This piece of carved wood, which is nice and heavy, this has been sitting in the room where I meet people for dogs on. Have you noticed this statue when you come? You didn't? Did you notice him when you came? Can you see him better in this light? You thought it was a girl? She thought it was a girl.

[01:00]

How appropriate. Appropriate to what? Appropriate to this life. Some people think this is a statue, this piece of wood, representing Bodhidharma, who we say, mostly we say, our first ancestor in China, Bodhidharma. In Beijing, I think it was, or one of those big cities in China, during a pilgrimage a few years ago, we went to a, like a department store, like a three or four story building,

[02:09]

big building, and it had like maybe a hundred Buddhist antique shops, or antique shops where they sell Buddhist things. And this statue was there, and Andy Ferguson, I guess, got the idea of purchasing it and giving it to me, and then he followed through on the idea, and so now this statue is in my care, in a sense. Bodhidharma often is depicted as wearing his okesa over his head, like this, which makes, maybe looks like a scarf, and makes him look perhaps like a girl, or, did you

[03:15]

say girl or woman? Yeah, you said girl. And so here's, so he maybe looks like a girl to some people. There's a story that he traveled from India to China and somehow wandered into the throne room of the Emperor of Liang, of the Liang Dynasty, Emperor Wu of Liang. And this emperor, which, you know, the Chinese have records on him, that he was a great patron of the disciples of Buddha, that he built monasteries and supported lots of monks and nuns, and studied himself with a number of the leading lay and monastic practitioners

[04:19]

of the time. And so on the occasion of meeting Bodhidharma, he said, you know, I've done all these amazing, all these great works of support of the Buddhist tradition, how much merit is there in it? And Bodhidharma said, something like, no merit. And then he said, the emperor said to Bodhidharma, according to the story, according to the story, according to the history of the school, what is the highest meaning of the holy truths? And Bodhidharma said, no holy, or vast emptiness, no holy.

[05:20]

And the emperor said, who is it facing me now? And Bodhidharma said, don't know. And they say the emperor didn't understand, and Bodhidharma probably joined his hands together like this, and bowed, and departed. And they say he crossed the Yangtze, does anybody know the Yangtze, north of, north and east, north and west of Beijing? Oh, he was in Liang anyway, Liang is in the south, so don't worry about that. Anyway, so he traveled north, crossed the Yangtze, and went to a place called Shaolin, where he sat and faced a wall for nine years, and started various martial arts traditions.

[06:31]

One of them is, that my grandson likes, is called Shaolin Soccer, Shaolin means little forest, and that's the name of the temple where Bodhidharma sat for nine years, facing the wall. After Bodhidharma left, his, the national teacher, the teacher of the emperor, who lived in the imperial city, or imperial compound, he said, your majesty, do you know who that was? The girl who was just here? The girl with the kind of heavy beard? I guess she's

[07:43]

getting hormone treatments. Girls get beards, you know some that get beards from hormone treatments? Oh, without hormone treatments, oh, okay. Anyway, the emperor said, no, who was it? And the national teacher, juror said, that was Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva. Emperor said, oh, well, he called out to his attendants to go retrieve Avalokiteshvara, bring him back, and the master juror said, he won't come back. He missed your chance, your majesty.

[08:47]

Some people are able to look at pictures of, or almost anybody, and see how sweet they are. I'm amazed how sometimes people can look at people that, in one sense, appear kind of rough and tumble, and they look at them and they see great sweetness. But most of the pictures of Bodhidharma that I've seen, he doesn't look terribly sweet. Most pictures of Avalokiteshvara, however, Avalokiteshvara, most of them Avalokiteshvara looks sweet and radiant and relaxed and gloriously kind and so on. Behind me is another statue of Tara, and behind Tara is a statue of Jizo Bosatsu, the

[10:03]

earth store Bodhisattva. To my eyes, the Kishtagarbha Bodhisattva looks like a monk, in quite a nice robe, and he has quite a sweet and lovely face. And Tara is quite beautiful, too, and a very nice figure, and nice jewels, and a beautiful face, and nice hairdo. But Bodhidharma, although I sometimes like his outfits, his face looks sometimes really kind of intense or tense. This one in particular, his eyes, as you can see, are kind of bulging out. Now, some people say, well, that's because he had a surgery to remove his eyelids, so

[11:05]

he would be awake all the time. But anyway, he might not look sweet, although if I look more closely, I guess he is kind of sweet. He looks like he has a mustache. Yeah, he's got kind of a big mustache that goes all the way across his cheeks, kind of like Salvador Dali. And these bulging eyes. So he, but he's supposed to be Avalokiteshvara, the Bodhisattva of Infinite Compassion. As far as I know, Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara doesn't really have a location, but can be

[12:34]

manifested and is manifesting throughout the universe, and can manifest in a person, in a fish, in a mountain, in an ocean. And so, according to that story, Avalokiteshvara, the enlightening being, the enlightening being, not a isolated independent being, but an all-pervading enlightening form of being, which is always responding to the cries of the world, that being can manifest and did manifest, according to the Master Jir, it manifested as this Indian monk talking to the Emperor of China, or the Emperor of Liang anyway. And then perhaps,

[13:43]

Avalokiteshvara continued to manifest as this monk, who then is sitting facing a wall, that Avalokiteshvara manifests sometimes as a monk facing a wall, or a monk looking at a floor, as a monk, as a meditator, sitting on a black cushion. But that monk sitting, looking at the floor, looking at the wall, might not look sweet, might look like a man, might look like a woman, some people might say it looks like a man, some people might say, I think it's a girl. Somebody else might say, I think it's a peregrine

[14:48]

falcon. I was having tea with some people in this practice period, and a peregrine falcon landed right outside the window. You know, they look like they're wearing striped pantaloons. They have pretty long legs, and they have these feathers that come down around their legs, which make their legs look puffy, like they have pantaloons on, and there's horizontal stripes. Did you people see those? Did you guys see it? And I went, I took my grandson to the Discovery Museum, and saw a stuffed version of it, with the pantaloons and the horizontal stripes. But it was a little

[15:51]

different than the actual bird standing there. Who was that? Was that Abulakit Tashfara? And what did Abulakit Tashfara say? Who is this that's meeting me? Don't know. Meeting Abulakit Tashfara, say, who is this meeting me? Abulakit Tashfara says, don't know. It's a certain way of expressing compassion.

[16:57]

There's other stories of Abulakit Tashfara. This is one. This is the archetypal Zen one, with an Indian person who looks like a bird. Looks like this. He says, don't know. That's how he's being with the emperor, and that's how the emperor is being with him. Quite a few of the people in this room have received the 16 Bodhisattva Precepts, of the lineage which looks back to Buddha through Bodhidharma, and through Ehe Dogen.

[18:02]

And we have the three pure precepts, which I talked to you about earlier. And those precepts are, each of those precepts is a precept, which has a Chinese character, and that Chinese character means embrace and sustain, and it also means, it has a transitive and intransitive meaning, a verb. It means to embrace and sustain, and to be embraced and sustained. I'm not trying to... Oh, let's put it this way. I am being embraced and sustained to convert all beings, to be embraced and sustained.

[19:06]

I'm not trying to convert you, but I am being embraced and sustained by the trying to convert you. I am being created to convert you, and I am being converted. To what? To embrace and sustain the forms and ceremonies of Bodhidharma's tradition, of Shaolin soccer. I'm being converted, I'm being made into embracing and sustaining of these forms and ceremonies, which you can see, kind of straightforwardly. On the other hand, if you see me, you might think, well, that's a girl dancing. You might not think, oh, that's a boy embracing and sustaining

[20:11]

Zen forms and ceremonies, but you could see it that way. You could see, oh, he's putting on those robes, he's offering incense, he's bowing, he's chanting, he's crossing his legs, he's doing those Zen forms, those Zen ceremonies. He's coming on time to the Zendo. He's embracing and sustaining those Zen forms and ceremonies. But you could also see, if you look at me, perhaps you could see that I'm being embraced and sustained by Zen ceremonies. And you are part of the embracing and sustaining. When I come and practice with you, you're the ceremony that's embracing and sustaining me. Therefore, you're also embracing and sustaining Zen forms and ceremonies, even if you are standing there saying, these ceremonies are strange and questionable.

[21:16]

Or, is this a cult? Or, are these forms mechanical? Or, this is like the coolest thing of all time. Wow! Amazing! I get to participate in maintaining the working of the Buddha way. I'm embracing and sustaining the transmission of the authentic tradition of Supreme Enlightenment by standing here, upright, chanting these ancient scriptures. You can think whatever, anyway. The precept is the precept of embracing and sustaining these forms and ceremonies, and the precept of being embraced by these forms and ceremonies. It's the precept of receiving Buddha's compassion and giving and passing it on.

[22:26]

Through the forms and ceremonies. The next one is to embrace and sustain all wholesome activities. Generosity. Precepts, like this precept and other precepts. Patience. Patience. Diligence, concentration, and wisdom. To embrace and sustain wisdom. To embrace and sustain wisdom. Chanting the Heart Sutra. You're embracing and sustaining a wisdom text. Wondering what the Heart Sutra is about. You're embracing and sustaining wisdom. Paying attention to the words. Listening to the other people. You're embracing and sustaining concentration. Chanting wholeheartedly. You're embracing and sustaining diligence. You're using the forms and ceremonies to practice wholesome dharmas, and to be practiced by, and be sustained by, wholesome, all wholesome dharmas.

[23:35]

And then finally, to embrace and sustain all beings, and to be embraced and sustained by all beings. Now when you receive this precept, we say in the ceremony, many people in this room have said, Yes I will. I will receive the precept of being embraced and sustained by all beings. And I will receive the precept of embracing and sustaining all beings. And it just turns out that I look a little like Bodhidharma, but not everybody does. Some other people look like Jizo, or Tara, or Suzuki Roshi, or John Zenkei, or Dogen.

[24:40]

Suzuki Roshi's wife always said, I look like Dogen. I don't know how she knows, but I didn't mind hearing that. She didn't say I look like Keizan, or Bodhidharma. Nobody's ever told me I look like Bodhidharma. No? I see a few faces out there that look a little like Bodhidharma, but I won't embarrass you by pointing you out. I don't know whether you'd be complimented or not, but I do appreciate now that Linnea thinks that Bodhidharma looks like a girl. So now I can tell the girls that they look like Bodhidharma.

[25:46]

So those of you who have received this precept, those of us who have received this precept, we can think about, did I know what I was getting into when I received that precept? Did I really register that what I was doing was saying, I vow to embrace and sustain all beings, and I vow to be embraced and sustained by all beings? You didn't say it the other way around. You say, well, we just didn't have time to give the full translation of that word. To receive embracing and sustaining, and give embracing and sustaining. To receive embracing and sustaining, and employ embracing and sustaining. That precept is the samadhi in which we practice. We practice in the awareness, in the one-pointed awareness of receiving support and assistance from all beings, and employing that unlimited support and embracing to other beings.

[27:06]

We live in that samadhi, and we receive that precept as an initiation into the samadhi. And after we receive it, then, the preceptor asks us, from now on, actually it says, abiding according to this precept, living in the middle of this receiving the embracing and sustaining of all beings, abiding in the middle of receiving, embracing, and sustaining of the traditional forms of practice and ceremonies, abiding in the middle of receiving and being sustained by all wholesome dharmas, all wholesome things, and then employing this embracing and sustaining

[28:12]

from forms and good practices and beings, abiding in this way. From now on, and even after realizing Buddhahood, will you continue to observe this practice? Will you continue this samadhi? And almost always the people say, yes, I will. And then we ask them again, and they almost always say, yes, I will. And then we ask again, and they almost always say, yes, I will. And that's a ceremony, again, that they're embracing and sustaining and being embraced and sustained by. So again, I am being embraced and sustained to convert all beings to enter into this commitment. But also practice patience and not be in a rush, because we want everybody to be, as much as possible,

[29:15]

feeling like, yes, I am being embraced and sustained to embrace and sustain. I'm ready to make the commitment to practice that way. But even after you make the commitment, still, we sometimes forget. We sometimes forget to... We sometimes forget that we are being embraced and sustained, that we are receiving Buddha's compassion from all forms, from all beings, and that we are returning or employing Buddha's compassion with all beings. We sometimes forget. And then the earlier part of the ceremony is to practice confession, that we sometimes get distracted from the focus on receiving and giving. We get distracted, so then we confess, I got distracted.

[30:20]

I have been distracted. I have been distracted. And sometimes I was distracted, I didn't even know about, but actually, I'm just going to say in general, I have been distracted. And I can think of specific examples, but basically I'm just saying, I have been distracted. And in my distracted state, I have lived a dream of activity, which I call twisted karma. And when I was distracted, I was involved in greed, hate and delusion. I confess that, and that's part of my practice, is to confess that, and now return and take refuge in these precepts. Thank you.

[31:53]

So I, the thought crossed my mind, you know, it's, for me, it's kind of sweet to remember this precept of embracing and sustaining all beings, and being embraced and sustained by all beings. And sometimes it just seems so easy just to remember that. And I think like an old sweet song, you know, being, embracing and sustaining every being, every Buddha. Buddhas are practicing with me, and I'm embracing and sustaining the Buddhas. Because I, I'm Buddha's life. Each of us is Buddha's life. So, I'm, it's kind of a sweet song, but I can forget it. But sometimes I remember it, and it's an old sweet song. It's been sung for a long time among human beings.

[33:01]

So, you know, Ray Charles of Georgia, right? He's born, he was from, I guess, northern Florida, but it's right next to Georgia. Georgia, Georgia. Georgia, Georgia. You're always on my mind. Just an old sweet song. Georgia on my mind. Georgia sounds better than Setsu, doesn't it? The Chinese character, which means embrace and sustain, which means receiving Buddha's compassion and being sustained by it,

[34:14]

and conveying it, and nurturing beings with it, the Japanese way of saying it is Setsu. The Chinese way is Shur. So it needs two syllables to go with that song. So we can change it to Buddha, or nurture. Nurture, nurture. You're always on my mind. Just an old sweet song. Nurture, nurture on my mind. Abiding according to that precept. Nurture, nurture on my mind.

[35:16]

And by the way, with no gaining idea. That's kind of a, maybe, the finishing touch is, always be in this samadhi where there's no gaining idea, where the gaining idea is just washing around in the soup like a carrot, which you're not going for. So our great founder doesn't necessarily look so sweet as,

[36:21]

particularly if you look at that Tara out in the entryway, out in the cloud hall, the Thangka Tara, really awfully sweet looking, awfully lovely. In a way, this Bodhidharma is not quite as lovely according to some standards. But this is our ancestor. And maybe this ancestor has as much kindness and love for beings as Tara does. It's possible. We're encouraged to be open to that. And if that's the case, maybe Alan does. Maybe John does. Maybe Robert does. Maybe Liz does.

[37:26]

Maybe all these beings are as full of compassion as Bodhidharma. In a way, Bodhidharma is sitting with all these beings. And sitting, he sat a long time, nine years, it didn't say any details about, you know, did he go to the toilet, did he have toilet breaks, did he do walking meditation, what did he do when his knees hurt or his back hurt, didn't say anything about that, just says he sat for nine years. So I guess it's up to you to interpret whatever the schedule was. But even if he didn't move for nine years,

[38:26]

you know, which seems kind of, you know, unlikely, but it's possible, I suppose. Or maybe they had shorter years in those days. You know, those Chinese years might have been only ten seconds. Still, he might have been uncomfortable sometimes, because it was northern China, got cold, he didn't have heating in his cave, as far as we know. So he might have experienced some discomfort. But the path he was practicing, it was a path of ease and joy. So, now we're in this session, and some of you who have told me, simply, that you're having some discomfort, some physical discomfort, and emotional discomfort. So, how do we take care, how do we nourish,

[39:34]

how do we nurture the practitioner, how do we accept nurturing and sustenance in the circumstance of this schedule, which has some discomfort involved in it, some of the time, or perhaps a lot of the time. How would you nurture and sustain another person in this session? There's a lot of possibilities. You might say, why don't you leave session? That would probably be a good way to take care of this discomfort. But the person might say, well, I want to finish it. Well, what would be the nurturing way to finish it, to go to the end? How can you nurture and sustain your friends and yourself

[40:43]

and receive it under the circumstances? If you can find a way to nurture yourself, or embrace and sustain yourself, and also feel embraced and sustained through the momentary experiences here, that would seem to be good, because such experiences do arise. And again, Jizo, the Bodhisattva Jizo, is a Bodhisattva who vows to go into all different realms. So sometimes you see six Jizos together, representing Jizo going into different worlds, the six worlds. Goes into the divine realm, where there isn't any pain, actually, no negative sensation anyway. Goes into the realm of humans,

[41:45]

where there's kind of this basic nauseation. Goes into the realm of animals, where there's lots of pain and fear. Goes into the realm of hungry ghosts, where there's burning, insatiable craving. Goes into the realm of hell, where there's tormenting isolation. But the Bodhisattva can go into these realms and be patient there, and continue to embrace and sustain, feel embraced and sustained in these realms, so they can enter the fire and be with those beings and show them how they also could be there in a relaxed and sustaining and nurturing way. I don't feel like we set up the Sashin

[42:45]

to make pain, but the Sashin does seem to be a situation where pain, discomfort does arise. And then at the end of Sashin, a lot of us anyway, have pain, discomfort, warmed up our patience practice, a little or a lot. Most people have been able to work their patience muscle a little or a lot during the Sashin, and patience is one of the wholesome dharmas which embraces and sustains us, by which we embrace and sustain others. So when others come towards us, and, for example, put their cold hands on us, or their rough hands on us, we can be tolerant of that experience

[43:48]

and respond with kindness rather than unkindness, because we're tolerant. And the Buddha even said that there was a time in a past life when he was cut up into little pieces by King Kalinga, but he didn't hate King Kalinga or the butcher when he was being cut up. He didn't give rise to ill will, even though he was in extreme pain, and could have also, physical pain, and he could have also had emotional pain of thinking, these people aren't being very nice to me. But he didn't give rise to ill will because he had trained himself at patience during Sashins. He practiced patience with lesser pains,

[44:52]

and practiced patience with lesser pains, and then practiced patience with greater pains, so that he could be patient with very intense pain, and enter realms of very intense pain, and not give rise to hatred. If we go into somebody's room who's suffering a lot, before we enter, we may think, oh, I want to go and be with this person, I love this person who's suffering, and I want to go be with them and nurture them. And then we go in there and we start feeling pain, and then we might even think, oh, this person who I came to visit is causing this pain, they're attacking me. Am I being successful? You say, yes, you're hurting me. But by the power of patience,

[45:58]

I'm not hating you, I'm not hating you. I'm just in pain because you're successfully hurting me. You got me. It hurt. But I'm not hating you. Right in the middle of the Zen Center one time, Suzuki Roshi's wife said to me, Suzuki Roshi's way is not to hate. And she said that because people at the Zen Center were irritating each other at that time. They were irritating each other. It was painful for them to meet each other and they were hating each other. Right? In the Zen Center. And she told me that,

[47:04]

and she said, tell people that. And I felt like I didn't even dare say that because I thought they would attack me for saying that. They were kind of like, well, who do you think you are to tell us that Suzuki Roshi's way is not to hate? You think you're Suzuki Roshi? Or, you know, what right do you have to tell us that? We already know that. So I had to wait until later to tell that story. Your body's a dermal massager. Abiding according to these three pure precepts

[48:46]

of embracing and sustaining and being embraced and sustained. From now on, and even after realizing the Buddha body, will I continuously observe them? Or, anyway, do I want to continuously observe them? Do I want to continuously observe embracing and sustaining and being embraced and sustained? With and by? Do I want to be embraced and sustained with the forms of practice, with all wholesome dharmas, and with all beings? Do I want to? Moment after moment,

[49:52]

do I want to? Yes, I do. I want to abide in these precepts and observe these precepts moment after moment as they go on. And all the times in the past when that has happened, all those moments, I don't regret those moments. Those were good. Those were the good times. That's the way I want to be. How about you?

[51:01]

How about you? I guess I think that this is Buddha. Being and receiving, embracing and sustaining in these three ways, and embracing and sustaining in three ways. This receiving and employing, I think that's Buddha. With, of course, no gaining in there at all. Just, this is our life. No gain in that. This is the life we want. And can that always be on my mind? Is there a sweet enough way to sing that song so that it can always be on my mind without getting, you know,

[52:36]

you know, change it so that it doesn't get too hard in your nervous system? It was nice of you to come today. Thank you. We appreciate it. May our intention equally extend with every being and place with the true merit of Buddha's way. Beings are numberless. I vow to save them. Delusions are inexhaustible. I vow to end them. Dharma gates are boundless.

[53:41]

I vow to enter them. Buddha's way is unsurpassable. I vow to become it.

[53:54]

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