Now today is the first lecture of the year, so I also want to wish you Happy New Year. And it's also a day when we're having a late Bodhisattva initiation ceremony, ordination ceremony. Did you know about that? You know what the ordination ceremony is? Never saw one before? Well, if you want to come this afternoon and see it, you can come and watch if you want to. Maybe some people you know will get a rain. In the ceremony, people come in and... Now that's a priest ordination.

[01:12]

But that's right, that's an ordination. for a priest, when a person joins the group of priests, and they cut their hair off at that turn. But the lay people, the ordination is called staying at home ordination, or Staying at home and attaining the way is what the ceremony is called. And the priest's ordination is called meeting home and attaining the way. So today we'll have the ceremony of attaining the way of Buddha for the people who stay at home. And so you don't know anything about ceremony, huh? Never saw one. Well, the first part of the ceremony, we call to the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas.

[02:18]

You know what Bodhisattva means? What do you know? Something like the Buddha. Something like the Buddha, right. They're not the same as the Buddhas, except, what's the difference? Well, not exactly bodhisattas, but bodhisattas are like that. In other words, they have a lot of hands. Bodhisattas do the work for Buddhas. Buddhas just sit perfectly still and don't do anything. All they are is just enlightenment itself, completely perfect. They don't get involved in any work. But there's other enlightened beings, or just like Buddhas really, except that they have a lot of hands, they do a lot of things in the world.

[03:23]

Like they help people change their diaper, and they feed people, and they also feed themselves, and so on. So these people that are becoming ordained and these bodhisattvas, the first thing that we do is we call to the Buddhas and the bodhisattvas to help us have a good ceremony. And we also call to all the ancestors, all the old Zen teachers and Zen students to help us have a good ceremony. And then we confess all of our past actions. that might interfere with our practicing the way of Buddha. Do you know what confession means? Say something like, almost like apology. Yeah, it's like, first of all, you say what it is, you tell what you did, and maybe you have a feeling of apologizing too, like, I'm sorry, it didn't work bad.

[04:32]

And even you apologize or even you say things that aren't necessarily bad. You say everything you ever did, you confess it. And why do you confess? Do you know why we confess? You got one? Think about it. Sometimes we confess. God forgave everybody. Right. In some places, you confess that God will forgive me, so how about here, in our practice? Who will forgive me? That's right. How about if you confess to your parents? Will they forgive you? No. How about if you say, how about if you say, I did this and I'm really, really sorry and I won't do it anymore.

[05:36]

Then will they forgive you? Sometimes. Sometimes. Not very much. Well, that's part of the ceremony is the people really, really confess all the things they ever did. And they really, really want to be forgiven for everything so that they feel completely forgiven and completely fresh, like a new year. That's part of the ceremony. When I was a little boy, I saw a movie one time. Did you ever see Laurel and Hardy movies? Well, Laurel was a skinny guy, and Stan was a big... Oliver Hardy was a big fat guy. Skinny guy and a fat guy. Remember? Anyway, Stan and Oliver, one time they told their wife that they told their wives...

[06:37]

They had two wives. And they told their wives that they were going to go to, I think, a business convention. And so they went to the convention and told their wives that it was part of their work. And then the wives were at home without their husbands, and they went to the movie. In the movie, they saw a newsreel. They used to have newsreels with the movies where they show what was happening around the country. And in the news rail, they showed a picture of Stan and Oliver were at this convention, but the convention was not what the wives thought. It had all kinds of naked ladies dancing. And all these conventioneers were drinking and getting very excited. And there were their husbands right there in the news rail. They saw their neighbors doing it. So then their husbands came home to their wife. And the wife said, well, where were you? They said, well, we went to this convention. It was really hard work. But really, they were fooling around with other ladies and drinking a lot and things like that.

[07:43]

And their wife said, really? And the skinny one said, what? And he confessed. But the fat one didn't confess to his wife. And the skinny one that confessed to his wife, his wife said, pat him on the back and said, I forgive you and remember, Stan, honesty is the best policy. And the other wife beat up. Fat one, but wouldn't tell the truth. That's what happened, Dudley. Sorry. If you do something and you say so, you still may get something for it. But if you say so and you're really sorry, somehow you get free of it, a little bit. But if you don't tell the truth and you keep finding it, something bothers you about it, inside and outside.

[08:48]

So that's where we start the ceremony. That's a good idea? Yeah. It's a good idea. But what do you do next? And the next thing you do, is after we feel kind of forgiven, then we kind of give Buddha a big hug. We say, huh? What? Well, what we say is, we say with our voice and with our heart, we say, I take refuge in Buddha. That refuge means go home, go back to Buddha. So you say, now I go back to Buddha. You kind of join Buddha again. And then you say, I take refuge and I go back home to the Dharma, the teaching of Buddha. Does that make sense? No. Teaching means all good things that Buddha taught. Like, for example, sometimes if you're having a hard time and you're sad, if you think of the teaching of Buddha, sometimes it makes you feel relaxed and at peace.

[09:57]

Why don't Buddha go home? Well, home means that Buddha is really... You asked the word Buddha, right? Buddha is really what we already are. So if you don't feel that you're already Buddha, you go back to that feeling. So that's it, you go home. Well, if you feel that way already, then you just say, I feel that way already. You say, I already feel I'm with Buddha. There's only one. [...] They look like that because... They're all sort of the same, right.

[11:02]

For example, if you look, see the halo around the Buddha? And see up there, there's a halo around the Buddha? All Buddhas have halos around them. This one over here? This one? Yeah. This is a Zen master. Yeah, those flames are on it. That's the halo. See the thing on it? That's a Buddha, a lady Buddha. Those aren't Buddhas. They're protectors. They scare away people who didn't confess. Yes, John? Yes. Me and my mom are doing a bed sometimes. Yeah. We think, we have to do it and think, I should practice the Buddha, I should practice the Buddha. Right. And the Sangha too? Yeah. So that's what they do in the ceremony. They take refuge.

[12:03]

And refuge means two things. It means one is to go back, and the other is saying, well, I feel Buddha protects me, or is my shelter. When they want to. That's them. If they want to become priests, they can maybe become priests. Statutes are of you? They sometimes do do statues of children, but maybe you haven't seen them yet. There's one very common child that they make statues of in China and Japan, of this one little boy who went to visit lots of different Buddhist teachers. And he visited 53 Buddhist teachers, and they have lots of statues of you. She was so upset.

[13:18]

There was a girl once whose father was sick. She was a Chinese girl. The father was sick and the doctor said that her father needed flesh to get, well, human flesh. And you know what the girl did? She cut her flesh off to get to her father. And then you know what happened? The top of her head blew off. Yeah, right. And you know what happened? Then 11 heads popped off the top of her head. Yeah. Out of her arms cut off her arms.

[14:21]

The arms started into a thousand. Well, actually, only eight hundred. They knocked it off. The father got well. She became this great bodhisattva, which we call Avalopiteshvara. Do you want to know what happens next to someone? Well, next, after they sort of embraced Kuda and the teaching and the community, then they received the precepts. You're not preceptal? What? You smell? No, that's... That's innocence.

[15:28]

What? You put it, you burn it and it makes a nice smell? You can get the preset. Well, they usually call, they call them sachets. Yeah. Or what else they call them? Potpourri. Potpourri. Potpourri. Okay, what did you think? Precepts are, don't you know what precepts are? No, no, no, no. But I have precepts. Precepts are, um, precepts, you know, treat the word with the English word, precept.

[16:46]

And it means, I think it means something like spoken or set before. It means that, like, when you have an enlightened person, before you have an enlightened person, you have these precepts, these qualities of action. So the precepts are, we have three precepts, And then we have three more precepts. And then we have ten precepts. Altogether, 16 that we take in the ceremony. The first three precepts are the same as the reputable. The second three precepts are called the pure precepts. And the first one is, I vow... I vow to... do all good. I vow to do right conduct, to not do any wrong.

[17:48]

I vow to not do any wrong things. Yeah, what we could do is you say, right now, I want to do that. I want to do just the right thing from now on. What? You say it? Yeah. You say, I won't do any bad thing. And then, so what we do is we say, I really want to do good things. And then sometimes later, we realize that we slipped and we get something bad. Then what do we do? No, we confess. And then again, take record in the Buddha, and then we again say, I want to not do any bad things. But there's some more precepts.

[18:49]

I want to tell you the other one. Now the next one is, I vow to do all good things. Can you do some good things? Yeah. You can do that one, can't you? So you say, I want to do all good things. And the third one is, I want to help. I want to live to help other people and other animals. Yeah, and also living animals, if they're hurt or hungry, you can help them. OK? So those are those three precepts. And then the next week, take 10 precepts, yes? Well, what did my mom have been in the deck chasing kitchen and we buried it? And you buried it, what did you do after you buried it? I can't remember. I took the rocks and bows. What? Quite a lot of work, eh?

[19:57]

Yeah. And then we take ten precepts after that, and those ones are more like, we say, we vow to not kill, we vow to not steal, to not lie. No killing, no stealing, no lying, what else? No hurting, that's a lot, yeah, no hurting, but that's sort of like no, no hurting is like no killing or no stealing or no lying, all those things are hurt. Other precepts are terms like, you know, not doing any hurting. So, you know, the last 70 quarters of the three precepts, the first one in some ways you can say is not doing any wrong action means not to hurt anybody.

[21:09]

And then you take that one, not hurting anybody, and you make it into 10 parts. and sort of make more details about that one. So the details are no killing, no lying, no drugs, no drugs or alcohol or other kinds of poisonous things you don't put in yourself or put in other people, okay? And the next one is one that you maybe don't understand so well yet. It's about sex. You say no... No wrong sex. In other words, it doesn't say you can't have... You have to have sex, girls. You can't have me. But it shouldn't be wrong sex. Or bad sex. Like what? What would be wrong sex?

[22:12]

Like... Right, that's not appropriate. Okay, any other bad kind of sex? What? Do you sex with someone who's already married? Yeah. With someone now. Yeah, right. And what, any other kind of, any other kind of wrong sex that you can pick up? How about if somebody forces somebody to have sex? Yeah, that's right. But when you get married, and you have to, and you have to get married, and you have a child, and right when the child was born, the man leaves the woman, and you have a fat dog. Yeah, that's not the wrong set.

[23:19]

What is that? Are you guys really kind of antsy? Or do you want to hear the next five? Want to hear the next five? Okay, you know what they are? Are you guessing? No? Okay. The sixth one is not to slander. You know what slander means? Yeah. Nope. Yeah, you want... It's kind of like that. It means to smear somebody. To smother. What? Like smother. Yeah, like smother or to say something bad about somebody, like to say... Yeah. Yeah, put down. It's a put down, like to say... Kieran is a bum. Audrey is a crumb. Didn't even have a thumb.

[24:23]

That bum. Or to say, or to call somebody else a bad thing like that, especially when it's not true, to try to hurt them. Yes, sir. Yeah, that's slander. The other one is to don't praise yourself and put somebody else down. Like to say, well, I'm better than you, or I'm really good at that, and you're not. That's a sentence. Right, same thing, except you're saying it better than somebody. It's OK to say, I'm I'm an honest person. It's okay to say, I did a good job on that, as long as you don't put somebody else down. You can't do it. Yeah, right. I can do it, but you can't. And then the eighth one is not to be possessive. Greedy. Greedy, right. To not be greedy. Right.

[25:23]

Share with you. In other words. And also, don't try to get things that other people have, possess whatever people have. And the next one is, not to harbor ill will. It's a little different from saying, don't get angry. It says, if you get angry, don't keep being angry. Like, if you get angry at, like, make up, yeah. Say, I got angry, and I'm sorry, and let it go. Don't keep being angry, holding on to the anger, day after day after day. I get, [...] yeah. And then the last one is not to abuse or hurt the three treasures. What three treasures are? Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. The enlightenment, awakening, and the teaching of awakening, and the people that are trying to practice awakening.

[26:25]

So those are the precepts that they receive in the ceremony. And do you want to hear any more about them? And then the next thing they get, they get a lineage, they get a new name. Yeah, like Buddha or something. They get a new name, like, do you know your parents' Buddhist name? Yeah. The parents' name is Koda. Right. And Koda means loving the Buddha way. Okay. Or fond of the way. Ko means fond of love and Do means the way. Yes? Yes. Mipin's Buddhist name is Joe. That's short for something else. She has a longer name. But Joe is the part she goes to. Right. So people get these new Buddhist names. Why?

[27:29]

Yeah, why? Why do you think they get a human man? Um... They have a person. They, uh, they make them feel somewhat a person. Let's say one at a time, why do they get a person? What do you think? Um, because they, they, they need it or they want it. They need it. To help them. Right. And what do you think? It makes them feel like they're getting enlightened. It makes them feel like they're getting enlightened. When they get the name, at that time, they feel more enlightened. So it helps you. It helps you in your practice of enlightenment. And it makes you feel more enlightened. That's what they feel like. My Buddhist name? Yeah. Kenshin Zenku. Tenshin means kind of like, you know, the way you people see things, it's like the way a young person sees things.

[28:43]

Like you say, what's this? What do you say? It's a stick. It's a stick, yeah. So tenshin means that when you look at something like that, you think, oh, it's a stick. It's a curvy thing. That's what tension means. Tension means just simply the way things are. Like the way a child would see it. Like, what's that? That's a floor. Or is it coming? Right. That's what tension means. It means just naturally, childlike, superficial understanding. But, the next part is, the next part means, it was called the whole works. So this simple understanding, this straightforward childlike understanding, is the whole works. That's what the name is. She's scared?

[29:49]

I think it seems to be scary. You know, they have heads on the side of it. You see those? They each have... That one has heads on the side. One here and one here. This one. This one has one on this. And that one has one on the top. Here and there and there. Right. And that one has two. Right. They're not supposed to be special. They're both kind of special. They have different functions. If you want to sometime, we could explain about these things in more detail.

[30:51]

Okay, yes. What is the... What? Those are tools that they use to... The tools that they use to protect the Buddhist practice. Right. And they can protect you if you're having a hard time. Sometimes you can use certain tools to protect yourself from difficulty. Well, for example, if someone's insulting you, you can use your intelligence to protect yourself from the insults.

[31:53]

So you're intelligent. What? I can't hear you. What? I can't hear you. Some people who, like, if someone took me back to you, they don't say no. But they usually say, I don't care. They only say no. They say, I know you are with mine. Right, so they say something, they insult you, and if you say something, you think they're walking away, yeah, right. If someone falls sick, they say, I'm loving your clothes.

[32:55]

So whatever you say, then it bounces off them and stick to you. Right. So they insult you. They say, I'm ready to live. So then what that person says to you, it bounces off them and sticks to that person. Sticks to the other person so that other person is what that person says to that. So in a case like that, Father Daddy, you could say anything more. Right. How do you feel at that time? And what do you think about all that stuff?

[34:18]

Boring? Boring is so silly. [...] Well, sometimes they're not doing that, but sometimes they're not staring in the same mess that you're talking about. They don't like it either. Yeah, but they don't say, I know. They have other things. They had something like that in a different way, right? They yell, like the... Like, they start yelling, and that's the way they get it out, instead of checking up, like... Like, they have a scream. And all this fighting, it's kind of boring. My father and daddy, stop arguing. Kids kind of want their parents to stop arguing, don't they?

[35:30]

You don't know what? It's scary, yeah. Sometimes when they're really mad, some of them were, I think, my teacher and some of them, I have to teach you, they don't know. And, um, right, one of them, like, just this whole big paper thing, and there was all these chains wrapped up. And she was holding this paper, saying, why am I doing that? And I was next to her, I said, and say, stop, stop. And then she turned around, and the paper smacked right in my head, and I fell down. And then she laughed with me, hello! And then they would stop arguing and be worried. Sometimes my mom and her friend, when her friend comes over, they fight over what's for dinner. What?

[36:32]

Yeah. One of my mom wants to go out for dinner. And then her friend, she says, no, let's get home for dinner. And then she says, no, it's better to go out. And they get in a big fight. And we're just, what's for dinner? Well, there's kind of a mess of situations with her. Yeah, my dad's the one who will come see me. You know, it's a stereotype, right? Not true all the time, is it? Yeah. Well, you know, this situation is why we have these precepts, because we have this kind of difficulty in the world.

[37:41]

So we put our faith into these precepts in a hope that they will help us deal with this difficult situation that you just told us about. And in Zen, the funny thing is that the main thing we recommend, the sort of summary of all these precepts, you know, for when you're in difficulties of life, the main thing we suggest is what? What do you do? Sit. Sit. Sit. Tell Buddha how you feel, how you feel. That's right. That's right. Just sit there and tell Buddha how you feel. Yeah. Yeah. Right. What if you didn't do anything wrong? Somebody else did something wrong. Then you said you got in trouble. You sit with that. Well, what if you're talking to Buddha and you're talking to yourself?

[38:43]

That's right. If you don't know what to do wrong, and then you're trying to ask yourself, it's, you know, like, what did wrong? It's probably something to do. You know what? Yeah, we can. Maybe you don't know. If you don't know, ask another. Keep asking one after another. But also, you have to sit with this difficulty. They sometimes say that. They say, I'm busy. I don't want to tell you. We're going to talk to some other Buddha. Am I talking to his client? Yes. That's why they have the Bodhisattvas, to help Buddha.

[39:44]

Yeah. So that you don't have to wait so long. But the Buddha, the Bodhisattva, the Bodhisattva thing. Yeah, the Bodhisattva do the talking, right. And the Risa say, then how come you think you're talking to a Buddha when the Bodhisattva is not talking? Well, when you talk to a Bodhisattva, you understand you're talking to Buddha. You're talking to Buddha. Yes? I don't want to say. I don't want to say. You forgot? No, I think that. Okay. Well, there's a little bit more to the ordination ceremony than maybe. Yes? The 30 seconds to do all the work and stuff. All the Buddhist people say that you're talking to Buddha when Buddha doesn't even talk. The reason is that when a person asks a question, the Buddha gives the best answer always, which is silence.

[41:03]

The Buddha gives silence every answer. But if you can't understand silence, then the Bodhisattvas will talk to you. They will give you words. But the first answer that you always get whenever you ask a question, the first answer you get is silence. And that's the Buddha's answer. So whenever you ask a question, immediately Buddha answered. And that answer is silence. So Buddha always answers you. You see, you never have to wait in line to talk to Buddha. Because as soon as you ask Buddha a question, Buddha always answers you right away with silence. And if you understand the silence, then you're okay. If you don't understand the sound, then you have to voice up and they'll talk to you. So I'm not voice up, I'll talk to you. But Buddha won't say anything. That's why I have so many heads and so many... I'd be right for it. [...]

[42:06]

I'd be right for it. [...] With paper games, paper games, there's many ways you can help people. Like, why can't you show us the man? Why can't I show you now? Because I have to take my clothes off. Well... Why don't you just take a bow? I have as many as people need. Whenever people need something, I have it. Whatever you need. But you have it too. If people need things, you have it too. You have many honors in the kids too. Why can't you tell jokes?

[43:09]

Why can't you tell jokes? [...] Why can she go across the road? Why did she cross the road? To get to the other side? I know. She can stay off. Well, I'll tell you, we did be doing some jokes here, but I'm... Oh, three seconds a day. Well, yeah, three seconds a day, right here. But people do like a few jokes during election. And you guys have told some even though you didn't intend to. Have you noticed that people are laughing at your jokes?

[44:11]

So you told about 15 jokes today. Sure. Or more, I didn't count. You want more of those things and count all those numbers. That's right. That's right. But you know what? You people, you people are my heads. See, because we are connected. We are connected. We really are connected.

[45:12]

We're an infant volunteer. We have different stories, but we're connected. I believe that we're connected. I believe that we're connected. Well, you are teaching right now. Right now, you guys are teaching today, too. Can you be moved out today? No, not us. Can you be a fool? But Buddha also stands and walks in white brown.

[46:18]

No, it's not only sitting, it's that you can't avoid that. Sitting means, what sitting means is that you really are worried. No, no, I said... I didn't say you couldn't be a Buddha. He said you have to sit to be a Buddha. Is that a Buddha right there? Yeah. But that Buddha sometimes sits. And this Buddha sometimes stands up. What? Doesn't mean you're always sitting like that. Sometimes you stand up. See this Buddha over here, see how she has her leg look a different way? All these different forms you can take. Yeah, right. So Buddha is not attached to one particular path, but Buddha also sits. Can you believe in God and Buddha too?

[47:27]

They're almost the same things, but they're both different things. Buddha and God are coming, yeah. Hey, look, I haven't been here a long time. Yeah. I don't really know myself. Who did not exactly agree? You kids, you kids, you kids are reckless.

[48:33]

Want to take a break? Wow. Do you know, my dearie was the only thing that he taught us through like this one world. I'm right there. I'm going to go to school and say, Donna, go, go, I'm going to be talking, go. We're going to be speaking. We're going to be talking. [...] At the beginning of the lecture, I was a little worried about the power tools. What time is it? 11?

[49:35]

I hope it was too difficult for you to sit through that. And probably there's no time now to get a car. For you only. So maybe you could sympathize with their life. And think about, well, the Buddhism has an irrelevance to people like that. Who live in a place where people attack and pick on them. And say things like, I'm rubbing your boots. So we have a question and answer, and they already talked about more adult things if you want to. But I couldn't stop when I'm sorry. I just didn't, I couldn't stop. I lost control. Thank you.

[50:41]

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