Good morning. In case seven. A koan from the Blue Cliff Record. A monk named Hui Chao asked Faien, Hui Chao asked the teacher, what is Buddha? Faien said, you are Hui Chao. So yesterday I talked about finding out what it is that we truly want and how we're going to get it. And being here at a Zen monastery, it's a fairly safe bet that what we truly want is to be awake. be Buddha and then I talked about the method or means that we might employ to help us to wake up and there are many to choose from I also talked about the kind of effort it might take and what additional considerations there might be such a such as all of these other people who are trying to do the same thing and in some cases literally getting in our way

[01:26]

So I was remembering some years ago when a carload of former Shusos arrived right outside here for the Shusos ceremony, and one of the large, burly male monks pushed through the crowd and said in a very loud voice, you people are in my way and holding me back. You can probably guess who it was. Well, probably she can. So anyway, we all laughed, and we're still laughing. You know, you people are getting in my way, holding me back. But most of what I talked about yesterday was awakening as something that we do together, that there is no such thing as me awakening without you, without you people. Just as the Buddha said at the moment of his own realization, I and all beings on earth attain enlightenment at the same time. So what is it other than you people that gets in the way of realizing our deepest wish?

[02:34]

According to the Buddha's teaching, the greatest impediment to awakening is our unconscious conditioning. Children of riches temporarily fallen into poverty. Just as it says in the Lotus Sutra in the parable of the prodigal son, meaning that we have simply wandered off and forgotten who we really are and what we are here on this earth to do. And although we all arrived here on the earth unscripted, we were soon given names and language and various clues to our social conditioning, to who we think we are. Clues that were based on such things as our hair, or our skin color, or our wealth, our apparent gender, our parents' ownership of property, and so on. So those clues creating our social conditioning are collectively reinforced throughout our lives by systems of education, of entertainment, by the law, and if necessary, by the police.

[03:45]

So conditioning, as we are beginning to know, has resulted in generations of injustice for many and unearned privileges for the very few. This we have been studying and we will continue to study for the rest of our lives, not only for our own sake, but for the sake of the generations to follow. And of course, it's the children who are most vulnerable to the limitations of social conditioning. which invariably flies in the face of their childhood dreams, not whatever they may be, dreams of being a real boy or a real girl, as in the stories that we read to them, like Pinocchio or the Velveteen Rabbit, that's a tearjerker, or like Cinderella, you know, who marries a prince and lives in a castle at the top of the mountain happily ever after, as it says at the end of her story. One thing to note is that children in fairy tales never die.

[04:52]

That's a law. So if you don't mind, I would like to invite you for just a moment to reflect on what you wanted to be when you were a child, if you can remember. How did that go? What happened to those dreams of yours? Did they change? Have they been realized? Maybe you dreamt of being a Zen monk. I have actually met some children like that. I wonder if some of you might be them. Or maybe you were disappointed as you grew older on discovering the limitations of your gender, your family name, your lack of wealth, your athletic or intellectual prowess. or simply because of those other people who were holding you back. And then it was many years maybe before you found another possibility, another image, such as the image of a Buddha and the teachings of awakening to re-inspire your dreams.

[06:08]

And Buddha is shorthand for whatever we are imagining to be the wisest, kindest, happiest human form possible. For a Buddhist, it is the top of the mountain. Who we admire is a good indication of how we are planning to get there to the top of the mountain. It's a good indication of our aspirations. Or as may be true for many of you, as it is for a lot of people, of having no aspirations at all, of having no one to admire. I think it's been pretty disappointing. for all of us, perhaps. For me, the disillusionment, which in itself is not a bad thing, began with the assassination of the President of the United States when I was just starting high school, followed by his brother and then the precious Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. The war in Vietnam and so on and so on and so on. And now, as we know, there are the priests and the politicians and the business leaders who really should not be trusted.

[07:20]

So who is there left for us to admire? I want to propose that along with the other big questions to be asked about this precious life, who is there left to admire is a very good one. And yet answering questions in the Zen school begs a response that Suzuki Roshi gave in a very small book by that title, Not Always So. Not Always So. Meaning keep looking, keep opening, and don't settle on anything or anyone until questions themselves have come to an end. And even then be suspicious. Not only of those people, those teachers of Chan, but especially of yourself. If there is the slightest discrepancy, the way is as distant as heavens are from earth. Still, it is hard not to grow impatient as mortal beings when faced with the fact that we have been offered the deepest truth about creation by the Buddhas and ancestors themselves, an all-inclusive truth from which none of us

[08:35]

will ever escape or be abandoned that one truth that is happening right now this very place is the top of the mountain and this very mind is Buddha it's very easy to say and yet I know and you know that there's a catch that something supremely subtle and ominously near is blocking our view of ourselves and each other as Buddha. Which is exactly the question that monk Hui Chao asked of his teacher. What is Buddha? I don't see it. The teacher responds, understanding his student's pain. You are Hui Chao. The fire god has come seeking fire. This word fire itself is a common metaphor in the Buddhist teaching to indicate not only the transient nature of reality, but the transient nature of words themselves as we use them in an effort to make sense of reality.

[09:42]

And how is that going? So since we can't, words cannot reach it, then we try to stop reality from changing. To stop aging and sickness and death, as many endeavor to do. To stop the loss of our reputations or of our livelihoods, our loved ones, or of our sanity. And when all else fails, to rage against the rising seas, which actually are rising at a rather terrifying rate. Zazen is modeled on the example of the Buddha himself who sat upright in the midst of the flames, watching quietly as all notions of the world and of himself continuously melted away, like those snowflakes into a pit of fire. Observing reality in such a way without complaint is basically what is meant by being Buddha.

[10:45]

Are you a god? A demon? No. A water spirit? No. Well, then what are you? I am awake, he said. As I've mentioned before, when I asked my teacher during a long session of meditation, probably a session, what do I do with the fear I have about transiency, meaning death, you know, my death? He responded, you have to get used to it. the true nature of reality. Which might give one the impression that Zen can provide a quick fix for whatever is troubling us, and in many ways it does, you know, Q&A. But the quick fix itself doesn't last either. Fear, just like the seasonal wildflowers and wildfires in California, will always return. But until it does, it's not unusual to imagine that we can abide right there, at those moments in which the present moment, for a moment, is sparkling and clear.

[11:58]

And we've all had such moments of utter contentment, perhaps here in the Zendo, or by the ocean, or gazing into the fire itself, or into a loved one's eyes. And it's at moments like that when we might imagine that this very mind is Buddha, which it is. And that is the truth, the ultimate truth. And yet there's another truth, a relative truth, that is always partnered with the first. And that's what I'm going to talk about next. So in the first part of this talk, I suggested that you are already Buddha. You are already awake. In fact, I've often suggested to students here that go ahead and accept that you are Buddha and now step forward from there. What does Buddha do? How does Buddha act? What does Buddha say? And yet in answer to Hui Chao asking what is Buddha, Fayan doesn't say you are.

[13:06]

He says you are Hui Chao. So what do we make of that? Yu R. Huay Chau, in my way of understanding this story, is connecting the monk, the human being, with all of his karmic conditioning to his true identity as Buddha, like left and right foot in walking, or like arrow points meeting in mid-air. Ultimate truth, relative truth. Not one, not two. It's in such moments that Buddhas and sentient beings conjoin. What is Buddha? you are Hui Chao. Or on being read a slightly different way, what is Buddha? You are Hui Chao. And therein lies the power of language, you know, to pivot and thereby either trap or set us free. Which brings me to another teaching story that's recounted in the same koan about a monk by the name of Tse, also a student of Zen Master Fayin.

[14:10]

Se has been staying at Fayan's monastery for quite some time, but never asks to enter the teacher's room for special instruction, called doksan. So Fayan asks Se that very question, why haven't you come to enter my room? Se replies, didn't you know, teacher, when I was at Qinglin's place, I had an entry into the true nature of reality. I realized that I am Buddha. Fayan said, well, try to recall it for me. Sa says, Well, I asked the teacher, What is Buddha? And Master Lin said, The fire god comes seeking fire. Fayan says, Good words, but I'm afraid you've misunderstood. Could you say something more for me? Sa says, The fire god is in the province of fire. He is seeking fire with fire. Likewise, I am Buddha. Yet I went on searching for Buddha. Fayan said, Sure enough, you have misunderstood.

[15:14]

Containing his anger, Se left the monastery and went off across the river. Maybe a touch of narcissistic wounding there. Fayan said, this man can be saved if he comes back. If he doesn't return, he can't be saved. Out on the road, Se thought to himself, Fayan is a teacher of 500 people. How could he deceive me? So he turned around and went back again to call on Fayan, who said to him, Well, just ask me and I'll answer you. Thereupon Sa asked, What is Buddha? Fayan said, The fire god comes seeking fire. At these words, Sa was greatly enlightened. So what's going on here? It sounds like the student and teacher are just going around in circles. but is that all that it is? I propose that what Sa has done is to attach himself to the ultimate truth, that he is Buddha.

[16:19]

And the ultimate truth is true. But what he's turned away from is the relative truth, the truth of his own limited human form. As with all of us here, our limited form is the only means by which Buddha can be seen, heard, or known, by us or by anyone else, just this person. Understanding our dual nature, on one hand we are Buddha, and on the other hand you are Hui Chao, is to have arrived at the summit of the mystic peak, the place where human beings and Buddhas come to dance. Where is that place? asks the teacher. Don't know, replies the monk. Well, says the teacher, since not knowing is nearest, perhaps it's right here beneath your dancing feet. So here's another story by another of Fayan's disciples, Tesho, on the occasion of a great realization he had while sitting in the assembly listening to Fayan speak.

[17:23]

One day when Fayan had ascended his seat, there was a monk who asked, what is one drop from the fount of Sechi? Fayan said, it is one drop from the fount of Sechi. The monk was dumbfounded and withdrew. But Zhao, who was in the assembly, was suddenly greatly enlightened. Later, he appeared in the world as one of Fayyan's successors. According to the biography of Fayyan, it states that he was quite a good teacher with an ocean of followers never less than a thousand persons. So here's Te Xiao's poem. The summit of the peak of mystic crossing is not the human world. Outside the mind, there are no things. Blue mountains fill the eyes. Do you understand? Perhaps not, but it does bring us back to the verses that I read to you yesterday from the ninth ox-herding picture as the ox-herding boy turns back toward the light of day, toward being alive, being conscious, being awake, being Buddha.

[18:33]

This is picture number nine. to this all-inclusive miracle from which none of us has ever arrived and will never leave, Tathagata, the very miracle that is happening right now, where the river itself is blue, the flowers themselves are red, where this very mind may never even notice that it is Buddha. So what really is holding us back from seeing that it's so, from planting our staff at the top of the mystic peak In an all-inclusive universe, what's holding us back is also right here with us now. The one thing we most easily overlook and undervalue. What's holding us back is how and what we think. Not just how each of us think, but how we together are fashioning this world by thinking. And as I said yesterday, we awaken together and we slumber together.

[19:38]

inhaling and exhaling our views, our moods, and our gestures. So if we're willing to consider that thinking really is what's holding us back, then what can we do about that? Or as we say around here, how do we practice with that? Well, as you have been told during the last few months, there are a number of ways we can go. There are a number of directions. The Four Noble Truths the Eightfold Path, the Six Paramitas, the Twelvefold Chain, the Sixteen Bodhisattva Precepts, and the One Great Vehicle, and then there's Samatha and Vipassana and so on and on and on. All of which comes down to a study of the Self. By simply turning the bright light of your awareness onto yourself, or at least onto where you imagine you will find yourself, this body and its feelings, its thoughts, and its actions, or foundations of mindfulness.

[20:42]

And then watch closely to see how your ideas about yourself and about others are the very source of both misery and happiness for us all. Studying the self is actually very simple and easy. Unfortunately, it's also very hard to remember to do so. It's like trying to count your breaths. One, two, oops. One, oops. So instead, we start by studying the teachings about studying the self. First turning, second turning, third turning, and back again. We chant and we memorize. We make announcements at work meeting. We listen for the signals telling us where we need to go. And little by little, the animal body, as Zenko called it the other evening, begins to respond to the Bodhisattva training program. begins to sit up straight, to speak carefully, to hold on to its utensils, to find its water bottle, until at last the animal body begins to land its knees more gently and quietly on this hard wooden floor.

[21:55]

Bodhisvaha. Perfect peace. This process of training our animal body eventually begins to infest our entire being, meaning our mind. this very mind, and all of the people, places, and things that this very mind will meet. When the Theravadan nun, Vora Mai Kabo Sing, the first Thai woman to receive full ordination, and the accompanying 311 bhikshuni precepts, was asked, How do you keep the 311 precepts? She responded, I keep only one precept. Surprised, the young man asked, What is that? She answered, I just watch my mind. So for the next three days, I'm going to continue turning toward the Yogacara teachings that emphasize exactly that. Just watch your mind. As another Zen master once said, when we understand how our mind works, our practice becomes easy.

[23:01]

So I'm going to finish today with a very lovely sutra from the first turning teachings in which the Buddha teaches gives a simple instruction to a monk named Bahiya of the Bark Cloth. Those of you who were in the spring practice period at Gringolch have heard these stories before about the fire boy, about Sen, about Hue Chao, but like all good stories, one hopes they will fully ripen inside of us the more often that we hear them. So in this teaching, the Buddha is offering the monk a simple remedy for not only reconnecting his body to his mind, but also his seemingly small life, to the entire universe. So a little back story about Bahia. Bahia was greatly revered as a teacher in the town where he lived. And then one day, a woman of great understanding visited the town and candidly said to him regarding his claim to liberation that he was not. Being an honorable man, Bahia dropped what he was doing and set off to find the Buddha, who he had been told was truly liberated.

[24:07]

and who taught a path leading to liberation. When he arrived at the place where the Buddha was staying, Bahiya was told that the Buddha had gone into town to collect alms, so he raced into town to find him. And sure enough, there he was, serene and inspiring confidence, calm, his mind at peace, having attained the utmost tranquility and poise, tamed, guarded, his senses restrained, a blessed one. So Bahiya threw himself on the ground, begging the Buddha to teach him. And the Buddha replied kindly, This is not the time, Bahiya. We have entered the town for alms. So a second time and then a third time the monk begged for the teaching. saying, But, Blessed One, it's hard to know for sure what dangers there may be for the Blessed One's life or what dangers there may be for mine. Teach me the Dharma, O Blessed One, for my long-term welfare and bliss. So the Buddha then said, Bahiya, you should train yourself thus.

[25:12]

In the scene, there will be just the scene. In the herd, just the herd. In the imagined, just the imagined, in the cognized, just the cognized. That is how you should train yourself. And when for you there will be just the seen in the seen, just the heard in the heard, just the imagined in the imagined, just the cognized in the cognized, then, Bahia, you, in connection with that, will not exist. You will not be found in this world, or in another world, or some place in between. This, just this, bahiya, is the end of suffering. Through hearing this teaching from the Blessed One, the mind of bahiya was right then and there released from the toxic belief in a separate self. And once having extorted bahiya of the bark cloth, with this brief explanation of the Dharma, the Blessed One left to collect alms.

[26:18]

The next day, Bahiya was attacked and killed by a cow with her young calf. When the Blessed One returned and heard the news of Bahiya's death, the monk said to the Buddha, Bahiya's body has been cremated, Lord, and his memorial has been built. What is his destination? What is his future state? To which the Buddha replied, Monk's Bahiya of the bark cloth was wise. He practiced the Dharma in accordance with the Dharma and did not pester me with issues related to the Dharma. Bahiya of the bark cloth is totally unbound. Then, to help them further in realizing the significance of that, the Blessed One exclaimed, Where water, earth, fire, and wind have no footing, there the stars don't shine, the sun isn't visible. There, the moon doesn't appear. There, darkness is not found.

[27:20]

And when a sage, a Brahmin through sagacity, has realized this for themselves, then from form and formlessness, from bliss and pain, they are freed. So what the Buddha is talking about here in his teaching Dubahiya is the experience of awakening itself. in which the mind is no longer seen as separate from the body, this place is no longer seen as separate from that place or from any place, and most importantly, your suffering is no longer seen as separate from mine. And together, we are freed. So once again, it's so simple and easy, and yet, what is it? What is it happening inside us that makes such teaching so difficult to practice or even understand the answer the Buddha gave has to do with the very things he had seen inside of himself fantasies stories narratives daydreams projections mental elaborations and the most tragic of cases the extremes of pathological thinking greed hatred and delusion the image of the human mind common in the Buddhist tradition is of clouds covering the moon

[28:40]

the clouds being our delusional thinking, and the moon being the clear light of awakening. In the scene, just the scene. In the moon, just the moon. And in the clouds, therein lies the focus of our study. Although directing our attention to the mind itself will not create a world according to our desires or our preferences, it is the only way to create a kinder and safer world for all of us who are living together in it. Finally, a poem by Ehe Dogen Zenji. This slowly drifting cloud is pitiful. What dreamwalkers we humans become? Awakened, I hear the one true thing. Black rain on the roof of Fukakusa Temple. This slowly drifting cloud is pitiful. What dreamwalkers we humans become.

[29:43]

Awakened, I hear the one true thing. Black rain on the roof of Fukakusa Temple. Thank you very much. For more information, visit sfcc.org and click Giving.

[30:15]

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