Baizhang's Wild Duck - now with Questions!

How do/did Koans come about? If you are new to the idea of Koans, the link is a great post on Koans and Koan practice, by Zen Master Wonji of the Five Mountain Zen Order.

Here is an attempt at creating a Koan based on a historical exchange. The exchange goes like this:

Zen master Baizhang was walking with Mazu and saw a wild duck fly by.
Mazu said "What is that?"
Baizhang repiled "A wild duck."
To which Mazu asked "Where is it going?"
Baizhang said "It is flying away."
Mazu twisted Baizhang's nose and said "When did it ever fly away?"

This is a good story to work with, as there is a valuable point here. In the Zen lineage, we don't really want to discuss it. We want to help people to get some insight. So the question becomes: How can we use this story to help people wake up? Although this story is already part of some existing Koan collections, it can be improved with the addition of some questions and a verse.

The proposed questions are:

1. What was Baizhang's mistake?
2. If you were Baizhang, how could you answer "Where is it going?"
3. When did it ever fly away?

And a new verse:

  Baizhang, Mazu, and a wild duck
  Together where?
  A forest, a swamp, a lakefront?
  So many concepts
  Put them all down,
  How could it ever fly away?

As mentioned, there is a very important point here. It has to do with Sunyata. As Zen practitioners, we don't practice by discussing things endlessly. Instead, we work with each other to help attain and cultivate that which is within us (what Buddhists call Buddha Nature).

So, my question to you is "When did it ever fly away?"

Wanting Something is Already a Mistake

If you have read much of this blog you know that I am a teacher at Buddha Dharma University. I am also a teacher in the Five Mountain Zen Order. What does that mean?

As a teacher for BDU, I try to help people with their Buddhist studies. In this case, the classes I am involved with are:

• The Mirror of Zen - Zen Master So Sahn
• The Sutra of Perfect Enlightenment
• Dropping Ashes on the Buddha - Zen Master Seung Sahn
• Swampland Flowers - Zen Master Ta Hui

Creating these classes involved preparing and recording video lectures along with writing quiz questions, forum posts, and final exam topics. Additionally, each quarter I still proctor each class. This involves grading quizzes and finals, answering questions and participating on the class forums. More information on each of these courses can be found on this blog or at the university web site. Why do I do this?

When I started researching meditation, around 1990, I found whole array of books with all kinds of ideas. Of all this research, the Zen books were the most interesting. Even narrowing it down to Zen books, I still spent a lot of time going down blind alleys, reading books that were less useful, or getting hung up on author's descriptions of enlightenment. Of course, I am happy to have done all of that as it has been a worthwhile quest. Although I did a lot of this research on my own, I also found some very necessary Zen friends along the way to help me. At this point, I am able to help others with their search.

As a teacher in the Five Mountain Zen Order, I have been granted authority to teach Zen students. I have worked as a novice teacher and have received Inka, meaning I can now teach without requiring a supervising teacher. For the most part, it means I help students with their Koan practice, usually on-line using Skype or ooVoo. It also means I have the responsibility of helping people wake up - not by explaining it to them, but by helping them to find it in themselves. It also means, if I wanted, I could break from Five Mountain and create my own Sangha. I am happy being part of Five Mountain. It is a very high class organization, and the teachers there really are in the world with helping hands.

So what is the point of this post? Zen Master Wonji, the leader of Five Mountain, told me that none of the teachers in FMZO ever asked him to be a teacher! I was no exception, Master Wonji asked me if I wanted to be a teacher multiple times over a period of years before I finally agreed. The funny thing is, I really didn't feel like I had anything to offer. Zen really is like selling water by the river.

On the flip side, we have had students who want to be teachers or monks. They ask about it. What do they need to do to become teachers? Why can't they be teachers, now? Historically, there are some Zen Masters who authorize many to teach and some who authorize few, or even none. Why would someone want to be made a teacher? Is there an ego boost? Waking up is not about ego. Is there a title boost? Waking up is not about titles. The reason we let people know that we are authorized to teach Zen is because we want to help others to wake up. Otherwise, what is the value?

Wanting to be a teacher is a big mistake. Wanting enlightenment is a big mistake.

Swampland Flowers

Swampland Flowers is a collection of letters written by Zen Master Ta Hui. It will also be the basis for a new class that will be available at Buddha Dharma University.

When Ta Hui received transmission from his teacher, he did not leave to start his own temple. He stayed with Zen Master Yuan Wu and the two of them split up their teaching duties. Yuan Wu worked with the monks and Ta Hui worked with the lay students. This book contains a selection of those letters along with one of his talks. We do not see the letters that were sent, instead we see Ta Hui's responses. In these responses, we see the true mastery of Ta Hui in action. It is a real treat to see him adapt his teachings for each student. The real art of teaching. We can learn a lot from these missives. We do have to pay attention as some of the teachings are quite subtle.

The road to enlightenment was not easy for Ta Hui. This is detailed in the introduction. There were steps along the way where he had attained levels of "enlightenment", but there were still things in the way. There is a story about Ta Hui's state just before his final breakthrough. In the story, Ta Hui though he had finally understood. His teacher, however, gave him one more guidepost along the way:

It is indeed not easy to arrive at your present state of mind. But unfortunately, you have only died but are not yet reborn. Your greatest problem is that you do not doubt words enough. Don't you remember this saying? 'When you let go your hold on the precipice, you become the master of your own fate; to die and afterward come to life again, no one can then deceive you.

"You simply do not doubt words enough." What a saying! It is something for all of us on the Buddhist path to remember, to realize, to attain.

One of the teachings that has been passed along to us throughout the years is Don't Know Mind. Why do we need a teaching like don't know? Why did Ta Hui need a teaching like "You simply do not doubt words enough?" We need great doubt, we need to realize enlightenment is beyond words. These are all ways to teach the same point. Hopefully, one of them will resonate.

Zen and Philosophy

A student in one of the classes at Buddha Dharma University asked the following question: In Philosophy, there is an emphasis on the generation of opinions and the development of the so-called Schools of Thought. I wonder if Zen could be considered a school of thought by Philosophy. Is Zen even a Philosophy?

So this is interesting. Many people who read Sutras, the words of the Buddha, the words of the patriarchs, the words in many Zen and Buddhist books, develop a philosophy based on these teachings. The past masters were trying to be helpful putting "enlightened" concepts into words. To try to help others find the way, they risked diluting the Dharma.

The concept of Sunyata leads to things like: What did the Zen Master say to the hot dog vendor? Make me one with everything :-). In pop culture, Caddyshack, has the line: be one with the ball. Even ideas like "one world" or "we are all one" or "we are all in this together". So these are ideas. The Enlightened sages have taught emptiness, and people have run with it as thought experiments.

What about the precepts? We have many precepts handed down to us. Some from enlightened folks, I suppose, some maybe not. Yet people run with those, too. Kind of like the ten commandments. They even go so far as to make them sacred.

Another example. In the Sutra of Perfect Enlightenment, the first chapter talks about how to directly wake up. By the end of the Sutra we have Buddhism, types of meditation, retreats, etc.

Often, in Koan practice, students will often try to give philosophical answers to questions. [E.g. where will you go when you die?]. A good Zen teacher will not accept philosophical answers! Another example is the question "What is Buddha?" that received an answer of "Dried shit on stick" from a great Zen Master of the past. People have taken this answer to mean many, many things. Such as Zen is the mundane, or Zen is not special. The philosophy of dried shit! If you gave me any of these answers, I would most likely say something like "Now you are getting into philosophy."

So, yes a lot of philosophy has come out of Buddhism and Zen. As Zen students trying to wake up, we need to put it all down. With practice, maybe we will attain some clarity that will help us see what these past masters were trying to get at. Maybe we will realize for ourselves what it really means and not be limited by concepts and words.

Kumare and Insight

Recently, someone recommended the movie Kumare to me. It was an interesting movie and has some valid points for discussion. First off, this isn't a review of the movie. There are plenty of those on the internet. Also there will be spoilers, so if you are planning to see the film, you may not want to finish this article now.

Basically, this is the story of a 2nd generation Indian living in the United States who decides that he is going to become a guru. And he is going to really do it up - the big indian beard, the accent, the meaningless teachings that sound wise, the colorful garb. The whole works.

He manages to get himself in front of spiritual seekers by putting on special events at Yoga centers and develops a following. All of this we have to take with a grain of salt since it is all being filmed. What are all of these students thinking with all of these cameras around? But, we will put that aside for now. He starts to develop a following of people who think they have found a genuine teacher.

Kumare is filling the role they expect of a teacher. He listens to them. He does Yoga and mediation with them. He gives them spiritual talks. Some of it is stuff he made up himself. Some he has taken from other traditions. At the end, he has the big reveal - he is not a guru, just pretending to be one. It was all a put on.

The problem is, Kumare or Vikram has no insight. Yoga and meditation are genuine spiritual practices. They work when people do them. Kumare, in his guru role, was spending time with people. Listening to them, making them feel like someone cared. This is what spiritual leaders do. So, what a surprise, if someone pretends to be a wise, caring guru he will end up with students looking for help on the journey.

So, yes, people can be fooled. Yes, people are looking for guidance on the spiritual path. Yes, people can get taken advantage of, and, unfortunately they do.

So what is the takeaway from this? If we are helping people on the spiritual path, we must be sincere. We must hold ourselves to a higher standard. And most importantly, we must let people know the answer is inside them. Each person has Buddha nature. Each person is a Buddha.

It reminds me of the story of a novice monk asking a Zen Master for help. The Zen Master said something like: Why do you waster your time with me? You have the greatest treasure of the world already within you!

Our Daily Bread

In the Five Mountain Zen Order, when a Novice teacher is promoted to a Zen Master, there is an Inka ceremony. During this ceremony, the prospective teacher sits on a cushion and one by one people come up and have a little Dharma exchange. Dharma exchange is sort of like verbal zen combat. Some sample questions might be:

• What is beginners mind?
• How do you cut through delusion?
• In this moment, what would you like to not say?

Generally, at the time of the ceremony, the presiding Zen Master has already decided to promote the novice teacher. So these interactions are generally light and full of laughter. At the last one of these I attended, this is what I put to the candidate:

In fifty years I will be dead and none of this will matter. So why should I practice Zen?

This question has a couple of big hooks. If none of this matters, what is the point? Is Zen just a waste of time? Even bigger, is life just a waste of time? We have spent a lot of blog space on impermanence. The idea that nothing lasts. All things will end. So how can we answer?

In the West, many of us have heard the sayings: This too shall pass and Give us this day our daily bread. These almost seem contradictory as well. Should we focus on time passing? Or on this day? And, could these relate to our answer?

If you have practiced meditation, have practiced Zen or some other form of spirituality, or have even read a bit of this blog - the answer may be clear. The practice is coming back to this present moment. If this question were posed to me, I would answer something like this: "Just sitting here talking to you is already enough."

So, yes, there is impermanence. All things will pass. Are we wasting time? We put it all down and return to this present moment. To our daily bread. To the only moment there is.

Don't Know Mind

In the last post regarding the class on Dropping Ashes on the Buddha we looked at how Zen Master Seung Sahn tried to help his students with the question "What is Zen?" One of the answers found in the book was "keeping don't know mind." What is don't-know mind?

As in the previous lesson, there was a selection of readings that focused on how this was presented to his students. In the class we combed through those sections and came up with the following list:

• Clear mind
• Cutting off all thinking/empty mind
• Like this
• True self
• True emptiness
• No I to get confused about
• Before thinking*
• Great doubt
• No words, no speech
• Big mind

As said before on this blog. Enlightenment is not what you think. In fact, our practice is to keep don't know mind. This not knowing mind is very important. If you keep this don't know mind you will Wake Up!

Once again it is a marvelous book if you are interested in Zen. And all of these topics are much more fleshed out in the book and the class. If you want to study it with us at Buddha Dharma University, the class has already started for this quarter. It will be available in the quarters to come as well.

* - As our lineage contains Zen Master Seung Sahn, it may come as no surprise the URL for the university is beforethought.com.