I'd like to conclude my discussion of the Blue Cliff Records, number 21. Can you hear me? No? All right. If a car doesn't go by... Anyway, I've been talking about this story, about Chimon, and the basic question is, a monk asks Chimon, what is the lotus before it emerges from the water? And Chimon says, the lotus flower. And the monk says, what is it after it has emerged from the water? And Chimon says, lotus leaves. But as you know, a word which means the whole thing, whole plant, water and

[01:01]

mud and roots, it implies that. This story is pretty important to a setcho, the compiler of the blue cliff records, because Chimon was setcho's teacher. And Chimon is in the lineage of setcho, Chimon, and Seppo. And I think, actually, Umon is the grandfather, not the father, grandteacher of Shimon. And then the great-great-grandteacher is of Umon. is Sekito, I think. So it's... our lineage is Six Patriarchs, Seigen, Gyoshi, and then into our lineage, and Sekito after Seigen, Gyoshi. Sekito's disciple is Tenno Dogo, I believe, and from that lineage comes this story. And there are many, of course, connections, but this story is...

[02:31]

very basic, same type of thing Dogen is trying to suggest by saying, firewood is firewood, ashes are ashes. Firewood has its own past, present and future. Ashes has its own past, present and future. Or sage has its own past, has their, his or her own past, present and future. And ordinary person has their own past, present and future. So this is a story again about before and after or causation. What causes something? In Western culture, do we have our own will, free will, or are we doing God's will? Same kind of question this is trying to answer. The story of Hyakujo and the fox is also the same kind of story. You know the story of Hyakujo and the fox? Some of you don't. Hyakujo, you know, founded this way of life we lead in Zen Buddhism, and Hyakujo was

[04:00]

He gave this story, it goes this way. Hyakujo gave his lecture and every time he gave his lecture some old man appeared at the back of the lecture hall. So Hyakujo, one day after Hyakujo finished, the old man waited till all the monks had gone and he came up and he said to Hyakujo, over five hundred years ago I was head of this monastery. Of course, I don't think that monastery was there 500 years before, but anyway, he says. And I was asked a question by a monk and my answer made me to be reborn as a fox for 500 years. So, Yakuja said, what was the question? The old man said, I was asked by a monk, does an enlightened person or does a Buddha fall into causation or not, subject to the law of causation or not? And he said, I said, a Buddha or an enlightened person is not subject to causation.

[05:28]

And for this answer, I was condemned to live as a fox for 500 years, up till now. This is very much like the riddle of the fox, or riddle of the sphinx. Even though Oedipus answered the question, you know, about the riddle of the sphinx, he still was condemned to kill his father and marry his mother. subject to the laws of causation. So, Yakujo said, ask me the question. So, he said, is a... You know the ending already. He said, is a Buddha or enlightened person subject to the laws of causation or not? And Yakujo said, He does not, such a person does not ignore causation. And that hearing these words, of course, this old man was enlightened and said, please for my sake, he expressed his gratitude, bowed, and then he said, please for my sake, give me a proper funeral for a Buddhist monk.

[06:56]

So the next day... So that afternoon, Hyakucho told the monks, you know, a sick... a monk has died and we will perform a funeral ceremony tomorrow morning, so please prepare. The monks were a little perplexed because no one was sick at the monastery and they didn't know what he was talking about. Anyway, the next morning they went up the mountain behind the temple and hunted around, and out of an old cave, they... Hyakujo poked out a dead fox. He'd probably found a few days before on a walk. I don't know exactly. But he's quite capable of having done that. So, they gave this fox a good funeral ceremony. Now, in this kind of story, emphasis or effort is to get you to understand the story. You can't understand it in the usual way. So the effort is to get you to understand it in its own terms but in maybe another level

[08:28]

Story isn't what it seems, and yet it is what it seems. It's about causation. Are we subject to the laws of causation or not? What is consciousness? What is before and after, past, present, and future? When I talk with you, Mostly I'm talking with your... sometimes I'm talking to your grandfather or grandmother, sometimes I'm talking to your great-grandchildren, and sometimes I'm talking to the back of your head, sometimes to the front of your head, etc. Because most of you are always in secondary consciousness, consciousness of what you are, who you are, what you're going to do, what people think, etc. So, this story, this kind of story, it's like Ariel. Ariel is also Seppo's disciple.

[09:58]

with Umo, I believe, and Erio studied with various people and he had very interesting experience with Seppo. Seppo told him, when he came to him, seeing he was already pretty developed at practicing, he told him, I'm going to treat you the way a horse trainer treats a horse or something You don't have to come to see me every day in Doksan or Sanzen. Just sit like a dead stump on a mountain. And if you're pretty good, if you're slow, in seven years you'll find out something, in five years, in three years, if you're fast, in three years. After three years, two and a half or three years, Ariel was felt very restless one night and he wandered about the temple and fell asleep on the porch, the roka, and woke up and opened the blind and the light came in and he whole, you know, this kind of, he wasn't thinking. He prepared but he wasn't thinking and suddenly he felt everything directly.

[11:27]

not in terms of secondary consciousness. He felt everything very directly, like a new world appearing. And he went up to Seppo's room and stood outside. Seppo was still asleep and he couldn't contain himself and he burst out with some laughter and Seppo woke up. He understood immediately. He could tell by the laugh, you know. So, he said something, you know, and at lecture he asked, that day at lecture, he asked Ariel to say something, some statement, and Ariel said, in the midst of ten thousand forms, he made some poem on that moment, in the midst of ten thousand forms, finding one naked body. Only he who affirms it can be intimate with it. Until yesterday, I was seeking it halfway. But today,

[12:58]

I find ice in fire, but today I find ice in fire. He's talking now about what I call a primary consciousness. And the job of Zen monks or Zen teacher feeling is like a mother or maybe last mother on earth Everyone else is infertile by strontium-90 or so. And you have to find someone to pass, to bring your consciousness, to awaken, to continue this consciousness. I think we people get married with the sense, not of creating another body, but of continuing consciousness. And in Zen you feel that way. to give birth to primary consciousness. So these stories are to try to help you give birth to primary consciousness, consciousness which continues. And you can understand why people give explanation like reincarnation, because from this point of view your body feels like just another bead on a string of consciousness.

[14:21]

your body is just a bead, like a bead. When you get out of secondary consciousness, finding ice in fire, finding root of lotus in lotus leaves, finding past, present and future on everything, it means you have escaped from simple idea of causation where you have just some explanation, one thing leading to another. Yakujo's old friend, the fox man, because he made some statement he became a fox. As someone said, what about five hundred joyous years as a fox? How do you fall into causation? Where do you fall into causation? Where do you ignore causation? You know, the conclusion of this poem about Yakujo and the fox is... Yakujo, I think, asked, What if every answer over many centuries had been incorrect?

[15:54]

Then what would happen? No correct answer had been given. And Obaku, I believe, was there and maybe he asked a question or he was ready to give an answer, I can't remember, but anyway, when he was ready to respond or if he asked that question, Yakujo said, come a little closer and I'll tell you. he came up closer and Obaku knew what was going to happen. So, he came up and he slapped Hyakujo and Hyakujo started laughing. And he said, you know, I thought the foreigner had a red beard, but now I see it was just a red beard with a foreigner or something. Some answer he gave. You're a red bearded foreigner, you know. by Chinese standards. They understood each other, Obaku and Gyakujo. Another similar story is Ling Yu, Ray Yuan, who also Erio studied with

[17:16]

was asked by a monk, what about before Buddha came? And he, Ling Yu, raised his whisk. And so the monk said, what about after Buddha appears in the world, after enlightenment? And again, he, Ling Yu, raises his whisk. So, U Mon says, the first time he hit, the second time he missed. What is he talking about, hit or missed? And later U Mon added, where is the time of the asking? Where is the time of the asking? This may... I'm going to take a jump here. One problem we have in this is we think of consciousness as abstract consciousness, or this universe, as I've often said, as some object full of objects, or space full of objects. And we have some very abstract idea of the way our mind functions, and if it doesn't function,

[18:45]

we're mentally ill or something, you know, but mostly we're not mentally ill, you know, we're morally ill, you know. It's not always true, sometimes we don't function so well, but most mental illness is, I'm afraid, moral illness. You know, the word consciousness and conscience are of course the same word, and conscience Now it means, you know, what the usual meaning, but it originally meant, it was originally another word for consciousness or inner mind or inner voice. It's identical with Tsukiroshi's inmost request. When you feel your inmost request, when you do what's to your heart's content, when you can act to your heart's content, is conscience or inmost request. However, consciousness, the root of the word consciousness, means to cut or divide or discriminate. And what I'm talking about today is non-discriminating consciousness, consciousness which does not cut up but joins everything.

[20:03]

So, as practice, if you want to find out what this story is about, what Yakuza is talking about, what the riddle of the Sphinx could be about, I wonder what would have happened if Yakuza had been around to talk to Oedipus. Oedipus, ask me that question again, would you? Probably nothing would have happened. This is a fundamental question in our society, in our philosophy, in our theology, and in the way you think, because you, all of you, are always thinking in terms of before and after. What leads to this? If I practice, will I get enlightened? Etc. What could Dogen mean when he says, literally, a sage is a sage with its own past, present and future. Ordinary person does not become a sage. So there's two means to practice. One is meditation. The other is maybe conscience. Consistency in your thinking and words and actions. Finding out

[21:43]

how to be consistent or true to your inner voice or inmost request. I don't mean some rigid consistency but I mean, hmm, this is a little difficult to suggest in only a little while more. Many causes I talked about. And many... Tsukurishi once said, Buddha was a social reformer, and what he meant by this is not that Buddha was... or a Buddhist would plan some future, but that he becomes... a Buddhist becomes a person who is open to the many concurrent causes. not just your own past, present and future. You're outside of secondary or not only in secondary consciousness. So if such a person exists in society or many people exist in society, many opportunities for society to develop will occur, is this Buddhist idea that Suzuki Roshi was expressing. So it also means mutual help.

[23:14]

And this story of lotus root and lotus blossom and before emerging and after emerging is often understood in terms of mutual help or mutual aid. That helpfulness or generosity, which is, you know, first, paramita, and the four unlimited practices are unlimited friendliness or generosity, unlimited compassion, and sympathetic joy, unlimited joy, and unlimited or even-mindedness. So if we're talking about non-discriminating consciousness which Buddhism identifies with space, if there's some person who's unfriendly to you or you're unfriendly to them, this is not unlimited consciousness or space consciousness that we are always talking about in Buddhism.

[24:31]

Of course, you can't be always friendly from the point of view of secondary consciousness, but from the point of view of primary consciousness, it's quite ordinary to be friendly to everyone. There's no conflict at this level. I don't know if I can get it across to you. Emptiness, we talk about emptiness. And the best way I can say something about emptiness is, it's not a philosophical concept, it's much more like falling in love than something philosophical. You know, if you fall in love, you resist it at first.

[25:36]

And finally you say, oh my God, you know. This is terrible. And you have to give yourself over to it, you don't... just take a chance, you know, it seems hopeless. And emptiness is like that, you know, you just... well, anyway, a feeling of offering yourself or giving yourself. So this space is more like the ability to experience or be open to the many concurrent causes which make up every moment, every situation that we human beings can act in and participate in this whole universe which is many concurrent causes. It means you have to be at the stage of consciousness which is unlimited friendliness. or ability to be one with your conscience or consciousness or inner voice. Now, again, awareness, consciousness as awareness, as I've often said, is very much like the Japanese word aware, also spelled like aware, which means the ability to sustain contradictory realities, life and death on each moment.

[27:05]

So it's not consistency in some narrow sense. But a person who practices Zen a lot, you know, seems very contained. You'll feel such and such a person is quite a contained person. But it's not the containment of some narrow boundaries. It's the containment of... contained means the ability to hold something. And in Buddhism contain this sense is to hold whole universe or to hold all the concurrent causes. And actually the ten part of contain means to stretch out and it's the root of Tantra too. To stretch out or include. So compassion and friendliness and joy. If you don't feel joyful, you can't be one with the many concurrent causes. I don't mean you have to now decide to be joyful. You know, that you can't do. You can decide to put up with any level of misery or you can decide to try. That would be closer to... that, strangely enough, would be moving closer to joy than to try to be joyful.

[28:32]

First step is to be willing to be a fox for 500 years or 1 million years. Then you won't have to ask Hyakujo for help. So we're talking about conscience or consciousness sympathetic joy or friendliness. This is a wide description of Buddhist practice. And in particular for you, it means you try in each instance with people to be helpful, to be open to whatever. Sugyoshi also said something which confused many people. He said, How can I put he said something like enlightenment is on this side ego is on that side Ego is always some outside view or some Secondary view or secondary consciousness On this side by this he means includes everything

[29:58]

So that means you can easily be helpful to others. It doesn't matter what the Eno here tells me. Do the ceremony this way or that way. Come into the room and go around there and bow, or go over there and do it. It doesn't make any difference what they tell me. When I do it, it's my containment. It's on this side when I do it. This is a very important point. I've expressed it other ways, like when you help somebody, you're not giving up your time to them. Whatever you do is your time, is on your side. So, you can't in this sense give up your ego. You know, some people are afraid of losing their personality or ego. But from this point of view, whatever you do is on this side. Because it's so, it doesn't matter whether I wear robes or don't wear robes, or what I do arbitrarily. This Buddhist life is a made-up life. We made it up, actually. Many authors made it up. But it's just a made-up life we're leading. But what other made-up life would you like better?

[31:39]

Do you want to be the sole author of your made-up life? Can you be the sole author, or are you not recognizing the many authors? So, as an experiment, recognizing the many authors, we, as the story, you know, why on the sound of the bell do you put on your robe when the world is vast and wide? Because the world is vast and wide we do something particular In the midst of many concurrent causes If it's just one cause it's rather hopeless, you know, if you may be guilty or contaminated but in a world of many causes There are many ways to help each other and to help yourself So, the first point I'm making here is that this sense of finding past, present and future, ice in the fire, actually on you, intimately to affirm it. You know, as we say, if sage is a sage, if you are already a sage, not an ordinary person, you're practicing Buddhism, but you're also a Buddha, ordinary person and Buddha. Everyone has Buddha nature, we say. Actually, it's just

[33:19]

statement to make you realize something. It's not so accurate statement, everyone has what? Buddha nature, some object? Not so. But what Aereo means by only he who affirms it can be intimate with it, it means you have to be able to act. Okay, if everyone has Buddha nature, I'm already a Buddha, can you treat each person you meet as Buddha? Can you affirm your practice in this way? Can you actually realize, I am sage with sage's past, present and future? So this first point again is, the intimacy of space, not as some philosophical concept, but as our unlimited contact with beings, human beings, animal beings, rock beings. It means not just the words but the space between the words, the emptiness, form and emptiness, absolute and relative. So first stage of practice we try to recognize absolute.

[34:51]

not just caught in our mundane world. Second stage, we try to recognise absolute on relative. And third, relative and absolute are identical. So, again, first I'm emphasising realm of practice is like this, not something philosophical, something warm and intimate and detailed. by this you will be able to enter primary consciousness. If you have some problem in this realm, especially, not a problem you can work on but a fixed idea, it's this way, then you cannot enter primary consciousness. Now, the last point is Zazen. When we sit Zazen

[35:52]

Usually to bring your body and mind, breath and mind together, we count our breaths, count our exhales. And as you well know, eventually you can't count anymore because secondary consciousness takes over. For a while you have a thin layer of controlled consciousness by which you can force yourself to follow your counting. One, two, three, four, one, two, three, four. But after a while, you find there's a sea of stuff underneath that, and it just, you know, treats your counting as so much driftwood, and washes it this way and that way. And you can't count, you sort of are grabbing at that driftwood, the waves are taking it off, and you don't know what's going on really. So you just sit. You give up in a way, a kind of hopelessness. Here I am in the midst of a sea. But then, after a while, secondary consciousness is very sleepy consciousness too. Usually when you're sleeping in satsang it means you're shifting and

[37:28]

overtaken, overcome by secondary consciousness, and you're involved in that kind of realm. So third stage in this kind of description of zazen, you find by a real effort you can come back to counting your breathing, dropping secondary consciousness entirely, or secondary consciousness one with your counting. And even counting is automatic or breathing is automatic. Secondary consciousness is way down on the ground or something like that. And you're not thinking anymore. This is a non-discriminating consciousness, very alert, very awake, very observant, takes tremendous amount of energy to get into it, but once you're into it, no energy is required, except your likes and dislikes, your desires, a little wave of secondary consciousness comes up and your desires, hmm, then you're gone into it, you know, sloshing about.

[38:55]

waiting, signaling for a plane, lighting flares. But if you now, because of your practice of friendliness and knowing your greed, hate and delusion, you're not so caught by desires for secondary the evolvement of secondary consciousness. In primary consciousness like this, this is what Aereo means, seeing ice and fire, past, present and future, or many causes or mutual aid. These are all ways of talking about the reality of primary consciousness. Non-discriminating consciousness. which as Hui Hai says, dwells on non-dwelling. Where does the mind dwell? On non-dwelling. So from this point of view you don't have the con-man consciousness of self-consciousness or being observant

[40:21]

in the midst of and controlling impressions or something like that. That idea can only occur in secondary consciousness. Even the idea of spontaneous can only occur in secondary consciousness. In primary consciousness, your consciousness arises from many causes. And the observer is just one of the many causes and not a controller. Dogen says something like, to study yourself is to study Buddhism. To study Buddhism is to forget yourself. To forget yourself is to be enlightened or identified by all things, dropping mind and body and mind and body of others, and this no-trace continues endlessly. is to be identified or enlightened by all things. This means primary consciousness. Not past, present and future. Not a question of before and after. Enlightened or not enlightened. Enlightenment and practice are one. Enlightenment and what you are doing are one. Maybe it's baby's consciousness again.

[41:47]

You have to see through your secondary consciousness the delusions or illusions of your secondary consciousness. You have to have enough taste of primary consciousness or belief or faith to recognize its possibility. And then the single-minded effort to realize primary consciousness. If you sort of want to realize it to help out the improvement and realization of secondary consciousness, you want get anywhere. If you have some permanent idea or impermanent idea, idea of permanence and impermanence, you won't get anywhere. If you're depending on Zazen, if you're depending on Buddhism or me or anything, you won't get anywhere. This is made-up life, made-up Buddhism. You do it. by finding out what you do in a made-up life. This particular bead

[43:01]

Om. Enlightenment is a possession. You are not a possession. How can we recognize together this primary consciousness which doesn't have before and after?

[45:35]

Which is not, right now, far from you. Which I share with you, you share with me. and Chimon, Geryo, Sepo, Sekito, Dogen, all devoted their entire existence to the essence of this identification or intimacy or consciousness, to give birth for you. Again, awareness, primary consciousness. And as you can tell by these stories, they're very fresh, they're not in 10th century, they're right today. We know it. They're sitting here with us.

[47:11]

don't think they're very far away. Their particular bead is gone, but the primary consciousness they were talking about is right here, elevating One last story Timon was asked by a monk What is wisdom or prajna or enlightenment and he said an oyster is enclosing a bright pearl or bright moon. This is, of course, for Zen tradition, this idea of water and the moonlight or enlightenment. Shines on the water, doesn't break the surface, penetrates the water. Shines from every puddle or octopus caught in glass jar under the ocean sea, the moon.

[48:45]

So, Chimon says, oyster closing a bright pearl. And in India, China and Japan, they don't see the moon, the man in the moon, they see a rabbit on the moon. Have you all seen the rabbit on the moon? There'll be a full moon in a few days. You look, off to the right there's two ears, and then the rabbit sitting there, and in Japan they say he's pounding rice. The monk asked again, what is the function of wisdom or prajna or enlightenment? How does it function? And he said, a rabbit became pregnant by the moon. Thank you.

[49:52]

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