To remember and accept, I vow to teach the truth of the Tathagata's words. Good evening. Well, I'm happy to see all of you this evening, and I haven't been able to be here very much this month. The last part of this month, and the first part, because my wife Liz is visiting, taking care of her father in Pasadena, who had a bypass operation, and so she's been down there, and I'm taking care of our son Daniel, and I'm being mom and dad, and also taking care of Berkeley and San Francisco.

[01:05]

Things are working out pretty well, but I just don't have the same amount of time to be here. This evening, I want to continue with Master Keizan's Dinko Roku, Transmission of Light, and I want to talk about the 19th ancestor, Kumarata. This case, Kumarata, in this case, Keizan talks about knowledge of former lives,

[02:23]

and he talks about the meaning of knowledge of former lives, but he talks about it from a different perspective than usual perspective. Maybe you could say he talks about it from a non-dualistic point of view. So first, he presents the case. He says, the 19th ancestor was the venerable Kumarata. Once, the venerable Gayashata, who was his teacher, said to him, Long ago, the world-honored one predicted, One thousand years after my death, a great being will appear in Tokhara, who will inherit and promote the profound teaching. You have now met with this good fortune by encountering me.

[03:29]

Hearing this, the master, Kumarata, acquired the knowledge of former lives, and clearly says, and was awakened. You know, if you read the Lotus Sutra, you will read how the Buddha, in the Lotus Sutra, predicts the realization and the Buddhahood of various disciples. So these are the circumstances of the case. The master, Kumarata, was from Tokhara, and his family was of the Brahmin caste, the priestly caste. Long ago, now here we go into some Indian mythological kind of realm.

[04:41]

Long ago, when he was a celestial being, in the Parinimitta-Vaishravartan celestial realm, that's the sixth realm in the realm of desire, he saw a Bodhisattva's necklace of precious stones, and suddenly felt attachment. You know, when you see statues and paintings of celestial Bodhisattvas, they're often wearing ornaments, earrings, and crowns, and necklaces, and wonderful garments. So these are garments which are adornments, but they're not adornments like you would wear to a ball, but they have some meaning. They represent some kind of meaning, actually.

[05:54]

So when he saw a Bodhisattva's necklace of precious stones, and suddenly felt attachment, as a result of the attachment, he fell from that realm and was born in the celestial realm of the Trayastimsas, that is the second of the celestial realms in the realm of desire. He heard Indra, the chief of the gods, preaching the Perfection of Wisdom Sutra, the Prajnaparamita Sutra, and thanks to realizing its superiority, he ascended to the celestial realm of the Brahmadevas, in the realm of form. So in Buddhist mythology, there are all these heavens and hells and various realms of transmigration, and each realm has various categories. So in previous lives, he transmigrated through these various realms,

[07:07]

and because of what he did in one realm, he was transferred to another, and then he did something here, he was transferred to another. So in this last one, he heard Indra preaching the Prajnaparamita Sutra, and thanks to realizing its superiority, he ascended to the celestial realm of the Brahmadevas, in the realm of form. Being quite bright, he was skillful in preaching the essentials of the Dharma, and the celestial beings honored him by making him their teacher. Because the time had arrived for succeeding to the rank of ancestor, he finally descended from the celestial realms and was born in Tokara. So there was some, you know, trying to show that there was some background to his arriving in Tokara.

[08:11]

You can also see these various realms as being right here. As you know, there are the six realms, human realm, animal realm, hungry ghosts, fighting demons, heaven and hell, and we transmigrate continuously through these realms. Sometimes we're a fighting demon, and sometimes we act like an animal, sometimes we're like a hungry ghost, and sometimes we're in heaven, sometimes we're in hell, and sometimes we're in the human realm. Once in a while we touch base with the human realm, but we're continually... this is characteristic of our life.

[09:19]

And our actions, whatever our actions are, determine which realm we're heading into. And we can get out of a realm by changing our direction. But sometimes it's not so easy. We easily get hooked. So the 18th ancestor, Kayashata, was preaching, and he arrived in Tokara. Seeing a strange atmosphere around a certain Brahmin house, he started to enter it. And the master, Kumarata, appeared and asked him, What kind of followers are these? Kayashata had his students with him, his monks.

[10:28]

And the venerable replied, These are followers of the Buddha. When the master heard the name of the Buddha, he shut the door in awe. The venerable paused a little and struck the door. And the master said, There's no one in the house. He got a little scared. He said, There's no one in the house. And the venerable Kayashata replied, Who is it that says no one? When the master heard this, he realized that this must be an unusual person. He opened the door quickly and greeted him. The venerable told him, Long ago, the world-honored one predicted, etc. That's back to the case, right? Long ago, the world-one predicted, 1,000 years after my death, a great being will appear in Tokara who will inherit and promote the profound teaching.

[11:34]

You have now met with this good fortune by encountering me. Hearing this, the master acquired the knowledge of former lives. So, here is Keizan's taisho on this case. Keizan Zenji says, You should consider this story carefully, even if you clarify the way of names and words. Names and words means, the way of names and words refers to being able to come to understanding through study.

[12:42]

Even if you clarify the way of names and words, and clarify that the coming and going of birth and death are the true person, if you do not clarify the fact that your own intrinsic nature is empty, bright, marvelous and vast, then you do not understand the mind that the Buddhas express. Even if you understand Buddhism, if you do not clarify that the coming and going of birth and death are the true person, usually, or often, people understand that people try to transcend birth and death and say that

[13:46]

in order to escape from the world of transmigration, we have to escape birth and death. We have to find a way out of birth and death. But actually, to find Buddha, we have to find Buddha within birth and death. This is Dogen's teaching. There is a Buddha within birth and death, and there is no Buddha within birth and death. This is one of Dogen's koans. Shoji, birth and death. There is no Buddha within birth and death, and yet, the only way to find Buddha is within birth and death.

[14:52]

So he says, and you should consider the story carefully, even if you clarify the way of names and words and clarify that the coming and going of birth and death are the true person, even if you can clarify that, which is realization, if you do not clarify the fact that your own intrinsic nature is empty, bright, marvelous, and vast, then you do not understand the mind that the Buddhas express. Therefore, Kumaratha was amazed to see Bodhisattvas emitting light, and he had feelings of attachment when he saw the 32 marks and 80 minor marks of the bodies of Buddhas. In other words, he was very impressed with the Buddhas' followers.

[16:00]

The reason is that he had still not gotten rid of the three basic poisons of craving, hatred, and delusion. When we now look at Kumaratha's past, we can see that he retrogressed and fell from the celestial realm of the Trayastrimsaka due to craving. However, due to causes in former lives, he ascended to the realm of the Brahmadevas when he heard Indra preaching the Dharma. And finally, he was born in Tokara. Accumulated merits from the past were not in vain, and so finally he met the 18th ancestor and acquired knowledge of former lives. This is kind of like debits and credits of karma. He accumulates a lot of good credit due to his good karma, and then he does something and he falls from that place,

[17:07]

and then he finds his way again and comes back up. So he's kind of going up and down these levels due to his good and bad karma. It's kind of interesting. And if we look at it in the realm of our own lives, we can see we have some credit in some way, and so we kind of have some good karma and find ourselves in a good place. But due to our bad karma, we maybe can't quite get someplace, or we fall down someplace, or we wonder why we're in so much pain, even though we happen to be in a good place. So it's very mixed. Karma is very difficult to understand, the law of karma.

[18:10]

The law of cause and effect is very difficult to understand. And we don't always know why something happens to us, but if we think about it, often we can see that it's either our good or bad so-called effects are due to something that we have done in the past, due to volition. Karma means volitional action, something we do knowingly and willingly. So, in this case, Kumarata fell because of his greed. And attachment.

[19:11]

And then he came back up due to his understanding. He flew, and then he understood, and back up, because he fell because of his attachment, and bounced back up because of his understanding. John? No, he just wanted it. That's enough. I thought, what an opportunity. To do what? Well, if he was in the realm of desire, it said that he was in the realm of desire. Sixth realm of desire. In the sixth realm of desire, and he hadn't figured out how to want yet, how was he going to wake up? That's what I thought when I read it. I thought, well, that's nice. Maybe that's what he was supposed to do there. Maybe so. Maybe so. Obviously. Maybe so. Yeah.

[20:14]

So, we have to suspend judgment. Well, I couldn't figure out how he got to the sixth realm of desire and had to figure out wanting yet. But he didn't say he didn't figure it out. He just says he suddenly felt attachment. Well, isn't that not figuring it out? He suddenly felt attachment? And then he was born in the second realm of celestial realms in the realm of desire. So he went from the sixth to the second. But, and then he heard Indra preaching, and he had realization, and bounced way up, finally ending up in the realm of form.

[21:18]

There are the three realms, you know, form, desire, and formlessness, which have various interpretations. Anyway, so, he had feelings of attachment when he saw the 32 marks and 80 minor marks of the bodies of Buddhas. The reason is that he still had not gotten rid of the three basic poisons of craving, hatred, and delusion. When we now look at Kumaratha's past, he retrogressed and fell from the celestial realms to the realm of the Trayastrimsas due to craving. However, due to causes in former lives, he ascended to the realm of the Brahmadevas when he heard Indra preaching the Dharma. And finally, he was born in Tokara.

[22:24]

Accumulated merits from the past were not in vain. And so finally, he met the 18th ancestor and acquired knowledge of former lives. So, knowledge of former lives, is a very tricky kind of concept. And in Buddhism, you know, we say there's rebirth, but there's no one who is reborn. So this whole thing about rebirth in Buddhism is a very interesting subject. And there's a lot of speculation about the meaning of it. If there is no...

[23:27]

One of the main teachings of Buddhism is there is no no soul and no inherent being who exists as a person. There are just the five skandhas and the dharmas. Form, feelings, perceptions, mental formations and consciousness. And the so-called person is like these five rivers of dynamism, dynamic activity which come together in this human formation. Which is continually

[24:31]

transforming and changing. So, and this energy continues due to volition and desire and continues to transform and take, the energy takes various forms. So, people call this rebirth. Some call it reincarnation, but I think reincarnation is too too perfect rebirth suggests that energy is never lost

[25:32]

and is always being reconstituted in forms that have a cause due to a cause. And so a human activity creates the cause for its rebirth. But since there is no special person no special person is reborn. It's characterized as when you have two candles you light one candle and then you light the other candle with this candle and so what is transferred? Is it the same light or is it a different light? Well, it's the same light

[26:35]

but it's a different light at the same time. So, this goes into what Kaizen is talking about. So then Kaizen says when knowledge of former lives is mentioned it is thought that this refers to knowing the past or future as we ordinarily use the terms. In other words, when knowledge of former lives is mentioned people think of past and future in an ordinary way. What in the world would be the value of that? If you can simply see that one's original unchanging self-nature

[27:36]

is neither saintly nor ordinary neither Buddha's nor sentient beings neither deluded nor enlightened then hundreds of thousands of teachings and incalculable numbers of subtle principles all abide in the mind source. Mind source is great consciousness or Buddha nature. Therefore, both the delusions of ordinary beings and the enlightenment of all the Buddhas abide within one square inch of mind or heart. Clearly says that both abide within one's own heart. I like that. Both the delusions

[28:40]

of ordinary beings and the enlightenment of all the Buddhas abide within one square inch of heart. It is not at all the senses in their objects nor the mind in its realm. At this point what can you consider ancient? What can you consider present? When are all the Buddhas no, who are all the Buddhas? What are sentient beings? Not a single thing obstructs the eye here. Not a speck of dust touches the hands. Being simply a bit of empty brightness it is vast and boundless. That is, the eternal truly perfected Tathagata is sentient beings

[29:41]

who are enlightened from the beginning. Thus, when there is understanding there is no increase. When there is no understanding there is no decrease. Being enlightened to the fact that it has been thus for long aeons is what is meant by acquiring knowledge of former lives. So, Khezan is not talking about former lives from the point of view of past, present and future. He seems to be talking about in the present this present moment is the eternal moment. But what past

[30:43]

can there be? We tend to think that time moves from past to present to future. Khezan seems to be saying there is just this present moment in which there are uncountable transformations taking place. And what has already taken place we call past. And what is potentially able to take place we call future. But there is nothing but

[31:44]

this present moment ever. Just transformations taking place in the present. So former lives former lives are just momentary expressions of this thing. What is ancient is just this present moment. So he says being enlightened to the fact that it has been thus for long aeons

[32:44]

is what is meant by acquiring knowledge of former lives. If you do not reach this realm you will be agitated by feelings about delusion and awakening. You will be moved about by signs of past and future and in the end you will not understand that there is a true self nor will you clarify the fact that the fundamental mind is not mistaken. Therefore you make the Buddhas take all the trouble of appearing in the world and you make the ancestral teachers Bodhidharma come from the West long ago. The reason that Buddha appears in the world is to help people. So it's because of our inadequacy that these teachers appear. We really cause them

[33:46]

a lot of trouble and put them into a lot of trouble to to come down here and do something. The the original meaning of the Buddha appearing in the world and the original intention of coming from the West was for this and nothing else. You should take care and realize that this original mind is very intelligent not deluded very bright and unhidden. Understanding that it is the original bright light is the meaning of acquiring knowledge of former lives. So today also I have a few humble words and I would like to try to penetrate the principle a little. Would you like to hear them? Yes. In past lives

[34:50]

he cast off one body after another. Right now he encounters the old fellow. In past lives he casts off one body after another. He is saying no need to keep casting off these bodies just meet the old fellow the true old fellow. There is no need to put on any other bodies. No need

[35:58]

to acquire any more bodies. So what do you think? About ash and firewood. Ash firewood is firewood and ash is ash and firewood does not become ash. Ash is firewood is not before and ash after. Firewood is just in the state of being firewood. Ash is just in the state of being ash. And each one has its before and after.

[36:59]

One commentator says about this if you asked if you said to tofu do you know that you were once beans? They would say don't be foolish. But beans are beans and tofu is tofu. Beans does not turn into tofu. We also talk about chicken and meat. A chicken is a chicken but then when you cut the head off and cook it in the pot it becomes meat.

[38:15]

So chicken is chicken and meat is meat. The meat is not the chicken although we say this is the chicken. Each thing has its own complete existence and each thing covers the whole ground as it is. As Dogen says it does not fail to cover the whole ground. But here Khe Sanh is saying specifically something. He's saying never mind about

[39:19]

past lives. What's important is right now meeting the old person. Meeting your grandfather at the crossroads. Can you say that a little clearly? Yeah. Present moment cannot be grasped. It can't be grasped as an idea. But

[40:20]

because we think of time as passing. So if we think of time as passing then we can't grasp this moment because we think it's fleeting. But if you let go of this moment it will fill your hands. Because it's not the moment that changes. It's just the event. Oh, that poem?

[41:24]

Yeah. He says right now he encounters the old fellow. Clary says now he meets the same old fellow. Same thing. And Tozan says whichever way I turn I meet myself. This is Tozan's enlightenment poem. No matter where I turn I always meet myself. Moment by moment in each thing. So the characteristic of enlightenment is you treat everything

[42:26]

as yourself. And we usually do. If we hate ourself then we treat everything as ourself with hatred. If we accept ourselves we treat everything with trust. So what it all depends on is this square inch of mind as he says both delusion and enlightenment are within this one square inch of mind. And reality is what it is. Whether we realize it or don't realize it. If we realize it it doesn't add anything at all to reality. If we don't realize it it doesn't take anything away from reality. Not trying to

[43:36]

that's right. Just taking care of details. Just taking care of everything carefully without making judgments. Practice is very simple. That's why it's so difficult. Greed ill will and delusion just don't add just get in the way. That's all. We may be without greed but we still have ill will and delusion. We may be without greed and ill will

[44:37]

but we still have delusion. Okay. The only time that I've been able to experience gratitude for my past has been the few times that I've been able to understand that I like my life so much now and the past isn't. It's all the past has made the present. And the times that I can't understand gratitude is when I think there's a difference. Is that what you're talking about? I guess where you know When I separate myself from my past is when I experience gratitude and reason. Right. You know

[45:42]

I think it's some kind of realization if you can say nothing that ever happened to me in my life was a waste of time. When you can say nothing that ever happened to me in my life was a waste of time then you get outside of your self self pity and judgment and see your life as a whole and see that the inevitability of all the events and you can also it also enables you to see your life as a life of practice and not just as a life

[46:42]

which is arbitrary. Karma yes Karma is in our response in other words you know we we feel I am born into this world in some and it was some stroke of for some reason or no reason you know but each person is born into this world and creates the world there are circumstances each one is born

[47:43]

into some environment some wealthy others poor some you know but these are just circumstances and then how we respond to those circumstances through our volition with courage or with timidity or with honesty or with whatever it is that we bring forth to deal with the circumstances nobility doesn't depend on being born into a high class family nobility depends on how you respond to circumstances so

[48:44]

in every class of people you meet noble people and you meet ignoble people and you meet developed people and you meet undeveloped people depending on how they respond to the circumstances that they're given so there are some people who go from one who don't stay in any state of circumstances but are always testing themselves by going through different systems which is not necessary when you come there's an end to creating karmic consequences although

[49:44]

one is never completely free of karmic consequences but there is a kind of karmic consequence which is so light that it doesn't count it counts so we create our world through how we respond to it and you can see you know the human world is a creation of human beings we create the fighting demons are you know out there really tearing things up the hungry ghosts are starving to death because even though they

[50:46]

they keep devouring and devouring they can't get satisfied and the animal realm can't get above a certain level of intelligence in order to act like a human being and people caught in the hell realms don't know how they got there necessarily but don't know how to get out and the people in the heavenly realms are so satisfied with their worldly pleasures that they're not concerned about their spiritual life

[51:46]

I asked somebody what is the world and they said the world is what's out there and I said well who experiences the world said someone here and I didn't know what to say the world the world the world they said the world is here I see so what's your question who experiences the world Well, the world is experienced, but there's no one who experiences it.

[53:16]

Isn't that adding a head on top of his head, is that so? No, it's taking away his head. What's the human realm like? Well, the human realm. A human realm is the realm where there is an opportunity to experience realization. A human realm is the realm where humans have the possibility of realizing nirvana, or freedom,

[54:51]

or liberation, from what we call the world. Well, what makes that possibility? That a human being has the thought of enlightenment. A human being can raise the thought of enlightenment. And because a human being can raise the thought of enlightenment, because a human being is enlightened,

[56:03]

if a human being wasn't enlightened already, then we couldn't raise the thought of enlightenment. So, all these other worlds, you know, are also human worlds. But a world of a human being has the opportunity to be in control of these worlds, or the possibility of not being dominated by these other worlds, or these worlds which are also human worlds. So, instead of being used by these worlds, a human being knows how to use these worlds.

[57:16]

You know, we can't just get rid of them. They're all a part of our being. Each one of us has the potential for hell, or to be in the heavens, or to be an animal, to be a fighting demon, to be a hungry ghost. But the human world is like the apex, the so-called human world, and is what contains the potential for what is not perfect, but the final result of a human being. So, Buddha is an example of the final result of a human being.

[58:31]

Question from the audience Well, you know, the Icchantika is one who, does this one have Buddha nature or not? There was thought at one time that among human beings there was Icchantika, someone who just could not find Buddha nature. But then the Buddhists all agreed that actually everyone, even Icchantika, has Buddha nature. There is the possibility of developing Buddha nature, finding their Buddha nature. You know, Dogen's famous statement, all sentient beings are Buddha nature, not have Buddha nature, but are Buddha nature itself. So, it's not a matter of having or not having. But Bodhisattva is often called the great Icchantika,

[59:54]

one who puts off final release and doesn't attain to perfection, but just sticks around to help other beings, sentient beings. Somebody said that the best pope would be an atheist. Well, I think that we have to be very, very generous to atheists. Atheists are very important. Huh? I said they balance out the fears.

[60:57]

They balance out the fears, that's right. Well, I found that we hadn't spent much time here, but it's been quite a while. Time goes fast when you're having fun. Yeah. I hope you were having fun. I was. I was. Thank you. Thank you.

[61:54]

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