This podcast is offered by the San Francisco Zen Center on the web at sfcc.org. Our public programs are made possible by donations from people like you. This morning... I'm going to talk about meeting and merging. That's sort of the underlying basis of my talk. And as my introduction to the talk, I'm going to talk about a story from the Lotus Sutra, one of our Mahayana Sutras, about the story of the prodigal son.

[01:04]

This story appears also in the Bible, coincidentally, and probably in many traditions as well. So in our Buddhist version, there is a man, doesn't mention his wife, but... Presumably he had one because he had a son. And he was an ordinary man. And he wasn't particularly wealthy or anything. But the son, when he came of age, decided to leave, as sons do, and to seek his fortune in the world. So in the course of time, the son traveled a lot. And he took up various activities.

[02:11]

And I don't know what all those were, but this was a long time ago, so we don't know. But... All of these activities were sort of dead ends. He was looking for something, but he didn't know what he was looking for, as most people don't. We do, but we don't. Somewhere we know what we're looking for, but we don't know what that is. And so we search, maybe we should do this, maybe we should do that. And sometimes something is given to us to do. But in this case, the son traveled for a long time and had many ups and downs. And in the meantime, the father, through good fortune or whatever, maybe good karma, became more and more wealthy.

[03:20]

And he just kept adding to his wealth. And he became, maybe you could say, became the wealthiest man in India. That's pretty wealthy. He had, you know, pearls and diamonds. They usually equate wealth with pearls, diamonds, rubies, and so forth. And lots of property and servants and, you know, people bowing down to him. So he became more and more wealthy. But he was always longing for his son, who never came home. And one day, he was in his counting house, counting all his money, while his wife was in a parlor eating bread and honey. And he saw this person, and he said, that's my son.

[04:24]

Many years had passed and the sons had changed. But he still recognized him. But he was afraid that if he went out and said something to him directly, that he would scare him off. So he wanted to see who his son was. He didn't want to interfere. He wanted to just say, observe. So he sent out some of his servants. to talk to the boy. Don't tell the boy that this man was his father. So the servants went out, and they said, well, we'll give you a place to sleep for the night. And then gradually, over time, they persuaded him to take a job in the barn shoveling dung. Shoveling dung, you know, is what we do as practice.

[05:27]

So this is good practice for as a young student. And he took up with the work. He did pretty well with the work. And for a long, long time, he kept working. And pretty soon, the father, every once in a while, would come out and work with him, but not let him know who he was. So they became... acquainted that way, reacquainted. And little by little, the son had access to the house and he could come and go and so forth. And then, little by little, the father revealed to him who he was and gave him more appealing jobs. And finally, toward the end, the father revealed to him that he was really his father. And the son inherited the whole thing. So that's the story, basically, of the prodigal son going out to find his fortune, running up against all kinds of dead ends.

[06:38]

Sometimes I think of the path as a way through a maze. The world is a kind of maze. And when you... start to figure out the path through the maze, you always end up with dead ends and there's only one way through. So we think of practice as the way through the maze, the one way that goes directly to the end and comes out through the other side. So this is an example actually of meeting and merging. And it's kind of a metaphor for finding your way through the maze, finding a way to practice that leads through the maze and finally attaining the solution or the goal and receiving what is already yours.

[07:55]

And I think that this is a good metaphor for not acquiring something, but finding what is already yours. That's the spirit of practice, is to find what is already yours. There's nothing to gain, nothing to get. There's a story, a Zen story of... Chinese Zen master Dao Wu. Dao Wu was lived in this temple and around the temple were a lot of lay people and who would attend the temple and there was a young boy whose name was Lung Tan who later became a famous Zen master and

[08:59]

Dao Wu recognized the boy's abilities. And the boy would visit him every day and they would talk and practice. And the boy's parents had a little stand where they cooked Danish. This is in China, of course. Little... And so Lung Tan's mother, the boy, every day she would give Lung Tan a half a dozen of these little cakes to take to Dao Wu as a kind of offering. And so Lung Tan would offer the cakes. Dao Wu would accept them, and he would give one back. And this went on for a while.

[10:04]

And one day the boy said, every day I give you six cakes, but you always give me one back. Why do you do that? He says, I'm only giving you what already belonged to you. That's our Zen story. Zen practice. I only give to you what only belonged to you in the first place. So this is called uncovering, discovering, merging, meeting, which now here's the main story. This is a We have many collections of Zen stories called koans.

[11:07]

And this Master Muman collected, this is the Tang Dynasty, or the Song Dynasty in China, collected 48 of these cases. And it's called the collection of Muman, or Muman Kang. And number 35 is called Seizhou. Seijo and her soul are separated. And here's the case. And this case is about, involves, well, it's presented by a priest named Mutsu or Goso. I call him Goso. That's the name of the mountain. These old teachers were called by the name of the mountain that they lived on. And so we hear their mountain name. So Gozo said to his monks, Seijo's soul separated from her being.

[12:14]

Which was the real Seijo? Okay. That's all he says. It actually comes from a Chinese ghost story. So... I'm gonna read you the ghost story. And he used this ghost story to demonstrate something. When a baby, Seijo was betrothed to her cousin, Ochu. Ochu and Seijo. Seijo was the girl Ocho was the boy, and they grew up together, and they really loved each other, and they were assured, you know, they just took it for granted that when they grew up, they would be married.

[13:17]

However, when she grew up, her father wanted to give her in marriage to somebody else, a wealthy man, and she was really disappointed. They both were. So Ocho, the boy, he said, I got to get out of here. I can't stand this. So he left home in indignation and went up the Yangtze River by boat. By boat probably means, in those days, a small boat. At midnight, so before the boat left, he's sitting on the dock, the boat's under the moonlight. At midnight, someone came running along the boat, the bank, eagerly calling Ochu's name. It was Seijo. Don't leave. Wait for me.

[14:19]

I'm going to go with you. They journeyed together to a distant place, and there they lived and had two children. Five years went by, and they became homesick. Seijo said, I really want to see my father again. We left in bad circumstances and I didn't want to hurt him and so forth, but I want to go home and make amends to my daddy. They yearned to see their parents again. So they decided to visit their birthplace. So coming down the river, Ochu left Seijo in the boat after they docked. And And he went. He said, let me handle this. You know, prepare the way. So Ochu goes, knocks on the door, and the father answers it, and he says, oh, Ochu, gee, it has been five years since I've seen you.

[15:23]

Where have you been? You knew nothing about this, right? So... But... But he said, and he said, and so Ochu said, well, I have been with Sejo. We went down to Shanghai or someplace, and we have two children. We've been happily married. And the father was just totally astonished. He says, what are you talking about? He says, Sejo has been here, sick in bed. for five years. She hasn't opened her eyes or moved or said anything, just laying in bed for five years. And then, so Sejo, Ochu said, but daddy, that can't be.

[16:28]

He said, I'm gonna go down to the boat and bring Sejo up here and you'll see. So, well, the story's different. There's different versions, but in one version, Ocho goes into the house and takes a look and says, well, that's Seijo's laying down there in bed. And he goes back and he brings Seijo back to the door. And when Seijo... comes to the door, the other seijo gets up out of bed and they see each other and embrace and turn into one seijo. So the question is, which is the true seijo? That's the koan. When my old teacher, Suzuki Roshi, used to say,

[17:34]

When you are you, totally and completely, Zen is Zen. When you are you, totally and completely, Zen is Zen. So what's missing? Which one is you? This is about you. It's about everyone. What is our true self? And what is our, I don't want to say fictional, functional, maybe. You know, we say essence and function. You can say, I don't want to analyze this too much. You can analyze it psychologically forever. It's great. would be a great case to analyze, but I don't want to do that.

[18:39]

I didn't even want to say much, but the sejo who is in bed is essential self. The essence and the function is the sejo who ran away. So we do run away from ourself. But that's normal and natural. Normal and natural to run away from ourself. And then at some point we say, wait a minute, where am I going? There's something missing. And then we look for it. And then we find some place to look for it called sin center. So, lost and found. And then, Mumon, the compiler of the Mumon Khan, has a comment.

[19:53]

He says, when you realize what the real is, you will see that we pass from one husk to another, like traveler's stopping for a night's lodging. But if you don't realize it yet, I earnestly advise you not to run about wildly. When earth, water, fire, and air suddenly separate, you will be like a crab struggling in boiling water with its seven or eight arms and legs. When that happens, don't say I didn't warn you. So when you realize that what the real is, you will see that we pass from one husk to another. Husk here means, you know, body or mind.

[20:55]

But, you know. Everything is changing moment to moment. So we're passing through one husk after another, moment by moment. Every moment we change, even though we look the same for a while, feel the same for a while, think the same for a while, but every moment is a different birth. Every moment is a different death. Birth and death are happening. constantly we have this idea of I was born in a certain day I was a baby I grew up I was an adolescent I got old and I died that's one way of looking at our life and that's usual so that's one level upon which we look at our life and our demise of change continuous change but another level

[22:02]

Another way that we understand birth and death is that every moment is a moment of arising, manifestation and dismantifestation, arising and ceasing, moment by moment. We're born in a new way. So we always have a choice. Every moment we have a choice because we're born new on each moment. And the last moment is gone. Next moment is not arrived. So we're passing from one husky could say state of mind, mental state, bodily state. Our states of mind are continuously changing faster than we can think about it. So which one is the real you?

[23:03]

We have to grab the moment, but there's another story which I may or may not talk about. So we are travelers, traveling through this body and mind. But if you do not realize it, I earnestly advise you not to rush about wildly. So not to rush about wisely is sit down. Just sit down. Cross your legs. Sit up straight and breathe. And merge. Sazen is merging. So that's why we practice Sazen. We need to resume our true nature. to merge with our true nature.

[24:08]

Our discriminating mind is what is called division. Discrimination means to divide. And so we're always discriminating, constantly discriminating. We have to discriminate. We can't stay alive without discriminating. But on what basis do we discriminate? We have to make choices. and making choices, we choose one thing over another. Sometimes we can have our cake and eat it too, but mostly we don't. It's either this or that. So when we can let go of our discriminating mind, we can return to our undivided nature. That's us and that's what we're doing here. But it doesn't mean that we stop discriminating.

[25:09]

We just discriminate in the right way. That is, without creating our ego. Because our ego is created through discrimination. That's what it's called. Discriminating mind means creating ego, creating a self where there is no self. But at the same time, we need some self. So it's not one and it's not two, which is the real sage joke, the discriminating self or the non-discriminating self. If you choose one over the other, you don't understand the co-op. So yes, there is a self. And no, there isn't a self. So we say there is no inherent self.

[26:17]

Yet we create a self. We necessarily create a self out of nothing. So. when earth, water, fire, and air suddenly separate, that means when you come apart, you'll be like a crab struggling in water, boiling water. When that happens, don't say I didn't warn you. So Muman has a verse. He says, the moon above the clouds is ever the same. The moon above the clouds is ever the same. The valleys and mountains are separate from each other. All are blessed. All are blessed. Are they one or are they two? The moon above the clouds is ever the same.

[27:26]

When we look at the moon, we see it in different phases. There's the new moon. There's the half moon. There's the three-quarter moon. But no matter how we see the partiality of the moon, the partiality of part of the moon, it's still the whole moon. No matter how we look at it, it's still the whole moon is there. The whole moon doesn't care how you look at it. But it's what it is. But we... Our mind creates partiality, where there is no partiality. But we need partiality. It's nice to have a half-moon. It's nice to have a quarter-moon. And those are meaningful. But yet, it's all one piece. The valleys and mountains are separate from each other. Yes, there's the mountain, there's Tamal Pais, there's the valley, and there's... But it's all one piece.

[28:30]

We just say mountain and valley. It's just the irregularity of one piece of earth. So wherever we stand, we cover the whole earth. We say, this is Green Gulch, but Green Gulch covers the whole earth. A snail covers the whole earth because there's only one piece. this is a I like this ghost story a lot so there's another story about Master Tozan Tozan was a very famous Zen master our school is descended from Tozan actually in Tang Dynasty China and Tozan

[29:35]

was leaving his teacher. And when he was leaving his teacher, his teacher was old and he was dying. He said, where shall we meet? And the teacher made a circle in the air and he said, just this. Just this. Where shall we not meet? And Tozan left And he came to a stream. And as he was crossing the stream, he looked down in the water and he saw his reflection. And he had a big awakening when he saw his reflection in the stream. And he made a kata poem. And one line of the poem says, everywhere I turn,

[30:36]

I meet myself. What does that mean? Everywhere I turn, I meet myself. Whatever I see, I see as myself. The whole universe is a mirror. But actually, Tozan's mind was a mirror. Tozan's mind was a mirror in which everything was reflected as it is, not through partiality. When he saw the moon, he saw himself. When he looked at the water, he saw himself. When you look at a stone, you can see yourself. We say, well, he saw his reflection in the stream, meaning like in a mirror, as we usually look in a mirror. But everywhere we look is a mirror. And when we relate to each other, we mirror each other. And do we see things as it really is, or do we see things through our mind of partiality?

[31:41]

So when Tozan saw himself, he was not looking through the eyes of partiality. He was looking through the eyes of Buddha to see everything as it really is, not as we see in our partial way of seeing. complete saying, complete understanding. This is called enlightenment. There's another story. Do you remember Lung Tan? He was a little boy who brought the cakes to Dao Wu. Okay, so Lung Tan actually became a well-known Zen master who lived on a mountain. And there was another monk named Dashan. Dashan was a scholarly monk.

[32:46]

And he was an expert at a certain sutra called the Diamond Sutra. You may have heard of the Diamond Sutra. So he carried his commentaries on his back. And he was... At that time, there were people who didn't like the Zen school because they felt that it was heretical. So he was going out to prove that the Zen school was heretical. And so he was carrying his Diamond Sutra commentaries on his back. He came to a... a stand where this woman was selling little cakes. Maybe it was Lungtan's mother. I didn't put those two together. Yeah, that makes it a good story. It was Lungtan's mother, and she was selling his little cakes by the side of the road.

[33:48]

And Dashan came up, and he wanted one, and the mother said, Well, you know, she saw him carrying his stuff, you know, and she kind of sized him up. And she said, well, if you can answer my question, Mr. Scholar, I'll give you one of these. Free. And he said, okay. She said, in the diamond suture, which you carry on your back, it says, past, present, and past mind, future mind, and present mind cannot be grasped. with what mind will you eat this mind refresher? And he couldn't answer. So he went. She said, well, I'm sorry. I don't know what to say. He said, I'm looking for a Zen master. And she said, well, up on the hill, up on the top of the mountain is my son.

[34:53]

And I go visit him. So he went up the hill and visited him. And Lung Tan was, Lung Tan means dragon pond. He said, I see a little old man, but I don't see a dragon pond. And Lung Tan said, well, what you see is what you get. So they started to talk. And all day and all night they talked. And they actually came to a wonderful place meeting. They really met well. And Daszhan was quite satisfied with Lungtan. But it got very dark as they were talking. And it was late. And Lungtan said, you can sleep outside and I'll give you some light so you can find your way.

[35:59]

He lit a paper lantern, whatever that was. And as Darshan was about to take the lantern and go outside, Lungta went, blew it out. And everything was in total darkness. And Darshan woke up. Maybe that's enough. Thank you very much. Thank you for listening to this podcast offered by the San Francisco Zen Center.

[37:08]

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.

[37:34]

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