This podcast is offered by the San Francisco Zen Center on the web at www.sfzc.org. Our public programs are made possible by donations from people like you. Good morning. So we're into the fourth day. And thank you for your dedicated sitting. Everyone is sitting very well. And there's some squirming. So there's room for improvement. Everyone's sitting very well. So when one becomes aware of squirming, that's wonderful... mindful practice.

[01:02]

Being aware of, oh, I'm squirming. And one wants to have the thought, oh, yeah, this is unbearable, I need to move. Then that also, mindful awareness. And I suggest when you have that, oh, I need to move, then Give yourself ten breaths. Count ten breaths. And see if you want to breathe quickly. See if there's a kind of a wanting to rush through ten breaths. Maybe only three breaths. But to give yourself a little time to learn for your body and mind. to learn who's practicing. So we say this is sambhogakaya.

[02:08]

Your body of practice is not exactly who you think you are. So your body and mind actually extends, of course it extends boundlessly, but you may think it's all right, so cramped and tight. So to give yourself a little time, actually, ten breaths, is a place of discovering, going beyond usual thought, that this can't be, or it's impossible. So I suggest that as you continue your dedicated practice of being still in the midst of everything that's going on. So when someone leaves the zendo, you know, everyone feels that.

[03:18]

So this morning, Michael McCord had to leave the zendo. He learned early this morning because the Tonto just happened to go check phone messages. The message came in pretty early this morning that Michael's father is possibly dying very suddenly. He seemed to be in perfectly good health yesterday or the day before, but then his heart went into ventricular fibrillation, I believe, something like that. That meant his blood wasn't flowing through the whole system, so he went into some kind of coma or something. So Michael got the message. Darcy, we asked Darcy to drive him over to Jamesburg, and he has a flight this afternoon from San Francisco to Denver, where his family is gathering.

[04:30]

So our sesheen is extended at least to Denver. That's always the case, but sometimes we don't know it until we have some specific, particular word about something that's happening. every moment someone is born and someone dies and so that's abstract until it's oneself or someone that one knows so today I wanted to take up one of the cases from from the Denkoroku this is about the seventh ancestor and I was looking at the different translations and so I rewrote it a little bit

[06:00]

I think I'll just read it the way I rewrote it. Once upon a time, there was a person without a name wandering from town to town. Although he was always immaculately dressed, people thought he was bizarre. Someone very strange because sometimes he would howl or sigh. He went about humming or whistling. And he always carried a wine jug. But he did not seem to drink out of it. It just seemed to be something precious to him. An empty wine jug. He was just plain weird. And he would not tell anyone his name. You see someone wandering around San Francisco or someplace.

[07:09]

You may try to kind of put it together, but it's unusual for someone who's really just plain crazy to dress well. So it's important that part of the story is it always says he was immaculately or impeccably dressed. I can imagine him wearing a suits and a tie and having his suit clean and pants well-pressed and his shoes shined. Maybe a hat. Anyway, he would not tell anyone his name. So now it happens that a great sage named Mishaka was traveling in that same area and teaching the Buddha Dharma and when he approached this town where this nameless person was he saw a golden cloud rising up from inside the town wall and he commented to his companions this is the energy of a great person who will inherit my Dharma so

[08:30]

a little like getting a phone call, right? Seeing, oh, golden aura arising up, a cloud arising up. So, shortly thereafter, this nameless one approached and asked Mishaka, do you know what I have in my hand? And he's got this wine jug. Actually, I thought about that a Was it a wine jug? It says vessel. Different translations say. So the Nerman translation says wine cup. And the Cleary translation says wine vessel. And the Cook translation says wine vessel. And then I was looking up Lex Hickson. Lex Hickson. It's more dramatic. He says a large gourd of wine. so that was Lex Lex he liked things more dramatic so he rented it in his way but then I thought maybe it was I thought I originally thought maybe it was probably it was either a ceramic jug I thought wine bottle didn't seem right and then ceramic jug I thought maybe ceramic

[10:00]

Or it could be a wine skin. It could have been out of goat skin or something. It just says wine vessel. Not so clear. But vessel is interesting. The word vessel in our English translation vessel has a number of meanings. It can mean like a big ship. A vessel. More usually it would mean We think of, oh, our blood coursing through some tubes in our body, so some kind of a conduit. And then it does have a utilitarian meaning, a vessel, something to carry, usually a liquid. But then it has, sometimes it's used as conveying some quality. of a person, a person, a quality a person might have.

[11:02]

Like someone is a vessel of compassion. Or someone is a vessel of our heritage or something like that. So anyway, vessel. So anyway, this nameless one approaches and asks Mishaka, do you know what I have in my hand? And Mishaka replies, it is an impure vessel. Now to me that's kind of a surprising response. And an impure vessel, not a pure one. So then the nameless person then placed this wine jug there right in front of Mishaka and stood up. Maybe this was the first time he let it out of his grasp, right? He put it down there and stood up and bowed and said, and just stood there.

[12:06]

And so Mishaka picked it up and set it back in front of him and saying, is this vessel yours or mine? And then he continued saying, it seemed that the nameless person doesn't quite know what to say. So Mishaka continues, he says, if you consider it to be my vessel, it is your intrinsic awakened nature. If on the other hand it is your vessel, it is fitting that you receive my dharma. Hearing this, the nameless one awakened to the unborn, to his own original intrinsic nature. So these things happen once upon a time, right?

[13:11]

He awakened to the unborn, to his original intrinsic nature, and suddenly, at that moment, the wine jug vanished. So then, Mishaka said, tell me your name and I'll tell you something about the past conditions leading to our meeting. So the nameless one responded with a verse translated, for innumerable eons up to my birth in this land, my family name has been Bharadvaja, my given name is Vasumitra Vasumitra in one of these versions it translates as he who is an excellent friend in our chanting when we chant the ancestors we chant Vasumitsu so for innumerable eons so then Venerable Mishaka says my teacher

[14:29]

Dhrtaka, or we say Daitaka, my teacher, once told me that the Buddha Tathagata Shakyamuni once traveled right here in this area and told Ananda at that time, told Ananda, 300 years after my death, there will be a holy person in this land whose family name will be Bharadvaja and whose given name will be Vasamitra. he will become the seventh ancestor of the jhana lineage. So since the world-honored one made this prediction about you, you should now make your home departure. Meaning, he should become a bhikkhu, one of the order of home leavers. So Vasimitra replied, Now, just now as I reflect on my past lives, I was once a donor who supported the Tathagata by giving a jeweled seat.

[15:39]

And that Buddha made a prediction about me, saying you will become an ancestor in the lineage of Shakyamuni during the fortunate eon. So this is... The fortunate eon still includes us. This is a long time, you know. A fortunate eon can hardly be measured. But during this fortunate... It's called the fortunate eon because thousands of Buddhas appear during the fortunate eon. At least 1,000. So anyway, this is how... Vashimitsu became the seventh ancestor in our Zen lineage there you have it so Kezan comments on a number of points this is actually rather brief commentary there's not so much that needs explanation or comment it's already pretty clear

[16:53]

so but I want to go through some of these points first Kezan notes this vessel was so important to Vashomitsu that he never let go of it it was as if it was a part of himself that he used continually day and night he couldn't be without it so it was his distinguishing feature and came to represent himself So then, Kezon says, when Vasamitra asks Mishaka what he has in his hand, and Mishaka responds that it's an impure vessel, this creates this whole question of purity and impurity. Which, if I depart from Kezon for a bit, you know, there's this

[17:57]

this famous encounter of Huynung and Nanyue. So Huynung, the sixth ancestor, is teaching and this student Nanyue comes up and Huynung asks, where do you come from? And Nanyue says, from Mount Song. And then Huynang asks, what is it that thus comes? And Nanyue is dumbfounded, actually. He doesn't know how to respond. And so he stays and continues to practice with Huynang for some time. And after eight years, he says, oh, he has some understanding.

[18:59]

So he comes back to Huay Nung and says, I have some understanding. And Huay Nung says, what is it? And Nanui says, to say it in words misses the point. So then Huynong asks, can it be made evident? And Nanyue says, I don't say it cannot be made evident. I just say it cannot be defiled. So then Huynong says, so this is the thus-ness of all the Buddhas. And then they continue. But this point about, okay, I cannot say that it cannot be made evident, but I do say that it cannot be defiled.

[20:11]

So this is pointing to something that cannot be defiled, something that is then beyond purity and impurity, something that can be impure, Usually we think that something is pure could also be impure. Or that there's some way to make something that's impure pure by getting rid of whatever are the impurities. But this teaching is that this matter that Wei Nong and Nanyue are talking about is something that cannot be defiled. something that cannot be impure. So then what's going on with Michaka saying to Vashemitsu, it's an impure vessel. So Kezon comments in this way.

[21:17]

Kezon's comment is, even if you realize that the mind is the way, and clarify the fact that the body is the Buddha it is still an impure vessel these violate what is immaculate even if you realize that it existed in the past exists in the present and that it is fundamentally complete and nevertheless remains an impure vessel what past can you speak of? what present What beginning or what end? Such views as these necessarily violate purity. These views violate purity. So as soon as he realized this, so this is Vasya Mitsu, as soon as he realizes this, he puts down the vessel. So in the question that Mishaka is asking, or rather in the...

[22:24]

And there's a question when, kind of an implied question, right? When Vasumitra puts the vessel down in front of Mishaka. But then he asks, you know, what is this? And so for Mishaka to say, oh, this is an impure vessel. At that moment, Vasumitra the conditions ripen for Vashemitsu to realize that this thing that he's been carrying all this time is not his true being. It may be something that reminds him of his true being. It may be that something that actually helps him to be carrying this thing all this time. That it reminds him. of something that he doesn't understand, that he doesn't realize. But at this moment, the causes and conditions are such that, oh, he realizes.

[23:30]

This is not it. This vessel is not it. So what must it be? Who... And this then comes up with, okay, then this next question is the question then of yours or mine. So then Mishaka says, do you think it's yours or do you think it's mine? So here is this fundamental matter of what can truly be possessed. So we say when we do our precepts, we say a disciple of the Buddha is not avaricious. But sometimes we also translate it as a disciple of the Buddha does not possess anything.

[24:33]

I think when I give the precepts, usually that's the version I use. A disciple of the Buddha does not possess anything. even the truth sometimes we say even the truth that came up the other day no Michael's not here but he was asking so what about this business of truth and for the one way so a disciple of the Buddha does not possess anything even the truth so here's this this object Suzuki Roshi sometimes said that he would take off his, sometimes he wore lenses, glasses, and he'd say, these are not mine. Thank you for letting me use them. You're very compassionate. So, when you understand this, you realize that nothing, nothing is mine.

[25:45]

Even when I say, please attend to your breath, there's a question. Whose breath is this? And you form the mudra with these hands. Whose hands are these? What is being served by this mudra? I used to think it's pretty funny. Get up. Get up every morning and go do nothing. I was raised in a culture of get up in the morning and get to work. I was raised in a culture of get up and go do the chores and get busy and go to work. And so it was very funny for me to get up and go to the Zendo and just... hold a mudra you know it's not like holding a hammer holding a shovel holding a you know spatula stirring the pot holding what am I holding so this is not not possessing anything these hands don't possess anything these are not you know when you realize this you realize these are not my hands

[27:16]

Tentatively, I say my hands. So we talk about it. Tentatively, I say, okay, these are my hands. You've got your hands. But we also know that on the other side, these are not my hands and those are not your hands. So in taking this mudra, we are serving something that is not myself. Serving something that is boundless. Sometimes we don't actually have good words for this mudra. I think the mudra speaks for itself. Sometimes we say, okay, cosmic mudra. Cosmic. Cosmic. It's cosmic, man. Yeah. So we don't even know, actually, we don't even know where this mudra is.

[28:20]

And we think it's, we think it's, we start thinking about it, we think, oh, it's right here. We say, hold it, hold it right in your, you know, by your hara. It's good to start. I tell people, start with your thumb tips right at your navel. And then, from there, find the place that the mudra wants to be. That the mudra has its own place. and let it float in its own place. It's actually a floating mudra. So we don't actually lean on it. But it takes some practice of noticing that anything extra... Anything extra makes it hard to hold the mudra. So if you're using any muscles in your arms or in your shoulders that you don't need, you get very tired even holding nothing.

[29:30]

You get very tired holding nothing. Of course you are holding the whole cosmos. That's a big job. But after a while, if you carefully notice, Oh, any place here you're actually having a little extra tension and you can release that. Then after a while, you can find this place. It takes some, I'd say, tuning into the field of energy around the mudra. So the mudra is, I'd say, you could say it's a locus of your energy. If you're practicing warming up the body when it's cold, here we don't have so much opportunity because we warm up the zendo more. But in the old zendo, and before we got heat in the zendo, but in the old zendo, we didn't have any heat.

[30:40]

And so it was a... say more of a motivation to cultivate the practice of warming your own body by generating heat and beginning here in the hara so you find that you can work with the mudra the mudra here has a direct relationship with your with your back right in the whole lumbar area of your back so right through your whole body it's like this whole This whole area inside your body is generating heat. And you can bring it up or you can lower it to some degree. If we really had cold conditions, we would maybe really work on that. But you can experiment with that.

[31:43]

The heat, you know, it doesn't come from your thinking about it. It doesn't come from, oh, I'm thinking, you know, it's so cold. It doesn't come from that. It actually comes from here. Anyway, we're sitting there with holding nothing. And holding nothing has this big meaning. So this is serving something that is not myself. So when Mishaka asks, you know, who's... whose is this? Do you think this is mine or do you think it's yours? And then he says, so if you, so Mishaka is talking to Vasya Mitsu, so if he, he says, if you think, if you think it's mine, that this vessel that you placed in front of me now is mine, then you realize, you're realizing your own unborn nature, your own true nature. you're actually realizing that this doesn't belong to either one of us.

[32:47]

In other words, that neither one of us possess anything. Realizing this, then you actually realize you're free from possessions. You're free from having identity, a particular attachment to a particular identity. So you realize this. So the nameless person, free from being nameless, right? But if you think, on the other hand, that it's yours, that this vessel is yours, then you also are, you are the vessel of my dharma. So all these lifetimes, all this time that Master Mitra has been wandering around not knowing what this vessel really is, now he knows that this vessel is himself as a vessel of the Dharma.

[33:55]

But he needed to meet Mishaka to realize this. He needed to realize himself as a vessel of the Dharma. So Mishaka gives him this confirmation. Oh, okay, now you are now, you are now this vessel of Dharma. So at that point, this vessel, sitting there, vanishes. So Vasumitra becomes the vessel. So, Kezon, in talking about this, says, he makes that, it's kind of interesting, he explains it. He says, if this is my vessel, he quotes the story saying, Mishaka said, if this is my vessel, it is your intrinsic nature.

[35:07]

Thus, it is not Mishaka's vessel very logical here if it is your vessel then you will receive my Dharma so then Kezon says therefore it is not Vasumitra's vessel since it is not a thing that is either Mishakas nor Vasumitra's the vessel is not a vessel this is Kezon since it's not it doesn't belong to one or the other it's not a vessel As a result, the vessel disappeared. And then Kezon continues saying, truly, this story makes no sense to people today. So that was back in the 14th century. Makes no sense to people today in the 14th century. So today, in the 21st century, finally we can make sense of it.

[36:15]

But Kezan continues saying, though you practice and practice and arrive at the place where not even Buddhas and ancestors reach, this still must be an impure vessel and necessarily violates purity. One who is truly a pure person does not establish purity. One who is truly a pure person does not establish purity. And for that reason, also does not establish a vessel. So a pure person does not establish purity. So in our meal chant, we say, you know, vaira chana buddha pure dharmakaya. pure Dharmakaya. Vairacana Buddha, pure Dharmakaya. So this is the inconceivable body. Dharmakaya, inconceivable body. This is completely pure because there is no purity established.

[37:27]

This is no purity. Therefore we say it's completely pure. if you can establish purity, you're setting up duality. And so, when we establish purity, or we think that, you know, immediately, that sets it apart from impurity. So, in the Vairachana realm, in the Dharmakaya body, there's no purity, no impurity. So, therefore, Kezon says, the pure does not Establish purity. Then, he goes on to talk about this transmission part, saying, you will receive my Dharma because it is your intrinsic nature. So he's commenting on Misaka saying to Vasometsu, you will receive my Dharma.

[38:30]

He's saying, this is because it's intrinsic nature. Not one thing, this is Kazon continuing, not one thing is received from someone else, and not one thing is given to another. When you come to the bottom of this, you can finally understand teacher and disciple. The disciple rises up on the teacher's head, and the teacher comes down to the disciple's feet. At this time, there is no separation. know two things. Therefore, one cannot speak of a vessel. One cannot speak of purity. Teacher comes down to the disciple's feet. Disciple rises up, teacher's head. So this is neither one is receiving something from another.

[39:32]

And so that's why we say that what is most important is transmitted. What is most important, which is lessness itself, cannot be located in any particular place. And so transmitting it does not mean that it moves from here to there. Transmitting it means realizing that it is already always present. And to say that is to make a big mistake. as if it establishes it in the present. Because this dharmakaya is not a matter of past or present or future. No time and no space. So we say, in this sitting practice then, to realize this present moment. This present moment, when you refine your concentration and refine your attention, present moment has no dimensions.

[40:39]

You can be fully present in this moment, quite happily present. When you are present in the present moment, there's no problem. No problem whatsoever. Problems arise as soon as one departs from the present moment, as soon as one begins to form some other conception. And, of course, that happens. But most of the time, as human beings, we're involved in our beliefs and our conceptions about what things are. And so we maybe think about the present moment, but we don't actually allow ourselves to be right at home in the present moment. So if you notice what's happening in your zazen and refine your concentration, you begin to see how you spin out. how you've always spun way out.

[41:44]

And most of the time we're not even close to even being in this body. This body is wonderful because this body is a Buddha field. So to allow yourself to be in this body is a great kindness to yourself. To allow yourself to be right where you are is a great kindness to yourself. It's actually so compassionate. But it's very difficult. It's extremely difficult. You can't believe that it's so simple to allow oneself to be right here, this moment, completely at home, in this present moment. Because this present moment includes everything. that means it includes all the things we don't like.

[42:49]

All the thoughts of things that I don't like crop up. So when Buddha's sitting in the Bodhi tree, sitting there, we have the story of all the things that come up to torment the Buddha, so that the Buddha cannot actually be just sitting there with the Bodhi tree, happily communing with the Bodhi tree. all the things that one fears come up big things, little things sometimes tiny irritations distract us so to be willing to be completely aware without forming conceptions without forming desires without forming even the slightest separation from what is directly experienced, this is a huge challenge.

[43:59]

And it's exactly what's being talked about in this story. Vashumichu and Mishaka meeting but this story looks like it's about Mishaka and Vashumichu but actually it's about you it's about me it's about meeting each other now what are you holding on to what are you going around carrying which no matter how perfectly you're dressed, no matter how clean you are and how impeccably you're dressed, still, you're holding on to something. So many people spend a lot of time worrying about, oh, how do I look?

[45:08]

Am I doing the right thing? What do I have to do in order to be satisfied? What do I have to do in order to be completely content? Thank you, kitchen. I like the way we say that, kitchen. It's like, there goes the kitchen. The kitchen is the people. So making many efforts to become pure is not going to go beyond the duality of purity and impurity.

[46:13]

So the effort that we make in zazen is not to go any place, not to attain something. The effort made in zazen is in the direction of non-attainment. So as soon as you notice wanting to get something, That's the point, that's the place to practice non-attainment. As soon as I want to get something, I notice, oh, I want... It may come up like that. It may come up with the first-person pronoun in your mind. I want... But it may even be more subtle than that, where it's just a feeling of... Just wanting to lean towards something a little bit. Or maybe to get away from something.

[47:24]

Maybe just lean a little bit away from something. You might notice your body has a slight tension. I just want to... I just would like to... Just that. To notice that and say, oh, what if I... What if I drop that? What if I let that go? Would that be so bad? Yeah, it may be really scary. It may be really terrifying. What if I don't keep my distance from this? And this can be happening completely internally inside oneself. In the end, there's no difference inside, outside. So whether it's happening, whether you feel some separation from some sound that's happening outside the zendo even, When you turn that sound into, no, I'd rather that not happen.

[48:34]

I'd rather that not be happening. As soon as you notice that, you say, oh, okay, well, what if I drop that? It's a... So many, so much karma, so many little attitudes and big attitudes that we carry. One of my teachers, Katagiri, Dainin, Katagiri, Dainin means great patience. He was talking about how difficult it is to bear the karma that we have. So for him... This is a practice of patience. The practice of patience as forbearance to actually be willing to be present and bear all the karma that one's carrying.

[49:36]

He would say this is a matter of your skin, flesh, bones and marrow. Letting right into your very bones being willing to accept the intensity of that it really caught me when he said you don't realize how much the karma is right in your back so it's okay in my back in the front too So to be willing to be upright, right in the middle, this is our practice. Eventually not squirming. But to not squirm means to accept squirming. If you don't accept squirming, then you're squirming against squirming.

[50:40]

You're squirming about squirming. So to not squirm means to even accept squirming. Oh, I have to accept squirming. I have to accept my own fear, you know, my own resistance, moment by moment, moment by moment, not turning away from it, not thinking that there's any way around it. Most people spend years or lifetimes trying to find a way to get around it. There's got to be a way around it. If I can just figure it out. So then we go into our heads and start getting busy figuring it out and creating all kinds of more delusions for ourselves. So when you notice a tendency, oh, I'm going to figure it out. Then, oh, okay, I noticed that.

[51:45]

Now, just this, this moment. What do I feel? Where is that squirming coming from? Often it's just some restlessness, feels like some restlessness. Each person is already beautiful, complete. No need to go any place and add anything. So notice a tendency to think, oh, I'm going to somehow get out of this. Fourth day session is a natural. Still some lingering thought. Maybe there's some way out of this. Maybe we should extend it. We said it was a five-day session, but...

[52:48]

We could extend it. Well, maybe I should stop. The kitchen left a while ago. Is that okay? Thank you for listening. Thank you for listening to this podcast offered by the San Francisco Zen Center. Our Dharma Talks are offered free of charge. and this is made possible by the donations we receive. Your financial support helps us to continue to offer the Dharma. For more information, visit sfzc.org and click Giving.

[53:34]

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