This podcast is offered by the San Francisco Zen Center on the web at sfzc.org. Our public programs are made possible by donations from people like you. I'm going to talk about koans. Koans are the folklore of Zen. They give the background teaching from which you can Learn about the history of Zen. It's the most, it's the literature that's the most particular to Zen. It's stories between teachers and students. Some of them incomprehensible, some of them comprehensible. Some of them comprehensible sometimes and not others. When they first started teaching, maybe, I can't remember how long ago that was. I began to gather Americans and koans, koans that happened in America, which which were which were which conveyed the

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spirit of Zen in America. And so, I gathered 33 of them 16 years ago, and now I have 49, one a year. A little bit different than a vitamin tell. So I'd like to read some of them, Let me give you a sense of the flavor of what I'm trying to do. Let me start over again. Good morning. Some of the koans are actually rather amusing.

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This one is one I found that Woody Allen, he was spoken at a commencement address. Woody Allen remarked, more than at any other time in history, mankind faces a crossroads. One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness, the other to total extinction. Let us pray we have the wisdom to choose correctly. This is indicative of those koans which give you two choices and there's really no choice. And they insist that you make one choice. The koans also traditionally have commentaries and verses. And the verses are really where the commentary is. Commentary is often a to distract you from what the real thing is.

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The commentary here is, when there is no way out, breathe. When there is a way out, breathe. What do these things have in common? Traditional koan means public case. It's like an example in which people argue over the years. For instance, like Roe versus Wade or some other legal case where the legal profession takes it as a kind of cutting edge, which they argue both sides continually. These public cases were not only Zen cases, but cases in the culture. And since we're approaching the fall, I thought I'd read, yell at me too. During a football practice when John Madden was coach of the Oakland Raiders, the defensive end tackled the quarterback.

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Madden stopped the play and screamed at the defensive player, telling him not to hurt his teammate. On the very next play, the other defensive end did the same thing. The coach was so furious, he could hardly speak. and ended the practice. Later he spoke with the second player and asked him why he did what the coach told him not to. The player said, I wanted you to yell at me too. So much of the time we're looking for attention. The verse, keeping score he creates desire. When he realizes that he is out of his depth, he clears the field. Are you waiting for his scream too? This one is with Bishop Ippo, who was a Nichiren priest, who Suzuki Roshi's wife, Oksan, took me to see and said, he knew Suzuki Roshi well, he'll tell you some good stories.

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Bishop Ippo visited Tassahara and asked Shinriya Suzuki, what is the future of Buddhism in America? Suzuki said, I don't know. Sound familiar? The bishop asked if Americans understood him. Suzuki Roshi said, whatever people understand is okay. By their free knowledge, they will get it. The bishop said, Zazen is so uncomfortable for Westerners. Maybe there is some other way. Suzuki Roshi replied, that's all I know. That's what my teacher taught me. When two Buddhists meet, their faith opens a thousand lotuses. There aren't enough fingers to point it to the moon. As a traditional Zen story, don't mistake the finger for the moon. Don't mistake what you're pointing for as the object you're pointing to.

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Don't mistake my words about something for what I'm trying to reach. Next one I heard on the radio before I came to Zen Center 40 years ago. Swami Satyananda once said, people come to me and say they are disappointed. I asked them who made the appointment. When meeting the Swami, best to leave your appointment book at home. He might take it away. Then what would you have? The student asked the eminent translator, Tom Cleary, what he meant by emptiness.

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Tom Cleary replied, it is innocent of concept. Emptiness is innocent of concept. The verse goes, At Tassahari, it is easy to stub your toe on the rocky paths. The vacant trail is totally alive. It's also sometimes very funny. And this one is probably a particularly American twist.

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And Sun San had Kalu Rinpoche. Sun San was a Korean Zen teacher and Kalu Rinpoche was a Tibetan teacher. They were seated at a table. Sun San pointed at an orange and said, what is it? Typical Zen question. Rinpoche did not respond. Sun San repeated, what is it? Rinpoche turned to his attendant and asked, don't they have oranges in for you? When Izumi Roshi was holding Dharma dialogue or Shosan ceremony in the Zendo, a recently ordained student came forward and asked, Roshi, I want to contemplate the deep meaning of life.

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Laughing Roshi replied, for you the shallow meaning is enough. We can get too serious about what we think we're doing. This is one that Rita Gross told me, the author of Buddhism After Patriarchy. Andrew Rinpoche was giving a set of teachings and a woman asked her, what should we do with anger? How should we deal with anger? Rinpoche replied, anger is always a waste of time. The woman said, what about things that are wrong? About things that deserve anger?

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Rinpoche replied again very sharply, I didn't tell you to lose your critical intelligence. but anger is not a use. Boiling vats of oil, burning as dry ice, what to do? Sometimes a thunderstorm leads to blue skies, but don't cling to the weather report. Clearly observe. One of my favorite teachers that came out of Zen Center was Isan. I've got a couple of stories about him. I think I'll tell two. Isan Dorsey said, everybody gets what they deserve, whether they deserve it or not. If you think you don't deserve what happens to you, you're always resentful.

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If you think you deserve it, it's too much. Karma is the result of everything you do, but it's the result of what everybody does. So sometimes the karma is a kind of collective karma. So you shouldn't try to wiggle out of it, but don't take it on too much. I think that's what he's saying. There's another story where Shunko, some of you may have known him. He's studying in Japan now. on his last day, went up to him and said, I'm really gonna miss you. His son nodded and said, are you going somewhere? He'd already thought of him as dead. He was still alive. Much like the story with Woody Allen

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The world is so dark you think it's over. But it's not over. Yogi Berra once said, it isn't over until it's over. Some people think when the giants are behind by three runs, it's over, and it probably is because they can't score anything. But it doesn't actually have to wait till the end of the game to find that out. Yogi Berra once said, nobody goes to that restaurant anymore. It's too crowded. Suzuki Roshi said each one of you is perfect the way you are and you can use a little bit of improvement.

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Once again, if you think you're perfect, you're in big trouble. If you think you can never improve, that you're stuck where you are, that's too much. You have to, with one foot in the present, you have to walk into the future. The first case I took was a teacher of mine, Katagiri Roshi, which I thought was a very good first case for Americans. Diana and Katagiri once said, this was in a lecture, you take care of your life as if it were a vending machine. You put the coins in from the top and then

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get the soda at the bottom. You do meditation and you expect something from it. Life doesn't always go so well. If any machine goes out of order, then you are mad and kick the machine. you are mad and kick the machine. So, as you may have guessed, my health is erratic. It hasn't been the greatest today, but usually it's better than that. But I find that in

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Working with my health, I have to work with it in sudden ways and in gradual ways. Getting sacral cranial work is a very sudden way of where I feel better. I feel almost like I was all brand new. But it doesn't last. Gradual way is taking medicine and doing exercise, etc. And that doesn't make a big difference, but little by little it makes a difference. So colons are often talking about the sudden and gradual way. But you have to keep your sense of humor. Of course you don't have to, but I would recommend it. Famous writer who was known for being highly articulate and witty came to meet Gregory Bateson.

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They chatted for a while and then the writer left. Bateson remarked to a student, at first I thought he had a sense of humor. Then I realized he did not. The student was confused by Bateson's remark and asked him to explain what he meant by a sense of humor. Gregory looked at the student for a moment before applying. It's knowing that you don't matter. Thich Nhat Hanh said, there are enough Zen centers, we need more Zen corners. The exact center is everywhere. The whole universe is a collection of corners. If you corner the market with centers, you may lose the open field. So many people think that we don't use koans in Soto Zen.

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It's not true. We use koans, but sometimes in different ways. We tend not to use them as the object of our meditation, but as an object of study. to give us the background and see the background and the foreground. There's actually a colon about that. Richard Baker, Zantatsu, told the assembly, I dreamt I was trying to solve a problem. A brown telephone kept ringing in the background, distracting me. Finally annoyed, I picked it up, and the voice on the other hand told me the answer to the problem.

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Ruled by picking and choosing, a distraction may be to the point. Bodhisattvas appear everywhere. Don't reject anything. So one way you can work with koans is, and this is what I recommend people do to get started, is that you read a koan every day. And you read it from the beginning to the end. And then sometime later in the afternoon you say, what was that koan about? And that's enough. And if you go through the koan several times that way, you'll become familiar with them. You'll become familiar with the stories they're trying to tell. Some koans you'll understand and some koans you won't. And sometimes the most fruitful ones are the ones you don't understand. We all have tendencies.

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We like some koans rather than others. Like I noticed that there are some people who always gravitate to thinking their teacher is right. And then there are always people who think that the student is being mistreated. But in fact, you need a teacher and a student in order to play out a problem. They're both necessary. Once I was, and colons are happening all the time. Once a student came to me in the practice instruction and said, I studied for years here and I haven't learned anything. I told her to stop bragging. There's one of the new ones in here.

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It's one that involves Reb and Suzuki Roshi, which I like very much. Tension Reb Anderson asks Suzuki, Shinryo Suzuki, does his end master suffer in a different way than his student suffers? Suzuki replied, he suffers in the same way. If he doesn't, I don't think he's good enough. The verse goes, ouch, no matter what you say, ouch. Good enough or not, ouch. Get it? Ouch. It's not about looking good. It's about experiencing what you're experiencing and moving on. Rick Fields was dwelling in a solitary retreat hut by a rushing creek.

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The creek noise was quite loud. In the sound of the flowing water, he heard the star-spangled banner day after day. After a while of this, he went to the creek to alter the position of the rocks in order to change the tune. It didn't help. He still heard the star-spangled banner. But I really appreciated him trying. Oh, say, can you see? What resolve to move the rocks? By the dawn's early light. Is there anything so foolish? But so proudly we hailed. Damn that radio mind. At the twilight's last gleaming, what's between the notes? A student asked nine in category, the student was me.

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Western teachers are very good. Their lectures are excellent, and they use very accessible examples of their own life. But many Eastern teachers, even those that are not so good, have a certain warmth or faith or something. That is what I want to learn from you. How do I learn that? This is where we often had our book songs in airports. And Norman was there at the same time, and he said, Norman, did you hear that? It's a good question. Category Roshi answered, when people see me today, they don't see the years I spent just being with my teacher, just doing stuff together. I just came out of a, just partially one of my body's a wreck, out of a four-day conference of American Zen teachers.

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And believe it or not, we spent 10 hours a day sitting in chairs talking. It's crazy. You wouldn't think that Zen was about going beyond letters and words. But sometimes we take stand and study too seriously. We take the words too seriously. The words are okay. It's not the words that are the problem. But it's our beaming on to them, it's grabbing them. And of course the best thing about the conferences is interacting with the people there. I'm taking a great leap.

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After 39 years at Sunsetter, I'm going to start my own place. And I'm 63 years old, and people say, you're too old. You're too sick. Maybe I am, but I want to try. I don't think there's any time when you can take something, a new step. So I'll keep you posted how it goes. In fact, when I go places, people say, I'm 63 too. I could do something different also. Yes, you can. I'm calling the center Dragon's Leap. Great Dragon is my Buddhist name. In a lecture introducing the Genja Palan, Suzuki Rishi said, the secret of all the schools of Buddhism is to be present in the moment.

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That's the secret. Don't tell anybody I said so. It's a secret because no matter what you say, you cannot live it. Or it's very elusive. Well, maybe that's enough. Is there any burning question?

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We can come back to take care of the less burning ones. Okay, have a wonderful day. Thank you for listening to this podcast offered by the San Francisco Zen Center. Our programs are made possible by the donations we receive. Please help us to continue to realize and actualize the practice of giving by offering your financial support. For more information, visit sfzc.org and click giving. May we fully enjoy the Dharma.

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