Dongshan’s Hot and Cold
by Ven. Shikai
Zuiko osho

A Series of Two Dharma Talks


1: Hot

August 15, 1997

Good morning.

 

It's a beautiful day isn't it? It's hot, but there is a breeze.

 

As you were walking up to the Monastery, across the parking lot, did you feel the sun on your face? Did you feel the soft air lifting the hair on your head?

 

As you opened the door, did you know the feel of the door knob in your hand, of the latch around which your fingers were clasped? Was there a difference that you noticed as you walked into the foyer of the Monastery? Was it cooler? Did you notice that?

 

When you took your shoes off, did your feet feel different? Was the space between the toes different in temperature from the sole of the foot?

 

When you stepped from the tile of the locker room onto the carpeting of the stairs on your way to come to the Hatto, did you notice anything about the difference? Or were you busy thinking? Were you busy telling yourself stories about what we might be listening to today? About what I might be saying? About what I meant by "Hot" on the poster?

 

Did you notice those three little letters: "Hot"? Do you remember they were red? And who is that person, that lineage ancestor that the Roshi has drawn a picture of on the poster?

 

Lots of questions. Not just with words. Lots of things to notice in each and every moment.

 

There are a myriad of dharmas, of moments of knowing, that we know as the bodymind with the bodymind and through the bodymind.

 

When we talk about hot as with most everything we talk about, we don't know what we are talking about because we're talking about our idea, our idea of what hot means.

 

"I'm hot". "She's hot". "You're hot". "It's too hot". "If it weren't so hot..." And we are not noticing the actual feeling, the actual knowing of the temperature of the skin. We don't know what we're talking about.

 

Practice teaches us to start to know. To start to know what the sun feels like on our skin. To start to know what seeing a leaf move is.

 

We try and distance ourselves from the intimacy of experiencing by entertaining ourselves with our ideas.

 

Even the meaning of words. That word "hot", for example, changes. We may make an assumption that if we say "hot", that we know what we're talking about. That we know the meaning of the word. That word is a very old word. Old English. Old German. Old Dutch. Old Norse. All very similar in meaning "of high temperature". Very warm.

 

But, colloquially, with popular usage, in 1830, hot could mean "well known to the police". Around the same time in Britain , it could mean a penny and "hots ' were money.

 

Hot could mean in the 1890s, much betted on in racing a horse that was a "hot" favourite.

 

In the 1840s, we could have a pot of hot which would be beer with gin in it. Around the same time, it could also mean a football fight. A crowd.

 

As a verb, "to hot" could mean to crowd or form a mob.

 

In the 1860s, as an adjective, it would mean alive, or vehement as in angry. Very reckless. Careless of decorum. Licentious.

 

1905. "Exceedingly skillful" entered our vocabulary as "hot". And in Canada , in the 1930s, it meant stolen.

 

So, just as a word, not even considering the feeling of the air coming across the tongue, of the tongue against the teeth as we form sound and word, we have "hot air, hot stuff, hot line, hot and bothered, hot and cold, hot dog, hot potato, hot tomato, hot wire, hot seat, hot stuff". But, when We're talking about how we are, do we know what we are talking about?

 

This question of hot and cold was raised by a lineage ancestor of ours, Dongshan Liangjie. That was in the 800s. He was the Dharma heir of Yunyan Tansheng and this Dongshan's "Hot and Cold" appears in the Blue Cliff Records as Case 43.

 

Yuanwu's Pointer:

"One phrase commands the universe and is followed throughout ten thousand eons. Even the thousand sages are amazed at an energy which can capture tigers and rhinos. His speech is unequalled. His body is all directions. If you want to deepen your training, enter the master's forge. Tell me, who has ever had such a style as this? Study this."

 

Koan:

 A monk asked Dongshan, "When cold and heat come, how can we avoid them?" Dongshan said, "Why don't you go where there is no cold, no heat?" The monk asked, "What is this place where there is no cold or no heat?" Dongshan said, "When it's cold, the cold kills you. When it's hot, the heat kills you."

 

Xuedou’s Verse:

He holds out his hand

but still

it’s like a ten thousand mile high cliff.

 

Guest and Host are aligned.

 

The ancient jade palace

reflects the moon.

 

The clever hound of Han

runs up the stairs

but finds nothing.

 

Eihei Dogen’s Verse:

On your way,

mindless,

hands swinging

in the coming of cold, coming of heat.

 

Drop through body and mind

and cold and heat.

 

Field Marshall Dongshan

established this peaceful realm

but don’t let him rest gazing upon it.

 

Mushin Daie’s Comment:

The place where there is no cold, no heat has no wall around it. The one free of cold and heat has no skin holding anything in or out. A skinless skin-bag filled to overflowing with ice and fire. Who is not like this when they are past thinking about it?

 

When we know heat, this is something that we are experiencing. We know it in its difference. We move into the sunlight and something changes. Not just on the skin, but all throughout bodymind. If we are walking in the sunlight for a length of time, the bodymind starts to sweat. Sweating is not a problem. Sweating is what the bodymind does to help balance the metabolism and the physiology. The breeze, even when there is very little breeze or no breeze, the evaporation of the moisture from the skin helps to balance bodymind. Sweating's not a problem, but self-image does create problems when there is no problem. It may notice on the brow a droplet of perspiration forming and dripping down the face.

 

"Oh no! It's too hot in here. It's too hot. Oh, if it weren't so hot... I have to go where it's cooler."

 

We don't notice what we are actually knowing. We don't notice what bodymind is experiencing because self-image has created a problem which is removed from, in a manner of speaking, what's actually going on. The bodymind is still knowing its environment, but we're not noticing it. And this produces a sense of claustrophobia. This makes the problem worse. This makes our experiencing dense.

 

The moment we notice what we are doing, that we have moved attention into a story that has dire consequences, a story about how we are, the moment we can recognize that as a story, we have noticed something that is true about how we are, and that is a moment when we can practice. By noticing the breath moving bodymind, expanding the ribs on the in breath, we notice the back may straighten itself at that point because we are actually noticing something about how we are. There may be some sweat trickling down our back. What does that feel like? No, no, I mean really, really, feel it.

 

About a week or so ago, a person came to see me. I asked this person how her week had been since the last time that I saw her and she said, "It was wonderful. It was just wonderful. You won't believe what happened to me."

 

I had no idea what she was going to talk about. But obviously, it had made her very happy.

 

She had been in her garden weeding. The temperature had been high that day and the sun was beating down. She noticed that she was starting to feel tired and a little confused. And she noticed there was a story about how if she stayed out in the sun, this and that might happen to her. At that moment, she told me, she actually felt perspiration running down her face. And she took the time. She took that moment to feel that. She didn't do anything about it. She didn't have to. She continued on with what she was doing. She noticed that when she noticed the perspiration that she wasn't as hot as she was before. And she realized that she had been causing herself a lot of problems with her stories about how hot she was. By noticing what was actually going on, there was more room. She was amazed. She said, "I'd never noticed this before in my life." She was sixty.

 

We spend most of our time not noticing our life but noticing our stories about our life. When we notice the details and notice the space around the details of experiencing, we notice the spaciousness of experiencing, the spaciousness of our life, the spaciousness of reality.

 

Now, I'm going to read from Zen Master Anzan Hoshin's commentary on the koan. And first, the koan again.

 

Dongshan's "Hot and Cold":

 

A monk said to Dongshan, "Cold and heat come. How can we avoid them?" Dongshan said, "Why don't you go where there is no cold or heat." The monk said, "What is this place where there is no cold or heat?" Dongshan said, "When cold, be killed by the cold. When it's hot, the heat kills you."

 

Anzan roshi's comments: "Cold is completely cold. Heat is hot. It is not that you can't rub your hands together and blow on them. It's not that when it's hot, you can't rinse your face in cool water. It is that hot is hot. Cool is cool. Cold is cold. Cold never escapes cold. Hot never escapes hot. Experiencing cold is cold. Experiencing hot is hot and there is nowhere to go. There is no escape. There is just this presencing. This activity which is sometimes hot, sometimes cold, sometimes alive, sometimes dead. You are only truly alive when the cold is so cold it kills you because there is no one to be cold. There is just cold."

 

Dogen zenji says about this, "Cold is the alive eye of the Transmission. Heat is the warm skin and flesh and bone and marrow of the Buddhas and Awakened Ancestors."

 

Anzan roshi says, "There is no escape because there's nothing to avoid. There is just this primordial freedom. Zazen, kinhin, oryoki, teisho, dokusan are just how we dance to the rhythm and song of reality."

 

Anzan roshi's comments were from "Rhythm and Song", a teisho series.

 

Notice how you are. It is through noticing how you are in your fingers and toes and your knees, your ears, your nose, your back. As you walk around the Hatto in kinhin, feel the difference as you raise the foot and then place it down. As you walk under the lights, feel the difference from walking in the shadow. Feel into this moment, and this moment.

 

Hot. Hot. What does this mean?

 

Thank you for listening.

 


 

 

Cold

August 23, 1997

 

First,

Yuanwu's Pointer:

"One phrase commands the universe and is followed throughout ten thousand eons. Even the thousand sages are amazed at an energy which can capture tigers and rhinos. His speech is unequalled. His body is all directions. If you want to deepen your training, enter the master's forge. Tell me, who has ever had such a style as this? Study this."

 

Koan:

 A monk asked Dongshan, "When cold and heat come, how can we avoid them?" Dongshan said, "Why don't you go where there is no cold, no heat?" The monk asked, "What is this place where there is no cold or no heat?" Dongshan said, "When it's cold, the cold kills you. When it's hot, the heat kills you."

 

Xuedou’s Verse:

He holds out his hand

but still

it’s like a ten thousand mile high cliff.

 

Guest and Host are aligned.

 

The ancient jade palace

reflects the moon.

 

The clever hound of Han

runs up the stairs

but finds nothing.

 

Zen Master Anzan Hoshin says, "Cold is completely cold. Heat is hot. It is not that you cannot rub your hands together and blow on them. It's not that when it's hot you can't rinse your face in cool water. It's that hot is hot. Cool is cool. Cold is cold. Cold never escapes cold. Hot never escapes hot. Experiencing cold is cold. Experiencing hot is hot and there is nowhere to go. There is no escape. There is just this presencing. This activity which is sometimes hot, sometimes cold, sometimes alive, sometimes dead. You are only truly alive when the cold is so cold it kills you because there is no one to be cold. There is just cold."

 

What is this cold to the usual mind? This cold can be taken to mean an object. It can be taken to mean a knower that is experiencing this cold. That is this cold or this hot. But really, is there one thing that is this cold?

 

When you experience cold, is it the same cold all over that you are experiencing? When a drop of rain falls down your nose on a cool morning like today, is that cold, that coolness, felt all throughout the bodymind, all around the bodymind? Or is there that moment of the perception of cold? Is,there cold inside? Is there cold outside? Is there an outsider inside to be cold? Is there someone there to be this cold?

 

In "Shunju, Spring and Autumn", a teisho in Dogen zenji's "Shobogenzo", Dogen says, "When it is cold, be completely cold. When it is hot, be completely hot. Examine closely the meaning of hot and cold."

 

"Cold", Dogen says, "is the lively enlightened vision of the patriarchs. Hot is the warm skin and flesh of our predecessors. How should we study hot and cold when we live with an old Zen master? Look into this."

 

As we practice, as our practice matures, we experience moments when we recognize the truth of what the Roshi is always saying, "Nothing that is known is Knowing itself. There is no knower who knows this knowing. There is just Knowing. There is a knowing of temperature. There is a knowing of cold and of hot. There is a knowing of a movement of attention and there is a moment when we are able to practice this knowing and to open past the contractions of usual mind, the contraction that is attempting to create a knower. When this happens, we experience the cooling of the flames of the kleshas of passion, aggression and stupidity. We open further into the spaciousness of experiencing as it is, to the spaciousness of practising ourselves as we are. This openness, this vastness, this vividness of the experiencing of hot, of cold, of the movements of attention, of the breath breathing us in and out, can cause self-image to generate a story that somehow perhaps what we are experiencing is a distancing from experiencing itself. That somehow because we are not experiencing the heat of contraction as a definition of who we are, that something is wrong.

 

As we look into this matter of hot and cold, coming and going, birth and death, we can see the vividness of this experiencing. We can experience cold as cold in the vastness of this moment. We can know the impossibility of distancing our experiencing from our experiencing in this moment. We can practice these moments of hot and cold. This moment of breath. This moment of how we are.

 

As Anzan roshi says in his commentaries on the koan, "Experiencing cold is cold. Experiencing hot is hot and there's nowhere to go. There is no escape. There is just this presencing, this activity which is sometimes hot, sometimes cold, sometimes alive, sometimes dead. You are only truly alive when the cold is so cold it kills you because there is no one to be cold. There is just cold."

 

Thank you for listening.

 

 

back to topWWZC home

© 2004 White Wind Zen Community. All rights reserved.