... [...] In the future, we'll all be Buddhists and ancestors. You know, there's one Buddha and one just a little waking one of your mind. You know, one Bodhi mind. As they extend their compassion through us freely without limit. They're able to attain Buddhahood and let go of the attainment. Therefore, the master and the moon, like those who are in past lives, would not have liked it. He wished the food and many lives before our Buddhas were enlightened.

[01:02]

They were the same as the people of the day. In fact, they are those of old. In addition, that's his practice. It's the exact time submission and verify Buddha. He had disclosed our fact of faith before this. Good morning, everyone. So this May or... may not be the last day of our seven-day sushin. I am heading out of the valley at 4 a.m.

[02:04]

before the wake-up bell to go up to the city for meetings tomorrow. And I don't know what the Tonto and the Eno are going to do. They may decide to continue the sushin for another four days while I'm away, maybe four more silent days. What was that, Rihanna? Only if you sit the whole time. So anyhow, I'll be very curious when I get back to hear what they decided to do. And as you probably assume, we'll continue our study of Sans Rikyo today. I also, at the end of the talk today, say a little bit about the show Sans Rikyo. Maybe that's how it leads, and just a bit about what that is and how to approach it. So we'll conclude with that. But first I want to start with a poem. And this one is by a different Jane Kirschview.

[03:07]

And she is a San Francisco Zen Center alumna for two years. And this is probably one of my favorite poems of the top five. And it's called It Was Like This. And I'll just say this, in my sense that it was written for someone who was at the end of their life. But I think it's often a good way to think about any transition, any type of transition, and how to behold the experience that we have and how we let go of the experience we have. And how to verify the experience we have. It was like this. You were happy, then you were sad, then happy again, then not. It went on. You were innocent or you were guilty.

[04:10]

Actions were taken or not. At times you stoke, at times you were silent. Mostly it seems you were silent. What could you say? Now it is almost over. Like a lover, your life lays down and kisses your life. It does this knots in forgiveness. Between you, there is nothing to forgive. But with the simple nod of a baker, at the moment he sees the bread is finished with transformation. Eating, too, is a thing now only for others. It doesn't matter what they will make of you or your gaze. They will be wrong. They will miss the wrong woman, miss the wrong man. All the stories they tell will be tales of their own invention.

[05:15]

Your story was this. You were happy. Then you were sad. You slept. You awakened. Sometimes you read those suggestions. Sometimes, your sins. It was like this. You were happy, then you were sad. Then happy again, then not. It went on. It would be a sense where you were guilty. Actions were taken or not. At times you spoke At other times, you were silent. Mostly, it seems, you were silent. What could you say? Now, it is almost over. Like a lover, your life bends down and kisses your life. It does this nod in forgiveness.

[06:20]

Between you, there is nothing to forgive. But with the simple nod of the baker, at the moment he sees the marriage finished, This transformation. Eating too is a thing now only for others. It doesn't matter what they will make of you or your days. They will be wrong. They will miss the wrong woman, miss the wrong man. All the stories they tell be tales of their own invention. Your story was this. You were happy. When you were sad, you slept, you were awake. Sometimes you ate the situations, sometimes the prisoners. So has your sashimi been like this?

[07:25]

Wish you were happy, then sad, then happy again and then not. perhaps sleepy, then mad, and energized, then coursing in samadhi, and then slumped over in doubt and confusion. And how many stories or tales did you have about others, about the situation, about yourself? Did you believe any of them? Did you recognize them as Christians in some way? How much authority did you give your stories? How much authority are you still giving the story? The story itself? And in time, what will it be to let it go?

[08:27]

To put down the tails and simply rest In silence. To allow your life to bend down and kiss your life. Kiss your life in verification. It was like this. It is like this. Just like this. Just like this. There's nothing to be said. Yet we speak. Yet we speak. So here's another story. The blue mountains are constantly walking. But this morning, I'm going to finish the mountain section of this sutra and cross over the bridge to set us up for moving into the water section, which we'll do in our next class.

[09:44]

Yesterday, I walked through Master Jungren's saying, the East Mountains move over the water. And the point I'm going is nifty, perhaps? Or at least. you might say this is the point and hold it loosely, is that is not a goal. It's not somewhere to get to. It's right here, right now, within the Mounties walking, meaning within their practice activity. Buddha walks as rivers and mountains together with all the beings. So this world right here, in which all mountains in the east and west are walking, it is the place of genuine emancipation because they are not fixed and they go beyond. Mountains walking is itself the light path of liberation.

[10:49]

And in this way, all mountains are practicing and verifying liberty. and waters are verifying and practicing and are kissing reality in this way. And reality bends down and kisses them to verify them. And then Domingo goes into our rant. So we come upon the ranting section. A strange location for it to appear, but here it is. So it's not too hard to imagine this, given that these next two sections would do it all over.

[12:00]

Right? Yeah. So many people have some questions about the purpose and nature of Dobin's criticism. And some people feel that Dobin was not practicing right speech as it was too harsh. Do you think that's true? Yes. Yes. So it's interesting that even at the 16th, fascicle version of the Shobo Genzo, you know, to deliver various versions, lengths of the Shobo Genzo, how did these critical sections be removed from it? So people were like, this is too much, so they're taking this out. So others have actually suggested that Dobien was directing his criticism towards his students, really, as a way to help It's another way to look at it. Was he really critiquing others, or was he really trying to encourage the students to have a particular understanding?

[13:06]

So here are the two sections. At the present time in the land of the Great Psalm, there is a bunch of illiterates who have formed such a crowd that they cannot be overcome by a few real students. So when Nidoku-san yesterday told me, She nearly keeps herself doing service, just kind of chanting this in the root of all. So, just imagine, what in the world? This is brilliant. We get to say these things in the Zendo. We take the sayings such as this, East Mountain moving over the water, and Nankwan's sickle, Nankwan's sickle, are incomprehensible talk. The idea is that any saying, this is a little bit too long. It's fuzzy. Can you run fuzzy me a little further in this time? Thank you.

[14:09]

So we're saying, peace not, the living of the water, an actual and sickle, are incomprensible talk. The idea is that any saying that is involved with fault is not a then saying of the Buddha and Dharma. Now it might be too long. Thank you. It is incomprehensible settings that are the same to the Buddha's ancestors. Consequently, they hope that Huang Go's stick and Linji's roar, because they are difficult to comprehend and cannot be grasped by thought, represent the great awakening preceding a sign for the generation of other painless subtle sign. The Tang Mu cutting phrases often used as devices by earlier rubies are, they say, incomprehensible. So that was 14. Then it goes on to 15, which is the continuation of this critique of the same monks. Those who talk in this way have never met a true teacher and lack the eye of dark at study. They are with the sort of false.

[15:10]

There have been many such sons of Amar and gang of six, shady place, shady place, in the land of Song for the last two or three hundred years. This is truly regrettable. for it represents the decline of the great way of Buddhist ancestors. Their understanding is inferior to that of the Inyana Shavakas, more forced than that of even the non-Buddhists. They are not daemon, they are not monks, they are not humans, they are not cats. They are dumber than beasts. I would study the way of the Buddha. What you shavings call incomprehensible settings is incomprehensible. only to you, not to the Buddhists and ancestors. Simply because you yourself do not comprehend those sayings is no reason for you not to study the path comprehended by the Buddhists and ancestors. Even granted that Zen teachings were in the end incomprehensible, this comprehension of yours would also be wrong.

[16:14]

Such types or comments are out of all quarters of the state they saw. I see them with my own eyes. They are to be pitied. They do not know that thought is words. They do not know that words are liberated from thought. He said, why? They do not know that thought is words. They do not know that words are liberated from thought. When I was in the song, I made fun of that. Imagine that. But they had never had an explanation. Never a word to say for themselves. Just this false notion of theirs about incomprehensibility. Who could have taught you this? Though you have no natural teacher, you're a natural little mom-goose. So, the first thing is, despite this extended rant, that we can actually instruct the students not to argue, right?

[17:19]

And what it is, In Four O'Claughts and the Shovel Gains of Sweet Monkey, she says, there's an old saying which goes, although the power of a wise man will listen, it sends out an ox. They do not fight with the ox. Now, students, even if you think that your wisdom and knowledge is superior to others, you should not be fond of arguing with them. And elsewhere, while commenting about a story of a Zen master, Zhen Jing, can win. Arguing with a friend, Logan says, students of the way, you also should consider this thoroughly. As long as you aspire to make diligent effort in learning the way, you must be regretting with your time. When do you have time to argue with others? That's why we keep the schedule so full, right? So you have time to argue with others. Often we agree about no benefit from you or to others.

[18:19]

This is so even in the case of arguing about the Dharma, much more about worldly affairs. Even though the power of a wise person is stronger than that of an ox, they do not fight with the ox. Even if you think you understand the Dharma more deeply than others, do not argue, criticize, or try to define it. If there is a sincere student that asks you about the Dharma, you should not be rude. Tell him about it. You should explain it to them. However, even in such a case, before responding, we answer them to ask three times. So that's kind of to say that the student is really sincere about their question. Neither speak too much nor talk about meaningless matters. After reading these words, I thought that I myself had this thought. And that Pete was acknowledging me. I had subsequently never argued about the derma with others.

[19:21]

Don't mean to say that. What do you think? Was he successful? So, although he advised his students never to waste time arguing and criticizing, he didn't say he himself, and as he tried not to argue, he apparently was not able to follow his own advice. And I think what this actually does, it makes the good human. You know, there's this way that he can kind of feel up here at a school. And then you see, oh, this man has some, you know, thoughts. You know, he had some kind of challenges he was working with. You know, and so, okay, he was human. He's not this worldly, you know, being that we sometimes maybe imagine it used to be. So we can see that he too struggled with his own kind of consciousness. you might wonder, why are these two paragraphs here? If you remember in the earlier paragraph in Song Tsukir, in paragraph number 10, which I discussed in the second day of Sushin, Domo has been critical of Buddhist teachings such as turning an object and turning the mind, explaining the mind and explaining the nature, and seeing the mind and seeing the nature.

[20:44]

And here in paragraph 14, first of all I read, his criticism is directed towards those who prefer what he calls incomprehensible talk. Now, in this situation, this is a particular job that the Ruman Shih or Chinese language of his kind. So it's another lineage which is kind of, you know, I think it was being put forward. And... And a number of his students had actually defected from my lineage and started to study with Dogen. And so Dogen is basically wanting to make sure that they do not continue to perpetrate or follow or harbor these, what he calls the wrong views. So they're gonna study with them. They have to have Dogen's views. They have to see Dogen's way, not the other way. And he has particularly making a pointed warning to those of his students who harbored a notion that in Zen, you shouldn't use your thinking mind.

[21:49]

Have you ever thought before? Have you ever had that notion? Oh, come on. Oh, and that's a waste of think, okay. I have, I have. So if you notice at the end of the paragraph 15, there's a permanent shift. And it goes from talking about them to talking about you. So there you know, it's suddenly talking to your students. You who are my students who are in front of you right now speaking to. So in these two paragraphs, the primary director's criticism towards the trend of the time, using incomprehensible talk and gestures such as shouting and getting to get beyond language, words, and thought. And this kind of behavior of shouting and hitting and using all kinds of strange gestures to get beyond words and thought was based on the premise that I'd like to know is having no line, no thought.

[23:00]

So if you weren't like to, you'd have no line. You wouldn't have any thoughts. And Dogen disagreed strongly. Instead he's saying, No thinking is not enlightenment. It is not political. So don't worry, you do think during this talk. We'll be okay. I don't want to delve too much into the specific references in this section. You're welcome to have some time. Kind of go in trouble with Deidre if you want. I'd like to say something briefly about the man in the main critique of incomprehensible talk. and Dougie mentions Waldo's stick, Ninji's roar, and Nanchuan's sickle. And are you familiar with Nanchuan's sickle? Yeah, you are. And Nanchuan's sickle is a comment about an encounter that a traveling monk has with Nanchuan, who is working the field. So the out of the business, he was just working the field like any old front end.

[24:03]

And this monk comes along and asks, which path should I take to go to Nanchuan? And it just so happens that Nanchuan was both the name of the mountain, which is Zen Master's monocertus located, as well as the Abbot's name, his own name. So Nanchuan can either mean the place or the master himself. And I'm never into what Nanchuan says, but he has a number of playful responses to the monk's inquiry, including making some comments about his circle. Holding it up and saying, this circle costs $3. Something about those lines. And his responses to the monk's inquiry seem kind of nonsensical, incomprehensible on the surface. But if you understand the context, then it makes sense. It has its logic. I am not sure. I am the one you're looking for. You know, if you were asking, we're sure you're not sure.

[25:05]

And by the way, I, this one, have this circle and close your colors. So I am manifesting as such, right here, for you. And the monk doesn't see that, doesn't understand that. He's looking for something else. We've heard that before. Looking for another option, another way. So, Bookmore writes that, Zen comments are full of stories like this. People assume their point is to interrupt discriminating thoughts. Since the reality of our beings is beyond discriminating thoughts, people believe that to see reality, we have to cut off our thoughts. So Zen masters used koans and other extreme methods. Wang Bo hit his students with a staff, and Linji shouted unexpectedly. This would mean that when we study koans, we should stop logical, conceptual thinking. We are deluded because of our thinking. So when we cut off our thinking, then we will see reality.

[26:10]

This is one way of understanding Zen practice. No lie, no thought is enlightened. The dog is critical of this approach. So again, Zen is not about stopping our thinking. We don't want to stop our thinking. We want to know that thinking It is thinking. We don't want to make a mistake in it for some external reality. We want to recognize, oh, I'm having a thought that, I'm having a thought that the tonto's looking at me and wondering, when is he gonna end? I'm having a thought that the culture over there is quite beautiful. I'm having the thought that It is capable, wonderful, encouraging words last night. All these are just thoughts. So recognizing when we're having a thought, recognizing when we have a busy mind, recognizing when we have a distracted mind.

[27:17]

Where's the mind that you have? To recognize the quality of mind is not to stop thinking, but to recognize the traps and snares of our thinking. How this will get caught in our thinking. So if you're sitting with the notion that you must stop thinking, that would be a mistake in motion. But that's what's talking about here. Domen's meditation instructions in the Fukanzo Zenki is to think not thinking. How you do this, not thinking. In Japanese, the word not thinking is hishiro, shiro. means thinking, and he here is a prefix of negation and opposition. So hisero literally means not thinking. One commentator says that hisero amounts to unthink something, to unthink something, or not to acknowledge or make it a matter of thinking.

[28:22]

So unthink or not think, or not thinking or acknowledging it is a way to Basically not welcome, not invited in. Remember, Suki, she says, you don't have to invite your thoughts and fatigue. So when you don't acknowledge and don't invite them in, you don't invalidate them. You're not invalidated by giving them attention or energy or thoughts. So don't welcome or validate thoughts with attention. To give them more attention is to energize them, in which case they stay around and keep coming back. So I often use the metaphor, if there's a stray dog, the stray dog comes to your house. If you feed it, it's going to keep coming back. If you don't want the stray dog to come back, then don't feed it. It may still pass through your yard, right? But it's not going to hang around because it knows there's nothing for it there. So don't feed your stray dog thoughts.

[29:24]

Now, there's another column that has a bit in it that's related to meditation instructions. And this is case 32 of the Book of Serenity, Mind and Environment. Yangshan asked the monk, where do you come from? The monk said, I'm from Newt province. Yangshan said, do you think of that place? The monk said, I always think of it. Yangshan said, the figure. is the mind, and the thought of is the environment. Therein are mountains, rivers, and the great earth. Towers, palaces, people, animals, and other things. Reverse your thought to think of the thinking mind. Are there so many things there? The one said, But when I get here, I don't see any existence at all. Yangon said, that's right for the stage of faith, but not yet right for the stage of a person.

[30:41]

Lamont said, do you have any other particular way of kindness? Yangshan said, to say that I have anything particular or not would not be accurate. Based on your insight, you only get one mystery. Your insight shows that you have attained only one side of the mystery. You can take the seat and wear the robe. After that, see you on your own. So, Yangshan asks the monk, where are you from? And the monk gives a conventional response, and for new problems. Fine, okay. Then Yangshan tests the monk, and the monk's understanding of the Dharma. Do you think of that place? And Yangshan is asking about the homeland of the monk's own essential mind, his own essence, his essential nature. And the monk replies, I always think of it.

[31:42]

And this monk's reply shows he's only thinking in terms of his geographical homeland. So then Yangshan gives the monk a second chance. The thinker is the mind, and the follow-up is the environment, he says. In other words, that which thinks is the mind. That which is thought about is the objective world or the environment. And in the environment, thought, in the environment of the mind is the 10,000 things. And within that, continues Yangshan, are mountains, rivers, and the great earth, towers, houses, people, animals, and everything else you can Think of. In other words, all that is fault. All that is made of fault. Then he goes on to give the monk meditation instruction.

[32:47]

How kind. Reverse your fault to think of the thinking line. Are there lots of things there? In other words, take the backwards step. and shine a light inward. And when you do this, what is actually there? When you take the third step, what is actually there? Or, as the famous description, think not thinking. How do you do that? Not thinking. The thinker is the mind, and the thought of is the environment. So reverse this. bringing the thinking mind back to awareness itself. Make your attention. Think, not thinking. How do we do that? Not thinking. The figure fits the mind and the bulk of up is the environment.

[33:50]

So reverse this. Bring the thinking mind back to awareness itself. This kind of thinking is not thinking. What you'll notice when you do this is that there are many minds or manifestations of mind thoughts taking the shape, for example, of mountains, rivers, people, likes, dislikes, happy, sad. Another way to say this is that all phenomena, thoughts, feelings, sensations, mountains, rivers, and everything you can think of is a temporary modulation of awareness. But is there a different line each time? This is Yangshan's question. There are many things in the outside of the so-called objective world, but there are many lines inside

[34:58]

the monk said in response, when I get there, when I take her, I would step and shine the light inward, I don't see any existence at all. So the monk has simply realized that he has some insight that there is not a single inherently existing separate thing. He sees the nature of all things as empty. He understands that. And now you might think, great, I'm done now, right? Nothing more to do. I reached the path, I'm on the mountain. I could just buff it up for a good day. Thank you very much. But, as Yangshan says, that's right for the stage of faith, this singing emptiness, but it's not right for the stage of a person. What is it that makes you human? This point here is the central focus of this koan. The monk has reached the stage of faith, meaning the state of kencho.

[36:01]

That is, I'm dying to the separate self. But he's still stuck in emptiness. He's still playing in the entryway. Shusha is halfway in, still halfway out. He's taking a backward step and reached the peak of the mountain, but he hasn't taken the forward step. His walking isn't complete. Having had it inside, We need to come back down from the mountain and engage in everyday life. The stage of person is walking back down the mountain with the forward step, going beyond Buddha. With the forward step, we return to the everyday world. This is the stage of person. This is going beyond. you find yourself sitting here, having a thought of the environment of 10,000 days, with full awareness, turn the light around and focus on the thinking mind.

[37:17]

So what does that feel like? What does it feel like to turn awareness around, the light around, attention around, I should say, focus on the thinking mind? Again, this doesn't mean coming off thoughts. Thinking, not thinking, doesn't mean not thinking. It means being aware of thoughts. And when you focus on the thoughts with awareness, what happens? They melt. When you're aware of thoughts arising, they melt. Do you remember the snowball analogy that I used during the first session, right? The snow, the snowball, and the vibrator come. by thoughts. And they can froze, freeze, and harden, and you can grab onto them and come out and make a person out of it. Or if we simply shine the light of awareness, this warm sunlight of awareness on the snowflakes and on the snow person, they begin to melt and dissolve.

[38:24]

So if we're thinking of the environment, the content, the narrative, or story, and we get caught and take it away. So you grab onto the snowflake, and the snowflake carries you away. Whatever the story is, takes you somewhere else, up here, to places unknown, to distant lands, to dusty rooms, right? When this happens, you turn home immediately. Think back, or direct the mind back to the thinker. Be aware Just awareness. Be aware of being aware. Be aware of being aware. So just sitting. Just sitting as awareness.

[39:29]

However, if your just sitting is planning, daydreaming, and arguing in their head, et cetera, then you might instead need to practice a calming or tranquilization practice of some sort, calm abiding, shanta, focusing the mind on counting the breath, following the breath, give it some kind of anchor that helps to gather the mind and subtle it. Of course, all these practices start with a subtle posture, picking up a posture of stillness. And then stabilized, grounded posture of the body supports a stabilized, grounded posture of the mind. So at best we can, just starting back, coming back to the foundation as often as we need. That's right for a stage of the stage of practice, but it's not right for the stage of person. So you have your insights, right?

[40:31]

And as you have some confidence, in your own Buddha nature. However, the monk asks a further point. Don't you have any other particular way of guidance? And his teacher basically says, I can't say anything else. I can't do anything more for you. You now have to see it on your own. Put on the road, meaning the road of compassion, this road, but also not necessarily meaning to redeem, but the mind of the with minor compassion. And take your meditation seat and see on your own, figure this out for yourself. That's all I can offer you. You've got the essentials, now you have to do the work. That's a wonderful meditation instruction I think we're being offered here. One more related point. This idea of all thought is bad is a mistaken notion according to Dokkan.

[41:32]

He says, on the one hand, they do not know that false words, that is, thoughts come from our discriminating, that words come from our discriminating thoughts, or distorted map of mind, or real reality. And yet, he also says, they do not know that words are liberated from thoughts. Words are liberated from thoughts. In his comments on this, Oklahoma says that, Even though words come from thought, they are at the same time liberated from thought. How can we express a word liberated by thoughts? How can we express a word liberated by thoughts? From thoughts. By knowing that those thoughts are distorted. We know that thoughts are distorted, that they don't represent reality, that they are not true. then they're liberated. And the words are also liberated.

[42:35]

We have not fixed them. We have not invested them. Invested in them. We have not concretized them. They get the flow. Our words can be an expression of dharma, not merely an expression of one person's karmic consciousness. So it's okay to engage in words and thoughts, but be aware that thought is both limited Man, and then it's bandolated. And hands can go beyond its limitation. I forgot to say, I might go for a minute as a real Bible over today, and then after those two days of silence. I thought maybe yesterday we'd go to your talk, but maybe it's going to happen. You sit there. I'm sure it'd be okay with that. Don't take that, though.

[43:40]

Okay, well, let's move on to the final paragraph of this section. We should, this is 16, we should realize that this teaching of the East Mountain roaming over the water is the very gauze and marrow of the Buddhas and ancestors. All the waters are carrying at the foot of the east mountain, and therefore the mountains melt the clouds and stride through the heavens. The mountains are the peaks of the waters, and both ascending and descending, their walk is over the water. The tips of the mountain's feet walk across the waters, singing and dancing. their walking is seven high and eight across. And their practice and verification are not non-existent. And their practice and verification are not non-existent. I love the image of nothing's dancing over water. Maybe someone will draw a picture of that if you love the super wall of a day anyway.

[44:46]

So the first line here about bones and marrow. goes back to the story of Bodhidharma's transmission to his disciples that I quickly mentioned yesterday. And he brings it up here to point out that rather than being incomprehensible talk, humanist teaching is actually the essential teaching of the Buddhist ancestors. It's transmitting the essential teachings of the Buddhist ancestors. Just like that each of Bodhidharma's disciples equally also had the essential teachings.

[45:52]

So this paragraph is essentially about the relationship between mountains and waters, and as such is the preamble on moving into the water section. So this is the transition paragraph. And we'll start by referencing Jung-Lan's saying, again, of East Mountain moving over the water, and then goes on to describe the different qualities of mountains and waters, the solidness, of the waters and the level of ability of mountains and the interactivity and relationship. So once again, he is underlining our conventional views of the qualities and behaviors of mountains and waters. He's saying they don't appear as you think they appear. Your ideas about them do not touch the mountains and waters. Do not limit the mountains and waters. Do not defile them with your views. So here's something from Gary Snyder talking about mountains and waters and the relationship together.

[46:59]

And this is similar expression to what Doug was saying. There is the obvious fact of the water cycle and that fact that mountains and waters indeed form each other. And that fact is that mountains and waters indeed form each other. Mounted waters are precipitated by heights, carve or deposit landforms in their flowing descent, and wave the offshore continental shovels with second act to ultimately tilt more up close. In common usage, the compound mountains and waters, Shanxi in Chinese, is the straightforward term for landscape. So landscape painting is mountains and waters pictures. A mountain range is also sometimes termed my, or pops, or vein, as a network of veins on the back of a hand. One does not need to be a specialist to observe that landforms are a plenary of stream cutting and range resistance, and that waters and hills inter-pensurate and endlessly branching rhythms.

[48:12]

The Chinese feel for land has always incorporated the steps of a dialectic of rock and water, of downward flow and rocky uplift, of the dynamism and slow flowing of earthworms. So can you hear that and see that, this kind of play, how they can form and form each other? How geography and nature does this in a unique way. Snyder goes on to mention the whole surviving scrolls that are titled something like Mountains and Rivers Without End, which, for those who don't know, are, of course, the title is African poem. So mountains and waters of reality are flowing and creating each other endlessly. This is the interpenetration of being. I create you, and you create me when it's very ascending and descending, uplifting and sedent-doping. All going on, nonstop, as one whole walking.

[49:16]

So the whole earth is walking in this way, all this up and down in a relation. Basically, everything you see, the stridations you see in the hills, are footprints of the mountains of waters walking with each other. Finally, the last sentence. Therefore, they're walking in seven high and eight across. and their practice and their vacation are not non-existent. And this expression, seven, high, and eight across, means with complete freedom. So the mountains walk freely, and therefore they reach everywhere. They keep walking. And the latter part of this sentence, their practice and their vacation are not non-existent, comes from a Zen story that is frequently mentioned, especially this shame. And it's an exchange between the six ancestors, Wei-Nan, and his disciple, Nanyuai. This is how it goes.

[50:18]

When Nanyuai first visited Wei-Nan, the master asked, Where do you come from? Nanyuai replied, I came from Mount Song. Wei-Nan asked, What is it that thus comes? Nanyuai could not understand the question and practice with the master for eight years. Then Nanui said to Wei Nang, I finally understand what you asked when I first listened to you. Wei Nang asked, how do you understand? Nanui said, if I say anything, I miss it. Wei Nang asked, then is there practice of verification? Nanui said, it's not that practice of verification are non-existent, but they cannot be defiled. When I said, this non-definement is what all Buddhists have been protecting and maintaining. You are thus, and I am thus.

[51:20]

Ancestors in India were also thus. So here again is that question. Where do you come from? Like, probably suspicious, right? Like, uh-oh. That is not really asking where we're from. I bet he's probably asking one of those tricky Zen questions. Now he naively responds in a conventional way. I came from that song. And then we end and throws him a curveball. What is it that thus comes? Knocking on way to the sidelines for eight years. Imagine sitting with that question. Any question that my teacher gives you for eight years, turning it over and over. And finally, one day, maybe having a response. It's something to say about practice. We think they have to get it right away. I have to find out soon now to allow an ingredient to cook in it, to settle, to deepen, to unfold for however long it needs to unfold.

[52:29]

Let it wipe in its own time. Don't force it open before it's empty. What is it that thus comes? Thus come one is the tathākara, which is another term I use for the Buddha. What is it that thus comes? What is the tathākara? Wienang is asking, who are you? Who are you, really? What is the Buddha? Now, I reparnished this question for eight years and finally has a response for Wienang. I finally understand what you ask for explicit view. So Wienang asks, How do you understand? And Nanway replies, if I say anything, I miss it. In the words, it, a fundamental good of nature, cannot be reached or summarized by words or phrases. When I approve, Nanway responds by asking a checking question. That is their practice and verification.

[53:33]

And Nanway replies, it's not that it's non-existent. It just can't be defiled. Defiled means, I can't talk about it in a dualistic way. The word defies a connotation of during in some way, but in this case, it means can't reach it with dualistic descriptions or words. So nonway is saying that it isn't that the mood of nature, what he is, what we are, doesn't exist or can't be proven or verified. He's saying that no dualistic thought or language can express the non-adult nature of what it is that thus comes. And Wei Meng appropriately replies, this non-defilement is the way of the Buddhists and ancestors. So in this column, we are once again coming across the term that dogma uses often, practice verification.

[54:37]

Practice realization should show I spoke a little about this yesterday. Shushu means that realization or enlightenment, if you can use that term, is within practice, not elsewhere. So shu, practice, is a cause. And shu, verification or realization, is a result. Rather than staying on their own two separate things, don't compromise them. And since they are one, practice realization. By being the thus common one, by becoming Buddha, by becoming that which we already are, is show, is awakening. Awakening is verifying what we already are. This show literally means verification or proof or evidence. And in this way, shu, our practice, and show the result of practice,

[55:41]

are one thing that can't be separated. It's all Buddha activity. Okumara comments that it is not that practice and verification are non-existent. It's another way of saying that mountains and all beings, including ourselves, carry out practice and verification. But this isn't to say we don't need to practice. We need to be free from defilement. but greed, hate, and delusion, which are the three poisons. Mountains are centering mountains and accepting all beings within them. Oceans do not reject water from any river. So the mountains and waters are centering as they are, as they are, thus come, solid and moving, still and flowing. And all that, centering beings and centering beings, known as and broken death as well, is not non-existent.

[56:44]

Practice verification is not non-existent. It's right here in this moment. By saying what it isn't, we're able to express it without defiling it with words and phrases. This is something that you see often in Zen. By saying what it isn't, you're still able to point to it and kind of say what it is to now actually making it into something, using my language and concepts. So many teachers have spoken on this koan of what is it that thus comes as a meditation instruction. Because what we do is we often think we know what it is that thus comes. Do you know what it is that thus comes right now? We often have the idea that we think. We know what it is that thus comes. We have an idea that we know what's happening and what this sensation is, for example.

[57:51]

Oh, that sensation right now in my knees, that's pain. I know what it is that thus comes. It's pain. But the feeling is irritation or anger or sleepiness. And in doing so, we define it. We limit it. We reify an idea of it, but in the piece that we actually miss its true nature. Pain is not pain in the way that you think about it. So what is its true nature? It's the Buddha Dharma of the moment. It's the mountains and rivers of the present. This present moment is the manifestation of the bullas and ancestors. So we can... drop away and melt away the sense of, I know what this is, then we can experience life directly.

[58:54]

So if we can melt away and drop, I know what this is, this is the other side of the way of saying, don't know. I don't know. If we can rest and don't know, then we can experience this moment directly. preferences and likes and dislikes, but will it be present? It's a recognition, dropping those preferences. And it's really exhausting to resist reality and to engage with that preferences and preferences. And this is what I was pointing to last night when Captain Thomas said, what I learned from Suzuki Roshi was the practice of saying yes. Saying yes is basically opening to everything. Dropping our idea about things in any particular way and affirming how they are right now directly. Not wanting them to be any other way.

[59:57]

No resisting or saying no. Just yes is like this. Yes, yes, yes. I couldn't even watch it. Yes, yes. So this is something that we can ask ourselves in meditation with each breath. What is it that thus comes? What is it that thus comes? And this teaching note, what is it that thus comes is fairly given and has been fairly given by the Buddhists and the ancestors. So now you have it. So keep it well. And not kept well or protected in the sense of keeping it secrets, but kept well in the sense of sharing freely. Make sure that it continues. When a thus come one comes, we think it's something else, not realizing it's actually ourselves.

[61:04]

So we get confused, thinking it's other. But we are all thus. We are all the thus-cum-one. Each thing is thus. Each thought. Each thought involving leaf. Each nail. Each arising. It's not a dualistic thing outside of reality, but itself, reality comes forward. Actually, if you look at the leaf, walk around on the path, look at the leaf and say, this is reality. The ground is flowering with fallen leaves of reality coming forward. So when we have each thing to come forward and realize itself, all things are verified, everything is emancipated. This teaching has been practiced and protected and passed down by all the Buddhists and ancestors.

[62:09]

And now we have it. our practice realization is the practice realization of all the Buddhists and ancestors. So when we practice and realize now, the Sikiroshi is practicing and realizing now. Gobi is practicing and realizing now. Bodhi Dharma is practicing and realizing now. Mahapajapati is practicing and realizing now. Luya is practicing and realizing now. And the only way we can get back is by practicing. So if we have any sense of gratitude, appreciation for this practice, continue practicing. That is true gratitude. There's nothing we can do to collect this gift other than practice. That's all that's being asked of us. We're not being asked to give anything more than just what we can give. We're only being asked to give what we can completely We need to simply have confidence in this, and the entire universe will remain into this moment and becoming us.

[63:17]

A thousand countless causes and conditions coming together right now just to be this one. How could it be otherwise? Things can't be any different than what they are. This is all the whole universe moving just as it is. But that's the background between this practice and education. And with that, we conclude the nonsense section of Stunt Creek. Ta-da! And we'll get to the water section in the next class. We have three links left. We'll be left to practice there. Okay. Oh, she's always counting. We'll see where we get to.

[64:21]

See how far it takes us. There isn't no way to mention this. Okay. I'm going to say one more thing, and this is regarding the Shosan ceremony tonight. And this will conclude our Sashim. And for those of you who have not experienced this ceremony before, this is an opportunity to come forth with a question or an inquiry that has arisen out of your practice during our week of session together. And maybe something that you didn't have a chance to bring up in your practice discussion. I ask you to please make a genuine question. Genuine question of inquiry. Sometimes show signs, translate as a Korean response. Something that's alive in your heart. And don't try to be clever or intellectual or something like that.

[65:22]

Those questions you just kind of fall flat. You can just be like, okay, that's a heavy one. Come from your notes. Come from your hearts. That's really alive for you. So I'll be sitting in a chair there, in a very uncomfortable chair. So have pity on me. The thing feels like it's going to fall apart in any of that. It really is. Yeah, I'm worried for my life. Sitting in that chair, more reason why. So he'll come forward, and he'll ask a question, and then I'll Offer a response. Now, notice I said response. I'm not going to give you an answer. This is not about an answer. There are no answers. You probably don't even want an answer. This is bringing forward a response.

[66:23]

Calling a response. Bringing each other forward. Bringing each other as fully as we're standing along. Bringing forth the Dharma and bringing forth each other. So, just kind of witnessing how we get stuff together. We're rising and expressing at this moment. And this ceremony is a precursor of sorts, the Chisot ceremony. Because Chisot is so looking forward to at the very end. So she'll have to demonstrate her own capacity to respond to Dharmic, to Dharmic Greece, so. You can continue to hone and refine your questions over the next five weeks. And give her the really, really tough ones. With love, of course. Okay. So one more thing. As I mentioned, I'm leaving early in the morning to go to Green Gulch and City Center for four days of back-to-back meetings.

[67:31]

And I'll retire. I hope my plan is to turn in time for the engine on Friday. So I get to complete the week with people home. For part of the time, Leslie and Tata Pakasho and Director Goy will also be meeting for some of the same meetings, which means that Shisou will probably remain here in order to continue to offer you encouragement and support. So please, I value yourself with her supportive presence. And I will miss being with all of you. I really made an effort to not leave the practice period and I was able to get it down to one time away. Because many times I was practicing usually two or three times. So I said, nope, only once. And please take care of yourselves. Not just a shame in the attended time. So we sat here, we're really open and comfortable with ourselves. And so be gentle with yourself and be gentle with each other.

[68:37]

So if you notice the irritation of stuff coming up for you, kind of stick close to it and don't try to notice it's for you to take care of. It's yours to own and recognize. It's not another person's. So if you need practice support, please speak with the practice leaders who are here. And just continue to be patient with yourselves and with each other. And I hope you're having fun and enjoyable week. It should be fairly quiet, I hope. Great, we'll get the donut clock. What's up? Oh, and there's sewing happening too, so anyone who does that, we can't sew. We'll do some sewing, okay? Otherwise, just be our usual rhythm. I'm sitting. and meeting together, and working together, and studying together, and walking with the mountains. Okay, speaking of walking, let's stop walking.

[69:42]

Last time. Thank you very much. Thank you. [...]

[70:15]

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