This morning we chanted the Bhukan Vazhengi and towards the end it says something like practice a way that directly indicates the Absolute, I think it says revere the person of complete attainment, succeed to the lineage of the ancestor Samadhi, practice in such a way and you are assured to be a person such as they, the treasure star will open of itself and you can use it at will, is that correct? Oh, revere the person of complete attainment beyond all human agency, revere the person of complete attainment beyond all human agency, who is beyond, revere the person of complete

[01:08]

attainment, who is beyond all human agency. So we revere, Dogen Zenji encourages us to revere this wonderful who, which is beyond all human agency. Pretty good title. My wife when she first got to know me she was really impressed how fast I can go to sleep. I'd be talking, I'd be saying hello, and then I'd be asleep, wow, that's great, she's

[02:10]

proud of that, that I can go to sleep in one breath, of course then she realized that I'm always very close to it, not that far away, I also have accomplished this. When the caffeine runs out, that's it, you'll be awake for a little while, anyway, we were talking about revering the person of complete attainment, the great who, beyond all human agency. This is at the center of our life, this great who, this great who, beyond all human agency, no matter what we do, no matter what agency, agency means activity, no matter what we do, this great who is beyond anything, it's beyond, however, if we practice sincerely, who gets

[03:17]

very happy, and very joyful, but no matter what we do, who is just sitting there, on all human agency, however, sitting still, all the Buddhas, all the great who, sitting still, unmoving, unwavering in their freedom, in their wisdom, still, even so, they can respond appropriately to our needs, through the agency of the Bodhisattvas, which somehow can interact and respond to our human agency, so we revere this great who, beyond all human agency, sitting at the center of our lives. We celebrate this Buddha in our sitting, our sitting is our succeeding to this lineage

[04:22]

of the ancestors who have celebrated in their sitting, who have lived the life of Buddha through their sitting, and now we do too, we do the same sitting as the Buddha. We are not the Buddha exactly, and yet the Buddha lives through our sitting and through our lives. We are the life of Buddha even though we're not exactly Buddhas. We are the Buddha's way even though we're not completely enlightened. Sitting still at the center, sitting still, being greatly awakened in the midst of delusion, this is Buddha's, in the midst of the delusion of us, of our lives, sitting in the middle of that is the Buddha's. Sitting in the middle of the delusion, sitting in the middle of the five skandhas, that's where Buddha is greatly awakened.

[05:22]

Not out in mid-air somewhere, not in some heaven, but maybe they are in a heaven, but in that heaven they're sitting in the middle of the five skandhas in that heaven. Surrounded by the five skandhas, surrounded by illusion, the Buddha is greatly awakened to the nature of illusion, to the nature of these five skandhas. And Bodhisattvas also sit in the midst of the five skandhas and greatly awaken while meditating on the five skandhas. Avalokiteshvara saw the five skandhas are empty and this was his or her release. The Buddhas are sitting in the middle of the various ideas of self and elements, which are due to the three-fold transformation of consciousness. The Buddhas are sitting in the middle of the three-fold transformations of consciousness and are greatly awakened about those three-fold transformations.

[06:25]

That's where they wake up, right in the middle of those bubbling transformations which give rise to ideas of self and elements, that they understand what these transformations are. So we're sitting too in the middle of these transformations right now, all the ideas of self and elements which we're playing with right now, we're sitting in the middle, we're sitting right where Buddha is sitting. So our job is to be awakened to what these things are, then the who, which is beyond this human agency, the who which is beyond three-fold transformation, which is beyond ideas of self and elements, this who will be unhinderedly, unobstructedly manifest in our life if we wake up to the nature of these transformations. In order to aid us to sit still in the midst of all this mumbo-jumbo, we are also talking

[07:38]

about these ten practices, ten vows and practices of the great Bodhisattvas. The homage to the Buddha, paying homage to the Buddha, praising the Buddha, making offerings to the Buddha, confession and repentance, rejoicing in the virtues of the Buddhas and other sentient beings, asking the Buddhas to teach, asking the Buddhas to stay in the world for the benefit of living beings, diligently, zealously applying the practices and accommodating and serving all sentient beings and dedicating the merit of this whole process at each phase in the process, actually, to dedicate.

[08:39]

So now I'm on the chapter in the Naga-Tamsaka Sutra on dedication. So they go through and they say, �Bodhisattvas give this stuff to people. They give food, they give drink, they give canopies, they give palaces, they give clothes, they give housing, whatever they give, and after they give all this stuff, while they give it and after they give it, they dedicate the good roots, the goodness that is accumulated, that is given rise to by these gifts, they dedicate it further. So while you make offerings, while you pay homage, while you praise, while you serve sentient beings, while you rejoice in the virtues of sentient beings, while you ask Buddhas to teach, while you ask Buddhas to stay, at each one of these phases you also think while you're doing it and you dedicate the goodness of what you're doing to in various

[09:44]

ways. Today I'd like to talk about praise, praising the Buddhas, and maybe I'll get to make an offering. So I'll read a little bit from, this is the vow of the Bodhisattva universally good, or universal goodness, Samantabhadra Bodhisattva, on the ride of the elephant, �Again, O noble-minded person, you should praise all the Buddhas and their great virtues. To do so, one should think.� Again, I want to emphasize that Bodhisattvas think, and you've heard about Zen, right? And Zen, they say, what do they say? Don't think, stop thinking. And also there's the teaching of no thought and no thinking and no mind, right?

[10:49]

Those are nicknames for the way Bodhisattvas think. The proper way for a person to think is called, don't think. In other words, don't think the way you usually think, give that up, get rid of that one. You don't need to think the way you've been thinking, you can stop thinking all the thoughts you thought before probably, except for the good ones. And start thinking like this, think like this. This new way of thinking, called the opposite of the way you usually think. Instead of thinking, well, I'm better than you, or you're pretty good, but you're not as good as me, or I want this and give it to me, and I'm most important, and watch out. Instead of the way we usually think, think this new way, like, you're more important than me. I care about you first. I love my enemies, they're treasures. These creepy people that are different from me, actually, I love them more than anything. This is the way you should think, in short. Everybody here has tremendous spiritual virtue.

[11:53]

That's the way you should think. This is not the way we already know how, right? We know how to think, well, the people here are pretty good, but each one of them has several problems. And I can tell you about them if you want to know. We already know how to do that. Stop that kind of thinking, don't think that way. Think a new way. Think like a Bodhisattva. People here are fabulous. They're so great, I'm going to dedicate my life, I will dedicate innumerable eons of lives to help any one of them. A little bit. That's called no-thought. Okay, so here's another way to think. This is the thinking in the realm of praising Buddha. In each and every atom in all worlds, in the three times, in the ten directions, throughout

[12:57]

the entire realm of space and the entire realm of Dharma, there dwell Buddhas equal in number to the smallest atoms in all worlds. Okay? We're actually saying this, right? You've heard this before. In every particle, there are in every particle as many Buddhas as there are atoms in all the worlds. There dwell Buddhas equal in number to the smallest particles of all worlds. And each Buddha is surrounded by an assembly of Bodhisattvas as wide as the ocean. This is called beyond human agency, right? We don't understand this. We can't see this with our eyes. But if you read that, and you say that to yourself, if you think like that, if you think like that and [...] think like that

[14:00]

and think like that and think like that, I guarantee you will flip out. And when you flip out, you'll be full of it. You'll be full of the Sambhogakaya, the bliss body of Buddha. And you won't have any trouble going around having energy to help people. So anyway, Samantabhadra says, you should think like this. That this is the way, this is what's happening in every atom, okay? And I shall apply my profound thought and insight to fathom them as if they were before me face to face. To the great assembly I shall sing praise of the Tathagata with a tongue more eloquent than those possessed by maidens of heaven. Each tongue emitting boundless oceans of voices.

[15:05]

Each voice emitting boundless oceans of speeches, all proclaiming the ocean-like merits of the Tathagata. Okay? So your voice is eloquent voice, which is actually oceans of voices and each voice emitting oceans of praises of the limitless virtues of this Tathagata. Each tongue emitting boundless oceans of voices. Each voice emitting boundless oceans of speeches, all proclaiming the ocean-like merits of the Tathagata. Such praise shall continue without cessation throughout the realm of dharma in the infinite universes. My praise will be ended when the realm of space is ended. The realm of beings are ended. The karmas, sorrows and passions of beings are ended. But since the realms of space even to the sorrows of beings are endless, so will my praise thought after thought without interruption and by bodily, vocal and mental acts without

[16:09]

becoming jaded. And I again propose to you that if you do think like this over and over, that the very thought protects you from being jaded. The ability to do repetitive things like this protects you from being jaded. So if you do it, you can keep doing it. So it's called pulling yourself up by your bootstraps. Okay? So that's Samantabhadra's vow about praising the Buddha. We already do praise Buddha. We as a group praise Buddha. We sing every morning songs written in praise of Buddha. For example, Emerging of Difference in Unity is a song written by a Zen monk named Stonehead. He wrote that verse when he was reading a Buddhist scripture called the Jowlund.

[17:10]

And he got to a place in the Jowlund where it said ... what did it say it said? I forgot. Anyway, he hit this place where the Jowlund said something really nice. It's Mr. Jowl, the name of a Song Jowl, Kumarjiva's great disciple, and the Lund means commentary. So it's a Jowl's commentary. And Sekhito was reading it, and when he got to this certain place, which I forgot now, he kind of got real excited and happy about how wonderful Buddha's teaching is. And he burst forth with this poem in praise of the Buddha, which we call Sounddokai. It's a song he sang when he kind of got real inspired by this great Hu. We repeat this song of praise he wrote. And also the Jewel Mirror Samadhi, it's the song of the Jewel Mirror Samadhi.

[18:19]

It's a song about the Samadhi of the Jewel Mirror written by Tozan Ryota. And then the Heart Sutra, the Heart Sutra is also a song, it's an act of praise. At the end it says, this is a mantra you just did, and what's the mantra? Gone, gone, gone beyond, gone entirely, completely beyond, yay! That's what it says. That whole sutra is that kind of thing, it is a praise, it is praise of the Tathagata, going beyond, completely beyond, way out there, beyond human agency, don't worry about it. That's what that Heart Sutra is. It's a celebration of this utter, utter perfect liberation. Okay? So we sing these praises every morning. You're already doing it. You don't have to do anything more than you're already doing.

[19:19]

Just do what you're doing, and when you're singing these praise, sing it with this tongue, you know? This tongue. What kind of tongue? What is it there? It's quite an eloquent tongue, right? And each tongue, this one, okay, emits an ocean of voices, and each voice a boundless speech. Okay? Now, you're already doing this, chanting's improved quite a bit, I noticed. But I think some people are holding back because they don't want to show off their neighbors, right? Don't worry. I really let it out one day, and Maya said she heard me, she could almost hear me that morning. So don't worry. You can let more out. It's okay. People probably can take it. Maybe not. Maybe some people will tell you to shut up. We'll see. So anyway, that's praising the Buddha.

[20:21]

You're already doing it, so just keep it up, and just keep it up. So you praise. This is a vow I just read to you. So you do the praise with your voice, with your thinking, with your body. But also, while you do it, you also make a vow at the same time. You don't have to do this vow. This is Samantabhadra's vow. But some kind of your thinking, sort of, you're also vowing at the same time. That's praising the Buddha. We're already doing it, okay? Is that enough on praising the Buddha? Yes? You talk about two kinds of hindrances, going too far and not going enough. Well, now, if one praises the Buddha all the time, all the time, does one run into the danger of not avowing sufficiently, avowing a conclusion of not shoveling enough shit?

[21:25]

Well, that's one away. Now we're doing offerings, then we'll do confession. You should do confession too. You do all these practices, okay? If you don't do confession, you're going to have these hindrances. But rather than right away go into the confession, there is an order here, and you're sort of building up steam here through the homage and through the praise and through the offerings. Then you do, in this order, then you do the confession and repentance. And then you do the confession and repentance and then you come around again. So you go around and around with these, okay? So they all help each other. And they're all basically just developing positive energy and removing hindrances from simply sitting, from just being that person who is beyond all human agency, that who,

[22:31]

which is hard for us to settle into without developing, without accruing good. So we have these three pure precepts, right? One is to avoid evil or, we'll say, practice right conduct. The other is to, actually one translation we have is to practice samadhi. We say first is for the precepts, that's the first precept. Second is to practice samadhi, that's the second precept. Samadhi is one way to develop positive energy. These other practices that we're just mentioning now, they develop this positive energy. They develop the sambhogakaya buddha. The second precept of the sambhogakaya buddha, the bliss body, is developed by these practices. These practices surrounding the buddha, this kind of circumambulation is the bliss body, which makes it possible for you to finally settle into the dharmakaya, to the truth body in the middle. Confession is part of it, okay?

[23:34]

I won't get to it today. When I get back, my next talk will be about confession and repentance. The next is to make offerings. Maybe before I read Samantabhadra's ... I think I'll read, again, I'll read Samantabhadra's vow, and then I'll talk about it a little bit. Again, noble-minded person, what is meant by making great offerings to the Buddha? It means that in making such offerings, one should think. So again, making the offerings, while you're making the offerings, you think. Of course, everybody making offerings thinks. When I first came to Zen Center, I was making offerings, I used to think, well, what's the idea here? What's going on? Is somebody going to come and eat this stuff?

[24:36]

Is this a symbol of something? And then I read that story about when Tungshan was young, and he went to study with Nanchuan, and Nanchuan was ... they were preparing for a memorial feast for Matsu, and Nanchuan said, I wonder if Master Ma will come when we make these offerings. I thought, that's interesting, that's sort of what I was wondering. And nobody said anything, but this kid came forward and said, this kid named Tungshan came forward, his name wasn't Tungshan at the time, his name was Yangjia, came forward, which means, by the way, good servant. So, good servant came forward and said, Matsu will come if he has a companion. Later, this boy grew up and wrote the Jewel Mirror Samadhi song,

[25:42]

and he said, it responds to the inquiring impulse. But literally, it means, it responds to the arrival of energy. It, the who, the teaching of suchness, responds to the arrival of energy, of your energy. In other words, it comes if there's a companion. If there's a companion, if there's this kid coming forward with some energy, it comes and meets you, pound for pound. But actually, it's not pound for pound, it's, you know, galaxies per ounce. You bring an ounce, it gives you a galaxy. But if you have more than an ounce to give, if you're holding back, it holds back. But if all you've got is an ounce,

[26:43]

you give an ounce, it gives you everything. If you've got a ton to give and you give half a ton, it gives you half of everything. Half of everything is pretty much the same as, you know, just half. So you have to give, if you're a 15 watt bulb, you give 15 watts. A 15 watt bulb is bright when it's on full, but a 500,000 watt bulb is dull if it's on half. So you bring your energy with your offering, and if there's a companion, it comes. So I was wondering about these offerings, and I used to think various things when I made offerings, but now Samantabhadra is saying, what you should think like when you're making offerings. So you're making this offering. Here's with the do-wans, and they bring this weird tray, you're not thinking right. In the smallest atoms of all worlds,

[27:44]

in the three times, in the ten directions, throughout the entire realm of dharma. The do-wans back there, they're memorizing this now. In every atom in all the worlds, throughout the ten directions, in the three times, past, present, and future, there dwell Buddhas equal in number to the atoms found in all universes. Each and every Buddha is surrounded by an ocean-wide assembly of Bodhisattvas. Through the power of Samantabhadra's vows, and with deep faith and understanding, I see them as though they were face-to-face. To all of them, I offer superb, wondrous oblations, such as clouds of flowers, and heavenly music, and celestial tapestries, and angelic garments, and so many varieties of perfumes,

[28:46]

scented balms, fragrant incense, and powders, and gifts together rise as high as Mount Sumeru. I present them with lighted lamps of various kinds, such as butter lamps, oil lamps, sweetly perfumed lamps. The wick of each lamp shall be as huge as Mount Sumeru, and the oil as vast as the expanse of the great oceans. To all Buddhas, I humbly offer these oblations. Okay. Now, one thing I want to say is that if one were to actually read this and want to think this way, why one was making offerings, one would have to memorize this first, right? Now, you could be reading this off a piece of paper while you're making offerings. That would be okay, too. In your room, you could do that, probably. I think it would be hard to do it while you're serving here because people are sort of hungry, right? So they don't want to wait for you to read this while you're making an offering.

[29:47]

But if you memorize things, then you can run them over your mind, and after you memorize them, then you can do the whole thing in a snap of a finger. You can feel the whole sentence, the whole paragraph, just like that, if you memorize it. It gets condensed in your heart. Okay, so that's one of the things of learning things by heart, is that when they're in your heart, they're all kind of like a little ball there. You can feel the Lotus Sutra at one bite. And then sort of when you make an offering, or the Avatamsaka Sutra, when you make an offering, you bring up the whole Avatamsaka Sutra as you're making the offering, if you've got it. Now, if you can't really... If you haven't memorized the Avatamsaka Sutra, it'll be harder for you to bring the whole thing up. You can say, I can't quite remember the whole thing, because I just read it once. Yeah? Actually, even though I'm hungry at mealtime, I wouldn't write very much. It's quite short. I'm not done. I'm not done. Yeah, there's several thousand more pages, but you'd like to hear a brief version.

[30:50]

A brief version would be very nice. Well, see? This is an enthusiastic person. Yes. You don't want the food to get cold, right? By the way, I keep forgetting to thank you for the sweet gift you gave me. I didn't eat him yet. You gave me three, and I... They're an offering still. They're still in the offering phase. Yes? So the three treasures are, as I understand it, are actually for people instead of... When I read these things, I think of something relatively real, and it seems appropriate here, this offering, but it also seems appropriate for me, too, to think of it downstairs,

[31:51]

just like it's not here at this moment. We are the three treasures. So, it's not that I'm... Yeah, good, right. Treasures to treasures, right. Yes? Tenzo has been modest. Ah, yes? Modest. She's also instituted a form about Tenzo or whoever is representing her. Now it turns to us as a member. It does not matter. What's a librarian doing? Okay, now. Oh, noble-minded person. The crown of all offerings is the offering of what? Huh? Dharma. Is the greatest offering.

[32:51]

That's what they like best, the Buddhists. And that's, of course, what you Buddhists like best, too, right? That's why you're here. You came all this way because you like Dharma better than chocolate, sometimes. The crown of all offerings, to Buddhists anyway, to the great who's, is Dharma. They love to hear Dharma. They love to see Dharma, smell Dharma, you name it. But what does this include? It includes offerings of the following, of all Buddha's instructions, of offerings of benefiting all bodhisattvas, offerings embracing and sustaining all sentient beings, offerings of taking upon oneself the sufferings of others, offerings of fostering the roots of merit vigorously, offerings of serving, offerings of not swerving

[33:54]

from the bodhisattva's duty, offerings of never adapting and never departing from the thought of enlightenment. These are offerings of Dharma. So, if your mind, bringing your mind back to the thought of enlightenment, re-initiating and protecting the thought of enlightenment, that's an offering to the Buddha. So many times a day you can make that offering, just by staying on the path. Every step you take is an offering to the Buddha. O noble-minded person, truly the merit to be derived from material offerings, such as those enumerated above, are infinite, yet in comparison with a single thought of an offering of Dharma, they do not equal a hundredth part, a thousandth part, a hundred thousandth part of the letter.

[34:55]

Nay, not to a millionth part, a billionth part, a trillionth part, a part of an inconceivably, incalculable infinities. Why? Because Dharma is held most dear to all Tathagatas, and it is the Dharma that gives birth to all Tathagatas. If the Bodhisattva practices offering of Dharma, she completes the truest offerings and serves all the Tathagatas. One should thus think, I will never abandon but continue to practice this vast and great supreme offering without cessation. My effort will be ended when the realm of space is ended, when the realm of beings are ended, or the karmas, sorrows, passion, desires of beings are ended. But since they are endless, so also will be my offerings. Thought, succeeding thought, without interruption, in bodily, vocal, and mental deeds

[35:57]

without weariness. This is the Smartha Prabhu's thought to make offerings. With Bhatt, the Abhidhamsaka Sutra says, with mental action always pure, making offerings to the Buddhas, with never any weariness, one enters the Buddha way. Making offerings with ultimate sincerity will rouse the will for enlightenment. When I was ordained, before the ceremony, I asked Suzuki Roshi's wife, what gift can I give Suzuki Roshi to express my gratitude? She said, just getting ordained and being a good priest, that's how to repay it. After the ordination, I asked Suzuki Roshi, what gift can I give you? And he said, just being a good priest,

[36:58]

practice forever. So that's the gift that I'm giving him for ordaining me, is to continue practice forever. That's my offering to him. When I was in Japan, about ten years ago, visiting Mumon Yamada Roshi, after the visit, we went down to visit a women's monastery, which was right near it. And we went in there, and we went in the front door, and there was a kind of raised area, where you come in, and there's a raised area, where the people are standing in the room.

[37:58]

And there was another slightly raised area, and that's where the Buddha hall was. And this woman, this one woman, she didn't look very old to me, but anyway, she came, and a couple of other nuns came, and just came over and said hi. And behind them, I could see an altar. And on the altar, I could see offerings. Again, you know, I kind of thought, you know, I kind of had the feeling at that time, my practice, this was about eleven years ago, I was kind of feeling like, well, making offerings on altars, I mean, that's not really Zen. Zen is, you know, kind of like knocking Buddhas off altars, and just sitting and making, it's kind of like putting these oranges up there, and wrapping these little pieces of paper up there, and putting these little cookies and cakes and stuff,

[38:59]

and incense and lights and flowers, and little cloths and stuff. This is not what I thought was Zen, right? But this was a Zen temple. And the feeling from that altar, and the feeling of these women, sort of the whole ambiance, and their humility, their humility. I just come from the big monastery, right? I like those people up there. They were neat. But these women, I don't know, their humility and their warmth, I kind of felt like, hey, wait a minute, now what is really Buddhism? Where is it after all? And I went away from there really deeply impressed by something I saw in that little temple. The warmth of those women,

[40:01]

and those offerings, sort of were one piece. And their, I don't know, their willingness to be kind of just humble little servants, to make these offerings on this little altar. I don't know, I was really impressed. And although I didn't exactly put them above the big man up the hill, in the big monastery, in a way I felt like those men had something to learn from these women. This little temple did not instill or inspire fear. That was one of his weak points. Up at the big temple, you know, you get scared, you go in there. You're scared, you know. When the rochi walks by, people go, and they say, he's a good Zen master. That's a good Zen master. Somebody you're afraid of. Well, that's true in a way. You project your fears on them.

[41:06]

You get to know how frightened you are of everything. These women weren't doing that job. They were showing, they were teaching humility and love. I went back to that temple just a year ago. A little bit more than a year ago. And I stayed in that women's temple. The reason why I stayed there is because that woman who I met died. And when she died, the temple died. And it's still a nice little building, but it's dead. And I couldn't believe it was the same temple. I knew it was going to be the same temple, but I couldn't believe it. And I went back to the front door and went, opened the door, and looked in and tried to see if I could see the light that was there. And I looked and looked and finally I could see, yes, this is the same temple. This is the same room. But the life was gone. The life of offering was gone. And it was just an empty shell.

[42:10]

A guest house. So this kind of offering practice, I'm sure they did other things there too besides offering. But just what I saw anyway was those things and the life of Buddha. The life of Buddha was alive. Buddha was alive. The Great Who was shining out through these people. Through these material things and through these lives. It was coming out there. So, we're doing it. We do these offerings. And, so let's keep doing it. And let's bring that warmth that humility out, that aspect of Buddhist way out through these offerings. More and more. We're already doing it.

[43:15]

Let's do it more. Let's wake up to what we're already doing. Appreciate what we're already doing. Speaking of which, I was planning to leave Tassajara tomorrow morning, but my wife asked me to come, to be up in San Francisco tonight. And she asked humbly, and I said, I said, okay. And she said, really? So, please excuse me for leaving a little early, earlier than I was planning. So, she asked me to do that because nobody else gives everybody a hug every time they come and go, so why do I get to? But that's my feeling anyway, is to give each of you a hug, because that's how I, that's how I feel about all of you. And, I'd also like to say that,

[44:19]

that when I first arrived here, I did not feel that way about all of you. That I either didn't know you, or I couldn't see. Coming from the city, you know, my eyes were a little, a little covered up with my own, my own ignorance and my own dullness. When I first arrived in Tassajara, I couldn't see these wonderful bodhisattvas that are here. But now I can see it. I'm really impressed by your virtue, and I'm so happy to be able to see it. It's such a joy to see spiritual qualities of others and to rejoice in them.

[45:21]

But, it sometimes takes a month of concentrated effort before your eyes open up or your heart opens up, so you can see how wonderful people are. You are really wonderful people, each of you. You have wonderful spiritual qualities and I really appreciate you showing them to me. So please take care of them. You all have this precious who in every cell of your body. I can see it now. And please open your eyes to each other. I think you're doing it. Thank you.

[46:28]

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