This podcast is offered by the San Francisco Zen Center on the web at www.sfzc.org. Our public programs are made possible by donations from people like you. You say that I repeat something that I've said before. I shall say it again. Shall I say it again? On my way to this morning's talk, I visited Chasahara quite a few times.

[01:03]

One time I came in the summer, and one of the residents came to see me, and he said, I heard you were coming. And I asked some people what your teaching was, or how you taught. And first he said to me, Oh, he just says the same thing over and over. But it's good. Shakyamuni Buddha was sitting in stillness under a great tree on the earth. And he was in the Self-Fulfillment Samadhi.

[02:13]

His sitting was imperceptibly, unthinkably, inconceivably, imperceptibly, in accord with all things and fully resonating through all time. Mind and object entered realization together and went beyond enlightenment. And he looked at the morning star and said, Now I, together, All beings in the great earth attain the way simultaneously. Sometime later,

[03:27]

people say, on Vulture Peak in a great assembly. He was sitting on the mountain in the assembly in samadhi. And he raised flower and winked. Makashita's face broke into a smile. And he said, I have

[04:33]

the treasury of true Dharma eyes, the inconceivable mind of nirvana, I now entrust it to Mahakashipa. At that moment, and at this moment, she expressed the Buddha mind seal, with her body, her mind, and her speech. And the whole world, the whole phenomenal world became the Buddha mind seal. And the entire sky turned into enlightenment. And Mahakashapa's face broke into a smile at that moment. sure how long Mahakashapa had been practicing with his teacher at the time of this raising of the flower.

[06:01]

Makashapa was quite a bit older than the Buddha. They met, and after some time, Makashapa was... welcomed by the Buddha into the monkhood or into the Sangha. And the Buddha, who found the middle way between addiction to sense pleasure and addiction to self-mortification, encouraged Makashipa to practice self-mortification.

[07:24]

The Buddha didn't find the middle way between self-mortification and sense pleasure. He found the middle way between addiction to sense pleasure and addiction to self-mortification. Addiction to those are the extremes. But sometimes it's good to yield to sense pleasure. For example, lunchtime. You yield to the food, you eat it, and your blood sugar might go up, and it might be pleasant. Yield. We need you to Take care of your blood sugar level. So you'll be relaxed and buoyant and still and joyful monks. But sometimes, if somebody needs your lunch, you should give it to them.

[08:36]

It would be good to give them your lunch, which might be actually... a little bit of a mortification for you. Sometimes it's good to give other people your sense pleasure. But not always. Either side. And so the Buddha actually encouraged Mahakashapa to practice self-mortification, which means things like if you're with the Buddha and you're going on begging to with him, it's okay to go begging with him, but if he gets invited to a special luncheon, you don't go. You don't lie down. You sit up at night. These kinds of practices, the Buddha encouraged in Mahakastapa, and he took to them like a duck that knows it's a duck, takes to water.

[09:46]

Buddha had two chief disciples, Shariputra and Mahalajalana. And the Buddha knew that these two great disciples were going to die around the same time the Buddha would die. And they did. As a matter of fact, I think they died before the Buddha. So he kind of He didn't appoint Mahakashipa as successor Buddha, but he did basically show people that Mahakashipa was going to be the main disciple after he passed away. And the Sangha accepted Mahakashipa as their founder. Mahakashipa is sometimes called the father of the Sangha. Sometimes they call

[10:56]

Mahapajapati, the mother of the women's sangha. Anyway, he was a highly appreciated and respected disciple of the Buddha. The Buddha obviously appreciated him and demonstrated his appreciation in public. now entrusted to Mahakashipa. I think it was seven days after Mahakashipa became a monk that he also became an Arhat, a fully enlightened disciple, fully enlightened as to the path of individual liberation. He was wise, he was free, he was a great elder in the community. There were other arhats too.

[12:03]

But he was rather quick to become an arhat. Some of the Buddha's disciples, the five Buddha's disciples that were at the first turning of the wheel, all of them became arhats in a month or so of discussing the Dharma with the Buddha. This story that's being told now, I imagine, and I think other people imagine this story occurring after he was in Arhat. He did not receive this transmission when he was in Arhat, I would say, after he was in Arhat. This is a Buddha transmission. Another thing I find interesting about Mahakashapa is, although he followed lots of Buddha's teachings, for example, to practice these ascetic practices, the Buddha asked him to teach on a number of occasions when the Buddha was present.

[13:18]

It's kind of like the model of Shisok, that the Buddha would invite Mahakashapa to sit on the Buddha's seat and give teachings to the assembly. And Mahakashipa would do so, sitting on the Buddha's seat. And the Buddha would let Mahakashipa wear his robe. And what I find interesting is that on three occasions, when the Buddha invited Mahakashipa to speak, Mahakashipa refused. He didn't feel that the monks were in a condition that was auspicious for a talk. But I just, you know, I was impressed that this wonderful disciple said no to a request from the teacher to teach. And the teacher accepted his view and I think agreed, oh yeah, maybe this is not a good time.

[14:28]

I have a practice also of giving people that I'm she-sew with a robe, a black robe that was made for me. I don't think I gave it to every she-sew I worked with. Did I give it to you, Carolyn? You did. I did. And did it fit pretty well? It was a little big. It was a little big. I used to be bigger. And do you remember who made that okay, sir? I don't. You don't? I remember many people fixed it, though, over and over again, each or so, especially Meg, at the beginning, when we started longing to death. Could you hear her? Hmm? Could you hear her, Antoine? You have good ears, even though they're not very big. So this robe, this black robe, some, you know, I think most of the stitches, well, all of the stitches, I think were originally done by Joshin-san, the nun who transmitted this, who was one of the people who transmitted sewing practice to us.

[16:02]

So... A teacher called Yoshida Roshi was invited by Suzuki Roshi and Katagiri Roshi to come to that Zen Center in the summer of 1970. I believe. Maybe 71. But anyway, I think 70. And she came and she taught us how to make okases according to the research of her teacher, Hashimoto Eikko Roshi. He did research... on the traditional way of making Buddhist robe, and he transmitted it to his students. And one of the main people who took care of that transmission was Yoshida Roshi. And then some years later, Richard Baker Roshi invited Joshi-san to come to Zen Center and teach the way of sewing Buddhist robe that she received from her teacher, Koda Sawaki Roshi. So along with wasting his life practicing zazen, he wasted his life studying the okesa.

[17:12]

But some people say he more wasted his life on zazen than on... Because studying the okesa was a little bit useful. So she made me... She made this young monk a black okesa. And gave it to me. And I wore the black okesa in January of 1983 in a ceremony of Dharma transmission here at Tassajara. And as part of the ceremony, we have these torches, and the torches were made of sticks. soaked in a pitch so they would burn, and some of the pitch dripped off the torch onto my robe and burned a hole in it.

[18:18]

So I had a Dhamma transmission hole burned into that black robe that Joshi-san made for me. And then after that, I had an extra black robe. I had another black robe, too, but... I didn't wear my black robes too much after I got some brown robes. And I gave that nice black robe to Isan Dorsey. And he wore it for a while. And then when he got a brown robe, he gave it to somebody else who I won't mention. Because that person, after wearing it for a while, kind of misplaced it. for years i said when he that when that person received brown robe i said would you give me the black robe back if you're not wearing it anymore and he said something like okay and but then years went by and i asked again he said i can't find it would you look for it and he looked for it and finally he found it and it was not in good condition but i got it back

[19:36]

and then many bodhisattvas repaired it. So this robe is kind of like a diamond treasure, and I think I'll offer it to Yuki, and then she can think about whether she wants to wear it. Because it's kind of big. So you can decide if you want to wear it, Yuki. But I'll offer it to you. So Mahakasthapa gave his robe, no excuse me, the Buddha gave his robe to Mahakasthapa to wear when he gave a talk. And sometimes the Buddha had pain in his back and couldn't sit up. I tell you that so you know. When you have pain in your back and you can't sit up, that's not the slightest bit different from the Buddha.

[20:40]

And he would lie down while Mahakashapa sat on his seat wearing his robe giving the Dharma, which Mahakashapa realized face to face with the Buddha. He would give a Dharma talk about the Dharma which he received in transmission and didn't get a single thing. Remember that one? So Mahakashapa, yeah, lived with the Buddha for the rest of his Buddha's life. The great disciples Shariputra Mahamagayana died. So then here we have Mahakashapa, the senior, leader of the Sangha. And then we have also a younger monk named Ananda, who was Buddha's cousin.

[21:47]

And Ananda, according to Zen stories and non-Zen stories, was born on the night of Buddha's sitting under the poetry and realizing the way together with all beings. He was born on the same night as his elder cousin. So Buddha is like about 35 years older than Ananda. And Mahakashapa is even older. And so this young cousin was a very gifted person. He was extraordinarily handsome. And he was so handsome that everyone felt joy when they saw him. So they named him Joy. Ananda means joy. And he was very bright and had a very good memory. He could remember all the teachings of the Buddha that he heard.

[22:50]

And he was devoted to his older cousin. And after he was in the Sangha for some time... the Buddha invited him to be his attendant. And Ananda said to the Buddha, I will be your attendant, but I have eight requirements. And they were basically all things like, if you give a talk that I can't attend, for some reason, I request that you give it again so that I can hear it and remember it. And if you gave any talks that I was not at, I request that you tell me them. And if you get invited to a really nice meal, I request that I not be allowed to attend it with you.

[23:51]

And if you're given gifts, I ask that you not share them with me. And if if members of the sangha need your help, I request you let me tell you about their needs. So, in these eight basic ways, he asked, he said, I'll do, I'll be your attendant if you agree to these eight conditions. And the Buddha said, okay. And again, I thought, that kind of... That impressed me. He said, yes, I'm happy to serve you, but I have certain precepts for our relationship. So he did serve the Buddha, and he served the Buddha in various ways, many ways. In the Soto Zen tradition,

[24:55]

We have certain ceremonies for abbots, and they have like five attendants for those ceremonies. And the attendants are like, one's called the incense attendant, the one who carries the incense. Another one's called the robe attendant, one who takes care of the abbot's robes. Another one's called the secretary attendant. Another one's like the person who takes care of the room and the tea. and another one is the guest attendant. So the five attendants, of course, that would be in a pretty big monastery, that they're going to have five attendants for the abbot. But anyway, there's that concept of five attendants who take care of the guests, the abbot's quarters, the abbot's body, the abbot's robes, books and lectures made from the abbot's teachings.

[25:56]

and the incense. Well, Ananda did all that. Ananda cleaned the Buddha's room, washed the Buddha's feet, took care of the Buddha's robes, broke the Buddha food, gave the Buddha massages. I don't know what type, but anyway, the Buddha had back problems. Ananda gave massages. He was his amanuensis. except that he didn't write it down, he memorized everything. So he was the Buddha's literary secretary, and he went with the Buddha everywhere. And also, yeah, I had a chance to be one of Suzuki Rashi's jishas, and when Richard Baker was going to become abbot, Suzuki Rashi assigned me to be Richard Baker's attendant. At that time I was his attendant, not just at Tassajara or City Center or Green Gulch, but all places.

[27:06]

For one year I went with him everywhere. And it was a good experience for me to learn how to be an attendant. Alanda was the Buddha's attendant and took very good care of him. for the last 25 years of Buddha's life. Ananda was also very concerned for the welfare of the women practitioners. And when Buddha's stepmother and nurse and so on, Mahapajapati, asked the Buddha, to allow her and other women to join the order as monks, as nuns, the Buddha refused. She asked three times, and the Buddha refused all three times. And Ananda heard about that, and then Ananda went to the Buddha and asked three times, and the Buddha refused three times.

[28:17]

And then Ananda just kept working on the Buddha. kind, indirect way. And finally, with Ananda's encouragement, the Buddha accepted and supported the foundation of a women's order of monks. So he was very kind to women, and he also had sometimes a little bit of a problem of being a little too interested in women. And they were sometimes a little too interested in him because he was so handsome. And so, I forgot how it goes. It goes something like, well, you know, what if, what if some woman comes to me or I meet a woman and she's very interesting or very interested? And the Buddhist said, well, just let it go. He said, well, what if, what if I can't let it go?

[29:22]

And he said, well, just don't look at her. He said, what if I can't not look at her? He said, you know, come to me, or something like that. Anyway, he had sometimes a little bit of a problem in his early days of being a little too interested in women. But then he got over that and just became the right amount of interest. He went from caring too much, just to carry a lot. And in... I can't say for sure. If somebody can find me some Buddhist art books, I can look. But I already looked a little bit, and I couldn't find much in this library. In Central Asia and China, one of the most common altar pieces that you find is up the Buddha, and on either side of the Buddha is Mahakashapa and Ananda, and then on either side of them are larger and more quite relaxed,

[30:52]

big bodhisattvas. And Ma Kasyap is portrayed as being very skinny, and his chest often, the bones are showing in his chest, and the bones in his face are showing. So he's ascetic and older. His older ascetic body is there. And then next to him is this very plump and kind of cute Ananda. So those are the two main attendants that you often see next to the Buddha in China and Japan and Korea and maybe in India too, I don't know, in Central Asia. When the Buddha died he predicted that

[31:54]

Ananda would become an arhat. But when the Buddha died, Ananda had not become an arhat. But he had become a stream-enturer. In other words, he had the basic insight into the lack of substantial existence of self, But he hadn't yet integrated that insight with his whole karmic presence. And then the Buddha died, and Ananda continued to study with his elder Dharma brother, Makasya. I don't know the exact date, but there was going to be a council, and the council was going to have 500 arhats at it.

[32:59]

So there were, I guess you could say, historically, maybe there was something like 500 arhats, and they were all invited to this council where they were going to try to decide how to take care of the Buddha's teaching. And, of course, they wanted... Anans to come because he knew the teachings literally better than anyone. He didn't know them as well in reality as some of his Dharma siblings, male and female. At that time, there were female ahans too. So there were male and female who had a deeper understanding than he did, but they wanted them at the meeting. So there was a lot of encouragement. And one of the senior disciples said, nobody should be able to come to this meeting except arhats. So there's a lot of pressure on him and encouragement, you could say, to become an arhat by that date.

[34:04]

And he was up for really training intensely, day and night, to... enter our hotship and be able to go to the council. And so one night he was like walking, sitting, [...] all through the night. And then around dawn, he was going to lie down and rest. He wasn't going to sit. Like his elder brother, Makasipa. he reclined when he slept. So the way I had remembered the story was, you know, he was really tired and been working very intensely on his meditation practice, walking and sitting, and he kind of just threw himself into the pit.

[35:10]

That's the way I remembered the story. But then I recently read, he didn't exactly throw himself He actually sat on the bed, but then, when he lifted his feet up before his head, before his body was down in the bed, can you picture that? He actually has part of his body on the bed, but not his feet or his head. As he was going through the air to put his body down in the bed, he woke up, and it became an Arhat. I don't know if he went to sleep or not after that, but anyway. He was pretty happy because he wanted to go to the concert. Which I think was like the next day or something. And so they had this meeting and people said, well, where's Ananda?

[36:12]

And he actually, he flew into the room. And landed on his seat. And some of them, you might say, thought, well, maybe he has become an orphan. And he had. And he got to be at the meeting, and they utilized his gifts. There's another story that they had a council in a cave. And there was a door on the cave which was closed after all the arhats got in. And Ananda came and by his newly acquired superpowers went through the keyhole into the cave. So those stories are actually in the early teachings, the Pali teachings that

[37:20]

about Ananda's development and his relationship with Mahakasyapa and the Buddha and going to consul and attaining arhatship and so on like that. Now this leads us to then the Zen version of Ananda, which is, again, he's practicing with his elder brother, Mahakasyapa, And he says to his elder brother, Makashipa, the Blessed One transmitted the gold brocade robe to you. The gold brocade kishaya, kesa, to you. Was there something else he transmitted?

[38:22]

Mahakashava said, Ananda. And Ananda said, yes. And Mahakashava said, go knock down the flagpole at the front gate. Ananda woke up. So this would be a different awakening from the Arhat awakening which happened before, I would say. This is Bodhisattva awakening with his elder brother. This is the face-to-face transmission of of the treasure house of Dharma eyes the inconceivable mind of Nirvana this is face-to-face transmission again an early story of where he's working hard with support and he as he's falling into bed he wakes up it's at that telling of that awakening

[40:00]

It sounds like he's waking up by himself. This awakening, he's waking up with Mahakashapa. In this intimate conversation. Did the Buddha transmit something in addition to the role? Well, of course, we know the answer. Yeah. He transmitted the treasure of Chidharma eyes. But he didn't say that. What did he say? He said, Ananda. Did the Buddha transmit something in addition to the road? Well, as a matter of fact, yes. Ananda. Did he transmit something else? Face-to-face transmission, Ananda. For short, Ananda. And then Ananda transmits to Mahakashipa.

[41:06]

Yes. And then from this Ananda, yes, Mahakashipa raises the flower. and says, go knock down the flagpole. I really don't know if he actually ever did go knock down the flagpole. Before he could move, he received the face-to-face transmission. In other words, he woke up greatly. vulture peak the Buddha was sitting in self-fulfilling samadhi and raised the flower later Mahakashapa was sitting upright in self-fulfilling samadhi and he said Ananda Ananda in stillness together with Mahakashapa entered realization

[42:36]

and went up beyond enlightenment and said, yes. probably shouldn't say how sad it is to see these people go. In fact, I won't say. So I mixed in, I mixed together stories which are sometimes told as stories or histories with what we sometimes call koans.

[43:58]

So the story of the Buddha sitting under the bodhicri and saying, I Now, together with all beings, realize the Buddha way. That's a story that's also a koan. Buddha raising the flower is a story that's also a koan. And this is a story which is a koan. Something... It's an exact... It's not just a story. It's a story about being free of stories. It's a story to become, to help us become free of the story. It's a story about how to not abide in the story. So I've given you the story.

[45:04]

Do you remember it? Do you remember the story, Catherine? It reminds me conscious. Hmm? I... I am enjoying the conjuring in the talent. That's how I'm remembering the story. Do you remember the story, Edie? Mahakashapa holding up the flower? Well, that was a new one that I just told about Mahakashapa holding up the flower. Usually we say the Buddha holding up the flower. Do you remember the story about Mahakashapa and Ananda? It sounds like you don't. Is that correct? He said Ananda. You got that part. Can you tell the story? And then he heard that. Can you tell from the beginning? So I think we could have a little rehearsal now.

[46:09]

One, two, three. Ananda said... Elder brother. Elder brother. The Buddha transmitted the gold brocade robe to you. The Buddha transmitted the gold brocade robe to you. Did he transmit anything else? Did he transmit anything else? Makashpa said. Makashpa said. Ananda. Ananda said, yes. Ananda said, yes. Makashipa said, go not down the flagpole at the front gate. Do you remember the story now? Yes.

[47:13]

Okay, so now you've got the story. Okay. Please enjoy it for the rest of the day. And tonight and tomorrow morning, we'll enjoy it together. And if you don't remember it, you can come and I'll tell it to you again. But you can remember it now, right? You got it. You got it. Congratulations. You got the koan. the great mind-to-mind, face-to-face, body-to-body, finger-to-finger, ear-to-ear transmission of our makakasho taiyosho, ananda taiyosho. You got it. Please take care of it, and we'll go into it more later.

[48:13]

Thank you for listening to this podcast offered by the San Francisco Zen Center. Our Dharma talks are offered free of charge and this is made possible by the donations we receive. Your financial support helps us to continue to offer the Dharma. For more information, visit sfcc.org and click giving.

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