Transmission Speech by Zen Master Dae An
[Raises the Zen stick over her head, then hits the table with the stick.]
Silence, action, words.
[Raises the Zen stick over her head, then hits the table with the stick.]
No silence. No words. No action.
[Raises the Zen stick over her head, then hits the table with the stick.]
Silence is silence. Words are words and action is action. How can we make sense of that?
KATZ!
Very important. How we choose. What is in the moment needed from us .
I want to share today, little bit of my history when I, start to think about practising Zen. So it was, interesting. In around 1980, I was in my second-year academy. I had these, different subjects to study including, literature, grammar and some ancient language.
And then I had this teacher who… His name, yes, I don't want to miss his name. His name was Kazimierz. He was a 19th-century literature teacher and he was teaching us about the theoretical side of the literature. It all may not be so exciting but there was something interesting when he was in the room and when he was teaching. I recognise him as my first Zen teacher.
I was sensing something. I couldn’t even say: What was that? That after maybe, like, six months, I asked him, how do you teach? What techniques you use? So then he was surprised. What do you mean? What do you mean? He asked. I talk to you. I talk to all of you about theoretical side of the literature, about poetry.
Can you let me know? How do you teach? It was difficult for me to ask clearly.I even didn’t know what my question means .
He said: Leave me alone. Leave me alone. He didn’t want to talk about it. It was all very interesting and also a very interesting time in Poland. Actually, it was not fully allowed to talk about religion. One day I knocked at his office door and I asked him, can you tell me, how do you teach? And then one day he told me and he gave me an unusual book – The Three Pillars of Zen by Philip Kapleau. So I find out later on, he talked a little bit with me that he's one of the first Zen students in Poland, a practising, Japanese, Zen with a Zen Master, Philip Kapleau.
And we had a little bit of discussion, but he didn't want to actually mix his job as a teacher and teaching me Zen. I was also very busy at that time, so I decided to focus on doing my master’s.
I asked one of my friends if she knows something about Zen in Poland and then she actually led me to a place which was still not owned by our school but was just rented. I just felt this collective excitement. Everybody was so excited. It was 1981. It's, I want to come back when I, when I finish university. Then I, decided, okay, maybe, maybe I should try to see something. Maybe I tried to see it, and then, I think there was, I think there was no internet yet, so it's, now it's just called the Warsaw Zen Centre.
And this, at that moment, I, when I came there, there was a Zen Master, Seung Sahn, visiting Poland and the Zen Master, he was very busy because as many people came to see him. I wanted to ask him, question but he was too busy to give me a time . I got back home a bit disappointed because there was no space to do that. Maybe I was late as he was about to depart to US .
In 1983 I finished my university, and then I was looking for a job as a teacher. And, I find one very quickly, I find it very quickly in the same, the same town where I was actually a student, the same high school. That time in Poland there was a very long summer break. So I was, like:All my young age, many, many years, like primary school, secondary school, high school, then university , all those years I was working and study very hard .
And then I had these two months and then the job was already on the table,I thought I have to do something during this break and I went to Warsaw to sit one week retreat.
And that time in 1983, there were not actually teachers in Europe but there was already a small sangha and they said, yeah, okay, you just come and we have a retreat , it would be like maybe ten of us, and then we see how it will go I travelled about 7 hours by train to get there.
It was very difficult time for my body, difficult to maintain stability and silence and being on the cushion was very, very physically demanding, I think emotionally as well.
So when I left tretreat after the end I wasn't very sure what just had happened, but then I, I don't know, what was that, what kind of, I could relax by just experiencing silence and this unique human connection. So it was the first time in my life there was connection without words. And I… It really got me very , very deep . It was what I needed. The pain wasn’t important
I remember that was a very, very important moment when I experienced this situation. And when I can sit with people and experience silence, practise just to say silence, silence . When we have a retreat, we keep silence. And unless it's necessary to exchange some, some information about a retreat.
So that was, that was actually, things behind the words of my teacher I understood the power of silence and that’s want we call before words , before speech and, so there was not much actual explanation .
I could clearly sense that something was behind his teaching. And sometimes I don't know if he even noticed.
This is amazing. And then finally he told me that he's practising meditation. That was very interesting. So this is, this is, a little bit, spouted about silence and about connection and reading something behind the words.
And, I want to bring some story, which is, from the 17th century and you might be familiar with haiku. Haiku is a type of, poetry, which is usually very short, usually three lines. They say like seven syllables, seven syllables and five or sometimes that order is a bit different. So, there was a very famous, young person who was very well educated in, in Japan in the 17th century.
His name was Basho, very famous. So, if you Google, then you can find out who was Basho. If you look for haiku, Basho’s name comes up. So he was quite amazing and his memory was impressive So he was reading a lot, he was, studying and also he was very interested about Buddhism. And so one day he decided to go to a Zen Master and then, that was the moment of meeting. We were familiar with feelings when we meet with the teacher the first time. As I was very long a student, I felt for him. He asked some questions and then what was very important for him to say: You know, I, I read this, I read that, I, I, I study and I know, you know, I know this from history, I know this from art. And then he was like on and on and on and he couldn’t stop talking, “He knew everything“, look how much I know. So at one point, actually the Zen Master, said to him: now give me one sentence which is yours. Don’t look to your books. Don't look to your memory. Don't look to your past experience. Basho was very, I would say surprised and stuck. And he just couldn't find anything.
He just couldn't find anything and the teacher said, give me, give me. He prompted him and then from one moment he came up with something and he said: Still pond, still pond. Frog jumps, the splash. Actually, this is what he saw and heard. Outside the window there was a garden, and there was a small pond and a frog jumped in.
And the Zen Master said, that's wonderful, that's wonderful. That this, this little moment when he was completely in the moment , it's very interesting. It's very interesting. So where did he find this? You know, where did he find this point? His teacher asked a question and that helped Basho to reach his before-thinking minds, before-analysing minds. Sometimes we say these experiences are coming from the don't-know mind.
Maybe he wasn't 100% conscious where he got this answer from but he was very sure and this beautiful poem/haiku came out.
He didn't even think it was his own words, just words appeared. And sometimes we call this alive words. There was actually in the past a Zen school called Alive Words.
So one more story…
The person living in the 11th century, and, he was also quite young. And so then he was, travelling. He actually very, very quickly was employed by the government, very quickly. He was very well educated, very clever. And then, he, said he wanted to also explore Buddhism. So he went to different Buddhist temples. At that time, Buddhism was quite well developed in China.
And then he, he was asking questions because he could memorise many things, he could memorise that what was on page 145 is this and this on page 233 is this and this. So, he was going around and asking questions: So tell me, what is the teaching on page 245? And they I just couldn't do it couldn’t give him answers . So he was very proud, like he really memorised everything he wanted.
So he was going out with all this knowledge. So with all actually was about Buddhist knowledge. So, from one point, people start to…
…call him Mr Scale. He could weigh the mind or the memory of anyone, all people around. But one day, one day he talked to someone and he heard from someone :You may try this Zen Master. You might have a problem with him. You might try to challenge him. So he went there, and then he, said he will do it. And actually, he came to the Dharma room without waiting because there was a tradition to wait, until someone opened the door and he just came to the door and to a seat back to the Buddha.
And it was quite like, in terms of, like, tradition, quite arrogant behaviour. The Master came and said to him, oh, such a, such a great person and such a famous person came, please welcome. And then Mr Scale said :yeah, I came to see you I'm just travelling around, I have my important jobs. And then I just came to see you, and, and that actually, you know, like, it's, it's good to me to meet me to exchange something with you.
And all of a sudden, this Zen Master shouted Katz and asked: Tell me, how is this heavy? And then Mr Scale looks, looks, looks, looks, looks to all the pages and pages and pages and pages. He just couldn't find it. He just couldn't find it. So that was the beginning when he started to open his mind. He got stack and even his memory couldn’t help , his clever mind couldn’t help him . That's the beginning of his path of practising.
So before he was reading, reading. But then from this moment he started to practise until he stopped checking and that, that was the beginning of his don’t-know mind. So I guess I have more stories, but maybe I will kind of try to embrace all this, our stories, and my life story, the story of how we get to a don’t-know mind.
They present some teaching. My question is: What is that? What actually, is all this and all these stories about?
KATZ!
This little or bigger question, which may appear randomly or someone may put on us and push us to look into it is very important. And this keeping before thinking mind is very important too So today, I presented my first dharma talk, and, thank you for listening. And a thank you for being here.