I would like to continue to discuss with you how the precepts help us understand zazen and how zazen is a way to understand the precepts. how they're really the same thing. So in that way I'd like to discuss the three pure cumulative precepts and in particular today the first one. which is to embrace and sustain right conduct or say another way to guide ourselves or guide or train ourselves in regulations and ritual forms

[01:50]

The Japanese for this is Setsu, Ritsu, Gi, Kai. Setsu, that word I talked about yesterday, meaning to guide or train ourselves. In Ritsu, and Ritsu is our regulations, and Gi means forms or formalities of practice, of rituals, Regulations are things like, please be on time. Put things back where you found them. Don't disturb others. Walk quietly in a meditation hall.

[02:59]

Step in with your... Well, maybe that's not a regulation. I was going to say step in with the foot closest to the door jamb. And the forms of ritual are like the posture of zazen. The way of bowing. Things like that. Now, as you may know, this way of speaking of the first pure precept is the way we speak of it in the Soto school. And the ancient way that Buddha said was, maybe the earliest way was, for this first one, avoid all evil. So guiding ourselves in the practice of rituals and regulations is our way to avoid all evil.

[04:17]

On Sunday when I mentioned avoiding all evil at the question and answer, someone said, brought up a question which has arisen here too, but it's nice to see it come up anew again. among people who hear it for the first time at Zen Center, the person said, I came to Zen or I was attracted to Zen because I thought it represented a kind of non-judgmental way of practicing, free of the Judeo-Christian good and evil. So one of the ways of attracting people to Zen centers is just never mention good or evil. And if you're quiet about that long enough, people feel like the deck has been cleared, the controversies are not there, and they say, that would be a nice place to go and practice.

[05:29]

They don't talk about those things there. And so people come in to what seems like a safe space where these issues will not be mentioned. where people won't call you good or evil, hopefully. Maybe once in a while they could call you good, but certainly let's not get into the evil. And in order to keep our membership up, we have stayed away from these words, mostly. But certain fools have stumbled upon these words and brought them out of the closet. I think it is true that Zen Buddhism and Buddhism in general is all about being free of good and evil. And one way that one might attempt to be free of good and evil would be just, let's not talk about it.

[06:40]

And if that works, fine. But another way to be free of it is to bring it out and look at it, to say, avoid all evil and see what happens. And sure enough, people get upset and say, I didn't come here to hear about that. So generally speaking, the way is to be free of judgment is to study judgment so thoroughly that you're free of it. And again, the way to become free of good and evil is to study good and evil so thoroughly that you're free of it. If putting it in the closet would work, fine. I don't think it does, but I'm open to the possibility. If somebody had made that way work, I'd like to hear about it. And someone else said, what about the word avoid?

[07:52]

People here also say, why say avoid evil? Isn't that another kind of evil? And if avoiding is something you do, then that would, of course, be the same thing as evil. Separating yourself from evil, you give evil more power. Evil has as much power as it has. I don't know how much it has, but it has the power of habit And by studying it and understanding how its power works, well, we will become free of whatever power it has. Someone also raised the question, during that question and answer about a little ceremony we had here of a Tibetan teacher saying that before you receive precepts, before you do a precept or a ceremony, it's good for everybody to clap their hands three times to make the evil spirits leave the room.

[09:00]

And he said, again, I thought Buddhism was about having good relationships with all kinds of spirits and all kinds of beings. And I said, yeah, sometimes having a good relationship with a being is to ask it to go outside. If you're doing, I don't know what, there are certain kinds of activities you might be involved in when you might not want scorpions in your bed. So you might escort the scorpions outdoors so that you could, you know, have a good relationship with them. You don't have to kill them. Also, some people have problems with bees being indoors. You can also take bees outside. If you could clap your hands three times and make all the bees and flies go outside, that would be fine. But if not, you may have to get a glass and catch them on a window and put a piece of paper under and take them outside. This is a pretty good relationship.

[10:03]

They didn't particularly want to be indoors anyway. There's no flowers in there for them to suck on necessarily. So taking them outside is pretty good. It may not be perfect, but it seems appropriate. And certain kinds of evil malevolent spirits actually do not particularly want to be in the meditation hall anyway. They have more interesting places to hang out. They're actually just somewhat misguided and lost. They've just stumbled into the meditation hall. They actually would like a little direction. And when you clap for them, I guess they get the idea and go to their more familiar haunts. Anyway, we do want to have good relationship with all beings, and we want to have a good relationship with evil. We want to have a good relationship with the spirit of evil. so that the spirit of evil will just be the spirit of evil and we can live our lives without being slaves of the spirit of evil.

[11:09]

In Sanskrit, this first precept is called pratimoksha-sambhara-shila. Shila means precept, sambhara means discipline or restraint. And pratimoksha means those things which are conducive to liberation. So it's the precept of disciplines in things that are conducive to liberation. And what are the things that are conducive to liberation? Well, certain regulations and certain forms. And I thought about how are the regulations conducive to liberation. And the first story I thought of was a story about a great Zen master named Oka Sotan when he was a little boy.

[12:21]

And I couldn't think of another one, you know, just off the top of my head as I was walking down the path here this morning, I didn't think of another one. If somebody else has some other examples of how the regulations can be conducive to liberation, please let me know. So this is one that I can remember, which unfortunately many of you have heard before, so I'm sorry. I thought I'd tell the one about him when he was about, what, eight, seven, nine? He was already a monk, and he was sent on an errand to buy, I can't remember, either tofu or pickles for dinner. So of course the regulations are buy the tofu and be back for dinner. And so on the way to the tofu store, he saw a beautiful woodblock colored print of an advertisement for a circus.

[13:42]

And he stopped to look at the advertisement. And after looking at the advertisement for some time, he heard the bell signaling evening service, which happens just before dinner, and realized that he was going to be late. So then he ran to the tofu store, and he ran into the tofu store, and he said to the person in the tofu store, give it to me. And the man said, what? And he said, the tofu. So the man gave him the tofu, and he took the tofu and ran back to the monastery. Part of the way back, he realized he had forgotten his hat in the tofu store.

[14:46]

So he ran back to the tofu store and said to the man, give it to me. And the man said, what? And little Oka Soton said, my hat. And the man said, it's on your back. So then he ran back to the monastery late. for his, for dinner. He was, I understand, I think he was punished for this in some way or other. And after telling that story, Suzuki Roshi said, he was a very good boy. So we may think, well, what was so good about that? Maybe you think, well, he would have been a good boy to not have been late, or I don't know what you would think would be a good boy, but it's not so much that these forms, these regulations are there so that if we are exactly in correspondence with the regulations that then we're good boys and girls.

[16:10]

It's not so much that. It's that if we practice with these regulations, if we practice with them, with our whole heart, that that is being a good boy. Now if we practice with our whole heart and then we get late for dinner, we may get, of course in America we don't punish people anymore, but some kind of less than totally positive feedback. People may be uncomfortable with us if we're late in fulfilling our duties. And then we may have to listen to them express themselves on that point. It isn't that we should always be on time, but that we should commit ourselves to some regulation like be on time. Then if we're on time, we're on time, which is nice.

[17:18]

And if we're early, we're early, which is interesting. And if we're late, well, that has certain effects too. But we are behaving in relationship. We receive the regulation and we relate to it. As we're going to the meditation hall, we may stop to look at a picture of a sunset or of a little child. And we may look and we may be detained. And when we realize we're detained and we hear the bell, we may then, oh, remember what we were intending to do and continue. He was definitely... he had received this regulation. He did want to get back on time, but he had other things, too, that he wanted to do, because that's who he was. Now, if I was there, I might not have been so interested in the circus advertisement.

[18:18]

If I were, you know, 50 years old, I might have walked right by the circus advertisement. That wouldn't be who I was. I'm not so interested in circuses anymore. Of that kind, anyway. But something else might have detained me that wouldn't have detained him. Each of us will respond to these regulations in our own way. Each of us will see something if we're wholehearted about it. So Suzuki Roshi said he was a very good boy. And you could say, well, of course he was. He grew up to be Oka Sotan. He must have been a good boy. Oka Sotan was, you know, the most influential Zen teacher in two generations before Suzuki Roshi.

[19:27]

But I think if you look at that story, you may be able to see something very good there. What's so good about it? And also, as I mentioned, these regulations are like a trellis. And you can grow wisteria on a trellis. But the way wisteria grows on the trellis is not exactly the shape of the trellis. It does its own stuff in relationship to the trellis. It goes off to look at circus advertisements. It yells at shopkeepers. It forgets where its hat is. It goes off and does all kinds of things in relationship to the structures which it relates to. And it creates its own particular shape and foliage and flowers and fruits.

[20:33]

If it goes off too far from the trellis, it will fall. If it stays too close to the trellis, it would be a funny-looking plant. Not totally without virtue, though. That would just be a very uptight wisteria. And people would say, gee, that's funny, look how tightly it's wrapped around those vertical and horizontal pieces of wood. This must have been, this wisteria must have been traumatized in its youth. And there's two ways I imagine that wisteria being traumatized. One way is that it started growing and then it took away the trellis and just fell down the ground and then it started like just crawling all over itself and getting all entangled and started like almost composting on itself because it didn't have any support to spread out and grow.

[21:38]

That's one way wisteria can be traumatized. What is it, kids with, you know, with nobody at home? We just sort of like stay in the room with each other in the TV. The other way the wisteria could be traumatized would be to be overly pruned. So either way might lead the wisteria to hold really tightly to the rules. So some people really hold tightly to the rules. And there's not much venturing out into empty space and trying a few fancy tricks in midair. But even so, I think if the wisteria does hold tightly to the rules, to the supports, eventually its confidence will develop. Eventually it will look down and see that it has a huge trunk. And it could actually, like, perhaps venture forth into midair a little bit. And little by little it will start unfolding and becoming the thing it can be.

[22:46]

In other words, working with these regulations can be conducive to liberation, to becoming free, to live freely, and to unfold completely. And how do we train ourselves in the forms? And the form I'd like to use this morning, which I often like to use, is the form of the mudra. The mudra where we take our hands, for example, we take our right hand and place it against our abdomen below our navel and place our left hand on top and join the thumb tips. This mudra is called the Cosmic Concentration Mudra.

[24:08]

The Cosmic Concentration Ring. This is an example of a form that is conducive to liberation. I found in myself and also by watching others that the way we bring our hands together and place them at our center of gravity here includes the way we hold our forearms, elbows, upper arm, shoulders, upper back, neck, lower back, lower front, lower side, upper side. In other words, the whole body is included in the way you hold this mudra. And usually I can see, it's hard to see in myself, but I can see in others by the way they hold their mudra, I can see how

[25:16]

and why their shoulders or neck or back are also the way they are. So, in other words, the whole body brings forth this mudra. And this mudra brings forth the whole body. And by concentrating on this mudra... we, I, can concentrate on the whole body. As I was talking to someone the other day, I forgot who said it, whether it was he or she or I, said that actually the whole cosmos brings forth this mudra or comes forth as this mudra.

[26:22]

And this mudra brings forth the whole cosmos. The whole body, the whole universe brings forth this mudra, and this mudra brings forth the whole body, the whole universe. Therefore this form, this simple hand posture, hand gesture, is a form to realize emptiness. This form can be used to realize emptiness. And emptiness brings forth this form.

[27:26]

All around this form is emptiness. There's light all around this form. But don't try to look for the light. Just guide yourself, train yourself at this form. Just nurture this form. Just take responsibility for this form. In other words, set through this form. And you will realize the emptiness which makes this form possible. Again, I've told this before, but I re-experienced this. and I'm sorry if this sounds at all like bragging, but last night I found a place of peace.

[28:47]

There was some pain in the neighborhood and I found in the middle of the pain, I found this clear white space and it had a flat bottom. And I sat in this little circle of white peace. And you know, I didn't mind being there. It was okay. It's also just the first day of Sashin, so it's particularly all right to take a break during the first day. So there I was, sitting in a little bit of peace. Actually, to tell you the truth, it was pretty much just plain old peace. I mean, actually, there was no problems there. But I noticed that I wasn't really working at the mudra. It was in the neighborhood. Actually, it was down in my lap somewhere.

[29:56]

But it wasn't just being precisely so. There wasn't a total dedication to the practice of this form, of this mudra. The cosmic mudra was kind of on a lunch break. But I was basically, I was practicing patience and I found some peace in the middle of my bodily sensations. So I thought, oh, let's do a little training at the cosmic mudra, shall we? So I did. I brought the cosmic mudra into its precise spot. I brought it back from somewhere around in my lap to precisely against my abdomen. And I brought the hands precisely to their position. And as I brought them into position, I felt a structure being established in the piece

[31:02]

I felt forms being set up in the piece. And the piece got kind of darkened by those forms of that presence. presence of that form in this peaceful place. But it wasn't difficult to stand the complexities because the basic ground was peaceful. And I studied the cosmic mudra in that situation. I concentrated on it. And I noticed what I've noticed before about it and that it It is a great opportunity. It is a great vehicle.

[32:13]

It is a thing which is conducive to liberation. It is a set of wings. It is a spaceship. And not just a spaceship, but it's a spaceship when a spaceship takes off into vast, open space. And even when it goes from vast open space to beyond vast open space. And its usefulness comes in being just precisely what it is. Just like the usefulness of the schedule for that little boy came to him in being precisely what it was. Even though I was sitting in peace in the midst of my difficulty, the mudra was not being used.

[33:49]

Actually, I wasn't using anything. I was at peace, but I had no tools. I was kind of asleep, even though I was at peace. I wasn't avoiding evil. Now you could say, was I, had I fallen into evil? I would say, excuse me for saying so, although at first I said, it may sound like I'm bragging, now actually I would say I should confess. that I had fallen into a state of peace. There was me and there was the peace. Strictly speaking, this is evil. And when I went back to work, my wonderful little peace got darkened by the work of all these structural things being brought into this nice place.

[35:04]

My mudra was just floating out there someplace in my lap. I wasn't working on it. The cosmic mudra was not being used. And I felt fine. But I was asleep. I was indulging in this state. But I was encouraged enough to pick up my work again. Sometimes when I emphasize a form like this, I feel a little bit, I feel a little uncomfortable because I think that someone might think that I or that they have to do this form, that this is some kind of like, I don't know, again, the wisteria thinks it has to hold tightly to the form.

[36:22]

But remember, this form is used for liberation. It's not something used just to be done by itself. And once a liberation is accomplished, you can use the form or not use the form, just like you could before. And to carry it around, yes? The peace wasn't evil. The evil was I had it. Or I was, I said that I made the peace into something. Evil is not peace. I mean, peace isn't evil. It's my attitude towards it. I had forgotten about my body. I had forgotten about the pain. You know? It was by recognizing my body and recognizing my pain that I got into peace. But once I got there, I got kind of sleepy.

[37:26]

And I noticed, strangely enough, what had happened to my mudra. I let go of it. I wasn't taking care of it. I threw the baby out with the bathwater. Does that make sense? Yes? Like I say, it kind of got darkened. It didn't get disturbed, but it lost its radiance. And I felt these structures coming in, the structures of my hands and my arms and so on. I was dealing with this physical reality again. which connected to other aspects of my body. The piece wasn't destroyed, but it was darkened. I felt it was darkened. And I gave up something in the process.

[38:33]

I gave up a kind of pleasant feeling. It wasn't like I got a bad feeling. It's rather that I gave up a pleasant feeling that I had before when I wasn't dealing with my hands in a precise way. Yes? Uh-huh. One of the things that happens on the road to liberation is that people get into states of peace. And they think that those states of peace are liberation. And then they camp out in those states of peace.

[39:36]

That happened to, of all people, me last night. Okay? This camping out in states of peace is called Zen sickness. It's a sickness that only happens to Zen people. whether they have a membership card or not. It's a Zen sickness. It's a sickness that comes to people who practice concentration, who, for example, have physical difficulties and recognize them. And by recognizing them and not running away from them, they find peace in the midst of them. This is a result of meditation. That's a meditation. Then you get some peace. The peace is pleasant, radiant, a good campsite. Okay? Now, the fact that it's a good campsite is not evil. That's just a temptation.

[40:42]

The camping out, the stopping and saying, whoops, got liberation, not only is it pleasant, Not only is it radiant, but it's liberation. What better place to camp out? Well, there's a mistake here. It's not liberation. It's just pleasant and radiant. And that's a mistake. And then the mistake to camping out is more. And I had camped out for a while, I must admit. And while I was camping out, guess what I forgot to take care of? All sentient beings I forgot to take care of. I forgot to take care of all sentient beings. A minor oversight. For example, I forgot to take care of my poor little mudra, my pal. Even my close meditation pal I forgot about, not to mention everybody else. But actually, who cares about them? I've got light and I've got bliss.

[41:44]

Who could ask for anything more? So, anyway, I remembered. I remembered Zen sickness. I remembered Master Yun Mun. I remembered all those other Zen teachers. I remembered the Prajnaparamita, which says, the perfection of concentration is to give up bliss of meditation and continue on your path and go get the tofu. So I pulled the tofu up out of my lap and put it back where it's supposed to be, and life became more complex again. It didn't wipe me out. I didn't get depressed. It's all right. But I gave up what I had. I didn't destroy the piece. I didn't get rid of the radiance. It just got darkened by bringing these structures into it. Shadows were created. Now you can say, did you feel better when you did that?

[42:49]

It isn't exactly that I felt better, I just was doing my job. My job is to realize the cosmic mudra, to be at the place where the universe brings forth my body and my body brings forth the universe. That's all, that's my job. That's not camping out. That is avoiding evil. I didn't come in there and beat myself up for camping out in bliss. I didn't, you know, I didn't go off and, oh boy, that was really bad. You sat there for like 10 minutes, totally happy, you know, and all that light, you know, with all these other people. Who knows, you know, maybe they weren't happy. How could you be happy when they were happy, when they weren't? Maybe some of them were really suffering and squirming in their seats and there you were just sitting there just drinking in all that nectar, you know. Having all that light sort of concentrated right around your seat without sharing with everybody.

[43:50]

You're really a bum. I didn't do that. I could have. That would have been fun. But I didn't. I just noticed where my mudra was and guessed where it was. It was somewhere out there in the periphery of the circle of bliss. It was out in the, you know what I call it, the bleachers of bliss. So I invited it to come back into the center of my life. And when I invited it back, everything else came back too. Because the whole universe is in your hands. You got the little bit of baby in your hands. Everything's there. You've got all kinds of nerves in your hands connected to all kinds of parts of your body. You've got all kinds of bones connected to the other bones, connected to the other bones, connected to the other bones, connected to the other bones. You've got a dangerous situation here. Well, no problem. Just take care of it.

[44:52]

That's all. This is called avoiding evil. ...is the source of the laws of all the Buddhas This is the abode of the law of all the Buddhas. Right around your hand that you take care of when it touches another hand, when it touches your abdomen, right around there, you realize that these forms are nothing at all. They're just spaceships that take you into the vast emptiness where you understand what being really is. But there has to be a commitment to taking care of things which can

[45:58]

encourage us to give up even a pretty nice or even even really nice state of bliss and radiance. So as one Zen teacher said, I have I have eaten only for Zazen. I have taken care of myself only for Zazen. Lived only for Zazen. I have given the whole strength of my life just for zazen. And this is how Buddha lives in this body. And this is how Buddhism lives. I think when I was a young monk, I had that vow that my whole life would be just for zazen.

[47:16]

And I wonder, can I still say that? That I live my life only for zazen. That I live my life only to embrace and sustain right conduct. Only to embrace and sustain all good. Just to embrace and sustain all beings. Can I say that I've eaten only for that? And I've given my whole life energy just for that. So I vow to look at that question, to consider whether when I breathe in, is that inhalation only to practice right conduct, to practice good, and to benefit all beings?

[49:50]

Is there anything else I really want to use that breath for? is anything else I want to live for. And so when I bring my hands together, and I use my life energy to form this mudra, is there anything I want from this hand other than to benefit all beings, to practice all good, and to avoid all evil? Is there anything else?

[50:52]

And if so, how would I put this mudra? You know, I might put it up above my head. Maybe sometimes I'll do it that way. Maybe sometimes I'll put it over on my right knee. Maybe sometimes I'll put it behind my back. If when I ask myself those questions that's where I want to put my mudra, fine. Actually, it feels pretty good back there. But if that's the way I'm using my hands and that's the way I'm using my voice, if that's my intention, I don't think I'll use my mudra like I did last night. I don't think it will be somewhere in the neighborhood. I think it will be the universe, the cosmos will be concentrated on that point. I will be using my hands to realize my vows at that time.

[52:01]

Of course we may forget, but Then when I remember again, how do I use my voice? How do I use my body? How do I use my mind? I don't know how you feel about it, but, you know, the way I think about it is this whole room and the nice walkway around the outside and the whole property here, the whole setup is just so that you can take care of your body and mind.

[53:16]

This whole setup is just so you and I can take care of our hands and our voice as a way to express and realize the truth. Maybe I'm old-fashioned, and there's some other thing going on here, but I hope you feel permission to practice. I hope you realize everyone wants you to do that and is supporting you.

[54:00]

@Transcribed_UNK
@Text_v005
@Score_92.54