Good morning. The 102. The 102. Lee, the mountain recluse, stays the night on our boat. This is a poem, a Chinese poem, by Po Zhuri, 722 to 846, as translated by David Hitton, who also, David Hitton is the author of a wonderful book called Hunger Mountain. If you have ever a chance to read it, I hope you do. He translates Chinese poetry.

[01:01]

He's won many awards. for his translations. Here's one of them. Lee, the mountain recluse, stays the night on our boat. It's dusk. My boat, such tranquil silence, mist rising over waters deep and still. And to welcome a guest for the night, there's evening wine and autumn qiyin. A master at the gate of way, my visitor arrives... from exalted mountain peaks. Lofty, cloud-swept face raised all delight, heart all sage, clarity, spacious and free. Our thoughts begin where words end, refining dark enigma depths. We gaze quiet mystery into each other and smile, sharing the mind that's forgotten. So from there, at the summit of the mystic peak, we once again dive into the weeds.

[02:11]

Verse 27 through 30 of Vasubandhu's 30 verses on consciousness only. 27. By conceiving that you put before you to be projection only, you do not rest in just this. By conceiving what you put before you to be projection only, you do not rest in just this. 28. When consciousness does not perceive any object, then it rests in projection only. When there is nothing to grasp, there is no grasping. 29. Without thought, without conception, this is the bodhisattva's supramundane awareness, the overturning of the root, the ending of the two barriers, the barriers of afflictive emotions and the barrier of delusion.

[03:18]

Number 30. It is the inconceivable, wholesome, unstained, constant realm. the blissful body of liberation, the Dharma body of the great sage. And then there we are back up again at the summit of the mystic peak. So I imagine most of you are familiar with the story of the Buddha's birth, in particular the part where he stands up, takes seven silver steps to the north, and looks all around. Then he points down to the earth with one hand, points up to the sky with the other, and says, Between heaven and earth, I alone am the world honored one. When his proud father, the king, arrives, he is overjoyed and names his son Prince Siddhartha, meaning the one who reaches his goal. And so he did. But unfortunately, it's not the one that his father had in mind for him.

[04:21]

So these amazing first words that the baby spoke shortly after his birth, I alone am the world-honored one, could be taken to mean that he was an overly confident little boy. It's hard to imagine that he alone was the only world-honored one at that time. And yet, that is the kind of thing that children sometimes say that make their parents rather proud. just as my daughter, Sabrina, did at the end of her first day of preschool. Grace and I needed to pick her up a little early, and so as we were heading out the door of the classroom, Sabrina turned back around and said with a little wave, goodbye, my children. And I remember thinking, who are you? Yeah. I still wonder. So perhaps the meaning of these statements by young children comes from an inborn, enlightened perspective in which the self, I, and the world, all of you, are not in any way separate.

[05:32]

And it strikes me how the true study of mind only may have begun for all of us at the time of our birth. As we exited the warm and cozy womb, are we inside or are we outside? And of what? at which point I think all of us just started to cry. It's the elaboration of the baby Buddha's remarkable knowing that is woven through the entirety of the words he went on to speak as a grown man, words which have been endlessly talked about and written about by the ones who've come along behind him. In the spirit of the baby's first teaching, today, the last day of our Sashin and nearly of our practice period, the 102, I am going to talk about the final four of Vasubandhu's 30 verses. And it's in these verses that Vasubandhu skillfully guides the practitioner toward an ever more refined notion of what enlightenment might truly be like, what it means to be the world-honored one.

[06:40]

In other words, the world honored as one. The reason, as the Buddha demonstrated by how he lived, that we are here on this earth in the first place. When Siddhartha grew up, awakened, and was willing to speak once again, what he taught, according to the Mahayana, was the perfection of wisdom, the lovely and the holy wisdom. The purpose of that teaching was to help us to see through the process of the mind's conceptual constructions, how the mind continually fantasizes about reality, including the very concepts that the Buddha himself used to explain his own teaching. Attainment, nirvana, unwholesome and wholesome, practice, realization, emptiness, and perfect wisdom. No, no, no mind, no path, no Buddha.

[07:44]

From the perspective of perfect wisdom, all notions are seen for what they ultimately are. They are mere concepts, and therefore empty of any inherent existence. In other words, the idea that anything exists separately, in and by itself... is simply a trick that our minds and our language, the horses that we're riding, are playing on us. This point is illustrated in the story of the magician at the crossroads from the seminal Yogacara text called the Samdhi Nirmaljana Sutra, a word you have to practice a lot in order to say, meaning untying or unraveling the knots, and subtitled... Essential Questions and Direct Answers for Realizing Enlightenment. Essential Questions and Direct Answers for Realizing Enlightenment. This is the book to have. In this story, the Buddha is speaking to the congregation.

[08:48]

Suppose a magician standing at the crossroads of four great roads after gathering grasses, leaves, twigs... pebbles and stones displays various magical forms such as a herd of elephants, a cavalry, chariots, and infantry. When the sentient beings who have foolish natures or confused natures see this herd of elephants, cavalry, chariots, and so forth, and do not realize that these are leaves, pebbles, and twigs, they think these things exist. Having thought this, they emphatically apprehend and emphatically assert in accordance with how they see and hear, making the conventional designation, this is true and other explanations are false. Those sentient beings, on the other hand, who do not have foolish natures, who have natures endowed with wisdom, see and hear these things, this herd of elephants, cavalry, and so forth,

[09:52]

and yet recognize that these are grasses, pebbles, and twigs, and therefore make conventional designations that these things do not exist, that only a perception of them has occurred, and therefore that these perceptions are of a magical illusion, mere appearances, and moreover that these mere appearances do exist, mind only, concepts only. So although the magician and the wise person see what the foolish person sees and what all of us see, elephants, cavalry, and so on, they know that it is a trick, that what appears is like a dream, an echo, like space, a magical spell, like the moon in the water, a shadow, a mirage, or a fairy castle. And they know that these magical illusions are there, but also not there.

[10:55]

And if they reach out for them, they will find nothing whatsoever to take a hold of, nothing outside of their own vivid imaginations. Emptiness teachings are by their very design, continuously pulling our conceptual rugs out from under us. As Professor Robert Scharf from UC Berkeley said to us in a class, The ultimate truth is that there is simply no such thing as ultimate reality to which the ultimate truth can be applied. And therefore, the ultimate truth is there is no ultimate truth. And the sooner we let go of thinking otherwise, we arrive at the resolution of our longing and perfect peace. In the words of Ajahn Chah, If you let go a little, you will have a little peace. If you let go a lot, you will have a lot of peace. If you let go completely, you will have perfect peace.

[11:59]

The Mahayana is basically, as Reb calls it, an anti-reification campaign. Reification meaning treating mental constructs as if they are material things, real things, as in mistaking the finger, pointing finger for the moon. In other words, mistaking a word such as moon for what it's referring to for that glowy thing up there in the sky. And even saying that is simply using more words and it is not the glowy thing up there in the sky which words can simply not reach. We can, however, go outside, stand together and look up in awe. again as illustrated in the first case in the Book of Serenity. One day the World Honored One ascended the seat. Manjushri struck the gavel and said, Clearly observe the dharma of the king of the dharma.

[13:02]

The dharma of the king of the dharma is thus. The World Honored One then got down from the seat. And then the case goes on to say, Completely embodying the ten epithets of Buddhas, appearing in the world as the sole honored one, raising the eyebrows, becoming animated. In the teaching shops, this is called ascending the seat. And in the meditation forest, they call this going up in the hall. Before you people come to this teaching hall, and before I leave my room, when will you, when will we attain realization? In other words, who or what are we waiting for? That guy who just got down from the seat, well, it's going to be a very long wait in that case. Vanished in an instant and emptied in a flash. Please, honored followers of Zen, long accustomed to groping for the elephant, do not be suspicious of the true dragon, the one that is living inside your head.

[14:09]

The verse to this case. The unique breeze of reality. Do you see? Continuously, creation runs her loom and shuttle, weaving the ancient brocade, incorporating the forms of spring. But nothing can be done about Manjushri's leaking. So even though the Buddha had said and demonstrated that his realization was inconceivable, like don't point, he did not say that it was inaccessible, and therefore he taught to his disciples a pathway made from words leading to the true nature of their minds, to the true dragon, that by its very nature is profound, peaceful, free from reference points, luminous and unconditioned. A very peaceful dragon. Basu Bandhu contributes his own wisdom to the anti-reification campaign through his writing of the 30 verses, the last four of which, as I said, I'm going to talk about this morning, beginning with a cautionary note in verse 27.

[15:20]

By conceiving what you put before you to be projection only, you do not rest in just this. By conceiving that what you put before you to be projection only, you do not rest in just this. In other words, thinking that something before you, as in over there, is projection only, a mere concept, is not realization itself. Even those magical illusions of elephants, chariots, and so forth, when they are put before us as if outside of ourselves, is not the end or the final freedom. But it is a good step along the way. Any so-called realization, imagining that what appears is a projection only, is itself a projection only, as in a house of mirrors, I see you. This is the self-other split that divides the sky in two.

[16:25]

Therefore, whatever we imagine has become free of imagination is not enlightenment either. Enlightenment does not really care and is not bothered by whether we imagine it or not. The great master of delusion, Dogenzenji, adds his own poetic insight to this conversation, one that we're familiar with, as to what enlightenment is and to what it isn't. Enlightenment is like the moon reflected in the water. The moon does not get wet, nor is the water broken. Although its light is wide and great, the moon is reflected even in a puddle an inch wide. The whole moon and the entire sky are reflected in dew drops on the grass or even in one drop of water. Enlightenment does not divide you, does not separate you, does not split you in half, just as the moon does not break the water. You cannot hinder enlightenment, just as a drop of water does not hinder the moon in the sky.

[17:29]

The depth of the drop... is the height of the moon. Each reflection, however long or short its duration, manifests the vastness of the dewdrop and realizes the limitlessness of the moonlight in the sky. So what Vasubandhu seems to be encouraging us to do in verse 27 is to find a way to rest in just this, just this as in whatever is happening right now. without the addition of a judgment or an evaluation or even such an elevated understanding as projection only. The emphasis here is on the practice of just resting, as in settling down, surrendering, allowing, and welcoming without complaint. The fact that everything is projection only doesn't take away from the fact that right now, in this very moment, Just this is it.

[18:30]

The mountain is green, the flowers are red, and the leaves have fallen. So take your rest there, freed from the persistent craving to know what this is, to like what it is, or to hate what it is, or to own what it is forever. You know, gotta go. As Master Shito said, let go of hundreds of years and relax. Let go of all of that conditioning, training, and talent as if you were nobody special at all, a cotton-robed monk, like a dewdrop on the grass, like the moon reflected in the water. In verse 28, Vasubandhu takes us one step further toward the view that Yogacarans have of how enlightenment occurs. When consciousness does not perceive any object, then it rests in projection only. When there is nothing to grasp, there is no grasping.

[19:33]

At the center of the mind-only teaching is an experience in which there is nothing other, a moment where the self-making aspect of our mind, manas, the lover, the seventh of the eight consciousnesses, is no longer dividing experience into self and other. a moment in which self-centering has ceased. Such a moment is a profound and total alteration in how consciousness works. When there are no longer things outside of yourself, there is no longer the drive to manipulate, reject, or acquire them. As Dogen puts it in the Genjo Koan, to carry the self forward and experience myriad things as outside of yourself is delusion, that myriad things come forth and experience themselves as yourself is awakening is the world honored one and he goes on to say to forget the self to de-center from the self is to be actualized by myriad things when actualized by myriad things your body and mind as well as the bodies and minds of others drop away no trace of realization remains and this no trace

[20:54]

continues endlessly. Although it is not stated by Vasubandhu directly in the 30 verses, it is stated throughout the Buddhist tradition that ascension being does not reach Buddhahood without training the mind to manifest beneficial rather than afflictive emotions. A good sign of how a person is doing in their practice on the cushion is how they see themselves doing in the dining room or on their work crew, and of course how the so-called others see them as well. Are those edges smoothing out or are they getting sharpened? As we continuously cultivate humility, honesty, kindness, energy, generosity, and a wise restraint, our minds begin to soften into their natural capacity to rest in justice, in projection only, just as baby gorillas naturally do on the backs of their mothers, as I once saw at the Brooklyn Zoo.

[21:58]

I also saw that when the baby gorilla fell off her back, she grabbed it by the arm and threw it back up there. And I thought, is that good parenting? Anyway, questionable. Even as our own habitual reactivity to the pathological emotions of greed, hate, and delusion fade away, in any given moment afflictions may arise in the minds of those so-called other people, at which time the mind of the bodhisattva that has forgotten to see the world through the self and others split simply hears a cry for assistance and enlists their best effort toward a beneficial response to the appearance of suffering in the world. as it says in the Yogacara text, like someone adjusting a pillow in the night. Well, how's that? Is that better? Would you like some soup? I remember myself as a newly trained hospice volunteer being sent to meet with a young man who was dying of AIDS.

[23:01]

I was very frightened going into his room because I didn't know what to do or what to say or how to help. I had never been with anyone who was dying. And even though I had often asked myself about Zen training, like training for what, you know, practicing for what, as I discovered on that day, it was for that. For the real not knowing. So I sat down and I watched him sleeping for a while. His name was James. When he woke up, He turned toward me and he said, can I have some water? Yes, I said. And I leaned over with his cup and straw. And there it was, not so complicated, really. His next question was even easier. Can I have the channel changer? I said, of course. And then a while later, he told me that he had to relieve his bowels.

[24:07]

Well, that's not what he said, but that's what he meant. Having already been trained in how to help with that, I was ready for him. And that was a very good day of Zen training for me. Bye-bye, James. I was just flooded with all those people. Those were such terrible years. Beautiful young people. This Yogacara model of enlightenment with the self-centering out of the way offers us an approach to a world devoted to kindness, beneficial action, and beneficial speech.

[25:26]

If I am angry, then my devotion is to first illuminating and then protecting the imaginary cause, which is you. If you are angry, your devotion is first to illuminating and then protecting the imaginary cause, which is me. In this way, we can live together in safety and in the fullness of our effective lives, our decentered feelings. Resting in the way things are, the way they appear, includes resting in the fruits of our karmic conditioning. The joy and sorrow, the wellness and dis-ease, the cruelty and the kindness, the wisdom and compassion, that all arrive on time, right here and right now, with no other. Verse 29. Without thought, without conception, this is the supermundane awareness, the overturning of the root, the ending of the two barriers.

[26:33]

Without thought, without conception, this is the supermundane awareness, the overturning of the root, the ending of the two barriers. So this knowing without conception is the kind of knowing that sees no object, no other. I alone am the world honored one. I am the world honored as one. This undivided knowing doesn't need a self. It doesn't need an eye to know what it knows. It just knows because what it knows is always right now and that whatever it interacts with, it already includes. Just as it says in the song of the Jewel Mira Samadhi, you are not it. In truth, it is you. And thank you very much. I have no complaint. Zazen says, Our zazen is reality itself, but oddly enough, it has to be practiced in order to be realized.

[27:36]

Such realization leaps clear of the many, of the one, of the real and the not real, of the thinking and not thinking, of the being and not being, of sitting or standing or walking or lying around. This reality is the non-dual relationship of delusion to realization, of birth to to death of Buddha's two sentient beings. Therefore, the final verses of Vasubandhu's masterwork are written in the language of non-duality, the language of inconceivability. And how, we may ask, is inconceivability a good thing? Because it cannot be grasped. When there is nothing to grasp, there is no ground for being selfish, hateful, lustful, ignorant or wise, just like Hote, the future Buddha, covered in ashes and playing like a fool, like an idiot, with the village children, a silly old geezer.

[28:39]

As Ben Conley says about this verse 29, in the realization of selflessness, the delusion that there is an I apart from thusness... apart from the infinity of unknowable conditions, apart from those we might love, hate, try to control or ignore, evaporates like steam from a mirror. In the final, verse 30, Vasubandhu states, it is the inconceivable, wholesome, unstained, constant realm, the blissful body of liberation, the Dharma body of the great sage. In this final teaching, the goal of our practice and accomplishment of the path has come full circle to the very human body in which each of us is sitting right now. I alone really am the world honored and honoring one, as are each of you. Great round mirror wisdom gazing into great round mirror wisdom.

[29:47]

This is Indra's net. Is everybody here? I think so. I see you. And that makes me happy right now. Since nothing is separate from Buddha, which was Buddha's own realization at the time of his birth, then everything is Buddha. The Buddha's body of bliss is the body that has come to this realization. as he himself said, it is just within this fathom-long body, it's about six feet, with its perception and intellect, that I declare that there is the cosmos, the origination of the cosmos, the cessation of the cosmos, and the path of practice leading to the cessation of the cosmos, as not separate from me.

[30:48]

So all this body really needs to do is to slow down to sit down, to breathe, and listen, being, after all, the Buddha's body, the Buddha's teaching, and the world, giver, receiver, and gift. So here's the last word from one of the greatest magicians of all time. Act 4, Scene 1, The Tempest. Our revels now are ended. These are actors, as I foretold you, were all spirits and are melted into air, into thin air. And like the baseless fabric of this vision, the cloud-capped towers, the gorgeous palaces, the solemn temples, the great globe itself, yea, all which it inherit shall dissolve. And like this insubstantial pageant faded,

[31:50]

Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff as dreams are made on and our little life is rounded with a sleep. The greatest magician of all time, Prospero. So thank you all so very, very much for spending this time together and for your kind attention these last few days. May you all and all beings be happy and joyous and safe to the rest of your days. And thank you so much. Gotta go. Thank you for listening to this podcast offered by the San Francisco Zen Center. Our Dharma talks are offered free of charge, and this is made possible by the donations we receive. Your financial support helps us to continue to offer the Dharma. For more information, visit sfcc.org. and click Giving.

[32:47]

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