Hey buddy, so can we just sit for a minute and kind of turn our attention to the world, which is in very difficult straits it feels like these days. And turn your attention to yourself, you know, as we're in the middle of this and as practitioners to abide here together. with good spirit and joy in these difficult situations is our practice. Thank you.

[01:42]

It's kind of our commitment to stay here together in good times and bad, to abide here together and practice in this way with curiosity and openness, a sense of wonder, of not knowing what all this means. And I also wanted to just say another side, a brief word. I talked with for people who haven't been thanked yet from our community and people that couldn't come to open lunches last week. We had a Soto Zen Buddhist Association meeting for five days. And they were really appreciative. The priests that came from around the country to practice here, they were very appreciative of the support of the temple and the time that they could spend together. For me, it was a wonderful five days. I was thinking it was really because of the quality of the 60 priests that had come here to be together.

[02:44]

They had a kind of warmth and kindness and curiosity and playfulness. It was a pleasure to be around. There were several presentations and different events that we took part in together. And it culminated the last night, there was a kind of a Dharma heritage ceremony where if you're a new fellow getting a brown robe, we got to, there were 13 of us, I was number 13. We had a ceremony here where we were kind of woven into the fabric of Soto Zen in a very physical, tangible way with all of the other teachers that had gone before and became part of the lineage. a living tradition. So it's kind of wonderful to do. And I got a little diploma, which I'll show anybody if you want to see my diploma. My favorite ceremony was the Jizo Bodhisattva ceremony.

[03:48]

I really enjoyed it. I don't know how many people went to it. We sat in there with these fantastic malas that had beads that were this big, 108 of them, very light. They were heavy and they stretched from one end of the room to the other. So we sat in two rows facing each other. And what we did is we chanted a Dharani to Jizo, Bodhisattva, the Bodhisattva, maybe a roadside or people's Buddha who cares and nurtures and helps us sentient beings. Very accessible Buddha. And as we chanted, we passed these massive beads down to the left. And I'll do a little of this chant. Here was the chant because I kind of liked it. That's that. Anybody else here do it with us? You want to do it too? Okay. And we did that for about 20 minutes.

[04:55]

And it was quite wonderful. I don't know if we'll ever do this kind of... chanting and wildness here, but I really found a lot of energy in it, you know, and you're sitting face to face with somebody else chanting, was moving these massive beads. It was quite wonderful. So maybe I'll ask the practice committee if we could buy a big mala someday and do such a thing here. And this is the last thing. There was a lineage chart that they put together And I'll post mine or my copy. It was the Soda Zen Buddhist Association lineage chart. And there were seven teachers, the core teachers who came from Japan, like Suzuki Roshi in our lineage, and Katagiri Roshi, Shohaku Okamura, who lived here, Harada Roshi. And it's a lineage chart of the transition to America of the people who practice with each of those teachers. So I think I'll put it somewhere where people want to see it. It's kind of a wonderful thing. kind of the living tradition here now in America.

[05:56]

And the teachers not only thanked everybody, but they kind of regretted to the residents. They felt that they wanted to have more connection, and they want to work on that if and when they come back here again. They'd like to have some more interaction, either work together or do more things with the residential community. Oh, it's right behind. Oh, there. There's a Jesus right behind me. No wonder I feel good. Despite having a cult. So, tonight, I decided to find the hardest topic I could come up with. And the most difficult koan at the same time. I'm not sure what had driven me to this foolishness. But I'm going to do it. And what I'm going to talk about is the koan.

[07:00]

I'm going to use the koan and then talk about karma and some of the history and the ideas around karma, which I began. I suddenly realized as I talked about karma and rebirth that I don't know anything really about them. I've always sort of held them at arm's length and they're a large part of our tradition. So I got curious. I'm going to talk a little bit about some of the ideas that we talk about the continuation of consciousness, after death, transmigration, rebirth, and some of the history in Buddhism and how we practice with it today. And I'm going to use two koans, but at least one, I might not get to two, of Pai Chang's fox, Yaku Jo. So Pai Chang was a Chinese master. famous, a Rinzai master, famous for his, of course, devout practice and his creation of the monastic codes that we still use, or a version that we still use.

[08:11]

So here's the koan. It's difficult because it's unlike, in many ways, it's unlike any other koan ever written, or any of the other koans. It's quite long and it's discursive. And it involves shape-shifting, among other things. So I'm going to read the koan and then maybe talk a little about karma and some of these ways of looking at this and go back to the koan. Once when Pai Cheng gave a series of talks, a certain old man was always there listening together with the monks. When they left, he would leave too. One day, however, he remained behind and Pai Cheng asked him, who are you standing here before me? It's always a leading question, the asset. Who are you standing before me? And the old man replied, I'm not a human being. In the far distant past, in the time of Kashapa Buddha, one of the six Buddhas before Shakyamuni, a distant time, ancient time, I was head priest at this very mountain.

[09:14]

So he becomes Pai Ching, the elder actually, taking the same name of the mountain. One day a monk asked me, does an enlightened person fall under the law of cause and effect or not? So this is the first big question. Does an enlightened person fall under the law of cause and effect or not? And I replied, such a person does not fall under the law of cause and effect. And with that, I was reborn 500 times as a fox. You can guess this may not have been the right answer. Or was it? So this is the point of the koan. Was it the right answer or not? Please, Pai Cheng, or please say a turning word for me and release me from the body of the fox. So then the elder Pai Cheng, who is the shapeshifter, asked the younger Pai Cheng, the current Pai Cheng, does an enlightened person fall under the law of cause and effect or not?

[10:17]

Same question a long time later. Pai Cheng said... Such a person does not evade the law of cause and effect. Hearing this, the old man immediately was enlightened. Making his bows, he said, I am released from the body of a fox. This body now is on the other side of the mountain. It's a very strange croat. I wish to make a request of you. Abbot, perform my funeral as though for a priest. Pai Ching had a head monk strike the signal word, the Han. It informed the assembly that after the noon meal, there'd be a funeral for a priest. The monks talked about this in wonder. You can imagine, because nobody had died. They were rather startled. There's no one that's died. What does the teacher mean? It's a good question. Why is he doing this? Where do they find out about the funeral? After the meal, Pai Cheng led the monks

[11:19]

to the foot of a rock on the far side of the mountain. And I looked up a picture. I looked at the cave where the fox is said to be in this mountain in China. It's still there. And there with his staff, and this is the big staff of a Zen teacher, this big, powerful staff, he poked out the body of a dead fox. He then performed the ceremony of cremation And that evening he took the high seat before the assembly and told the monks the whole story. He explained to them because they were kind of confused now why they were doing this for a fox. Wang Po, his disciples, stepped forward and said, and this Wang Po is a real wise guy. As you say, the old man missed the turning word and was reborn as a fox 500 times. What if he'd given the right answer each time he was asked the question? What would have happened then? It's a great turnaround here. What if this fundamental enlightenment possessed all things, as the Buddhist said?

[12:21]

There was no inexactitude here. What then? What about your story now, old fellow? Pai Ching said, hey, you just step up here, and I'll tell you. Wang Po went up to Pai Ching and just slapped him in the face, or pretended to slap him in the face. Pai Ching clapped his hands and laughed, saying, I thought the barbarian had a red beard, but here is a red bearded barbarian. And this is an allusion to Bodhidharma, the first ancestor in China who said to have had a red beard and blue eyes, who came from India to China. So this is his way of, of course, maybe you could say approving how Wang Po doesn't allow this to settle into a problem. but turns it around very quickly by turning the question on its head. So Pai Chang approves this lively kind of answer, the dynamic living situation of karma, of understanding birth and death, of not getting stuck on side roads.

[13:31]

So, like I say, this is a tough topic. I thought, karma, how am I going to do this? I don't even know if I believe it or understand it. And we're Americans. We kind of look for the snake oil in a topic like this generally. Even here in California, in San Francisco, it's a suspicious topic. But it's raised here pretty directly. Not only the question of this continuation, but... How do we get out of this situation of difficulty, of affliction, of problems? Which is the goal, you could say, if we have a goal, or our desire, or our hope in our practice. This topic brings up all of the questions. Transmigration, Anatma, or separation of no self, or no separate self that the Buddha taught. How can something go on if there's no inherent being or self? What happened to be continuity and impermanence? These are paradoxical questions that come out of Shakti when he's on the inside.

[14:41]

And what is this continuity? These are points that scholars have debated for 2,000 years longer. To make it even more difficult, Buddha says that the true understanding of these situations, like nirvana, can't be grasped. They have to be directly... related to or expressed. Again, this is what Wang Po does. He directly relates and expresses his understanding. He moves the waters of his understanding. But generally, in Buddhism, when we talk about karma, we talk about binding together intention, our disposition to things. are in Sanskrit, sankara, an action. So it's critical that these two things be brought together, be yoked together in order to have a result. To simply act without intention in a neutral way or foolishly can be difficult, but Buddha's teaching is that you have to bring your disposition or consciousness to bear on a situation.

[15:54]

And he says that Invariably, from each of these actions brought together in this way, a result comes about. An inevitable result comes about. From dark deeds, dark responses come up. Problems arise. Confusion occurs for us. And out of good situations, or good actions and good intentions, more benevolent situations can arise. More possibilities for... for finding our way in this world and finding our true heart, our true understanding of things. And yet we say, you know, it's not good enough just to have good karma because at some point, you know, this is one of our teachings, and I've heard it said many times, at some point it runs out. The good situations... dissipate and we're brought back into difficulties again so just benevolent or good situations aren't really enough so we're enjoined to literally step free of good and bad here of good and bad karma it's not enough just to practice in this benevolent way and to cling to that so we're asked to go a little bit further and of course this is the the question of the koan this is a core insight or teaching it's what's seen in buddhism and yet it says here

[17:23]

such an enlightened person still falls under it. The wheel will come up. It doesn't escape. So it raises this question, how do we get free? This Cohen is saying, how do you get free? What is freedom, in fact? Where do you look for it? If... You know, does being a sentient creature no longer entangled in wrong views, and that's confusion, greed, and hate, or delusion, greed, and hate, such as a Buddha or Bodhisattva or an Arhat, does it still produce karma? Is this what this is saying? And there is no escape? So, you know, what's the meaning here? What do we do? So, As an aside, maybe a little bit more about karma.

[18:25]

We'll go back to this question. You know, other traditions, the Tibetans spend more time with these questions of transmigration and karma. I read some of the Tibetan Book of the Dead. I was curious about what they say. And I'd always wondered where the 49 days for our memorial services come from. And so the Tibetans in their tradition say that that you go through seven cycles of seven days before being reborn. So that's their idea of this. Traditionally, the 49 days come from that. They add that you can do this six times, but on the seventh round, you have to go somewhere. So anyway, I was interested to find out where that came from, that traditional idea. So as a further look at karma, the early Buddhists speculated that there was a type of intervening consciousness or consciousness that carried over from life to life.

[19:35]

They give it the name gadhaba or linking consciousness that touches the next life or a fetus and birth happens again. This existence or flame is carried on. Although impermanent and not containing a particular self or personal self in the way we see it, there is a continuation in an old tradition or old understanding in Buddhism. The consciousness schools in India, the Vishnevada schools, use the image of a seed that each action that you produce creates a a seed or a residue it's another map or way to look at this these residues when the current or a particular situation is ripe express themselves or bloom again for instance if you're angry

[20:46]

and you are lost in habituated anger, and you can't begin to gain insight into this in your own life, and this is something we can see, this comes up for us. We run into a person similar to the person who's triggered this anger, and it expresses itself again. We haven't gotten through this wall of disposition or this wall of a way of relating to things, a grounded way of relating to things. and you know buddha and the last is uh then i was curious i thought well what does buddha say about all this himself what was his enlightenment experience and he says you know uh in on the night of his enlightenment the first after passing through the jhana states and entering a state of tranquility ease joy and balance he used this very concentrated mind And his first discovery was his own past existences, he says.

[21:51]

Was such an appearance, such a nutriment. Such was my pleasure and pain. And his second insight was into the wheel of all existences for all creatures ceaselessly, adopting different shapes and forms. His third was the true knowledge of afflictions. the arising or origin of suffering, the cessation of suffering, and the way leading to the cessation of suffering. So Shakti Muni apparently had some experience. Not one I've ever had, but some experience. So then what do you do? What do you do with all this? Now it's interesting to note, after these experiences, Which he uses a term which is critical I think. It's a critical turning point in understanding not only this aspect of karma but of practice.

[22:52]

I directly knew as it actually is. These situations. This kind of penetrating insight or direct knowledge is the heart of our practice. Not discursive. But knowing things as they actually are in an experiential way. That said. after these profound experiences in his practice, the Buddha doesn't ask any of his disciples to prove this for themselves. It's not something that he apparently was interested in teaching. He never teaches this retrocognition, which in our books we say Buddhas actually possess this ability to see backwards through all of these existences. And I'm not trying to say you should believe this or not. I'm just presenting this as some background to this discussion. little bit of an aside for me too i didn't think i would go here but instead um muda teaches only what is necessary and sufficient for gaining freedom from suffering for using uh using tranquility and concentration as an as a basis he enjoins them to study this this area this thing directly but he adds

[24:11]

And this is from the Majamaka, whether the Buddhas were to arise in the world or not, this causal status, this orderliness, this relatedness will remain. And he equates his very enlightenment with understanding the process of this causal connection, this continuum, which would seem to lend itself to question two, which is a Buddha that no longer evades or ignores causality or this causal connection. But what's his state, or what's the state of our life, or what's the state of our quest to free ourselves? So, here we are, you know, in this koan, in the middle of our life. We're born, and we really don't know how we can use Carla as one of the rationales. It's fine, but here we are, born, and we'll inevitably die. There's no altering that.

[25:14]

It's inevitable. So this is the situation the Buddha works with, this very situation of our lives between birth and death, and how to open that question up to be truly free. that way you know birth isn't considered necessarily good or death bad one leads to the other from buddhist perspective so here we are in a realm of kind of a determined place a place we didn't choose as far as i know a place of some difficulty the one area that we can work in or have some purchase with is this question of dispositions or our choices. In that realm or through that gateway, we can begin to turn and to gain insight and to become free for the first time.

[26:24]

Buddha proposes a non-substantialist framework to even begin to understand this situation. We're sort of dualistic monsters. You know, as soon as we have a framework, it becomes absolutely real. We become, you know, I like the word instead of clinging to things, maybe obsessive. We become obsessive in particular situations. So Buddhism is about not being obsessive, about seeing things clearly. And Buddha proposes 12 conditions of existence or dependent existence. Beginning with ignorance and ending with old age and death as a way of understanding this life. No one thing existing unto itself. The second link of this 12 stages is volitional formations, again, perception. How we see things, what we choose to do with our lives, how we choose to take action.

[27:33]

And the first link is ignorance. So we say that at this juncture, normally our volitions or choices are conditioned by ignorance or kind of confusion or fundamental darkness. We have to settle first. We have to begin to attempt to clearly see things as they actually are. one road leads to being lost and the other you could say has the possibility of insight and freedom for the first time when we reject or cling through obsessions caused by these false views we become desperate more confused so Buddha's way is to stay here completely, to give way and to accept totally the actual situation of our lives for the first time.

[28:42]

In this koan, one road leads to this question of enlightenment or being absolutely free, and our path is actually even to go deeper than that, into the fundamental qualities of concrete existence or the existence we find ourselves in. It gives us for the first time a real way to develop, a real way to be free from this wheel of suffering, this sort of wheel of difficulty. Ironically, we have to go into it rather than away from it. We have to examine our obsessions, our habituations in a very careful way. And the last time I talked, I brought up this, and I want to go back to it, this idea of healthy self-interest. I'm working with ourselves as we find ourselves. You know, too often we suppress that, we press down on that nature. Without ourself, without these dispositions, we wouldn't be able to, we wouldn't be human.

[29:51]

So it's a bit of our dilemma. These very dispositions or choices are human, would define us as human beings. The insights we gain into them set us free. we have to work in exactly that place of our common dross or common humanity you know to and this i've seen people do and i've done myself to give up or suppress that self or try to destroy it is maybe creating a psychic lobotomy it's not a useful way to practice work through our dispositions or our self-interest in a healthy way is is our practice and this isn't being self-centered you know we start out that way but our true self-interest sees compassion for our own pain and then allows us to

[31:00]

break down these false barriers and relate to the pain in others in this commonality for the first time. Out of self-interest, we can grow broader. We may start in a very tight way, but we begin to see this profound connection that grows broader and broader for the first time. This becomes, ironically, in this opening up to others, a true opening to our own hearts and the way to freedom. I also brought up using joy last time as a possibility in our practice. I think that's why I like the singing so much, to bring lightness and joy. That doesn't mean that there isn't the need for some stability. We use precepts. We use our practice. we use this as a way to also deconstruct the habituation in our obsessions or in our confused dispositions.

[32:10]

So some discipline is necessary, particularly in the beginning of our practice. You know, a lot of times people come and they say, you know, I started practicing and now I don't enjoy my friends so much or some of the places I went to and things I did. But that's okay. You know, that's okay. There is a place of some deconstruction, some looking into things more deeply. But our way is to go back then again to this bigger life. Our vow is to be in this bigger life with this more profound connection to existence. So I stand by joy in practice with the proviso and self-interest in practice with the proviso of not getting lost in it, not being cut off.

[33:17]

I'm getting tired of my notes now, so I'm just going to talk. So this koan opens two doors that don't match, you know. Two faces of the same, it says in Wulan's verse, not falling, not evading, two faces of the same die. not evading, not falling a thousand mistakes, ten thousand mistakes. So in this way we follow, I think, Shakyamuni's path. We delve deeply into this paradox, this confrontation with salvation and connection, this place that isn't easy for us at all. We want simple answers. We want things that will allow us to control the situation and be safe.

[34:35]

This code actually is an invitation to let go of that, let go of all safety, let go of all ability to control this situation in your life. The danger actually is in the control. It's a false disposition. The belief that we can control anything causes us unending suffering and removes the possibility of true joy in our lives. In this way, the koan is saying, in the words of Yamada Roshi, insists that these two worlds, nirvana, samsara, Perfection and completion, enlightenment and confusion. These two worlds are the same. Not even one used to tell Iken Roshi, who wrote this, or translated the Mumen Khan that I'm reading this from.

[35:39]

Not even one world can be separated in this way. The koan suggests that we need to see both of those answers with one eye. One eye. What kind of eye can see to answers like that, so different, so seemingly contradictory? The eye that can see in that way is the eye of liberation itself, is the eye of freedom in our lives. Not the easy way, sometimes the difficult way. One term that came up that I really liked in the, and this will help with this koan, I think, and also karma in the Soto Zen Buddhist Association, was the concept of moral relativity.

[36:43]

I really like that concept. I don't know if I understood it completely. Moral relativity in the precepts. I had been thinking about this for a while, and actually I imagined it as, I don't know if you like Russian novels. Those old Russian novels, you have these huge family groupings that are good, bad and indifferent, and they relate to each other. So when we talked about it, when we talked about moral relativity in these presentations, the sense of it was, you know, we see good and bad on a linear scheme around and informed by greed, hate and delusion. there's absolutely no room there's absolutely no room to be alive in that way so the precepts then and moral relativity i think are to really not know everything or to open this situation up that this realm and these people in this situation as good as bad is it is inordinately complex

[37:54]

not joined together perhaps in the way our human mind wants it to be joined. A place of real possibilities in space for the first time. So maybe I will. This is a rather rambling talk, but we're friends. I'll throw in my last poem. Everybody gets what they deserve. This is moral relativity with vengeance. Issan Dorsey said, everybody gets what they deserve, whether they deserve it or not. It's really wonderful. It really is wonderful. I really love that coin. This is the expression of being mine. Not a mind that makes deals with reality or punishes. The commentary by... a venerable teacher, first you observe it, then you name it, perhaps karma.

[39:02]

If you then see how it measures up to the name, you become lost in despair, pride, or confusion. But what is acceptance beyond acceptance? Fox? Wonderful. Buddha? Great. Human being? Okay. Can you live your life that way? What is it that thus comes? Do you deserve it? Do you not deserve it? How is it different if you deserve it or not? It's right here. It's your life. This puts you right on the hook. You've got to put yourself right on the hook in order to be free. How is it different if you deserve it or not? Don't try to get out of anything. Perhaps the law of karma is bigger than your evaluation. The merging of difference and unity is a statement like Isan's.

[40:06]

Healthy or ill, Isan met each moment. Perhaps you deserve more than these meager words. Alas. Alas. And this teacher put a poem in, Old Basho, splash, rings in your ears. Whether you like the palm or not, the frog got wet. Don't disdain anything, maybe is one aspect of this koan. Don't disdain anything. What wonder a fox is. What wonder life is. Don't hold back, will be, is the message of that koan. Cease making deals. give up shocking when he was a person just like you just like you he's never said anything differently the gate is always open to this kind of inquiry and this kind of freedom but don't decide how freedom tastes before you taste it for yourself as it actually is

[41:56]

That's enough for a... I've lost my watch. That's enough for a Wednesday night. So thank you very much. And I'll share my diploma with anybody that wants to see it. And I'll also show you the fox's cave sometime if you want to see where this fox lived. Thanks.

[42:25]

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