So good evening, everybody. Nice to see you all. I'm going to send around this little tablet here so that I can get everybody, if you're pleased, to write your name and your phone number. If you're from Green Gulch, just write Green Gulch in case of any problems like if I get sick or something and there's no class, we can call you up and let you know. And then I'll take attendance from this as well. So this is for people who know that they're going to be here for the six-week class. In other words, if you're a guest student or you're observing or something tonight, don't sign, but everybody else who attends at this time anyway, there's always contingencies and so on. But if you intend to come to the six weeks of the class, please sign your name here and your phone number. You're not from Green Gulch. And we'll just pass it around during the time that we meet. And so we're going to meet for

[01:18]

six Tuesday nights. I forgot to bring my calendar with me, so I don't know the dates, but I think it's every Tuesday night, six in a row. Except maybe, and I'm still thinking about this, you can give me some feedback after class, but on October the 1st, which I believe is, let's see, tonight's the 10th, today's the 10th, right? 17th, 24th, yeah, three weeks from tonight, there's going to be, Gary Snyder is coming to town. He's going to read Mountains and Rivers Without End, part of it, at the Herbst Theater in San Francisco. And he invited us to go to it, and you might, some of you might like to go to it as well. And the main reason that I want to go to it is he's going to perform that poem here in a performance context, not just a reading,

[02:24]

but in a performance context in February. So, and he and I are collaborating on how to construct the performance. So those of you who are performers, be alert and you can participate with us. But I would kind of like to go hear how it sounds so that I can start thinking about how to do the performance. So if we don't have class that night, we would have class the Thursday. But we can decide that in the next couple of weeks, but I'm just giving you forewarning just in case. Okay, so maybe on October 1st, we'll postpone class for two days. Otherwise, it'll be every Tuesday from now until six Tuesdays from now. And we're talking about Hokyo Zamai, Song of the Jewel, Mirror of Samadhi. And do we have copies to you? Pass those out while I'm chatting,

[03:36]

maybe just send them around the room. So everybody is going to get copies of two translations. Well, maybe if the Green Gulch people would be so kind as to not take a copy, we can give you a copy tomorrow or the next day. There are two sheets that you need to take. One is a double sheet and one is a single sheet. They're laid out alternately. Yeah, so we're going to give you tonight two different translations of the Hokyo Zamai so that you can look at it. And we'll spend the six weeks, you would think, you know, how could you possibly spend six weeks on a page and a half? But pretty easy. We'll be lucky if we discuss the whole thing and bring out the implications of it in six weeks. So usually

[04:43]

in the first class of any series, I like to kind of give an introduction, set the tone, give a kick-off to the text that we're looking at. And then after that, we plunge into it in more detail and there's more dialogue and more discussion. So don't be surprised if I rattle on tonight. I often end up doing that at the beginning, but if I do, don't think that it'll be that way every week. Because what I want to do is tell you a little bit about the context of the poem, the main thrust of it, and also a little bit about Tozan Ryokai, who is, maybe, is the author of this poem. It would be good to talk about his life and so on, so you get an idea of what, where this is

[05:43]

coming from. And I'll talk about the main point of what the poem is dealing with, and then I'll talk about the title and the first lines, and that should be a good kick-off for us. So if you are ambitious to study more than just these two pages, this is a really good book to study. I don't know how available these books are. This is a fairly old book. Yeah, it's still available? It's called The Record of Dungshan, translated by William F. Powell. And this is sort of the Dungshan translation. After Bill Powell did this, nobody else thought that they needed to do it anymore. He spent about ten years on this little book. This little book, about ten years. And I exhausted him. I don't think he's ever written another one since. This is about fifteen years old. Anyway, this is

[06:46]

really good. It's the official Record of Dungshan, and it tells you all the stories about Dungshan, and I'll talk about this, some of the early stories of Dungshan in the beginning. It also has a very nicely annotated translation of Hokyo Zamai, because the Hokyo Zamai appears in the Record of Dungshan. It says, you know, when Dungshan was blah blah, he gave to his disciples this poem which was given to him by his teachers. That's why we don't really know if he wrote it or not. They say usually that he wrote it, but the only thing we know is that in the Record of Dungshan, it says that he gave this poem to his disciples, and it was given to him by his teacher. So we don't know whether that means that literally the thing was already written and given to him, or whether it means that the general teaching was given to him and he wrote the poem. Anyway, that's where it appears. So that's a good book. And also, as far as I know, and I've consulted with some people

[07:47]

because I'm not too up on current scholarship, but as far as I know, there is no other commentary in English to the Hokyo Zamai other than this commentary, which is called the Infinite Mirror, and it's by Shengyen, Chan Master Shengyen, who is a really interesting contemporary Chan Master who teaches in Brooklyn, and I think Taiwan. And some of you know my friend Laura Del Valle from Mexico. She studies with Shengyen, and he once came here to visit. He just showed up one day, you know. He didn't announce himself or anything. I met him briefly, but afterward I realized who he was. I didn't spend very much time with him. Anyway, he seems to be a very nice man and a good down-to-earth teacher. And his commentary, yeah, this is actually a commentary, I think it's on both the Hokyo Zamai and the Sondokai. Anyway, I'll be using this commentary extensively since

[08:54]

it's the only one. I'll use it. So it's worth getting this book and reading. I think this is also available. Yeah, I think that it's probably published by his own outfit, which probably doesn't have great distribution. Anyway, those are the two main books. And yes, S-H-E-N-G-Y-E-N, Shengyen. There's also a commentary to The Five Ranks of Tozan in Zen Dust. So that's something you can look up if you have access. Zen Dust is also a book that's out of print, but if you have access to it in the library here or elsewhere. But it's not necessary, you know, for you to go to all

[09:59]

that trouble if you don't have the time or feel like it. I'm just suggesting that for those of you who are inclined to do it. So Dumshan or Tozan, Tozan is the Japanese way of pronouncing Dumshan's name. He was born in 807. So he was two or three generations, I think, from the sixth ancestor of Zen. He was one of the early teachers in the most creative and powerful time of Chan Buddhism in China, when it was really being developed. And what we now know as Chan was being solidified, so to speak. And he died in 1869. I mean, he was very old. A thousand and sixty-two

[11:02]

years old. So practice hard. You too can achieve longevity. I mean, 869, not 1869. Those dates seem funny, don't they? 869. He started out visiting Nanchuan, was his first teacher, and then he went to Guishan, and then finally he went to Yunnan. And that was his teacher who he inherited Dharma from in Yunnan. So Tozan is the founder, one of the founders of the Soto school in China. So a very important figure, you know, for us as Soto practitioners. And it was somebody who, Dogen Zenji, who is the Japanese founder of Soto, really liked Tozan a lot and talked about him a lot. And Yunnan, his teacher, is the one who, I've lately been telling the story, and you've heard from others

[12:05]

the story of Yunnan sweeping the ground. You know the story? And someone says, too busy. Dawu says, too busy. And Yunnan says, you should know there is one who isn't busy. Oh, you mean there's two moons? He holds up the broom and says, which moon is this? That Yunnan is Tozan's teacher. I talked about that case during the Sashin, I think, in August. And Rev has talked about it many times, too. So that's Tozan. So I just want to quote a little bit from the record of Tozan, just to give you a feeling for Tozan's practice. You know, it's often the case with these great ancient teachers, just as it is, I think, the case with us, too, that they have a dharma question that really

[13:09]

bothers them, that takes them from teacher to teacher and that keeps them practicing and won't let them rest until they settle the question. That was true in the biography of Dogen and is equally true in the biography of Dungsan. And sometimes I think that for us, so much of practice is finding out what that question is for us, what it actually is, and clearing away the underbrush of our confusion and our attachment and just coming up nose to nose with what that question is for us in our lives and staying with that question and staying with it and really devoting ourselves to it until we clarify it. And for some of these ancients, it may be hard for us to appreciate in a way, or maybe not, how what may appear to be somewhat abstract points of dharma really appear to them to be true existential questions. And that's the case with Tozan. And this is the

[14:14]

question that he, I said he started out with Nanchuan, and then Nanchuan sent him to Guishan. And at Guishan's place, he first brought up the question. There's a rather lengthy dialogue that happens between Tozan and Guishan, and I'm going to read, I think, a great deal of it just to give you a flavor, and maybe I'll make a few little comments here and there to kind of give you the idea. Next, the master made a visit to Guishan and said to him, the master meaning Tozan in this case, because this is the record of Tozan, so they referred to him as the master. And said, so the master went to Guishan and said to Guishan, I have recently heard that the national teacher, Zheng of Nanyang mountains, excuse me, Zheng of Nanyang maintains the doctrine that non-sentient beings expound the dharma. In other words, grass, trees, roof tiles, dirt, stones, these things are actually teaching

[15:18]

the dharma. I have not yet understood the subtleties of this teaching. Guishan said, can you remember the details of what you heard? Yes, I can, said the master. Then why don't you try to repeat it for me, said Guishan. Then the master repeats this story. The master began, a monk asked Huizhong, what sort of thing is the mind of the ancient Buddhists? And the national teacher replied, it is wall and tile rubble. Wall and tile rubble, isn't that something non-sentient, asked the monk? It is, replied the national teacher. The monk said, and yet, it can expound the dharma? It is constantly expounding it, radiantly expounding it, expounding it without ceasing, replied the national teacher. The monk said, then why haven't I heard it? So this is a really important answer.

[16:31]

The national teacher replied, you yourself haven't heard it, but this can't hinder the one who is able to hear it. So the monk said, what sort of person acquires this hearing? All the sages have acquired this hearing, said the national teacher. The monk then asked, can you hear it, teacher? No, I can't, replied the national teacher. Pretty good. The monk said, if you haven't heard it, how do you know that non-sentient beings expound the dharma? So the national teacher said, fortunately, I haven't

[17:33]

heard it. If I had heard it, I would be the same as the sages, and you, therefore, would not hear the dharma that I teach. Fortunately, I haven't heard it. If I had, I would be just like those sages, and you would not be able to hear the dharma that I'm teaching. In that case, said the monk, ordinary people would have no part in it. I teach for ordinary people, not sages, replied the national teacher. What happens after ordinary people hear you, asked the monk? Then they are no longer ordinary people, said the national teacher. And the dialogue goes on from there. But this is Tozan's question. How is it that insentient beings preach the dharma? So he stays with Guishan for a while,

[18:36]

and Guishan sends him to Yunnan. So here's the story of how he encounters Yunnan. Making reference to his previous encounter with Guishan, he immediately asked what sort of person was able to hear the dharma expounded by nonsentient beings. Yunnan said, nonsentient beings are able to hear it. Can you hear it, teacher, asked Dungsan. Yunnan replied, if I could hear it, then you would not be able to hear the dharma that I teach. Why can't I hear it, asked Dungsan. Yunnan raised his whisk and said, can you hear it yet? Dungsan replied, no, I can't. Yunnan said, you can't even hear it when I expound

[19:39]

the dharma. How do you expect to hear when a nonsentient being expounds the dharma? Then I'm skipping a part. And later on, Dungsan said to Yunnan, I have some habits that are not yet eradicated. In other words, some afflictive habits of mine that are persistent, that even though I see them, they seem to keep coming back. Does this seem familiar to you? Yunnan said, what have you been doing? Dungsan replied, I have not concerned myself with the Four Noble Truths. And the sense of this is, I am not trying to, the Four Noble Truths, you know, suffering, antidote, end of suffering. I'm

[20:42]

not doing that. I'm just being with what comes up, which is a good way of practicing in Zen. So that's how I'm practicing. I'm not trying to eradicate, eliminate anything. I'm just totally, you know, owning and being with what arises. So Yunnan says, are you joyful yet? Which means, have you really, are you at rest yet? Have you entered the path? And then Dungsan says, and this is a great line that's often quoted, it would be untrue to say that I am not joyful. It is as though I have grasped a bright pearl in a pile of shit. Can you see that? It's like us, right? So then time goes by and Dungsan is ready to leave. And he goes to Yunnan and says, where are you going? And Dungsan says, although I am leaving you, I still haven't decided where I'll stay.

[21:42]

Yunnan asked, you're not going to Hunan, are you? No, replied Dungsan. You're not returning to your native town, are you? No. When will you return? I'll wait until you have a fixed residence, said Dungsan. Yunnan said, after your departure, it will be hard to meet again. This is one of my favorite lines of Dungsan. Dungsan says, it will be hard not to meet. It will be hard not to meet. It's hard not to meet your teacher. When you really see the teacher, it's hard not to meet them. They live everywhere. Then, finally, the last one I'll quote. So now, just before leaving, Dungsan asked, if after many years someone should ask if I am able to portray the master's likeness,

[22:47]

how should I respond? And it was a custom for a monk who was a disciple, a follower, somebody who had fully completed study with a master, to make a portrait of the master. So if someone asks me, in other words, to show your true teaching as my own, how should I respond? After remaining quiet for a while, Yunnan said, just this person. Dungsan was lost in thought. Yunnan said, Dungsan, having assumed the burden of this great matter, you must be very cautious. And there's a little twist on this footnote. Bill, Paul has great footnotes to this text, and often they help. The footnote tells us that

[23:53]

just this person was a Chinese phrase that was used in a court of law when someone was pleading guilty to a crime. The literal meaning is this person of Han, not just this person. It means just this person of Han. And it was a stock phrase from the classics probably that was what a person would say. So in other words, I take full responsibility. Absolutely, I am responsible. So what should I tell people in future times about your deepest teaching? I am completely responsible. And having assumed the burden of this great matter, you must be very cautious, very careful. Dungsan remained dubious about what Yunnan had said. He didn't really understand. He really couldn't see it. Later, as he was crossing a river,

[25:01]

and this is the famous, again, the most well-known story of Dungsan, because it's the ultimate moment for Dungsan. As he was crossing a river, leaving Yunnan, after this exchange, he saw his reflected image in the mirror. And seeing his image in the mirror, this caused awakening in him. And he saw the meaning of his teacher saying, just this person. And then he composed a poem on this. And the poem goes, Earnestly avoid seeking without, lest it recede far from you. Today I am walking alone, yet everywhere I meet him. He is now no other than myself, but I am not now him. It must be understood in this way, in order to merge with suchness. Earnestly avoid seeking without, lest it recede far from you.

[26:07]

Today I am walking alone, yet everywhere I meet him. He is now no other than myself, but I am not now him. It must be understood in this way, in order to merge with suchness. So this is always considered to be Dungsan's Enlightenment verse, when he sees his reflection in the mirror. And this same phrase is repeated in the Bhaktya-samhaya. We'll get to that later. You are not it. It actually is you. And I think the other parts of the poem are given as well. I forgot. So, probably the most crucial issue in Soto Zen studies, and in Tozan's practice, as you can see from this section, and therefore in the Bhaktya-samhaya,

[27:09]

is the dialectic between the relative and absolute. There's a lot of ways of understanding this. Relative and absolute sound very philosophical. These are philosophical terms, but if we wanted to look at it psychologically, or more in existential terms of our actual lives, we could say, the dialectic between the fact that each one of our lives is absolutely clear and perfect as the life of Buddha, that that's really us. We are really Buddha. And at the same time, we are the imperfect people that we are, with the histories that we have, and all the problems that we have, and the tendencies that we have. These tendencies, it's not a question of our becoming perfect and eradicating all that. It's a question of seeing that that as it is, and the perfection of the life of the Buddha are identical.

[28:10]

And the dialectic and the interplay between these two seemingly opposite things is what the Hokyo-samhaya is about, and really what the practice of Tozan is about. And I think that this is, to me, not only Soto Zen, but when I think about it, this is our human problem, right? Because we try to see lots of ways, we could use many different words, we try to see our own divinity, our own perfection, our own sense of, you know, just we're really, our life just as it is, is really all right. And I think every human being longs to see that that's the case with our own life. But moving in that direction, we tend to deny and cover up the reality of whatever it is that our life is, and so that doesn't work out. Doing that, moving in this way, pretending that

[29:16]

we're perfect ends up making us more twisted up and nuts, because our problems and our difficulties only manifest all the more. So we have to acknowledge what it is that's in us at the same time that we see it's perfection. So I think this is something for every human being to deal with. I think it's, to me, the root of what any kind of religious practice is about. So in Deng Xian's poem, he says, he is not other than me. The Absolute, the Buddha, Perfection, can't be other than me. It's not somewhere else. Don't seek it without. It can't be somewhere other than where I am right now. The Absolute doesn't manifest in the sky or in thin air. It only manifests in my life and in your life right now. There is no other form

[30:16]

that the Absolute could appear in. And yet, if I say, I am the Absolute, if I take my conditioning to be the Absolute, I'm off. I can't self-identify and possess the Absolute. I have to own my own limitation. So that's what Tozan is saying. He is no other than me, but I am not him. And he sees this when he sees this reflection in the river. And then he knows, just this person. Given that, understanding that, he can be completely responsible because he understands that the Absolute, the Perfection of all of the universe, comes down to him right here. And yet, he can't grasp that and say, oh boy, look how great I am. Understanding that he can be responsible because his responsibility doesn't have to lead to guilt and shame and denial. His responsibility can be within freedom

[31:18]

when he realizes that he is no other than me, and yet I am not him. Another way of looking at this, or another kind of language for it, is Absolute means the unity and oneness of everything, the non-difference of everything. There is no separate series of beings in this world, although it appears that way to us. Actually, we're all one being. There is only one being, which is Dharmakaya Buddha. And our perception that things are different, one from another, just comes from our ignorance, our karmic formations. That's the Absolute. But only to hold the Absolute immediately becomes a problem. So the relative is the differentiation of things. Each thing is individual and unique, and there are so many

[32:19]

different things. I feel like one of the facts of our time, scientifically, is the incredible proliferation of the differentiation. Because people can see, so first of all they're standing on the head of all the people who have seen in the past, and then now we have instruments and technologies that enable us to see creatures that people didn't even know existed. I think we have a book at home of photographs of sub-microscopic creatures that people had no idea, like mites. Do you know how many species of mites there are? It's unbelievable. Right now there's mites, probably thousands of mites on our eyebrows. They have pictures of these mites, and they have all kinds of mandibles and legs and hairs on their legs. They look amazing, but they don't have anything. They look like real creatures, not just like some fantasy creature, like monstrous creatures growing everywhere. So we know about all these. The differences that we can see now are

[33:25]

quite unbelievable. So there's nothing but difference. The world is this incredible proliferation of difference and diversity of all sorts, all kinds of creatures. So there's that on the one hand, and on the other hand there's that there's no difference at all. There's only the unity of all being. So putting these two perspectives together, and the dialectic between them, and the skill of knowing how to manifest each one, and how to come from one and come from the other, is the main curriculum, you know, in Soto Zen. And as I say, I would say myself, when you really get down to it, in Buddhism in general. Also, it sounds like when I talk about this, it also sounds like a very, actually quite contemporary political issue. And when I think of that issue, of the issue of diversity, you know, which we hear everywhere

[34:25]

in our world now. The need for us to simultaneously honor that people are different. Actually, people are different. Everybody's not like me. Everybody's not like you. You know, even somebody that is very much like you, in the same group as you, and so on and so forth, when you really look at that person, they're very different from you. And so many people are different in so many ways. Just taking people, never mind other species and so on, and the necessity of us recognizing those differences, and at the same time seeing the unity. Because differences can be very divisive, right? You're different from me, so I have nothing to say to you, and we don't understand each other, and blah, blah, you know? It can be very divisive. So, on the one hand, perceive and honor differences. And on the other hand, see the underlying unity, and know how to skillfully work with that in one's life. The Dharma is really about that, and this teaching is really about that. Very, very important. And it's true even in our own center. People think, oh, what a homogenous group of people in this

[35:27]

center, which is very true. But on the other hand, if you really look at everybody in the Sangha, people are very different. And not only are they different in their background and their way of approaching life, but they're different in what they think the Dharma is. There's probably about at least half a dozen, or maybe two dozen, or three dozen different Buddhist sects in Green Gulch. Actually, it's true. Right? At least. You've got the hardcore monastics, and then you've got the people who are the outreach gang, and then the people who think it's work, and this and that. And they're all good points of view. And so we get in fights with each other. We think, well, what does he know? He's not seriously doing Buddhism. He's just over there baking bread or something. What does he know? But actually not. But to see these different points of view and see the oneness of them, this is really the trick. Because if we don't see the

[36:29]

differences, then of course we all try to be one. And then what we do when we all try to be one is we cut off our arm and our leg and our head, because these get in the way of our being all one. Pretty soon we're feeling rather truncated. Right? So then we have to put our arms back on, and so on. So this teaching is about that as well. And to really understand this teaching will help us to see that in a very practical way with each other. Master Shengyen, in his commentary, speaks from the perspective of those… There are some lineages that, including his, in which both Soto and Rinzai schools are practiced. So his lineage has both sides. Ours, our lineage does too, actually, although it's obscure. Because Dogen inherited dharma from a Rinzai teacher as well as from a Soto teacher. So if

[37:32]

you look at our actual lineage chart that's given, when the precepts were given, it actually has a Rinzai lineage and a Soto lineage. But Shengyen speaks about the Rinzai side of Zen. And maybe let's say Rinzai and Soto aren't two schools, but they're two tendencies within Zen. The Rinzai tendency within Zen is sharp and quick and cuts through all formalities and is right to the point, abandons everything, and just is very lively. The Soto tendency in our lineage, according to Shengyen, I kind of agree with it, is a little bit doctrine-bound and rule-bound and formality-bound and so on. And I think that the Hokyo Zama tends to be, you could get into some very picky detail and some deep philosophical waters if you really wanted to talk about the Hokyo Zama and make a big commentary on it, looking up all the references to the Daoism and all the references

[38:36]

to the I Ching and all kinds of Chinese learning. The Hokyo Zama has all that kind of stuff in it and we could easily get involved in those things. So I try to kind of strike a middle way between the Rinzai and the Soto tendency here and keep coming back over and over again to the actual meaning of the Hokyo Zama for our real life. So that's the introduction. You got that? Now, I was very busy over the weekend studying very hard. I tend to study a lot in the beginning and then slough off as the week goes on, as you do more of the work. That's as it should be, right? So now I would like to talk about the title of the poem, Hokyo Zama, Song of the Jewel Mirror Samadhi. Hokyo, Jewel Mirror, Hokyo. Kyo is mirror, I think. Hokyo, Jewel Mirror, Shining Mirror,

[39:46]

Zama, Samadhi. Song of the Jewel Mirror Samadhi. It's because it's a poem. Even though in the poem, actually it's a rhymed poem, an elegant Chinese verse. I think that Bill Powell translates it as a poem, although very few attempt to rhyme it. I forget what page it's on, but I believe he translates it as a poem. I know Master Shen Yan does translate it as a poem. And as I've said before when we've talked about other Buddhist poems, this is a traditional style of teaching to write a poem. You don't expect that anybody will understand it. Because it's full of arcane references. This kind of a literary form in Buddhism absolutely requires commentary. And the author is not trying to make it so that when you read the poem you understand it. Because it's full of references and needs to be, its meaning needs to be brought out.

[40:51]

But it is, because it's a poem, it sort of has an emotional and literary beauty and strikes you, I think, in ways that an essay on the subject wouldn't. And although we probably can't appreciate it exactly as a poem, still I think we get a sense of it because we chant it. And we'll chant it in class. So to get the idea that the words have a quality of penetrating us below the level of their meaning. So that's the song part. The jewel mirror part. The jewel mirror appears in various texts. It's an image that's used over and over again in Buddhism. It appears in the Vimalakirti Sutta and the Dhadraddha Luna and other texts. It's usually associated with the mind-only schools of Buddhism, of Buddhist philosophy, which antedate Zen.

[41:57]

Let me talk a bit about just the idea of a mirror in general. Notice that in Tozan's poem he looks into the water. And it's like a kind of a mirror-like situation. A mirror reflects something. You put something in front of a mirror and it makes an image of that thing. The jewel mirror is an image that is exactly reflective of what's really in front of the mirror. This is a way of talking about consciousness. Our consciousness is like a mirror reflecting a reality outside of our minds. But because of our human confusion and the many unaware moments that we have lived, we have a lot of self-clinging and grasping and confusion mixed in with our mind. So the mirror is not perfectly shiny. In fact, it's distorted, so that when we place an object in front of the

[43:07]

mirror of the ordinary person's mind, we don't get a clear and exact image of what is on the other end. We get some version of the image, but with a great deal of distortion and confusion. Even though if the mirror were shiny and pure, still, the object in the mirror is not the same as the object on the other side of the mirror. But it would be better to have the object reflected clearly, and not neutrally, but accurately, than it would be to have it reflected with all kinds of distortions and defilements. So if the mirror is polished and clear and clean, there is a clear reflection, even though it's still limited. It's not the object itself. This kind of way of looking at things refers back to the famous poems that I'm sure you're all familiar with, of the sixth ancestor and the would-be sixth ancestor, Huineng and Xinshu.

[44:14]

Do you know about the famous poetry contest? I'm sure many of you have heard of this. The master says, whoever will write a poem of understanding will be the successor. And Xinshu writes a poem, which says, who's the one that everybody thinks will be the successor? He writes a poem that says, the mind is like a mirror, the body is like a stand of a mirror. You have to keep polishing the mirror and cleaning it, so that no dust will alight there. In other words, work on your defilements, work on your issues, work on your problems, come to nirvana, come to clarity, see the object as it really is. That was his understanding. That's pretty good understanding. Then Huineng's poem says, there is no bodhi tree, there is no stand of a mirror. Since everything is empty from the first, where could any dust ever land? So this was deemed by the teacher a more profound understanding, and then we all know the story of

[45:20]

how Huineng becomes the ancestor. So this is two ways of working with the mirror. One is to carefully polish it, and the other one is to see through it, to see that there is no mirror, to see that mirror is empty, object is empty, and when we see that, there is no place for the dust to alight. So this is the sudden way, is to realize from the very beginning the unreality of defilement, the unreality of our own difficulties and problems, and to just drop them, just let them go. This is nice, and this is a good experience to have, an important experience to have to see that. However, in reality, or let's put it this way, in practice, in what we see around us, even though we might see this, somehow the defilements nevertheless persist. So you do need to realize that there is no mirror and that there is no fundamental reality to these

[46:25]

defilements, and still though, you need to wipe the mirror clean. So you kind of need both the sudden and the gradual way, you need to both wipe the mirror and understand that there is no mirror, you need both of them. Just turn towards the defilement, you don't try to, you know, if you understand the true nature of the defilement or whatever it is that our problem is or our question is, if you understand its true nature, what it really is, then you know that it's not necessary to, like, get a big shovel and root it out and dig it out, because fundamentally, the only reason why it seems to be so strong is because we persist in believing it's there. So we see that the best way to work with it is simply to turn toward it, and allow it to be there and be with it with clarity, without grabbing on, without pushing it away. And by and by, it passes away. So in a way, actually, the gradual method is the sudden method.

[47:27]

Do you see what I mean? The sudden method, we realize, doesn't really work, because defilements persist. But if we look at defilements, but how do we work with defilements? We work with defilements by understanding on a moment-by-moment basis in a way that involves craft and persistence and daily practice, turning toward our confusion and our defilement, and just being with it and breathing into it and not grasping it, not getting caught by it, we let go of it. So actually, the gradual method, in our way of practice, is the sudden method. Do you see what I mean? Because the sudden method is just seeing the unreality and letting go. The gradual method is fixing. So we have to fix, but the way to fix is to just turn toward it, and open up your hand and let it go. Dogen has a whole fascicle on the ancient, he calls it the ancient mirror, and he tells many,

[48:28]

many stories from the tradition about mirrors and how they're used in different Zen writings. But I'll only cite one and then go on to the next word in the title, and that is the story about Matsu. This Dogen brings up Matsu, which is often told also, but it's not a bad idea to repeat these things, is it? Matsu is sitting zazen very intensively, and Nanchuan, who is his teacher, comes by and sees him sitting there with this great deal of intensity, and Nanchuan picks up a roof tile and begins to rub it with a cloth, and Matsu becomes annoyed, maybe, at this, and says, what are you doing? And Nanchuan says, I'm rubbing this tile. And Matsu says, yes, I can see that, but why are you standing there rubbing this tile in front of me like this? And Nanchuan says, I'm rubbing this tile so that I can make it into a mirror. Which strikes Matsu as the height of absurdity, and he blurts out, how can you make a

[49:37]

tile into a mirror? What a ridiculous thing. And Nanchuan, of course, as we all know, replies, yes, and how can you make yourself into a Buddha? Just as ridiculous. Dogen, uncommenting on this story, says, of course he can rub the tile and make it into a mirror, because the tile is really a mirror all along. So, of course, Matsu can become a Buddha, because he's really a Buddha all along. So this is another angle on rubbing the tile, polishing the mirror, polishing away our defilements. This is the big thing we all have to work with, right? We have to see the real nature of our defilement, of our confusion, of whatever it is in us that limits us and makes us feel ill at ease.

[50:42]

We have to see that there's nothing there to worry about, actually. And at the same time, we have to deal with it when it keeps coming back, because it keeps coming back. Sorry, folks, but it does keep coming back. But when you see its real nature and really appreciate that, and are willing to just turn toward it whenever it comes back, it doesn't have to be a big problem, because you say, well, naturally, of course I'm confused. Who wouldn't be, in the shape that I'm in? So it's when we judge ourselves for our confusion and try to root it out or cover it up, then we're in trouble. But when we can really have the spaciousness to understand on whatever level we understand it, whether it's just intellectually, or whether it's experientially, or whether it's a combination of both, or whether it's a deep realization of the nature of our defilement, whatever way we can, we turn toward those confusions, and we

[51:44]

accept them and let them go, and don't get bamboozled by them. I mean, really, in a way, you could say all of Buddhist practice is just a question of not making things worse. You could only, moment by moment, not make things worse. This would be a major thing, don't you think? Because actually, we're quite active in making things worse all of the time. We're constantly digging a bigger hole for ourselves. And so it's not a big deal to become enlightened and practice the way. It's just simply a matter of not making things worse on a moment-by-moment basis. So that's my little speech about the mirror. Now, the jewel mirror means, of course, the perfect mirror, the mirror that is not distorted, that is totally reflective of reality, and it's a mirror that doesn't have any boundaries. The jewel mirror is actually equal, identified with all of reality.

[52:48]

The jewel mirror is the Dharmakaya itself. The jewel mirror is, you know, all these words, the true self, the Buddha nature, the source of all Buddhas, something like that, the absolute, fundamental, quiescent nature of all things. This is the jewel mirror. Samadhi, of course, as we all know, means concentration. But it's interesting that, like in the old schools of Buddhism, this is a kind of a technical term, to develop concentration, you know, how to do it, how to focus the mind. And it means, you know, focusing the mind on a single point without distraction and so on, techniques, etc., etc. But in the Mahayana Buddhism, the word samadhi takes on almost a kind of metaphysical, metaphorical meaning. And there are these wonderful, some Mahayana sutras, like the Prajnaparamita Sutra in 100,000 lines, has lists of samadhis with names, like, you know, gorgeous, luminous mirror samadhi, jewel moon brightness samadhi,

[53:55]

samadhi of ultimate penetration. And it has like six, seven, eight, nine pages of lists of these different samadhis. So you get the idea that the use of the word samadhi is not the same as the technique of focusing the mind. It's really opening up that word to mean something broader than that. Samadhi as being, in a sense, equal with consciousness itself. So jewel mirror is reality itself. Samadhi added to that jewel mirror is the reality itself in its aspect of consciousness, which we all share, because all of us, by definition, to be a human being is to share, and to be in existence at all is to share in consciousness. So this is the jewel mirror samadhi, this is the title. So a few words about, it looks like I'm not going to go on as long as I thought, so a few words about the beginning of the poem, and then we'll see if

[54:58]

there's anything that's come up for you, and then we'll go on. Using the translation that we're all used to, but you all have the text, at least another translation in front of you, right? Some of you do anyway. We don't have enough copies, but I want to just look at the first line or two. I've got three translations here. The teaching of thusness has been intimately communicated by Buddhas and ancestors. Now you have it, so keep it well. Got that? Then, from Master Sheng-Yen, translates it like this, so keep what I just said in your mind.

[55:59]

Here's what Master Sheng-Yen says. This dharma, so instead of the teaching of thusness, he says, this dharma as it is, this dharma as it is, that's his way of saying the teaching of thusness, this dharma as it is has been directly entrusted by Buddha ancestors. It's a little different feeling, right? This dharma as it is has been directly entrusted by Buddhas and ancestors. And Bill Powell's translation in the Record of Damshan says, the dharma of suchness directly transmitted by Buddhas and patriarchs, although we always say ancestors, today is yours. The dharma of suchness directly transmitted by Buddhas and patriarchs,

[57:01]

today is yours. Preserve it carefully. So those are three translations. So, the teaching of thusness, or this dharma as it is, it actually is very much the same in Chinese as it is in English where you say, um, this, like the word this, this dharma, or teaching of thusness, we say in English like this person, meaning the word this distinguishes one person from another. This person, not that this person, right? Colloquial expression. But, if you say this, that means, and also, we can expand the word this to mean just as they appear in their reality,

[58:13]

in the way that they're different, and purely themselves, from another thing. They're suchness, they're aspect of most deepest unique reality. So, that's why the term in Chinese could easily be translated as this dharma as it is, or the teaching of suchness. See how that could be? Um, so this teaching, which is about this special kind of individuality, which is very deep and connected to everything, has been intimately communicated, or directly communicated, or entrusted. So, intimately is good, and, uh, the word intimately, the Chinese character, I mean,

[59:17]

the Japanese reading is mitsu, mitsu, I had a friend whose name was Mitsunen. It means intimate, it does mean intimate. But, it also means secret, or mysterious. Because, what you're really intimate with, intimate means, uh, you are so, uh, completely at one with it, that you can't separate to name it. That which you can name, that which you can talk about, you're already separate from, see? So, the nature of real intimacy is that it's beyond what we can point to, what we can name. It's too close to even say what it is. So, therefore, secret. And Shengyen, in his commentary, uh, brings this up, and he says, this is how the word is transmitted. It must always be transmitted, uh, intimately. Because it's not like taking a class where you learn this and that, and this is what it is, you know? Now I know. It's more like

[60:20]

a deep turning, a very intimate turning, which must be, uh, secret and unspeakable in some way. So, that's what that word is. So, this, this dharma of thusness, this dharma of just this, just this person, right? Like in Dongshan's story, this dharma, uh, has been, uh, secretly, intimately, so directly, in other words, when the word directly is used, it doesn't mean like direct, like I'm a very direct person, but more like so direct, it's intimate, it's so close, that it can't be, uh, we can't see it, we can't hold it in our hand, we can't speak it. So, this dharma has been intimately, directly, communicated or entrusted. And entrusted is a really good word, actually, because that's actually the meaning of dharma transmission, is really dharma entrustment, or dharma, uh, clearly, being a translator, would use the word communication, right? This translation is Cleary's, Thomas Cleary's. So,

[61:23]

being a translator, he would use the word, this dharma has been communicated. But actually, communicated isn't really as good as entrusted. This dharma has been intimately entrusted to you, you know, like here we are, this is, because it's talking about us, we have received, uh, intimately, been entrusted with this dharma. And I think entrusted is really good, because to be, uh, intimate with the dharma is to trust, and to be trustworthy, and to be entrusted with. It's really about trust, in a very deep sense, of trusting ourselves in and as reality. Even though we all know that terrible things happen. You know, you, you drop dead. You, you, you lose your, your house burns down. These things happen. And yet, despite these things, our path is the path of a total entrustment of the person that we are, just as we are,

[62:26]

with all of our imperfections, and of our being rooted in reality that is fundamentally trustworthy, even though, you know, these, all kinds of things happen. So, we're not expecting that only good things will happen. Otherwise, our trust is shaken. No. We know, understand that all kinds of things happen. But, we touch reality at a place that's deeper than the things that happen. And we, we trust each other. We trust ourselves. We can trust each other, because we trust ourselves, because we know that we're rooted in reality, not just our particular corner of the world, you know. So, this dharma has been intimately entrusted to us by the Buddhas and ancestors, you know. Part one, it's been entrusted to us. Part two, keep it well. So, part one is like the sudden way, right? It's already there. The mirror is not even existing. Where could dust the light?

[63:31]

Part two, keep it well, is take care of it. Wash the mirror, you know, dust it off. Be careful. Pay attention. Just this person, now you should be very careful. Having accepted this, you should be very careful. So, that's the first line. And then, I will just talk about the next part, the next sentence, and then I'll stop. And this is about as far as I thought we'd get tonight. I've got the thing divided up into maybe six sections, and we'll just take it little bit by bit. Next week, we can go back to this section, see what questions there are, because we won't have much time, and then go on. Yes? I want to say, I think your list of names hasn't gone all the way down. Oh, it hasn't? Okay. Anybody who hasn't signed this list of names? So, filling a silver bowl with snow,

[64:38]

hiding a heron in the moonlight. When you array them, they're not the same. When you mix them, you know where they are. And Master Sheng En says, Like a silver bowl full of snow, so far, so good, or an egret hidden against the bright moon. Close enough. Egret, heron, you know. Bird's a bird, right? No, just kidding. They are similar, but not identical. When mingled, their difference can be recognized. Similar, but not identical. When mingled, their difference can be recognized, when you put them together. Because, you know, a heron is like, the idea is the heron is the color of moonlight.

[65:44]

When the heron is standing in the moonlight, it's almost invisible. Snow is, you have to sort of accept this idea that snow is the same color as a silver bowl. So that when the snow is filling the silver bowl, it's kind of like, you know, it's quite a little bit hard to tell that there's anything in the bowl. It's a little bit hard to see the heron in the moonlight. I mean, harder than it would be if the heron were against a dark background, or if the snow were against a dark background. That's the idea. And this other translation, Yo Pao's translation is, it is like, so he lets us know that it is like a silver bowl heaped with snow, and the bright moon concealing herons. When classified, they differ, but lumped together, their whereabouts is known. Well, I don't know about the heron in the moonlight, but anybody who wants to look up the Blue Cliff record, I think it's case number 13,

[66:52]

it says, the koan is, what is the deva sect, someone asks, and the teacher says, snow in a silver bowl, which probably refers to an earlier something. So somebody for fun could look that case up and see if there's any relevance, if there's anything in that case, commentary that helps. But Master Shengya actually has a pretty good commentary to this point. He says that he identifies the bowl, which is that which holds, cradles and absorbs and holds and is the background, and the moon, which is the illumination, the background, he identifies the moon and the bowl

[67:55]

with the Absolute, right? Because this whole poem, remember, is talking about the Absolute and the relative. In the first line, the teaching of Zasnas has been intimately entrusted, that's the Absolute. Now keep it well. How can you keep it well? It's already, you know, on the Absolute side, there's nothing to keep. If it's already transmitted to us right now totally, what do we have to worry about? That's the Absolute. But the relative is, keep it well. Do something. Take care of Gringoltsch, right? Farm. Go to the Zen Dojo. Do things. Don't have to do any of it, because the Dharma is already transmitted. But keep it well. Do these things. So relative side, Absolute side, right? So now, let's say more about the relative and Absolute. Okay, it's like snow in a silver bowl. It's like a heron in the moonlight. So the snow, so this image is trying to give us some more understanding of how the relative and the

[68:58]

Absolute relate to each other. So the bowl and the moon are the Absolute, and the snow and the egret or the heron are the relative side, right? So the Absolute holds the relative, and from the standpoint of really understanding the relative and the Absolute, they're very, very similar. There's not that much difference between the Absolute and the relative. So if we really have the Dharma eye, when we see the relative, we don't see it as tremendously different from the Absolute. For example, for an ordinary person, they're tremendously different. Like, somebody might say, well, you know, I live my life and I do this, but religion, that's something else. I mean, wow, spiritual practice, I don't do that. That's really very different. And when I go to a spiritual place, I feel very different, night and day.

[69:59]

But actually, for a seasoned Zen person, there's not that much difference, right? I mean, my practice is working in the kitchen. I chop vegetables. That's the Dharma. That's total reality, right? So there's not so much difference between relative and Absolute from the standpoint of true practice. But when we see them together, we can tell the difference. So that's the idea, that we don't really make it gigantic. So for the ordinary person, they wouldn't see relative and Absolute as snow in a silver bowl. They would see the relative and Absolute as snow against a background of dark mountains. And they wouldn't see a heron in the moonlight. They would see a crow flashing across the moon. Big contrast. That's why the fact that the images are images of holding two things that are very much alike in substance. I mean, you would never mistake a heron for the moon, and you would never mistake snow for a bowl. But when you put

[71:06]

silver snow in a silver bowl, and you see a heron in the moonlight, even though these two things are very different, you see the nature, how very, very similar they are. And without looking closely, you might not see it at all. But you do look closely, and you see the difference between the two. So that's what is being said there. So relative and Absolute are not so starkly different. Enlightenment and ordinary mind are not all that different today. Not such a big difference. And yet we have to be clear about that they're different. See what I mean? So enlightenment is not that big of a thing. And yet we have to see the difference between awakening and our own confusion. If we think the difference is vast, we can get very agitated about how stupid we are to be confused. But if we see that they're very close, we can be very patient with our confusion, right? Because we see, well, it's not that different actually from enlightenment. But I'm clear that there is a difference. It's important to be clear. So that's all I have to say.

[72:13]

But that's enough. I'm tired of talking. But what do you have to say? We have a few minutes. Then I think maybe we can take a minute to end our class by chanting Bhoktasamma. Anything you want to bring out in what I presented? Or is it not just as much for you as it was for me? Yes? I don't know if this will be more confusing and maybe something extra, but just now when you're talking about smell and bowl and what it was like, I was thinking about that image of the pearl rolling in a bowl. But as you were speaking about the bowl, I thought of the skull actually. I don't know if that would pertain here.

[73:15]

Well, everything pertains. Yeah, maybe the individuality of our stream of thought and the great pattern of thinking itself, the thought itself, something like that. Before he had his enlightenment experience in that conversation with the teacher, he said, it would be hard not to meet you, like you're everywhere. And in his enlightenment experience in the poem, he said, I'm meeting reality everywhere. I am alone. He says, I'm alone, but I meet him everywhere. It's a full flowering of that statement before his enlightenment was

[74:22]

in the poem. So you mean in the poem, he brings up the side of I am alone, and yet I meet him everywhere. In the first instance, he says, I see you everywhere. Yeah, I think that to me, this really seems true because I feel myself very often that I feel personally, and I feel it's true for everyone, very alone, right? That no one can really understand you. You can't even understand yourself. Do you ever have that feeling? And certainly, you could feel very easily that everything that you say and every manifestation of your life is not quite right. It's like a little bit of a lie because it's never really who you really are. It's so deep that no one could possibly know. No one can know. So I am alone, and yet I meet him everywhere. And yet at the same time,

[75:23]

we're really connected to everything. There's that side too. And sometimes one side comes up for you, and sometimes another side comes up for you. And the dharma appears in these different modes in the dialectic of oneness and separateness and so on. Yeah, I am alone, and yet I meet him everywhere. He is me, but I am not him. These expressions are very much the same as what is being pointed to in the poem. And then he quotes his own poem later on. Well, next time we'll see what else there is about this, and then we'll go on to talk about a few more lines. And I do intend, mostly, I will probably have, you know, like, say something for a few minutes and then after that. So please come with your questions. I

[76:28]

hope that you would look at the poem, think about it, meditate on it, and come with some questions. But please, if possible, let's… It may not be possible, actually, to just discuss one section at a time without referring all over the place. But if possible, let's look at from the beginning up to about the middle of the page. It is like facing a dual mirror. Let's see if we can, you know, confine, if it's possible to confine our dialogue to those places. And I am, you know, very interested in us looking at what this actually means in terms of our practice, in terms of the problems that come up in our lives, in our Zazen practice, as well as in daily life practice relationships and so on, all of it. Because that's really what it's about. So we should bring it down to that level.

[77:30]

So, shall we chant? Oh, yeah, extra copies are here. And those of you who did not get to sign the book, it's still circulating. You can do it afterward if you didn't sign it. So, I think this might be a nice way to end our class each week. We dedicate the merit of our chanting and study of the Hokyo Zamae to the awakening of all beings.

[82:06]

Three times. Wisdom. Wisdom. Night, everybody.

[83:00]

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