This podcast is offered by the San Francisco Zen Center on the web at www.sfcc.org. Our public programs are made possible by donations from people like you. Good morning, everyone. I see some familiar faces and some new faces. How many of you are here for the first time? Welcome to Beginner's Mind Temple on this beautiful spring San Francisco day, really stunning. My name is Ed Sadezon. I'm the central abbot of Zen Center, for those of you who are new here. And today I want to share a very famous Zen story. This is the second case from the Blue Cliff Records, a collection of Zen stories. so it's an important one being placed second, and it's called Zhajo Teaching the Assembly.

[01:08]

So Zhajo Teaching the Assembly said, the great way is not difficult, just avoid picking and choosing. As soon as there are words spoken, this is picking and choosing, or this is clarity. this old monk does not abide within clarity, so what should we do? So that was his statement to the assembly. And one of the monks said, and these monks, very good monks, said, since you don't abide within clarity or enlightenment, what do you do? And Jajo said, I don't know either. And the monk said, since you don't know, teacher, why do you say you don't abide in clarity? And Jojo said, it's enough to ask the question. Just bow and withdraw. So it's a beautiful little story with lots of different components in it.

[02:13]

First, just to say a few things about Jojo, one of my favorite teachers and one of Suzuki Roshi's favorite teachers also, Suzuki Roshi, the founder of Zen Center. He lived in the ninth century China, was a disciple of Nanshuang, who was a very well-known teacher. And he met Nanshuang when he was 20, and he studied with him until Nanshuang died, which was when the student was 60. So he had 40 years to study with his teacher, which is really a wonderful time. And then he went on pilgrimage for 20 years, meeting all the other great teachers in China at that time. And then finally, at the age of 80, he settled down to teach himself. And according to the books, he lived until he was 120. So he taught for 40 more years. So this is a classic case of a development of a great teacher. And he has more koan stories in the three collections of stories than almost any other teacher. He has 12 alone in the Blue Cliff Record.

[03:15]

I'll just give you a couple of stories that come from him that are some of my favorites. There are so many of them. A monk asked, what is zazen? An excellent question, since we spend a lot of time sitting zazen. And the master said, it is not zazen. And the monk said, why is zazen not zazen? And the teacher said, it's alive. It's alive. A great little koan. There's other sort of famous stories from him, too. He says a monk comes up to Zhajo and says, I just entered the monastery. Please teach me. And Zhajo says, have you eaten your rice gruel? And the monk says, the novice says, yes. And Zhajo says, wash your bowls. That was his complete instruction to the new novice about practice in the monastery. clear, practical statement.

[04:21]

You've eaten your food, go wash your bowls. So Jiajou was a very down-to-earth, straightforward, and unassuming. In China, they have these beautiful chairs that the teacher sits on when he gives a lecture, and his leg broke. And according to the legend, instead of letting them get him a new chair, he just went out and got a stick from the forest and tied it onto the chair to hold the leg up. So, back to the case. The great way is not difficult, just avoid picking and choosing. It comes from a long poem attributed to the third ancestor, Sansen, titled Faith and Mind, or Trust and Mind. And the first paragraph of that poem is, the great way is not difficult for those who have no preferences. If you don't grasp or reject, the way enlightens itself. Well, first, it's very nice to hear in the first sentence that the great way of practice and living life is not difficult.

[05:26]

That's encouraging. It gets a little more complicated when you go to the second sentence, which is, for those who have no preferences, if you don't grasp or reject, the way enlightens itself. So... All we have to do is not have preferences or grasp and reject, and it's all easy. But of course, it isn't so easy because every moment of our life, it's a beautiful day today, but it's a little too hot. Maybe we should have some wind. I shouldn't have worn this jacket. I should have worn another one. This lunch is nice, but it's a little too salty, et cetera, et cetera. You know, we do these all-day sittings here, and sometimes we sit for seven days. We have a very sort of formal tea that's served. People come in and serve you tea. And one of the things you get is you get a choice between a cookie or a little bowl of nuts and raisins and things.

[06:31]

So you have to choose between the cookie or the raisins and nuts. And then not only is that choice hard enough, but do you choose the big cookie? Because there's a plate of them. as they're handing it to you, or the littler cookies, because you don't want to be that greedy. So you choose a little cookie, and then you think, oh, I really should have gotten a big cookie instead of a little cookie. But if I took the big cookie, then I feel guilty that somebody else didn't get the big cookie, and so maybe I should just take the one that's closest. So you try to come up with a rule, but it's hopeless, because our mind is always filled with all of this picking and choosing. And you can reflect if you either sit zazen and notice all the preferences that are going on in your brain constantly or during your daily life the way your preferences. Those are easy little preferences in the smallest details but what about the bigger issues when somebody doesn't treat you well?

[07:32]

I would prefer if people treated me well and respected me. I would like everybody to be kind to me. Well that's a preference that most likely is not going to happen unless you live in a different world than I live in. Or I would prefer not to get sick. You know? There's wonderful koans about sun-faced Buddha, moon-faced Buddha, about our preference around sickness. And fundamentally, when we get down to it, I'd just as soon not die. Right? So we have real preferences in our life. So what are they talking about here? Not having any preferences. I mean, in some sense, this is basic Buddhism. All conditioned existence is suffering. And what is the cause of our suffering? This comes from the First Noble Truths. Grasping and rejecting. Trying to keep what is pleasurable and trying to eliminate what is not pleasurable. This is a basic tradition. So we think, well, maybe I could get really good at working on my desires, my preferences, and get a place where whatever.

[08:38]

I don't care. I mean, that was a kind of theme way back when, when I was young, which most of you don't know about. There was a thing called the hippies, you know, and we'd all say, it's all good, whatever, you know. It's all peace and clarity. It's beautiful. So let's look at the second line of the koan. Zhao Zhou, teaching the assembly, said, the great way is not difficult. Just avoid picking and choosing. As soon as there are words spoken, this is picking and choosing. So in Buddhist psychology, there's an analysis of perception and language. As soon as our consciousness grasps an object and names it, as soon as there is perception, there is already picking and choosing. There is already attachment and aversion. This is happening actually at the unconscious level. We are creating a world through our mind of perception. What I see is created by my mind, and there's picking... and choosing and selection built into all of that. It's mostly happening at an unconscious level.

[09:41]

There's a wonderful lecture by Suzuki Hiroshi at Tassara in the summer of 1970 commenting on the blue jays. For those who have been to Tassara in the summer, the blue jays can be very pesky. If you leave your food for a second, they swoop down and take it from you. And they also make a loud squawking sound that can be quite irritating if you're trying to sit zazen. So in the lectures, he recounts how he was preparing his lecture in his cabin and the blue jays on the roof were squawking away. And most of us might think, well, I wish he'd quiet down so I can concentrate on preparing my lectures. And he says, you think the blue jay is singing over there. But he says, when we hear the blue jay, the blue jay is actually me. Actually, I am not listening to the bird. The bird is in my mind. I feel the blue jay is in my heart singing to me. Peep, peep, peep, peep. When you think the bird is there over my roof and singing, it's not so good.

[10:45]

When you are not disturbed by the blue jay, the blue jay will come right into your heart and you will be the blue jay. When you think the blue jay is over my roof, that is primitive understanding. When you practice zazen more, You can accept things as your own, whatever it is. So in our busy way of discriminating what's out there, the other, and what's me, we forget how connected we are to everything. We're actually intimately connected to the blue jay and the sound of the stream and all the other things that are happening in the world, and we forget that sense of oneness in our picking and choosing. So Zhao Zhou says, what do we do? Kind of an interesting question. What do we do? How do we live in the world and not be caught by the world of picking and choosing or the lust for enlightenment or the desire for this enlightenment?

[11:51]

What do we do? We have our karma on the one hand, which... causes us to react in certain ways, and we have our vow and our practice on the other side, which inspires us to move in one way. So, after the monk asks, well, since you don't abide in clarity, what do you do? Diageo says, I don't know either. Isn't that a beautiful line? I don't know either. This is a great Zen master. This is a guy who's probably... lived for 100 years, and he practices with his koan all the time, and his answer when the student says, what do we do? How do we act in every moment? And he says, I don't know either. Not only, I don't think he's just being modest, I think he actually says in each moment, you don't know how to act. You have to do your best with your karma and your vow and your practice.

[12:56]

You have to make your best. And I don't either, just like you. I'm just another human being like you trying to figure out how to act in this world with this discriminating mind that's busy slicing up every moment into all these different things and forgetting the connection we have to everything. So we have this dilemma. We seem to be hardwired to discriminate, and yet this is the root of our pain. We feel at some level we want to go beyond it, We have some dream of serenity, some clarity, some peace we might imagine in the future. But as soon as we attach to that peace or that idea of peace, that's just another thing that we're discriminating about. So I just want to make a little statement about the discriminating mind.

[13:59]

I want to be clear about this. I mean, our discriminating mind is a miracle of evolution. In my youth, I was a mathematician. And I appreciate the power and beauty of great thinking. This week there was an article in the New York Times with a big photo of the black hole out in some far distant galaxy. You know, through the sophistication of mathematics. I've always loved this about mathematics. It says, I predict if you look out there at this spot in the universe with a good enough microscope telescope, you'll be able to see a ring around it that'll be certain ways. And so they build using antennas in all the different places on the earth so that the earth became a large telescope. radio telescope and they went out there and they looked and they used the computers to make all kinds of calculations and they produced a picture that was exactly what mathematics predicted. This has been the history of mathematics and physics and astronomy forever.

[15:03]

They built a mathematical model and the mathematical model says, oh, maybe this is true about thermodynamics. And yes, it is if you look there. So our mind is an amazing, amazing thing and it's produced the world we live in which has many great comforts for us. And yet, just a little bit of paying attention to it, you will notice how much pain and suffering goes on. So, it's not that we have two different possibilities, picking and choosing on the one side and not picking and choosing or letting go of picking and choosing or being enlightened on the other side. This is a false dichotomy. There is no such thing as enlightenment outside of the everyday life of picking and choosing. Enlightened mind is built into every moment of deluded human experience. It's right there, hiding in plain sight.

[16:05]

Enlightened mind is in every moment. It is not a special moment. So the question for us is, do we allow it in Do we close ourselves off or do we open in the midst of our picking and choosing to the broad connection we have to everything? So I think the key is, is our picking and choosing coming from our self-centered desires or do we recognize our connection to everything and therefore give up our self-centeredness and Feel the kindness, and I dare say I love, that comes from knowing our connection to everything. In last Sunday's New York Times, David Brooks wrote in his opinion column, when the desire for esteem, or I would say self-concern, is stripped away and bigger desires are made visible, the desires of the heart to live in loving connection with others...

[17:12]

And the desires of the soul, the yearning to serve some transcendent ideal and to be sanctified by that service. Now that's a desire worth paying attention to. The desires of the heart that is to live in loving connection with others. And the desires of the soul to serve some transcendent ideal. that could be sanctified by that service. He also goes on in that opinion column, which I liked about it, to say that not only is that a wonderful goal for a human being, but it should be a goal for a society. And maybe it's time for this American society to turn away from excessive self-concern and be renewed by a desire to dedicate itself to... a desire of the heart to be connected and take care of other people and dedicate the soul to the wider purposes of all of us together.

[18:22]

I hope that our country can turn in that direction. It certainly feels to me like it needs that. So to further explore this, in the commentary to the Cone, there's a verse by Suedo that illustrates this. In the one there are many kinds... in two there is no duality, or in many there is one. So it's a little verse. In one there are many, and in many there is one. We awaken not by defeating desire or eliminating or purifying it. We awaken through desire by widening its scope. We have reduced desire to personal fulfillment, human desire is actually awakening itself. The problem is not that we desire something, it's that desire drives us forward. Desire drives us forward, but almost always where we land is not where we imagined, and then we get disappointed.

[19:29]

But if we can accept the new situation without complaining, we will find riches. I remember a famous quote from the Dalai Lama that says, remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck. I mean, it's great if you get what you want, you enjoy it. Just remember it won't last long. And if you don't get what you want, shift your preference so you can be interested and open to what you did get. So Jiajo uses this picking and choosing a koan in several different ones, four of them in the Blue Cliff Records, and I wanted to share a couple of them quickly. And just to say a word about these koans, we think that, I've read this koan, I've actually lectured on this koan several times before, and each time I look at it, I can't quite figure out what he's talking about.

[20:44]

It all seems confusing, and it's supposed to be that way. And so here I'm going to give you another one. This one's titled Joujo's Stupid Oath. A monk asked Joujo, the ultimate path has no difficulty, just avoid picking and choosing. And the monk says, what is not picking and choosing? So this is a pretty good monk. He realizes that picking and choosing is going on all the time. What are we talking about here? And Zhao Zhou's answer was the following. In the heavens and on earth, I alone am the honored one. Well, that was clarifying, wasn't it? And the monk said, this is still picking and choosing. You know, he's tough. He sees what the story is. And Zhao Zhou says, stupid oaf, where is the picking and choosing? The monk was speechless. So for those of you who attended our Buddha's birthday celebration last week, and in David's talk, he told the story of Buddha's birth.

[21:53]

And in Buddha's birth, Buddha came out of his mother's side and stepped forward, took seven steps forward, put his hand in the air, one hand in the air, and the other hand pointed to the ground and said, In the heavens above and on the earth below, I alone am the honored one. Obviously a very precocious young child. Walking and speaking at birth is good. So the usual interpretation of this is not that he was being arrogant or something. It means that in each and everything brings up the whole of reality. Each and everything is pure reality. Each and everything has absolute value. everything partial is whole. In the many is one. So that's what is going on when Buddha does that.

[22:56]

And when each moment that we live has value and is a representation of all of reality. Well, the monk points out, and these monks are quite good, if you say that, you say that isn't picking and choosing? And at first, Jojo, that's pretty good. But it's not good enough. And Jojo actually got mad, you know. And this is very rare. There's very few stories where Jojo gets mad. He was always like the kindest teacher in the world. And kind of like Suzuki Roshi was, the kindest teacher. But one of the most memorable teachings I got from Suzuki Roshi was... got mad at me. Because I was indulging in self-pity. I lost respect for my life. And that may be one time when it's worth the teacher getting mad at you.

[23:57]

This monk had forgotten that he was Buddha, too. And he alone was the world-honored one. And Jajo wanted to tell him, you know, wake up. And we need to tell ourselves that too. Sometimes we get lost in our self-pity or forget the Buddha in us. And we should hope that some good friend can urge us to wake up. So I think the comment on this thing is if you pick with your whole heart, that is not picking and choosing. So the next case, I'm just going to wave my hands at some of these beautiful cases. Case 58, Joujo cannot explain. A monk asked Joujo, the ultimate path has no difficulty, just avoid picking and choosing. You can get the theme that's happening here, right?

[25:03]

And the monk goes on, is this a cliche for people of these times? Is this a cliche? Pretty good. We get attached to all these sayings going around that are so profound and deep when they first come out, and then after a while everybody's saying it, and it just feels like, oh, this is a cliche, I've heard that. Not knowing is most intimate. This has been floating around Zen Center for so long, I'm not sure if it's a cliche or whether there's really something meaningful going on there. Zhao Zhou said, in answer to that, Once someone asked me, and I really couldn't explain for five years. What a great answer. I mean, here's... Let me remind you, this is a great Zen master, probably one of the greatest Zen masters of the Tang Dynasty, at age 100, been teaching about the ultimate path has no difficulty, just avoid picking and choosing, and a student asked him about it, and he said, I...

[26:08]

I don't know, I really, I couldn't explain it for five years. So this is more like these are questions, not things you answer. This exploration of your preferences and the way your preferences and your desires drive your life and whether your life is being driven by your deepest intention or your life is being driven by picking and choosing. that are all around self-concern. This is a fundamental life question that you carry with you all the time and you don't easily answer. So, and it's always interesting to look at the commentaries on these koans. There was a, Suedo in his commentary said he had a student who had immersed himself in this question and had had some awakening. And when Zhao Zhou asked him about this, he said, animal, animal.

[27:14]

And there's a certain kind of precision in all of this, you know. The ultimate path has no difficulty, just avoid picking and choosing. And this monk that really understood this said, animal, animal. Like, we're really animals. We forget that we're animals. Lately I've been reading a little in evolutionary psychology and I looked at this book, Behave, the biology of humans at their best and worst. The central thesis of which is that every moment of our behavior comes from our biology. What are the hormones going through us? What is the evolutionary psychology? Well, in fact, one of the questions he raises is, do we have any free will at all? Are we just responding to all of the activity that's coming from our unconscious? Our early training, our grandparents, the first reptile that walked out of the water and became a human being.

[28:24]

This stuff is driving us. And yes, we can't forget that a lot of our One of the books I read was about the limbic brain, which, of course, is busy searching the field at all times to have connection. This was the brain that the young child has that's connected to the mother, looking for that connection, for that love. This is all happening at an unconscious level. These activities in our mind and body are going on. One of the books I read says the mind is... Your brain, your thinking is just your PR agency trying to convince you and the rest of the world that what you're doing is good. Your behavior is coming from somewhere completely outside of your conscious activity and all you're doing is trying to tell a good story about it. So animal, animal. That's not to forget that an enormous amount of our activity comes from that. Our picking and choosing comes from a deep level in us.

[29:26]

This is a deep issue. in us. Grasping and rejecting. returning to the last line of our original koan, the monk pushes on saying, since you don't know, teacher, why do you say you don't abide in clarity? And Zhao Zhao says, it's enough to ask the question, just bow and withdraw. So it's enough to ask the question.

[30:28]

Questioning is... I would say the central practice in Zen. What is going on right now? Why am I behaving this way? Why am I making this choice or that choice? Zhao Zhou is not offering you any formula for how to solve this problem. I think he's merely raising the question and driving home the point that this question of picking and choosing of preferences is deep inside of you and the resolution of it in your daily activity is a deep and difficult problem. You know, it's amazing being a human being, being able to feel, being able to think, being able to speak, being able to live this life.

[31:56]

We don't know where we're going, how we got where we are. It's a great mystery. And yet we are faced with this question of how we're going to conduct our affairs. We may think we know what's going on, but Tsukiroshi would say, not always so. What you thought worked then may not work now, probably won't work in the future. So as the last line of this koan says, maybe it's just enough to bow and withdraw. Maybe it's just enough to express our gratitude for living this life. Maybe it's just enough to express our gratitude for living in this moment and withdraw from the moment and step in to the next one. So I think I will bow and withdraw.

[33:09]

Thank you all very much. Thank you for listening to this podcast offered by the San Francisco Zen Center. Our Dharma talks are offered free of charge, and this is made possible by the donations we receive. Your financial support helps us to continue to offer the Dharma. For more information, please visit sfzc.org and click Giving. May we fully enjoy the Dharma.

[33:40]

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