a teaching about things that are compounded things, things that are impermanent. This is another of our most basic teachings, the teaching of impermanence and no abiding self, no separate self. And everything that comes together, this is such a basic teaching, Come apart again. There's nothing that is not, that comes together that will not come apart again. To open our hearts and eyes to this. To feel that in our own bodies. And to rest there. Our suffering often comes from resisting, averting, denying. Why me? if it only weren't so, but to rest there and to extend our love and care and compassion to all beings who are there with us, who are resting there with us, or who we wish to rest there with us.

[01:17]

This is not complacency. This is accepting the truth of our existence. Along with that is what I wish for myself and others is fearlessness, that whatever we're facing, whether it's health or sickness or pleasure or pain, the ups and downs in our lives, to find our stability and composure, our sazen posture as we meet. what is arising. This is basic teachings. I wanted to bring up a koan that has been circling for me, and I'm sure many of you know it very well, which is Master Ma is unwell.

[02:22]

Master Ma is unwell. And this is Case three in the Book of Serenity, in case, I think, 36 in the book, excuse me, case three in the Blue Cliff Record, case 36 in the Book of Serenity, Master Ma is unwell. Sun-faced Buddha, moon-faced Buddha is what comes up in this koan. But before I tell the koan, I just wanted to mention about the medicine Buddha, which is, some of you may have a practice of chanting the mantra, the healing Buddha, the medicine Buddha. The medicine Buddha, I just, in reading about it recently, came upon the fact that the two attendants, the bodhisattvas that attend the medicine Buddha are the lunar radiance,

[03:26]

Bodhisattva and the solar radiance Bodhisattva. So the sun and the moon attend this great Buddha of healing, compassion, medicine. And the medicine Buddha, as you may know, I actually have one here that was given to me. Can you see that? It's blue. It's lapis lazuli color. And this dark, dark blue color is thought of as a healing. The lapis lazuli is a healing gemstone or stone. And this blue color. And the Buddha is carrying a medicinal flower plant. and also carrying the bowl of sometimes rice and sometimes amrita, or the substance of compassion, which Avalokiteshvara guanyin pours down.

[04:40]

That's what she carries in her vase. That guanyin is not carrying that vase. But Amrita is in this phase, pouring down this compassionate, healing substance. So the attendance for Medicine Buddha are sun phase or lunar and solar radiant bodhisattvas. All pervading solar radiance, all pervading lunar radiance. What does that mean? What does that mean in this koan? So this is a beloved koan. I think you've probably heard it. Many of you have probably given your own Dharma talks on it. And the story is about Master Ma.

[05:43]

And this is Matsudao Yi. That was 709 to 788 Chinese. Zen master, grandson of the sixth ancestor and student of Nanue. And Master Ma, when you read about this teacher, and Suzuki Roshi mentions this too, there's certain details that are often mentioned. He had a very imposing presence. Supposedly, he strode like an ox. and glared like a tiger. So quite a formidable presence. And he also, and Suzuki Roshi mentions this, when his tongue was extended, it could cover his nose. It's a kind of wonderful detail to know about this particular Zen master, kind of unusual. When he did that, I don't know, but people knew that he could.

[06:45]

It was a parlor trick, Zendo trick. So Master Mao is very, very famous, had over 100 enlightened disciples, and many practices stem from his way. So near the end of his life, actually right before this koan, he was walking with his attendant in the mountains around his monastery and saw a kind of cave with a flat area inside the cave, and he said to his attendant, in a month, I will rest there. So this sounds like a kind of his own prediction, his own knowledge of his coming demise and that he was maybe ill and going to die in the not too distant future. So

[07:49]

Great teacher, Master Ma, was unwell. The monastery superintendent came to visit him and said, Master, how is your venerable state these days? Master Ma said, sun-faced Buddha, moon-faced Buddha. And that's the koan. Now, I've heard and read many commentary on this, and my own understanding has deepened and changed through the years. One understanding that I had at one point was... And I think it's important to know this detail that in the Avatamsaka Sutra, there's these lists of Buddhas, and there's two sun-faced Buddhas and moon-faced Buddhas, two of the Buddhas.

[09:04]

And the sun-faced Buddha lives for a long, long time, over a thousand years or more. And the moon-faced Buddha lives for a day and a night. That's all. So we have just like solar and lunar radiance, we have the moon coming, rising, growing larger, getting smaller, very changeable, coming and going. This lunar radiance in the sutra, this Buddha lives for one day and one night, and then the solar radiance, The sun-faced lives for a long, long time. So at one point, my sense was either one is okay, whether it's short or long, it's okay.

[10:10]

And it was okay for Master Ma. His life was however many years he lived, 71 years. That you could say is moon face. It's not a day and a night, but in the scheme of things, it's like a blink of the eye. And at the exact same time, sun face. Sun face. Existing, living for an untold, maybe immeasurable. And that both are okay. And I think that's, I feel like that's part of it, that that's part of this koan for me is accepting sun-faced Buddha, moon-faced Buddha. Each one is completely Buddha, is our Buddha nature and is our blessed life.

[11:21]

And to not pick or choose, to not privilege one over the other, but the two together are just as they are, just as they are, is okay. Now, more recently, as I've been looking at this, I've been turning and going further with what I just said, I think, The sun-faced Buddha, this shining, feeling like unchanging quality, to me resonates with the teaching of the absolute or suchness, let's say. And the moon-faced Buddha is more like difference or difference and equality, the differences. the 10,000 things, and that they are completely interfused and together always.

[12:36]

You can't have one without the other. Master Ma, as he says, sun-faced Buddha, moon-faced Buddha, is expressing this complete interfusion of the principle, and the phenomena, equality and difference, form and emptiness. And this is our nature. This is our Buddha nature. This is the nature that we awaken to and that we celebrate and that we settle in with our sitting, with our compassionate actions, with all of our practices, this interfusion. And, you know, the teaching is that this is outside of our perception, the absolute part, the equality.

[13:41]

These are the teachings that we can listen to and be enlivened by and illuminated with However, as we know from our chants, all of this, however, is outside of perception because it is unconstructedness and stillness. So in some ways, to have Master Ma say, sun-faced Buddha, moon-faced Buddha, and to speak that, that we perceive that, you perceive that metaphor, you perceive me, Saying that, however, the imperceptibility of that, we have to settle with. And not long for, you know, the grasping mind of, but I want to have that. I want to know that in a consciousness way.

[14:46]

I want to have that and take it home with me, which is not what the teaching says. However, we can practice taking good care of sun-faced Buddha, moon-faced Buddha. How do we take care of that? We take good care of moon-faced Buddha. We take good care of the one that lasts a day and a night. And that means all the careful things that we're doing to take good care of ourselves and others, washing our hands, physical distancing. You know, what are we grateful for? Reminding ourselves, practicing generosity, patience, joyous effort. This is all taking care moon face, moon face Buddha.

[15:47]

However, taking care of moon-faced Buddha is taking care of sun-faced Buddha because just like Master Ma said, sun-faced Buddha, moon-faced Buddha, that's one thing. However, it is imperceptible mutual assistance. We are being helped at all times. whether we know it or not, and we are helping and we do our best as Moon-Faced Buddha to take care of our lives and the lives of all those who live with us and speak with us. I've begun to practice with washing my hands, just to mention this, to take refuge in the threefold Buddha. in the threefold treasures, threefold refuges. So starting out saying, I take refuge in Buddha.

[16:51]

I take refuge in Dharma. This is while I'm washing. I take refuge in Sangha. I take refuge in the Buddha as the perfect teacher. I take refuge in the Dharma as the perfect teaching. I take refuge in the Sangha as the perfect life. Now I have completely taken refuge in Buddha. Now I have completely taken refuge in Dharma. Now I have completely taken refuge in Sangha. Buddha, Dharma, Sangha. It's about 20 seconds. So all throughout the day, we can practice taking refuge. And this taking refuge is our way of taking good care of our Buddha nature. Sun, face Buddha, moon, face Buddha. and all beings which are completely, utterly, inextricably interfused with us.

[17:51]

So Master Ma said this, and what is our job? Our job is to accept our life, to accept these circumstances, to accept laws and the joys of our life. And this means we have to practice hard. You know, we have to practice with all our might. In the verse commentary on this, in the Blue Cliff Record, one of the lines says, Sun-faced Buddha, moon-faced Buddha, what kind of people were the ancient emperors? Which is an interesting line, which I'm not going to comment on now, but this next line, for 20 years I have suffered bitterly. How many times have I gone down to the green dragon's cave for you?

[19:02]

This distress... This distress is worth recounting. Clear-eyed, patch-robed monks should not take it lightly. So this speaks to the need for strong, endless, continuous practice throughout the ups and downs of our life, throughout life. the loss and the suffering and the blessings. Moon-faced Buddha. How many times, for 20 years I have suffered bitterly. And each of you can say for years and years I have suffered. Yes, each one, no one is outside of that. How many times must I go down to the green dragon cave for you? Who is that you?

[20:03]

This is a question I've asked for years. Is that Sun-Faced Buddha for you? Is it for Sun-Faced Buddha, Moon-Faced Buddha, for Buddha nature itself? So these times are asking everything of us. This is our time. We've grown up. perhaps with stories of wartime, the Holocaust, you know, other pandemics and other illnesses. Some of you have lived through the war, various kinds of wars and losses. This is our time to take this up and to practice with not a kind of fury and off-balanceness, but with composure, with grounding ourselves in the teachings of compassion and wisdom, knowing that ignorance is, we see it everywhere, and our work is to do our best to

[21:33]

open our eyes, not shy away, not turn away from what is. And in the middle of doing that, we can find our way and follow the elephant, follow the sure-footed elephant. Well, thank you so much for all coming this morning to this online talk. I wish you all May you be at ease. May you be free from suffering and the causes of suffering. Thank you very much. May our intention equally extend to every being and place. With the true merit of Buddha's way, beings are numberless, I vow to save them.

[22:44]

Delusions are inexhaustible, I vow to end them. My gates are boundless, I vow to enter them. But as the way is unsurpassable, I vow to become.

[23:09]

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