Do I need to remind you that session is not easy? Perhaps I do. Some of you. You've been practicing quite a while, you get the feeling that sashimi would be easier, living in Tassar is easier. And sometimes I think Tassar is a soft life, an easy life. It's rather civilized in some way, I think. But still, you are actually cut off. Some people find it very difficult to do without the usual magazines and people and distractions of various kinds. So some of you,

[01:15]

Newer people, especially. Just because some... You know, the people who found it difficult left. People who were quite unhappy here left. And the ones who stayed are, I don't know, a little crazy, or they just are people inclined to like it. Or they've gone through a rather difficult time, too. accommodate themselves to living there. And I think if any of you, many of you thought you could never leave, you'd start enjoying it less. You can never leave from this day on, blowing up the road, ripping out the wires, So it's because you think you can leave that it's not so bad here. You can take it at three months at a time decisions. Realizing, oh, in a few months there's another possibility of escape. So in Green Gulch it's harder. Green Gulch people say, oh, I'm here. I can't escape.

[02:39]

and the distractions are handy but not satisfying. So... Here we can entice ourselves with the distractions when we do leave. But Gringotts is harder. But... Whatever. It's so valuable, being here, in this mountain valley. I think so. I'm inclined to give you a vacation today and not talk so much. But, I'll see what happens. My foolishness, foolishness last night about Mahakasyapa. Flash another good one. For the photographers, scientists. It's a rather foolish thing to say, but I wanted you to remember

[04:08]

that this most famous smile in history, no one knows whether it happened, or Buddha actually smiled, or what. In the West, there was Mona Lisa's smile. There's lots of interpretations of Mona Lisa's smile. We have, of course, because it's a painting, And Buddha's smile... There's two aspects of Buddha's... We can say Buddha's enlightenment or unenlightenment. One is the morning star and Buddha's realisation that all things are Buddha nature, or something like that, our words expressed. And the second aspect is Buddha's smiling at Mahakasyapa. recognition of another person, but outside any script. Zen is the teaching outside scriptures, and a teacher is someone who waits for you outside your script.

[05:41]

Nam Chuan and Hyakujo, Nehan, Ai-chan, Nehan, not Hyakujo Eikai. You know, Yakujo Eikai is the one who founded Zen monasticism. And he's famous, as you know, for a day of no work is a day of no eating. And, you know, they hid his tools, because he was getting so old, but he wouldn't eat them until they gave him his tools back and he worked in the fields. But his successor and fellow disciple of Baso is Hyakujo Mehan. Hyakujo Mehan is known for letting others work in the field so he can lecture. Typical Zen type.

[07:16]

Anyway, he succeeded Yakuza Eikai. Yakuza Paichan is the name of the mount of Yakuza. And his name was Nirvana, or Neon in Japanese. Nansen came to visit him and said, Is there any teaching the ancients refused to tell us or couldn't talk about or didn't talk about? Excuse me, Nan Chuan came to see Pai Chuan. Pai Chuan asked that question. And Nan Chuan said, There is. Pai Chan said, what is it? Nam Chuan said, there is no mind, no Buddha, no phenomenal world, or something like that. And Pai Chan said, you said it. And Nam Chuan said, I am just thus. What do you say, teacher?

[08:53]

And Pai Chan said, I'm not a man of knowledge. I'm not a great teacher. So I don't know whether there's teaching or not. And Nan Chuang said, I don't understand. And Pai Chan said, I've already said too much. These two people, the spasso's disciples, understand each other very well, and they're just playing, more or less playing, with each other. No, Hokoji. Hokoji came to Baso and said, Who is it that transcends end, life and death? And Baso said,

[10:38]

When you've swallowed the entire West River in one gulp, I'll tell you. And Pokoji says, people come from far and near to understand, to learn the way of non-action. This is where Buddhas arise. One of the traditional answers to this is, I'll have a cup of tea, to drink something, swallow the root. They're very ordinary. Someone asked Da Lung, the physical body will rot. What is the indestructible heart body of reality? What is the indestructible dharmakaya?

[11:43]

and dalungas. The mountains, mountain flowers, the mountain is covered with blooming flowers like brocade. The valley stream is brimming with blue shadows. Now, this kind of story is an attempt to be instructional in getting you not to define certain kinds of things. There's a kind of ordinary craft involved. I mean, I watch you, for instance. Some of you think for yourselves.

[12:49]

But some of you, you know, it's rare when I see somebody who knows when to think for themselves and to just do things, not wait, what the rule is or something like that. Just thinks for themselves and knows also when not to think for themselves, when to find out how to do it. That kind of distinction, very hard to teach someone. When to think for yourself. I want you to think for yourself. And some of you have no idea. You don't know when to think for yourself, and when not to, and when to find out how to do it. It's a very practical distinction. It's very ordinary, but rather hard to explain to anyone. This kind of story is very much deeper a craft like that. I know this story of... Swallowed the West River at one gulp

[14:11]

It occurred to me, twice I've had that image of it. Once I was hiking in here with the ultimate athlete, George Leonard, and he wrote a book called The Ultimate Athlete. And Michael Murphy, you know, at that time was about 40. Now at 46, he's the third fastest person in the mile, over. in the world, who's over 46, and I'm 47. Anyway, they were both in very, very good physical condition. At that particular time, they weren't in good physical condition and I had to carry everything. I was in moderately good physical condition. So we started out from Hessel and Wichser and Hyte to Pesach.

[15:21]

And I think I've told some of this to you before. Anyway, so they really had a hard time. It was very hot and dry, and there was no water en route. And I had this huge pack, and I carried everything. And unfortunately, we were rather dumb, and we carried all of this food which requires water, too. So the first, we still hadn't found the water by the lake one night. So I slept and then I woke up. in the morning with this dream, this image of it. They were trying, people here were trying to fill the swimming pool, and Tsukiyoshi was trying to fill the swimming pool. And as they were filling it, the water was coming in this thing, and I was drinking it as fast as I could.

[16:41]

I wasn't letting the pool get me killed up. Suzuki Yoshi was saying to me, won't you even for me let the pool get me killed up? The other image I had of this story was swallowing the rest of the river at one go. Now, one answer again is, I'll have a cup of tea. The image I had was, I'll sit sashimi at the bottom of the swimming pool. While they're trying to fill it, I'll just have one cup. People would say, don't, no, no. Rather bravado. But the idea is, nothing comes between you and direct reality.

[18:07]

I don't know, I'm a little hesitant to explain this, but I think those of you who understand it understand it. Those of you who haven't quite followed what I've been talking about, maybe I've said enough already. I think that another, maybe best version of it is, although... You know, the question, can you hear sentient beings, insentient beings preach the Dharma? Although you can't hear it, don't interfere with what hears it. You know, another traditional answer to that story, Officer Liu, you know, and the flower. People these days see the flower as in a dream. How did Officer Liu see it? Well, he saw it as cooked rice or cooked food. And how did Nam Chuan see it? He saw it as just a blooming flower.

[19:40]

But to see it as cooked food would be to use Suzuki Goshen for me to, instead of drinking the water, to have said, anyway, my swimming pool story is not so good, but to try to understand Buddhism through Suzuki Goshen, just try to swallow the river through Suzuki Goshen. So point of Nanchuan's story. and Neha, Paichan. Both of them are talking about there's no teacher, no patriarch, no One says, I'm not a teacher and the other says, I don't understand. It's again like the produce, you know, the person working in a produce market who can just lift the package and to know the cost.

[21:09]

Being very familiar helps you. That, knowing the cost, is like something instantaneous, something you don't interfere with. So this... anyway, this kind of story is to get you to not interfere with Activity of it. If I say mind ground, it's like it's something real. Or ether. Ether is supposed to be medium which connects everything.

[22:24]

which science for a while said doesn't exist. Now, science isn't so clear about whether space is empty or a medium. So anyway, the point of my story last night was just to say it in some way so you would that this kind of experience is not something you can grasp or even acknowledge, that you have to be able to begin to trust your experience very directly.

[23:53]

No. I don't feel today I can express to you the next step of what I've been talking about. Maybe I'll have to wait for a while. So I don't usually have questions during lectures anymore, but if you have some questions, I can talk with you about them. Today I have many things I feel like talking about that I can't find a way just now to talk about.

[25:44]

What are distractions? Cavity. Do you remember the cavity poem called... I'll stop and look at nature for a moment, for a while. I think I'll stop and look at nature for a while. The something beautiful morning sea, the cloudless sky, the yellow shore all bathed in light. The morning sea, cloudless sky, the yellow shore all bathed in light.

[27:23]

I'll stand here and pretend for a moment that I see it, he says. And he puts in parentheses. I did see it for a moment at first, but then I'm caught up again in my images, memories, sensual thoughts. That's distractions. And that's what this story like Da Lung is, the mountain brocade of flowers, the valley stream, blue shadows of valley stream. It means a mind which doesn't It doesn't mean the flower in mountains is Dharmakaya. And to drink a cup of tea doesn't mean just to be ordinary. Some people interpret it just to be ordinary. It means to be able to let yourself go in such a way that you're in contact with everything. That's the idea.

[28:57]

So, mountain brocade and brimming blue shadowy stream means if he could stay with that view of morning sea. And again, it's a kind of activity. that not even the patriarchs, no Buddha, no mind, no smile of Buddha. So, you know, I'm fairly strict about, as much as possible, Zen Center not being in the media and so forth, not describing Zen. And as you know, the Blue Cliff Records has been burned several times.

[30:07]

The introduction to the Da-Hui story, Da-Lung story, about what is the indestructible, the physical body rots, what is the indestructible dharmakaya, the introduction says, Now, practice of... This is a question several people have talked about in dosa. And I think the best method is, in your activity, There's always some arrow pointing. You want to do something for some reason. And that should be there. The other day, our chanting stopped. I thought that was rather interesting. It's only happened a few times in my many years at Sun Center.

[31:43]

You know, it's very easy to be unique. Only I am sitting in this spot. No one else. There's how many people? Four billion people in the world? No one else is sitting here. No one else is sitting there. You're quite unique. And no one else has Nick and Mark sitting next to them. So that's quite unique. Well, pretty. And so it means conjunction, or the fishing line. Only those with eyes can see the fishing line. It means conjunction. And conjunction is always unique. Astrology is conjunction. Astrology is

[32:54]

the pattern of the stars when you were born and so forth, but astrology is to be governed by conjunction. Do you understand what I mean by conjunction? But Zen is to make use of conjunction each moment, but that conjunction each moment is timeless. This is indestructible dharmakaya. The activity of indestructible dharmakaya is making use of this conjunction, which exists for... It can't be grasped. You can't photograph my Buddhist smile. You either received it or you didn't, and it's not repeatable for the photographers. And you don't even know if there was actually a smile. You either feel it or you don't. And the more you are distracted, the more you can't experience that, the more you have some system going, some script going, some requirement that people be. We are very attached to our script. Things occur within our own script.

[34:17]

So the image of, you know, the psychological image of something compensatory, eye for an eye, is quite in contrast to using the ocean, you know, as an image in Buddhism. Ocean is used because everything flows into the ocean. All the rivers flow into the ocean. The ocean can receive everything. There's no need to compensate or balance. They say, and only the dead, something dead, the ocean won't recede, because, of course, it's supposed to float to the surface of the ocean. But most people don't perceive conjunction because they also don't perceive change. They perceive something static all the time. They don't perceive the yellowing of the leaves. They don't perceive the clock even. The clock's hands are here and before they were there, but there isn't a physical sense of time. Most people don't have a physical sense of time. You do, you know, in the sense that many of us can

[35:38]

I go to sleep and wake up at a specific time that you say so. Sometimes I experiment. I set my watch off. Then I go to sleep. Then I say, I'm going to wake up at 5. And I see what I wake up at 5.30 according to everybody else's clock, 5.30 according to my clock, which I set wrong. So far I wake up according to my clock, which I set wrong. So, we have some sense of continuity or continuum like this easily, if we continue. Earth, water, fire, space, ether. I'm kidding, you're really mixed up with this. That's doing pretty well for a while.

[36:43]

She talked about what is substantial. When you say that things are... Substantial pursuits, not necessarily disasters, pursuits only when you don't use them. It's about when you compare them, when you don't use them. Don't use them. Yeah, I think that's true. Do you understand what she's saying? Someone took it on off a 7Up book. 7Up likes you. You like 7Up. That's very good.

[38:24]

The donkey sees the well, the bell sees the donkey. We should find our koans everywhere. Wet and wild. And so this kind of story is what I'm talking about today, is how to make use of conjunction, and it can't be used. You can't make use of conjunction in conceptual... by conceptual thinking.

[39:29]

Perhaps you have to be willing to swallow the whole West River. But again, the whole West River means everything all at once, something impossible. But you start with just drinking a cup of tea. A cup of tea may be everything all at once. So how to make use of conjunction? But if you don't perceive change, you don't see conjunction. Conjunction is timeless, maybe we can say stopped. But usual, trying to make things static, is not the stoppedness of conjunction. Or activity, again, of non-action, where Buddhas are born. Hokoji says, everyone comes to find to learn the way of non-action. This is where Buddhas are born. So I think in your activity, coming back to

[41:09]

what I was saying before. In your activity, there's always some arrow. And in our chanting, for instance, there has to be some feeling, like a railroad train going. Keep going. If you lose that arrow, chanting will stop. It's interesting when we all do it. I can remember it happening once or twice when maybe it was just Niki Roshi and me. No one else came that morning. We both get mixed up. But all of us at once. It was great.

[42:11]

So rather unique event, let's not do it again. So in any event, There are various arrows. One is you want to participate. One is you want to be liked, or you have some need for recognition, or you want to be successful, or something like that. Anyway, there's various... And they're like streams. And I think the practical thing to do is to let your energy, let the activity, as much as possible, emphasize the one you like best, the stream you like best, maybe just to participate, and de-emphasize, say, some ambitious one or ego-centric one. But you don't try to damn it off.

[43:32]

Every time the small chance comes up, you just by your mind emphasize. You know, I think it's... I seem to be going a little bit far afield, but partly it's that I haven't... Sachin, when I talk with you and Sachin, for me it's also... I don't talk to you about something. I get bored if I talk to you about something I've said before. Of course I have to say some things over and over again, but I can only amuse myself by saying something I haven't said before. Often in sashimi, I come to a day where I'm both tired of talking to you so much, and I think you must be tired of listening. It's better just to say nothing, but then I start talking to you. And also, I come to the point of... I've got to a point where I haven't...

[44:54]

haven't figured out, found a way to say just what I want without saying too much. So, you know, I'm getting rather far afield, but maybe you can bring it together. But what I was going to say is, maybe it's useful to note that the brain sees, not the eye. Does that make sense? Actually, your eye is your brain. Your eye is little projections of your brain, poked out through the bone. But, you know, let's just think of the eye like the ear, some kind of, you know, antenna. But whatever you see, It's the brain which translates it into some image, and you know from dreams. In dreams you're not seeing anything, but your brain is producing images.

[46:24]

I don't know what else to say. Anyway, I'll just throw them out. And you can make of them what you want. It's all connected for me, but it takes a little time to make it connected for you. And really, when it's on paper, it's really hard to make it connected. If I see some transcription of what I've said, wow, it's virtually incomprehensible. So your You know, like sometimes, there's something I've talked with Mike about, Murphy, is that when you're running, sometimes at a certain point you'll have an image of your body, the interior of your body. Mike said, you don't know it, it's really not. But also, when you're practicing, you can have an image, you can look inside your body. This is the kind of thing I don't...

[47:47]

I usually talk about it because you get involved. Should I do it? It's not important. It happens sometimes, sometimes it doesn't, and you can make an effort, if you want, to run your consciousness along the inside of your body, along your lungs and inside, inside. But there's no reason, since it's the brain that sees, there's no reason to assume that your brain can't also formulate an image of that which it's a part of. you know, your stomach and lungs and cells, are all part of the brain. There's no reason the brain can't also form an image of it, if it can form an image of dreams. But all of this requires the ability to put your personality aside, the ability to put your ego aside. You know, it happens in flashes, but as a continuum, as a mode of being, it requires the ability to take or leave your roles, your own script.

[49:00]

So, the Bodhisattva emphasizes the six paramitas. And the paramitas, you could say, are pathways that you work out in activity, like patience, you know, or your conduct, or giving, dana, generosity, so that in your activity you awaken. And there's energy in meditation and wisdom. you awaken these as streams through which your arrows or personality flows. Now distraction usually is the overflow. I'm still working with you. Distraction is usually the overflow. As I said to someone, in social group, distraction is often a kind of kindness. Who was it? Forcers. Forcers again? Same people? Who were here earlier?

[50:18]

So, if you're working, there'll be some tension among the people, maybe. In order to relieve the tension, you allow some kind of distraction to happen. Maybe keening is a kind of distraction. You allow it to happen. But you need it. Maybe this stick is some kind of... I'm producing a certain amount of energy, and that energy is not perfectly expressed in my language, so my hands do something. So they give me this stick to play with. This is a kind of distraction. something, a potion or a seed or something, whatever. So in social group, you know, it may be necessary to allow, say, in the kitchen or in the shop or someplace, or a group of carpenters working together, you allow a certain distraction to occur as an overflow of the activity. Do you follow what I mean?

[51:33]

If you don't allow that distraction to occur, some psychic tension starts. If you allow... we might say it's maybe mortar. If you allow too much, you get all mortar, no bricks. Now, one thing that characterizes these kinds of experiences that I was talking about, like the grocery clerk, you know, is the grocery clerk is employed. and then you sort of have to do. They're in a situation where they're required to do something. Or being in history class, you're kind of required. You're put in a situation where you're required. Or you're on the face of a mountain, or you're running 26 miles. Something is required. There you are on the face of the mountain. But most of us aren't. On our own, we don't get in that kind of situation. On your own, you don't produce sashimi. Most people. I'd be a little wary of somebody who went and sat too many sashimis on their own, all by themselves. The way we do it, I think, is quite good. For some people it's not interesting, sashimi, but some people have a taste, you know, and for those who find it interesting, I hope, sashimi, you can respect sashimi, because some people have a taste for it. Some people have a taste for cookies, you know. A certain taste for intensity.

[53:02]

And I think, you know, it's a kind of hedonism. Zen Buddhists are not interested in comfort, but they are interested in sensation. It's a kind of hedonism. So don't make out yourself great religious types. You're sitting here because you like it. But usually, to break through our script, we need something. Even such a simple situation as a classroom or employment helps... it puts you in a situation where you tend to break through your script. So, Shuso ceremony, Shosan ceremony, you know, attempts to get you for our session, to put you in a situation where you're more likely to break through your script than you would usually. So by the paramitas and by practice, you're changing your script.

[54:29]

you're seeing flow of your activity, and you create these new stream-depths, like generosity, and you say, well, I could be more generous in this situation, I'll emphasize the whole situation. So you make new script. Now, although distraction, a certain amount of distraction in a social group may be kindness, I think in your own life you should be even more strict with yourself. That distraction is... Usually, the script we've written for ourselves leaves a good deal out. Dr. Schumacher says that the four realms of knowledge... What he does in that little guide for the perplexed is not Buddhism, but anyway, it's an interesting book. But he says the first is to know yourself, and the second is to know others, and the third is to know yourself as others know you. And he says most of us go around as invisible people.

[55:57]

And I think that's true. Most people go around not wanting anyone to really see you. And you only want them to see the parts you want them to see. You want to control the script. But people see much more of it. You know, you look around, you're not fooled by people's scripts. But you think others are fooled by your script. It's one of those things, you know. You can see there's 60 people here. You know that the other 59 scripts don't fool you. Somehow you do. Your script worries them. How you continue to think that, I don't know. But you do. Dr. Schumacher says there's some story about a guy who goes to heaven and there's all these people he knows, and some he likes and some he doesn't like, and he gets to heaven and he still doesn't like some people he likes. He likes the others, but he liked Earth. And there's one guy he's never met before who really distasteful. Everything he does irritates him. Of course, it's some special mirror that he's seeing himself.

[57:17]

So that's why, again, another reason we have a teacher and a sangha, is it's the willingness to put ourselves in a context where we elect, where we can try to be seen as others, see ourselves as others see us. Now, little children are... Here, I'll go again in a few minutes. Stay with me. Little children, how would you like to start? It's six o'clock already. Little children are very scared of masks. You know, you can put a mask on, and the child knows it's their parent, but they're terrified. And I think they're right. It's not just that they're kind of kids and unsophisticated. Because masks are real. Robert Bly does that at his readings.

[58:31]

You'll suddenly put on this mask and say, I'm the Hag Mother, and I'm... And boy, everybody gets very nervous. I mean, if I put on a mask now and start walking among you... The one thing, you can't predict somebody in a mask. They don't fall, they're no longer in any script you know. And it makes you quite nervous. So masks are real. So this mask we wear, this mask of Our script is, even though we're trying to be invisible behind it, it's real in its maskedness to it. This is partly what I meant by the brain sees. Well, there's also this big story of a teacher who told a student who wasn't too bright, you know, or didn't like to read, wasn't too intellectual at least, to just clean the temple, and told him all the time, he's saying, no more dust, no more smell. He worked no more dust, no more smell, for years. And one day he said, gee, what is dust anyway?

[59:50]

Dust is... What's dust, you know? You decide. Dust. It's just like painting the police cars blue. Sorry. I told you I didn't bring you something. Some of you are probably getting irritated. You know that police cars are now blue, light blue, instead of black. And you may say, it doesn't... it's just... the policemen are just the same, but it's different. Blue police cars are different from black police cars. And if you take a person and you do them all up, I mean, the Gestapo scares us because they do themselves all up in that, you know, Hell's Angel. And isn't it the story of acorn people that somebody wrote? Ron Jones. Ron Jones. Isn't it acorn people? He gets to school. Is that the third one? The third wave.

[61:19]

I didn't read the story, but as I understand, he took some kids and he experimented with them and got them all to dress and act like fascists, isn't that right? Something like that. And they really got into it. They really started acting like fascists. Within a week. Within a week. What did they do? Scared the daylights out of him. They were going to have a big meeting at the school. And he made it all. He made the school think that this had gone on throughout the whole country. This was. And they were just part of this large... If someone else decided on the color for the police cap, not only is it so simple as if you dress policemen one way, they'll attract a different kind of person, but it will affect a person how you dress. a version of brain sees a donkey and sees the well, and the well sees the donkey and sets it up like she would need to set it up. So this conjunction, or this... there's no fixed identity. You are making use of conjunction all the time. And you decide what's dust and what's not dust, and what you clean and what you don't clean.

[62:43]

So you have some choice, what stream beds you make, where you put your energy. And distraction for you is very valuable, because you can see all the parts of the script which you've left out, kind of get buried in distraction. And distraction takes care of all those loose ends, it's kind of overflow. So the more you cut off distraction, it makes you rewrite your script. the more you include distraction. Distraction is where it's really at. So, today I'm talking about making use of conjunction, or activity of continuity. Thank you.

[64:13]

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