Talk Notes:
In one of the major lamp records, The Jingde Chuandeng Lu, we find this story of an encounter between the 3rd Chinese Zen ancestor, Sengcan, and a young student, Daoxin, who would become his successor.
Sengcan & Daoxin: Jingde Chuandeng Lu 3.40 & Denkōroku 31
Daoxin said, "I beg your compassion, Reverend. Please give me the dharma gate of liberation.”
Sengcan replied, “Who is binding you?”
Daoxin answered, “No one is binding me.”
Sengcan concluded, “Then why are you still seeking liberation?”
At this Daoxin was greatly awakened.
This is a beautiful pointer to the central point in Zen, and in Mahayana Buddhism generally.
What really binds us? What really holds us back from being fully and gloriously our Buddha selves? What binds us? Who binds us? Look within and see. Our ancestors worked hard in their practice and they found nothing but emptiness there. There are no chains beyond the ones we believe to be there. The thing is that belief is very, very strong.
Sengcan is known as the author of the great Zen poem Xin Xin Ming which opens with the famous verse which is a great one for sesshin and life in general:
The Great Way is not difficult for those who do not pick and choose.
In the Jingde Chuandeng Lu lamp record it says that years later Daoxin, the student in this story, grew up in the Dharma with Master Sengcan and eventually when his teacher gave him transmission he shared a verse:
Sengcan's Verse in Giving Transmission to Daoxin
Though the flower seed depends on the ground,
and from the ground the planted flower arises,
If no one sows the seed,
flower and ground alike never arise.
Our practice is natural. Organic. Our flower grows of it's own accord when the conditions are right. And not just the flower but the entire mind-ground, or heart-ground, of practice is obscured if we don't show up to practice.
Katagiri Roshi used to tell us: "Settle the self on the self, and let the life flower bloom."
Our great Japanese ancestor Keizan tells this same story about Daoxin meeting Sengcan and feeling bound in chapter 31 of his Denkōroku, Transmission of the Lamp, book. At the end of his chapter on this he offers a verse:
Keizan's Verse (Nomon tweaked the original a good bit)
Mind is empty; pure cognition has no right or wrong,
How can one know what bondage or liberation is?
Even if we distinguish the five aggregates and four primary elements:
seeing and hearing, sound and form are not other than this.
This is an interesting verse. We start by returning to emptiness where there is no personality, no past trauma, no issues - just the arising and falling away of phenomena moment after moment.
Mind is empty; pure cognition has no right or wrong, so one does not know what bondage or liberation is.
And then in the third line he honors conventional reality.
Even if we distinguish the five aggregates and four primary elements,
The five aggregates and four primary elements are the two classic analytic grids for taking our experience apart, mental and physical. He means even we analyze and understand ourselves. Keizan is honoring that this analysis is legitimate. Part of our work, part of the process. We do need to try to understand ourselves.
And like most great teachings it also includes an big "and yet" the "Even if" at the start.
Even if we distinguish the five aggregates and four primary elements,
Seeing and hearing, sound and form are not other than this.
"Not other than this." Everything is ultimately "just this." Suchness. Emptiness. Freedom.
What binds you? Who binds you? Look and see. You won't find anyone there, and you still need to look and see.
This look and seek doesn't mean take a quick glance or looking it up on Google. It means years - decades - of diligent practice, study, and inquiry with good friends and teachers supporting you along the way. Therapy is a good idea too.
This is a process of healing. Trauma and all kinds of dysfunctional conditioning are real on this side of the coin. We need to heal.
And little by little - sometimes with a sudden shift of awareness - in the mix too there is transformation, we realize it's not about fixing anything after all. We may one day see: No one binds me! No one! Nothing binds me! I am free! We are all free!
Who binds you? What binds you? Here's the whole story again.
Sengcan & Daoxin: Jingde Chuandeng Lu 3.40 & Denkōroku 31
Daoxin said, "I beg your compassion, Reverend. Please give me the dharma gate of liberation.”
Sengcan replied, “Who is binding you?”
Daoxin answered, “No one is binding me.”
Sengcan concluded, “Then why are you still seeking liberation?”
At this Daoxin was greatly awakened.
Notice how Daoxin's realization on his own also wasn't quite enough. The story doesn't end with, "Daoxin answered, 'No one is binding me.' and was greatly awakened." The strong support of the teacher-student relationship was needed to help him take that glimmer of light into the dawning of a new vision. The teacher had to ask him, and I imagine here a very matter of fact tone of voice, "Then why are you still seeking liberation? What is it you think there is to seek?" and with that all of a lifetime - many lifetimes maybe - of clinging and clenching and trying and not-quite-being-happy-with-anything'ing released.
The word awakened is tricky as we may think it means we get something, it's more like we forget something really. We forget to be afraid. We forget to feel separate. We forget about being needy. And into the space? Great joy and ease.
Rosemerry Trommer - One Morning
I thought this was a good story for our studies of the Dharma in 12 Step Recovery.
Here's a little more from the teacher in this story, Sengcan's, famous long poem "Faith in Mind"
Xinxin Ming (not sure of the translator)
The Great Way is not difficult for those who do not pick and choose.
When preferences are cast aside the Way stands clear and undisguised.
But even slight distinctions made set earth and heaven far apart.
If you would clearly see the truth, discard opinions pro and con.
To founder in dislike and like is nothing but the mind’s disease.
Not seeing the Way’s deep truth disturbs the Heart’s essential peace.
The Way is perfect like vast space, where there’s no lack and no excess.
Good advice, no?
And yet, there's always the "and yet" bringing us back to the other side of things - we do need to make choices, we have values, some things are wholesome, some things are unwholesome.
The joy of practice is learning to hold these two sides together. Interpenetrated. Not different from each other, just two different reflections of the great reality.
Here's the story of Sengcan's teacher Huineng trying to convince the teacher that would become his great master, Bodhidharma, to take him in. You've probably heard of this one - very famous. And very gross.
Mumonkan Case 41 (Sekida translation)
Bodhidharma sat facing the wall. The Second Patriarch stood in the snow. He cut off his arm and presented it to Bodhidharma, crying, "My mind has no peace as yet! I beg you, master, please pacify my mind!" "Bring your mind here and I will pacify it for you," replied Bodhidharma. "I have searched for my mind, and I cannot take hold of it," said the Second Patriarch. "Now your mind is pacified," said Bodhidharma.
The back story on the gross part is he'd been outside the cave, standing in the snow, asking to practice with Bodhidharma and Bodhidharma had ignored him - for days - until in a great fit of extreme religious enthusiasm he cut his arm off to show this foreign monk he really, really, really means it.
Gross and utterly realistic of course - so let's hope that never happened literally.
But it is also an inspiration story for real life monks and nuns who had the practice of cutting off part of a finger to go deep into their devotion to practice above all else. A deep meditation on determination and commitment.
Joshin-san - the Japanese nun who brought Zen sewing to San Francisco Zen Center in the 1970's - had done this sacrificing a finger thing. Something about showing her seriousness about changing teachers. Just like Hui-ke and Bodhidharma in this story.
Renunciation is a deep thought in Buddhism. Not something we should just write off really.
But the part that concerns us today is not the arm or a finger, but the mind. And remember the character for mind - the "shin" that appears so often in our chants - means heart and mind.
My mind has no peace as yet! I beg you, master, please pacify my mind!" "Bring your mind here and I will pacify it for you," replied Bodhidharma. "I have searched for my mind, and I cannot take hold of it," said the Second Patriarch. "Now your mind is pacified," said Bodhidharma.
or
My heart has no peace as yet! I beg you, master, please pacify my heart!" "Bring your heart here and I will pacify it for you," replied Bodhidharma. "I have searched for my true heart, and I cannot take hold of it," said the Second Patriarch. "Now your heart is pacified," said Bodhidharma.
And just like Daoxin with his teacher Sengcan, hearing that pointer Huike had an awakening experience.
What binds us? What is our mind? What is our true heart? Can we feel the joy of not knowing.
A few of us are studying the Lojong slogans and are finding the slogan, "Don't figure anyone out" to be really helpful. We're constantly trying to figure people out and we're always a little, or a lot, off in our assessments aren't we? And oh the trouble that can brew!
Looking further into this realizing "Don't figure anyone out" needs to include ourselves!
And oddly, harkening back to the Bodhidharma story, it turns out the literal translation of that slogan is actually "Don't talk about injured limbs"!
Norman reworked it a bit interpretively in his Training in Compassion book as "Don't figure anyone out."
Also great advice for seishin. Can you take it out? Don't try to figure people out.
Including yourself?
There I think of another Norman phrase. Long ago at sesshin I remember him saying, "It's good to get interested in how your mind works, but not too interested."
Back to Sengcan's verse saying:
Even if we distinguish the five aggregates and four primary elements,
seeing and hearing, sound and form are not other than this.
This includes the encouragement to yes, by all means, go ahead and "distinguish the five aggregates and four primary elements" our true reality will be be actually that.
But back to Sengcan famous Faith in Mind Poem, there's a koan story about the great Zen master Zhaozhou teaching from that poem to help us feel into this "interested, but not too interested" space.
Blue Cliff Record, Case 2
Zhaozhou spoke to the assembly and said, "'The real Way is not difficult. It only abhors choice and attachment. With but a single word there may arise choice and attachment or there may arise clarity.' This old monk does not have that clarity. Do you appreciate the meaning of this or not?"
Then a monk asked, "If you do not have that clarity, what do you appreciate?"
Zhaozhou said, "I do not know that, either."
The monk said, "If you do not know, how can you say you do not have that clarity?"
Zhaozhou said, "Asking the question is good enough. Now make your bows and retire."
But really do need to ask. To inquire. What is this? is a great practice question. Have you ever taken that up? Breathing with "what is this?"....what is this?.... And taking refuge in Zhaozhou's kind encourage "Asking the question is enough."
Sometime my tone is light. I do recognize that the conditioned mind can also be a dangerous place. A place that moves us to destructive actions towards ourselves and others. Juriki's wayseeking mind talk showed us examples of this. Addiction, despair, depression, these are indeed just states of mind. But we all know they are very intense, compelling and overwhelming. To be taken seriously.
Here's a Zen story on how impossible it all can seem when we're caught in depair. When the binds are constricting and impossible to loosen.
Shinji Shogogenzo 243 - Man up a Tree (first part)
Xiangyan said to the assembly, “What if you are hanging by your teeth from a tree on a one-thousand-foot cliff, with no place for your hands to hold or your feet to step on? All of a sudden someone asks you the meaning of the Ancestor’s [Bodhidharma’s] coming from India. If you respond, you will lose your life. If you don’t respond, you do not do justice to the question. At just such a moment, what would you do?”
What would you do? What do you do when you're stuck in that way?
When the koan story continues, in this version anyway, there's some exploration of how we got into this mess.
Shinji Shobogenzo 243 continues
Then Senior Monastic Hutou came out and said, “Master, let’s not talk about being in a tree. But tell me, what happens before climbing the tree?”
Xiangyan burst into laughter.
Sometimes, yes, you just have to laugh. And something, yes, that's not possible. And we must cry and rage. And sometimes we act out. And then we bear the karmic fruit of acting out. But that may be just what we need too.
What binds you? Who binds you?
Please study this carefully in our sesshin and beyond. What binds you?
This is my last talk before we close the Red Cedar Practice Period on Sunday morning so I want to say a few words of appreciation. Firstly I want to appreciate our head student who has quietly and steadily done such extraordinary work. Juriki means gentle strength and Samuel lives into that name very strongly and gently indeed. It's not everyone who's living in another state in a time of relative uncertainty in their lives who would receive the invitation to relocate for two months to Bellingham and work hard at a totally unpaid gig that requires you to be immensely vulnerable with a bunch of people - most of whom you don't know yet. But when I called Sam up to ask if he'd be Shuso he didn't hesitate - maybe he took a breath (good idea!) but right away. "Yes, I would be honored. I can do that."
It's helped to learn more and more how going deeply into formal practice again is a deep returning for Juriki. Returning to something of meaning in his life - immense meaning. I don't think it's helpful to wish our lives had gone any other way than they did, and I don't think Juriki feels that way, but when he left the residential centers of San Francisco Zen Center 20+ years ago he left something of his heart behind. And now - perhaps - a re-uniting with his deep vow and aspiration to awaken on behalf of all beings up here in Northwest Washington. And being in Bellingham is also a full circle coming home for him. He went to high school in Bellingham - a kind of interlude in his childhood that included being with a father he barely knew and of course the formative time in a young person's life those years are.
And here's the strange thing we just learned on Tuesday - on the occasion of Jurki's 50th birthday I got to spend some time with Sam and Dana and get into telling life stories. Somehow nakedness came up and Sam told a very funny story of he and his teenage friends on a rare sunny day in winter going into a wooded park in town and shucking off all of their clothes to do some sun bathing. Another park visitor turned them in and the outcome ended up being 15 year old Sam was required to do community service hours. But actually the community service project was neat, inspiring to him even, working on a native plants re-vegetation project down by what's now the ferry terminal in Fairhaven in the southern part of Bellingham.
Well my ears perked up about the re-veg project and after collecting some more data about when and where that was I realized that 25-year old me was there too. I was hired to work on that project. Neither of us has concrete memories of meeting these younger versions of ourselves but it was a small crew and I'm sure we did. So here we are 35 years later. Full circle. And Sam is returning to formal practice 25 years after he had to dial that way back for a period of raising kids and also, it sounds like, raising himself. Full circle. But the journeys around those circles do really matter of course.
Anyway back to the present I am so grateful for your presence here, your practice, your warm heart. And that includes being grateful for your limitations and confusions and the issues you worked through while you were here too. I know you're driving back to California on Monday morning but you aren't leaving us. Practice only continues.
