I'd like to basically say something that I said before, I hope you allow me to say it again, and that is the Zen precepts, Zenkai, means understanding, Zazen, it is the meaning of uprightness in our sitting practice. The fundamental interpretation of Zen and Zazen practice is the precepts.

[01:03]

The essential interpretation of the precepts is Zen and Zazen practice. The essential interpretation of Zazen is vast emptiness, nothing holy. Dogen Zenji and his disciples Senne and Kyogo and Banjin and Shogaku and Dainin all seem to agree on the Buddhist precepts as not moral or ethical imperatives or orders given by

[02:20]

someone else that we're supposed to follow. Rather, they are the ground of Buddha's world and through them we can realize ourselves as Buddha. Accepting and receiving these precepts is the gate to Zazen and the study of them is the way to understand what just sitting really means. So, these Bodhisattva precepts are like this, and we have been talking about the Three Treasures

[03:25]

and sometimes we say that the Three Treasures are the substance of the body of the precepts. And next, the Three Pure Cumulative Precepts are the shape of the body of the precepts. And next, the Ten Grave Precepts are the function of the body of the precepts. The substance, shape and function of the precepts. The substance, shape and function of Zazen.

[04:34]

The substance, shape and function of vast emptiness. Each of these things is just different ways of talking about each other. The Three Pure Precepts are another way of looking at the Triple Treasure. Three Pure Cumulative Precepts. The word pure in the Buddha way is, of course, pure and free of the word pure. So, not taking hold of what the mark of the true precepts is and not having evil thoughts

[05:59]

is the pure precept. One early, or the early vocalization of these Three Precepts is to refrain from all that is evil, to practice all that is good and wholesome and to purify the mind, or tame the mind. Each word of these precepts is Buddha's mind.

[07:06]

Buddha's teaching. Buddha's teaching. If we can take these precepts as Buddha's mind and Buddha's teaching, we can, each of us, behave as Buddha. On the other hand, if we take these precepts in their moral sense, which they can imply, we will become ethical persons. And in the world, there's nothing more wonderful than an ethical, virtuous person. It's the top of the line in the world.

[08:22]

Ethical, virtuous people are the greatest. No problem with that. However, if we go beyond our human speculation and look at these precepts as Buddha's mind and Buddha's teaching, we realize something far beyond this world where there's virtue and non-virtue. We realize a world of blankety-blank freedom. Being an ethical person in the world is still being an ethical person in birth and death. It's still utter misery. But the best kind of utter misery.

[09:26]

To be an ethical person and still be in birth and death means you're still living with a judging mind. You can be an ethical person and still have a judging mind. It's okay. It's okay. You can use your judging mind to be an ethical person. And to use your judging mind to be an ethical person is the best way to use your judging mind. It makes the best possible ethical person, the best possible worldly being. But, using your judging mind to be an ethical person is transgressing Buddha's precepts because it keeps you in the world of birth and death. Similarly, not having a judging mind is to see these precepts as Buddha's mind and thereby

[10:47]

to make these precepts alive. Or, in other words, there are really no Buddha's precepts outside of Zen. In the work Zen Kai Sho, the Essence of Zen Precepts, Kyogo says, revealing the process

[11:50]

of entering the Buddha's way, repentance, going for refuge in the triple treasure, vowing to practice the three pure precepts and the ten great precepts. Reviewing this process, he says, the repentance procedure appears and then the three refuges and the three cumulative pure precepts, and therein nothing is excluded. He also says that starting with the repentance procedure, these three refuges and three cumulative pure precepts are not separate from delusion. Buddha's precepts, Buddha's precepts are the gate to freedom from delusion and therefore

[13:07]

they are not separate from delusion. Emancipation is attained in the midst of delusion. Or one may say that before the deluded aspects have departed, the true aspects have arrived. This is the meaning of before the donkey goes, the horse arrives. The whole ocean of karmic hindrance, that term, the whole ocean of karmic hindrance, may give the impression that we should throw this whole ocean of karmic hindrance away since this ocean of karmic hindrance is the three worlds, is birth and death.

[14:14]

It may give that impression. And the expression, sitting upright contemplating the true marks, that expression may give the impression or seem to imply that these true marks should be grasped since it says true marks. But we should not see a dualistic intention in these words. This would be understanding from the confused point of view of sentient beings, not from the point of view of Buddha's precepts. Wrongdoing cannot be actualized. It is not reality for you or for others. It is not to be grasped or thrown away.

[15:22]

Wrongdoing is not to be grasped or thrown away. The ocean of karmic hindrance is not to be grasped or thrown away. Sitting upright contemplating true marks, you do not grasp the true marks or throw them away. That's what sitting upright contemplating means. As the Sutra on Samantabhadra, which is the third sutra in the Threefold Lotus Sutra, says, the entire ocean of karmic hindrances arises from delusion. Those who want to repent should sit upright and contemplate the true marks of things and

[16:23]

all the wrongdoing will disappear like the frost and dew in the sunlight of wisdom. The whole ocean of karmic hindrance arises from delusion. Emancipation is attained in the midst of delusion, sitting in the middle of the ocean of karmic hindrances upright contemplating the true marks. This is how we repent. We repent of all our past grasping of true marks or throwing true marks away. We repent of all our past grasping or throwing away the ocean of karmic hindrances.

[17:26]

We repent that by sitting upright in the middle of these hindrances, in the middle of these delusions, in the middle of these true marks without grasping or throwing away. This is our repentance practice. And then all wrongdoing will disappear like dew and frost in the sunlight of wisdom. That's what the sutra says. Khyaga also says that in the Buddha Dharma we do not set up beginning or end. Whoever practices repentance immediately completes the way. Opposing false mark and true mark, you may assume that you should maintain one or the

[18:33]

other, but if you become free of what is maintained, there is nothing to maintain. This is the path of Buddha Dharma. To array all of what is born of delusion and understand them by sitting upright contemplating true marks is actualizing the ungraspable heart. You don't have to array all that is born of delusion. It happens every moment. The whole universe arrays before you what is born of delusion. What we need to do is sit upright and understand this delusion by simply not grasping or rejecting

[19:43]

the true marks. And this wonderful thing of attaining something that's ungraspable happens. Khyaga also says that repentance is called the three treasures, is called taking refuge. While repentance is the beginning of wholesomeness, taking refuge is the middle of wholesomeness. So, the way that Dogen Zenji and Senne Zenji and Kyogo Zenji expressed the three cumulative

[20:50]

precepts, pure precepts, is a little different from this earlier Buddhist way of putting it. They say the precept of fulfilling rules and laws, the precept of fulfilling wholesome dharmas and the precept of fulfilling all beings. Or as we've been saying sometimes here, I vow to embrace and sustain right conduct. I vow to embrace and sustain all good. I vow to embrace and sustain all beings. A little bit different way of putting it from refrain from all that is evil, practice all

[21:56]

that is good, purify the mind. They're really the same thing but they sound different. So, these are what the Zenkai Sho calls the three cumulative pure precepts. And Kyogo says the three pure precepts are samyak, sambodhi, complete, correct awakening, which, as you may remember, is also the definition of the Buddha as the first jewel.

[23:01]

And these three pure precepts can be understood as the function of one true mark explained in three ways. So he doesn't say too much about these three pure precepts. And what you just heard was a slightly a mixture between what he said and some comments by me, and if there was a transcript of these words I could put quotation marks around the right parts and the wrong parts, and activate my judging mind. If this water wasn't here, I wouldn't drink it.

[24:11]

So, in Sanskrit, these three pure precepts in Sanskrit are, I'll just say it so you can memorize it. The first one is samvara sila. Samvara means restraint or discipline. That's the one which you could translate as the precept of restraint or discipline or the precept of right conduct. And for our sixteen bodhisattva precepts, this one is pretty much the same as the ten great precepts. The ten great precepts are expressing the function of the body of precepts. And most of the Zen Kaisho, Essence of Zen Precepts, is a commentary on this precept

[25:36]

of right conduct. So most of the commentary that we'll be studying will be on the ten precepts. There's only two pages or so on the refuges and the pure precepts. Next is kushala dharmasamgraha sila. Kushala means wholesome or skillful. Dharma means things, teachings. Samgraha means gather, and sila, precept, precept of gathering all the wholesome, skillful

[26:44]

things, gathering all the virtue and goodness. And again, the root of the word kushala comes from the word kusa, which is a kind of grass that the Buddha recommended to his students to use to make meditation cushions. Not the cushions but the mat, actually maybe the cushion too. Kusa grass I guess was the best material for making meditation cushions in India at that time. And kusa grass is somewhat like compass grass. It has a sharp edge, so if you handle it you can cut your hand.

[27:48]

So kushala is derivative from the word kusa, which means to be able to skillfully handle this grass. So, in living in the world of karmic hindrance and delusion, skillfulness is basically skillfulness at handling delusion. To make yourself a meditation cushion by handling delusion. Of course, sometimes you cut yourself but then you learn. This is not the way to take a hold of confusion. Grab it from the other side, don't hold so tight, Lee. Also don't deny it, you've got to make yourself a seat out of this delusion. So gathering all these skillful ways of dealing with the world of illusion, the world of delusion, the world of hindrance, all these different ways, that's the second pure precept.

[28:52]

And the third precept, under this way of talking, is called sattva kriya shila. Sattva means being, like sentient being, bodhisattva, bodhi being, and kriya means to clean or to work or to mature or to fulfill. Also to purify. Maybe you've heard of kriya yoga, it's like that. So these are the three Sanskrit expressions for the three pure precepts. And the difference between the early and later description is, the third one in this case is to develop or to mature or purify beings, in the previous one it was to purify the mind.

[29:57]

So in the Mahayana, the way to purify the mind, the way to tame the mind, is to develop beings, is to purify beings. Rather than the direct human way of going at your mind and trying to purify it, the way to purify your mind is to try to help others. And in the process of being concerned with how others can develop and how others can be matured and how others can be free, your mind becomes cured, clear, tamed, purified. And again, purifying the mind and also dedication to developing and maturing beings is the same as complete devotion to the triple treasure.

[31:03]

So this third one is the same as the first three, very directly, the first three refuges. So discussing the first of the three pure precepts, I will postpone until we get into the commentary on each one of these great precepts, but now I would like to talk a little bit about the second and third of the three pure precepts. So the second one of gathering or accumulating, which is part of the reason why this is called

[32:07]

the three pure cumulative precepts, is this one has to do with accumulating or amassing positive merit, positive energy, positive spirit, good spirit. So, in a way, you could say that this is the practice of the six perfections. It is the practice of the six perfections, but also it's the practice of these perfections before they're perfect. It's your initial attempt to practice them before you realize perfect wisdom. All the wholesome effort you make to learn how to practice these in their ultimate sense

[33:13]

contributes and accumulates a store of merit, which when finally united with perfect wisdom causes perfect enlightenment. So practicing giving, practicing ethics in the sense of practicing ethics in the world with a judging mind, but in a wholesome direction of course. This kind of ethical study and ethical effort accumulates this kind of positive energy. It's definitely good. And practicing patience and practicing enthusiasm and concentration and wisdom, wisdom in its

[34:19]

early, middle, late, and post-late forms. So, another breakdown of this second precept you could say is, first of all, to as much as possible develop a selfless approach to your life.

[35:25]

Not talking so much about restraint or discipline, but more try to realize selflessness. And as Dogen says, in order to realize selflessness we have to first of all recognize that the main thing we hold on to, first of all, is our body. So right off in the practice of developing and gathering this wholesomeness, one of the first things that's recommended is abandon attachment to the body. Not abandon the body, abandon attachment to the body. And another way to put it is, how do you take good care of your body in such a way as to promote detachment from your body?

[36:33]

Not taking care of your body and denying that you have one will not work. Also cherishing it and trying to protect it and clinging to it won't work either. How do you appreciate it, like appreciating everything else in the world, take good care of it, give it what it needs in order so that it can practice virtue? Well the main thing is, try to find out what is it? What is it? If you can find out what it is, you won't be attached to it anymore. Examining and looking for what this body is, as Dogen says, look for the beginning and end of the body. If you really look for the beginning and end of it conscientiously, you will not continue

[37:36]

to be attached to it. So, this kind of examination of the beginning and end of your body, or what is it, is another example of devotion, total devotion to the triple treasure. The head monk was telling me about one time, he's been doing a study of pain, and he's been looking at pain, he's been trying to figure out what pain is, and the more he looks, the less he's been able to find pain. It's an ongoing study with him. Unfortunately, sometimes he finds it. That's a sad time.

[38:39]

He doesn't like finding it actually, but then if he looks more carefully, he's not so sure he found it, right? Somewhere else. Anyway, this kind of study, this kind of examination, can be like ringing the bell, or lining up the incense bowls with the Buddha's nose. It's another opportunity to express your complete commitment to the triple jewel, to stretch yourself, to put yourself forward, to make an effort. But in particular, this kind of examination will free you from attachment, can free you from attachment to your body.

[39:41]

What is it? Take really good care of it, and always in your efforts of taking care of it. What is it? Where does it start? Where does it end? How does it come together? This kind of examination brings you very close to yourself, helps you settle onto yourself. This is very wholesome, and this effort, even while you're still thinking dualistically, this effort generates positive stuff. And then do all these kinds of practices with your body, like having a pleasant smile on

[40:46]

your face when you meet people. Now, it's hard to say what a pleasant smile is, maybe. Some people smile a little bit too much. There's a person, not in this valley, but in another valley up north, who people say he smiles too much. He really does smile very nicely, but it is intense, this particular person, and people say it's too much. If he'd tone it down a little bit, which maybe he will, he'll probably do just right. Some other people, we're not sure exactly if they're smiling enough. Maybe there should be a little bit more of a curve at the edge of the lips. Some people think they're smiling, but other people can't tell, so you've got to work on this for a while to find out what is a smile which delights others, which isn't kind of like all those other kinds of smiles like, I know you, or I know what you're up

[41:49]

to and that's really something, or I'm better than you, or all those kind of smiles. What is a smile which really delights beings? Work on it. This is an example of accumulating positive energy, to make a face that encourages beings. To constantly generate love and compassion, to practice kind speech, to be as much as possible considerate of others, to be discreet and humble. What does it mean to be humble? I'm saying these things, it's not so easy to understand what these practices are. I'm telling you the kinds of things that are under this heading. Each one of these things is rather difficult to understand what that would mean. What does humble mean? For me, to think about how fragile and vulnerable I am, maybe that's the way for me, but that

[43:07]

may not be the way for you. For you, humility might be to think, well, I'm actually not as fragile and vulnerable as I think I am. That's just what I think. That's just one of my ideas about myself, that I'm a wreck. And actually, I'm not such a wreck. That might be a humble thought for some people, who actually walk around a good share of their time thinking that they're a wreck, that they're vulnerable, that they can barely stand meeting people, and therefore a smile would be far beyond their ability, but actually they're pretty arrogant about being sure that that's who they are, and they hold to that opinion. And for them, feeling vulnerable may be just, you know, not be humble at all. For them, it might be humble for them to stand up and say, today, I'm a little bit proud

[44:11]

of myself. That might be humble. People might say, wow, how cute. Do you understand? Humility is not a fixed thing. For one person it's one thing, and for another person it's the opposite. For a little person to be humble might be to act kind of big, or for a person who thinks they're little, it might be to act kind of big, and vice versa. And what does it mean to be considerate of others? Anyway, these are part of this practice. Those who are dedicated to good also don't go around thinking, oh, I'm one of these people who are dedicated to good.

[45:11]

They just say, I'm dedicated to good. They don't even say that, they just are dedicated to good. Seeing virtue in others, they see virtue in others. This is the practice of seeing virtue in others. And seeing it, whenever you meet another person, see if you can look at that person and say to yourself, because of this person, I'm able to live and I'm able to attain enlightenment.

[46:16]

This person is the vehicle for me to do exactly what I want to do with this life. Practicing patience comes under this heading, and practicing patience goes very closely with abandoning attachment to the body, because if you can practice patience, with that practice naturally comes the willingness to renounce the body.

[47:25]

The place we practice patience is in the middle of the difficulties and insults that we receive in the world of birth and death. If we can get to the center of this difficulty and sit peacefully there, the willingness to drop all attachment to it gets stronger and stronger. If we're unwilling to be present with this difficulty, to get right to the center of it, where it's real cool and easy and peaceful, if we're unwilling to get to the center of this difficulty,

[48:46]

it's because of our attachment to our body, it's because of our attachment to birth and death that we refuse to go to the center of this difficulty. On the other hand, if we can get to the center of this difficulty, it is a testimony to our decreasing, at least, attachment to the world of birth and death, to our body. And if we are able to get to the center and sit calmly there, then the thorough willingness to completely drop all attachment, the thorough willingness will be developed.

[49:48]

And when that's there, the dropping occurs. We don't do the dropping. The dropping is being done already. The universe is dropping itself every moment. All we need to do is be willing to accept that. And the way we can accept it, the primary cause of that acceptance is acceptance, is patience. So this is another skill, actually, a skill at getting ourselves to the center of a moment of difficulty. Of course, it can also be the skill of getting ourselves to the center of a moment of pleasure.

[50:52]

That's the same thing. It's just that somehow we almost never want to get to the center of a moment of pleasure. We want to sit around the edge and enjoy attachment to pleasure. But sitting around the edge enjoying attachment to a moment of pain is really not that much fun. So we're willing to try another approach, which is called patience. Of course, we can also get angry, but that's pretty much just an elaboration of sitting around the edge being attached. So I would like, at some point during this practice period, to go into more detail on this second precept of the three pure precepts,

[51:56]

to go into more detail of the practice of patience, to discuss with you the practice of patience, to go into more detail on the practice of giving, and to go into more detail on ethical study in the dualistic sense, and to go into more detail of enthusiasm and concentration and wisdom. But my plan is to just do a little bit of that right now in this precept, to then go to the next precept a little bit, and then go into the ten, and then sometime later come back to the second one in terms of the practices of giving, ethics, patience, enthusiasm, concentration, and wisdom. Does that make sense?

[52:59]

You may not agree with my decision, but just see the logic of it. The next precept is the clarification of the mind, or taming the mind, or developing or maturing or fulfilling beings. Thanks. That's the next one.

[54:10]

And I already said and I'll say again that this one could be seen as simply, again, the continual practice of paying homage, venerating, going for refuge in the triple treasure. That's how the mind can be purified, that's how the mind can be tamed, that's how beings can be matured and benefited. But to tell you the truth, when the kitchen leaves I kind of feel like not talking anymore, because I like them to kind of be up to speed with the rest of us,

[55:16]

so I a little bit lose my heart after they leave. And also, they usually leave after I've been talking for a fairly long time, so maybe it's a good time to stop, even though this is kind of a defective lecture, because the punchline is missing, right? So we'll start tomorrow with the punchline of this lecture so the kitchen can hear. But there's a certain kind of punchline which they might not mind missing. Can someone think of something like that? Like, does anybody have a song about the triple treasure or anything like that? You do? Oh. Well, maybe we could sing it. Maybe you can tell them the song later. What is the song? I have the lyrics in my room.

[56:20]

But maybe those who know it could teach us. Do you know it? Could we hear it? To simplicity is gain. To bow and to bend we will not be ashamed. To turn to merit will be our delight. Till by turning, turning we come well bright. Well, this is a start.

[57:24]

May our attention equally penetrate every being and place. With the true merit of Buddha's way, to Jodh, Siddhan, Jodh. Beings are numberless. I vow to save them.

[58:35]

Delusions are inexhaustible. I vow to end them. Dharma gates are boundless. I vow to end them. Buddha's way is unsurpassable. I vow to become.

[59:02]

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