Good evening. Start with a few minutes of Silent City. So as often is the case, while I was sitting there just now, I was thinking of things.

[06:33]

And what I thought of was that this silent sitting is really the heart of Zen. I mean, what we were just doing there for five minutes is it. That's it. You just had it. That's the whole thing. You don't really need to know anything else. But as the old abbot said about that very thing, was teaching you know some monk justice is it and the monk said well how come you keep talking and he said if i just said that there would be weeds growing at the monastery gate so you know we keep talking i i i appreciate that and so i will uh i hope you're all well ah so we've been talking or i've been talking about Bodhidharma and Emperor Wu, one of the iconic stories of how Zen Chan, as it's called in Chinese, came from India to China.

[07:37]

And last week, I read to you from the Blue Cliff Record, the story of Bodhidharma and Emperor Wu. And I mentioned a few of the teachings that are there that you can see yourselves if you have a copy of that text. And I wanted to say that, I think I may have mentioned this already, but one of the reasons that this story is so well known at Zen Center, I imagine this is true, Zen centers everywhere, is that it's the story that's given to the head monk of a practice period. So usually after someone's been here for a while, quite a few years, has practiced at Tassahara and really has a pretty clear intention of wanting to do this formal, more formal or classical practice. as I'm coming to call it these days, is a training program. And part of that training is that the novice practitioner is now moving toward more senior status, senior practitioner status. We call them senior students. And the way you become a senior student is by becoming head monk for practice period, or shusou.

[08:45]

It's called the shusou ceremony. And at the beginning of this period of practice, the shusou is given... the Blue Cliff Record and asked to study this case, Bodhidharma and Emperor Wu. And then at the time of the ritual itself, the Shuso ceremony, in the case of in the times when I have been the teacher for the practice period, the Shuso who's seated right across from the teacher. So you're on either side of the altar. So, you know, I was seated on one side of the altar and I've got all this stuff that the Shuso is going to come and get. and the chiseaux is seated on the other side of the altar without any stuff yet. So then part of the ritual is that they very slowly are, first of all, they're brought things by my attendant. I'll have an attendant, a ritual attendant. They'll bring the chiseaux the book, the Blue Cliff Record, and the chiseaux will read this koan to the assembly.

[09:45]

And then they close the book. It's put back, and it's usually a cloth cover, And they get up and they bring it back all the way around the room to the teacher. Very formal. It's a very formal ritual. I want to keep saying the word ritual because this is a really important part of what these stories basically are all about. They're all about embodiment and doing it. So, yeah, so. And then the next part of the ceremony, the biggest section of the ceremony is the room may have upwards of 50, 60 people there and sitting in rows, most of them on Zafus on the floor or up on the Tans, the raised seats. And each person in turn, starting with the newer students, the youngest students who are just coming for the first time to practice period, begin asking questions. And then the senior staff, more senior people ask questions. And then finally, there's a whole big section of the most senior students who have all been to so many of them are also Dharma transmitted.

[10:55]

We've been talking about transmission of lights. So these are the people who have brown robes called brown robe monks. They've been given transmission from their teachers to be teachers in their own right independently. So they're all sitting over here by seniority. So the oldest and most senior and crusty of the old Zen monks is the last one who asks the question. And it's usually a doozy. I remember mine. I don't remember what he said. I just remember I was stumped. I just sort of sat there. I think he started snoring and waiting for me. Anyway, it's an amazing ceremony. And it's one that... Once you've gone through it, you don't have to do it again or you're not asked to do it again. But it's a very significant moment for the Shuso to be seen and heard by the community. And in a sense, it's their graduation ceremony. They're now given permission to begin teaching. They give their first talks, their first Dharma talks. They begin to meet with students.

[11:57]

So it's really a big step up in terms of what the community offers. as maturing, for students maturing in the practice. So, as I said, this Blue Cliff Record, this koan in the Blue Cliff Record, case number one in the Book of Serenity, case number two, is what's used. And as a result, when the question and answers are being asked, quite often, people will ask questions that are inspired by this case. For example, well, why did Bodhidharma leave Emperor Wu standing there? You might ask this, you so that, or how come he won't come back? Why won't we bring him back? How come Bodhidharma doesn't know who he is? That's a good one. Or what would you say to that question? Who are you facing me? So these are all examples of kinds of

[12:58]

exchanges, question and answers that are kind of the core of what Zen became in China. It became a dialogic tradition, as opposed to I think I mentioned several times that you sit and you study texts and you ask your teacher about texts and you all study texts and chant and you go to the to the sacred halls and you do the various rituals and so on. The whole process is now turned into a face-to-face conversation or dialogue between someone who's been practicing longer and someone who's fairly new, trying to come to some kind of like-mindedness or like-heartedness together and clarify the teaching. Why didn't Bodhidharma come back? What's that all about? So each of us can come up with our own response to that. There's no right answer. It's more like, well, what do you say? What do you think about that? How would you respond to it? Who is this facing me now? Great question. So as I mentioned last week, the koan collection called the Blue Cliff Record was gathered by a Rinzai teaching master, Shui To, T-O-U, Shui To, who also wrote a verse on each of these koans.

[14:12]

And the koans themselves are very old stories. They've been taken from various collections of... you know, overheard sayings that monks had little scraps of papers they kept in their sleeves. And over the centuries, various people copied those better stories down and gathered them together. So Shui Toh took all of those stories and gathered them together into 100 koans. And then that collection, in turn, was taken by another Rinzai master, Huan Wu, W-U. And he then elaborated on The case, he wrote an introduction, he wrote some commentary, and then where Shui To had just written a verse, like a poem, Huan Wu then commented on Shui To's verse. So this is the pattern also in the Book of Serenity. We'll see the same thing, only we have instead of Renzi Zen masters doing the commentary and writing the verses, we have Soto Zen or Chaodong in Chinese, Chaodong, C-A-O-D-O-N-G, masters.

[15:14]

what we call soto is Japanese for chaodon, the name of the two teachers who founded our tradition. So before I go on to share the second version from the Book of Serenity, there's another book that is really interesting that I even forgot all about. Your friend just pulled it out of her library and said, do you know about this? This is the secrets. of the Blue Cliff Record. Sounds illicit, doesn't it? Secrets of the Blue Cliff Record. So there's another book that's kind of like answers to koans, which I've seen mispublished. And that is kind of, I don't know about cheating, but it's kind of cheating because it tells you what to do when you go in to meet with the Rinzai master. You've got all of these instructions of how to respond to each of the koans. The trick there is that it has to be authentic. And any, you know, Zen master worth his salt will pretty much know if you're just reading it out of the book.

[16:18]

You know, you've just got the script, but you really don't know how to embody the gestures. You don't know how to present yourself in an authentic way. So that's another book. This book is not that. This book is basically some translations of commentaries on the Blue Cliff Record that were made and collected by two very famous 18th century Zen masters. Japanese Zen masters. One is Hakuen and the other is Tenkei. Hakuen is a Renzi master and Tenkei is the Soto master. So it's kind of fair balance of these two schools and what they have to say about these koans in the Blue Cliff Record, which I think is quite interesting, actually. And if you're going to read koans, if you're going to take some time with the Blue Cliff Record, which I highly recommend, this would be a great companion. book for doing that because you can hear what Haakon told his students about that koan and what Tenke told his students about that koan and so on. So I wanted to give you a little sample. This is this kind of book of secrets around their comments on case one of the Blue Cliff Record.

[17:30]

OK, so just to review briefly the case, the emperor of China asked the great master Bodhidharma, what is the highest meaning of the holy truths? Bodhidharma said, empty without holiness. The emperor said, who is facing me? And Bodhidharma said, don't know. The emperor did not understand. After this, Bodhidharma crossed the river into northern China. Later, the emperor brought this up with Master Zhe and asked him about it. Master Zhe said, did your majesty recognize that person? And the emperor said, no. And Master Zhou said, well, he's the embodiment of compassion, transmitting the seal of the enlightened mind. Feeling regretful, the emperor wanted to send an ambassador to go bring Bodhidharma back. And Master Zhou said to him, don't say that you're going to send someone to fetch him back. Even if everyone in the country went after him, he still wouldn't return.

[18:33]

We talked about that a little bit last week. So here's what Hakuen, this is the Zen master Hakuen, quite famous of the early Japanese, this is Japanese Zen master. Now we've jumped from China to Japan in this case. Hakuen says about this case, since Bodhidharma came from India, the emperor thought he might perform wonders like producing fire from water or something of that sort. But who is this facing me? Interpreting words literally, the emperor wonders who this is in his presence. At least that's better than pretending he knows who he is. And then he quotes again from the case, he crossed the river. And then Hakuin says, Bodhidharma got out of there heavy of heart, stirring up a pure breeze with every step. He really wanted to help the emperor. He just couldn't do it. As for Master Zhe, Again, this is Hakon speaking. He is a guy who, same as Bodhidharma, makes a show of reaching out to help.

[19:38]

Quoting, he is the embodiment of compassion, Jura says about Bodhidharma. Hakon, already he's set to entrap him. Everything, meadows, mountains, and all is the embodiment of compassion, which is why you can't bring him back. All of this is the embodiment of compassion. Everywhere you look, everything you are, everywhere we go. So that's Hakon's comments on this case. Now, Tenke, this is the Soto Zen teacher. He says, since Bodhidharma first told him there was no merit in his pious deeds, the emperor had been idle and suffering from ennui. So now he brings up the truth of the middle way, wherein the ultimate and the ordinary are non-dual. So we've been talking about that, the ultimate truth and the relative truth. So that's the holy truths, the highest meaning of the holy truths, ultimate and ultimate, vast emptiness, nothing holy.

[20:40]

So he brings up the ultimate and the ordinary are non-dual, considered the most subtle ultimate mystery of Buddhism. And he asks about it. The emperor asks about it. Bodhidharma says empty. The cosmic void is empty. Not a particle can stand in it. There's no such thing as ordinary or holy. Emperor says, who is facing me? Tenke says, the emperor doesn't understand Bodhidharma's answer. He grabs onto the words and merely tries to rationalize. Aren't you a holy man? Can't you tell me there is no, how can you tell me there's no ordinary or holy? And then Bodhidharma, the emperor, Bodhidharma says, in the case, don't know. Meaning Tenke, I am not a knower. This is entirely the same as empty without holiness. Ultimately, Bodhidharma does not know Bodhidharma. The emperor does not know the emperor. When they meet, they do not know each other.

[21:42]

Even Shakyamuni Buddha and Vairochana Buddha do not actually know. This is the face of Zen. Do you know this person? This is someone that Zen students have to get close to. He is the embodiment of compassion. Master Zhu acts the part of a godparent giving a name, the embodiment of compassion. How kind. But even so, is the seal of the enlightened mind something that can be transmitted, or is it ungraspable? Grab your own nose to find out. Go ahead, if you like. Grab your own nose to find out. Fun, huh? Anyway, so this book is full of those kinds of pointers from Tenke and from Hakuin. So, yeah, let's see then. So I wanted to also just go a little bit into this other text, the Book of Serenity, the version in there, 100 Zen Dialogues.

[22:50]

So this collection, as I mentioned, is also from very long ago, 12th century. And it was gathered by an amazing Zoto Zen master, or Chaodong, again Chinese, Chaodong master, by the name of Tiantong. And Tiantong is called Hongzhi in Japanese, Hongzhi. And I think I mentioned to you last week about Hongzhi and this wonderful book translated by my Dharma brother, Taigan Leighton, and another man named Yi Wu called Cultivating the Empty Field. It's very beautiful. And I know I read to you one of the paragraphs written by Hongzhi. Hongzhi was a very cultivated, literate Chinese man, very high class and well-educated in all of the arts of his day. So, you know, in a way, we owe a tremendous amount to Hongzhi because Not only did he have a great influence, he's Chinese, not only did he have a great influence on Japanese Soto Zen, but he actually is credited with reviving Soto Zen, which was dying out.

[24:00]

The Chaodong branch was beginning to die out. Only the Linji branch, the Rinzai branch, was vibrant in China at one point in time. And his teaching, Hongzhi's teaching of silent illumination, which you may have heard in us giving talks, because this is the standard of our house, called shikantaza, or silent illumination. Also known as the non-dual objectless meditation. Non-dual, not separate. The mind and whatever it perceives are not two things. Objectless, there's no objects outside of the mind. So again, this is kind of the mind-only teachings. Non-dual objectless meditation, commonly known to the modern Zen student as just sitting. Just sitting. That's it. In Japanese is shikantaza, just sitting. So aside from his own teacher, Ru Jing, Dogen quotes Hongzhu more than any other Zen teacher. He had greatly admired Hongzhu, and rightfully so, as you'll see if you take the time to read some of his writing.

[25:04]

So this approach to Zen realization, or Zen meditation rather, and to awakening in the Soto Zen school, is contrasted to the technique or method used in the Rinzai school, which is called kanazen or koanzen. So the Rinzai students have a very set curriculum that they use, not all of them. I think there's different curriculums for different teachers, but folks I know and have talked with have gone through a certain set of koans in order, like maybe 200 koans, which they enact to the satisfaction of the teacher. Sometimes I hear the teacher just keep saying no, no matter what they do. No, no. Then they ring the bell for the next student. Nope. Sorry. You know, which is good for your character. Eventually you begin to stop trying to do it or get it right. You just go in there. And one of what I've heard when you least expect to be passed, the guy goes, okay, go to the next one. Obviously you're letting go of your ego somewhat here.

[26:08]

Yeah. So this collection came to be known as the Book of Serenity, this one, which was assembled after Hongzhi's death by another teacher by the name of Wansong. So there's two sets of names. There's Dao and Wu in the book of record, and there's Hongzhi and Wansong in the Book of Serenity. And these are the only names you really, you don't even need to learn them, but these are good to know when you read them over and over because they appear throughout the text. Wansong said, and Hongzhi said, and so on, that these are these two people who collected the koans and then wrote verses on the koans, and then the second person who came along later added commentary. So that's really what's going on in both cases, both of these books. So the structure of the Book of Serenity's koans, stories, are very much the same as the structure of the Blue Cliff Record stories. You have an introduction, in this case, by this

[27:10]

the later contributor, Wansong. Then you have the case, Bodhidharma, which is from Chan Lore. It's an ancient case, old case. There's the commentary again by Wansong. So he's commenting on it about the case. And then there's the verse that Hong Zhir wrote. Hong Zhir just wrote verses. He didn't write commentary. So he basically wrote these beautiful poems about each case. And then we have Wansong coming along and writing a commentary about the verse. So he's a very busy guy. And then finally, he adds some final sayings at the end. So this is a kind of repeated structure for each of the 100 koans in the Book of Serenity. So I want to look at a little bit of this, not the whole thing, but just some parts of it that I think might be a little different or useful in thinking about how these two schools approach or understand. The same problem, which is each of us.

[28:10]

You know, what are we? Where are we? What are we here to do? Basic questions of existence. So we have the case, which I just read to you. And in the commentary, so this is one song commenting. He says, Prajna Tara. Now, Prajna Tara, if you recall, was Bodhidharma's teacher. Prajna means wisdom and Tara is jewel. So wisdom jewel instructed Bodhidharma. our great teacher. In 67 years after my death, you go to China and present the medicine of the great teaching. Show it directly to those of excellent qualities. Be careful, don't stay in the South. That's where Emperor Wu was. Don't stay in the South where they only like fabricated merit and they don't see the inner reality of Buddhahood. So Wu is being characterized as someone who did a lot of good works. You know, he did all this stuff to gain merit. built temples, ordained monks, supported the practice, and then, you know, read the sutras and all that. That's what is now being called fabricated merit, you know, stuff that you're constructing, things you can make, but not the inner mind or the light, which is what's being transmitted in these stories, transmission of the light or the wisdom or the eye, shobo genzo, the eye of truth.

[29:28]

They don't really see the inner reality of Buddhahood. So even if you go there, you shouldn't stay there too long in the South. And after all, it turned out he did travel to Liang in the South and then crossed into Wei in the North, and he remained in a cave unmoving for nine years. So we know this story. In recent times, when the robe and teaching were bequested to Renshan, this is another teacher, Renshan, Renshan said, as he was being given the robe by his teacher. So this is a little story that from another book, a couple of teachers, a teacher-student relationship that Wansong's sharing with us now. He's letting us in on some of his own studies. And he's saying, he tried to give him, Renshan, the robe and the bowl, meaning Dharma transmission. And Renshan said, I am not such a man. I am not such a man. She's always said, not being such a man, you do not afflict him. Not being such a man, you do not afflict him. Him is in quotes. Because of his deep sense of gratitude for the milk of the true teaching, Renshan raised his downcast eyes.

[30:37]

So Renshan's sitting there. His teacher's trying to give him the robe and the bowl, transmission. And Renshan's sitting there, humbly, I am not such a man. And then his teacher's saying, not being such a man, you don't afflict him. You don't afflict him, meaning perhaps the Buddha at the core of your being, the true person of no rank. Because of his deep sense of gratitude for the milk of the true teaching, Renshan raised his downcast eyes and accepted the rope and the bowl. Shizo went on to say, now you are thus. Most important, don't appear in the world too readily. If you rush ahead and burst out flippantly, you will surely get stuck in a rout. This is the same message that Bodhidharma was given by Prajnatara. Don't rush. Don't stay there where they're not ready for the true teaching. So Bodhidharma sits in a cave for nine years.

[31:37]

And now we're hearing the same advice from Renshan's teacher. Don't rush out there. Take your time. And thus, Prajnatara's three instructions and Bodhidharma's nine years of sitting are all the same situation. There's a verse that says, the autumn frost, so the deep savor of the teaching will last, even though caught alive. After all, he is not lavishly praised. So these guys are really going very slowly. They want to make sure that the transmission of the teaching is actually hitting at the deepest level of our human ability to awaken to the non-dual nature of reality. This is suitable as an admonition for those in the future. A genuine wayfarer knows for themselves the time and the season when to appear. Sometimes, you know, we get these really wonderful, amazing students here, young people here who just they get everything right off the bat.

[32:46]

So their questions are great and they're really sharp and they they can move quickly. They're strong and they can run up the hill and all of these wonderful qualities. But one of the things we've observed over the years, too, is that oftentimes they don't last. They don't stay. They got things to do. They got lots of energy and talent and gifts, and they can grow it big in the world. So not that we wouldn't love it if they did. We certainly would. But it tends to be the ones who've already gone the route, been out there, did there, done that. Not exactly failed, but pretty much have... Stop grabbing after worldly goods. Stop feeling like there's something better out there. There's greener grass over the hill. And so usually they're a little older and a little more patient with this idealization of themselves and of the teaching of Buddhism and so on, which allows them to actually enter into a more steady, steady form of practice.

[33:48]

So when Emperor Wu, so this is going on with this commentary by Wansong. Later, when Emperor Wu, after all, thought about a superior man that he had gone, he wrote an epitaph for him. So this Emperor Wu writes this about Bodhidharma. I saw him without seeing. I met him without meeting him. Now, as of old, I regret and I lament this. And even though his majesty was just an ordinary man, he presumed to consider Bodhidharma his teacher in retrospect. After Emperor Wu was covered with dust and Bodhidharma had returned to the West, since then, no one has brought up the highest meaning of the truth. Fortunately, there is Tian Tong Hongzhi, who brings it out for people. And here's his verse. So this, I will read this first, and that's the last thing I'll read in this case. This is the verse that Hongzhi wrote to this case. empty, nothing holy. The approach is far off. Succeeding, he swings the axe without injuring the nose.

[34:54]

Failing, he drops the pitcher without looking back. Silent and still, coolly, he sat at Shaolin in the cave. Shaolin. In silence, he completely brought up the true imperative. The clear moon of autumn turns its frosty disk, the Milky Way thin, The dipper hangs down its handle in the night. In succession, the robe and bowl have been imparted to descendants. From this, humans and divinities have made medicine and disease. Anyway, there's a lot more in this commentary that I highly suggest. I highly recommend. But anyway, I think you would enjoy. looking at and just reflecting on and spending some time with. So as you will, as you're able and your interest flies that way, please enjoy. So the next thing I want to talk about for a little bit is about koans themselves and how they function.

[35:59]

There's an article that I was given quite a few years ago now, maybe 20 years ago. It's called The Koan as Ritual Performance, written by a scholar by the name of Barry Stevenson. And it can be found, I think still, it's 20 years ago, maybe, on thezensite.com. It's all one word, thezensite, S-I-T-E, dot com. I think there's a lot of good stuff on there. Anyway, in this article, Dr. Stevenson offers this study of koan based not just on textual, looking at the words and studying the comparisons and looking at the poetry, not just on the textual study or on the psychological basis for the teachings, or not even on solving riddles, but rather to study koans through the lens of ritual performance in which koans are enacted rather than merely explained. So this is kind of exciting. I remember reading this going, oh, this is good. This is all about acting it out, acting out.

[37:02]

So even though reading texts, And studying texts and comparing texts can bring us to some pretty good level of understanding. It's actually our own sensory experience of the world, through which we'll come to know what the Buddha awakened to while he was sitting under a tree. You know, he saw a star. He saw a star. That's what it says. He saw with his own eyes. He saw the star. And after that, he was silent for a very long time. So he knew, he told us later, that the star, along with the rest of the universe, was not outside or separate from himself. So that's the theoretical teaching. The experiential moment was that moment when he saw the star and knew all the way through his whole entire body that that star was not somewhere else outside. So he tried to explain.

[38:04]

what he saw, and yet he always reminded his students that they should not only see, but also hear, smell, taste, touch, and know for themselves the star and the sound of the bird and the hot cup of tea and the sound of rain on the temple roof, the sound of one hand clapping, as the koan says. So in this article, the author says to us, The koans, starting with the Song, so if you recall a little bit of the sequencing, there was the Tang Dynasty, the Golden Age of Zen, so-called Golden Age of Zen, which was a retroactive creation of the Song. The next dynasty kind of made up the Tang so that they could be the inheritors of the magnificent Golden Age of Zen and attribute all of their lineages to these incredible Zen masters that had been kind of fabricated. like Bodhidharma. So you have these great kind of superhuman exemplars of the practice who are the stories that we have, who we're talking about in these stories.

[39:12]

So in the Song Dynasty, koans became something that was studied, they were worked on, they were rehearsed, they were enacted, they were watched, and they were judged, much the way we do when we produce a play. So he's putting very much into alignment the theatrical aspect of Dharma study, and particularly with koans. So he says that wherein both Zen ritual and theater can be very entertaining, which they are, and offer an effect on both the actor and the audience, the Zen ritual, such as a koan, emphasizes the efficacy of the ritual. You know, for example, we do ritual every morning here. We chant and we offer incense. And, you know, it's one of the things that I've learned as a Zen priest is lots of ritual. We do Suzuki Roshi the other morning. Every month we do Suzuki Roshi ritual. And I know how to do that because I've done it every month for many, many years.

[40:14]

And we have the Bodhidharmas. We do a ceremony for Bodhidharma. We're going to do one for Prajnatara. I mean, for Mahapachapati. buddhist mother in the first nun uh first first teacher in the in the women's order we're doing her ceremony next week so we have all through the the calendar year we have this liturgy of ritual that we practice over and over again and you know it's like by practicing it you kind of get it down you know i pretty much know i've got my style and reb has his style and linda ruth has her style we all have our style but we've all learned this ritual by doing this priest training for these many years. So it's the efficacy of the ritual offering. So at the end of the ritual, after we've offered these various things, we offer the benefit or merit from those rituals to the salvation or the benefit of all beings. So it's all about giving away.

[41:16]

Whatever merit you accumulate through sitting or through ritual is given away. to the benefit of all beings. So that's the hoped for efficacy. Now, why are we doing this? To benefit all beings. Do we know that that's happening? Not at all. Do we hope that that's happening? Yes, we do. You know, with all our hearts. And whereas in theater, for the most part, this is not hard and fast, the emphasis is on entertainment. So here's one of the ways that theater and ritual part ways a little bit. However, both forms can be very affecting. very deeply affecting, as we all know from going to amazing theatrical performances. And Stevenson, the writer of the article, says that there's a theater critic calls this kind of a performance a transformance. I like that very much, transformance. You basically have entered into the enchantment of what's being done there, whether it's on the stage or whether it's in the zendo. There's a transformance, transmission of something

[42:19]

deeply meaningful. So Dr. Stevenson uses the example of Bodhidharma's transmission of his dharma, of his light, to his four disciples as a case in point, which is why I really like this article too, because it's talking about Bodhidharma. So Bodhidharma senses that his time has come, and he asks his four disciples to succinctly state their understanding of the dharma. The first three disciples use some kind of metaphorical or philosophical expression, and the master's response is that they express, in succession, his skin, his flesh, and his bones, thereby indicating a progression of understanding from more superficial to deeper. And yet, they still fall somewhat short in each of these cases. The final disciple, Hueca, Bodhidharma's air, bows three times and remains silent.

[43:25]

So here's the story of this transmission that's taken from an older version of The Transmission of Light, the text we've been looking at. It's a book called The Transmission of the Lamp, which is published in 1004. Excuse me. One thousand and four. Boy, that's a while ago. A thousand years ago. Bodhidharma asked, can each of you say something to demonstrate your understanding? Dafu steps forward and says, it is not bound by words and phrases, nor is it separate from words and phrases. This is the function of the Tao, of the Dharma. Bodhidharma says, you have attained my skin. The nun, Songzhu, stepped up and said, it is like a glorious glimpse of the realm of Apsokya Buddha. Seen once, it need not be seen again.

[44:28]

Bodhidharma says to her, you have attained my flesh. Daoyu says, the four elements are all empty. The five skandhas are without actual existence. Not a single dharma can be grasped. Bodhidharma says, you have attained my bones. Finally, Hueca comes forth, bowed deeply in silence and stood up straight. Bodhidharma said, you have attained my marrow. And with that, Bodhidharma passes on the symbolic robe and bowl of Dharma transmission to Hueca. And as some texts claim, a copy of the Lankavatara Sutra, the Mind Only Sutra, after which Bodhidharma then either returned to India or died. According to Dr. Stevenson, Hueco's bow can be viewed as an expression of a highly developed ritual sense. You know, bows, regardless of whatever their symbolic meaning might be, are first and foremost an act.

[45:34]

It's something you do. It's an action. Even though these verbal answers that the other disciples gave when Bodhidharma requested for them to express their understanding are not without value. They have value. But Vekka's bow is what signifies the importance of the occasion. As his teacher is asking them to speak, what's happening? His teacher is dying. And how do you behave in such a situation? The other students are giving these intellectual responses, you know, they're good ones, to this man who's dying, you know, and Hueca bows to him three times. You know, this profound respect. So this ritual enactment of the feeling that's happening inside of these monks, I'm sure they all felt it, but Hueca actually expresses it through his actions. So, you know, this generation...

[46:37]

Bodhidharma's generation is giving way literally to the next generation through his death. He's now, whether maybe he went back to Indy, that would be nice, but he died there, no doubt. But whatever way he goes, he's ending his time as the teacher. He's now passed on his teaching to the next generation. So this very moment that this is happening, the question and answer, the dialogue between the student and the teachers is marking a very significant difference in time, in very real time. This is a real life rite of passage happening now. Huayca is asking himself at this moment, not what should I answer to Bodhidharma's question, but how should I act? How should I act in this situation? So in this sense, koan practice, as with all life practice, is an expression of our understanding. you know, in each moment of our authenticity, of our maturity.

[47:39]

You know, every day, all through the day, that's what we're expressing by how we speak, how we move, how we touch things, how we greet people. An expression that's brought to life through visible and audible gestures of daily act, our daily actions, you know, acts of what are basically public performances. I don't know how all of you have been feeling these days around mask courtesies, but... I noticed when my partner and I go for hikes up on Mount Tam, you know, we're masked or we have them right there to put on. And we're very grateful for the other people on the trail who have their masks. And every once in a while, somebody comes by gabbing away and they don't have masks on. And I noticed my reaction to that, you know, it's like... Excuse me? You know, there's some etiquette that's being missed or there's some respect, you know, for what? I don't know that I'm necessarily concerned about them giving me the virus, but I am concerned about their lack of regard or etiquette, you know, Buddha taught etiquette.

[48:48]

He taught regard for others. And that symbol of pulling up the mask or saying, oh, I'm sorry, or whatever. Like one woman pulled up her shirt and she said, I lost my mask on the trail. That was good enough. I said, that's okay. Your gesture was a gesture of respect and was received as such and returned equally with a kind regard. Anyway, we're all getting to do this dance all the time in our lives. We get to decide how are we going to treat the clerk in the grocery store? How are we going to treat the people in line? How are we going to treat one another in the public forum? These are public enactments. These koans are public. Actually, the word koan was a public case. And then a case, the koan, the an was the table, the magistrate's table. And the ko, I think, was the case that was put on the table. And that's where the judgments were made. So the koan was something that was done publicly. Here's the outcome of this case, guilty or not guilty or whatever.

[49:54]

And we're not quite sure if they're guilty or not. So we can say this. Oh, I wanted to also mention wonderful character in history who I've read a little bit about recent years, Isadora Duncan, who some of you may know her name. I don't know that they've done a biopic of her yet, but they really should. She was amazing. Grew up in San Francisco. Her mother, her father ended up being kind of a scoundrel. They lost their money. She grew up in Oakland. Her mom lived in poverty, taught piano or something like that. Anyway, the children all were dancers. And Isadora Duncan was quite a, not exotic. She wasn't an exotic dancer. She was a modern dancer. She's kind of the pioneer of modern dance. And this is back in the early 1900s. And she ended up going to Europe where she was quite well regarded and had lots of performances and did all of these, you know, Grecian, like she'd do things based on Grecian urns, you know, that kind of flowy dresses.

[50:56]

And she danced barefoot. She said, whatever little pretty thing came into my head, that's what she would use as the basis for her movements. Anyway, someone asked her once, you know, what does your dance mean? You know, what does it mean? And she said, well, if I could tell you what it meant, there would be no point in dancing. So I think this really rang a bell for me with Zen ritual. What does it mean? I don't know, but doing it, the doing of it is the meaning. It's in the dance itself. It's in the gesture itself. You know, the heartfelt. And you can do it different ways. Sometimes my heart's really in it. There's a lot of, you know, all my feelings get cooking in there when I'm doing certain kinds of offering. Other times, you know, the engine's not on. But either way, You dance. You dance, and it shows. If you're there or you're not there, I think it does, or you feel it. So there are innumerable meanings for everything we do in life, and that's what language allows us to do, is to give meanings to everything, to talk and talk and talk, except for the reality that's happening right now.

[52:06]

What does it mean right now? What's the meaning of right now? How do you answer? What is it right now? And I think that's a big stumper for all of us. It's one of those questions they ask the Shuso. Speak. Say something. And so this is the koan of our daily life. Every moment we're called on to speak, to respond, to gesture, and to be aware of our response, our gestures. That's the awakened part. Do you know where your hands are? What your voice is doing? Are you with it? Are you with yourself as you perform? So at a recent seed sowing ceremony here at Green Goal, we've actually started the spring. We're praying for rain, as I'm sure all of you are, at least here on the West Coast. We have this special ceremony every year. when each one of us goes up and puts a little seed into these styrofoam seed beds.

[53:13]

Each one has a cell, and you put one seed into each cell. And then over the weeks, you get to watch these seeds start to turn into kale and chard and lettuce and onions and spinach and all kinds of wonderful things. So during that ceremony, I went up to the altar. I was officiating. I used a quote from the Book of Serenity from one of these koans. And I said, empty-handed, holding a hoe. Empty-handed, holding a hoe. Working hard, accomplishing nothing. Please, please tell me, someone, what kind of farming is this? And it was very quiet. Nobody said anything. I was kind of hoping somebody would say something, but they didn't. So then I said, just as I thought. You know, just as I thought, kind of pulled the ripcord. And then, you know, but if you ask me, well, what did you think? I'd say, I don't know. I didn't think anything in particular.

[54:14]

It was just a sort of way to finish the ritual. So I was as dumbfounded as all the farmers standing around looking at me. And so we all did that together. We all had this kind of wonderful moment together of don't know, don't know. What kind of farming is this? Don't know. So participants in ritual performance are not really concerned with some kind of deep symbolic meaning of the ritual, but more with the emotional impression that's being given by their actions and by their gestures. You know, what it's having on themselves and what it's having on the people who are there. So just sitting is understood as just sitting and ritual is understood as just bowing or just chanting or just gesturing in a highly choreographed way. And wherein, as this article says, the body itself is the text. Your body itself is the text. John Dido Laurie, the former abbot, he's passed away, of Zen Mountain Monastery back east, said that Zen teachers don't routinely analyze koans in terms of their psychology or their philosophy, their structure, or their dynamics.

[55:29]

They do koans. They do them. And there's another statement made by Bob Scharf, who's a visiting teacher for us here at Gringold. She's a professor at UC Berkeley, Buddhist studies. Traditional Chan and Zen practice was oriented not toward engendering enlightenment experiences, but rather to perfecting the ritual performance of Buddhahood, enacting Buddhahood. So ritual in this sense is a forge for fabricating true words, and for freeing us from the tendency to reify language, you know, like the finger language pointing at the moon. So we want to engage in this forge, I like that word forge, of creating true words, true gestures, true meaning, which has no word meaning. It's not about what you might say about it. It's in it. It's the doing of it.

[56:30]

That it's the life of our life. We are the enactors of life. There's no other life without our actions and our efforts and so on. We can talk too. We do a lot of that. But we get really carried away with that part. The finger pointing at the moon. And so we need to separate these two. Remembering our Yogacara teaching. The imputational. The other dependent. The miraculous appearance. And we're putting all these words all over the place. So when we stop doing that, you know, what kind of ritual is that? True words that may not have any verbal expression to them. So as students of Zen, we are always squeezing out our inner subjective experience. That's what we're doing, like SpongeBob. I just watched SpongeBob. Like SpongeBob, we're squeezing out our inner subjective experience into the structural features of our practice. into our zazen, into our chanting and our study and our doksan, our communal meals, our work and our rest, our play.

[57:36]

You know, this is our expression of our inner intention, our wish to live for the benefit of all beings. If you're going to ask somebody to tell you what the Bodhisattva wish is, it's that, to live for the benefit of all beings. How? By squeezing out that intention in everything you do. So this training in Zen is thereby being made visible and accessible to everyday observation. You know, people can see you and critique you, and you can assimilate these teachings into your own body-mind. You become the teachings. There's an example of Zen that I remember hearing years ago, but Zen is like an alligator, and it eats you. And then... after you're fully digested, you become the alligator. So I thought, oh, that sounds frightening. Anyway, so this way in which you are transformed by the practice and then you become a transforming agent yourself.

[58:37]

You then kind of pass it on. Well, that was interesting. So then you become someone who engages with that same thing. There's another saying that if it looks like Chao and it speaks like Chao and it acts like Chao and it dresses like Chao, well, then it's Chao. So, you know, We take on the embodied practices, the behaviors, the intention, the upright sitting, the vowing, the precepts of the Buddha. And in that way, maybe we're not, but at least we have the embodied intention to be that, to be awake in the world, to be of help. And yet, lest we forget, In our robes and drapes of holiness, we are always something of a playful clown. We are always something of a playful clown. I like that part. Lest we forget.

[59:37]

Okay. So that's what I have for you today. And I'd love to hear your thoughts, questions, experiences you'd like to share. Whatever you'd like. I'd be very happy to hear. and you know what to do. Hands and wave. Hi, Guy. Guy, would you like to unmute? Well, I was doing the dance with the unmute and mute. I don't know if someone was trying to unmute me at the same time. Thank you so much. You're welcome. You're welcome. I was going to share the experience that I felt because you were mentioning in bowing of how maybe commitment is not the right word, but it feels like it takes another level of dropping of self in a way of letting go of, oh, what...

[60:53]

other people think or what you think or why, you know what I mean? It's something where it's a full enacting experience. I think the best way for me to express it is it's easier to talk than it is to act. And when, when you act it, it's a full sort of acceptance maybe is the way or a full demonstration. I think that feels more powerful than words in a way. It's like, That's it, the full expression of it. As if you can sort of step out. It feels as though words are in the realm of that thinking, of the constant train of thinking. And once you are in the action of it or in just that moment, it's a lot easier to try to step aside from it in a way. But at least in my personal experience, in doing it and in beginning to do it, it's like I'm immediately hit with... oh, what are people watching? You know what I mean? So that was very powerful of an experience for myself is that immediate thought of action creating or making me very aware of that sense of self that I have created for so many years.

[62:09]

Yeah, that's right. It's risky. People are watching. Maybe that's the word. They're watching you right now. It's real now. Yeah, exactly. I know. We're all watching each other. It's true. And it's very sweet, as it turns out, because one of the things we really cherish about one another, which I learned some years ago, thanks to a friend, it's not doing well. It's not the thing you do really well that people like you for. It's the parts that are broken. Yeah. Whenever I've made a mistake or I fall down or I remember in college, I was carrying my little tray. I was so shy and I was freshman in college and I stepped on a lettuce leaf and I went flying. This is San Francisco State. There's a 10,000 people in the cafeteria. And I was so embarrassed and people were so kind to me. Like, are you okay? And all I could think of was the horror of being seen by all these people, you know.

[63:13]

But people are, we're really kind to one another when we make mistakes. And I am. I'm very kind to people when they make mistakes, you know. So not that we try to. I mean, I think we do try to do our best. But there's so much kindness among us, you know. So it's not risk-free, but I think it's worth the effort. to let us see you. Right. And I think we're hardest on ourselves. I think that it's that whatever we've created of ourselves, that's judging the hardest. That makes sense. That's what's watching. And, you know, at least that's how, that's how evil eye. Exactly. Yeah. You gotta be like, that's right. You know, that's, that's how I felt. It just feels so powerful. So, um, like just really, um, allowing, becoming, I don't know what's the right word, but I just wanted to share that experience. Yeah, thank you. Well, you do music, right?

[64:15]

Yes, yeah. So, I mean, don't you get lost in that? I mean, isn't that like... transcends the self-consciousness and you know when you're doing that are you drum what do you do what you think well i i'm actually i've produced so it's a little bit of everything that makes as well but my main instrument was was the saxophone but now it's on the on the computer but it's a very it's a very similar thing and it's funny that you mentioned that when you you had mentioned a quote um about dancing specifically and if i'm not mistaken i remember I don't know if this is exact, but I remember, I think Thelonious Monk had a quote that was similar to, talking about music is like dancing about architecture, where there's no, you have to, it's music, you play the music, you don't talk about it, and the architecture is, you know, so I thought it was a funny sort of relation there. That's good, I like that. Yeah, the doing, the doing. The doing is the hardest.

[65:17]

It's easy to talk about it in a way. Yeah. Here we are talking about it. Exactly. Let's go do it. Let's go do it. You're welcome. Hi, Satish. Hi, Fu. I was just curious. What's the difference between Renzi, Zen, and Soto, and Theraveda and Soto? Yeah. Well, some level, nothing. You know, we're all, it's sort of the instructions that you're given for how to practice are slightly different, but in some cases they're exactly the same. The outfits are a little different, but basically they're meditators and all those traditions are Buddhists who practice primarily meditation. So I would say that how you understand meditation your experience, how you talk about your experience, the stories that are told. Yeah, they're a little bit different.

[66:18]

The earlier forms of Buddhism are based a little bit more. And there are things there for you to look at, that there is an eye and an ear and a nose. And you study those things and you learn how they function and you begin to see that there's no singularity there called a person. So you become free of self-clinging. So that's part of the gift of that practice. And then you go on to the next, what's called turning of the wheel. And they said, well, there's no eye, there's no ear. That's our thing. No nose, no tongue. So then it's like, what? So I just, I just studied all that. Now you're telling me there's no such thing. So that's, you know, that's part of the Buddhist dialogue is the dialogue between the monks who were doing this kind of practice. And then the ones who came along a little later and said, well, show me your eye. You know, how does your eyes separate from what you see? How is it separate from consciousness and so on? So all of these guys were arguing, not arguing as much as trying to complement each other's understanding to make a fuller picture of what are we trying to do with this practice?

[67:28]

What's the outcome? Is there an outcome? Where is it? Is it in the future? Zen says, no, it's right now. You're already at the outcome. This is the outcome. Congratulations. It's always here. It's always now. So that's a language thing, right? But it's still true. It's always here and always now, whether you say so or not. So, you know, really, you eventually begin to tell which of the traditions you're reading in by the emphasis they put on the practice. So that's a very big question. There's a very long answer. And I would... Love to tell you it, but it would take a long time. Actually, in the summer, June, July, and August, we're going to do three months of what's called the three turnings of the wheel. So in June, we're going to do the first turning of the wheel. And Paul Haller has agreed to do a Zen take on the four foundations of mindfulness, which is a first turning or polycanon teaching.

[68:32]

That should be interesting. I'm looking forward to hearing what he has to say about that. Then Linda Ruth Katz is going to do a teaching on the Vimalakirti Sutra, which is the second turning Prajnaparamita text in July. And in August, I'm going to do something about the mind only teaching, which is the third turning. So, you know, if you have time and you can come in and kind of plug in, all the speakers in June, July and August will be focusing on each one of those for that month. So everybody's going to talk about the first turning in June, second turning July. third turning in August. And maybe that will help answer your question. I hope. Yeah. Would it be online? Yeah, definitely. So the reason I asked the question is today I met a friend of mine. He is in refuge recovery, kind of recovery. He was asking that and he said, well, his understanding of the Soto Zen was

[69:34]

mainly you just meditate. I said, I don't think that's it. It is like, it is a way to get a little bit less into your stories and be a little bit closer to reality. It is not meditation itself is the end goal or something. Basically, I struck. And then he was going into in the recovery, character defects or bad seeds in the alaya or something like that. My take on it was, well, you could kind of get lost in it and start imputing. You could get lost in the story and start imputing things if you get into that too much. But there's the other side where the whole point is to sow good seeds. Yes. Bad seeds will express themselves and you just non-judgmentally take it. And let them come when they come.

[70:36]

But focusing on the better states of mind is a hard enough task. And if you do that, good seeds slowly replace bad seeds. That's what you water or something. Now, I don't know if I said anything right. That's great. That was perfect. That's Yoko Haram. Focusing on what not to do, you could get, that is dramatic. That's entertaining. focusing on what to do is boring on the good things well maybe unless they're really good yeah I mean in everyday life I didn't say that but that's what I said what I said initially I don't know if I gave him anything correct or wrong I wasn't sure I think you have a really good start right there with what you said I wouldn't disagree with anything you said And that's the Yogacara teaching. We're working to recondition our conditioning, which we carry with us.

[71:40]

That's the alaya. And our work is to whatever comes up in the present to make good choices now. So this is your chance to recondition. It's how you respond in the present is what's going to happen in the future. You're laying the groundwork for the garden that's going to grow. It's always seed planting ceremony, right? Every day you're doing a seed planting ceremony for what's going to grow in the future. So you have to be kind of alert to our behavior. Yeah, that's what I said. Yeah, that's good. That's good. And the other thing I said was we are always intertwined and codependent arising of whatever you want to say. It is like living consciously. It's never going to go away, the bad seeds. But the bad, the non-helpful neural pathways will slowly wither away. In psychology, there's a concept of second self where you, William James, something like, if you hold a picture of the person you want to be and hold it long enough, you become that.

[72:48]

Yes. That's like that little thing about you dress like Chao, you talk like Chao, you act like Chao, you're Chao. You dress like Buddha, you talk like Buddha, you act like Buddha, you're Buddha. It just becomes who you are. Yeah, I do have this quote, what you think you become, what you feel you attract, what you imagine you create. Yeah. Buddha. And I can understand the first and the last a little bit better. First one really, what you feel you attract, I still am trying to figure that out. Yeah. Yeah, well, we're all very lucky. I think we've all attracted companions also. in the study of the Buddha Dharma. I mean, that's one of the things I've really appreciated about having this common ground. I have so many people in my life who are interested in the same thing I am. It's like, wow, this is wonderful. We don't have to sit alone in the library.

[73:52]

We can do this together. So, yeah, my main thing was I was concerned whether I just spoke out of or if I did something, spoke something wrong, I just wanted to sound water. I don't think so. I think it was very kind what you said. Okay, thank you. You're welcome. Thank you, Satish. Hi, Lisa. Unmute. Okay, I think I'm on mute. So I was interested to hear you talk about ritual. you know, a ritual, particularly coming from a very secular background, as I suspect a number of people who find their way toward Buddhism, at least the ones I've known, come from that angle, come from that place.

[74:56]

And... How does ritual come to mean something to you? Particularly, so I was, so let me. Yeah, yeah, go ahead. Well, example one, not two, but I was at Green Gulch November before last as a guest student for a little bit. And it was the last night I was there. I think it was the beginning of the Bodhidharma ceremony. And it was evening and dark in the, you know, dim in the Zendo. And you were there. And your voice was incredibly resonant. And it was, and I can still remember, you know, asking, you know, you were almost addressing questions to Bodhidharma. And it just came into my bones. You know, a physical reaction.

[75:59]

And, you know, the ritual didn't go here. It went straight in. Yeah. You know, and as you say, the embodiment way. And, you know, the other thing I was thinking of was there's a, I think, Reb Anderson in his, one of his books, says that he talked about going to a temple. And I can't remember if it was in Japan or China. I think it was China. But going to a temple. And going to visit and feeling the drive to do prostrations and just to keep doing them and to keep doing them. He said, you know, he probably got to 108. But, you know, there's, it comes not, it doesn't come from the head. It comes from, you know, the marrow. Yeah. Yeah. And to understand ritual in that way, I think it's interesting because it's not, I don't think it's part of the culture.

[77:04]

You've lost it. Yeah. I think, you know, indigenous cultures have tremendous ritual, beautiful. I was just watching, I think it might have been Apache, I'm not sure, a dancer performing. I saw somebody sent me a link and it was like, holy cow. You know, there's just this amazing dance with these beautiful feathers. And I was just like, okay, it's not from the mind. It wasn't going in here. It was going, you know, like you said, into the marrow. You know, when Navajo came here to Green Gulch many years ago, about 20 years ago now, the elders got the – we had children studying with them. They brought some children. We had our own children. a dozen young people and four of their elders. And they got us all up before dawn to go out and where the horizon, where the sun is rising in the morning, the line is, you offer corn pollen along that line, because that's where the two worlds are most vulnerable, not vulnerable, but where they're connecting, these two worlds of light and dark at dawn.

[78:24]

So then they do this and they were chanting and I'm like, okay. Oh, every ounce. And I knew it was thousands and thousands of years old of this knowing, knowing something that isn't about, you know, sociology or no, it wasn't that it was like you said, it was full body. Yeah. the full-bodied inclusion, belonging to the land, belonging to the place. The following year, we went to their land, to Navajo land, and they gave us a tour, which again was stunning. And one of the boys, I think I may have said this to you all, pointed to the horizon, to this plateau, and he said, that's where I live. And I wanted to cry. I don't know where I live. I don't know where my people are from. I haven't a clue. What, San Francisco? I mean, it's like a point at the Golden Gate Bridge. You know, I have no embodied feeling for my home or my land or my people.

[79:30]

And it's a grief. There's grief there. I think we're all kind of a little bit lost. So maybe, you know, we're importing this beautiful tradition. It's a foreign language. It was a foreign tradition. was foreign in China. I said that last week. And it's foreign in America. And so we're going to need to be kind and generous and cooperative with the spirits that are here in this land. Not just run over the top of them. So trying to find how to integrate these wisdom teachings with Christianity, with Judaism, with Islam, with Native religions. How do we bring it all into harmony? To bring it into harmony, but not to lose its strengths and its particular contributions. That's right. You know, not to make it, you know, just a puree. A blob. Yeah. A Japanese friend of mine said, a Japanese wonderful gentleman, architect actually, said, we don't want to be in the melting pot.

[80:37]

We want to be more like in a tossed salad. Yeah. So you got it. Here's the tomatoes. Here's the cucumbers. Here's the lettuce. You know, everybody gets to be completely had their own integrity and be together. Compliment. Complimentary. Yeah, it's a big job. Big job. But we have to do it. Nobody else is going to do it. And if they are, I'm looking for them. They're part of our family, you know. Nice to see you, Lisa. All of you. Please take care and see you next Sunday. And we're going to take we're going to start going to Hueca and the next set of ancestors from Bodhidharma until we get to Huenong, which is the big explosion that happened around Chan in China.

[81:38]

the sixth ancestor. And from there, instead of a single line, that string of pearls fallacy, you've got, boom, you know, all kinds of lines come off of Wainan. And it's wonderful how many teachers and lines, and then eventually we'll end up with our own Suzuki Roshi. So thank you all very much. Please take care. Blessings. Stay safe. Hope you get your shots soon. If you'd like to say goodbye, please feel free to do that. Bye. Bye, everyone. Bye. Bye. Thanks. Good night, everyone. Goodbye. Goodbye. All familiar. Goodbye. See you. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Bye. Thank you. Bye-bye. Thank you. Bye-bye. Sunday at 5. Bye. Bye, guys. Thank you. See you next week. Great.

[82:39]

Can't wait.

[82:41]

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