June 2021 Sesshin, Day 5: Mumonkan #10, Sozan and Poor Seizei

4:18PM Jun 27, 2021

Speakers:

Sensei Amala Wrightson

Keywords:

emptiness

poor

life

spirit

dharma

mind

poverty

meister eckhart

commentary

venerable

master

roshi

practice

possibility

teaching

experientially

depths

aitken

question

vices

Today is the fifth day of our five day hybrid sesshin. It's the ninth of June 2021. And this morning we're going to take up a koan - number 10 in the Mumonkan - Sozan and poor Seizei. And the case goes like this. A monk Seizei by name, said to master Sozan, I am poor and alone. I beg you master to please make me rich. Sozan said, venerable Seizei. Yes, master replied Seizei. Sozan said, You have already drunk three cups of the finest wine of China, but still say your lips are not yet moistened.

Just a little bit about our two protagonists. Seizei's Chinese name is Qingshui. And we don't know anything really about him except what we know from the case. It's likely that he was known at the time of the recording of the koan because we we have his name, but we don't know anything about him except what appears in the story. The other protagonist Sozan, his dates 840-901. And his his Chinese name is Caoshan Benji, and he's the co-founder of the Soto school, Caodong in Chinese, with his teacher, Dongshan, Tozan in Japanese. So we'll just launch right into looking at the case. We'll come to the commentary and the verse later. I am poor and alone. I beg you master please make me rich. So the first point to look at in this koan is what is Seizei's state of mind. Why does he come to master Sozan? There are there are two plausible possibilities. First, that he's is expressing his his experience of emptiness to master Sozan. He says I'm poor and alone, alone we could say possibly like, like the baby Buddha. Above the heavens, below the heavens I alone am the Honored One.

Or the second possibility is that he's he's experiencing a dark night of the soul. So he's really in despair, feeling totally poor and alone.

Look at each of these in turn. If in fact he is coming in a state of great, great emptiness to see Sozan, then his motivation call for asking the question could be testing Sozan, just getting some Dharma discussion going. Dharma interaction. But if if that's all there is to it, then it doesn't make much of a case for us to look into. Another possibility under the heading of this first one is that perhaps he's stuck in his emptiness and is asking for help, sort of coming with the question well, okay, what comes next? Where do I go from here? In his commentary on, on the Mumonkan, Guo Gu is a dharma successor to Sheng Yen, teaches are thinking in Florida. He takes the this this, this text. This

goes from the point of of considering Seizei as being then somehow stuck in emptiness.

In quotes he puts words into Seizei's mouth, I have nothing left, nothing to grasp, loving to obtain, and no more attachments. What more is there to do? Then he comments, Guo comments on the one hand, this was a gesture to seek instruction. On the other It was a challenge. How do you teach a man who has let go of everything? You let go of the notion of having let go and start living. This is why Caoshan Sozan yells out venerable Shui, in our version, venerable Seizei. Yes, he replied. Sozan then continues what a response having had your full of the finest homebrewed wine of Qingyuan, you still aim that you claim that you have nothing. And there's a little bit of decoding can go come in here with this wine of Qingyuan. In our version it just says the finest wine in China but Qingyuan, it's also the name of Chan master actually recite his name when we do the ancestral line Qingyuan Shinshu. He was one of the main disciples of the sixth ancestor Huineng. And a an early progenitor of the Caodong lineage Soto lineage of which Sozan was one of the founders. So in saying that it's the wine of Qingyuan gives it another dimension, the teaching. But how does that relate then to his having answered Yes to his to Sozan? Sozan says Venerable Seizei and Seizei replies Yes, Master. What's that got to do with with drinking this wine? That's another point here in the koan.

Guo continues with his commentary. He says in this case, the monk responds to, to Sozan's call, but does not recognize his own response as the most natural function of the awakened mind. The response to what is seen, heard, smelled, tasted, touched and thought he dealt dwells in what Chan refers to as dead emptiness, or the stagnant void of holding on to attachment, the state of being destitute.

Little bit later, he says, even the teaching of emptiness or non attachment is a construct that some attached to. People may mistake this inner freedom for some kind of blissful state, such as nothingness or emptiness, or if they are clear of wandering thoughts, they may think that is emptiness. No it is not. Emptiness is everything right now. It is the dynamic flow of our connectedness to everything. It is our natural ability to respond from moment to moment. It is fullness, connectedness, and relationships. It is the free response to the world without being obstructed without interjecting a self into all situations, in everything that needs to be done. There's a poem by by Sengai that we can throw in here. What I call alone, is to forget both alone and not alone. And again to forget the one who forgets This is truly to be alone.

Forget the one who forgets. This is truly to be alone. We have this this virtually constant voice in our minds, judging, evaluating, reacting, scolding us, disparaging us and others. And we, we suffer because of this. And this, this one's this is inner voice or voices, should say, go with us wherever we go.

So, in this in this exchange, we can, we can recognize that the question that Sozan so skillfully asks, venerable Seizei. Yes master is it's really his teaching Seizei, experiment experientially inviting him, we could say to come back to free unobstructive relationship minus those, those concepts that he has around emptiness and aloneness, that really appear actually not to be as empty and alone as he had imagined.

This kind of approach is not restricted to Sozan. A much more recent teacher, Japanese teacher, Bankei Tokugawa era

does a kind of similar teaching. The student came to see him and the student said, my wisdom is tightly confined within me and I am unable to make use of it. How can I use it? And Bankei says to him, come closer my friend. And then when the disciple disciple steps at a few steps closer to Bankei, Bankei remarks how wonderfully well you were using it.

Let's look now at the the second possibility that we have here in this approach by Seizei to master Sozan. I am poor and alone. I beg you, master please, to make me rich.

Another possibility is that Seizei is experiencing what we call the dark night of the soul. This is a this is something that Robert Aitkin Roshi explores in his commentary to Mumonkan. It may not have been something that was intended by the original compiler, but it's a possibility that Lee yields rich material for us as members of postmodern society, where we we live in a culture that, that subliminally sends us messages about our lack constantly almost, and in which meaninglessness and despair and pervasive depression all are prevalent. So, you can have a look at this, this other option.

So, Aitkin interprets this question this I am poor alone, I beg you master please make me rich, as

this is, this is again his paraphrasing or, or unfolding what Seizei is asking. Everything is totally without meaning or purpose. The whole universe is nothing but a vast desert without a blade of grass or drop of water. There's no significance, no merit, no virtue in my life. I feel completely lost. And then he adds, thus have students of all religions describe the dark night experiences, not only to students of religion encounter this fearsome Valley, people everywhere sound its depths, a condition sometimes laughed off by their friends is a midlife crisis. This bleak stage of spirit was called acedia by the early Christian teachers. A word that means spiritual sloth, according to the dictionary. Slothful, however, implies being lazy on purpose. And there is nothing intentional here. David the psalmist, called this condition, the valley of the shadow of death. William James called it the sick soul. Though it has negative names and a bad reputation, it is actually a very promising condition and essential phase of the spirit of spiritual evolution.

There's some words of Jack Kornfield that fit in here, and that were very helpful to me, when going through such dark periods. Jack Kornfield says, it is a basic principle of spiritual life, that we learn the deepest things in unknown territory. Often it is when we feel most confused inwardly, and are in the midst of our greatest difficulties, that something new will open. We awaken most easily to the mystery through our weakest side. The areas of our greatest strength where we are most competent and clearest tend to keep us away from the mystery. So to be to be able to remember that such dark nights bring us closer to the mystery can make a huge difference and Sozan presents the mystery to Seizei when he says venerable Seizei and Seizei the replies Yes, Master.

Continued continues once I consulted Father Thomas Hand, a Jesuit retreat master about acedia. He said that people passing through this phase should be careful. First to keep this schedule of religious practice and second to stay in touch with their spiritual guides. Think we can we can take his reverent advice completely unfiltered here. Makes makes perfect sense. Keep your religious practice. So helpful just to have scheduled religious practice especially if you're doing solo retreat that it becomes an enormous support. Of course there are other supports when we sit together but it is equally important when we do sesshin together. They're just the showing up for each block of sitting, doing the chanting, doing the vows, all of these things can change, provide a vessel for all that we go through the all the ups and downs and, and pain and joy.

Keep this schedule over to keep the schedule of religious practice and stay in touch with these spiritual guides. Sometimes people feel that they they should be in good shape to go to dokusan. But actually, we probably need to go to dokusan most when things are amiss.

When we feel most at sea, certainly. We can understand by this advice that it is important not to turn back at such a crucial point in one's development. When the Scottish philosopher David Hume reached a place like this in his intellectual quest, he found it frightening and turned for solace to his merry friends and a good game of backgammon. But

Seizei pressed on. He is more can take he is more courageous. He is a more courageous model for us. Instead of giving himself up to the comfort of chess or a game of cards with his friends, he presents himself fully to Sozan. This is where I am. What should I do now? Most commendable, says Atkin Roshi. He goes on, we must be clear about Seizei's position. Yamada Rashi says he is trying to examine the state of Sozan's consciousness to fathom the depth of his realization. This is exactly to the point but it must not be interpreted to mean that Seizei was already aware that his poverty and solitude were complete fulfillment. From the depths of his poverty, he examined his teacher as his own practice. In other words, he this wasn't just Dharma dialogue, but coming out of a profound need. Question.

Sozan, with marvelous directness, rises immediately to Seizei's urgent request and calls out Venerable Seizei and Seizei replies Yes, Master. That's a splendid presentation too. Sozan says, You have already drunk three cups of the finest wine in China. And still you may have said, You say you have not yet moisten your lips. And then he he talks again about the the reference to the the ancestor. So he's Sozan admonishing him that he's been exposed to the teachings of the ancestors. But there's another as a more immediate understanding of this drinking of the wine. What, what else does it refer to is one of the points of the koan.

I can go on to talk about Meister Eckhart the great Christian mystic. And what he had to say about spiritual poverty and realization. Which is, is right at the core of this with case. He says it is interesting to see what Meister Eckhart has to say about spiritual poverty and realization. From his point of view, Seizei might not have been truly poor, when he came to Sozan, perhaps he was still looking for something. You must the outer Meister said, Be as free from your creature will, as you were when you had not yet been born. Creature will is is really another way of saying small self, self preoccupation. And then he quotes Eckhart for by the everlasting truth, as long as you will, to do God's will and yearn for eternity and God, you are not really poor, for he is poor who wills nothing, knows nothing, and wants nothing. He who is poor, who wills nothing, knows nothing, and wants nothing, even wanting to fulfill God's will, Meister Eckhart says, has to be let go of. Even the yearning for God has to be let go of.

We have from Shantideva in a similar vine bay. If there is no self surrender, sorrow, likewise cannot be avoided, you will not escape from being burned, if you do not keep away from fire.

Aitken continues, so long as you seek peace of mind in Buddhahood, you cannot realize the peace which is the true poverty of spirit. You cannot acknowledge the Buddhahood of your own original nature, which wills nothing, knows nothing, wants nothing. Our ancestors in the Dharma sweated blood in their practice, but they were caught up in the process. They were not visualizing how it would be when it was over. They weren't yearning for a thing. Because as we've as we've said, before this week, as soon as there is that grasping, there is the one who is doing the grasping. There's a separation, split.

Kobe can comments on this, this notion of not visualizing what it would be when it was over. He says, This is like any intensive period of change in human development. Adolescents for example, do not constantly hold in mind the attainment of adult adulthood, they are too caught up in the process struggling struggling within the present, it is not experientially becoming or attaining. Externally it may be viewed as such, but internally it is not. Learn from your teenagers let your concepts of becoming entertaining go and you will be truly poor, free to give your full attention to Mu.

Now, just a look at the commentary. Seizei assumes an obsequious manner, what is his real intention? Sozan with his penetrating eye sees through Seizei's mind but be this it as as it may tell me how the venerable Seizei could of drunk this wine.

Really the important question in this commentary is this is this last one, just tell me how the venerable Seizei could of drunk this wine. Really this is asking us, How do we drink this fine wine?

Actually, we're drinking it right now. Can you see that? Can you see the way in which we're doing that right now?

The Buddha said at his great awakening on seeing the morning star, wonder of wonders. All beings are Buddha, endowed with wisdom and virtue lacking nothing. That only is only because their minds have been turned upside down by delusive thinking that they failed to perceive this.

This sesshin is coming to an end. We'll all be going back to our regular lives. And we won't be doing nine or ten hours of zazen a day or at least most of us won't imagine. How how do we bring the spirit of our sitting to each moment?

It's helpful to to understand as zazen as an attitude or an orientation where in which we don't have to be sitting in the zazen posture. It's an inner attitude.

How do we how do we bring the wisdom of letting go to our relationships and our interactions? Keep in mind the the insubstantial nature of our internal and external life while at the same time not getting caught up on any ideas of that. But responding cleanly, openly kindly. Allowing our focus to go beyond narrow mindedness beyond I me and my.

How do we work with despair and depression when they come up? How do we practice with them? Some

suggestions in this regard from Jungian psychologist Marilyn-Louise von Franz can be helpful. She She says if depressed, be depressed. Go deeper into it. Listen, go deeper and deeper. Don't try to escape. If the depression says that life means nothing and nothing is worthwhile, then accept that and say, What about it? Listen, go deeper and deeper until you again reached the level of the psychological energy where some creative idea can come out. And suddenly at the bottom, an impulse of life and creativity which has been overlooked, may appear. If we if we take this in in terms of our practice, then we might say, if the if the depression says that there is there is nothing, life is nothing and that nothing is worthwhile, then accept that and say, what is what is Mu right here? What is this? Where is this coming from? What's its nature? Going deeper and deeper until we until we reach some spark. There's a story about Guishan and Baizhang.

Baizhang asked Guishan to stoke the fire see if you get it get it going again and Guishan poked through the the the ashes but he couldn't find any fire and Baizhang got up himself took the poker and stirred the ashes and stirred the ashes and finally succeeded in finding a tiny live ember. And so he showed it to his disciple and said, Is this not fire? And we're told that Guishan at that moment had an awakening.

We're so, so fortunate to have the Dharma that can can shore us up when we're low, reminded us that those those embers can be stood to life. From in the depths of the ashes.

From in the depths of our of what we would find most uncomfortable to face, and unpleasant. Fritz conquer wrote about this, and I don't know who he is. But he says, the amazing process begins with the decision not to fight against our vices, not to run away from them, nor conceal them, but to bring them into the light. If the desire to be honest is greater than the desire to be good or bad, then the terrific power of our vices will come that become manifest and behind the vice the old forgotten fear will turn up. The fear of being excluded from life and behind the fear, the pain, the pain of not being loved. And behind this pain of loneliness, the deepest and most powerful and most hidden of all human desires, the desire to love, to give oneself and to be part of the living stream that we call brotherhood.

Lastly, the verse: His poverty is like Hantan's, his spirit like that of Kou. Though he can hardly sustain himself, he dares to compete with the richest of men. So this is referring to Seizei. Hantan was somebody who in ancient China who was proverbially poor, and Kou was a great general, someone with great spirit. So we could we could say here

his poverty was like that of Gandhi. His Spirit like that of Sir Edmund Hillary and Sherpa Tenzing and have to have a Marshall in here.

Aitken Roshi comments on this that if you are poor in a literal sense, then you'd better have a strong spirit and these two are closely related. Of course, Seizei was a monk. So he would have been materially poor. That's the reference in the third line of the first two, he can hardly sustain himself. Or at least one one part of what that means. And then he says he dares to compete with the richest of men.

When we're when we're truly empty, then we discover the richness all around us and in within us.

When we when we're truly without anything, then

we're receptive. There's nothing in the way.

Let us end here with a haiku. Kissing it's, it's probably

I'm not sure who the writer is. But here it is. In my little heart, there is nothing. There is everything.

We'll stop here and recite the Four Vows