Storehouse of Treasures Hosted by David Weinstein

The storehouse of treasures opens of itself.
You may take them and use them any way you wish.

—Dogen

A number of koans came along to keep me company as I was keeping company with the storehouse of treasures. The first one involves Mazu:

Mazu asked: “What do you seek?”
“Enlightenment,” replied the student.
“You have your own storehouse of treasure. Why do you search outside?” Mazu asked.
The student inquired: “Where is my storehouse of treasure?”
Mazu answered: “What you are asking is your storehouse of treasure.”

I could hear echoes of Dogen’s “opens of itself” in Mazu’s “What you are asking is the storehouse of treasures.” Then a koan involving Yunmen came along to join the conversation:

A student asked Yunmen, “This is not the function of mind. This is not the matter before me. What is it?”
Yunmen immediately cried, “One teaching upside-down!”

That upside-downness in Yunmen’s response had a lively conversation with Mazu’s  “What you are asking is your storehouse of treasure” and the “opens of itself” of Dogen. 

And then another koan came along to join the party:

A student asked Bukko, “What is Zen?”
Bukko replied, “The heart of the one who asks is Zen.”

It felt kind of like Scrabble with koans, except I was watching it happen, not doing it, which is how my encounters with the storehouse of treasures unfold—it opens by itself, true enough, but I don’t “take” a treasure nor do I “use” it—it just comes and that’s enough; maybe I could say that I get used by it. 

The other thing I notice is that I don’t always recognize the treasure that comes until later. That kind of experience pushes up against my ideas of what a treasure looks like, a treasure in itself.

Do you know what I mean?

—David Weinstein, August 27th, 2024

David Weinstein Roshi, Director of Rockridge Meditation Community