This podcast is offered by the San Francisco Zen Center on the web at sfzc.org. Our public programs are made possible by donations from people like you. Just to be in the container obsession for five days now. That's some accomplishment, just to be in the container of the sashin. I think everyone at Green Gulch is in the container of sashin, whether they're in this room. But then there's the container of the room. Then there's the container of your own body. So just to, maybe before that there's a container of your zabutan. So just to stay and spot Zabhatan or chair, if the case may be, to stay.

[01:10]

This is actually this practice of being present, being willing to be present. I think there's a, it should be some feeling for a person practicing this way, just to be willing to just stay. without thinking, oh, how long do I have to be here? When is it gonna get easier? Of course, then the thought comes up, when is it gonna get easier? Some people expect it's gonna get easier. When does it get easier to get old? And when does it get easier to be sick? So no matter what the condition, to stay present is to have confidence in true nature, to have confidence in something.

[02:20]

So the accomplishment is not your accomplishment. The accomplishment of staying in this container is not something that you really can possess with your small mind. It's the accomplishment of letting go of small mind. And so it's the accomplishment of no accomplishment. The accomplishment of big mind. So it's offering, it's an offering. So although we're here in this one place, this practice is being offered boundlessly. Everyone is included. Tonight our service will be a well-being service. So we sometimes particularly recall those people who are ill or in distress of some kind that we offer our practice to and we dedicate it explicitly sometimes.

[03:32]

But always, whether we're whether we're ritually dedicating it in some explicit way, our practice always is an offering wherever it's needed. So today I wanted to offer some teaching from a commentary of Robert Aiken on case 10 of Mumon Khan. Robert Aiken always, he always read all of his Dharma talks. He always wrote them all out completely and then read them. And I seldom do that. I'm too lazy.

[04:36]

But I wrote out some of this, and actually I copied some of this out from his writing and commentary on the Mumankan. The Mumankan, he did his own translation and commentary and is published under the title of Gateless Barrier. Gateless Barrier. published by North Point Press. So case 10, a monk said to Cao Shan, I am Ching Shui, solitary and destitute. Please give me alms. Cao Shan responded, Venerable Shui, Xing Shui said, yes.

[05:38]

Cao Shan said, you have already drunk three cups of the finest wine in China and still you say that you have not moistened your lips. So that's the case. Wu Men comments, Cheng Shui is submissive in manner, but what is his real intention? Cao Shan has the eye and thoroughly discerns what Cheng Shui means. Tell me, where and how has Cheng Shui drunk wine? So again, the case... A monk said to Cao Shan, I am Cheng Cui, solitary and destitute. Please give me alms. Cao Shan responds, Venerable Cui, yes.

[06:46]

You have already drunk three cups of the finest wine in China, and still you say that you have not moistened your lips. So, Ching Shui is not well known, but he's named, and since he's named, at least he's, that indicates he was someone who was of some importance, a practitioner of some maturity. And Cao Shan is one of the ancestors in our lineage. He's the the Tsao in Soto, Zen, the So in Soto. So I want to read some of Robert Aiken's commentary here. So these are his words.

[07:50]

Begins just by quoting, solitary and destitute, won't you give me alms? A world of meaning lies within these words. Wu Min challenges you to see into that world of religious solitude and poverty, as well as Saushan did. Everything is totally without meaning or purpose. The universe is nothing but a vast desert without a blade of grass or drop of water. There's nothing of significance in my life. Thus have students of all religions described their dark night experiences. Not only do students of religion encounter this fearsome valley, people everywhere sound its depths, a condition sometimes laughed off by their friends as midlife crisis. Also when just having midlife crisis.

[08:57]

This bleak state, so back to Robert Akin, this bleak state of spirit was called acidi by the early Christian teachers. David the psalmist called this condition the valley of the shadow of death. William James called it the sick soul. Though it has negative names and a bad reputation, it is actually a very promising condition. an essential phase of spiritual evolution. So this is beginning to explore, okay, what's the condition of Cheng Shui coming in here? It may be hard to say. Is he pleading out of a kind of false modesty, or is he someone who just tends to think less of himself, which is a kind of arrogance, actually, not being willing to present himself, and yet he is presenting himself.

[10:24]

So this is, you know, there are many occasions. Every meeting actually is an opportunity to present oneself. But sometimes one feels this bleakness, this bleak desert state. And sometimes it persists. So it's important at these times to make some presentation. I'd say it's important at these times to continue your practice, to recall that you actually do have a place. You have a sabbatan to sit on, a place to bring yourself. And it's important to check in with your teacher, with someone. It may be a good time to meet a teacher. So we don't know whether this was the first time for Zheng Shui coming to Saoshang.

[11:36]

Robert Akin continues his commentary by saying, when Scottish philosopher David Hume reached a place like this in his intellectual quest, he found it frightening. and turned for solace to his merry friends and a good game of backgammon. But Ching Shui pressed on. He is a more courageous model for us. Instead of giving himself up to the comfort of a game with his friends, he presents himself fully to Cao Shan, as if to say, this is where I am. What should I do now? Most commendable. From the depths of his poverty, he examined his teacher as his own practice. So this is also happening, right? This is the person who is feeling this bleak state is also checking the field of trust with his teacher.

[12:50]

Can I be met here? Can I be met in this condition? Do I have to come up with some pretense? Where are you at? So this is always, you know, this meeting is always a two-way street. So the teacher should also be willing to learn from the presentation from the person in front. So what happens then is that Salshan responds. So he hears this request for alms. Here I am.

[13:53]

holding out the bowl and request for alms, which is saying I'm open. I'm open to receiving something. As we said a few days ago, this is a vulnerable place, willing to receive, and whatever comes is feedback, you know, a chance to say thank you. But Saushan calls his name, Venerable Shui. So this is very evocative, calling someone's name from the first early, say, early in our lives when we first began to discover that this particular sound refers to oneself. This name. This name is given, this name is bestowed.

[14:57]

And it is then the way in which the whole universe makes a request. The universe calls attention to this one through this name. So Sao Shan touches him with calling his name, Venerable Shui. And he responds, yes. So this is wonderful. It's complete right there, don't you think? Just saying, yes. So there's this sense of readiness and attentiveness. And still there's maybe something, something needed.

[16:02]

And so at this point, Cao Shan offers, you have already drunk three cups of wine, the finest wine in China. Still you say, you have not moistened your lips. Still you say, your mouth is dry, your lips dry, everything is dry. So, this is then a statement inviting, inviting Ching Shui to Wake up to himself, right? You've already received this. So from the day before yesterday, reading the poem from Galway Canal, sometimes it's necessary to re-teach a thing its loveliness.

[17:14]

Sometimes it's necessary to remind someone, oh, you've already... You're already... Don't you see? So, I'd like to pick up a little more of Robert Akin's commentary here, showing how he investigates this one line. He says, the original, he begins with a literal translation, He says, the original says, you have drunk three cups of wine of the house of Pai Ching Yuan. So that's the original. You have already drunk three cups of wine of the house of Pai Ching Yuan. Most commentators note, so this is Robert Akin continuing,

[18:20]

Most commentators note that Bai was a famous company of winemakers in the district of Jingyuan. It probably was, but I wonder if there aren't some Zen puns at play here. Jingyuan is written with the same ideograph as the name of the ancestor in the Saoshan's line, Jingyuan. Qingyuan is Qingyuan or Seigen, Seigen Gyoshi in Japanese. And so when we chant our lineages, we chant Seigen Gyoshi Daio Shou. So in Chinese, it's Qingyuan. And so Qingyuan was a seventh-generation student of Huyneng. So earlier in the week I was talking about Nanyue, also a student of Wainong. So this is another student of Wainong, pretty quiet.

[19:23]

He didn't leave any writings. However, three of the five schools of Zen in China came through Seigen Gyoshi or Chenggyuan Xingxi. So... So this is a person whose name would resonate when the line is translated, the house, a line from the house of Ching Yuan, right? So that's the first thing that Robert Akin points out. Okay, so there's this illusion That wouldn't come through necessarily in just the translation by saying finest wine, but if you go to that particular name, it has that resonance.

[20:26]

And secondly, he says, by, moreover, this is Robert Akin, moreover, by, house of by, means white. And in Asia, white also means no color. Let me play with this a little. Basho has the haiku, whiter than the stones of stone mountain, the winds of autumn. So this is Robert Aiken then citing a haiku, basho haiku. Of course, basho, much later, Japanese haiku master. But this is his haiku, whiter than the stones of Stone Mountain, the winds of autumn. And then Robert Aiken continues, The stones of Stone Mountain are white. The winds are even whiter.

[21:28]

Look again at Cao Shan's words. You have drunk three cups of wine from the house of no color in Qingyuan. But still you say you have not moistened your lips. We can carry the point about white as the absence of color even further. Color and form are the same ideograph in Chinese. So the wine of the house of Pi can be read as the wine of the house of no color and no form. That is the wine we keep looking for deep in our cellars. So that's the way Robert Aiken unpacks that particular phrase. Just giving you a little taste of the way he would investigate each line of the koans in the Mumankan.

[22:41]

So studying with him, that would be an invitation to take that same level of seriousness and investigate, okay, what can be at play here? So what is this house of no form, no color? Is this not the house of the entire teaching of Bodhidharma? of Mahayana Buddhism, of the Heart Sutra. No form, no color. Avulakitesvara Bodhisattva, when deeply practicing Prajnaparamita, sees that all five skandhas are free of form and color. And is relieved of suffering. completely in this seeing, this seeing.

[23:51]

So coming back to the haiku, the stones of Stone Mountain, the stones of Stone Mountain, he says, Bashu notes that the stones of Stone Mountain are white. But whiter than the stones is the wind. No form, no color. Except Wind also has form, right? The form of wind, the experience of wind. And stones have the same visual wind. How do we see the stones? How do we see the whiteness of stones? We see them like a visual wind. So in this... House of no form, no color. Stones, wind are equal. Equally empty. Stones are empty.

[24:54]

Wind is empty. So this is this deeply seeing into what is happening is empty. is the way to go through the valley of shadow, to see the valley of the shadow itself. This is not thinking valley of shadow, this is actually the actual experience of the valley of shadow. Just like the pain in your knee is not thinking pain in the knee. It's an actual sensation. So you may notice a big difference between thinking and being willing to be completely with something, which means you have to drop the fear.

[26:01]

Drop the fear that comes with a dualistic mind. As soon as we separate things, as soon as we separate ourselves, we feel some anxiety. Because it's not quite true to reify or to make that separation substantial. Because deep in the wine cellar, we also know that it's not quite right. So deep in the wine cellar, we also know that to be stuck in separation feels terrible, feels difficult.

[27:05]

And then to see that, oh, that's just the construction that we have to make. We have to make this constructed world. We have to choose, actually, to be human beings. And in choosing to be human beings, we both separate and affirm ourselves. So then, anyway, Robert Akin leaves his commentary with that. He says, Color and form are the same ideograph in Chinese, so the wine of the house of Bai can be read as the wine of the house of no color and no form. That is the wine we keep looking for deep in our cellars. So that kind of nourishment is what brings people to practice.

[28:17]

feeling some lack of that kind of nourishment. But then I wondered, what about three, the number three, three cups of wine? Robert Akin doesn't say anything about that. And then I was recalling Greg Mortensen's book, Three Cups of Tea. Some people here are nodding your head, some people have read it. I know it's a very popular book. Three Cups of Tea. So Greg Mortensen is climbing the mountain in the Himalayas and slides down, loses his grip, and wakes up in this little village in Kashmir in Pakistan, northern Pakistan. why they're having so much difficulty these days.

[29:19]

But it's also not far from the area where the earliest figures of Buddha were carved. In the Kashmir, early on in Buddhism, there were no figures made of Shakyamuni Buddha. But then when Buddhism met Greek culture, where Alexander the Great had... invaded close into the Kashmir. And so there were actually Greek villages. They started carving Buddhas like carving Apollo. And so some idealized form. So we have actually two of those figures from that time, that era and that place. Actually, one is on the altar in Buddha Hall and City Center and one is Tassahara, Gandhara and Buddhas.

[30:28]

How we got those is another story. But anyway, Greg Mortensen. And so he... he slides down and loses consciousness and wakes up and is nursed back into life by villagers in Kashmir. And so three cups of tea refer then to the custom there. They say that three cups of tea, the first cup is we meet, we have a cup of tea, You're a guest. First cup of tea, you're a guest. And then again, you have another meeting and, oh, so we have a cup of tea a second time and you're remembered and so you're a friend.

[31:35]

And then circumstances permitting and you meet again and you have a third meeting cup of tea, and so now you are a member of the tribe, a member of the family. So this recognition of how we meet, how we get acquainted, how we deepen relationships, Saushan says, three cups of wine. So this is deepening in various ways. We say things three times. When we do our morning service, we chant all my ancient twisted karma, we chant three times. When we do our ordination ceremony,

[32:45]

ask the question, will you continue this practice? And we ask it three times. The person says yes, and they ask it again. Will you continue this practice? Yes. Will you continue this practice? Yes. So Sao Shaan is reminding that he is already an initiate. He has already said yes. Yes. Yes. Three times. Again and again. So I think there is some significance too in this number three. Three. Deep drinks.

[33:47]

So as I keep drinking this particular, say, wine of this lineage, you know, it's not so easy. You can't say that it becomes easier or that it becomes more difficult. There's this lay a story of Lehman Pong. And Lehman Pong and his wife and daughter are having a conversation, family conversation in the Pong family. And Lehman Pong says, it's so difficult. It's like trying to place sesame seeds on the leaves, every leaf of a big tree. His wife says, oh, it's not so difficult.

[35:26]

It's just like rolling out of bed and putting your feet on the floor. And his daughter, who was maybe the wisest one in the family, she says, not easy, not difficult. On every blade of grass, is the ancestor's teaching. So this is the same daughter that, my favorite, one of my favorite stories about her, you know, it's a layman pongs walking along and they're going together, you know, they went from place to place, weaving baskets and selling them. But they were walking along, and they were crossing the bridge, and at the edge of the bridge, Lai Man Pong trips and falls down on the ground, and his daughter throws herself down beside him on the ground.

[36:31]

He says, what are you doing? She says, I'm helping. He gets up and brushes himself off, says, I'm glad no one was looking. She was very quick, that daughter, she was very quick to help. Stand up, helping. Fall down, helping. You know, not separating. Being willing to be right there. You know, at the end when we were saying, you know, not being in the jewel mirror samadhi last lines, it says, not being filial, there's no help, right? So not being a good attendant or not being a good daughter or son is no help. So being a good daughter or being a good son is being a good attendant, being willing to help.

[37:33]

So sometimes... So Francisco is learning how to help me in Jisha this week. And did you notice I put on the wrong robe for this? What? There's a right robe and a wrong robe. There's a right robe and a wrong robe. So everything I've said today is invalid. When I'm doing these Dharma talks, I'm supposed to be wearing the nine-jowel kesa. This is only the seven-jowel kesa. I didn't think of it myself until I was here bowing at, oh. That attendant failed. When I first became a habit, I was reading the Chinese rules for the monastery.

[38:52]

the Qinyuan Chingi, and one of the places it says, if the abbot fails to show up for communal work, his attendant should be expelled from the monastery. Laughter [...] So big job, you know, helping, you know. Falling down, getting up. Falling down, getting up. So this is an ongoing study. And as people, some of you know, I've been studying Nagarjuna, Mulamajanaka Karakas, this past year. And in the very first verse of the Mullah, Nagarjuna says, nothing is caused by itself.

[40:06]

Nothing is caused by another. Nothing is caused by both self and and another, and nothing appears without cause. So you get that? Nothing is caused by itself. So this is, the first verse, I think, is designed to kind of crunch your usual thinking, right? Usually we think something is caused by, oh, I caused it, or something else caused it. Or we even then kind of generally think, oh, causes and conditions. But he's pointing to emptiness.

[41:10]

He's pointing to the way things are, not linear causation. completely interconnected, dependent arising. If you pay attention to this moment, you can see this moment is not to be understood in terms of time, past, and future. this moment, that this moment includes past and future. But the past and future included in this moment is this, only this moment's past and future. So thank you, Kitchen. But when I first, when I was confronted with this, then I had to...

[42:20]

I felt very distressed. And actually when I was first teaching this at Tassajara, it was pretty upsetting. People kept coming up to me saying, how can you say no cause? The Buddha's always teaching cause, understanding cause and effect. So then I So then I came up with, nothing is caused by itself, nothing is caused by another, nothing is caused by a father, nothing is caused by a mother, nothing is caused by the sun, nothing is caused by the moon, nothing is really happening and it's happening much too soon. And what does it get me? It gets me down to my shoes.

[43:21]

It's nothing but the Mula Madhyamaka Karaka Blues. So I've been singing the Mula Madhyamaka Karaka Blues for months now. So... this blues and the Mula Madhyamaka Karika blues is the same as Cheng Shui being solitary, destitute. Not being satisfied with explanation for things. So you may notice in your sitting, oh, the tendency to want to, oh, have explanation for things. But the explanation for things is to substantiate what is actually completely empty, flowing, impossible to grasp.

[44:23]

So in the practice of aligning again and again, please come back to this moment. Noticing, wanting to hold on to something. Hold on to how you can be at home when you're already at home. So see if you can just settle into this stillness, which is not holding yourself still, but which is letting go of those desires, those restless urges to grab hold of something to think that there's some other place to be. Recognizing this very seat is the place of awakening, this very moment, this very breath.

[45:29]

Thank you for waking up. For more information, visit sfzc.org and click Giving. May we fully enjoy the Dharma.

[46:13]

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