Hand Me the Cushion

From Meditation as Refuge, an online evening with the Insight Community of the Desert, August 2026. A talk on Case 20 of the Blue Cliff Record.

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SPEAKER_00 0:00

Okay, well I was looking at um something to to bring up as a talking point this evening. I settled on a on a on a koan case which I guess no surprise there in w in in in one sense because koan cases are so such good make I make such good talking points and often in Zen Buddhist talks uh a koan will form the basis of a talk. For those of you who joined on on Sunday, we were looking at the um seven factors of awakening, and I I wondered what I was um gonna have later down the rotation in the seven, because I think I was on number number two and I looked and I was just like, oh my god, equanimity, which I was I was quite happy to. So we're coming in at the end with equanimity, so I was quite pleased to find that one. So it was more difficult if I talk about uh in one sense, joy. I'm just like, oof, I'm gonna have that's gonna be tough for me to talk about joy for for for for a long period of time. Um what can you what what can you say about joy? Um it kind of speaks for itself. I think in in in Dhamma practice, in in Buddhism, in Zen, uh sometimes we you know we might have a bias towards um focusing on what's difficult, focusing in on what what is causing uh dukkha or dis dissatisfaction. That's really what we deal with. We tend to deal with the things that are causing uh friction or difficulty in order to alleviate that. And then the the kind of the joy, happiness, uh good times aspects of life, they they really take care of themselves. There's not a lot of practice in that needs to be applied when when everything is going just wonderfully, but when things are a little more challenging and difficult, that's when we can um rely on on our practice. Um and if our practice is being maintained uh through the through the changing circumstances, then it's not something that comes and goes when uh when the weather gets tough. Like one of the advantages to living at Yokoji was uh sitting all of the time and sitting in all kinds of uh in all kinds of circumstances, sitting when you don't want to sit, sitting when it's the last thing you you want to do, sitting when you're upset, or you're you're angry, or you just had an argument, or you're very tired, or or you know, you ate too much at lunch. Like all of those, all of those things you just same, you keep showing up, showing up to the seat. And when we when we practice in this way, then meditation isn't conditional. Zazen or Zen meditation doesn't um isn't doesn't rely on conditions being arranged a certain way. It's whatever the conditions are, we can we can take our seat. Uh the case I wanted to bring up is from the Blue Cliff record. I often talk on the the Book of Equanimity, uh as many of you know. I think because um when I returned to Yogi I returned to Yokoji, I'd been there for you know about four years, and then left and was mostly working in LA for traveled around a little bit, but settled in LA and was there for four or five years, and then came back to Yokoj with uh in intention to to finish my formal studies, and um I came back and I was working on the what's called the Blue Cliff, the Blue Cliff record in Zen, picked up basically where I where I had left off with Tenshin Roshi, and then after I finished the Blue Cliff, we move into the book of equanimity. So that was a very rich time for me because in my second time at um at the Zen Centre at Yokoj, it felt much more urgent and important. The first time that I went there, although it was important, it was also um it felt like quite a youthful endeavor, you know. I was I was I was there and it was also an exciting thing to do, an exciting chapter and and something we might do. Returning when I was um I guess I must have been about maybe 40 when some somewhere around there, but when I returned, um I was much more um serious in my intent. And so that period of common study I remember, I really remember very well. So again, I often bring up the book of equanimity, but this is from a blue cliff record, and this is case 20, and it's called the meditation brace. So, in the example, Ryuge asked Shwebi, What is the meaning of the Zen founders coming from the West? Shuibi said, Pass me the meditation brace. Ryuge passed the meditation brace to Shwebi. Shwebi took it and hit him with it. Ryuge said, Hit me if you will, but there is no meaning of the founders coming from the west. Ryugei then asked Rinzai, what is the meaning of the Zen founders coming from the West? Rinzai said, Pass me the cushion. Shuibei passed the cushion to Rinzai. Rinzai took it and hit him with it. Ryuge said, Hit me if you will, but there is no meaning of the founders coming from the West. So a classic Zen colan, and it features some of the uh some of the things that only really seem to happen in Zen, which is being, you know, often people being hit with stuff, which is a little bit can strike as a bit jarring or a bit odd, right? What what is um you know, you know, what's going on here, why are people hitting one another? Aren't we involved in a uh a compassionate and and and positive activity? Well, yes, we are, and and uh the the hitting here, you know, I'll say more about how that's uh seen as how that's being carried out. Um here we have uh a Zen an adept, you know, a Zen Adept is somebody who's practiced for uh uh a long period of time, perhaps, and gained some realization. Um, you know, not not his first rodeo, as they say, right? It's uh Ryuge is um has some has some practice. And this question, what is the meaning of the Zen founders coming from the West? Uh, you may have heard me kind of bring this up before, but that is like a stock opening gambit in in Zen. It's it's an opening question to uh start a Dharma conversation. The Zen founder is Bodhidharma, the kind of semi-legendary figure from from from uh from India, the Indian monk who had um uh helped to bring the essence of Zen from India to China, a long and difficult journey. And so this question is well, why did he do that? What is the meaning of Zen? Is another way to put this. What did Bodhidharma transmit from India to China? And what did um Tendo Neyojo transmit from China to Japan via Dogen? And what did Mizumi Roshi transmit from Japan to the United States? And and what what is being transmitted now? What is the what is the meaning? What is the meaning of our of our life even, right? Sounds so cliche, like what is the what is the the the meaning of life? Reminds me of the old um Monty Python movie, right? But this is his question, this profound asking. After a lot a lot of inquiry, you know, he he comes to see an accomplished teacher, Shweebi, and asks him this question. Now it's would be difficult sometimes for teachers of his time. They're asked a stock question. It it's quite hard to know the intent of the abil of or ability or depth of the person asking the question. If they just use like a stock question, then maybe it's a little tougher to to to answer. Like in in Zen, we say um like we do in many other disciplines, right? It's not unique to Zen, certainly, it's it's it's more important to answer the person than the question. It's not so much for words of the question, but it's how that that's coming through that person, what that person is really trying to say, or really trying to ask, and and answering that. And sometimes people would ask these then questions because they're not able to frame up their real question. As a teacher at one of Tenshin Roshi's successors, um, an earlier successor than uh than than I, who uh told one of his students told me that he had told this to them, and they were a little upset about it. That's how I heard about it. But we said, Look, I want you to take all of these questions that you have and distill them down into one question, just boil everything down into one question, and then we'll work on that. Just just one question, and yeah, they didn't they didn't appreciate that, I guess here hearing that. But I but I but I under I understand uh their intent in in saying that. Can you bring it down into one question? Maybe this is his literal question here. So he asks, what is the meaning of the Zen founders coming from the West? But Shwebi says something odd here. He says, Pass me the meditation brace. This must be taking place likely in a meditation hall. And um, what is a meditation brace? We might think, oh, that's a helpful thing for when we've got, you know, maybe we're having a back problem or you know, uh a knee problem. And so, right, I'm gonna wear a brace. Like maybe we're at retreat, and we're just like, sometimes, you know, you bring a few extra, a few extra things, a couple extra support cushions, maybe you need something, something like that. At Yokoji, I saw some uh like amazing setups over the years. I remember uh uh someone who later became became like a real friend, but when he showed up, he had about six different cushions, but like bolsters and cushions, and it kind of built it almost like a like a almost like an armchair on on the cut on on the mat. It just like just like looked like he's kind of like it had like sides to it. And we and we said, look, we that's you can't really that's going a bit far, you know. You can't like build yourself a chair out of cushions. But this this is a different uh this is a different thing, this meditation brace. What it was um is uh back in in those days and and later in both China and Japan, they would have it was basically like a short stick with a chin rest at the top. And so for long periods of time sitting, if you became very fatigued but you wanted to sit all night, they would get the the meditation brace and then put it under your chin, and then you could like put your rest your your head on it and go to sleep while still sitting in in the posture. So and I know you're gonna be on maybe on Amazon or eBay trying to look for one of these later, and and and and I know you're probably wanting to get one, right? No, no, I mean this is like I have a friend who I quote often who whose um practices in Japan, and he said at his temple, um you know, the rule there is you can only when they're sitting in the retreats, you can only turn in and go to bed when you're the most senior person left in the room. So it goes by the it ends at night by seniority. The the people who've been there the longest, or the oldest people, they'll peel out first, and then it goes down until the most junior, the person who joined the temple the most recently is the last person and then they can go, then they can go to bed. So if somebody who's more senior than you is pulling an all-nighter, you're pulling an all-nighter. And if you leave the temple after, say, you've been there 10 years, and then you leave, and you go back, you decide you go back a year later, then you don't have any time served. You'd have to start, you start again. So these are like some of the old monastic ways. So this meditation braces um shreebi in answer to this question what is the meaning of his coming from the west? says, Pass me that, pass me that. It couldn't really be anything, right? But it he's living in a Zen temple, so most of the things around is objects, uh Zen objects, you know, that just happens to be there. But he could say, pass me the teacup, or you know, pass me the sticky note, or whatever, really, whatever's the bookmark, whatever's to hand, and and so he does, and it says that he strikes him with it. Now we shouldn't take this as being um abusive in this case. This is not like he just lamps him one over the head with it, right? But rather can you can you perhaps um you know s speculate or or just think about what this might mean? Somebody is asking, what is the meaning of Zen? What is the meaning of reality? Where does the truth reside? What is the point? You know, any of these questions, he says it's this, whap. Right here, whap. Feel that? Do you feel that? This is it. This is this this is it, this is reality. The reality of being hopefully lightly tapped with a brace. Hey, you know, it's not get out of your head. Don't try and think it through. That's not philosophy. If you want to understand Zen, just this is it. It's this right here. This strikes him with a meditation brace. Aruge says in return, he says, hit me if you will. But there is no meaning in the founders coming from the west. So first he asks, What is the meaning? Shweebi says, Oh, this guy, okay. How about right here, right here. Hits him with a meditation brace. And he says, Well, hit me if you like, you know. Be theatrical if you like. You know, or or But no matter what you do here, there is no meaning in the founders coming from the West. This is like the condition of a place where Ryuge is in in the life of his practice, arriving at a place of no meaning. And the place of no meaning is uh um commonly encountered in spiritual practice and and really isn't dependent on it being zen. It can be it can be encountered in any religious practice or spiritual practice when we really look in to what the meaning of this life is. Uh for most of us, or for many of us, we grew up with a a kind of a prescribed meaning, you know, or or we we just gathered a meaning in from somebody else, perhaps from our parents or from school or from um from from from anywhere, you know, a a story of a meaning or a or an idea. And perhaps that was enough. But people who come to Dharma and to Zen, you know, uh tend to be, you know, in the words of Bodhidharma, this legend, this founder, Zen is uh an intimate teaching, not dependent on words and letters, pointing directly at mind and realizing Buddha, realizing becoming awake. So not relying on words and letters, not relying on a description or a definition. It is an intimate teaching, intimate, intimate with our environment, pointing directly at the mind. And when we do that, when we do that in meditation, when we do that in our life, what meaning can can you really find? The meaning in in the meaning to to being here the the whole point of the matter. If w if we continue to drill down drill down through belief through opinion, uh through uh understanding, through ideas, through anything that we can uh we might have thought we could rely upon, we might quite naturally uh arrive at a place of uh no intrinsic meaning. It said that the Emperor of Northern China Red asked Bodhidharma what is the highest meaning of the holy truth? And Bodhidharma said um vast emptiness, no holiness. Another way of saying no meaning. You look for for meaning, w will there's no meaning. No, but this can also this how do we how would we take that if we if we look deep into our hearts and into our minds for some point, some point, some reason. And if we arrive at a place of there is no meaning, then that can be um an unpleasant destination to find no point and to find no meaning. But this no meaning is an arrival at no fixed meaning, no there, no if you drill down far enough, it's not that if you sit and practice Dharma for ten or twenty years, you will eventually unlock the secret meaning that all of these teachers or people have been hoarding. Like they're on this on the inside in this like exclusive club. It's not the pass to the Admiral's Lounge, right? Where it's like you you you you try, you try, you collect all the air miles, and eventually they let you in. So it's like enlightenment or awakening is not that, it's not arrival at some secret meaning where it where it's ah now, now, now I got it, now I understand. But when there's an absence of any or or a need for a fixed meaning at the bottom, that's when we really um stand on our own two feet. That's when we really, really have to take full responsibility for for our life. If there's no meaning out there to be found, what do we what do we do with that? So Ryuge, after this. Interaction with Shweebi goes to see the famous Zenmaster Rinzai, who is, you know, really and kind of a very famous teacher, and of course, you know, a pivotal founder of the whole Rinzai school. You know, so just a fine, fine teacher. And asks him the same question. Rinzai says, Pass me the cushion. So he's asked the same question. What is the meaning in the founders coming from the West? He says, Pass me the cushion. I guess there wasn't a meditation brace in his room. It's not like Rinzai really to be sort of a little softer. You know? But I don't know what the cushion was like. This is like, I don't know, eighth century China, you know, I'm not sure. So I don't know if it was probably wasn't like a nice one from Bed, Bath and Beyond or something. It was probably, you know, it's just like this very bare bones, minimal zen cushion. Or maybe it's kind of kinda kind of hard even. And he says, pass me that. Gives it to him. Rinzai takes it and strikes him with it. Same treatment as Shwebi. Ryuge said, the same thing now. Hit me if you will, but there's no meaning in the founders coming from the West. And this the Khan ends here with this interaction of Ryuge arriving at this place of no meaning, going to see two very adept teachers, asking this kind of stock question, and then receiving, one might say, something of a cliched response, even. You know, if a teacher's just say, what's the meaning of coming from the West? Give me that. Wow, it's right. Look. It's right here. Give him a whack. And then he's on his way. So it's this is kind of a shame in the sense of Ryuge has this opportunity, probably travelled the long way to see these teachers. And they don't not like they're living right next to one another. It's probably some distance in between these teachers. All to deliver a question and an answer which he'd already decided upon. He had already decided the question and already decided the answer. There's no meaning. This is where he's at. I say it's kind of it it's quite unfortunate. Right? Because the the unfortunate fact is Ryuge is not wrong. He's not wrong when he says there's no meaning in Bodhidharma coming from India. There's no meaning in Zen. There's no meaning in the in Vidharma.

unknown 25:18

Right?

SPEAKER_00 25:18

So you could make it you could you could say intrinsically that's correct. But have you ever been right about something and it made you miserable? Have you ever like known something for sure? And and you are firm in that conviction and it's just like holding on to a hot coal. Sure, we all do that as human beings. Right? It's like that I'm not sure I heard that say, you know, would you rather be right or would you rather be happy? Right? This is Ryuge. It's not he's not wrong in the sense of that there's no meaning in the practice, but how's that working for you? How's that working for him? Yeah, this is a real pivot point in terms of our practice. Right? In in terms of of Zen practice. If you arrive at a place and you see, huh, it turns out I I have this I've had this feeling when it's just like the realization that the cavalry isn't coming. You know? The realization that the cavalry isn't coming. I mean, I've had to learn that over and over and over again. There's times where I just thought, if I just persist like this, eventually, you know, um it things will work out. And and sort of abandoned agency within that and hanging out in that place. But if it's not working for us, right, it's like what can we then, what can we do about it? I I for myself, in my own in my own life, I came, I really came up against this no meaning. And it didn't land as a um uh a wonderful opening, a realization. In fact, it's it's it's more like that. Um I think it's uh Nietzsche who said um uh if you stare too long into the void, then the void stares back into you. Right? I I I can I relate to that from from from Zen, from long sessions and long retreats, looking in and looking in, look at looking at it, looking at at this mind. You know, and then having to go through the gate of okay, there's no meaning that's gonna land for me here. There's nothing to rely on here in terms of meaning. But then from that place, what do we do about that? You know, in my own in my own practice life and encountering that and working with that difficulty, what became abundantly clear was well, let me ask you, where does the meaning come from? Where does meaning come from? Where does purpose come from? Where does the point come from? It's not out there and it's not buried down here somewhere, right? But in our function, in our stepping forward, we have a w every day we have a great opportunity to bring meaning. If we want meaning, then we should bring meaning. If we would like meaning, then we can even create meaning and bring meaning to everything that we do. Rather than staying in this kind of you know, dormant state of there is no meaning, okay, that might be so if there's no meaning, but that's gonna maybe that's gonna feel pretty miserable and and empty and like you've reached the end of the road. I'll say something on on the verse here it says When has stagnant water ever activated the ancient way? Right? When is stagnant water uh arriving at a place of no meaning? Stagnant, what are you gonna do? It's never activated the ancient way. You know, the clue there is then the activation. How do you activate the way? Be active in the way. Be active. Like be involved in this, not stepping back and trying to look at this and comprehend what it means ultimately. But the very action of stepping forward and being deeply activated and involved in our life is what brings profound meaning. Because we find where we are, who we are, being who we are. If you cannot, I'm just going to go on with the verse, if you cannot use the meditation brace and cushion, just hand them over to me. This is Secho, who um wrote the verses for the Blue Cliff record, and they're a hundred cases, and every verse is exquisite. He actually wrote two verses to this case, he saw it as so important, or maybe he's disappointed in his first verse. But this first verse says, if you can't use the meditation brace and cushion, hand them over to me. That's but this is like it sounds very straightforward, but it's a wonderful deep comment. I mean, here in this koan, a meditation brace is used for what? To try to illustrate where practice occurs, what we should be doing. Right? Is that the right job for a meditation brace? No, not really. You know, it becomes a little bit of a cliche. What is a meditation brace for? It's for holding your chin up when you're asleep asleepy. What is the cushion for? It goes under your under you so you can sit. You know, what is the teacup for? Holding tea. What are you for? That's that's always our like open question. You know, for myself, it's like more and what's become more and more important in practice is again this not stopping and looking. Right? That's important in Zazen. That's important in sitting. But as soon as sitting is over, then it's the meditation of whatever that activity is, and that's not stopping and looking, that's involvement and activity in whatever is to hand. And then we find that there's purpose and meaning and the point to everything all of the time. It's just that when we hold back and create that separation that looks at our life, you know, and we make that split, that's where all of these questions come in. This confusion comes in, of this sense of like uh being stuck or being paralyzed. So rather than you know, so that's what I'd like to say about this co-op. It's no meaning, you know, it's not that it isn't so, but arriving there, it's like what do you do with that? It's not a place to put up your tent. No meaning is not a good campground. There are much better campgrounds than no meaning. Um, anyway, this is quite a uh weighty Zen Koan. Um, I wonder if anyone has any comment, uh, question, anything that this might bring up for you around this question of meaning.