Yeah, I think I got good. She can stop sitting under the room, you know? Yeah. Okay. Okay. Yes, let's go. And it's soft. ... [...]

[19:03]

Good evening, everyone. How is the mic? Good? Thank you. Thank you for coming tonight. And this is the first time I give a talk in the Zendo since we have this new setup. And very happy to see you all. First, I'd like to take a moment to acknowledge that we have a Sangha member in Tassajara who's gone missing for a couple of days.

[20:08]

And I'd like to take a moment to hold her and her family and our community in Tassajara. Hold them in our hearts. As I said, it's the first time I came here to give a talk here. And when I walked down Pei Street, I saw this big sign above 300 entrance.

[21:11]

Zendo is open. Enter through Laguna Street. Is that what it says? Enter through Laguna Street. That's something new. And that reminds me, in temples in China, oftentimes when you are in the temple, all the buildings would have a plaque above the entrance. And for the new people who... who are going to practice in the temple or stay overnight, they will first go to the reception hall, the guest hall. And above the guest hall usually it says, guest hall. And sometimes there's a plaque that says, enter through here.

[22:19]

So enter through here. That's the secret of Zen practice. What is it that we're entering into? And what is here? This is... warm up for what I'm trying to talk about tonight, which is a koan from the Blue Cliff Record, a koan collection from Song Dynasty in China. And the case I'm trying to talk about tonight is number three. Sun-Faced Buddha, Moon-Faced Buddha.

[23:27]

Actually, that's not the title of the koan. The title is Master Ma Not Feeling Well. Does everybody here know about the Blue Cliff Record, the koan collection? So, in the old days, Well, when Zen practice was flourishing, mostly in the Tang Dynasty, there were lots of stories of the master's life and master's teachings recorded in these collections called The Transmission of the Lamp. There are many or at least a handful of them circulating around.

[24:32]

And later on, well, Tang Dynasty is like from the 600 to 800, 900. And later on in Song Dynasty, from 900 or 1,000, from there on, people started to... study these stories and make commentaries. And so a master named Shue Dou, Sechou in Japanese, collected or selected a hundred stories, koan stories, and make verses, you know, make teachings and verses for these stories. And his favorite stories are a lot of Master Yunmen, Master Unmens, and some Master Ma, Ma Zhu, and a bunch of other stories.

[25:36]

But then, about a hundred years later, or several decades later, another master named Yuanwu took Master Xuedou's hundreds and verses and taught them with additional introductions and commentaries. And because he resided in Jiashan, Mount Jia, which also named Blue Cliff, and the abbot's quarter, the abbot's house, had a flag. Blue Cliff Abode. So when, after he gave these teachings, he and his, I think mostly his disciples, collected them and made them into a collection of koans with commentaries and verses and everything that you would read now.

[26:48]

And so... So the master in this koan story is Master Ma Zhu. Ma Zhu was the grand dharma heir of the famous six ancestors, Huinang. And so you probably have heard of some other stories and koans about Ma Zhu, Master Ma. Anyway, so that's the brief background about this koan. And so in each koan in Blue Cliff Record, you will see a introduction, or sometimes it's called a pointer, and then the koan itself, the story itself, and then commentaries by...

[27:52]

and then verse by the verse by xuedou. And so because each koan is actually, this one is pretty long, and I will just pick a few sentences and phrases that I thought express the essence of this koan and share with you tonight, and let's explore it together. So the introduction says, or the pointer. I will say this translation by Thomas Clary, and then I will do my own interpretation. the pointer of case number three.

[28:57]

One device, one object, one word, one phrase. The intent is that you have a place to enter. He translated it as device. So you hear this word often in Zen stories, ji or ki in Japanese. It means device, machine. It also means the mechanism, the crucial part in the working of a machine or thing, like a door, like the hinge, or like the power center of something.

[30:03]

And in Zen, it refers to a critical part, the secret key to help the practitioner to open, to wake up. And so in a lot of these... Koan stories, they talk about some experiences, you know, of these students and teachers had together that helped them, helped the student to see the truth, to get to the bottom of it. And so one device, one object, the object, jing, that means the situation, a situation that arises from causes and conditions.

[31:09]

And so each of this workings of The situation also contains the potential and the opportunity for one to wake up. One word, one sentence or phrase. The purpose or the intention is only for the student to have a place to enter. To enter. To enter to what? So enter from Lacuna Street.

[32:17]

Enter from here. to enter right where you are, to enter the Dharma gate, to enter the path of awakening from exactly where you are, from exactly this very moment. We enter the Laguna door, to come sit, to listen to a talk. And these are just some ways for us to attempt to you help us to enter.

[33:26]

To have a place to enter. And where is not a place to enter. sitting zazen, putting on clothes, speaking with someone, feeling sad about some news. Where is not a place to enter this moment? This moment that makes up our life. The case.

[34:39]

Great Master Ma was unwell. The temple director asked him, Master, How has your health been in recent days? The master said, sun-faced Buddha, moon-faced Buddha. So, this is supposed to be the last koan story, or a koan story that happened before Master Ma passed away when he was unwell. And, you know, Master Ma, you have heard of some of his other stories, like when he was young, he was sitting, sitting, and then his master picked up a brick and grinded the brick against the stone.

[35:51]

That one? And he asked his teacher, what are you doing? And his teacher said, I'm trying to make a mirror out of this stone, this brick. And he said, how can you make a mirror out of a brick? By grinding it. And his teacher said, how can you become Buddha by just sitting? And that's one of his stories. It's not, I don't think it was, it's not about sitting or not sitting. It's about whether you can enter, whether. Whether you are entering, whether you enter the path through sitting. Back to the case.

[36:58]

Master Ma was unwell. The director asked, Master, how have you been? How has your health been recently? And he answered, sun-faced Buddha, moon-faced Buddha. And in Buddhism, sun-faced Buddha referred to a Buddha that had a lifespan of 1800 years or something, like long, who lived a long time. And Moonface Buddha only lived for a day and a night. So Buddha who lives long, a Buddha who lives short, a short time. There are many interpretations of this koan.

[38:06]

And when we study a story like this, we each make something out of it based on our experience, based on our understanding. So some people, some Some interpretation takes it as that the master remains unwavering in the midst of life's conditions, like a good day or a bad day. It's just what it is. And that's one interpretation. And another interpretation, which is what I'm going to elaborate a little, is that this could be a metaphor.

[39:12]

Sun-faced Buddha could be a metaphor for something that's long-lasting, that doesn't increase and decrease. doesn't come and doesn't go. Whereas Moon Face Buddha is momentary. It comes and goes. It goes through birth and death. Basically Sun Face Buddha could mean our awakened nature or Dharma nature or Buddha nature, whereas the moon-faced Buddha could mean the phenomena of life.

[40:25]

Or sometimes people might say it might refer to the absolute and the relative. No matter what notions you have or we have, I think the essence of the teaching here is that as life goes through its moments, its moments of qi and qing, its moments of different situations,

[41:39]

different ups and downs, different happiness, sadness. That witch knows what happens is always there. It never leaves us. Many years ago, when I visited China where my family lives, I would usually first go visit my teachers, my medicine teacher and my Zen teacher, before I went to see my parents.

[43:13]

So one of those visits I was I was with my Buddhist mentor, Master Hongjue. He was living in a hermitage near Shanghai at the time. And it was very interesting to see how his students would pass through his come through his house, and he would make tea for them. And all day long, because I was there visiting him, I would be drinking tea with the different batches of students. And so imagine I wouldn't be able to sleep because I was drinking tea all day.

[44:19]

But that was also very fun to watch the questions coming from all these practitioners and how they have dialogue back and forth. And so oftentimes, we would take a walk after lunch or breakfast in the neighborhood, which is a nice, there's this nice road lined with trees. And I remember one afternoon, it must be before dinner, we were catching up. I was telling him, all the ups and downs I was going through during that period of time.

[45:24]

And the sun was setting and shining through the trees. And at one point he stopped and turned to me. He said, when the sun sets, do you think the sun turns or the earth turns? And I just, I was startled. Oh, I never thought of that question. So when the sun sets, is the sun turning or the earth turning? What do you think? Any more? Yes? Yes.

[46:34]

Enter. So that was a Zen key. The Zen moment. an opportunity to enter. No matter the sun turns, or the earth turns, or the moon turns, or you turn, or I turn, there's something, there's one that does not turn. And that's a commentary for This koan, Sun-faced Buddha and Moon-faced Buddha, I think. But how do we know?

[47:36]

Because when life turns, all we can feel is the turning, sometimes. or a lot of times. How do we access that which does not turn? Our life is both moon-faced Buddha and sun-faced Buddha. How do we see Sun-Faced Buddha in the Moon-Faced Buddha? And the Moon-Faced Buddha in the Sun-Faced Buddha?

[48:37]

Just a few days ago, I received a letter from a prisoner who is serving his, I believe, 40-some-year term in a prison in New York State, maybe a couple hours north of New York City. I was very glad and moved to hear from him because the pandemic kind of, we kind of stopped corresponding during the pandemic. I used to send books to him and that kind of stopped when pandemic hit. This is a Chinese man. came to America illegally when he was 16.

[50:06]

And when he was 18, he got in trouble because he did something with some friends that got into trouble, got them into big trouble. And he got a 40-year prison term. And just imagine he was still a kid when he came, hoping to find a new life in this country. And he spoke, he rarely spoke any English. at that time. And he still, he can, you know, he's lived, or he's been in prison for 20 years now, so he picked up a lot of everyday conversation in English, but he writes still, he prefers to write Chinese, and he reads Chinese mostly, and

[51:21]

When he heard, oh, I think there are priests of different traditions who would come visit the prisoners. And so he was exposed to Buddhism in the prison. And he's... his friend in prison told him about Zen Center's outreach, book outreach, prisoners' outreach program, that we send books to prisons, right? And so he wrote a letter to Zen Center a number of years ago in Chinese. And guess who got that letter? And so I read this letter, and... And I was very touched, so I started to send him books in Chinese.

[52:25]

And he told me his life stories, which was very, very touching. So he wrote, last week he wrote to me, say, in the letter he says, you know, can't believe several years have gone by and we have not talked to each other. And so many things have changed. And he was changing room, and so he discovered some of our old letters, and so that prompted him to write to me. And he said, so many things have changed, but my life in prison has not changed much. It's the same routine. It's the... You know, day after day after day. And when I came here, I was 18.

[53:27]

And now I'm middle-aged. And he still has a number of years left to serve. I'll read a few sentences that he wrote. Of course... I have translated it already. What's the meaning of life? I have a lot of time to contemplate. Perhaps our life is just one step on the path of practice. I'm blessed to have this human body and to have encountered the Buddha Dharma. I shall cherish such good fortune and do my best or take my best effort to make this step.

[54:38]

As I know, each thought comes from my mind which can be wholesome or unwholesome. My mind does not have a fixed nature. It manifests according to my past experience and my causes and conditions. My practice is to guide myself to do what is beneficial and not harbor unwholesome thoughts. I don't feel resentful for the hardships in my life. I accept what has happened. I try not to be turned by the situation and keep my original mind.

[55:42]

So here he used, So that same character that I mentioned earlier from the koan's introduction, the situation. Not be turned by the situation. What situation for him? His situation is that he has spent most of his life now in this confined environment. Sometimes I think of it as a Sushin not by choice. It's not his choice to be there. But he is there now. And he has lived all his adult life there now.

[56:44]

He's quite optimistic, actually. He has gotten several certificates, like he learned different skills. He's a good cook. He's a football player. Anyway, I think he's learning to make the best of his life. stay true to his Buddha nature. I was very touched by his letter. And what is it that turns our life when we see something, when we hear something, when we talk to someone, what is turning?

[57:57]

It's only natural that something turns, because it's our life. Life moves. And yet, There is something that does not turn. And that's what we are here to find out. Where is the entry point? for you, today, and tomorrow.

[58:57]

Enter through Laguna Street. Enter from here. Thank you. Thank you very much. I think it's 8.25. 8.30. The Eno says it's 8.30, so we have no time for Q&A. If you'd like to speak with me, we can hang out by the Laguna Street door. and to every being and place, where there is true, merriment that fellow will hear a witness's way.

[60:14]

Beings are marvelous. I am willing to save them. The divisions are very exhaustible. Can I have a way out to him now? Down around every day, it is like a round place. I have a way out to him to him. But every other place is for you, it is unsung to Christ the Lord. By God, shall I have a way where there are those who do you promise. Thank you for coming.

[62:51]

You've got a few people to stay behind, not to put the Zendo back together. I'll be grateful. Thank you. Thank you. Please, . Oh, yeah. OK. OK.

[63:43]

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