Online Newsletter of the Prairie Zen Center      -      515 S. Prospect, Champaign, IL 61820               November 2007

Zendo Schedule
All sittings are at 515 S. Prospect, Champaign (NW corner of Green and Prospect).

Weekdays: (Mon.-Fri.):

6:00 to 6:50 am
Tuesday:
7:30 pm to 9:00 pm
Class begins at 8:00
Thursday:
7:30 pm to 9:00 pm
Dokusan available
Saturdays: 8:00 am to 9:00 am
  Open sitting, zazen or slow kinhin
Sunday Mornings: (dokusan available)
  8:45. Samu  (cleaning/set up)
  9:00 Service
  9:20 Zazen & Kinhin

  10:00 Introduction for newcomers
  11:00 Dharma talk

You are welcome to join Sundays sittings at the beginning of any sitting period. An introduction to Zen practice is available during the 10:00 a.m. sitting period. This schedule is approximate; please arrive early. Please wait until the beginning of walking meditation and enter the zendo at that time. During sesshin, the regular schedule is suspended.

Phone Schedule (Summer)
Out-of-towners can reach Elihu at these times:
Mondays: 9:00 to 10:00 a.m.
Tuesdays: 7:20 to 7:55 p.m.
Thursdays: 7:20 to 8:00 p.m.
There will be no phone hours Dec.22nd through Jan. 5th

The Center is closed the day before and the day after sesshin, all phone interviews are also canceled on those days.

Phone - (217)355-8835
 E-Mail -  pzc@prairiezen.org

Line Dokan Chigetsu Fontaine
After a long illness, on Thursday, October 18, 2007, Line Dokan Chigetsu Fontaine, who lived in Carignan, Quebec, a long-time and much-loved member of the Prairie Zen Center Sangha, passed from this realm of existence. Condolences to her family and friends.
There was a service for her on Sunday October 21st at the Prairie Zen Center in Champaign. A recording of the Dharma talk that followed is available in the audio section of the website.
May all beings be freed from suffering.

Dear Line, so briefly
Here and now gone. Through my tears,
Bright and clear the Moon. - Rob Dainin Ore

Ruiyan's Master
(edited from a Dharma talk)
Elihu Genmyo Smith

Everyday, Ruiyan Shiyan (Zuigan Shigen) would call out to himself, “Master!” And he would answer, “Yes!” “Are you awake?” “Yes, I am!” “Don’t be deceived by others, any day, any time.” “No! I will not!” (Case 12 Wumenkuan/Mumonkan.)

He would do this in the sitting hall with his disciples, he would do it while wandering around. Funny fellow! This was his practice; he did this until he died. The dates of Ruiyan's birth and death are unknown; his master, Yantou (Ganto) lived from 828 to 887. When he came to Yantou, he asked, “What is the eternal truth?" Yantou said, “You missed it.” “What is it when I miss it?” he asked. “It’s no longer the eternal truth.” He stood there thinking and his teacher said, “If you agree, you are not yet free of sense or matter. If you don’t agree, you’ll forever be sunk in birth and death.” (Shoyuroku - Case 75) He continued to practice, and later his teacher approved him. He was a very strict and precise teacher, much admired, much loved.

“Master!” “Yes!” What is this? Are we importing something, this master? Be careful. Do not take this as an ethical guideline - “you should always question, don’t be fooled by others." We can talk about it in that way, "yes, don’t be fooled by others," but then it is just another proverb; it does not reach this matter. You will never see Ruiyan. What is this eternal truth?

A monk came to Master Xuansha (Gensha). Xuansha greeted him, “Where have you been recently?” “I was with Master Ruiyan.” “Wonderful! In what way does Master Ruiyan teach his disciples?” The monk said, “he would call out every day, ‘Master!’ and would answer himself.” Did this disciple see it? Xuansha asks him, “Why didn’t you stay with Ruiyan to continue your training?” “Master Ruiyan died.” Right here, Xuansha grabs the opportunity: “If you call out to him now, ‘Master!’ will he answer?” How would you respond? The monk didn’t have anything to say, remaining silent.

What is going on here? What is this “master?" Who is calling? Who is the master of Shakymuni and Maitreya? This is very clear, very direct. “Master!” “Yes!” Who is calling, who is answering? What is Ruiyan doing? He does this all his life. In the poems of Rujing and Dogen (see article "Wind Bell" at www.prairiezen.org) alluding to Prajna as being like a mouth hanging in air, a bell hanging in the wind, is it the wind that is the master or is it the bell? The mouth-bell, the wind blowing - who is the master? Who is responding? “Are you awake?” “Yes!” “Don’t be deceived by others!” No!” What’s going on here? See, unless we can really grasp this, we are not free in the midst of sense and matter, not free of life and death. Of course, don’t take “free of life and death” in some literal sense. And of course, take it in the most literal, true sense. This is what this case is - every day, calling out.

This is a wonderful straightforward case, and yet, not at all simple. What is this lifetime practice of “Master?” What is this lifetime practice of being the master that we are, being this calling that we are? If I say too much, it is not worth much.

Wumen/Mumon’s comment is, “Old Ruiyan himself sells and himself buys.” If you are selling and you are buying, what kind of transaction is it? Selling and buying, seems we have a clear differentiation. “Oh, I’m going to sell you this.” “Ten dollars? Oh, sure, I’ll take this.” Some of you know about these sorts of things. If you play Go or chess with yourself, you move for one side and turn around to the other side and move from there. What kind of game is this? What’s he doing? Is this a play that he is putting on for us? Wumen says, “He has lots of masks of goblins and demons to play with.” How is this practice, how instructing? His disciple says, this is how my teacher used to teach. Not once. Regularly. Every day. Come in, talk, and instruct the same way. He is working in the garden and all of a sudden: “Master!” “Yes!” “Don’t be deceived!” “No, I won’t!” What is he doing?

Wumen continues, “A calling one, an answering one, an awake one, and one that is not deceived by others.” What are these? Are these different ones? See, Wumen is clarifying what is going on for us. This is our life- here - it is uncovered.

Don't we see this all the time? We go into the store, buy something and pay the shopkeeper. We call up and complain, "I didn’t get this, and I’m supposed to get that!” All sorts of cases. People call us up. “Oh, I don’t want to put up with him, he is always complaining... every time they want something... they are not happy with ...” In different ways, this is each of us. Here, this case is a simplified version, stripped bare. Wumen is trying to help us, simplifying so we can see this. Simplifying what gets complicated in our life; when it is complicated we get confused by the complications, beliefs and habits of mind, because we believe the complications.

Ruiyan came to his teacher Yantou asking, "What is the eternal indestructible truth?” What is it? “You’ve missed it.” “What is the eternal truth?” See, he tries to pin it down. “You’ve missed it. It’s moved.” It has moved. What has moved? How has it moved? Ruiyan doesn’t let that go, he goes again to it. “What is it when I missed it?” This it - this. What is missed this? “It is no longer the eternal truth.” How is that? How did this become "not the eternal truth?" Right here, believing the words we miss this. So his teacher says, if you agree, you’re not free. If you disagree, you’re forever stuck. We need to see this here, this fundamental matter. But as soon as I say fundamental, we are trapped if we believe it, if we stick to “fundamental.” And yet, if we go to the other side, then we miss what is true.

This poem that Wumen uses is actually from several centuries earlier:

“Those who search for the Way do not realize the truth.
They only know their own discriminating consciousness.
This is the cause of endless cycles of birth and death,
yet ignorant people take it for the original person. ”

What is this truth we are searching for? Is this different from master? What is original person, right now? Prajna - even though we translate it as “wisdom,” that fools us, just like the word “truth” fools us. For Prajna we could use words like, “wisdom beyond wisdom”, “truth beyond truth.” But if we then attach to that and go looking for it, we don’t see it. If we search for the Way, we do not realize the truth. “If you do not see the Way, you do not see it even as you walk on it. When you walk the Way, it is not near, it is not far.” (Identity of Relative and Absolute/Sandokai). “Those who search for the Way do not realize the truth. They only know their own discriminating consciousness.” In other words, we only know how we think about and try to figure out what we are looking for, yes and no, agreeing, disagreeing, likes and dislikes. We focus on the finger pointing to the moon as if it is the moon, missing the moon, even missing the finger. See the finger clearly, see the moon clearly. “This is the cause of endless cycles of birth and death, yet ignorant people take it for the original person.” This is a comment on Ruiyan, praising what Ruiyan's doing, encouraging us and yet warning us. Who is calling? Who is responding? Who is awake? Who is asking? Who is deceived? This is what this case is all about. This is encouraging our practice. Who is it that sits right here? Who is it that hears? All sorts of ways in the Ch’an and Zen tradition to encourage and support practice. Linji – Rinzai – has the phrase, “this true person of no rank.” Right now, hearing, listening. All sorts of ways to speak this, to express this. Yet, if we take the word, then we miss the truth. If we look for the original truth, it has moved.

Ruiyan is encouraging us - encouraging us to clearly see calling, responding. So, as Xuansha asks, “If you called, ‘Master!” now, would he respond?” What is your response? If you see this clearly, then you can respond. Of course, you could say, “Oh, come on. That’s a silly question. Why do you ask someone something like that? The guy is dead!” That much we don’t hear Ruiyan, don't hear Xuansha. “Master!”... “Yes!” So, even if you are missing Ruiyan, I ask you, right now, who is reading this? Show who!

Thank you.

(c) 2007 Elihu Genmyo Smith
 

"It has never existed as anything whatsoever, yet arises as anything at all... Awareness, difficult for anyone to realize, is subtle, hard to comprehend, and seen by no one. It cannot be reified, but is equally present everywhere as the expanse of naturally occurring well-being. It arises as the display of samsara and nirvana within a continuous context."                                                                                                                                                               - Longchenpa