sterling it off

to
was here
everybody pays to write your name
if you should bring gulch to strike green gulch
in case of any problems i get sick or something with your classroom because you up but you know
in an ethnic tensions as well so this is for people who were
now that they're gonna be here for the six week class
who knows if your guests to and mayor observing your subjects like no sign that everybody else too intense at this time anyway there's always contingencies and so on if you intend to from twenty six weeks six weeks to the class please sign your name here and your phone enough
gosh you will just pass it around during during the for me
so we're going to need for six
tuesday nights i forgot to bring my calendar with me of for
every tuesday night six around
except
maybe
i'm still thinking about this you can give you some feedback after class but and october the first
which i believe this
see it nice attractive is tantric seventeen twenty fourth
yeah
three weeks from tonight
there's gonna be a gary snyder is coming to town he's gonna read
mountains and rivers without end part of it at them
the hurts theater in san francisco and he invited us to go to it
and you like some you might like to go to it as well and the main reason that i want to go to enter as he's going to perform that fun period performance context not just reading but in a performance context your similar
so and he and i are collaborating how to construct the performance so does it work for farmers are the alert and you can participate with us
but ah i would like to go here how it sounds so that i can start thinking about how
to or the performance so if we don't have class time that night we would have class the thursday
we can decide that the next couple weeks but i'm just giving a forewarning to the case
okay so maybe on october first know postpone class for two days otherwise it'll be every tuesday
from now to sixty days from
and
we're talking about
tokyo's i'm i
song of the jewel nearer samadi
ah
and
do we have coffee still yeah server or
testers outline for i'm chatting they could just send them around the room
so everybody is gonna get copies of to translations english taxes and both olivia if the green gulch people would be so kind as to where
not take cover we can give you a coffee tomorrow and an extra the tissues the one is she
yeah

yeah so we're gonna give you tonight two different translations of the focus on my so that you can look at it
and
will spend six weeks he would think and how could you possibly spent six weeks at a patient has been
it will be lucky if we're
discuss the whole thing and bring out the application is evident six weeks
so
usually in the first class of any series i like to wear
can i give an introduction
set the tone and of get a kick off to the
attacks that we're looking at and then after that
we
plunge into it in more detail and there's more dialogue and more discussion so don't be surprised by rattle on tonight i often end up doing know the beginning but if i do don't think that it'll be that way every week
because what i want to do is tell you a little bit of about
the context of the time the main thrust trusted it and also a little bit about on real guy who is maybe as the author of this fun
it will be good to talk about his life in there so much do you get an idea with
where it's coming from
and i'll talk about the name
point of what the problem is stealing with and then i'll talk about the title in the first lines and that should be a good off worse
so
if you are ambitious to study more than just these two pages
this is a really good book to study
i don't know how available these books are these or is if this is a fairly old book
the i still will
it's called a record of dung shot translated by william william f power and this is sort of the
the show in translation after bill filed in this nobody else thought that they need to do it anymore he spent about ten years on this little book
the spinner work for ten years and that exhausted and i don't think he's ever not ever since because he about fifteen years old
anyway this is really good it's is gets the official record of dump on it it tells you all stories of attention and i'll talk about this some of the early stories of don't shine in the beginning it also has a very
nicely annotated translation of hockey osama because tokyo's my appears in erected of don't shop
it says you know when's ocean was blah he gave to his disciples this fall on which was given him by his teachers
that's why we don't really know if he wrote it and i they they say is that he wrote it but the only thing we know is that in the record adoption and it says that he gave this poem to his disciples and it was given to him by his teacher
there was already written and given to him or whether it means that he
in general teaching was given to him and he wrote the phone anyway that's where it appears so that's a good book and also as far as i know and i've consulted with some people because i'm not too up on current scholarship as far as i know there is no other commentary in english
to tokyo's on my other than
this commentary which just called the infinite mirror
and it's by sheng and john master sheng yen and who is say
really interesting contemporary china master who teaches in brooklyn and i think taiwan
and some of you know my friend laura
the via group from mexico she studies with shinier and he wants came here to visit he just showed up one day you know he did and didn't notice have suffered and i met briefly when afterward i realized sooner we was at his own very much stamina and it wasted food movement very nice man and a good down to earth teacher and his commentary on this
is actually a commentary i think it's on both
tokyo's i'm i understand okay
yeah
anyway i'll be using this commentary extensively since it's the only one
i'll use it so as it's worth getting this book and reading i think this is also available probably didn't come to get him
yeah i think that it's probably published by his own al-sharif was probably doesn't have great distribution
anyway those are the two main books and the yes
sh t and g dash why he and shinier

there's also a commentary to
the five ranks of tarzan
in then dust
so that's something you can look up to get access to send us is also a book that's out of print but if they have access to the library here or elsewhere
but it's not necessary you know for you to go to all that trouble if you know have italians or feel like if i'm just suggesting that for those of you are inclined to feel
so dumb shot or chosen chosen as the japanese way of pronouncing
no sean's name
she was born in a phone center
so he was
two or three generations i think from the sixth ancestors then swung the early teachers in the most creative and powerful time of chan buddhism in china
when it was really being developed and what we now know as china has been solidified so to speak and he died and eighteen sixty nine
mean i have of the pretty was a very old
two thousand and sixty two years old man
interact practice hard you to mention
our children
i mean eight sixty nine nine eighty six
those days seem funny on eight sixty nine
he started out visiting a nonchalant and was his first teacher and then he went equation on and then he finally went to a union and that was his
a teacher who inherited dimer from and union so thousand is the founder one of the to twenty the founders of the the soto school in china
so a very important figure you know for us as soto practitioners and was somebody who dug in and zingy who is the japanese founder of soto really like those on line talk about life
and union his teacher
is the one who i've lately been telling a story we've heard from others the story of union on sweeping the ground another story
and some ways as too busy davos is too busy
and union says you should know there's one who isn't busy
oh you mean there's two moons calls up the rooms as which moon is this that union is thousand teacher
i talked about that case during the session i think in august and never talked about it many times to
so that's chosen so i just want to quote a little bit from the record of tosa just to give you a feeling
four toes on practice
you know
it's often the case with this great ancient teachers just as it is i think the case with us too
that
they have a dharma question
that really bothers them
that takes them from teacher to teacher and keeps them practicing and won't let them rest until they settle the question that was true in the biography of dogan and it's equally true and a biography of dosa and sometimes i think that for us
so much with practice is finding out what that question is for us what it actually is and clearing away the underbrush of our confusion and our attachment and just coming up nose to nose with what that question is for us in our lives and staying with that question is standing with it and really do
devoting ourselves to it until we clarified
so
and for some of these agents may be hard for us to appreciate and away or maybe not how what may appear to be
somewhat abstract point of dharma really appeared to them to be true existential questions and that's the case was chosen
and this is the question that he when he said he started out with a nonchalant
and then nonchalance than an equation and and equations place he first brought up the question there's a rather lengthy dialogue that happens between tucson and question and i'm going to read i think a great deal of it's just to give you a flavour and maybe i'll make few little comments you're american
give you the idea next the master made a visit equation
and said to him
the master meeting posts on this case because it's directed at towson so they for them as the master and said so that so the master it went equation and set decoration i have recently heard
that the national teacher journal of narnia mountains and excuse me a germ germ of nanyang maintains the doctrine that non sentient beings expound the dharma
there was grass trees roof tiles third stones these things are actually teaching the dharma
i have not yet understood the subtleties of this teaching
question said can you remember the details of what you heard
yes i can't said the master then why don't you try to repeat it for me situation
and the minister repeats this story the master began a monk asked a wager what sort of thing is the mind of the ancient buddhist
and the national teacher replied it is wall and tile rubble
while and tile rubble isn't that something non sentient asked the monk
it is replied the national teacher
amongst that and yet it can expound the dharma
it is constantly expanding radiantly expanding and expanding it without ceasing replied the national teacher
the long said then why haven't i heard it
so this is a really important answer the national teacher replied you yourself haven't heard it
but this can't hinder the one who is able to hear it
so the monk said what sort of person acquires this hearing
all the sages have acquired this hearings and the national teacher
the monk than asked
can you hear a teacher
no i can't reply the national teacher
pretty good amongst said
if you haven't heard it how do you know
that non sentient beings expound the dharma
so the national teacher said fortunately
if i had heard it i would be the same as the sages
and new therefore would not hear the dharma that i teach
fortunately i haven't heard if i had i would be just like those stages and you would not be able to hear the dharma that are teaching
in that case said the monk ordinary people would have no part in it
itc for ordinary people not sages
i replied the national teacher
what happens after ordinary people here you asked the monk
then they are no longer ordinary people
the national
and the dialogue goes on from there but this is this is tucson's question how is it the in sentient beings preach to die
so he stays with glacier for a while and and sends them to
ah union
so here's the story of how he have encountered jr
making reference to his previous encounter with question he immediately asked what sort of person was able to hear the diamond expounded by non sentient beings union side non sentient beings are able to hear it
can you hear teacher
estancia
union replied if i could hear it than you would not be able to hear the dharma that i teach
why can't i hear it as finch don't shine union raised his risk and said can you hear it yet
then shall replied no i can't
union said you can't even hear it when i expound the dharma how to expect to hear when a non sentient being expanse the arm
when i'm skipping apart and later on da schon said to union i have some habits that are not eradicated
there were some afflicted habits of mind that are persistent that even though i see them
they still seem to keep coming back because the same familiar with the
jr said what have you been doing
don't shine replied i have not concern myself with the four noble truths
in the sense of this is i am not trying to
the four noble truths you know suffering canada and the suffering i'm not doing that i'm just being with what comes up which is good were practicing in exam
so less i'm practicing
i'm not trying to eradicate eliminate anything i'm just totally know owning and are being with what arises
so union says are you joyful yeah which means have you have you really are you a restaurant have you entered the path and then duncan says this is a great line of often quoted it would be untrue to say that i am not joyful it is as though i have grasped a bright pearl in a pile of shit
can you see that
it's like phosphate
so
then time goes by an and though shine is ready to leave and he goes to union and says where and unions as where are you going and don't shine says although i am leaving you i still haven't decided where else day
union asked
you are you're not going to hunt on are you know replied don't shine you're not returning to your native town are you know when will you return
i'll wait until i had until all wait until you have a fixed residents of said dosha union said after your departure it will be hard to meet again this is one of my favorite lions attention and don't shine says it will be hard not to meet
be hard not to meet it's hard
two
not to meet your teacher
newly safe to teach her it's hard not to meet them and of everywhere
then finally over the last one on both
so now just before leaving don't show and asked if the if after many years someone should ask if i am able to portray the masters likeness how should i respond and it was a custom for a monk who was a disciple of follower or somebody who had been fully completed study with a master to make a fool
portrait of the master so
if someone tells me he asked me in other words to show your true teachings
as my own how should i respond
after remaining quiet for a while union said
just this person
don't shine was lost in thought
union said
da schon having assumed the burden of this great matter you must be very cautious
and there's a little twist on this
the footnote built fall as great footnotes to this text and often you the health and fitness tells us that justice person was the chinese phrase
that was used in a court of law when someone was pleading guilty to a crime
like the literal meaning is this person of high not just this person is to just this person upon
and it was a stock phrase from the classics probably that was but a person would say so in other words i take full responsibility absolutely i am responsible so you know
what should i tell people in teacher times about your deepest teaching i am completely responsible
and having assumed the burden of this great matter you must be very cautious very careful
thou shall remain dubious about what union had said
he didn't really understand he didn't really couldn't see it
later as he was crossing a river
and this is the famous again of the master well known story of beauchamp cause it's the ultimate moment for shot as he was crossing a river leaving union after this exchange his size reflected image in the mirror
and seeing his image in the mirror this caused awakening in him
and he saw the meaning of his teacher saying just this person
and then he composed the poem on on this and the phone goes earnestly avoid seeking without
listed recede far from you
today i am walking alone
yet everywhere i meet him
she is now no other than myself but i am not now him
it must be understood in this way in order to merge with such this
earnestly avoid seeking without listed received far from you today i am walking along yet everywhere i meet him he is now no other than myself but i have not know him it must be understood in this way in order to merge with with such this so this is always can
sidor to the dumb chance enlightenment verse when he sees his reflection in the mirror
and the same phrases repeated and hope on my will get to that later
you are not if it actually as you
and i think the the other parts of the poem my given as well for that

so
probably the most
crucial issue in soto zen studies and in tarzan's practice as you can see from this section and therefore in the hopes osama
yes the dialectic between the relative and absolute
there's a lot of ways of understanding this relative and absolute sound
very philosophical and these are for philosophical terms that if we wanted to look at it psychologically
there are more an existential terms of our actual lives we could say the dialectic between the fact that each one of our lives is absolutely a clear and perfect as the life of buddha
we are really boot it and at the same time we are the imperfect people that we are with the histories that we have it all the problems that we have in the tenants that and the tendencies that we have these tendencies is not a question of are becoming perfect and the eradicating all that
it's er is a question of seeing that that as it is and the perfection of the life of the buddha are identical and the dialectic and the interplay between these two seemingly opposite things
does business what the hokey osama is about and and what really what the practice of thousands of up
and i think that this is to me and not only soto zen but
when i think about it
this is our human problem right
the sir
we've tried a city lots of ways of using we can use many different words we try to see our own divinity or on perfection our own sense of
you know just where really are life just as it is is really all right
and i think every human being launched you know to see that that's the case with our own life
but moving in that direction and we tend to deny and in cover up the reality of our whatever it is that our life isn't so we can't have that doesn't work out doing a moving in this way pretending that were perfect ends up making us more twisted up and knocks because our problems and are difficult is only my
manifests all the more so we have to acknowledge what it is that's in us at the same time that we see his perfection so i think this is something for every human being to deal with i think it's semi the the root of
what any kind of religious practices above
so don't sean's palm he says
he is not other than me the absolute
the buddha perfection
can't be other than me it's not somewhere else
don't don't seek it without to can't be somewhere other than where i am right now
the the absolute doesn't manifest in the sky skier and thin air in only manifests in my life and in your life right now
there is no other form that the absolute could appearance
and yes if i say i am the absolute if i take my conditioning to be the absolute and lost
i can self identify and possess the absolute i have to own my own limitation
so that's what toes on say he is no other than me but i am not him
he sees this when he sees his reflection in the river and then he knows justice person given given that understanding that
he can be completely responsible because he understands that the that the absolute the perfection of of all of the universe comes down to him right here and yet you can't grasp that and say oh boy and a greater understanding that he can be responsible because his response
stability doesn't have to lead to guilt and shame and denial is responsibility be within freedom when he realizes that he is no further than me and yet i am not here
another way of looking at this or another kind of language for it is absolute means the unity and oneness of everything the non difference of everything
are there is no separate series of beings in this world and i would although it appears that way to us
actually you know we're all one being there is only one beam which is dharma chi of buddha
in our perception that things are different one from another is
just comes from our ignorance or karmic formations
that's the absolute
but only to hold the absolute immediately becomes a problem
so the relative is the differentiation of things each thing is individual and unique
there are so many different things that i feel like one of the facts of our time
scientifically is the incredible proliferation of differentiation because people can see some first of all they're standing on the head of all the people who have
seen in the past and then now you have instruments and technologies that enable us to sea creatures you know that people didn't even know existed
i think we have a book at home of photographs of like some might survive i guess microscopic creatures you know and people have no idea like mites you don't have any species that much there are as unbelievable you know like right now there's might probably thousands of mites honor eyebrows you know they had like picked
years of these minds and there i mean they have all kind of like the mandibles and wings and that means but our legs and hairs on their legs i mean they look like amazing say they look like real creatures not just like some fantasy creature like monstrous creatures growing everywhere so we know about all these the differences that we can see now are are quiet
the unbelievable so there's nothing but difference the world is incredible proliferation of difference and diversity of all sorts you know all kinds of creatures so there's that on the one hand and on the other hand there is that there's no difference at all there's only unity of all being so
putting these two perspectives together and a dialectic between them and the skill of knowing how to manifest each one and how to come from warren and come from the other is the man curriculum you know in in such as them
then as i say how i would say myself and
when you get really get down to it in buddhism in general
also it sounds like when i talk about this it also sounds like a very
actually quite contemporary political issue and when i think of that issue of the issue of diversity in on which we hear everywhere in our world now the need for us to simultaneously honor that people are different actually people are different everybody's not like me and business not like you
and even somebody that is very much like you in the same group as you and so on and so forth when you really look at that first and they're very different from you and so people are different in so many ways just take a people would remind other species the salon and and the necessity of whilst recognising those differences and at the same time i've seen the verdict
because differences can be very divisive right you're different from these oh and i'm not going to say to you and we don't understand each other and bloodline a very divisive so that the one on one hand as perceive and on our differences and on the other hand see the underlying unity and know how to skillfully work with that in one's life
donovan is really about and this teaching is really not a very very important it's true even in our own center people think oh what a what a homogenous group of people in the center which is very true
but on the other hand if you really look at everybody in the saga
people are very different and not only are they different in their background on their way of approaching life but they're different in what they think the dharma is there's a barley battling at least half a dozen or maybe two dozen and or three dozen different buddhist sects you know in our lives and green gulch for passion that's true
and
rely on tap at least you got the hardcore monastics and then you got to people who are the outreach gang and then the people who think it's a work and as the business end and they're all good points of view and so we get in fights with each other like we think i want to see now is not he's not seriously during in buddhism yeah he's just over there
baking bread or something is enough but actually i
but to see these different points of view and see the one this summer this is really trick
yeah to give because we we if we don't see the differences then of course we all try to be one and then know what we do and we all try to be one as we cut off her arm and are leg and our head and because these get in a way of i've been all one thing pretty soon we're feeling rather truncated
i so i then we put our arms back on so on so
this teaching us about that as well known entered into really understand this teaching will help us to see that in a very practical way and with each other
master sheng yen in his
ha commentary speaks from the perspective of those
there are some lineages that phone including his in which
both soto and rinzai schools are practiced so his little just as both sides are as our lineages does to actually although it's obscure because a dog in i inherited dharma from rinzai teacher as well as from a subtle teacher so if you look at our actual minutes chart that's given
in when the precepts are given that actually has an enzyme in age and subtle edge but sheng in speaks about that the rinzai side of zen and maybe let's say runs i thought to and to schools with their to tendencies with insert the rinzai tendency within them is sharp and quick
cities and right to the point abandoned everything and just is very lively the soto tendency in early in age according to xing in i can agree with it is a little bit doctrine bound rule bound and formality bound so
so and i think that the the hokey osama it tends to be you could get into some very
picky detail and some deep philosophical waters she really wanted to talk about cultures on my neck big commentary on and looking up all the references to the taoism and all the references to the aging and all kinds of chinese learning the the have chosen what has all that kind of stuff in it and we could easily get advice
all in those things so i'm trying to kind of strike a middle way between the rinzai and a subtype of tenancy here and keep coming back over and over again to the actual meaning of the hook yosano for real life
so that's the introduction you got back now
i was very busy over the weekend studying very hard

i tend to study law in the beginning and in slough off as
as you do more work and having
as as it should be
so now i would like to talk about your title of the park
have chosen my son of the jewel mirror samadi procure
to a mirror
hockey oculus near i in tokyo joel nearer shining mirror
zama somatic
song jewelry or some money
ah it's because it's part do you know in the version that we chant you don't get it as from actually derived from an elegant chinese verse
i think that the your cow translated as upon although very few attempt to ryan
i forget what pages on but i believe he translated as a problem and i'll master sheng yun does translate as phone
and as i said before when we've talked about other but as just as a traditional style of teaching to write a poem you don't expect that anybody will understand it
because it's full of arcane references that this kind of a little this kind of a literary form in buddhism absolutely requires commentary and the author is not trying to make it so that when you read the poem you understand
this it's full of references and needs to be kind of the miss mean he needs to be brought out
but it is because the parliament's it's sort of them has an emotional and literary beauty and strikes you i think in ways that an essay on the subject wouldn't
and although we probably can appreciate it exactly as a problem still i think we get a sensitive because we chanted and move little chattering class
so
to get the idea that the words have a quality of penetrating us below the level of their meaning
that's the song park the jewel mirror part a jewel mirror appears in various
texas it's an image that shows over and over again in in buddhism it appears in of electricity suitor and the dodger to learn and other texts it's usually
associated with the mind only schools of buddhism of buddhist philosophy which annotate zoom
can we talk a bit of artists in the idea of a mirror in general
the noticed that in thousands paul he looks into the water and like kind of a mirror like a situation mirror reflects
something you put something in front of the mirror and it makes an image of that thing this is the jewel mirror is an image that is exactly reflective of what's really in front of the mirror
this is a way of talking about consciousness our consciousness is like a mirror reflecting a reality outside of our minds
but because of our human confusion and many
unaware moments that we will have lived
we have a lot of of clinging and grasping and confusion mixed in with our mind so the mirror is not
perfectly shiny
in fact it's distorted so that when you place an object in front of the mirror of the ordinary person's mind we don't get a clear and exact image of what is on when we get only
we get some version of the image but with a with a great deal of distortion and confusion
even though even though if the mirror were shiny and pure still the object in the mirror is not the same as the object on the other side of the mere but it would be better to have the object reflected clearly and niche and not mutually but accurately and then it would be
to have reflected with all kinds of distortions and violence
so if the mirror is polished and clear and clean
there is a clear
reflection even though it's still limited is not the object itself this kind of way of looking at things refers back to the famous poems and i'm sure you're all familiar with of the six ancestor
and there would be six ancestry
when on and shinshu
do you know about the famous poetry contest and sure manager upper this
oh the master says whoever will write a poem of understanding will be the successor and she writes palm which says who's the one that really thinks will be a success rewrites opponents as the mind
is like a mirror the body is like a stand of a mirror
you have to keep polishing the mirror and clients that have no dust when a light there in other words
work on you defilements work on your issues work on your problems count and ravana come for clarity see idiotic as it really is that was his understand that's pretty good understand
then my lungs poem says there is no bodhi tree there is no stand of mirror since everything is empty from the first where could any dust neverland
so this this
he was deemed by the a teacher of a more profound understanding and ammiano the story of when and becomes the ancestors
so this is two ways of working with the mirror
one is the carefully polish it and the other one is to see through it to see that there is no mere to see that mirror is empty object is empty and when we see that there is no place for the dust in life
so this is the sudden ways to realize from the very beginning the unreality of defilement the unreality of our own difficulties and problems
and to just drop them just let them go
this is nice and this is a good experience to have an important experience to have to see that however in reality our less put this way on in practice in what we see around us you know we might see this somehow the defiant
this nevertheless persist
so you do need to realize that there is no mirror and that there are no there is no fundamental reality to these defilements and still though you need to wipe the mirror clean so you kind of needed both the sudden and the gradual where you need to both wife the mirror and understand that there is no mary and in both enough
as turn towards it finally
you don't try that
you know if you understand the true nature of the defilement or whatever our it is that our problem is that are questions that you understand it's true nature would it really is
then you know that it's not necessary to like get a big shovel and and rooted out and dig it out because fundamentally the only reason why it seems to be so strong as because we persist in believing it's there so we see that though only that the best way to work with it is simply to turn toward it
and allow it to be there and be with it with clarity without grabbing on without pushing it away
and bye bye
the passes away
so in a way ashley the gradual method is the sudden math
the pseudonym the sudden method we realized doesn't really work
because the violence persists but if we look at defilements but how do we work with the finance we work with defiance by understanding on a moment by moment basis in a way that vast craft and persistence and daily practice turning toward our confusion and defilement and just being with breathing into it and not good
gasping and not getting caught by we like and so actually gradual method in our way of practice is sudden methods to suit me because the sudden methods just seeing the unreality letting go
the gradual method is fixing
so we have to fix but the way to fix is to just turn toward
and when they open up your hand and let it go
dogan has a whole festival on the ancient really because the ancient mirror and he tells many many stories from the tradition about mirrors and how they used in indifferent present writings
but i'll only site one and and enjoy the next word and title and that is the story about much of this is the slogan brings up motto which is often told also
but it's not a bad idea to repeat these things in this month's issue sitting zazen on the very intensively and nineteen with the teacher comes by and sees them sitting there with great deal of intensity and nonchalant picks up a roof tile and means the rub it with a cloth and muscle becomes annoyed
maybe at this this is what are you doing and nonchalance one says i'm rubbing with cocktail
and monster says yes i can see that that's why are you standing there i'm rubbing his tile in front of me like this and nonchalance as i'm rubbing the style so that i can make it into a mirror
which strikes monster as the height of absurdity and he blurts out you know how can you make it tile into a mirror you know what a ridiculous thing
and nine children of course as we all know replies yes and how can you make yourself into a buddha
just as ridiculous
doga i'm commenting on the story says
of course he can rub the tile and make it into a mirror
because the tile is really a mirror all along
so of course once can become a buddha because he's really a boot allah
so this is another angle on rubbing the tile polishing the mirror polishing away our vileness this is the big thing we are all have to work with right we have to see the real nature of our defilement of our confusion or whatever it is in us that limits us and makes us feel
abilities you have to see that there's nothing there to worry about actually and at the same time we have to deal with it when it keeps coming back because if she's coming back sorry folks
it does keep coming back but when you see it's real nature and really appreciate that and are willing to just turn toward it whenever he comes back it doesn't have to be a big problem
because they will naturally of course i'm confused
who wouldn't be in the shape and i then
so as when we judge ourselves for our confusion and try to root it out or covered up then we're in trouble
but when we can really have the spaciousness to understand and whatever level we understand it
whether it's just intellectually or whether it's exponentially or whether it's combination of both or whether it's a d realization of the nature of our to find out whatever way we can return towards those confusions and we them and let them go and don't get bamboozled lineup
i mean really in a way you could say all of buddhist practice is just a question of not making things worse
you can only moment by moment not makes things worse this would be a major okay to me
because actually i were quite active and making his worst all of the time were constantly digging bigger hole for ourselves and so it's not a big deal become enlightened and practice the way to simply a matter of not making things worse and a moment to moment by moment basis or less than a little speech about the mirror
now
jul your means of course the perfect mirror the mirror that is not distort it that is totally reflective of reality and it's a mirror that is doesn't have any boundaries the jewel mirror is is actually an equal
the identified with all of reality the jewel mayor is the dharma chi itself jr is you know all these words the true self the buddha nature or the source of all buddhists something like that the absolute fundamental quiescent nature of all things this is the jamia
samadi of course as we all know means concentration
but
it's interesting that like any old schools of buddhism this is a kind of technical term to develop concentration you know how to do and how to focus the mind and a means in a focusing the mind on the singapore without distraction and so on techniques cetera et cetera
but in my own of buddhism the word somebody takes i almost a kind of metaphysical metaphorical meaning and there ideas wonderful if some my on sutras like the present for me to suit your one one hundred thousand lines as lists of somalis with names
like in a gorgeous luminous mirror samadi joe moon brightness samadi samadhi or ultimate penetration and an like has like six seven eight nine pages of lists of these different somatic so you get the idea that the use of the word is not the same as the technique
eek are focusing the mind it's really opening up that word to mean something broader than that samadi as being in a sense
equal with consciousness itself so
drool mirror is reality itself samadhi added to that jr is the reality itself in its aspect of consciousness which we all share as all of us by definition to be a human being as to share and to be in existence at all
because the share in consciousness
so this is the jewel of salamis his title
so a few words about and looks like i'm not going to go on as long as i thought so stewards watch beginning of a farming and see if present you think that's come up for you and move on
using the translation that we're all used to
but you also how the texts and least the another translation of front of me write some of you doing with have a practice but
i want to just look at the first line or two
i've got three translations here
the teaching of justice
has been intimately communicated
by buddhists and ancestors
now you have it so keep it well
at that then
a from
from a master sheng yen
translated of like this so keep reading to serve your mind
he's a master strange and says
this dharma
so instead of the teaching of justice he says this diamond
as it is
this term as it is
that's his way of saying teaching of justice this time as it is has been directly interested
by boot ancestors though different field at this time and this has been directly a trusted by buddhists and ancestors
and go past translation and the record of dumb shown says
the dharma of such this directly transmitted by buddhism as by by buddhists and patriarchs although released ancestors today is yours
dharma starts this directly transmitted by buddhas and patriarchs today is yours
preserve it carefully
eleven three
translations
so
the teaching of justice
for this time as it is
it actually is very much the same in chinese as it is an english where you say
this like the word this this dharma or teaching of best as we say in english like this person meaning on a the word this
distinguishes
one person from amount of this person not at first this person
colloquial expression
but
if you say this
what that means
and also instead and we can expand the where this domain adjust as the in are just as they appear in their reality
that they're different than purely themselves from another thing
there's such this their aspect of most deepest unique reality
so that's why the term and shiny as could easily be translated as this storm as it is or the teaching of sustenance see how that could be
ha
so this teaching
which is about
this special kind of individuality which is
very deep and connected everything has been intimately communicated or directly communicate are interested
so intimately is good and the word intimately with child the chinese characters i'm in the japanese reading as mitchell mitchell and offenders name is missing them
ambulance miss linda means intimate doesn't mean internet
but it also means secret
more mysterious
because what you're really intimate with intimate means you are so completely
and one with it
that you can't separate
nemeth
that which you can name that what you can talk about your already separate romsey so the nature of real intimacy is that it's beyond what we can point to what we can name as too close to even say what it is
so therefore secret
ann siang in his commentary brings this up and he says this is how the dharma is only transmitted this way it must always be transmitted
intimately because it's not like taking a class where you live in this and that this is what a ditch you know i know
it's more like a deep turning a very intimate turning which must be a secret an unspeakable in some way so that's what that word is so this this dharma of vastness this storm of just this just as person right
like indonesia story this dharma has been secretly intimately so directly in other words one the do work do you to were directly as use doesn't mean like direct like under a direct person who more life so direct it's intimate it's a close and a can't be
we can't see if we can't hold it in our hammond can't speak as so this time has been intimately directly communicate or interested
and interested is really good word actually because that's actually meaning of drive transmission is really dharma entrustment
our dharma cleary being a translator would use the word communication like this translation is clarice
house clearance so being a translator he would use the word this storm has been communicated but actually communicated isn't really as good as interested
this term has been intimately entrusted to you know like harry i thought well this is because is talking about us we have received intimately been entrusted with the stove and i think trusted is really good because to be intimate with the dharma is to trust
and to be trustworthy and to be entrusted with it's really about trust
in a very deep sense of trusting ourselves in and as reality even though we all know that terrible things happen
if we do few dropped in your view and you lose your your husband's down these things happen and yet despite these things our path is the path of a total entrustment of the person that we are just as we are with all of our imperfections and of our
being rooted in reality that is fundamentally trustworthy even though you know
this in all kinds of things happen so we're not expecting that only good things will happen otherwise our trust is shaking know we know i understand that all kinds of things happen but we touch reality at a place that's deeper than the things that happened and we we trust each other and trust ourselves we can trust
each other because we trust ourselves because we know that were rooted in reality not just our particular
corner the world
so this dharma as been intimately entrusted to us by the buddhas and ancestors
part one has been entrusted to us for to keep it well
so far one is like the sudden way right
it's already there the mirror is not even existed work is just a life
or to keep it well as take care of it sloshed the mirror in are dusted off on be careful pay attention just as person
now you should be very careful
i'm a accepted this which to be very careful
so that's the first fly
and then i will just talk about the next part next sentence and and i'll stop and this is a bot as far as i thought we'd get mad i got to thing divided up into movie six sections and or has taken little bit by bit
next week ah we can go back to this section see what questions or arcs when i'm much time and a go on
yes said
oh has anybody who hasn't signed
list name's christie

so
filling a silver bullet was snow
hiding inherent in the moonlight when you read them they're not the same when you mix them you know where they are
and
master sheng and says
like a silver bowl full of snow
so far so good
for an eager hidden against the bright woman
close enough
grit herring in a bird's the burner because
there are similar but not identical
when mingled their difference can be recognized
similar but not identical and mingle there
difference can be recognized when you put them together because you know how a heron is like the ideas to hair and as the color of moonlight you when the hair and a standing in the moonlight it's almost invisible snows the status will accept this idea that snow as the same color as a silver ball
so that when snow is filling silver ball it's kind of like the known as quot bit hard to tell that there's anything in the ball is little bit hard to see the hair and the moonlight i mean harder than it would be if the hair and were against a dark background or at the snow or against a dark background with the idea
and this other translation your pass translation stuff it is like
so he left us now that it is like a silver bowl heat was no and the bright man concealing herons when classified they differ
but lumped together their whereabouts is not

where i don't know about the heron in the moonlight but
in the glow anybody wants to look up books of record
i think it's case there were thirteen
says the coin is
what is the
dave sect someone asks and a teacher says snow and a silver ball
which probably your first when earlier something
so somebody for fun can look that case up and see if there's any relevance does anything in that case commentary the house
but master sheng and actually has a pretty good commentary to this point
he says the term
he identifies the ball
which is that which holes
cradles and absorbs and holes and is the background in the movements which is the elimination of background he identifies the moon and the ball with the absolute i
because this whole remember members talking about the absolute and relative in the first line the teaching of vastness has been intimately
interested that's the absolute now keep it well how can you keep it well it's already in on the absolute side there's nothing to keep there's no if it's already transmitted to us right now totally what do we have to worry about that's the absolute but the relative is keep it well enough to do
take care of bring off straight
farm girl doesn't of two things
don't have to do any of them because the dharmas already transmitted but keep it well do these things so relative side absolute statement so now let's say more about the relative and absolute okay it's like snow on a silver ball it's like a heron in moonlight so snow now so this image is trying to give us a some
more understanding of how the relative and absolute relate to each other so the ball and the moon are the absolute and the snow and the grid for the heron are the relative size but it
so the absolute holes the relative
and from the standpoint of really understanding the relative and absolute they're very very similar
does not that much difference between the relative in the absolute
so if we really have dharma i will we see the relative we don't see it as tremendously different from the absolute
for example for an ordinary person they're tremendously different like somebody might say well you know i'd put my life i do this but religion that's something else i mean went on spiritual practice i don't do that that's really very different and when i go to a spiritual places you that you're very different and that night and day
but actually for seasons and person is not that much difference right
i mean
my practice is working in the kitchen i chakras most as the dark that's total reality
so not so much difference between relative and absolute from the standpoint of true practice but when we see them together we can tell the difference
so that's the idea that that we don't really make a joke so so for the ordinary person they wouldn't see relative and absolute as known as overall they would see the relative and absolute as you know snow against a background of dark mountains
and they wouldn't see a heron in the moonlight they would see a crow flashing across the moon big contrast
that's why the fact that the images are images of holding two things that are very much alike and substance i mean you would never mistake a heron for the moon and you will never mistakes know for a bowl but when you put silver snowing a silver ball and you see a heroine in the moonlight even though these two things are very different this you see the name
feature that of the how very very similar they are and without looking closely you might not see it at all say but you do look closely and you'll see the difference between the two
so that's that's what is being sent there so relative and absolute
not so starkly different enlightenment and ordinary mine are not all that different stay
that's such a big difference and yeah we had to be clear about that they're different
cme so
lima is not the biggest thing
and yet we have to see the difference between awakening and our own confusion
if we think the differences vast became very agitated about how stupid we are to be confused with if we see that they're very close for we can be very patient with our confusion right because we seem less than a different than from enlightening
but i'm clear that there is a difference
for any nuclear
so that's all i had to say but that's enough
i'm tired of talking but what do you have to say we have a few minutes
and i think know we can take a minute to and are classed by chanting ultrasonic
anything regarding presented realism the sisters and much for your it was for me
yes
the market
the salaries have access
ah
oh in nevada
such as
ah he met a boy i find a trial
i as off
from tennessee
yeah
hurricane
where that
while everything for task
how to ask can i ask for something
yeah maybe the individuality of our stream of thought and they scraped pattern of thinking itself the thought itself
yeah
no
yeah
for he has enlightened experience in that compensation for teacher he said it would be hard not to meet you who i care every right
as my experience in the palm he said i'm meeting
i mean at reading return to reality every bill
i am alone he says i'm alone but i meet him everywhere he were and are discovered yeah
before flowering ago yeah i'm a statement before it was in a coma
so you mean in in the palm he brings up the side of i'm alone and yet i meet him everywhere in the first instance as i see you everywhere them
yeah i think that to to me this really seems true cause i feel myself very often on the the
i feel personally and i feel it's true for everyone
very alone think that no one can really understand you you can even understand yourself to a
and certainly you could feel very easily the everything that you say and every manifestation of your life is not quite right it's like a little lie because it's never really who you really are
so deep that no one could possibly know there's some knowing now and at the same time so i i'm alone
and yet i made him everywhere
but to say and yet the same time
we're really connected everything there's that side too and sometimes one side comes up for you and sometimes and other side comes up and it in the dharma appears
in these different modes in a dialectic of oneness and separate must sign
the i'm alone and yet i'm meeting the viewer he is me
but i am not him
these expressions are very much
the same as what has been pointed to a upon
and then he coached his own farm now
well next time i well
see whatever else there is about this never gone to talk about a few more lines and i do intend mostly i will probably have you know life
say something for a few minutes and then after that so please come with your questions i i'm the you look at for com think about it meditate on it and come with some questions but please possible less may not be possible actually to discuss discuss one section at a time without referring all the twice
did possible to let's look at
from the beginning
ha
up through about the middle of page it is like facing a jewel mirror
let's see if we can
you know can find if it's possible to confine our dialogue to those places in and i am very interested in us looking at what this actually means in terms of our practice and joseph the problems that come up in our lives in our zazen practice as well as in daily life practice relationships and
no i'm follow it
because that's really what it's not so we should bring it down to that level
so i shall a chat and
oh yeah extra copies are here and those of you who did not get the assigned with work is still circulating you can do it afterwards she didn't sign it
so
i think this might be a nice waiter and our class with each week
ha the jewel mayor some odd the teaching and nurses that
the communique by your data
your i started a layer feminist silver ball was no idea ahead in my life my
right here next time you know and the a sudden urge that emphasize infighting because of injury side and few as a board since utah
the direction i was wrong for this blog i've known as as far as digit paychecks and a form is very very interesting smile
is a strategy that guy doesn't three or iax value for games this visitors card size and
advocates is honesty
each to his life a central air for an emergency overall just another you are and how the actually used to like a day world on fire ice as creative process
how large salaries
awesome
anything species and the size knife to slice of expires the dogs
very hot and is very different wage and benefits shakes exercise because it's the and five
suddenly included inquiries asked for an auxiliary community with the source and with costs as good as the situation so encourage is not a suspicious man casually days
almost protestant religion are high
is season
why is fine his associates is as very nice than the desert a operations
press the stroke
to draw
that's right no introduction
cases encourages his class fares the career promotions or his anguish
girls than a lot of this swedish of children has an to expand strategies you still have sacrificed sacrifice hard
for many i decided crawls a traveler off the anxious next a diagnosis to is to use gps coordinates ventilation just and all eyes why are these strategies
yes your eyes off if you him belong to a story please the thirty inches from our time about as well
to find a sanctuary for was happening outside your tiger leaping part of describe artist and right by the time lag you can have serious states that are shown as a sign
there's a difference or ask as how you decide to sell the next time
he had on mars is just few hours
he has the thing was established it as the ambitious
yeah
and ah leaders of ours is
not serving his practice practice is a more
of all i can get if you can achieve prosperity is us with inter-house dedicate the merits of arches and study of the hope ya so my to the awakening of all the on
wow
history
it's on the
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ha ha this was the ah
ha ha ha