Mumonkan Case 10

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Serial: 
SF-00046
Description: 

Seizei lonely and destitute.

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Auto-Generated Transcript

today is the do the damages words my
kid can hear

master movements are collection of coins called the milan com
ah
a case number ten is called a change we solitary and destitute
i am going to use a japanese name
transliteration of names read it the chinese so changing his says a
and in the case
a monk said to so's on
i am sees a solitary destitute please give me arms
susan said
then it will say
say they said yes sir
susan said you have already drunk three cups of the finest wine in china and still you say they have not listened to your lips
the merman as a comment and he says sees is submissive and manner that what is his real intention
san has the eye and thoroughly discerns what says that means
tell me where and how has says age of the wine
and then master movement has verse
with the poverty of fontanne and the spirit of show you though he can hardly sustain himself he dares to compete with the other for wealth
so this is go on
poverty
is the subject of this on seems to be the subject of this gone
poverty has many faces and we can think of poverty in and various ways
ah for a
as incident
poverty can mean various things
ah when we begin to practice were very enthusiastic
usually
we weekend with some enthusiasm
right when we begin to practice we gained some enthusiasm and we may go for quite a while because we when you first begin to do something it's all new and
exciting and opens new vistas for your mind and spirit
but then at some time at some point something new it comes something usual
actually when our practice becomes something usual
it's very good place
ah but seems like ah what is it but am i doing how this question comes out
ah
two years ago i was so full of enthusiasm and now what i do just seems so commonplace and then we start looking around for something new some know thing to ah
catch our interest so this is a very critical place
ah and what was what was once every once he'd very vital
now seems
commonplace and without spirit
so this is a very important place for student
ah this kind of our
desert place where the it seems like there's nothing interesting or exciting to
ah
spur us on
ah and but this very important place in everyone's practice whether you're a zen student or not if you have some whatever your spiritual life is at some point you come to a dead place
place where ah nothing seems to work so well
so they vary their variations on this dead place
sometimes it's called the dark knight of the soul where ah
no matter how hard you try
you can really connect with your spiritual life
and you feel isolated
ah
at this point one has to continue through this place groping
because there are no
no guidelines this is the place where
you are
walk along in a dark or and feel you feel along the wall
to get to where you're going
and this kind of practice depends on very strong faith
so in your initial in our initial ah
entry into practice
our confidence should be built so that when we reach this place this desert place
we know how to continue
ah with nothing
good never seemingly nothing to sustain us
and this is a test
of our sincerity and our confidence and faith
ah when everything is seemingly taken away
it's easy to do something when there's lots of support
but when all the support is taken away finland
zen student should be able to practice no matter where they are
what they're doing
ah we say ah hell is just another place to practice

so this is one kind of poverty
ah another kind of poverty is
another
attitude toward poverty i might say
is
attitude of cherishing
not having
i'm feeling inspired by not having
or ah
now accepting the challenge of being unsupported
the challenge of
being a
what i might call
the conservation of energy
conservation of energy means being able to do the most with the least means
to do the most of the least means
is to live always on the edge of life i'm constantly being revitalized by that edge
so that you don't have time to fall asleep
kind of like the way a deer lives in the woods

dear mr the winter
with nothing almost nothing
then when spring comes the dear enjoys the spring and fenton's up
but then next winter same thing
so whether it's winter or spring
it's
just life
dear doesn't think this is poverty
dear just blends for a moment to moment rewards in front
this is a transcending wealth and poverty
so sometimes wealth as poverty sometimes poverty is wealth
we can't say always
so this brings us around to what the score on is about

a monk said to master suzanne suzanne i was a very famous monk and a well-known like
and
in china in the eighth century he was a student of toes on
and tarzan is the founder of our school
in china
then so's on was one of his
dharma airs
and the soto school is named after those on and susan
the two characters so until

ah so the monk asked susan
it's as i am says a solitary and destitute please give me arms
ah solitary and destitute well a monk if is a monk knows that he solitary and destitute
i shouldn't be a question with him
we so is he complaining
i was bragging
so little bit ambiguous here
solitary means alone
all alone withdrawn from everything that solo solitary can also mean nothing left out
this universe is one solitary being
in which we all participate
so a solitary is also ambiguous
solitary can mean completely at one with where it can be completely withdrawn from
when we feel alone and solitary
it can be the most devastating experience or it can be the most fulfilling experience

so at alone alone means at one
i'm sure
ah but solitary here has the feeling of
ah withdrawn
because he says destitute bad
it's still ambiguous
solitary and destitute please give me something what can you give me teacher
so he's kind of probing so that probing the teacher is a good monk probing the teacher
nevertheless we can't say that he's not solitary and destitute and the other hand
is he really
where is this monk anyway
so
master suzanne and i kiss him a response
he says
venerable say
and a says yes sir
this is where the colon is
right there
and as those on says we have already drunk three cups of the finest wine in china and still you say that you have not moistened your lips
ah this is this kind of response to the three cubs could be buddha dharma sangha
he could be saying
ah
look you know
you have completely sustained by buddha dharma sangha and you say
you haven't yet junk
i see it see you're still destitute and what do you mean by that
ah
you not traditionally monks are
i have no possessions
our of it
beg for their food
and
ah

on
a few robes and an lie down to many
and are free from
all obligation worldly obligations
ah so this is a kind of mixed blessing
in the meiji era in japan
the government
made all the monks
marry and have families
and that's the tradition that our practice comes from
the tradition of
married mugs are teachers were all married
monks so much it ways we're not really monks kind of a combination of ah ha mugs and householders
householder priests or house on their mugs
which is a kind of synthesis
ha
and ah
it can either have
the worst part of both are the best part
this is this is what our life with this is what all the priests are struggling with
is this was a hybrid
lifestyle
difficult and rewarding
that very unusual in in that
korea around the turn of the century
the
monks the the government allowed the monks to get married
and to have their families live in the monastery but didn't work
didn't work very well
ah i can see clearly why it didn't work
because ah the monks married people who were not
ah
other monks
so it was if as instant for if a priest wants to get married they should marry someone who is a practicing student
otherwise it doesn't work
because the householder part and the monk part have to balance each other and be compatible with each other
ah if they're not then they are one of the other takes over
becomes dominant
and if the householder part becomes dominant which
very hard not to
then ah the whole relationship goes that way
and he no longer have anymore
any practicing monk
so one has to be very careful there's something to be said speak well in in in this country they're not so many real marks
and some question whether or not there should be bad i when you practice the style you can understand why they were or have been an honor
some of it as a practicing marks
right over is deprived many things is much easier
nevertheless ah a priest to who has it was married and has the problems of a family also understands people
ordinary people better and ah
that person
doesn't
it's it's more difficult for that person to have a kind of exalted feeling
or
separate feeling

so
in this calling and answering venerable
and so suzanne after susan says
venerable say they say says yes sir
this kind of this
this is i'm speaking to each other
ah
with everything dropped
this is the where they come together in their understanding
ah with nothing in between ah this is where they
express their sincerity
very simple calling and answering
and are many coins about calling and answering
just saying
say say yes sir
it was a
a teacher in china who had a student
and every day
he recalled the student to him and when the student came to gg would say what is it
he did this for eighteen years
and finally at the end of eighteen years student gave him a good response
the teacher said he don't need to come anymore
but it's also like when a child a small town cars in his mother
he says mom and mounted most is yes
mom
yes
it's not that he has anything to say
he just wants some response
just wants to connect and there's nothing to say
when we see each other you know from meet each other and greet each other we always feel well now what am i going to say
to this person
how are you
isn't that a wonderful day
wow blah blah blah blah right
oh i'm fine
perhaps merely we have to do his bow
is in the monastery i whenever we meet someone when we practice in the monastery whenever we meet someone
we just bow when it wherever you are wherever it when it when you when someone's coming toward you need both stop and you just bow you don't have to say anything
we're going to say oh how are you i'm fine but other that was nice weather today just bow that's all this is like a mean everything stops the whole world stops and there's just this meeting
and the whole universe participates in this meeting
and then you just go about your business
this is our
great wealth

and also this is like sometimes they say host and guest
a host is technically in in buddhist terms means absolute
in christian terms it would mean god
i am now buddhism
the absolute are buddha nature
are many terms but and host is like the individual am a guest is like the individual
sometimes our
with in buddhism as a priest and minister
yeah prince and minister
so this is relationship
i in this case
suzanne is host and says his guest
this is like host and guest
a meeting
it's like ah
god calls adam
this is where are you
adams says here i am
ha
no need to be destitute
her isolated
yet ah there is nothing and yet everything is there

susan is the expression of this
zazen is ah
everything and nothing
ah
saraki roshi says
susan is good for nothing
if you think that doesn't is good for something
then ah it's not this as in that we're talking about
but there's nothing
more valuable than is good for nothing

so master romances and his comment he says cc is submissive and manner
we've been very accommodating turning himself over to the teacher
please give me some hours
but what is his real intention
suzanne has the i and thoroughly discerns with say needs tell me where and how has says a drunk the wine
and then in lumens versus he says with the poetry of fountain and a spirit of xiang yu though he can hardly sustain himself he dares to compete with the other for wealth
font town and young you are are ah region dairy characters in ancient china
and then
used as examples of people who through bar when everything's taken away from them they are rise to the challenge
so fun time i was a government minister and administrator and in ancient china and he lost his job or quip i can remember which
and he set himself up as a fortune teller and
ah moved his family around in a card
somebody said a shopping cart
some kind of colored chinese code
and the the whole family was very happy even though they didn't have anything the whole family were having i told this story yesterday and i said
i am berkeley and some and i said and he was very happy and in somebody said or what about his family
we'll have lots of genders
so today i'm saying he and his whole family will happen
and as spirit of young you is that a warrior it was shown here was a famous warrior general and he anyone to his story it's too controversial
but i will tell you a story about somebody i know
and this story when i was a a beatnik in the fifties in north beach
i was a
an old man use any seventies
quite a large man and he was a hobo
and he had a beard it was came down like this to a point right beard came down or a beautiful might be kinda point and as about a foot and a half long and his name was hines and he said he say yeah my name is heinz but i'm not one of the forty seven variety
is
maybe i said i was one of the seven forty seven right
and ah
he was are what we call a hobo he when he said when he was young he and his father drove sheep from montana to san luis obispo
so this man
i was never a poor
ah
just had a lifestyle which was correct lifestyle for him
and he knew how to do everything and is full of lore and he was them
it completely a generous person his whole life was generosity and he's to say i live i live under the bridge this is a turn that hobos use it can mean wherever they are and he knew all the hobos and and i
usually hobos don't associate
the society but he felt free to associate with society good people
and he was always smiling and and felt very happy and he was always giving things away he has to go to the
get huge bags full of old fruit which was just about ready to go and handed act people and
chris not everybody wanted it
but he was a way you can put it in your reefer and i always had a reefer was a marijuana cigarette
that and then refer to him was a refrigerator
he'd never had a refrigerator but he knew people have them
for anything you can put it in into your reference and keep it
ha
he was a great teacher for me i felt a lot of affinity with him but it's it's a hobo
is also a buddhist term
means adama mendicant
home means dharma and bow and something in there i mendicant decanter buddha or bodhisattva
ah
so there's some similarity between
a hobo hobo
a
and ah attitude toward ah are wandering actually my offer both even though we think that ah even though we make a great effort to secure ourselves
really all hobos and part of the pain of our life is not realizing right
the the ah
the strain or conflict between are real existence which is that murder hobos
and our need for security
mrs our as big problems for everyone and in the world
so
you know we have left home people and at home people householders and wanderers
ha
but a wanderer needs to know
ah how to be at home
wherever they are
and householder needs to know that wherever they are
there's no secure place

so big question always comes up where are we
at any moment where are you
you say well i'm gonna bet really where are you where are we
when i when if a big wind came and took oliver dwellings away and all of our possessions away where are we

so we need to establish security
but at the same time and what
so says a says i'm ah
ah
solitary and destitute
when please give me something

actually we're all a each one who has is says a
solitary and destitute
and had the same time
we all have drunk three cups are the finest wine in china
so ultimately what do we depend on
where do we really find our security
what's really sustaining us
one day the buddha was walking along with a yeah
a number of people
the indra was one of them and
ah he stopped and said
displace is good to build a sanctuary
and andra took a blade of grass
and stuck it in the ground he said the sanctuary is built

so i know man says but the poverty of time and as and the spirit of xiang you though he can hardly sustain himself
he's talking about say though you can hardly sustain himself he dares to compete with the other for wealth this is just day way that die
then commentators have of praising everybody
seems like sounds like he's his putting him down but he's actually holding him up

so
i invite you all to
continue citizens in forever
thank you
tangerine the energy the every day
this way