REGISTER

Yunmen taught, “Everybody has a light inside, but sometimes it appears dark, dark and dim. What is this light that everybody has?”

I can tell when I’m beginning to fall asleep; perhaps you can too. As I watch my thoughts drift and kind of hop a track, they begin to stretch normal distances and time in all possible directions. Objects and interactions gain in permeability as they break away from ordinary thoughts and concerns. We are now in the dream world, which is dark and dim, but which also shines with its own light.

Traveling in ancient China, I encountered a Chan monk on the road who offered to be my guide. Together we visited three large temples, each honoring a different teacher: Deshan, Dongshan, Yunmen. Each temple had its own flavor, but all radiated a warm golden color with hundreds of monks in residence embodying a quiet joy as they went about their activities. I chose to stay at Yunmen’s Cloud Gate temple.

Yunmen’s has always been my favorite among the Five Chan Schools. In some ways the dream was an affirmation of that. Mostly, I felt welcome and included.

It so happened that this morning I was reviewing Muso Soseki’s Dialogues in a Dream (2015), a series of letters written by the famous fifteenth century Japanese Zen master, beautifully translated by Thomas Yuho Kirchner.

In it is an account of how Muso got his dharma name. Practicing as a monk in the Tendai and Shingon schools, the nineteen-year-old Muso was uncertain of his future course of study and decided to enter a hundred-day solitary retreat.

Three days before the end of retreat, Muso had dream in which he too met a monk-guide at a temple called “Shushan.” The two went on to a second temple, called “Shitou.” Both are famous Tang era teachers.

At the second temple, the two travelers met an old priest. The guide addressed the priest: “This monk (Muso) has traveled here in search of a sacred image. Please, Reverend, be so kind as to present him with one.”

At that, the old priest handed Muso a scroll, which he unrolled and found to be a painting of Bodhidharma. He rolled up the scroll, put it in his sleeve, and woke from the dream. Muso felt the dream was leading him to Zen, and he changed his dharma name to incorporate both the dream and the two masters: Muso (dream-window) Soseki (rough-stone).

Dreams are a mystery, and perhaps we can only feel our way into them; full understanding being neither possible nor necessary.

—Jon Joseph

COME JOIN US on Mondays for koan meditation, dharma talk and conversation. Register to participate. All are welcome.

Jon Joseph Roshi, Director of San Mateo Zen Community