So the case is Magu with a ring staff, ring staff like this, in his hand, came to Zhang Jing. He circled the meditation seat three times and shook his staff once and stood there at attention. So he came to see, Mago came to see this other Zen monk. And when he came to see him, the other monk was sitting on his meditation seat, and he walked around him three times, and he stood, shook his thing like that, and he stood. And

[01:03]

Zhang Jing said, Right, right. And then Ma Hu or Ma Ku went to Nanchuan and also walked around Nanchuan three times and shook his staff. He stood at attention. And Nanchuan said, Wrong. Wrong. And Magu said, Zhang Jing said right. Why do you say wrong? Nanchuan said, Zhang Jing is right. It's you that's wrong. This is something that can be blown by the power of wind. It inevitably degenerates. This is a thing that was carried around by Buddhist monks and has a couple purposes.

[02:33]

One purpose is to scare away animals so that they don't hit the monk, but also so that the animals are protected from the monk. And it also attracts attention to people in villages to let them know that a monk is coming so that they can make donations of food. Some monks carry this often when they go begging. This staff has six rings on it, but there's another style that has 12, and that's the style that's referred to in the commentary here. Now, the commentary, in this case, gives lots of information about these kinds of situations, and it's a little bit complicated.

[03:38]

So, actually, in this particular case, in this particular story, I think giving a lot of background is, I think will be quite helpful in this case. Again, it's like there's something here in this story, there's a story which in itself is quite simple, even though not so easy to understand. But the background around it, I think, will help us enter the story. So I'd like to read the commentary right away in this case. In ancient times, Yangshan went to Zhongyi to give thanks for ordination. Actually, it says to give thanks for receiving the precepts.

[04:46]

Zhongyi, sitting on his seat, It says meditation seat. Clapped his hands and said, aya, aya, which I've heard my mother-in-law do. I have a Chinese mother-in-law. She says, ayaya, ayaya, ayaya. It sounds like, ooh, that's awful, kind of disastrous. Sounds Yiddish. Anyway, it means kind of like, the way she does it is kind of like there's some kind of a problem, some kind of disaster. And then Yangshan... crossed from west to east, and then east to west. And then came back and stood in the middle. And then he gave his thanks for receiving the precepts.

[05:57]

And then Zhongyi said, where did you attain this state? And the word that's translated as state literally is samadhi, which sometimes is translated as concentration. But it means a state of mind, but it also means a state of awareness. So where did you attain this state of awareness? And Yangshan said, I learned it from the seal taken from Tsao-Chi. Zhongyi said, tell me, who does this state receive? Who does this samadhi, who does this kind of awareness receive? And Yangshan said, it received the enlightened overnight guest.

[07:07]

Yangshan then asked, where did you attain this samadhi, teacher? And Zhongyi said, I attained this state at great master Ma's place. So this then requires some further explanation. So we have Blackboard tonight. So you can see this is kind of a, this story is kind of a family story, in-house family story. People know a lot of stories about their relatives. So they're referring to these other kinds of situations. So we have a place in southern China where the great teacher Daikon Eno.

[08:15]

It's a Japanese way of pronouncing his name. Da Jin Hui Nung. Da Jin Hui Nung, or Da Khan A Nung, is the person known as the Sixth Patriarch. He died in 713, in front of the most central Zen teacher in Zen history. And the place he lived is called Sao Chi, sometimes also written like this. So this is kind of the granddaddy of all the people in all these stories.

[09:48]

So he had two main disciples. He had lots of disciples. He had thousands of students. And he had two main disciples. One side is, so in morning service we say, and then we say, say again, which is, um, What is it? Junior. Junior. Junior and Sir Leon.

[11:01]

So on one side he had this major disciple, and on the other side he had a non-U.S. fighter. Non-U.S. fighter, you know. Okay? So, coming down from Anirik, the main person coming down from him is called Matsi Dal.

[12:03]

Yi. Matsuda Yi lived from 709 to 788. He's called Ma means horse or cow. usually horse, and tzu means master, horse master. Partly because he was very big, about seven feet tall, Chinese speaking, right? And he also had the ability to lick his nose. I don't know why he's licking his nose, but anyway, they called him horse master. And dao yi means path of oneness.

[13:07]

He had 139 enlightened disciples. That's the most that anybody had in the Zen tradition. Bodhidharma, the person who transmitted the Bodhidharma from India to China, in a sense is the first ancestor in China of our lineage, in a way he only had one main disciple and he had four, maybe four enlightened disciples. This man had 139. So he's referred to in this in this story when he says, in the last line of the commentary, he says, where did you attain this awareness, teacher?

[14:10]

He said, I attained it at Master Ma, at Great Master Ma's place. Master Ma had 139 cycles, but I'm just going to mention a few of them tonight. One name is Nanchuan. It could also be written C-H-U-A-N. This Pinyin romanization system uses a Q for CH, a certain kind of CH. Nanchuan means South Springs. Nanchuan. Pull your arm. Universal vows. The other person I'll mention is Baijian.

[15:15]

Baijian. Baijian Weihai. And the third person I'll mention is tonight's main character. Ma Gu, or Ma Ku, or Ma Yu. I'm not sure which way to pronounce that character. In this book, in this thing it says Ma Gu, but other places it says Ma Yu and Ma Ku. This case, 16, is also the same case, 31, of the book of the Blue Cliff Record. And in the Blue Cliff Record, it's pronounced Ma Ku. Ma Ku, uh, Bao Jie, is his name. Ma Ku,

[16:26]

These are different Romanizations, different Roman Egyptians. We don't know his dates. Well, he must have lived in the 8th century, right? Nanchuan's dates are 748 to 835. 845? 835. And I thought Baijian's dates were 720 to 814. 94 years old. But those dates might be wrong. You might not have lived that long, but anyway, I'll tell you.

[17:28]

720 to 814 for Bijan. Master Ma is also featured in case number six, I believe, of this Book of Serenity. And there, these guys... are featured, along with another important disciple named Shikang, which means Western Hall. That's the one where the monk goes and asks Master Ma, beyond the Hundred Negations and the Four Propositions. What is the meaning of Bodhidharma coming from the West? And Master Mao said, I got a headache today. Would you please go ask Shitan?

[18:31]

And he goes and asks Shitan, and Shitan says, Why didn't you ask the Master? And the monk says, well, he told me to come and ask you. And Shitan said, oh, well, actually, I'm really tired out today myself. Why don't you go ask Baijian? And he asked Baijian. And again, Baijian said, why didn't you ask the master? And he said, what happened? And Baijian said, when it comes to this, I really don't know. And then the monk went back and told Master Ma about this. And Master Ma said, Zhang's head is white. Song's head is black. So that's his two disciples. And then another disciple is this bhaja, who's in this story. Okay? So, now Yangshan is from case 15, right? We just finished talking about Yangshan and Guishan.

[19:34]

Bhai Jan had also many great disciples, but one of his greatest disciples is named Guishan. And Guishan's disciple is Yangshan. So, in the commentary, the story is about Yangshan, who was descended from Guishan, descended from Baijian, descended from Mazi. So, Yangshan goes and visits a monk named, a teacher named Zheng Yi. And he's going to say thank you to Zheng Yi for giving him the precepts. Zheng Yi gave Guishan, gave Yangshan Now this, I don't know offhand, but it looks to me like Yangshan received the precepts from Zheng Yi, and Zheng Yi might have been a contemporary with Guishan, probably, right?

[20:59]

So it's possible that Yangshan received the precepts from Zheng Yi before he was a student of Guishan's. Another possibility is that he was already a student of Puyashams, but that Jung Yi is a precept master and he received the precepts from Jung Yi rather than his teacher. So it's possible in Buddhism to receive the precepts or receive ordination from one teacher and have received Dharma or become a successor to another teacher. So that looks like that's what happened here, is that he received the precepts from Jungyi, but we know he received Dharma, became a Dharma successor to Guaishan. So Jungyi's living in here sometime, so he's living sometime after. without Master Ma.

[22:02]

Now, it's possible, since he lived, Guishan was born, I believe, in 780, he was probably still alive, he was still alive, and Master Ma was alive. But Yangshan might not be living at the same time as Master Ma. So this interaction that's occurring here is probably after Master Ma died, but maybe not so long after Master Ma died that Zhongyi didn't actually meet Master Ma. So I don't know offhand. I didn't have time to find out whether Zhongyi actually studied with Master Ma or not. But he could have. It's possible. that he could have been a young man in the latter part of Master Ma's life, so that he actually did receive this awareness at Master Ma's place. But it's also possible that he received it, you know, from his disciples.

[23:06]

Either way, anyway, he's saying, Jung Yi is saying he received this awareness this state, this samadhi at Master Ma's. Actually, attained it. He attained it at Master Ma's. Also in morning service we chant the Julmir Samadhi, which, we chant the song of the Julmir Samadhi, and that's Norman's giving a class on that, right? The Song of the Jewel-Mir Samadhi. So, the Song of the Jewel-Mir Samadhi is a song, right? The Jewel-Mir Samadhi is what is actually transmitted in Zen. It's an awareness that's transmitted. So, Where did you attain this jewel mirror samadhi?

[24:11]

I attained it at Master Ma's. This jewel mirror samadhi is the same state that is demonstrated by Yangshan. Yangshan demonstrated it by walking from the east, from the west to the east, and the east to the west, and standing at attention. And then, and then saying, thank you. Okay? That's how he expressed himself. And the teacher said, where did you attain this state? And Yangshan said, I learned it from the seal taken from Caoshi. Is this getting complicated? Yes. Again, this is like, you know, these people, this is family stories all these people know, so it's kind of, this is rolling off that kind of like, I don't know what, you know.

[25:21]

the news or the latest movies or whatever for us. At this time, though, it was a little bit like stories about Suzuki Roshi. Am I correct? We were that close to it. It's got a little bit of a feeling for me, sort of like a lot of names. And I don't capture the flavor behind the names. Right, you don't. That's why I have to study it more, I guess. We had to go over it until it kind of sinks in. That's why I'm doing this. Yes, because otherwise, if I just dive into this, you're not going to... I think you need to do this. If you go over it, maybe you'll start to catch. So, there's one more layer, right? So Yangshan... He's saying, now he's saying, he's saying, where did, Jung Yi says to Yangshan, so what did Yangshan do? Remember what Yangshan did? No, I can't remember. So Yangshan, do you know who Yangshan is? Yes. He's from Case 15, right? Who is his teacher? Luisa. Okay. So, kind of, you sort of have to have that down, Yangshan's, Guishan's student, all right?

[26:27]

And Guishan's whose student? Vajang, Vajang, who's this dude? Okay, yeah, right. So here's Yangshan going to ask this guy who gave him the precepts to come to say thank you, right? And the guy claps and says, ayi, ayi, you know, what's this already? And so he walks to the west, to the east, to the east, to the west, comes back from the middle, stands there. And Jiang Yi says what to Yangshan? My mind is blank right now. Where did you receive? Who received this? Who received this state? Where did you obtain this state? Oh, where did you obtain this state? Okay. Let's do that again. Okay, so Yangshan, you can be Tsung Yi, all right? So I'm coming... Okay, one second now.

[27:32]

Yeah, all right. Okay, so I, Master Jung Yi, I've come to express my gratitude for you giving me the precepts. But actually what probably happened was you gave him the precepts, right? And after the ceremony, he comes in and he doesn't say anything. Jung Yi knows what he's going to do now. He's coming to say, he's got a robe on, he comes and bows. And Jung Yi knows what he's going to do. So what does Jung Yi say? Where did you attain this state? He claps and says, oi, oi, oi, oi. And then he walks back and forth in front of the teacher. who's sitting on his meditation seat, and he stands in front of him, okay? And then Jung Yi says, Where did you take this stick? I got it off the seal of Tsao-Chi. Is that what he said? I learned it from the seal taken off. Oh, I learned it from the seal taken off of Tsao-Chi.

[28:33]

Okay, now that's the next layer, is that that refers to another story. And this is a very famous story. So, Tsa Chi, in other words, the Sixth Patriarch, there was a person who came to see him, and his name is Yongjia, it says down there below. Yongjia. We don't know Yongjia's dates. Oh, we do know Yongjia's dates. Yongjia's dates are 665. to 713. He died at the same year as the Six Patriarchs. Okay? Yongjia. See down below? That's kind of the writer, right? Yongjia Shen Che. So, this guy, this Yongjia is called, what's it called in there?

[29:35]

Enlightened Overnight Guest. Or sometimes they call the one night enlightened one. That's because this monk came to see the Sixth Patriarch and visited him and stayed with him just one night and was enlightened. He was enlightened in one day. One day of study. And he was enlightened by the Sixth Patriarch. And so here's his story. This is the story of Yongji. And he wrote a famous then text called The Song of Experiencing Enlightenment, or The Song of Enlightenment. In Japanese, he's called Yoka Daishi, the great teacher, Yoka, which is a Japanese way of saying Yongjia. So I'll just read you a little bit about Yongjia.

[30:50]

Yongjia wrote this thing called the Song of Enlightenment. After he had met the sixth patriarch, Hui Nung, what occurred at that meeting was very unusual. Yongjia was full of self-confidence, but he sought out Hui Nung to obtain Yingko, or what's called Inka. And Inka... means like a seal of approval. Inka and yin, or yin, means a seal, like a stamp, one of those Chinese stamps. It also is the word that they use for a circle. And it's also the word that's used for mudra. Mudra, seal, and ring are the same word. Mudra means seal or ring. So it's a mudra of approval or seal of approval, literally a seal of approval on a document, but also a verbal seal of approval like, for example, right, right.

[32:02]

Okay? So... This is referring back to their meeting where this monk, Jungja, has come to receive approval. So these stories are about that kind of thing. So here's his story. So he comes to see the sixth patriarch, and when he saw the sixth patriarch, he did not bow or show any signs of outward gestures of respect. Usually when monks come to see teachers, they offer incense and bow. At least that's the formal way in China and India and Japan and Korea and so on. Huai Nong thought this was odd that a monk should exhibit such arrogance and asked him about it. Yang Jia replied, "...the matter of life and death is most important." because impermanence is so quick.

[33:04]

This is what we write on our Han. The wooden board we hit, we traditionally write this thing that he said on the board now. The matter of birth and death is most important. Impermanence is swift. Basically, teaching of Buddhism is impermanence, but there's another thing about impermanence is that it's very fast. It's not a slow impermanence. So this is very important to me. So I'm coming here and I'm not exhibiting the usual acts of respect. Maybe I am arrogant, but anyway, this is what I'm doing. So the sixth patriarch said, but why can't you experience no birth and why can't you realize no speed? The patriarch went on to say, no birth refers to the non-moving of time and no speed refers to the non-moving of space. Jung Ja answered, experience is originally no birth and realization is originally no speed.

[34:12]

Hui Nung said, that's right, that's right. Jung Ja bowed very reverently to Hui Nung. And although Jung Ja was already enlightened, he needed this confirmation from Vainung to secure his faith. Having reached his objective, he quickly turned to leave. Vainung stopped him, saying, Since you already understand the meaning of no birth, why are you in such a hurry? In other words, why don't you stay a while? Yung Ja only had to see Hoi Nung once and spend one night in his place. This made him a very unusual disciple of the Sixth Patriarch. Yung Ja died at the age of 49, and we have no idea how many disciples he had.

[35:16]

So anyway, he wrote this thing called The Song of Enlightenment, which you can read if you want to. It's translated in this book here. It's also translated in D.T. Suzuki's Manual of Zen Buddhism. But the beginning of the poem, the main point of the poem is that ignorance is the Buddha nature. And the illusory body, our illusory body, is the Dharma body. and that Zen does not depart from the normal phenomenal world even though we see it as illusory. We live in the illusory world. We did not try to get out of the illusory world, but we also don't believe in it. So, Jung Ja got this seal from Sa Chi. So, Zheng Yi said to... I mean, Yangshan asked Zheng Yi, where did you get this state teacher?

[36:32]

And Zheng Yi said, I got it from Matsu. Zheng Yi asked Yangshan where he got the state, and he said, I got it from the seal taken from Shaoqi. But Yangshan did not live at the same time as the sixth patriarch, he got it from the seal that young Job took. So he's referring back to the story of young Job, for some reason. Okay? So probably, um, Do you want to ask any questions now and try to understand all these stories? Do you want to go on? Any questions? Yes? Learning from the seal, what does that mean? That phrase, learning from the seal.

[37:37]

Learning from the seal? So it means learning from the seal of approval that was taken from the sixth patriarch. I'm learning from the approval which an ancestor of mine got. The approval that that disciple sought was also an acknowledgment of his enlightenment, so he was learning the same lesson. When Jung Ja came to the Sixth Patriarch, he was already enlightened. But he needed the Sixth Patriarch to recognize him. So that was his approval. And they had this discussion. See, he was kind of rude to the Sixth Patriarch. He didn't bow to the Sixth Patriarch. The Sixth Patriarch said, well, how come you're acting so strangely? Why aren't you observing the usual procedures?

[38:41]

Sometimes if I give formal instructions, sometimes people come in and they don't follow the usual instructions. They don't bow to me the usual way. Sometimes they don't bow at all, or sometimes they bow in an unusual place or an unusual way. But particularly if it's a new person, like in this case it's a new person, I might say to them after they maybe stop doing whatever they're, when they finish doing whatever they did, then I might say, did someone, did you get instruction? And they may say, no. I say, oh, I see. But, you see, if I'm sitting in there and I expect a formal meeting, if someone does something unusual, I would check to see, did someone tell you to do that unusual thing which I'm now observing? Like, let's say they bow 20 times, or let's say they bow facing the wall instead of me, or let's say they bow to the bookcase, or they do a half of the standing bow or something, or they do no bow and just come and sit down.

[39:54]

Then I would say, I would ask them, did they get instruction? And if they say that they got instruction, in this case, he'd maybe say, yeah, I know that you usually do that. You say, well, what's up? And then this monk in this case says, birth and death are really important. I don't have time for this stuff. I'm in a big hurry. Impermanence is extremely swift. That's why I didn't observe the usual thing. And then the sixth patriarch says, Well, I guess birth and death are important, but you should realize no birth and no speed. And then he explains no birth means the unmovingness of time and no speed means the unmovingness of space. So they had this dialogue and then the Yongji responds and Isaac Patriarch says, right.

[40:56]

So he approved his enlightenment. Then he bows. He was kind of excited. He wanted to settle this matter as soon as possible. He didn't even know how much longer he was going to live, so he wanted to go right to the point. After he was approved, then he was going to bow, which that makes sense. But then he wanted to split right away and said, well, you're enlightened now, what's the hurry? Do you think that him not bowing was a device to get the teacher to respond to him in that way? I think his not bowing was a way to show the teacher his urgent spirit. In fact, it did promote the teacher, prompt the teacher to ask him this question, which he answered so well. He didn't know the teacher was going to talk to him about this, but the teacher had a nice thing to say to him, and he had a nice answer, and the teacher confirmed it, and that's what he wanted.

[41:59]

So he's called one night enlightenment, or enlightenment in one night, but he was enlightened before he came. So it was confirmation he got that night. So that's the seal. And that's where Jung Yi got this state, which Yangshan is demonstrating. Now, any other questions at this point? This story is going to take a while. We're not going to be able to get it done in one week. So be patient. There's no hurry since there's no birth. And there's no class next week. And there's no class next week either. Because I... If you really want me to, I won't go to Tassajara, but I was going to take Susan Hiroshi's son to Tassajara on Monday. So that's why. Is that okay? Can you make it without that next week?

[43:02]

What do you think? Should I have class? What do you think? You're going to Tasa? I'll be there too, so let's have class. Can the rest of you come to Tasa? Anybody who's there on next Monday night will have class there, but still, you'll get your six classes or whatever. I will fulfill my requirement, my promise to finish this class as soon as possible. And by the way, I thought of another way to talk about these koans. I'm opening a koan adoption agency, and I have 100... Homeless koans. And anyone who would like to adopt one, even if you're a single parent, I'm offering these up for adoptions, and someone has offered to adopt case 15.

[44:10]

Anyone else would like to adopt it, that's fine too, but, so again, I offer, here's case 16 for anybody who would like to adopt it. And we have possibility of 100 koans to be adopted, so they're available. Just let me know if you want one. I do not charge for this service. Then you have to solve it. No, you don't have to solve it, you have to love it and take care of it and help it grow up until it solves you. But you've already raised some children, right? They're still cool. Yeah. Anyway, if you want to take another child on, or if you haven't had any children yet and you'd like a nice child, just let me know. You can take any of the free... You have to start someplace, right? Do these run chronologically?

[45:12]

No, they're not chronological. They're organized according to a teaching method, but not chronologically. Actually, number one is chronologically first, because it's the Buddha. But number two is not chronological because number three occurs before number two. So, like number one occurs in India, number two occurs in China, number three occurs back in India, and is the story of the teacher of number two. Okay. But there's a method in the order, in the presentation of the teaching, which I have some theories about. But anyway, yes? Could you repeat what Mooji said after the Master said, no birth, and when you repeat it again, what was his response? The teacher said, you know, so he says, birth and death are really important, and impermanence is very fast.

[46:14]

And the Sixth Patriarch says, but why don't you experience no birth, and why can't you realize no speed? And then the Sixth Patriarch says, no birth refers to the non-movement of time and no speed refers to the non-movement of space. And Jung Ja said, experience is originally no birth and realization is originally no speed. And the Sixth Patriarch said, that's right. Okay. Where is that from? What? Where is that from? Or is it occurring? Well, it's not in here, right? No, it's in this book here called Poetry of Enlightenment. If you want to find it in here, it's under the Song of Enlightenment by Jung Jia. Also, this poem or this song is also in the Manual of Zen Buddhism by D.T. Suzuki. Do you know the story now?

[47:15]

Do you remember it? I remember it? Okay, so, what happened? The young jiao comes to the sixth patriarch and says, you know, What? Birth and death are so important and infirmities are so sweet. Yeah. And then the sixth patriarch said, you should realize no birth and no speed. No birth means refers to the non-movement of time, and no speed refers to the non-movement of space. And then Jungja says, what? Hmm? Experience is originally normal. Manifestation is originally normal. That's right. That's what the six patriarchs say. Okay?

[48:15]

That's the story. All right? Yes. I'm wondering why Yangshan, who seemed to be in the lineage of Baichang, Guishan would refer to a great-granduncle. It's not a transmission, rather than citing his own lineage of transmission when explaining His circumstances. Well, one possibility that just occurred to me is that nobody knows who Jungja's disciples are. Jungja is this kind of mysterious figure that comes to see the sick patriarch one night and disappears. He's an enlightened disciple, but nobody knows what he did after that.

[49:19]

Isn't Jungja Reckless too? No, there's stories of him before that. We know what he did before he saw the six patriarchs, but we don't know who his disciples were. Maybe Yangshan had read the song The Experience of Enlightenment. I think he had, yeah. Let's go on a little bit more, okay? So master, Chan master, Zen master, Bao Jia of Magu, Magu or Maku is a mountain. So his Buddhist name is Bao Jia and he lived on Maku mountain in Pu province. He came up to Jiangjing holding his staff just like when Lung Jia, Yung Jia met the sixth patriarch. Do you see the similarity? Hmm?

[50:21]

What's the similarity? It's an unusual approach. It's unusual to walk up to a teacher, you just walk up to a teacher like this, with your staff, walk around him three times and go... This is not the usual way. The usual way is, when you come to the temple, we've seen this before, but anyway, the usual way is to put your staff down, take off your walking pack, put on your robes and go and bow. But he walked right in with his, he's got his staff, he's just coming off the road, right? All dusty and with his equipment, comes in, immediately walks around the teacher three times, shakes his staff and stands there. This is also very abrupt. He must be in a very urgent state, right? He's immediately going to the teacher and not even doing the usual acts of respect and the teacher says, right. Right. Right. He approves his presence. He approves his state. Sounds like he does anyway.

[51:24]

And so it's just like Jung Ja, who went right up to the sixth patriarch without formality and presented himself like that and got approval. Okay? That's what the commentator is saying anyway. First, okay, just like when Lungjia first met the sixth patriarch at Sao Chi, he circled the meditation seat three times and shook his staff once. Then he stood there at attention. This was learning from the seal taken from Sao Chi. You see the connection now? Now, This is part of Zen practice, like it or not, this is the kind of ancestors you've got. So what do they do? One of them, one of these guys who's enlightened, goes to see the great master and walks right in to the guy and just presents himself without the usual formality.

[52:34]

And the teacher says, how come you're doing that? He says something which then becomes one of the slogans of Zen Buddhism, birth and death is the most important thing. Impermanence is fleeting. We don't have any time to waste. And then they go into this dialogue and he gets approval, just like that. Then later, Yangshan comes to see, I mean, Baojie comes to see teacher, walks right in with the same presence, And the teacher says, right. And later, because of these two stories, Yangshan does the same thing, comes to see this guy to say thank you, and does a strange thing of walking right and left, and boom. Now, this also could be seen as an act of respect, in a way, of walking to one side of the hall, walking the other side of the hall, and standing in front of the teacher. And the teacher says, OK.

[53:35]

where did you attain this state? And he says, I got it from that moment, hundreds of years ago, when that monk came before the sixth patriarch and presented himself just like I'm presenting myself to you right now. So in a sense, this is always the same moment. And you notice he says, where did you attain this state? Where did you attain this awareness? And he says, I attained it a hundred years ago from the Sixth Patriarch. In other words, I'm Lung Jia, in a way. I'm doing the same thing Lung Jia did, Yang Chuan is saying. And I'm also doing the same thing as Bao Jia did with Nan Chuan. I mean with Zhang Jia and with Nan Chuan. I'm doing the same thing. We're reenacting the same stories over. And sometimes we do them just about the same way. Every time we go and bow, we're reenacting a usual story.

[54:40]

But sometimes we reenact unusual stories. And sometimes people do that, knowingly or unknowingly. Often knowingly, intentionally reenact a certain spirit. For example, dispensing with the usual etiquette in a meeting because we feel like we think some ancient person felt when we were very intense. to put aside the usual respect because of respect for something more important than the usual respect. So, the commentator is saying that Vajra is doing the same thing which someone who came after him did. So he's after both of them and he's interlacing these two stories. And then the commentator said, this is called the state which is the king of all states. Or another way to put it, this is called the samadhi, which is called the king of all samadhis.

[55:47]

So this is one of Dogen Zenji's works, the samadhi king of samadhis. This is also what we call zazen. So we're saying, this is zazen. to come to meet the teacher. When he came and met the teacher, walked around three times, shook the staff, and stood there. That is Zazen. Now, one other thing I want to tell you about Baozhe before I forget is that He's a person that's featured at the end of the Genjo koan. At the end of the Genjo koan it says, Master Bajie of Mount Maku was asked by, was fanning himself one day.

[56:50]

And a monk came and said to him, the nature of wind is permanent and it reaches everywhere. Why do you fan yourself, teacher? And Bhaja said, you understand that the nature of wind is permanent, but you don't yet understand the meaning of it reaching everywhere. And the monk said, what is the meaning of it reaching everywhere? And Bhaja just fanned himself. This is Bhaja. This monk also just walked up to him on a hot day and said, why are you fanning yourself? And after Bhājya found himself the second time, the monk bowed. So that's another traditional Zen style, is you don't have to go up to the teacher and bow when you ask a question. You can just go up to the teacher and ask the question. So again, in the previous story, Yangshan, the same Yangshan comes up from the fields

[58:01]

and he sees his teacher, he doesn't bow. His teacher says, where are you coming from? The teacher didn't bow either. In other cases, you can ask the teacher questions, but after you get enlightened, you should bow. Okay? So, the nature of wind is permanent. There's no place it doesn't reach. Why do you fan yourself? Enlightenment is permanent. It reaches everywhere. It reaches everywhere. So why do we practice? If you ask that question, you understand the universality of enlightenment, but you don't yet understand how it's realized. It's realized by practice. For example, it's realized by these stories. If enlightenment is permanent and reaches everywhere, why do we have these stories? It's because these stories are the reaching of enlightenment everywhere.

[59:06]

These stories are examples of how enlightenment reaches everywhere, even into such silliness as this. Any questions now? Are you ready to take another step? I don't understand why you said this is Zaza, when you were talking about that type of action. Well, part of the reason why I said it is because the commentator said that. The commentator said, this is called the king of all states. This is the state, this is the samadhi, which is called the king of all samadhis. All states are produced from this. From what? From learning from the seal taken off of the psachi.

[60:07]

the king of samadhis, the sanayugas of the king of samadhis in Sanatana Kriyasasana. Okay? So the commentator is saying that this, when Lungja went to see the sixth patriarch and they had this talk, that this awareness there in their conversation is the awareness, which is the awareness called the king of awarenesses. All states, all samadhis come from this conversation. It's still not... I'm following, but it's not apparent to me why you would say that I zazzed out. Well, what did you think zazzing was? Sitting there. You mean, like, literally pecking your legs crossed and so on? That's possible. That's possible. Are there some other possibilities? Yeah. Like what? Like falling at this.

[61:17]

Do you like calling it the king of all samadhis? It sounds narrow-minded to say that, to say that the king of all samadhis is Azan. Well, you see, Well, it may be narrow-minded to say that, but then that's just narrow-minded to say that. That's just a narrow-minded statement, right? But my statement is not zazen, that's just a narrow-minded statement. But even though it's narrow-minded, it must be true, mustn't it? Zazen isn't narrow-minded, therefore zazen can even be what I said. You want to say that's not zazen? You don't want to say that's not zazen? No. So I just made a narrow-minded stick.

[62:21]

Is that okay? This is fine. How about if I did it the other way around? Yeah, what do you want to say? Saying zazen is the... How about saying that this conversation that they're having is zazen? How's that? They're talking about samadhis, right? Well, if I said otherwise, then I would think I would be being narrow-minded. What do you mean, you said otherwise from what? Well, if that conversation that they were having, if I was to say it, well, this cannot be Zaza. Right. But if you said it? It would be the same as saying it. Wow. Maybe I shouldn't say it is, maybe I should just say that, how do you put it, it's not that that conversation is zazen.

[63:26]

How do we say that? When two Buddhas are talking, that we say that conversation is zazen. Zazen isn't that conversation. That kind of conversation is the kind of conversation that all samadhis come from. And we call zazen the state that all spirits come from. Does that feel more comfortable? Sure. Sure? Yeah. You're not just agreeing with me? Well, I wouldn't say anything if two Buddhas are saying they're speaking. That's what the story is, isn't it? Two Buddhas. We have the yong jia and da jing playing nam. Those are two Buddhas. two enlightened beings having a conversation. That's what zazen is. Right? Right. Did you know that? That zazen is two enlightened beings having a conversation? Is that a translation?

[64:34]

No, that's a kind of rendering. It's a kind of interpretation. Literally, zazen means sitting zen. Who are these two guys? They're two who's. They're two world-honored ones. Is this getting stretched out or what? Did you say that zazen is the state where all states come from? It's the samadhi, it's the awareness from which all awareness is coming from. So then what wouldn't be zazen? What wouldn't be zazen? Something which is imagined to exist all by itself, isolated from all other things.

[65:46]

Some independent existence. It's the imagination of some independent state. That's what's not zazen. Just the imagination? Yeah, because such a state is only imagination. There is really nothing which exists all by itself. Zazen is simply to be immersed in that from which everything is born and that to which everything contributes. That's what zazen is. So what you're saying about the two enlightened beings at the conversation is part of that concept. It's necessary, in order to realize what zazen is, it's necessary for human beings to realize what zazen is, it's necessary for two human beings to have a conversation. Okay, then under the concept of sitting zen, would it be possible to assume that you were having a conversation with yourself?

[66:54]

Sitting zazen is not just sitting by yourself. Sitting zazen also includes having a conversation with somebody else. So when you're sitting, if you see yourself just sitting, and that's what you think you're doing, that's fine. That's sort of like where you're at. That's part of it. Part of it, okay. That's an important part of it. You have to kind of like... Stand there and be that. That's part of Zazen. Everybody has to do that. Ready? Do that. Okay? Everybody, that's called just sitting, where you are. Okay? Everybody does that. Then, you have to talk to somebody. You have to have a dialogue with somebody else who's also in their place. Okay? The combination of you being where you are, and somebody else being where they are, and you two talking back and forth, that's what we mean by dhasna.

[68:05]

It has these two parts in it. And they recognize you, and you recognize them. That's where we realize the Dharma. That's what these stories are about. It's two people completely being themselves, meeting and And not coming, not giving up where they are, at the same time completely recognizing where the other person is, and being recognized by the other person when the other person also stays where they are. That's what we call zazen. That's our practice. So you're in zazen with all of us. Right. That's actually what's going on all the time. So that's why you have these talks. That's why we have these talks? That's the other part of zazen. Right. There's the sitting zen, and they have this... What would this be called? Is there a technical term for this? A technical term for this would be to go and talk to the teacher about the Dharma, which we're doing in a group right now.

[69:12]

That's one half. The other half is you just sit on yourself. Those two together are what make... Zazen. Zazen. And in order to have it, but also in order to have a conversation with the teacher, you have to do the first part, because if you're not home, you can't really have a conversation. Which came first? Yeah, which came first? What is it you're doing if you're not having a conversation? I think you are. What is it you're thinking about yourself? We say that if it's Zazen, you aren't holding up something independent there. Yes, right. And you're in this relationship with all of us doing Zazen, but we're sitting here thinking there's something independent out there. You're saying we're not then doing Zazen? What is that? I say you're imagining, you're caught in your imagination then.

[70:16]

Mm-hmm. The qualifier is two enlightened beings. Is that correct? Yeah, but I don't know if I'm following up on your question. Like I said, you know, I think I said last week, I said something at Palsara, I said enlightenment is realized by two people. There's two people present when enlightenment is realized. And somebody said after class, Buddha was alone. Remember? And... It was here. It was class here. Yeah, right. I mean, I told that story. And then, but I said, actually Buddha wasn't Buddha until there was another person. That's when Buddha actually was realized. Okay, now, so what's your question? Forget it. No, what's the matter? Why don't you finish it? Well, because I'm confused about what my question is, I guess.

[71:18]

Well, it sounds like you were saying you're not in that state of not thinking there's something out there, that you're, that you're not doing Zalzan. I'm confused about what Zalzan is. I mean, if you think that, if you think... confused about what's going on if you've not been doing zazen? I mean, do you have to not be confused? If you're a person who's confused about what's going on and you realize that there you are, a confused person, and that that's what's happening with you, and you're willing to let that be the case, that's called, you know… That can be called zazen, but it's really not complete, so it may be better to call it just sitting. You just sit in your position of confused person. Now, if you sit in a position of a confused person and you think that's the whole story and that's all that's going on, then you're imagining an independent whatever, being or independent person.

[72:26]

That's incorrect. You're doing well at being in your position, but you're not recognizing anything else. Therefore, without recognizing anything else, you can't understand what you are. In order to understand what you are, you can only fully understand what you are through someone else. But also, if they can't do all the work, you also have to completely be where you are. So you have to do the work of being whatever you are. Confused person? Okay, confused person all the way. And then, bring that full presence of being confused, completely confused, all the way to the bottom of confusion, And being aware of your confusion all the way to the bottom of confusion also relieves you of your confusion. Because at the bottom of your confusion there ain't nothing but complete freedom. That's your realization. But to complete that realization you have to meet somebody else in that realization. You don't do it all by yourself.

[73:28]

Somebody else has to say, yeah, you really are all the way to the bottom of your confusion. That's right. So it takes two people. Your part is, if it's confusion, your confusion, you go to the bottom of your confusion, like that image of the mountains and the waters. You go all the way to the bottom of the mountains, and at the bottom of the mountains, at the tiptoes of the mountains, the water splashes out. The waters of liberation. You die. You have no other agenda other than being who you are. In that sense, you die into what you are. You die into your phenomenal life. You're willing to be completely ordinary. With no reservation, you go to the bottom of your ordinariness. And at the bottom of your ordinariness, this water which shows you that your ordinariness is illusory and empty comes to save you from your ordinariness. If you hold back from completely exercising your ordinariness, you still believe your ordinariness. You resist being completely ordinary because you think ordinary is real, you don't want to be ordinary.

[74:35]

If you're willing to go to the bottom of your ordinariness, you'll get a great gift called relief from ordinariness, without running away from it. And that's not enough. That's enlightenment, and that's the enlightenment Shakyamuni Buddha had under the bow tree. It's complete personal relief from your illusory existence. Okay? Whatever it is. Then, That person should go visit somebody and bring this to somebody and then see if somebody else recognizes it. And the person who recognizes it needs to be somebody else who you think has done the same thing. And not only do you have to think they do and believe they do, but they actually need to. So that's what two Buddhas meeting. That's zazen. Zazen is not something you can do by yourself.

[75:39]

So would Zazit be the recognition of the state? You mentioned going to the bottom of confusion and then having someone recognize that state. That would be Zazit. And also you recognize the state in the other. That's why you go to them. You go to someone who you recognize is willing to be an ordinary person. And that's a difficult situation, ladies and gentlemen, to find somebody who you think is willing to be ordinary. And sometimes, in a way, you can't... It's kind of sad that it's not so easy to find someone who's willing to be ordinary, all the way to the bottom of ordinariness. But this is the person we need to find. We need to find somebody who's willing to be ordinary. And also, when we go to meet this person, we also have been trying to be ordinary, too, and reach the end of our ordinariness. So, an ordinary person who is completely willing to be ordinary

[76:45]

You may not have experienced relief from your ordinariness and liberation from your ordinariness, but still if you're working at being ordinary, that's okay too. Go and meet somebody who you think is really working at being ordinary. If you think they've completed being ordinary, that's okay too. But actually you should be looking for someone who has completed being ordinary. But you're again talking about another state, the state of confusion and the state of ordinariness, right? No, ordinariness, confusion, ignorance, synonyms. Any phenomenal state is ignorance, confusion and so on, ordinariness. Alright, so you're in sitting Zen and you're experiencing confusion. And you go by the confusion and you acknowledge the fullness of the confusion.

[77:48]

And the way of Zazen would be then to find someone who has also completed that process and seek the seal. And you're going to have trouble finding anybody like that, so that's going to be hard on them. But, you know. Is that part of what your responsibility of being a monk is about? As far as being available for that sort of response? Mm-hmm. Okay. Okay? Okay? Well, it's time to stop. So we're just kind of getting into this story.

[78:51]

And also, as I told you, if you want to get even more material, which you may not want, case 31 of the Blue Cliff record is also this story treated from a different angle. So I hope you can study this case, and I would recommend that you, when you study this case, if you're going to study the commentary, that you separate these stories, do the stories separately, and go over them in your mind separately, until you know each story separately, and then see how they're interwoven. If you just read straight through the commentary, you might get confused. It might be good to have a little separate piece of paper for each one of these stories. like the story of the Sixth Patriarch and Long Jia, the story of Bao Jie and Nan Xuan and Zheng Qing, the story of Yang Shan and Zheng Ye, these different stories.

[79:57]

Keep them so you can do each one separately. This story we could have gone directly into and tried to act it out, but I tried this other method tonight. It may not seem so accessible as to directly go into the story, which we have done in the past with some other stories. But anyway, I thought this one we should do this way. And this case also has a bigger commentary than almost any other one, too. If you feel that going into the commentary is, you're getting lost and it's getting too intellectual on something, just stay away from it and just stay with the case, the simple story, which is, I would guess, is completely inaccessible, which is fine, if it is, because that's the way it would be even if you studied the commentary, it's completely inaccessible.

[81:22]

It's a solid surface. But again, the solid surface of the story is... I mean, that's the way it appears. And you don't have to mess with that. If you can just accept the story as it happens to you in its solidity, That's your work. And if you can go to the extremes of the solidity, the inaccessibility, the impenetrability of this story, at the extreme of that, if you can accept that, the whole thing will just simply drop away. If you try to make this story accessible, if you try to make this story something you can do something with, then you'll just do something with it, just like you do stuff with everything.

[82:40]

and it'll just be more spinning your wheels. But if you can accept this, reading the commentary should not be a way to circumvent this facing, the immovability of the story. The story is immovable. You cannot move it. The commentary is not a way to mess around with the story. The commentary is just a way to live with the story. You know, just a way to like, like raising a child. Just a way to walk around with it and hang out with it. It's not to undermine its, its unmovable quality. Isn't it true of all? It's true of all, it's true of all the stories. And in this case, I'm going into the walking around the story rather than going directly into the inner mobility of the story. I'm doing the commentary around it because this particular commentary I didn't think you would be able to understand if I didn't give you these other stories. But anyway, I just wanted to say that and encourage you to deal with the solidity of the story, because actually the story is not solid, it's just that we make it solid.

[83:58]

And really what you're accepting when you accept the solidity of the story is you're accepting our tendency as human beings to make stories into solid things. And this is called ordinariness. The ordinary way the mind works is it makes everything into a solid thing out there, which you can't do anything with because you say it's independent, inaccessible, rock. This is what we do. This story is a perfect example. If you can accept that, you will be relieved of that tendency. Then, if you're relieved of that tendency, then the next step would be what we just talked about, namely, see if you can get somebody else to discuss this with you who's also been able to accept the fact that they made this into... a rock, and they were also relieved of that when they completely admitted it.

[85:03]

So I don't know if you want to do this, but is it clear that the process that I'm suggesting? I don't know if any of you have the time or energy to completely admit that you do this all the time. With that speed, we can all write. Would next week be all right? All right for what? We kind of booked up this. Yeah, anytime you can find time, that would be terrific. Most people, again, think that there's no hurry, and yet I hope you can find time to do that. I mean, I really think it would be great if one of us could actually... admit what we're doing here in this world. And to use this story as a kind of opportunity to admit what you're up to completely. It could have been one of the last stories, but this is the one we've got this week.

[86:10]

In other words, admit the root of human suffering. That we make stories like this into solid things. And I must admit, if any of you would, if any of you would admit this completely, and I say admit in the sense of let this story in, and therefore also let yourself admit to yourself, let the truth into yourself of what you're up to most of your life, if you did that, and then you wanted to talk to me, I would be, and I knew who was coming, I'd do my best to get ready, but I would wonder if I would be up to meeting you. But anyway, while still being an ordinary person all the time, or trying to be an ordinary person, I want to be ready to meet people like this.

[87:23]

This is my... This is completely what I'm dedicating my life to. So if you're afraid to come to meet me over this, you should also know I'm afraid if you come like this. It's like you've got this in your hand, you know. And it's in the corner of my room. Next to the altar if you want to use it. Where do we find this? What? How do we find your room? In the corner. It's room one. Yeah, let's go right in. Guided tours. And I'm not the only one you can meet. I'm just telling you, I'm one person that wants to meet somebody who wants to admit who they are.

[88:26]

And I'll try to admit who I am, and then maybe two people who are trying to admit who they are can dare to meet each other, or whatever happens. But it's very embarrassing, the whole thing.

[88:41]

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