Bodhidharma went to China and found his own room. There's some expression like that in Buddhism. And we are either preparing the room for Bodhidharma or we'll make this place, our own room. And maybe Bodhidharma has already come to America. I don't mean some particular person, but Bodhidharma didn't come to China either. There's another famous expression

[01:05]

Bodhidharma didn't come to China and the fifth patriarch, excuse me, the second patriarch, his disciple, didn't go to India. It means that Buddhism is just where we are. Bodhidharma came to China just for that purpose, to demonstrate that transmission is outside the scriptures. And if you rightly understand the practice, Bodhidharma is here in America. Purpose of this kind of story, as I said in an earlier talk, is not just to awaken that similarity in yourself or to awaken a similar kind of experience in yourself of coming and going or recognition or finding your own place or home. But for, particularly for a priest, it means to

[02:36]

And by that I mean I divided practice yesterday into four categories, survival or precepts, jnana or samadhi, and compassion or service, and a fourth, lineage. So by priest I mean someone who is practicing also the fourth. For such a person, a koan or Zen story means Bodhidharma and the Emperor's experience should be your own experience. And this story is very well known. I think anybody who's even read a few paragraphs about Zen must know the story of Bodhidharma and the Emperor. But indirectly and directly for a few weeks I've been talking about it and maybe more specifically today I want to talk about it and tomorrow probably. In this story

[04:05]

we can find almost all of Zen Buddhism. You have to understand a story like this to make it your own experience or beyond that for you to be Bodhidharma's experience. You have to be exposed to it in great detail over quite a long period of time. In other words, you have to be familiar with the story. And it comes back to you, you know, over some years. And you also have to be able to look at yourself with great perception or clarity. and the story too. As we were talking yesterday, it's important to be able to see the origin of things, the origin of a particular mood, of your headache, of your change in attitude, of your anger.

[05:35]

Just when did it occur, and how did it occur, and what are its constituents at the present? And also, how it's originating now. You know, it's too psychological to say, oh, it originated in the past. So when I say you look at how it's originating, how, say, a headache originated. If you catch a headache, at the moment you feel something, you can stop a headache. But after you're well into the headache and you begin to notice your head is hurting, and you haven't noticed when it started, it doesn't mean you have to abandon all hope and go, because you missed the very beginning. Anyway, our influence of Western psychology is more like that. Oh, we missed the beginning. You'll have to go back through psychoanalysis to that moment. But beginning is right now. The headache re-begins each moment. So in Buddhism we say there's no origin, no beginning, which is true.

[07:09]

in a relative sense there's a beginning, but to look for a beginning is to look for something unreal. It's like I often speak about the origin of words, the root of words like gravity and guru, but That doesn't mean the origin is realer. We shouldn't get caught at that as being more real. The origin is right now. At one time, the origin you're looking up was a word someone used. So right now, the way you use a word is its origin. And maybe hundreds of years from now people will study how you used words. Or you shouldn't look in the scriptures for your practice. Sutras actually describe what you're doing, not the other way around. This moment right now will be nothing but a dusty brown photograph.

[08:33]

very soon. Even Zen Center, quite a new place, we look at pictures from Tassajara in 1969. Oh, doesn't everyone look quaint? Staring out, already rather strange looking, but this moment right now is just as strange, you know. If your attention is on this, you know, You're living in a dusty brown photograph. So origin isn't even now, it's coming. Origin is always right here in the surface. your practice would be hopeless if you had to hunt in the past. Your chance is right now. Everything can be dissolved right now. Anyway, this was Bodhidharma's suggestion.

[10:03]

his way of practicing. Just to be able to enter into things right now. So each person's experience is your experience. In introducing the main story, Engo said, fire, smoke beyond the mountain. Know there is fire. you know, or where there's fire, where there's smoke there's fire. There's a poem quite similar to this written by Empress, I forget her name now, Saiko or something. Anyway, she studied with a famous Zen teacher who came from China.

[11:32]

And the verse she offered to express her understanding was much appreciated in China and Japan. And I think, if I remember correctly, it was, the clouds beyond the mountain are from the fire we have lit here. Anyway, Engo says, behind the mountain smoke, you should know there must be fire. Beyond the fence horns, you should know there must be an ox there. To lift one and know three,

[12:41]

or seven, or to hear one and know three things, or to be able to judge the weight of something just by one look, heavy or light. These are tea and rice matters for Zen monks. These should be tea and rice matters for Zen monks. Then introductory word goes on and says, yet when it comes to

[13:59]

detachment or when it comes to stepping in and out of the flow of things, you know, or another expression is jumping off the flagpole. grasping and granting way, means cutting off grasping or giving granting or Nagarjuna's direct and, how is that translated, direct and expedient ways of teaching. One way is to say you have a self, everything exists. you are Buddha. Other way is to say, no self, no Buddha, you're not Buddha. Anyway, these were two ways that were popular ways of teaching at that time of Setso and Engo. Setso, the compiler of the Blue Cliff Records,

[15:23]

And anyway, contrary and regular. West rises and east rises and west sinks. Verticals and horizontals. Contrary and regular, something like that. And what kind of a person is this? what kind of a person is this? So a question this introductory word is asking is this introductory word describes what kind of practice and also it describes how Zen teachers function, what is the activity of a enlightened person. So first part, behind the mountain to see smoke, to know three by one, etc., is what I've been talking about, you know, finding the traces of the ox.

[17:05]

noticing before you didn't know where you were standing, you know, in swamp or in mountain, you didn't see anything except your own fuzziness. But finding the traces of the ox, suddenly you see green mountain, feel the cool breeze. And Dogen says, ah, everywhere you will feel the cool breeze of practice. So this part is talking about not only seeing the interrelatedness of things, You know, but being able to act in it, knowing that behind the fence, because you see horns, there's an ox. It means present, this present moment isn't a place to be safe in or to accumulate something in. Protect yourself by the experience of the past and the expectation of the future.

[18:32]

but rather the present is your ... there's no way to describe it if I call it the present, you know, but maybe point of departure, but it's where you go out from, where you know the interconnectedness of things, where you know what Dogen meant by when we offer incense with this hand, we don't wipe ourselves with this hand. And he's not talking so much whether literally you do that or not, but that your left hand and right hand and right hand in this moment and right hand in the future know what they are doing. So this moment, you know, includes everything. This is one of the mysterious gates of the Avantamsaka Sutra, how to act on this moment so that you know your whole life is there. When you're older you can look at your life and say, ah yes, everything I've done was useful.

[19:57]

When you were doing it, you thought, oh, this is a ridiculous waste of time, I should be doing something. But years later, you see, each thing you did had some value. But to know that in this present moment, when you act, you know, because you don't have a cloudy or distracted mind, is what Engo is talking about. to hold up one and know three is a Confucian idea, Confucian expression, but used by Buddhism. So, up to this point, he's describing practice, Zen practice. But he's also, at the end he says, what kind of person is this? He's also describing the emperor.

[21:07]

here in this beginning part he's describing the emperor because the emperor was pretty good he's saying emperor is pretty good this emperor who built many temples and monasteries and had sutras translated and prepared the room for bodhidharma and he knew maybe that what heard three things when you lifted one or heard one and he saw the far-reaching effect of our minute actions like translating sutra or chanting sutra but he was too concerned with the merit of it

[22:09]

with the value of it. This is a far-reaching effect of my actions. I know what's behind the mountain, without being there. So, next line is, this must be ordinary tea and rice matter. You know, tea and rice, of course, are simplest food for Chinese person. This must be just tea and rice matter for Zen monk. And this sentence goes both ways. Next part is describing bodhidharma. And first part that I just mentioned is describing emperor. And as you see, in a story like this, every word is exactly intended, every line. In fact, every line may refer to something else.

[23:40]

And you can't tell by ordinary reading that what each line is talking about unless you can make the story your own experience. There's no way just by reading it to see that first part is about emperor and second part is about Bodhidharma. Unless it's your own experience and you can see, ah, there's shift here. You experience the shift in yourself and you just feel, oh now it's, obviously he's now talking, this is Bodhidharma he's describing. So it means, you know, how to not be out to lunch, you know, how to work on a koan, how to work on your own practice or life problem. Sometimes I've given some of you something to work on. And actually you do okay. Not by your effort though, so much. You work on it, sort of, because it works on you. You know, I suggest you should, maybe, I don't suggest it directly sometimes, but I suggest something.

[25:06]

And sometimes even directly I suggest something. One or two months later either the person has forgotten or they haven't really been able to try, you know. But then sometimes two years later or a year and a half later it came up again and it took them over and they didn't know why. But anyway, it's maybe a little better to, from the beginning, be able to bring something into your attention. As anything, you know, that you want to resolve, you feel the need to resolve, the more you can bring it into focus and make it the present subject of your consciousness, how deeply you can experience it, seeing it from all sides, back and front and top and in between.

[26:18]

So at first, because our consciousness is so distracted, to actually have a full mind and body experience of each word of a story like this may take you one year or two years, because one word will come, one feeling or insight will be clear, and then you'll read the rest. And then when you come back to it, suddenly some other phrase will you physically experience, you know. But Zen stories will be clear to you when you can look at the story, experience the story continuously without having to come back to it. So this phrase, it should be a tea and rice matter for Zen monk, for robed monk, means don't get caught by the merit of your actions and also don't get caught by this story, by what Suzuki Yoshi used to say. He said, Zen teacher's answer is ornament of Zen.

[27:59]

you know, some interesting answer like, who are you? I don't know, you know. Sukhirishi described that as some ornament of Zen, and he was rather critical of that kind of ornament. Answer should be quite natural, not some zenny answer, I don't know, you know, just actually, I don't know, like you didn't you really don't know and don't know anything else to say. It was interesting to see Suzuki Roshi do tea ceremony, which he knew pretty well, not expert, but he knew certainly basic parts quite well. And when he did it, it was, everything he did was like he just thought of it, you know, oh, I'm supposed to pick this up, and do it. But when T. Teacher, who was here in America at that time, did it, obviously T. Teacher had thought of it a long time before and was just, oh now I dip down deep because water is such and such and lift from the bottom and it was following a pattern. But with Suzuki Roshi you didn't know what he would do exactly. Once he had it in his hand you weren't sure whether he was going to bang the bowl or

[29:30]

What, you know? Sukhiro, she always said, Zen master should be quite natural, should be really just ordinary person, completely ordinary. If you're completely ordinary, you know, maybe that's Zen. Out some idea of being a somebody, at all. Anyway, so this story, we must tell this story, but don't get caught by Bodhidharma's interesting answers. It must be just tea and rice matter for a real Zen priest or student. So the second part is, contrary and regular, positive way of teaching and negative way of teaching. To be able to enter the stream and leave the stream

[30:51]

verticals and horizontals. Again, I talked about that the other day, Bodhidharma saying, eyes are horizontal, nose is vertical. Or in our own practice, how everything isn't relative, you know, only relatively relative, not absolutely relative. And we find there's an up and down. find our own gravity, own experience, you know, as apple itself is gravity, not following some law. There was a woman at lecture Sunday at Green Gulch, this is just an aside, And she turned out she couldn't hear anything. The only one word that came through to her was the word apple. And after a lecture she came up to me and said, what did you say about apples? She can hear up close but she couldn't hear from the middle of the room. Interesting one word.

[32:27]

Anyway, so this part of the introductory word is pointing out detachment, but real detachment, detachment that includes ordinary detachment and includes attachment. So you can enter the stream or leave the stream. So Bodhidharma came from the West, you know, or came to the West, or came from the East, or came to the East, or didn't leave. India. Depending on your point of view, this finger is short compared to this one and long compared to this one, you know. And yet, not just relative, truth which is not the opposite of falsehood is you know, the purpose of our practice. So this story is about how do you realize that truth which is not the opposite of falsehood? How do you practice with that which is unknowable? How do you transcend Buddha to attain Buddha?

[34:09]

How do you know that just what is before you is Buddha? So this story is, you know, pointing out the difference between Zen and the teaching school, which looked to the scriptures, you know, for the way to practice. And it's trying to suggest to you how we study Buddhism and what is practice outside the scriptures. Not getting caught by some program from your insights. Each moment to be able to do just what occurs to you.

[35:38]

and then to be able to trust that which occurs to you. What kind of state of mind is that which you can trust whatever happens? In this way you can practice without relying on anything. and Bodhidharma, Buddhism, doesn't come or go, you know? Apple itself is gravity, you yourself are Buddha. So you realize in your own activity, not by practicing zazen. Zazen just helps you to realize in your own activity. There is no other world, you know. Something else, anything else is just seeking outside yourself. And story about emperor, you know.

[37:15]

is also Emperor didn't know who Bodhidharma was. When Bodhidharma came he said, I don't know, which also meant you don't know. And Emperor didn't know who Bodhidharma was. And the reason was he was looking for a saint. He was looking for a a program, he was looking for something special about this man, he was looking for a teacher, but not just tea and from the point of view of tea and rice matters, he wanted some merit, some special value, some magical thing to happen. After the emperor asked Bodhidharma, you know, told Bodhidharma about all the temples he'd built and monasteries and sutras translated, and said to him, you know, what do you think the merit of doing this is? And Bodhidharma said, no merit. So,

[38:40]

emperor asked a very interesting question next he said well then what is buddha nature or what is holy reality what is essence what is absolute truth you know he was looking for bodhidharma to be some holy man and bodhidharma said no holiness no holy reality. Like layman pangs, just carrying water and chopping wood is great function and supernatural activity. But the emperor didn't understand what he meant, you know, this transmission outside the scriptures, that the emperor himself was Bodhidharma. But in each case, Bodhidharma is not abandoning the emperor.

[40:09]

or not criticizing the emperor. He is giving him, you know, teaching each time, doing his best. And, in fact, emperor's minister, who was somewhat more alert, said, that is Avalokiteshvara and he just brought you the great heart, mind seal of enlightenment. Actually, Bodhidharma transmitted to the emperor. And each thing he did, he gave him complete teaching. And finally, you know, you know, when he asked again, you know, not understanding, I don't know, he, Bodhidharma went away, disappeared. you know, to make this statement stronger. Still, Emperor didn't understand.

[41:22]

So, in your own practice, you know, you don't have to worry about India or China or Japan, or about whether Suzuki Roshi is here or not. You are here. And if you can fully acknowledge that, there's no problem. without any delusive mind wandering about. Just to acknowledge, you know, what's before you, as that poem about carrying water and chopping wood begins, just doing what comes to hand

[43:32]

In that kind of space, you know, the space where you, as the Lotus Sutras says, the bodhisattva who finds no rules, no program, that is his realm of practice. If you can have that Just what comes before you, your realm of practice, you'll have no trouble. You'll understand everything as it occurs, as each moment will be an opportunity to understand things without any reservation, without any doubt. giving up, comparing. Our practice is one, you know, your practice and your practice.

[44:59]

And if you can do it, I can do it. And if I can do it, you can do it. Your realization will be my realization. Your joy and happiness will be my joy and happiness. So, why don't you stop withholding all that joy and happiness? I'm waiting for it. Is there some question we should talk about?

[46:07]

And when I hear you say that each moment is a new opportunity, I felt the force of the It's real. whatever you do in this moment will to everyone.

[48:08]

activities too. Kira, she used to say, you either live out your karma or get free of it completely. And getting free of it completely means you live out your karma, but voluntarily. Do you understand what I mean? At each moment we are here, some railroad track has brought us here, but at this moment we are free to go any direction. And various opportunities, according to our karma, present themselves. But we quite freely take them, maybe again using my phrase, turn toward emptiness. In this way we talk about, I've tried to make the distinction between merit and karma. When you yourself accumulate the effects of your action, we call it.

[49:46]

accumulate the effects of your actions, yet your actions have effect, that's merit for everyone. They describe the Bodhisattva as he's accumulated so much merit, we can say, or he doesn't need any merit anymore, right? So he's like a fountain of gushing merit, right? Because he's always acting with 1,000 arms in every direction, and eleven heads, right? And all this merit's being produced, but he doesn't need any of it, so it gushes out, you know, all over the place. Nice idea, isn't it? Trace patterns or patterns take some time to.

[51:08]

feel a good part of the time there's no merit but there's something comes up sometimes tries to you know some i have to watch because he wants to jump out in some way or another even if it that i can see it's nonsense but And that's so. So what is your question about it? I guess there's no question. But, you know, maybe not you, but anyway we have a tendency to formulate our burden.

[52:38]

it will be like this or I'll have to do that, you know. We can, our karma, our actions leave some trace. Those traces can be used to enlighten everyone. Some opportunity, you know. If you are not possessive or acute Is it really suitable? There's no difference. So, it means you find sunrise in you. I hope so.

[54:36]

I don't know if you all understand exactly how this is one of the most important points in Buddhism. Sun comes up in you. We should know the sun from the point of view of the sun, which has no idea of coming up. Oh, it's just rolling about in the heavens, right, as they say in popular songs. It's not coming up for you. It has no idea of anything. So we should know vertical and horizontal, but we know it. It was a little complicated, what you said, but

[56:06]

I guess so, just now, that's all. But when you have greed, hate and delusion, you have to deal with greed, hate and delusion. That's true. If you know it's expedient, that's okay.

[57:11]

No, it means yes, maybe so, but also it means the feeling that you should do this and that some benefit will come from it. Actually, you don't know. It's just provisionally, now I'll do this because I have to do something. How do you not get caught in people's suffering? That's one question. How do you take people seriously is another. Why do you connect them?

[58:20]

People say, like, you can't say something if they're desiring something, like you were saying the other day, that their desire is this wonderful textbook, that their real desire is this book. But if you don't say that, then... You can't not take people seriously, right? And when you have to do something, you can't not do it because you're not yet ready. You just have to do the best you can. So I think to try to figure out

[59:41]

It was a little hard to understand exactly what you said because you spoke so low, but I will just speak in general about what you suggested to me. You can't figure out everything, you know, in your practice or what to do next. You just practically speaking have to do something each moment and be as much as possible, try to be able to experience it from several points of view. From the point of view of the person you're acting with, et cetera. And if you can't, you just practice more next time you try again. Yeah. I think

[61:27]

I want to stop so I won't answer too much, but I think when you see something in another person, it means that you yourself have it. You know, we tend to notice things in people which we are working on ourself. So a way is to work on it yourself. If you see somebody does something, an ornament, I think you said, some activity, best way is to not have that yourself, and they will then maybe not have it. That is most powerful way. And because you notice it, you must also have it. And it may not be so easy to see how, but if your resolve is deep enough, you'll be able to find out or work on it even without knowing what it is. but like Lou's climbing the mountain. Mountain is very high if we don't start or we want to get somewhere or we don't really want to do it, we actually want

[62:57]

some part way practice. But when your resolution is complete, I'll do that no matter how difficult it is, or, you know, Actual fact of this moment is you only can do certain things. That much you'll do is completely as possible. If you do that, you're standing on top of the mountain. So let's go to the Zendo and sit on top of the mountain, okay?

[63:54]

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