Appamada Teacher Entrustment

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Transmission of Light
Dharma Teacher
Entrustment Ceremony
January 11, 2020

FOUNDATION
Zazen—meditation in silence and stillness—and shared
inquiry are at the heart of everything we do, and everything
we teach. Through your participation and sincere practice
you help create this community for deep inquiry into our
lives and the timeless wisdom and compassion of the
Buddha. This realization permeates the world through our
everyday actions, words, and thoughts. Our community is
connected not by ritual, dogma, or obligation, but by our
aspiration and mutual care. Together we cultivate this
dynamic process of waking up and growing up.
This is our offering for a troubled world.
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Dharma Teacher Entrustment
Appamada is delighted to officially
announce the Entrustment of our new
Dharma Teachers, Laurie Winnette,
Joel Barna, and Todd Bankler.
It is a profound occasion that honors
their deep and abiding commitment
to Buddha, Dharma, and particularly
our Appamada Sangha, their steadfast
practice, and their wholehearted
offering of themselves over many
years, in the service of the sangha
and this Dharma Way. We have
worked closely with each one and
have had the opportunity to observe
them in a wide range of challenging
circumstances. They have served in
every role, been members of Council
1, received the Precepts, and as
Head Students, led practice periods,
taught classes, and met in practice
discussions with students. They have
filled in as sangha leaders when we
are traveling or unavailable. More
recently, they have served as Zen
Mentors, giving Dharma talks, and
joined us as co-teachers for
intensives. We have complete
confidence in their wholeheartedness,
experience, and integrity.
They are well prepared to serve as
Dharma Teachers, and of course they
will continue to learn in these new
roles. We ask for your support and
constructive feedback in response to
their efforts.
For our sangha, this represents an
important evolutionary step. With this
ceremony, we affirm the continuity of
care and community that is the
fundamental principle of Appamada.
It is the blossoming of the Dharma in
the heartfelt and unique way that Flint
and I had always hoped to express it
when we first set out on this path
together. The maturing of Zen students
into Dharma teachers is a long, long
process, and rather rare. But it speaks
about the maturity of the sangha as
well, and its vitality. We are making
an important contribution in the world,
a world filled with strife, struggle, and
conflict, through patiently and
persistently weaving the fabric of
mutual care, mutual trust, and mutual
growth together. All of the Buddhas
and ancestors celebrate with us,
knowing that their wisdom and
compassion will be transmitted through
us for future generations. In this way
we offer an antidote to the forces of
greed, hatred, and delusion that
surround us. Thank you for all the
myriad ways you help support this
aspiration and contribute to the
profound work we are doing together
by our vow. Please give these new
Dharma Teachers your full support.
They are devoted to you. I am
immensely grateful for their dedication
and sincere practice.
Resident Teachers
Peg Syverson
Guiding teachers Peg Syverson and Flint Sparks sit zazen with
entrustees Laurie Winnette, Todd Bankler,
and Joel Barna before the ceremony.
6 Flint Sparks
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Approaching from the Contingent
Dongshan’s
Gatha of the
Five Positions of
Ruler and Minister
No need to dodge when blades are
crossed.
The skillful one is like a lotus in the midst
of fire.
Seemingly, you yourself possess the
aspiration to soar to the heavens.
The Contingent within the Essential
At the beginning of the third watch,
before moonrise,
don’t be surprised if there is meeting
without recognition;
one still vaguely harbors the elegance
of former days.
The Essential within the Contingent
Having overslept, an old woman
encounters the ancient mirror.
This is clearly meeting face-to-face—only
then is it genuine.
Don’t lose your head by validating
shadows.
Arriving within the Essential
In nothingness there is a road apart from
the dust.
If you don’t break the taboo on
mentioning the Emperor’s name
you will surpass the eloquence of the
previous dynasty’s worthies, who cut
of tongues.
Arriving at Concurrence
Who would presume to join their voice
with someone
who has surpassed “there is” and “there
is not”?
Everyone longs to leave the mundane
stream, yet finally you return to sit in
the charcoal heap.
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BEGIN
Before the ceremony
the Entrustees sat Zazen.
At the start of the
clapper rolldown,
the Jisha led them
from the zendo to the
reception hall. In this
small gathering the
Entrustees offered
stick incense at an altar
with three standing bows
and spoke these vows:
All my ancient twisted karma
from beginningless greed, hate,
and delusion, born through
body, speech, and mind
I now fully avow.
All our ancient twisted karma
from beginningless greed, hate,
and delusion, born through
body, speech, and mind
We now fully avow.
All the ancient twisted karma
from beginningless greed, hate,
and delusion, born through
body, speech, and mind,
All being now fully avows.
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Homage to all Buddhas in the ten directions.
Homage to the complete Dharma in the ten directions.
Homage to every Sangha in the ten directions.
Homage to our first teacher, Shakyamuni Buddha.
Homage to our succession of Bodhisattvas and Ancestors.
Invoking the presence and compassion of our
ancestors, in faith that we are Buddha,
we enter Buddha’s Way.
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Homage to
Eihei Dogen Zenji
Homage to
Shogaku Shunryu
Homage to
Charlotte Joko Beck
Homage to
Blanche Zenkei Hartman
May their presence and
compassion sustain us now.
Let us invoke the presence of Buddha
Inkin bell *
Vairochana Buddha, pure Dharmakaya *
Lochana Buddha, complete Sambhogakaya *
Shakyamuni Buddha, myriad Nirmanakaya *
Maitreya Buddha, of future birth *
All Buddhas throughout space and time *
Lotus of the Wondrous Dharma, Mahayana Sutra *
Manjushri Bodhisattva, great wisdom *
Samantabhadra Bodhisattva, great activity *
Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva, great compassion *
All honored ones, Bodhisattva-mahasattvas *
Wisdom beyond wisdom, Maha-prajnaparamita.*
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LINEAGE
Male
Zen Ancestors
Bibashi Butsu
Shiki Butsu
Bishafu Butsu
Kuroson Butsu
Kunagonmuni Butsu
Kasho Butsu
Shakamuni Butsu
Makakasho Daiosho
Ananda Daiosho
Shonawashu Daiosho
Ubakikuta Daiosho
Daitaka Daiosho
Mishaka Daiosho
Vashumitsu Daiosho
Butsudanandai Daiosho
Fudamitta Daiosho
Barishiba Daiosho
Funayasha Daiosho
Anabotei Daiosho
Kabimara Daiosho
Nagyaharajuna Daiosho
Kanadaiba Daiosho
Ragorata Daiosho
Sogyanandai Daiosho
Kayashata Daiosho
Kumorata Daiosho
Shayata Daiosho
Vashubanzu Daiosho
Manura Daiosho
Kakurokuna Daiosho
Shishibodai Daiosho
Bashashita Daiosho
Funyomitta Daiosho
Hannyatara Daiosho
Bodaidaruma Daiosho
Taiso Eka Daiosho
Kanchi Sosan Daiosho
Dai-i Doshin Daiosho
Daiman Konin Daiosho
Daikan Eno Daiosho
Seigen Gyoshi Daiosho
Sekito Kisen Daiosho
Yakusan Igen Daiosho
Ungan Donjo Daiosho
Tozan Ryokai Daiosho
Ungodoyo Daiosho
Doan Dohi Daiosho
Doan Kanshi Daiosho
Ryozan Enkan Daiosho
Taiyo Kyogen Daiosho
Tosu Gisei Daiosho
Fuyo Dokai Daiosho
Tanka Shijun Daiosho
Choro Seiryo Daiosho
Tendo Sogaku Daiosho
Seccho Chikan Daiosho
Tendo Nyojo Daiosho
Eihei Dogen Daiosho
Koun Ejo Daiosho
Tettsu Gikai Daiosho
Keizan Jokin Daiosho
Gasan Joseki Daiosho
Taigen Soshin Daiosho
Baizan Mompon Daiosho
Jochu Tengin Daiosho
Shingan Doku Daiosho
Senso Esai Daiosho
Iyoku Choyu Daiosho
Mugai Keigon Daiosho
Nenshitsu Yokaku Daiosho
Sesso Hoseki Daiosho
Taiei Zesho Daiosho
Nampo Gentaku Daiosho
Zoden Yoko Daiosho
Tenyu Soen Daiosho
Ken’an Junsa Daiosho
Chokoku Koen Daiosho
Senshu Donko Daiosho
Fuden Gentotsu Daiosho
Daishun Kan’yu Daiosho
Tenrin Kanshu Daiosho
Sessan Tetsuzen Daiosho
Fuzan Shunki Daiosho
Jissan Mokuin Daiosho
Sengan Bonryu Daiosho
Daiki Kyokan Daiosho
Enjo Gikan Daiosho
Shoun Hozui Daiosho
Shizan Tokuchu Daiosho
Nanso Shinshu Daiosho
Kankai Tokuon Daiosho
Kosen Baido Daiosho
Gyakushitsu Sojun Daiosho
Butsumon Sogaku Daiosho
Gyokujun So-on Daiosho
Shogaku Shunryu Daiosho
Female
Zen Ancestors
Prajnaparamita Daishi
Maha Maya Daishi
Srimala Daishi
Tara Daishi
Ratnavati Daishi
Prabhuta Daishi
Sinhavijurmbhita Daishi
Mahapajapati Gotami Daishi
Khema Daishi
Sundarinanda Daishi
Patacara Daishi
Bhadda Kundalakesa Daishi
Sumana Daishi
Kisagotami Daishi
Dhamma Daishi
Uppalavanna Daishi
Yashodhara Daishi
Soma Daishi
Sakula Daishi
Bhadda Kapilani Daishi
Singalaka mata Daishi
Samavati Daishi
Sanghamitta Theri Daishi
Prasannasilla Daishi
China
Jingjian Daishi
Zongji Daishi
Empress Wu Daishi
Lingzhao Daishi
Ling Xingpo Daishi
Moshan Liaoran Daishi
Liu Tiemo Daishi
Miaoxin Daishi
Shiji Daishi
Juhan Daojen Daishi
Daoshen Daishi
Huiguang Daishi
Huiwen Daishi
Fadeng Daishi
Yu Daopo Daishi
Miaodao Daishi
Zhidong Daishi
Miaozong Daishi
Lady Qinguo Daishi
Wenzhao Daishi
Miaohui Daishi
Zhiyuan Xinggang Daishi
Jizong Xingche Daishi
Jifu Zukui Daishi
Shenyi Daishi
Japan
Zenshin Daishi
Kōmyō Daishi
Ryōnen Daishi
Shogaku Daishi
Egi Daishi
Mugai Nyodai Daishi
Kakuzan Shido Daishi
Ekan Daishi Daishi
Kontō Ekyu Daishi
Mokufu Sonin Daishi
Soitsu Daishi
Eshun Daishi
Yōdō Daishi
Kogetsu Daishi
Soshin Daishi
Tenshu Daishi
Daitsu Bunchi Daishi
Ryonen Gensō Daishi
Tachibana no Someko Daishi
Tokugon Riho Daishi
Satsu Daishi
Ohashi Daishi
Teijitsu Daishi
Otagaki Rengetsu Daishi
Mizuno Tenmyō Jorin Daishi
Hori Mitsujo Daishi
Nagasawa Sozen Daishi
Satomi Myodo Daishi
Kendō Kojima Daishi
Yoshida Eshun Daishi
Kasai Joshin Daishi
Kudo Sumiko Daishi
Ruth Eryu Jokei Fuller Daishi
Maurine Myo-on Stuart Daishi
Houn Jiyu Kennett Daishi
Gesshin Myoko Prabhasa Daishi
Dharma Cheney Daishi
Baiho Trudy Dixon Daishi
Charlotte Joko Beck Daishi
Blanche Zenkei Hartman Daishi
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Heart of Great Perfect Wisdom Sutra
Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva, when deeply practicing prajna paramita,
clearly saw that all five aggregates are empty
and thus relieved all suffering.
Shariputra, form does not differ from emptiness,
emptiness does not differ from form.
Form itself is emptiness, emptiness itself form.
Sensations, perceptions, formations,
and consciousness are also like this.
Shariputra, all dharmas are marked by emptiness;
they neither arise nor cease, are neither defiled nor
pure, neither increase nor decrease.
Therefore, given emptiness, there is no form,
no sensation, no perception, no formation, no
consciousness; no eyes, no ears, no nose, no tongue,
no body, no mind; no sight, no sound, no smell, no
taste, no touch, no object of mind;
no realm of sight ... no realm of mind consciousness.
There is neither ignorance
nor extinction of ignorance...
neither old age and death,
nor extinction of old age and death;
no suffering, no cause, no cessation, no path;
no knowledge and no attainment.
With nothing to attain, a bodhisattva
relies on prajna paramita,
and thus the mind is without hindrance.
Without hindrance, there is no fear.
Far beyond all inverted views, one realizes nirvana.
All buddhas of past, present, and future
rely on prajna paramita
and thereby attain unsurpassed, complete,
perfect enlightenment.
Therefore, know the prajna paramita
as the great miraculous mantra,
the great bright mantra,
the supreme mantra,
the incomparable mantra,
which removes all suffering and is true, not false.
Therefore we proclaim the prajna paramita mantra,
the mantra that says:
" Gate Gate Paragate Parasamgate Bodhi Svaha."
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Dharma Talk
Walking the path
of the Bodhisattva
is accomplished
through the spirit
and actuality
of renunciation.
All the Buddha Ancestors
of the Bodhisattva precept
lineage have practiced and
are still practicing renunciation
of all attachments.
Renunciation is an unsurpassable
way of harmonizing body and mind
with the Buddha way.
If one gives up attachments
Peg Syverson
Jewel Mirror Samadhi
Only recently did I learn that the
Jewel Mirror Samadhi was for many
hundreds of years a private exchange
during dharma transmission. One
receiving dharma transmission was to
memorize it, and knowing it served to
verify the transmission. So the first line
reflects a moment of intimacy between
a teacher and student. Now it is chanted
openly in Soto Zen centers and temples
and monasteries, so we are all entrusted
to convey the teaching of Thusness, or
the Dharma. Why?
intriguing, and I would dip into it again.
After all, from the vast literature from
Buddhist tradition it was one of the very
few verses to become a standard chant
in services. I say dip into it because I
can hardly say I studied it, and in those
days there were no commentaries in
English that I knew of. I didn’t even know
where to begin asking a teacher about it.
Charlie Pokorny had done a massive
translation project with comparative
translations and explanations for each
character in the poem so diverse that it
made it seem impossible to grasp even
the simplest lines of it. A single Chinese
character can have so many meanings
and connotations that it makes your head
swim. This is why there are so many
variations in translations.
one is free.
For years I chanted the Jewel Mirror
Samadhi with only faint glimmers of
understanding. It seemed like a surreal
fever dream with its strange images of
One is a Buddha,
trapped rats, babies babbling, wounded So I simply chanted it and let it wash
tigers, wooden men singing and stone
over me over and over again, until I
women dancing. I sometimes thought of found it invading my conversation with
it as a hopelessly muddled translation,
the odd phrase here and there that
or a reflection of a thought process from seemed somehow to fit the situation:
an Awakened One.
a culture so alien and a time so far
turning away and touching are both
gone that we simply cannot follow it, or
wrong, for it is like a mass of fire, I would
some mystical incantation impossibly
point out helpfully to my sister; or The
far from my own spiritual plodding. Then meaning is not in the words, yet it
I would be drawn back to the Jewel
responds to the inquiring impulse, I
20
Mirror, something about it was simply
would tell a baffled student. And, for
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some reason, The ancient sages pitied them
and bestowed upon them the teaching;
according to their delusions they called black
as white. I was certainly longing for some
sage to take pity on me at least, and bestow
upon me the teaching.
Well, possibly there was something there
after all. And the Jewel Mirror is permeated
with Donghan’s expression of the Five Ranks.
Although it is seemingly only touched on in
Dongshan’s poem, the Five Ranks, or Five
Perspectives, or Five Keys were central to
his teaching. In reality, the whole poem is an
unfolding of this teaching.
Sometimes the Five Ranks teachings have
been dismissed by Zen teachers or whole
schools because it was thought that they
misled students into striving for levels of
attainment, comparing themselves with each
other, and to misunderstandings about the
whole nature of practice and realization.
Taken superficially they certainly can lead
one to get lost in a thicket of views, or to the
kinds of errors that take us far from our true
spiritual path.
I have to confess that when I first heard about
the Five Ranks, I was filled with disapproval
and thought of them as some musty ancient
artifact of esoteric teachings, best left to
scholars and historians. They seemed
arcane, incomprehensible, and not worth
bothering over. I didn’t even connect them
with the Jewel Mirror Samadhi, which we
were chanting regularly in service. Worse,
I could see that they attempted to create a
map of the ungraspable, or to systematize
Zen practice in ways I believed were
antithetical to awakening, creating a false
sense of progression or sequence.
Dongshan himself did not present his five
ranks teaching with a discussion or a talk,
but with a set of verses and no commentary.
Here’s a diagram of the five perspectives,
as Flint likes to call them, or the Five Keys as
Ross Bolleter has called them.
You will notice that the diagram lists first the
trigrams of the I Ching, mentioned in the
Jewel Mirror Samadhi. It’s not that Dongshan
was a great believer in the I Ching, rather, there
is something about the structures and their
transformations that helped convey Dongshan’s
meaning, and furthermore, it was a common
cultural model his listeners would instantly have
recognized. In case you are not
familiar with the I Ching, or the Book of
Changes, it was probably the first device
independent information processor and
artificial intelligence engine, originating
between 1000 and 750 BC. You could use
coins, sticks, dice, or any material for which
you could create or find a long and a short
piece, or an even and an odd number set, and
they could be tossed, dropped, shaken and
rolled, and so on. Six numbers between
6 and 9 are turned into a hexagram, which can
then be looked up in the I Ching book,
arranged in an order known as the King
Wen sequence. The interpretation of the
readings found in the I Ching is a matter of
centuries of debate, and many commentators
have used the book symbolically, often to
provide guidance for moral decision making as
informed by Confucianism, Taoism and
Buddhism. The hexagrams themselves have
often acquired cosmological significance.
By Donghsan’s time, (807–869), the I Ching
had been established by Emperor Wu since
136 BC as one of five official Chinese classics.
The resulting patterns are in sets of three, in
some combination of long and short or broken
pieces, as you see on the diagram.
The sets of three are called a trigram.
Doubling the trigram makes six lines, stacked
up, in which there are outer and inner lines,
and at the same time that they make two sets
of three, they also make three sets of pairs.
So this makes five possible sets. These sets
were used for fortunetelling and divination,
but that was probably not what concerned
Dongshan. He was only suggesting the
mutual interactions among the five ranks and
the ways of seeing them as distinctive yet
permeable with each other.
So what? Let’s see if there is something
there to provoke our inquiring impulses.
Today I will be focusing on the first one,
just to give you an entry point.
Here is Dongshan’s verse,
Gatha of the Five Positions of
Ruler and Minister.
These two terms come from the Chinese
Zheng, meaning dominant, superior or
central, and Pian, meaning subordinate, or
peripheral. The concept of these positions
was well-established in Confucian culture,
but they are not associated with particular
persons, as those positions and roles are
always shifting. So these terms have been
translated as Ruler and Minister, or host and
guest, for example. Ross Bolleter in his book
Dongshan’s Five Ranks: Keys to
Enlightenment, says that he prefers the terms
essential and contingent to avoid
the connotations of superiority and inferiority.
Sometimes they have been taught as absolute
and relative. Bolleter says about essential and
contingent: Most importantly, the terms
essential and contingent do not refer to
separate realms. Properly understood, they
indicate five diverse perspectives on the same
indivisible reality. He notes that the form of
dialectic between supposed opposites is a key
teaching in Zen, found in the Heart Sutra
between form and emptiness, between
existence and non-existence in the
Kaccayanagotta Sutta, between “conventional
truth” and “relative truth” in the works of
Nagarjuna, between darkness and light in
Sekito Kisen’s Merging of Difference and Unity.
As Bolleter puts it, these teachings cannot
express the inexpressible taste of awakening,
but they are pointers to dissolve our habital
tendencies to divide the world and create
oppositions out of the seamless flux of reality.
Such dialectical constructions use the play of
polarities—of complementary, interdependent
opposites—to suggest a reality beyond the
paradoxes that such dialectical constructions
entail.
Phenomena within the Real
At the outset of the dead of night,
before moonlight,
Do not be surprised to meet without
recognizing
A glimmer faintly familiar from olden days.
What does this evoke in you?
Following this translation Dan Leighton writes:
“In the first verse, within the darkened ultimate
sameness of universal reality beyond all
distinctions, Dongshan depicts the faint
remnants of particular phenomenal
potentialities. The last line might be interpreted
as glancing at an old friend or a shadow of
oneself not quite recognized but which looms
in the darkness.”
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Here is the same verse translated by
Ross Bolleter (who prefers the terms
positions, modes, or stages to the term ranks):
The Contingent within the Essential
At the beginning of the third watch,
before moon-rise,
don’t be surprised if there is meeting without
recognition;
one still vaguely harbors the elegance of former
days.
Think of your own experience of any role we
might think of as an up-power role:
insistence that she MUST HAVE AN ICE
CREAM CONE. Finally my sister said, the
doctor said you can’t have anything cold to
eat! Ice cream is cold! Her daughter looked up
at her and said I don’t want ice cream. I want
an ice cream cone.
We tend to rely on our past strategies, beliefs,
habits, and conditioning, the elegance of
former days, even as we realize vaguely that
they have no real bearing in our present
circumstances. We long for what we think of
as the clarity and simplicity of earlier days.
[Have you noticed this? What is your own
experience of it?]
Parent
Teacher
Supervisor
Leader: even a Cub Scout pack
Manager
Doctor
Think about how complex that role actually is,
how the more we believe we are in charge or
masters of the situation, the more in the dark we
actually are. So often we don’t recognize often
what is right before us: the experience of our
child, our students, our employees, the full
context of the environment, or the situations we
find ourselves in.
There are thousands of examples of this, but
there is a simple one that comes to my mind.
When my sister was living in Japan, with three
small children, her youngest, about three years
old, got a stomachache, and Nora took her to the
doctor. In Japan there is a long standing belief
that eating things that are too hot or too cold is
bad for the stomach, so the doctor advised my
sister not to let little Noriko eat or drink anything
cold. When they returned home, Noriko asked
my sister for an ice cream cone. My sister
patiently explained that the doctor said no, but
her daughter was adamant. My sister grew more
and more frustrated trying to explain that she
could not have an ice cream cone right now.
Her daughter grew equally frustrated in her
Dongshan, as I mentioned, did not provide
commentary or elaboration on the five verses.
So Dongshan’s teachings were expanded on
and systematized by his disciple Caoshan,
who created the symbols of black and white
you see here. Let’s look at the first line of the
diagram. You can see the first I Ching trigram,
and then the symbol that came to be
associated with the first rank in later times.
There were certain phrases associated with
these perspectives: the real comprising the
seeming. These are based on the title of
Dongshan’s gatha.
Next is a reference to a parallel set of gathas
on the stages of merit. Then the terms host
and prince. These are positions, and we can
all identify with them, I’m pretty sure. We have
acted as host for a party or gathering and we
have felt at times like a ruler, or prince, master
of our own domain. That domain might be
as small as a dorm room or as vast as whole
nations. But there is that sense, that feeling of
expansiveness that is part of this position, and
a sense too, of one’s position of superiority.
We are so in the dark. Don’t be surprised if
there is meeting without recognition. We
encounter others without truly seeing them,
and we lose our precious opportunities for true
meeting in this mode. Still, each position has
its value and you can hear its echoes: one still
vaguely harbors the elegance of former days.
The real potential is in the phrase
“before moonrise.” we may be in the dark,
but we are headed for the light. But we are
still clinging to the elegance of former days.
It’s hard not to when you are in the
darkness of dead of night. Which is where
we are right now. Don’t be surprised if there
is meeting without recognition. As people
become more and more busy, more and
more anxious, more and more ensnared
by their technologies, more and more filled
with dread, it is harder and harder for them
to truly meet anyone or anything with real
recognition. But it is a loss, a terrible loss
not only for individuals, who are steeped
in loneliness because of it, but it is also a
larger loss, of community, connection, and
mutual care that form the fabric of a healthy
society. How do we want it to go?
Furthermore, we can consider the extent to
which we are master even of our own
bodies, our own thoughts. So much is in
darkness there, so much is beyond our
control. We meet the changes of an aging
body without recognition, and seriously
vaguely harbor the elegance of earlier days.
We work out, we take vitamins, we take our
medicine, we meditate and go to therapy all in
an attempt to be the master of our bodies and
minds. How is that working for you?
Aren’t you still taken by surprise?
Ultimately these teachings of five ranks, five
keys, five perspectives are not so much about
our individual comprehension of reality, but
qualities of relating. I think the reason they
might get in the way of our spiritual
development, and possibly the reason many
Zen teachers steer clear of them is the
potential that we might view them as about our
individual attainment, our own self-centered
spiritual dream. When we understand them as
pointing to experiences of relating, we begin to
see that we are always dynamically in relation,
not only to one or two people, our family, our
colleagues at work, our neighbors, but
ultimately to all existence. And at any
moment we might find ourselves in any of
these positions, in any of our relationships.
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The teachings provide a larger perspective,
which includes the potential for entirely
different points of view, entirely different ways
of understanding and acting in those
relationships. We probably will recognize, as
we explore these teachings, that we have our
favorite positions, where we are most
comfortable. From that perspective, our
world makes sense, we make sense, we
know how to be. But any perspective alone
is limiting, and in particular the individualistic
“master of our fate” perspective of much of
Western culture is not only limited, but
dangerous, for ourselves and for our world.
So Dongshan is timely and clearly relevant in
our times. He reminds us: We don’t need to
be stuck in habitual positions and fixed
relations to each other and to our world.
Most of us are gaining the dawning
realization that we are not even the masters
of the simplest technologies we have created:
a toaster oven, a remote control, a new
phone, a thermostat, much less the vast web
of technologies and systems governing our
world and shaping our experience. We are
in the dark, hoping for moonrise, so that our
meetings with each other and with reality
will not go unrecognized, so that we do not
vaguely harbor the elegance of former days.
In relating to our own lives, to each other, to
our environments, natural and technological,
these teachings can alert us to stay curious,
stay engaged, stay connected, and to
explore the five perspectives wholeheartedly.
Peg Syverson
Song of the Jewel Mirror Samadhi
The teaching of thusness has been intimately communicated
by Buddhas and ancestors; now you have it so keep it well.
Filling a silver bowl with snow, hiding a heron in the moonlight;
when you array them they’re not the same,
when you mix them you know where they are.
The meaning is not in the words, yet it responds to the inquiring impulse.
If you’re excited it becomes a pitfall;
if you miss it you fall into retrospective hesitation.
Turning away and touching are both wrong
for it is like a mass of fire; just to depict it
in literary form is to relegate it to defilement.
It is bright just at midnight; it doesn’t appear at dawn.
It acts as a guide for beings, its use removes all pains.
Although it is not fabricated it is not without speech;
it is like facing a jewel mirror—
form and image behold each other.
You are not it, it actually is you;
it is like a babe in the world in five aspects complete.
It does not go or come nor rise nor stand;
baba wawa is there anything said or not?
Ultimately it does not apprehend anything
because its speech is not yet correct.
It is like the six lines of the double split hexagram:
the relative and absolute integrate;
piled up they make three, the complete transformation makes five.
It is like the taste of the five flavored herb,
like the diamond thunderbolt subtly included within the true.
Inquiry and response come up together:
communing with the source and communing with the process,
it includes integration and includes the road.
Tozan Ryokai
Merging is auspicious; do not violate it.
26 27

Naturally real yet inconceivable, it is not within the province of
delusion or enlightenment.
With causal conditions, time and season,
quiescently it shines bright in its fineness; it fits into spacelessness,
in its greatness it is utterly beyond location.
A hairsbreadth’s deviation will fail to accord with the proper attunement.
CEREMONY
Now there are sudden and gradual, in connection
with which are set up basic approaches; once basic approaches are
distinguished, then there are guiding rules,
but even though the basis is reached and the approach comprehended,
true eternity still flows outwardly still while inwardly moving,
like a tethered colt, a trapped rat.
The ancient saints pitied them and bestowed upon them the teaching;
according to their delusions they called black as white.
When erroneous imaginations cease,
the acquiescent mind realizes itself.
If you want to conform to the ancient way,
please observe the ancients of former times;
when about to fulfill the way of Buddhahood
one gazed at a tree for ten aeons, like a tiger leaving part of its prey,
a horse with a white left hind leg.
Because there is the base, there are jewel pedestals, fine clothing;
Because there is the startlingly different, there are house cat and cow.
Yi with his archer’s skill could hit a target at a hundred paces,
but when arrow points meet head on,
what has this to do with the power of skill?
When the wooden man begins to sing, the stone woman gets up to dance.
It’s not within reach of feeling or discrimination,
how could it admit of consideration in thought?
A minister serves the lord, a son obeys the father;
not obeying is not filial, and not serving is no help.
To sustain and confirm
the practice of the Bodhisattva
precepts, for their meaning
is in living them,
I will now give you, anew,
Buddha’s name and robe
to clothe you throughout this life and
times to come.
This is your new name,
true family and dress.
Practice secretly, working within, as though a fool, like an idiot;
if you can achieve continuity, this is called
the host within the host.
28 29

O, Bodhisattva Mahasattvas,
please concentrate your hearts on me.
I, Gyoku On Kō Shin,
Jewel Blessing Vast Heart,
Buddha’s disciple,
receive this robe of five panels,
each panel made from one
long and one short piece.
I will wear this robe of Buddha with the
mind and body of its sacred meaning.
Verse of the Robe
Vast is the robe of liberation,
a formless field of benefaction;
wearing the universal teaching,
I realize the one true nature,
O, Bodhisattva Mahasattvas,
please concentrate your hearts on me.
I, Sei Gen Jo Shin,
Green Field Quiet Heart,
Buddha’s disciple,
receive this robe of five panels,
each panel made from one
long and one short piece.
I will wear this robe of Buddha with the
mind and body of its sacred meaning.
thus harmonizing all being.
O, Bodhisattva Mahasattvas,
please concentrate your hearts on me.
I, Ho Gen Shi Shin,
Dharma Eye Lion Heart,
Buddha’s disciple,
receive this robe of five panels,
each panel made from one
long and one short piece.
I will wear this robe of Buddha with the
mind and body of its sacred meaning.
30 31

Repentance
All my ancient twisted karma
from beginningless greed, hate, and delusion,
born through body, speech, and mind
I now fully avow.
All our ancient twisted karma
from beginningless greed, hate, and delusion,
born through body, speech, and mind
We now fully avow.
All the ancient twisted karma
from beginningless greed, hate, and delusion,
born through body, speech, and mind,
All being now fully avows.
In order to be fully awakened in the practice of Buddha's
precepts, we start with the pure practice of confession.
We have a way of confession transmitted from Buddha,
through the ancestors to me.
You have gone beyond the karma of body, speech,
and mind and have completed the pure practice of
confession.
You have been freed from greed, hate, and delusion.
All my
ancient
twisted
karma
32 33

We have purified our mind and body. Now you may receive again the
path of the precepts of the three treasures. Thus, you are seated
with Buddha and are really Buddha's child.
Will you receive these precepts?
Entrustees:
Yes I will.
Taking Refuge
Inkin bell *
Water Purification
(Abhiseka)
O, good disciple of Buddha,
from now on and
even after realizing
Buddhahood,
will you continue this
truthful practice?
Entrustees:
Yes I will.
I take refuge in Buddha*
I take refuge in Dharma*
I take refuge in Sangha.*
We take refuge in Buddha,
before all being,
immersing body and mind
deeply in the way,
awakening true mind;*
We take refuge in Dharma,
before all being,
entering deeply the merciful
ocean of Buddha’s Way;*
We take refuge in Sangha,
before all being,
bringing harmony to everyone,
free from hindrance.*
Now all being has completely
taken refuge in Buddha,*
Now all being has completely
taken refuge in Dharma,*
Now all being has completely
34
taken refuge in Sangha.*
35

Now will you receive the
Three Pure Precepts?
You have returned once more
to your original nature
free from attachments
and limited ways.
From now on awakening
is your teacher,
all beings are your teacher.
Do not be fooled by other ways.
This is the path of compassion
for all existence and things.
From now on and even
after realizing Buddhahood,
will you follow this compassionate
path of the three treasures
that I am now passing to you?
Entrustee:
Yes I will.
Entrustees:
Yes I will.
Inkin bell *
I vow to refrain from all harming.*
I vow to do all that is good.*
I vow to live and be lived
for the benefit of all beings.*
Abiding in the three pure precepts,
from now on and even
after realizing Buddhahood,
will you continuously observe
them?
Entrustees:
Yes I will.
Receiving
Precepts
36 37

Now will you receive the
Ten Grave Precepts?
Entrustee:
Yes I will.
Abiding according to the ten grave precepts, from now on and even
after realizing Buddhahood, will you continuously observe them?
Entrustee:
Yes I will.
I vow not to kill or
harm that which is living.
I vow not to steal or take what
is not freely given.
I vow not to misuse sexuality
or manipulate others seductively.
I vow not to lie and to refrain from
deception.
I vow not to intoxicate mind
or body of self or others.
I vow not to slander or allow
silence to harm others.
I vow not to praise self at the
expense of others.
I vow not to grasp what I have,
or be envious of what I don’t.
I vow not to harbor anger or ill will
or seek vengeance or retribution.
I vow not to disparage the Three
Treasures.
The way you keep precepts
should always be like this.
Once more you have received
Buddha’s precepts and
are a child of Buddha.
By these acts of invocation,
renunciation, confession,
purification, taking refuge and
receiving the precepts,
we become the working basis of
the Buddha way.
We have become,
by those actions,
the ground for the
arising of the mind
of awakening.
Now you can continue
to really work for all
beings and realize
Buddha Nature as yourself.
You yourself and all
beings are the Tathagata,
the Thus Come One.
38 39

Receiving Bodhisattva Precept Lineage
Now by our sincere actions
here we have become the
working basis of the
Buddha Way, the ground
for the arising and
establishment of the mind
of awakening, bodhicitta.
Thus we are ready to
receive the precept
lineage of all Bodhisattvas.
40 41

Good afternoon. I hope you are enjoying the
teachings generously offered by our teachers,
enjoying the beauty of the space here, and
the companions that are sitting alongside you
during this journey of the intensive. It is such
a blessing and a miracle that all of us are here
together in this exact time and place.
Today I would like to discuss an Enlightenment
Story by one of our female ancestors. The story
I selected is from a text known as the Therigatha
which is in the Khuddakanikaya (Minor
Collection) of the Sutta section of the Pali
Canon. The Therigatha is an anthology of
poems authored and recited by the first female
Buddhists, most of whom who lived during the
time of the Buddha. These women were called
theris or “elder nuns.” Gatha in Pali means
verses. Hence the name Therigatha means
“Verses of the Elder Nuns.”
Entrustment
Dharma Talk
Laurie Winette
In preparing for this talk, I consulted several
books. One was entitled Therigatha: Poems
of the First Buddhist Women, a translation by
Charles Hallisey published in 2015. I am using
his translation specifically in this talk. The
author states that “the poems come to us in the
Pali language, the scholarly and religious
language distinctive to the Theravadin Buddhist
traditions, but the poems may be viewed as
“relatively generic expressions of early Indian
Buddhism.” Hallisey suggests that the poems
were originally part of an oral tradition and
recited in “translocal” languages and then
subsequently translated into the Pali language
which was still evolving at the time. Thus, these
poems were probably reworked and standardized
along with the Pali language from the 5th
century BCE [Before Common Era] (the time of
the Buddha) to the end of 3rd century BCE.
Another book I consulted was Women in the
Footsteps of the Buddha: Struggle for
Liberation in the Therigatha, by Kathryn R.
Blackstone published in1998. T his book is
primarily a linguistic study comparing the
Therigatha to the Theragatha, a text of
enlightenment stories by Buddhist monks of
the same time period. Blackstone’s study
reveals that both texts used “stock terms and
phrases, identical vocabulary, identical
organizational structure and frequent repetition
of sequences of terms or phrases in identical
patterns.” Such repetition is indicative of an
oral tradition; however, it also is suggestive of
standardization by the religious Pali translators
over time.
The Therigatha consists of 16 poems arranged
by the number of verses, starting with one
verse and ending with a poem of 74 verses.
Although it may seem to be an arbitrary
arrangement, Blackstone suggests that,
“apparently thematic criteria is also at work
based on commonality of experience and
personal relationships between theirs.”
The poems of the Therigatha provide a way for
us to hear the voices of these women talking
about their experiences, most of which deal
with their religious goal of attaining nirvana,
(liberation from the cycle of birth and death or
samsara) typical of early Buddhism. Hallisey
points out that the poems show us things we
have never seen or imagined before and the
clarity and truth by which it is expressed can
free us from our own habitual perspective,
thereby creating a new potentiality where
anything or anyone can change and be
liberated, and maybe even we can be too.
Rather than discussing what nirvana is, these
poets celebrate the experience of nirvana and
invite us along.
The last source I want to mention is the book,
Commentary on Verses of Theris, Sacred
Books of the Buddhists, Vol. XLVII, written by
Ac[h]ariya Dhammapala and translated by
William Pruitt in 1998. This commentary was
written by Dhammapala in the sixth century
Common Era and provided me with further
insight into the meaning of the verses.
I have chosen A Poem About Thirty Verses, by
Subha of Jivakamba Grove. Verses 369-402;
p.183-195 in the Charles Hallisey book.
This poem is different from a lot of poems in
the Therigatha in that it is a dialogue between
two characters. Most of the poems in the
Therigatha provide only one voice. This
dialogue takes place between the nun Subha
and an unnamed rake. (A rake is a historical
term applied to a man who exhibits immoral
conduct, particularly womanizing.)
A Poem About Thirty Verses,
by Subha of Jivakamba Grove
As the nun Subha entered the beautiful
Jivakamba Grove a rake grabbed her and
Subha said this to him:
Subha
Friend, it is not right for a man
To touch a women who has gone forth,
Why do you keep me from my way?
I am in a pure state, and without blemish,
It is the discipline taught by the Sugata
My teacher’s instruction,
Instruction that I revere,
Why do you keep me from my way?
Your mind is disturbed, mine is not,
You are impure, I am not,
My mind is free wherever I am.
Why do you keep me from my way?
The rake
You are young and innocent,
How can going forth be right for you?
Come on, get rid of that yellow robe,
Let’s enjoy each other in this forest,
Its flowers all in bloom.
The air is sweet,
The trees are erect, their pollen is everywhere,
Come on, the beginning of spring is the
season for happiness,
Let’s enjoy each other in this forest,
Its flowers all in bloom.
The trees are covered in flowers
Like body-hairs standing on end,
They seem to moan in pleasure when the
breeze blows,
What delights of love will there be for you
If you go into the forest all by yourself?
42 43

You want to go into the vast forest without a
girlfriend,/ It is frightening and lonely,
Filled with herds of wild beasts,
It echoes with the choruses of female
elephants excited by a male.
You will stand out, wandering about in the
forest,/ Like a doll of gleaming gold
Or like a beautiful nymph in Chittaratha.
What should I call you, when nothing
compares to you?
You are exquisite, so lovely in those good
clothes/ And with your fine Kasi shawl.
I would be at your command
If we were to lie together in the forest,
No one is more dear to me than you,
Lady with the bashful eyes of a kinnari.
If you will do what I suggest, you will be happy.
Come, make a home with me,
You will live in the safety of a place,
Let women wait on you.
Wrap yourself in these Kasi shawls,
Put on some make-up and perfume,
While I get all sorts of adornments,
Gold, gems, and pearls, for you.
Climb into this new bed, it’s so luxurious,
It’s sweet-smelling from sandalwood,
Beautiful, it has spreads, throws, and covers,
And above it is a pure-white canopy.
Or, holy one, would you rather go to old age
With your body untouched,
Like a blue lotus that rises from the water
But is untouched by human hands?
Subha
You really are out of your mind.
What is it that you see
When you look at this body,
Filled as it is with things that have already died,
Destined as it is to fall apart only to fill a
cemetery?
The rake
I see your eyes! They are like the eyes of a fawn,
They are like the eyes of a kinnari in a mountain
cave./ Seeing your eyes only increases my
delight in getting ready to make love to you.
Those eyes! Seeing them
Like blue lotus buds on your golden face
Only increases my desire
In getting ready to make love to you.
Even after you have gone far away,
I will remember you and your eyes,
Your long eyelashes, your pure gaze,
Lady with the bashful eyes of a kinnari,
There is nothing better than your eyes.
Subha
You lust after a daughter of the Buddha.
You must want to go where no one else has
gone,/ Want the moon as a toy,
And want to jump over Mt. Meru too.
In this world with its gods
There is nothing that I desire;
If something I would desire does exist,
I do not know what it is,
Whatever it may be, the path of my teacher
Has destroyed the urge for it down to the root.
I do not see that there could be anything worth
desiring,/ The path has destroyed the urge for
things down to the root;/ If something does
exist that I might feel an urge for,
The urge for it is like an ember that jumps from
a fire pit/ Only to go out,
Like a bowl of poison that evaporates
untouched.
There may be people who have not thought
things through,/ Maybe there are others who
have not seen the teacher,/ You should lust
after one of them,/ But try to seduce someone
who knows and you will suffer.
My mindfulness stands firm
In the middle of scolding and praising,
Happiness and suffering,
Knowing that what is constructed is foul,
My mind does not get stuck anywhere.
I am a disciple of the Sugata,/ Traveling in the
vehicle that can only go on te eightfold path.
The dart is pulled out, the depravities that ooze
out from within are wasted away,
I am happy that I have gone to a deserted
place.
I have seen painted dolls and puppets
dancing about,/ Held up and held together by
sticks and string.
When the sticks and strings are cut,
Let go of, thrown away, and scattered,
Broken into bits that can’t be seen—
What would you fix your mind on there?
My body parts are like that,
They don’t exist without smaller bits,
And the body itself doesn’t exist without those
parts ––What would you fix your mind on there?
You saw some figures painted on a wall,
Colored with yellow that makes their bodies
seem lifelike,/ But what you saw is the
opposite of what you think,
You thought you saw humans when none are
there./ Blind one, you run after things that
are not there,
Things that are like a magician’s illusion
Or a tree of gold seen in a dream.
Eyes are just little balls in various shapes.
With its tears, an eye is a bubble of water
between the eyelids,
Like a little ball of lac in the hollow of a tree,
And milky mucus comes out of it.
Spoken by those who compiled the Scriptures
Then the one who was so pleasing to look at,
Her mind unattached and with no regard for
her eye,/ Gouged it out and gave it to that
man, saying, “Here, take the eye, it’s yours.”
His sexual passion ended right there forever
And he begged her forgiveness, saying
“Holy one, be whole again, this won’t happen
again.”
“Wronging a person is like embracing fire,
It’s as if I handled a poisonous snake,
Be whole again, forgive me.”
That nun who was freed went to where the
Buddha was,/ And when she saw the beautiful
signs of his excellence on his body,
Her eye became as it was before.
The first time I read the poem I was shocked
by the dramatic and unexpected ending. But
more importantly, I was captivated by the
fearlessness and clarity of Subha. She is so
powerful. She shows no trace of fear. She
doesn’t try to run away, nor does she give in.
She opts to stay and talk to this persistent
lustful man and present to him the teachings
of the Buddha. No doubt it is her faith and
vows based on the Buddha’s teachings that
contributed greatly to the growth and
development of these characteristics. And it
was these characteristics that got my attention
and I wanted to be like that.
Because of the skillful means involved, this
sounds a lot like the action of a bodhisattva.
44 45

The story probably precedes the Mahayana
tradition (although the date for when the
Mahayana tradition began has not been
established exactly). Nonetheless, the
Theravadin tradition presumedly includes
liberation of others among the acceptable
actions for the attainment of nirvana.
This story really made a big impression on me
because Subha showed such fearlessness
and clarity in a situation in which most people
would feel threatened and fearful. And yet
Subha seems to see beyond the immediate
circumstance and views it as a perfect
situation to attempt to liberate this man.
Without hesitation, she says she is a follower
of the Buddha and reveres his instruction.
She is pure with an unattached mind and
therefore is uninterested in the advances of
this young man. She explains how her body
is not what he sees but rather is impermanent
“destined to the fill the cemetery.”
that the urge has been destroyed down to the
root. And if an urge arose, it would evaporate
or die like an ember. The beauty of her eyes
are not what he thinks, but rather ordinary
and functional in their capacity to produce
tears and mucus. Finally, when words are not
enough for this young man, Subha
demonstrates her unattached mind by
gouging her eye out and giving it to him.
For me, this is an incredible story of a strong,
upright, and clear-sighted woman who will do
anything or almost anything to liberate another
person despite the possible danger to herself.
I think that this poem originally stood out
because it reminds me of a story in a book I
read as a child. The book was about Jane
Addams, a pioneer social worker and feminist
who established the first settlement house in
Chicago to help the poor in immigrant
communities. As I recall Jane Addams
returned to her home one night to find a man
attempting to steal things from her house.
She begged him not to steal the items but
rather to take them as a gift from her as she
did not want him to become a thief. This was
remarkable to me and has stayed with me for
many, many years. This woman was also a
strong character who was not fearful. She was
very clear and could see beyond the
immediate situation and therefore, could act
to transform it and the other person involved.
Both of these stories have strong, fearless
women responding to a potentially dangerous
situation with compassion, clarity, and
wisdom to liberate another who may want to
harm them.
see the possibility of liberation broadened my
view and helps me know that there is another
way. Perhaps one can have freedom from
paralyzing fear. Perhaps one can have clarity
obtained through deep meditation. Perhaps
that can help us see other options than our
normal ways. It felt good to try on another way
as demonstrated by Subha and feel the power
in that.
In summary, I felt inspired to hear the voice of
the ancestor Subha speaking her truth since
the time of the Buddha. Subha is a symbol
of the freedom we can experience by seeing
things as they truly are; then we can act out
of wisdom and compassion to liberate others,
even those who may pose a danger to us.
And the rake? The rake has the honor of
playing the role of any us when we are in our
self-centered dream clinging to desire and not
seeing things as they really are. We become
the rake when we are totally oblivious of the
impact we are having on those around us.
Fortunately, we have a vow, the teachings,
teachers, companions, and role models like
Subha to guide us along the way. With these
tools and a little grace, perhaps our lives will
embody a story about fearlessness, clarity,
and vow.
Laurie Winette
These two situations would threaten most
people and make them fearful. In fact, when I
put myself in these situations, I felt a lot of fear.
I followed a different script in my mind than
did Subha. I felt a contraction in my body and
a tendency to become small. Another option
was to make light of the situation and laugh it
off. Another thought was to just to ignore the
situation. But reading the stories of these
She clearly states that she desires nothing,
women who look beyond the immediate to
46 47

Entrustment
Dharma Talk
Joel Barna
Thanks to Peg and Flint for their teachings on
the Jewel Mirror Samadhi and Dongshan’s Five
Ranks during this retreat, unpacking terms like
host and guest and their implications for
practice. Plus, thanks to everyone for the
wonderful way you are living and breathing
mutual care.
trees – maybe a million or so of them. Thanks
for the oxygen you guys provide! I am not
forgetting that gift, even as my skin burns, my
eyes water, my nostrils close off, and I have
trouble talking.
In Flint’s talk he described the simple but
enigmatic story of the event when Dongshan,
author of the Jewel Mirror Samadhi and the
Five Ranks, and the identified ancestor of the
Soto Zen school, was recognized as a
teacher by his teacher, Yunyan.
I am going to talk today about Yunyan.
And in preparing this talk I kept coming up
against expectations that color my
perceptions of stories – very much like the
way I (along with all humans experiencing
dukkha) lean into pleasant and lean away
from unpleasant experiences. When we hear
a story, our minds do as much work as the
storyteller. You may be different, but when I
hear a story, after a few words, I am already
caught in a frame that tells me who the hero
is and who is the villain, who counts and who
doesn’t in the story’s unfolding. So does the
sequence of events: somebody says
something and that frames what comes next.
I start off with unexamined expectations and
framing for how things are supposed to
resolve at the end of the story – and by and
large I continue with those expectations until
they are challenged.
That happened to me yesterday as I listened
to Laurie as she related the story of Subha
and the Libertine, from the Therigatha, with
its dramatic buildup, so reminiscent of fairy
tales, and its shockingly violent twist at the
end.
The stories about Yunyan have some drama,
but the twist is at the beginning instead of
the end. If, like me, you have only a naïve
acquaintance with the koan literature, you
expect that the brief interaction you hear
about is somehow final or “dispositive.”
“Just this is it.” I’ve got him figured out, and
the memory will guide my reaction to the next
story I hear about him.
Not so the stories of Yunyan’s early life. In the
early stories, he is a failure. But late in life,
he is the man who, warm hand to warm hand,
entrusts Dongshan as a teacher, saying “Just
this is it.” (which Flint described in his earlier
talk).
Here’s some background: Yunyan Tangsheng
was born in 780 CE. He had an older brother,
Daowu Yuanzhi, who was born in 769.
they went to Shimen Temple to become monks
and study with the teacher Baizhang Huaihai.
Huaihai had been born in 720 and would live
until 814 – you may recognize him from the
koan describing how Baizhang gave a funeral
for a fox. In the story, the fox was actually a
monk who had said the wrong thing once and
then had to live 500 hundred lifetimes as a
fox, a somewhat magical but also a wickedly
sneaky creature. Following the funeral, he was
released from the curse.
Daowu apparently took to monastic life and
attained enlightenment while studying with
Baizhang. For 20 years, Yunyan lived as a
monk with Baizhang but did not achieve
enlightenment. Daowu loved his brother, but
couldn’t seem to help him and as will emerge,
this troubled him.
When Baizhang died, the brothers went to live
and study with the teacher Yaoshan (745-827).
Yaoshan was, it was said, austere. For the
monks in the monastery, that meant that they
were not permitted to lie down – for 40 years.
What follows is from page 160 of Transmission
of Light: Zen in the Art of Enlightenment by Zen
Master Keizan, translated by Thomas Cleary.
When the brothers came to his monastery,
Yaoshan asked Yunyan to tell him about
Baizhang’s teachings. Yaoshan asked “What
does Baizhang say to the students?”
Yunyan said, “Baizhang often says, ‘I have a
saying that contains all flavors.’”
Yaoshan asks: “What is the saying that
contains all flavors?”
Yunyan had no reply.
Yaoshan then asked: “What do you do about
the birth and death before your eyes?”
Yunyan answered: “There is no birth and death
before my eyes.”
[My interpolation: maybe he was thinking of the
heart sutra?]
Yaoshan asked: “How long were you with
Baizhang?”
Yunyan answered: “Twenty years.”
Speaking of breathing, I also want to say
welcome some other teachers, or maybe an
appearance of Mara, in the form of male cedar Oh, that guy – he’s the one that said,
When Daowu was 27 and Yunyan was 16, Yaoshan said: “Twenty years with Baizhang,
48 49

and your mundanity is still not gone?”
Sometime after that – days? Years? Daowu
and Yunyan left Yaoshan’s monastery and
went to see Nanquan. Do you remember any
stories of Nanquan? A tough guy. He cut the
cat. He also said that cats and oxen were
better at understanding the dharma than
people.
When they first meet, Nanquan asks Daowu
what his name is, and Daowu answers
“Yongzhi,” which translates something like
Perfect Wisdom. Nanquan asks a question:
“When wisdom doesn’t reach, how do you
get to the source?” Daowu replies: “You don’t
speak of it.” Nanquan replies to Daowu, “If
you do speak of it, horns grown on your head.”
Three days later, while Daowu and Yunyan are
sewing together in the wash house, Nanquan
stops by again and asks Daowu how it is that
he puts not speaking of it into practice, and
Daowu gets up and goes into the meditation
hall.
Later, Yunyan asks Daowu why he didn’t
answer Yaoshan’s question. Daowu replies:
“Why are you so brilliant?” Next Yunyan goes
to see Nanquan and asks him why Daowu had
not answered. Nanquan goes over the dialogue
source, don’t speak, horns on head – and adds,
“He practices among different kinds of beings.”
Yunyan asks what that means. Yaoshan replies:
“This person does not have a reason to stay
here.”
Sometime later, they return to Yaoshan’s
monastery. The late Zen teacher, John Daido
Loori, relates what happens next in his book,
The True Dharma Eye: Zen Master Dogen’s
300 Koans. I find the sequence tedious and
unpleasant and I am not going to read through
all of it here. It reminded me of Don Quixote, an
enormously long novel that is nothing but the
same cruel joke over and over again.
In brief, when the brothers return to Yaoshan’s
monastery, Yaoshan asks Yunyan what
Nanquan had said to him, and Yunyan tells him
about the Daowu and the source and the horns
and the different kinds. Loori writes: “Yunyan
said nothing, and Yaoshan laughed hard.”
Yunyan says he doesn’t understand and
Yaoshan doesn’t reply.
In Teigen Dan Leighton’s book, Just This is It:
Dongshan and the Practice of Suchness, he
describes the scene this way:
Yunyan said:“I have come back especially for
this.” Yaoshan said, “Go away for now.”
So Yunyan simply departed. It was during this
exchange that Daowu was outside the abbot’s
room, listening in on Yunyan’s failure.
Unconsciously, he bit his finger so hard that it
bled.
Over the next few days, Yaoshan and Daowu
both refused to answer Yunyan’s questions,
saying things like: “My back hurts; go ask your
brother,” and “I am tired today, go ask the
teacher.”
Leighten writes: “The image of Daowu
listening in to his brother’s responses while
lurking outside the teacher’s room is somewhat
comical. And yet the scene is also sad, even
tragic. Poor Daowu was trying so hard to help
Yunyan see for himself, aided by a few of the
greatest teachers in Tang China. And Yunyan
remained clueless. But Yaoshan and Daowu
did not abandon him.” That’s the standard
frame for the stories about Yunyan. The
masters were trying to help him.
I have to confess that I was rooting for the
underdog, and to me these stories read like
Daowu and Yaoshan were acting like the
members of some kind of secret handshake
club. So I have a different frame in mind.
They might have been trying to help Yaoshan
see that he had to figure things out for himself,
and they might also have been acting like a
couple of jerks, having a laugh at the slow
guy’s expense. Maybe it’s all clearer if you
can read Chinese and you’re steeped in all the
cultural references. Yunyan had been living
as a monk since he was 16 years old, for
something more than 20 years, and he was
50 51

apparently completely dedicated to this way of
life. Not enough, though. What is the lesson
from that? He was being treated like a fool, an
idiot. There is a vast cultural and linguistic gulf
between us and the world of these stories. Let
me emphasize, my own conditioning makes it
hard for me to see why it was so important that
Yunyan say the words in just the right way, for
them to see him as enlightened, or what
enlightenment meant to them.
At some point, which it seems to me must have
been some considerable time afterwards, we
come to the story of Yunyan’s enlightenment.
Keizan, in Thomas Cleary’s translation,
describes it this way:
Yaoshan asked [Yunyan], “What else does
Baizhang teach?” Yunyan said: “Once when he
went up to the hall to lecture and the assembly
was standing there, he dispersed them with
his staff. Then he called to them, and when
they turned their heads, he said, ‘What is it?’”
Yaoshan said: “Why didn’t you say so before?!
Today, through you, I have been able to see
brother Baizhang.” At these words, Yunyan
was greatly enlightened.
Peg and Flint have taught us a method for
approaching Koans, which is to enact them,
to take on the different voices and see what
emerges. I have done that a number of times
with the story of Yunyan’s awakening. Now, I
have confessed that my conditioning is
coloring my views – I avow it, but I don’t
disavow it.
What has emerged for me is that Yaoshan is
the one who is greatly awakened in that
moment. He sees something of Baizhang in
the actual living person of Yunyan, not in the
words Yunyan has reported.
I find that convincing.
There is another story that also strengthens this
interpretation for me––which, although I can’t
be sure of the chronology, seems to have
happened after the Yunyan awakening
episode. To me, it reads like a Beckett play,
steeped in a bitter knowledge. And it seems
to show Yunyan and Yaoshan with their roles
flipped. Plus it contains some bad words, so
sorry.
From The Record of Yaoshan Weiyan by
James Mitchell in Soto Zen Ancestors in
China: The Recorded Teachings of
ShitouXiqian, Yaoshan Weiyan and Yunyan
Tansheng. Published in 2005.
One day Yaoshan asked Yunyan what he was
doing.
Yunyan: “I just eat and shit.” [literally, I just
bury shit.]
Yaoshan said: “Where is your real self?”
Yunyan said: “It is right in front of you.”
Yaoshan said: “For whom are you so busy?”
Yunyan: “For my body, which eats and shits.”
Yaoshan: “Why not make the body and self fit
together?”
Yunyan: “Don’t get any false ideas about this
body.”
Yaoshan: “Can’t I put it this way?”
Yunyan: “It’s okay with me.”
Yaoshan: “Are you still just eating and shiting?”
To me, that encounter dialog provides a new
frame for seeing the Yunyan who tells
Dongshan “Just this is it.” The phrase Yunyan
uses isn’t just word play. It carries with it a
lifetime of bitter struggle and a deep,
dispassionate embrace of futility and
emptiness––enlivened by a commitment to
keep practicing no matter what.
Finally, consider the two closing couplets of
Dongshan’s Song of the Jewel Mirror Samadhi.
To me, these words now seem like a tribute to
his teacher, Yunyan:
“With practice hidden, function secretly
Like a fool, like an idiot.
Just continuing in this way
Is called the host within the host.”
Thank you for listening.
Joel Barna
52 53

Dharma
Entrustment
Todd Bankler
Todd spoke sponstantly
from the present moment,
and wrote this poem for you
You Being You
This practice is about you
It is just for you
It was designed for you
It will uncover you
Even more than all of that, this practice is you
Practice Zen and witness something you can’t understand
But I have a way to describe it for myself that might help you
It was me, in constant change
A human unfolding
In the form of small shifts over time
It is almost like I have known who I have been all along
I just didn’t understand how my way of organizing experiences
held me back
Practice brings yourself into full view
With nowhere left to hide, you are given a choice
The you that was created?
Now it stands between me and what I want
The result of practice isn’t some special state
The result is you
You were created
You could collapse
In fact, it always is collapsing
My choice is to not remake it
54 55

In this part of the
ceremony, the newly
entrusted teachers
answer sincere dharma
questions offered by
their fellow practitoners.
This is a traditional way
for the entire sangha to
celebrate this important
step for the new
teachers and it allows
everyone to share their
collective wisdom and
compassion.
Dharma Inquiry
56 57

GRATITUDE
Today I feel like a life being carried on a
beautiful, powerful river.
I am so grateful to our teachers, Peg and
Flint, for their wholehearted dedication to
living and teaching the Buddhadharma, and
for the many hours that they have devoted
to helping me and Laurie and Todd over the
past year. I am grateful to my wife and son,
to my parents and family, to sangha
members, friends and co-workers, and
other teachers throughout my life, who have
brought the best of themselves, lifting me
along, again and again.
Dharma friends, here and elsewhere, who
have met Laurie and Todd and me over the
last year with such kindness and
generosity as we have trained for today and
for what comes after today, I vow to live in
accord with these precious gifts, always with
my heart full of gratitude.
REFLECTIONS
anxious to get going. Wandering in the dark
toward the kitchen. Grinding coffee before
dawn A coarse grating whir cuts the silence.
Then, a gurgle of water and rising steam, the
aroma of fresh brewed coffee fills the air.
Blurry faces arrive with empty cup in hand.
A look of askance: is it ready? And a certain
relief with that first gulp. Sitting in silence
together offering metta to me, to you, to
everyone. The heart opens bit by bit
eventually to the point of breaking. Walking
in the middle of a large field full of tall dead
grass. Finally spotting, then following the
well-worn trails of animals who instinctively
know the way, much like following the path
of the Ancient Ones. Lying face up on a
chaise lounge. Gazing in the dark toward
the heavens the breeze turns cold. A large
mass of dark clouds zips across the sky.
A window suddenly appears framing a full
yellow moon. The image is lost to the clouds
seconds later, only to reappear for a
moment before disappearing once again.
Auspicious signs indeed.
Who knows when the transition
Endless, aimless walking. Tired, so tired
phase actually began. A second
but moving keeps the sleep and the pain at
ago? A millenium? In any case
bay. The long muscle of the right back locks
something shifted a year ago with
up, pulling on all the ligaments and tendons
the acceptance of a new role that
linked to the frame, craving Flint's whack
Joel Barna
evolved into what seemed to be an
across the back to break the tension.
endless journey through the desert
Alas, it doesn't come.
of conditioned obstacles, moving
forward only out of stubborness and
An underdog takes his seat. And weeps into
faith. More dharma talks, one-day
the heart of all those, who sometimes feel
sits, inquiry, and research ensue
like not enough. A jeweled mirror reveals
while working through whatever
the truth, if thoughts are left behind and one
arises and doing what needs to be
is brave enough to look. A mindful talk is
done. So many changes since the
given but this mind is too tired to comprehend,
exhausted and lost in bottomless love.
beginning and this being just one
more. Not like him, not like her.
No apologies, just meeting this way.
By ones and twos they come to fill the
58 Waking at 4:30 am, tired, but
chairs, row by row. A veil of solemnity
59

drops down over the hall.
Vows and wisdom water are
offered to the ten directions.
New names are presented for a
new identity yet to be lived into.
Beautiful rakusus made over many
months are incensed and offered.
A mantle to wear everywhere you
go symbolizing enduring
commitment to liberation and
service to others.
Teachers meet students. Students
meet teachers. Who is the teacher,
who is the student? They are one.
DEDICATION
Ino: May our intention equally extend to every being and
place with the full merit of Buddha’s way ––
All:
All Buddhas, ten directions, three times,
All beings, bodhisattva mahasattvas,
Wisdom beyond wisdom, Mahaprajna Paramita.
The procession makes it down the
aisle at last stepping across the
threshold onto the sun-drenched
porch beneath a cloudless sky.
Bows and hugs, smiles and
gratitude.
Auspicious beginnings indeed.
Laurie Winette
Preceptors bow at the back of a mat, one
silent bow, step back, second bow with
doan bell.
The Inkin led the recession: Inkin and
Preceptors followed by Entrustees and
Jisha.
Procession did three bows outside the
hall. At end of procession, Inkin, 2 bells.
In zendo, Doan 2 bells.
60 61

Appamada is a Pali word that means
mindful, active care. According to the
earliest recorded teachings of the Buddha,
it was a common theme in his teaching and
the last word that he used, encouraging his
followers to fare forward with appamada—
with care. He often compared appamada to
an elephant's footprint, which is so large that
it can contain the footprint of all the other
animals. In the same way, the Buddha said,
mindful, clear care contains the heart of all
of his teachings.
We have adopted this name for our
community of practice and inquiry because
it reflects not only our aspiration as teachers,
but our sense of the community as a whole,
and its contribution in the world. In our
teaching we draw on the Zen teachings and
traditions we were trained in, as well as other
Buddhist teachings and contemporary work
in psychology, interpersonal neurobiology,
language, the sciences, and philosophy.
62 63
“Ordinart mind is the way”

64 65

Congratulations
This is so wonderful to know about and to see.
I'm so happy for you, for your dearly entrusted
teachers, your sangha, and for zen in the west.
Truly grand.
With a warm, deep bow of gratitude,
Peter Levitt
Salt Spring Zen Circle
Congratulations on the Lay Entrustment Ceremony! The photos were
so wonderful and gave a real sense of both importance and
significance of the ceremony and the joy for everyone in the sangha.
I am very happy for you all.
Linda Ruth Cutts
SFZC Abbot at Green Gulch
Congratulations and thank
each and all of you for your
accomplishment and commitment
to the well being of all beings.
Warmly,
Glenn Noblin
Austin Zen Center
A gift to us all.
Alan Block
Everyday Zen Oakland
Wonderful! Congratulations all around!
Lovely photos and remembrances of
our time in Texas.
Best wishes,
Kodo Conover
Heart of Wisdom Zen Temple
How Glorious! Thank you for nurturing these wise,
experienced people to jump off the 100-foot pole.
I look forward to meeting them and learning with
them when we gather as LZTA. The pictures
bring tears to my eyes––thank you.
Bowing,
Ava Stanton
How wonderful!!
Congratulations to you all!
Annie Purna Pirruccello
Three Treasures Zen Community
Hurray and big congratulations.
This is wonderful.
Susan Moon
InsightLA Santa Monica
Everyday Zen sangha
66 67

What a lovely photo and announcement.
Congratulations to all of you as you and
these new teachers continue to turn the
wheel of the Dharma. We can certainly
appreciate the many efforts that
precede this moment of celebration.
Gassho,
Barbara Tokuen Gray
Moon-on-the-Lake Sangha
Congratulations to you all!
Karin Ryuku Kempe
Zen Center of Denver
Congratulations, Peg, Flint and new
teachers! Thank you for sending the
pictures of your ceremony.
Ryodo Hawley
Westchester Zen Circle
Great congratulations! This is truly wonderful. The photos
really convey the depth of practice and warm-hearted
feeling of the Appamada sangha. Thank you for your many
and various Dharma offerings.
With deep bows of appreciation,
Linda Galijan
President of San Francisco Zen Center.
Caught in the self-centered dream, only suffering;
holding to self-centered thoughts, exactly the dream.
Each moment, life as it is, the only teacher;
being just this moment, compassion’s way.
Wonderful––congratulations!
Laurie Senauke
Berkeley Zen Center
Kanji Calligraphy
Nonin Chowaney
Enzo and Brushstrokes
Caroline Wright
Great congratulations on the ceremony and your newly entrusted
Visual Concept and Photos
Cassy Weyandt
teachers. It is great step forward for your sangha. Thank you for sending
the pictures, really brought the event to life for me. A beautiful location.
Front and Back Cover Photos
Yours,
Flint Sparks
Rinso Ed Sattizahn
68
Abbot San Fransico Zen Center
69

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