Good morning, and Happy Lunar New Year. My name is Lucy, Gendo Lucy Xiao. My Dharma name means mysterious way, Shen Dao. Can you hear me okay? Louder? Or maybe the mic? Okay, we'll try. I'd like to start by thanking Wendy for inviting me to give this talk and to thank my teachers and

[01:06]

Ryushin Paul Heller Roshi and Sojen Mel Weizmann Roshi. Without them, I wouldn't be here. And I'd like to thank my family in China who are in my home city, Guangzhou. They are celebrating the Lunar New Year in a very quiet way this year. You probably have heard about the virus situation. So my thoughts and prayers go to the people there. So around the New Year time, Lunar New Year time, I often get a little homesick.

[02:09]

I would think about all the things that we do around this time, like going to the flower fairs in my hometown, Guangzhou or Canton. Around this time, they will block many streets and all they are selling there are flowers and New Year's stuff. And so that's the thing to do on New Year's Eve or the day before New Year's Eve. You would put lots of fresh flowers and tangerines at home. Tangerine... sounds, pronounces like good luck. So in Cantonese, so people love tangerines.

[03:14]

So you might see in Chinatown, there are lots of tangerines around this time. And the first couple weeks of New Year, we would visit elderlies and our teachers, relatives. And it's called, Bài Nian New Year Greeting. And we say, Xin Nian Hao. Have a good New Year. Or, Xin Nian Kuai Le. Happy New Year. Or, in Cantonese, we say, Gong Hei Fa Chui. May you have prosperity. And of course, we would get together and eat. And that's most well-known, that we like to eat. Less known is that around this time, people in Canton also like to go to the nature and go hiking in the tallest,

[04:34]

mountain on the outskirts of Guangzhou called White Cloud Mountain. On New Year's Day or a week, many people would go there and hike in the mountain to see the new peach blossoms, pear blossoms, plum blossoms. and the creeks running through the mountain and of course you do all these things with your friends and family and so to follow the tradition I got myself lots of tangerines flowers and I share food with friends and I It took a half day earlier this week to go to Mount Tam.

[05:36]

And I went to my favorite trail called Steve Ravine. Have you been there? That's a lovely trail. And at this time of the year, the water is just spectacular. If you haven't made it there this year, please, please go. It's just beautiful. Which brings me to the topic of this talk, which is also the subject of the practice period, nature and experience. There's a poem by Su Shi, a famous poet in Song Dynasty China.

[06:40]

This poem has been coming to me in the past couple months, and especially this week, especially during my hike at Mount Tan. The poem goes, The sounds of streams are the white long tongue of the Buddha. The mountain colors are no other than the pure Dhammakaya. Through the night, 84,000 goddess are heard. Tomorrow, how can they be spoken to others? In Chinese it goes, Xisheng, This is probably one of the most quoted poems in Zen literature in China.

[08:02]

And It's also quoted by Master Dogen in Shobu Genzo in one of the fascicles called Stream Sounds and Mountain Colors. And it's also one of my most favorite poems. I have a scroll of this poem written by my calligraphy teacher, Master Chen. And since I changed scrolls in my room, every now and then lately I put this one up so that I've been thinking about it. The person who wrote the poem, Su Shi, his pen name is Su Dongpo, I don't know if you heard of it. If you study Chinese literature, you must have.

[09:04]

Dongpo means Eastern Slope, and he called himself Dongpo Ju Shi, Eastern Slope, layman. So he practiced Zen and also Taoism. He was very... free-spirited and multi-faceted, multi-talented person. And he was a preeminent figure in 11th century Song Dynasty China, both in the field of poetry, literature, calligraphy, painting, many art forms, as well as politician, as well as, what do you call it, hydraulic engineering.

[10:13]

And he was also a foodie. He was government official. He was governor... of Hangzhou or Suzhou, a beautiful town known by its gardens for times. And he was governors or some kind of government officials in many places in China. And at various times, he was also exiled to far land like Hainan Island, Hainandao. In those days, it was the furthest place you can send people to for exile. And his life was very colorful. And so his poetry has this

[11:26]

Oftentimes it just comes out of his poetry, his life and his understanding of life. And so it's said that he was meeting with Master Changzhong at Donglin Temple. Donglin means Eastern Forest. It's at the foot of Mount Lu. Mount Lu is known for its misty, the mist in the mountains. And so Dong Lin Temple is the founding temple, well, earlier days, the founder of Pure Land Buddhism, Hui Yuan, Master Hui Yuan practiced there. And then... in Song Dynasty, it must be a very kind of flourishing place.

[12:37]

And so Su Dongpo went there to meet with Master Chang Zong and had a discussion of what's known in Zen as wu qing shuo fa. the ascension beings expounding the Dharma. Which, if I translate it to modern language, nature giving teachings about nature of things. In Zen, it's a famous phrase or traditional teaching. There are a lot of koans and stories involve this teaching of in sentient beings, or sometimes translated as inanimate objects, giving teachings of Dharma. And so Xu Dongpoi had discussion with the master, and then they were done, and then he went to sit at night.

[13:49]

At night he heard... the rolling streams of the mountain. And something opened up for him. So the sounds of streams are the wide long tongue of the Buddha. So Guangchangshe, wide long tongue, is one of the signs of the Buddha, which refers to his capacity, his ability to teach to all beings. So... The sounds of streams are the teachings of the Buddha. And the mountain colors are no other than the pure Dhammakaya. The mountain colors are sometimes translated as mountain forms, mountain contours, because the character sur could mean color or form, as in form is emptiness, emptiness is form, and that's the same character.

[14:53]

The pure body, the pure Dharma body, the nature of what is. The Dharmakaya, the suchness. So the mountains, the mountain colors, the mountain shapes are no other than manifestation of suchness. Through the night, 84,000 gathas are heard. 84,000 verses have been taught. It is said that we have, human beings, have 84,000 different kinds of problems. Suffering, distress, affliction, fan nao. In Chinese, bono.

[15:56]

In Japanese. So the Buddha gave 84,000 kind of teachings to help human beings. 84,000 different kind of medicine for the 84,000 kinds of illness. Well, it really means many, many, countless. countless ways that we cause our self-suffering. And the teaching is to help us to get out of the suffering. So Xu Dongpo heard the teachings of the 84,000 verses, and he wondered, How can they be explained to others? How can they be spoken to others?

[17:00]

How can you speak the unspeakable to others? great master Dongshan, the founder of the Cao Dongzong or Soto School in China in Tang Dynasty. When he met his master, one of his masters, Yunyan, He asked Master Yunyan, how can the Dharma be spoken by insentient beings?

[18:19]

How do you hear the teachings of insentient beings? Master Yunyan told him, insentient beings hear the teaching of insentient beings. And the conversation went on. And he composed this verse later on. Marvelous, marvelous, insentient beings expounding the Dharma. How inconceivable. It cannot be known by hearing it with ears, but when your eyes hear it, then it may be understood. How do we learn from nature, from the creeks, the mountain streams, the trees, the rocks?

[19:33]

How can we learn If we hear just using our ears and respond with our usual response, we hear pleasant sounds and we go after it. We hear unpleasant sounds and we try to get away from it. If we use those kind of ears, we will not hear the truth. So Su Dongpo heard the sounds of the streams and he saw the colors of mountains. And Master Dongshan, after leaving his teacher, Master Yunyuan, he went on a journey as he

[20:41]

came across a creek. He saw his reflection in the water and had an awakening experience. So what was and what is the teachings of in sentient beings of nature. The creeks and the rocks and the trees. If you look closely and hear closely how a mountain stream or mountain streams be, you notice that they keep flowing.

[21:46]

They keep flowing according to where they are in the mountains. Sometimes it's flat, then the water becomes more calm and slow, and sometimes it's steep and the water just... rushes over. And sometimes there are rocks, stones, in the way or on the way, the water just flow around it. And falling trees blocking the way, no problem, it just flows through it. And so the water knows that it needs to adapt to its environment, and that's how they keep going, and that's how they can eventually reach the ocean.

[23:01]

Sometimes you might think, well, that beautiful creek is teaching me. The beautiful, insentient beings are my teachers. And the rocks and the falling dead woods are not my teachers. They are just in the way. The water, the flowing water, doesn't have that notion. In December, I went to a meditation retreat in Berkeley, at Berkeley Zen Center with Sojin Roshi.

[24:24]

And that was my first time doing Sishin there, even though I visited him many times there. It was my first time sitting with the community there. And if you haven't been to Berkeley Zen Center, it's a lovely, intimate place. The meditation hall, the Zen Do, is probably about, I want to say, half the size of here. our zendo here. And I was told that when they bought the property, they converted two houses into the zendo. And the structure worked in such a way that they had to put pillars in the room, in the zendo. so that there are four pillars, wooden pillars, in the zendo, kind of leaning, not leaning, standing against the tan, the meditation platform.

[25:39]

And so normally, the meditation platform or bench, you put cushions, sabutans, next to each other. And then because of the pillar, they usually put meditation cushions on each side so that the pillar is kind of like this is the pillar. It's just between the seats. So that's not a problem. Well, during Sishin, because there are so many people participating, they had to, on one side, they had to add one more cushion, one more zapotone, which means they have to move everybody kind of a little bit, which means one of the seats got the pillar right in the middle.

[26:45]

And guess what? I got that seat. Well, it's not really right in the middle right here. It's like on half of the, like in front of your seat, on this half. And so I'm so used to our forms, like when you go to the seat, to your seat, you bow to the seat, you turn and then sit down and then you swing yourself back clockwise, then you fluff your fabric and sit down. And then when you're done, you turn around clockwise. And of course, I couldn't do that because I kept hitting the pillar. And when it's time for meals, we eat oreo-ki meals in the zendo, in formal setting.

[27:48]

So you... put out your bowls, and the priest bowls seem like take more space with the little placemat underneath. So the placemat cannot fully flatten. So I struggle with the placemat and with the spoon. It doesn't lay all the way on the bowl. It gets kind of like it had to lean on this pillar. So for the first couple of days, I just had this invisible fight with this pillar. And I was just like, why are you there, right in front of my seat? You are really getting in my way. you know, well, it must be I'm the new person.

[28:57]

They gave me the worst seat. And sometimes I thought, oh, this is really bad feng shui. When I turn facing out, I cannot see people. I cannot see the whole room. Bad feng shui. So, yeah. The first couple days, I wasn't very settled. I had this mental chatting and trying to figure out how to deal with this pillar. And then at one point, I thought, You know, I took the whole week off to come sit sitting with my teacher. And here I am, trying to fight with this pillar, who did nothing wrong.

[30:07]

It's just there supporting the house. And then it came to me, this question, What's the practice of flowing water? Then it just all of a sudden it became very obvious. Well, you just flow around it. So I just got more aware of the thing, the pillar, right there. So when I tried to get on and off the seat, I was more careful, and I just didn't do the whole kind of swing. And, yeah, you know, it's not enough room for my oreo key set, and why not?

[31:13]

I just push my seat back a little bit so that I have more room. And everything just fell away. And that was just fine. So the flowing water gives teachings. And the pillar, the platform, the bowls, the cushions, everything also gives teachings. What are the teachings? You know, things change all the time. When you get used to something, and then you get dropped in a new place, and if you still try to do things the old way, it may not work.

[32:28]

And Oftentimes, when things don't go according to our plan or desire, then we get grumpy. As if our plan or our desire is the only way. But in the natural world, that's not the case. When the water comes upon a rock, it just flows around. And yet it doesn't remember it's on its way to the ocean. And when we are fixated about our likings and dislikings, we can forget that our life, this person, this being, is merely a flow of experience, bodily experience, feelings and thoughts and perceptions.

[34:02]

It's a flow of this compound of experience. And it's intimately connected to everybody else and everything else, which goes through its own flow of experience, but intimately connected to us. to each other the drop of water in mountain stream it keeps changing keeps manifesting in different part of the journey And it's intimately connected with every other drop of water in the stream.

[35:12]

In fact, there is no separate drops of water. It's just a body of water. As human beings, we often forget that we are whole body. We are one body manifesting in separate little bodies. But where we come from, the nature of all things, the true body of things, the suchness. We all come from there. If we lose sight of it, if we don't understand that, then we'll

[36:31]

get into a situation where things can become difficult because we are too rigid and too isolated from everything else. How can we hear the teaching? We cannot just hear with our usual ears. We cannot see with our usual eyes. We cannot meet things and people with our usual way of grasping and pushing away.

[37:47]

We have to use our heart to hear and to see. Use our wisdom ear and wisdom eyes. Only then you can see the true body, the teachings. So, the sounds of the streams are the wide, long tongue of the Buddha, the mountain colors, are no other than the pure Dharmakaya. Through the night, 84,000 goddess are heard. Tomorrow, how can they be spoken to others?

[38:56]

Thank you very much.

[39:03]

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