this other last word because he just had this experience, I'm trying to imagine, of walking up to greet a teacher and having the teacher come out and you come forward at the same time and say the same thing. it could have just evaporated. That's a wonderful, amazing opportunity. And it didn't. So it was as if he had a potentially

[64:19]

transformative moment there, which didn't work with him. And he's sort of the perfect person for having gone to the end of that place and have it not work for him. And if I were him, I would be, you know, in shell-shocked with that experience and being stuck in it somehow and not being able to get through it and probably not even aware that there was another way. I mean, I'm, you know, it's hard to let go of a way as a way and think that there has to be another way. Like, what is it seems like the way. It's hard to do what? To let go of the possibility of what is it being the way. And now this story is saying, well, there's another possibility. And it's unsettling and

[65:20]

It makes it less to hold on to. Are you unsettled? Carol, you have your hand raised again. Do you want to say more? Go ahead. She also could have said the same thing again. Who could have said what when? The mom could have said, D'Angelo, what is it? He could have said that, right? He could have. And got the book through. So for the book, he had a feed and he just wouldn't be putting it in the right book. Yeah, seems like that. Seems like that, yeah. And of course, It's easy, a thousand years later, to have smart comments about what's happening. But somehow, at that time, this is what the monk did. And so, and there's some somewhat apparently disparaging remarks, but... Oh, by the way, this case is also case 51 in the Blue Cliff Record.

[66:26]

So you can also look at the Blue Cliff Record. I'd like to also read you the introduction of the Blue Cliff Record to the same story, okay? It seems that good introduction. As soon as there is affirmation and denial, you lose your mind in confusion. That means as soon as you actually rest in, it's this way or that way. If your mind is not in confusion, if you settle into your confusion and become clear in your confusion, then you can say it is or it isn't without getting confused. But anyway, if you actually settle into it, your mind alights in affirmation and denial. It's too bad, right? But it's hard for our mind not to do that, isn't it?

[67:29]

So therefore we're confused almost all the time. It's a tough situation. If you don't fall into grays and stages, then there is no seeking. No what? Seeking. It seems like the monk is insincere. Insincere? Yeah, but he knows that's where he from, or he thinks where he will come out and say, what is it? So either he knows that, or he's going to go and catch him, and he's going to say it at the same time. He might have overheard the last one and been waiting. Yeah, I don't see why the writer would put that first part in if he didn't imply that the part coming along knew that this was going to happen. And that's this idea of like a concreteness to the last word, like the last word or actual specific words, you know.

[68:31]

And so he says these specific words. And he is confused because he likes it in the words. These are the words, the last words of these specific words. So when he talks to Nat Tolerator, Yeah, until he sees this immediately, and just says, well, if I, you know, too bad, I didn't tell him what the backwards were, you know, but you could like it those, you know. And, I don't know, it didn't take you to the light of them, but, you know, it's quite a lot of the things that they're right. They're specific last words. Just memorize them. And then the mob carrier didn't have the courage to say, well, what are they, what are they, so I can have the wooden. And then he came back later and said, basically, well, what did he say?

[69:32]

Just another couple of words. That's it for now. I'd like to say a couple other things before I die. One is that this is a... Also, I want to get in a little bit of trouble, also more trouble before I die. And that is, I imagine, you know, now, I don't know how famous Shui Feng is at the time of this story. Maybe he's really famous. And, you know, he's been the head of this big community of monks. And he's either on a temporary sabbatical or he's retired. Okay? people still come to repay their respects to the old master. So he does the stuff of sticking his head out and stuff like that, right? And then people, when they go and visit him and he says whatever he says, then they go back down and they tell other people, right?

[70:33]

And the word spreads all over the country, the biggest country in the world, It's one of the main lines of gospel is what these Zen masters are saying. So then these monks hear, oh, he says, what is it? These monks are waiting. Now, some of them are waiting like little adolescent boys. And others are waiting with tremendous dignity and yogic power. There's a range of monks out there waiting to meet and pay their respects. But part of what I was thinking is, I wonder, you know, how women would be going to visit Shrey Fong, and if any women were allowed to go visit him, and how they would approach him, would, you know, would be their way of coming to require. That's a good thing to say. Bring us on July 1st. Questions for women? So anyway, I'm just thinking that if I imagine the actual human, you know, animal scene, you know, around this kind of thing, it's good, I think, to sort of think about what was it actually like?

[71:48]

How did these people come up there and, you know, what kind of presence did they have when they came to visit? Probably several people came to visit to pay their respects. And when you pay your respects to the teacher, the teacher is capable of doing something in response to your respect paying. I just want to read the rest of this introduction because it's kind of nice for you to hear it. And it goes like this. But say, is letting go or holding fast correct? At this point, if you have any trace of an interpretive root you are still stuck in verbal explanations. If you're still involved with devices and objects, then all of this is haunting the fields and the forests. Even if you arrive immediately at the point of solitary liberation, you haven't avoided looking back to the village gate from 10,000 miles away.

[72:57]

Even if you've arrived immediately at the point of solitary liberation, if you haven't avoided looking back, you haven't avoided looking back to the village gate from a thousand miles away. The village gate, you know, language. Even if you've arrived at this, you know, You still haven't avoided looking back at the village gate from a thousand miles if you're still interpreting, trying to use words. We're talking here, you know. But are you alighting in these words and using these words to interpret this? Or are you avoiding, you know, there's some people who are avoiding this class because they don't want to do that, right? So you people come in here and take the dangerous thing of talking almost as though you're interpreting this stuff with verbal explanations, which is like looking back at the village gate from a thousand miles.

[74:04]

Can you reach it? If you can't, just comprehend this perfectly obvious public case. This is the one we have. Perfectly obvious public case. Perfectly obvious, and we're tempted to interpret it with verbal explanations. We're talking. Well, what are we going to do? There's one more thing I want to... I guess it's pretty clear. I just want to read you the nice verse. In particular, I like the part about the hibernating shuttle. This image I'd like you to carry away of the hibernating shuttle. Hibernating shuttle. You know what a shuttle is? A shuttle is a thing in a... in a loom, right? But also a shuttle is like in a net, like in a hammock. You know in a hammock? At the end of the hammock, that's a shuttle. That board, that you put the knots in, right?

[75:07]

That carry the thing. There's also shuttles and nets. And then you have a board. And then you have the knots of the netting in these boards at various points around the thing to hold it together so that it doesn't deteriorate along the edge. So the shuttle's around the netting. So I really like this image of a hibernating shuttle. The story of the fisherman this kind of unusual fisherman, he caught a shuttle. He was fishing and he caught a shuttle, took the shuttle home and hung it on his wall. And the shuttle turned into a dragon. It was a hibernating dragon in the form of a shuttle. Dragons hibernate in the ocean as shuttles, old netting shuttles. There's a hibernating shuttle in this book.

[76:09]

So a shuttle, is that something that takes you from one place to another? Well, there's that kind of shuttle, too. In a loom, a shuttle, you move something you use to move the wolf across the warp, right? That's the shuttle. There's a shuttle bus. And the shuttle bus takes people from one place to another, right? There's that, too. There's also a shuttle, which is a piece of wood, which can be a hibernating dragon in the ocean. And the piece of wood that we have here is we have this story, this piece of wood, hibernating shovel. But dragons are not something to make verbal explanations about. And yet, we do talk. Actually, you can read that first yourself some other time. So I'm trying to, anyway, give this case to you and hope that you'll take care of it for six months.

[77:18]

because we won't have a class, and I hope some of you, you know, hang this, take this shuttle, this shuttle that you've, you've come here, you've been fishing, you've found this piece of wood here, it's a, you know, look, please take it home, hang it on your wall, and see if it wakes up and starts thundering in your house sometimes, and starts raining indoors. I love that scene from that movie, it was called, Oh God, Is that the George Byrne movie? It's called Oh God. This great scene, you know, they're inside the car, and this guy's inside the car with God, George Byrne, and he said, well, you're God, how will they make it rain? So he makes it rain inside the car. So dragons can make it rain indoors. Indoor thunder and rain. Okay. There's indoor thunder and rain hibernating in these books, ladies and gentlemen.

[78:24]

Indoor thunder and rain. If you can approach these things, you can't avoid... If you try to avoid language, you're stuck in language. If you try to use language, then you're stuck in language. You have to have a mind which... If you want to use these hibernating dragons, you have to read these stories with the mind of no abode. You have to come here and sit at the cliff of these words and quietly sit here until the dragon wakes up. And you can't stop talking. There's going to be words nonstop. Everything that happens will be words for you. And if you can sit in a stream of words and stay upright and not get twisted around, the dragon will eventually come out and you'll be there to meet it. So please. Yes. In order to inform the relationship to language?

[79:30]

In order to inform the relationship to language, yes. And to finally meet the dragon and fly with her. Yeah, that's why we study. Because we're in a language prison, we human dance. And only by learning how to dance with language can we become free of our prison. Or decide to stay in it and be happy indoors. What is that? Some people don't like it outside of prison that much anyway. Yes? Yes, well, since you're visiting, you might not have people ask another one for a while. Go ahead. Splurge. Yeah, the body prison is not really the body. The body prison is your language about your body. We're trapped in our words about our body. Like, you know, this is Reb's body. You know, that's the body. I'm trapped in Reb's body, right?

[80:30]

But without Reb and body, there's no Reb's body to be in. Without Reverend Body, this is like, you know, public access here. So really, I would like it to be that way. Go ahead, use it. Linda? It says in the beginning of this case, two monks came. What happened to the other monk? Two monks came to visit. Sri Fung Yama said, what is it? They split. Then later, this other monk came. He's not one of the two monks. Oh, he's not one of the two? See, it says two monks. And then it said also a monk. And then the monk, which is the monk of the second encounter, came to see Yan Toh. So two monks came. So that's part of why we might think that various people are coming to visit him, right? And he's doing this thing. So then they go back and they say, guess what he's saying today? This other monk comes and says, and he comes and says, the old guy comes and says, what is it?

[81:31]

So the monk actually said it. He almost surely knew. Probably. But maybe not. You know, it's possible that he just didn't hear and he just came up and said, it's possible. But seeing what he, you know, we're suspicious of this guy. We can't be sure. We won't delight in this theory, will we? We'll entertain this theory, like let this theory in and have a little party with us. That is our, you know... We're just getting almost ready for our party, right? This is going to be a party now. Are you getting ready for the party? When this party starts, you can knock the light in any of these delicious treats. Any final statements since this might be the last koan cross in history? Linda, Linda, Linda, Arlene, Arlene, to Arlene, Linda, yes, Linda? Linda Cutts? Well, um... This is risky for me to say, but it seems like the what is it is closer to beginner's mind.

[82:36]

Now, I don't know if that's because our lineage I don't know if that's a lineage thing, that what is it, and the inner spine kind of seem to go together. But I do know that just this is it is very helpful, like on the third night of Sashim or something like that. So it's like using it in an appropriate situation. Right. So the last word is just what's the most appropriate thing. Right. There's no way to do this.

[83:41]

It's not impossible. It's not an impossible situation. It's not impossible. There's no way to do it. This class is definitely possible if you don't try to use karma. But in terms of doing, this class is impossible. Unless I should switch over to the karmic camp, then you'd be successful. It's hard. These koans actually rebuff our karmic mind. But they don't just rebuff it. They invite it to come out and play. And then they say, no. That's not what we meant. So it's impossible for the karmic mind. But it is not impossible to realize these koans if you keep track of your karmic mind. Don't reject your karmic mind. Take care of your karmic mind. Keep your karmic mind occupied and keep keep abreast of it, and then that attention to this illusory flow of action, that awareness can also open up to the driving.

[84:51]

That is possible. But that's not an action. That's nothing you can do. It's just being awake and attentive to the flow of words. Did you want to say something, too, since your name's Arlene? Well, it's kind of funny. I'm hanging out here, And it's like I almost can't even use any words. Is that weird? It's like words escape me. I mean, I'm kind of just hanging out my body. You're in the word camp of words escape here. That's the word you have. Yeah, that's the word I have. Nice words. Anybody else have any nice words heard? I just wanted to comment on the word you said, the cliff of these words. Yeah, right. I'm really feeling that. Good. There's nothing catching back to this. It feels great. Well, there's two kinds of cliff. One cliff you're sitting at the top of, you're afraid to fall, you're all ready to fall over the edge.

[85:54]

The other cliff you're sitting at the bottom of, looking at the cliff that's above you, there's two ways. One you sit in front of, that's the wall. The other one you're sitting at the edge of, that's the drop-off. Both are clips. Can you drive home? Huh? Can you drive home? You can drive home if there's not a landslide. What is it? The experience is around swipe phones. and Dongshan seem to be reflective experiences. That is, when I picture Shui Feng waking up at the mountain storm, it's, you know, there's everything streaming forth to meet him and from his breast, every point of his breast, everything in the universe is reflected.

[86:55]

And when Dongshan goes forth to the river, walks into the water, there's a reflective experience. The monks approach Shui Fan on the Mount, they say something to him, and he goes back into the heart. There's a turning reflection. And so to me, there's this, the difference between the two scrolls manifest, and a lot like what Linda said, there's something going back, it's more, it seems what she's saying resonates, I didn't want to get her strongly, but Whereas Yen Toh says, no, here. It's right here. You don't need to reflect. It's right there. Yeah. It's two ways. I hope you appreciate both foyers and study them. Yes. And also, going back to the introduction, it says, if you think this is trying to create two ways,

[87:58]

Think about it again, maybe there's something, a special operation going on. Right, right. Right. Maybe something that transcends you in two ways. George? For a moment it sounded like when you were reading me and Peter from the book book record that the look back at the village gate was never evolved, or did I just hear it wrong? Well, I mean... He can say it's inevitable for us, as long as we're thinking in language, it's inevitable. As long as you're using language to explain things, it's like that. It's like looking back at the village gate a thousand miles away. However, it is possible for us also to realize, to develop a mind which does not use language to explain our life. And that mind arises out of, for example, being aware of how we do get caught up in language all the time, just simply purely being aware of how we're caught is not being caught, and it's not doing anything, it's not trying to get uncaught or that, but that is the path of a mind which is not caught up in language and uses language as a point of departure for dragon meeting.

[89:19]

I understand that, but it sounded like the look back at the gate was inevitable. Well, I mean, if we have anything, if you have anything, if you're in the realm of having a human consciousness, it's karmic consciousness. And karmic consciousness is basically to look back at the village gate, namely to look back at the history of the human species, to look back at language. You're always looking back at language. You're always looking back at language. Yeah, I always think of that place, case 32. You know, where are you from? I'm from Yu province, you know. What do they have there? Well, they got this and they got that and they got these people and those people and the animals and the trees and the blood. Do you think of that place? I always think of that place. Case 37. Living beings only have karmic consciousness. That's all they've got. Okay? But if you can clearly observe the human consciousness that only has karmic apparition, that itself is leaving the thing be itself, and that's the immutable knowledge of all Buddhas.

[90:26]

Buddha's immutable knowledge isn't out in free space, long distance from karmic consciousness. Karmic consciousness is all we've got, but karmic consciousness just being itself, in other words, just pure awareness of karmic consciousness, is all that Buddhists know about, that's all they need to know about, because that's liberation from karmic consciousness. That's not trying to explain karmic consciousness, that's just understanding that karmic consciousness is, of all things, karmic consciousness. And we're always... Inevitably, looking back at the village gate, can you believe it? A thousand miles away. They're such silly little creatures. That's why it's good to have Barrington the Cross. Anybody else have any things they want to say? Martha? I think that all these stories, for me, it's a problem with thinking that detachment is cold somehow, but in each of these stories, there's so much, I think, sort of, between the brothers.

[91:35]

Yeah, I'm joking, I'm not sure. The real warmth is to be willing to be cold. Yes? There's a red truck helping us bring down our fairies on a license plate with its lights on. It's Jesse. jesse [...] Why couldn't he what? We didn't. If we were reading this, we couldn't read this by ourselves. How would we have known that there were a bunch of monks coming to the arts? Why didn't we fill that in? Then we could read between the lines of, well, I just feel he doesn't give us a lot of help. What do you want to do about him?

[92:42]

What do you want to do about him? Raja? I just want to ask you an important question. In the commentary, at my place, it says that even the great, short, flogging, young, though, are exposed by this monk. Because neither of their teachings work. I wonder, are you exposed by our inability to understand? That's kind of burdening. Are you exposed by my inability to understand? Or don't you have that responsibility to say it in the meeting? Are you ready?

[93:51]

Ready to have a little party now? Yes, yes. Okay, well. I want to thank the party committee for arranging all the festivities. And I want to thank you all for studying for five years and congratulate you on getting to Case 50. And I beg you to make me a success.

[94:24]

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