Thank you. isn't it? It's like a picture that's up in the sky.

[01:18]

It's like a picture that's up in the sky. [...] that both monastics and householders can enter Buddhahood, both householders and monastics can realize the Buddhahood. And at the same time, we have a ceremony that goes on this weekend of the kind of monastic initiation.

[02:35]

The ceremony is called Believing Home and Attaining Salvation. And there's another ceremony called abiding at home, living at home, and attending a celebration. You can go off ceremonies, the same precepts are assumed, same bodhisattva precepts. I've been saying that after going through the ceremony of leaving home and any self-admission,

[03:39]

You understand that the initiates will train closely with their teachers, with their mentor, and with the community for about five years as a basic training. If the person you see is really body-supported precepts, so-called householder bodhisattva mode. They do not have to commit to practice closely with their teacher and community after the reception. Individual students and teachers may have various understandings of the practice together after the initiation, but it's not understood at Zen Center that people with single precepts will be in residential training for a number of years after, but not required.

[04:49]

So in one sense, the main difference is that the pre-started nation requires close training for a number of years after the ordination. the Bodhisattva perception. And the form, the master forms and ceremonies, the basic one again, the formal sitting and meditation, We've been working on that practice together for a number of years, and the other practices are opportunities to realize the D.C., to realize the world of life. We have processed the initiate, the priest, and the community, the initiate, the priest, and the teacher, to converse with each other around this form, for example, around attendance of sitting in this room.

[06:23]

It's possible that someone, whether they're living here or not, although they might basically be committed to practice meditation, on some occasions they may not feel like going to the meditation hall. For example, early in the morning, around 4 o'clock, they might not feel like getting up. Or they might just not let you wake up. And then you have to sleep through the morning meditation to be awake. So then you're not sensitive enough to be literally in the room practicing meditation. Even though they actually made a commitment to go there every day of the week or six days a week.

[07:35]

And then if they don't go, there may be some kind of like consequence of that, like they would maybe go and tell their teacher that they overslept, that they didn't wake up. So they wouldn't ignore the causal process around that form. Sometimes they might actually feel like they just rather read a novel than go to meditation. And if they're a trainee, the idea would probably be that they would go to their teacher and say, I'd rather read a novel than go to meditation. And then the teacher or the priest will probably have an interesting conversation.

[08:39]

And as a result of that, the person might read a novel, or they might go to meditation, or they actually might decide they don't want to practice as a priest, they don't want because they don't want to go talk to somebody about reading the novel. I remember a story I heard one time from Kadavili Rishi. He was practicing in a monastery, and one of his of the Dharma brothers, who he really respected. That's a problem. It will come as a little vital living being. They were cleaning the temple one day, and the teacher came by, and near this other monk, there was a piece of paper on the floor or something.

[09:50]

It was named the teacher reached down and picked up the piece of paper and said to the monk, oh, it's this. And I think one of the monks said, took it from me, threw it out the window, and then I dug it and left the monastery. You know, I don't want to play this cleaning the Zen temple every morning, you know, to church. This is civil. He cares about the piece of paper on the temple floor. But also, I don't want to interact with you. I don't want you asking me questions about you, about the view, and what the meaning of the piece of paper on the floor is. I don't want to play this game anymore. And I know the collaboration is really... I really felt sorry for this man.

[10:55]

He had to give up his training and left. And I think we also felt sorry because he kept in touch with the man over the years, and the man was very unhappy. He was very unhappy about it. And it's also possible that the teacher might say, obviously, I can't stand this intimacy when I'm supposed to be chatting with people about pieces of paper. And it's just too much. I don't want to do this. I'd rather it be something else. So both the teacher and the disciple could just realize that they don't want to work out intimacy. But I now feel that working in the UCC is the right way, and that one, please train our opportunities to develop at UCC.

[12:17]

with this year, you know, it was 40 years since I became more dangerous of police. And in the early part of 1970, there was a fellow teacher who came from Japan, and there was going to be a coordination for the A people. staying at home and attending the duration ceremony, and I can't remember exactly what my motivation was, but I thought, oh, I'd like to do that, to sew a robe and a suit with precepts, bodhisattva precepts. So I started sewing a blue rock suit, and And then in the summer of 1971, I somehow found myself asking him if I could become ordained as a priest.

[13:36]

And in my consciousness, I was feeling like I just wanted to be… I wanted to practice in a form that he practiced. He was a priest. I wanted to be practicing in a similar form to those practicing similarly. Well, I already was, to some extent, but even more so than that, like there's a movie about In that movie, some of you say that I'm there with you practicing, and I'm doing these forms with you, but I actually have a shaved head and everything, but I wasn't doing priesthood. But I was doing a lot of amnestic forms. I just wanted to do them more thoroughly. But I really wasn't thinking so much about the precepts. I was thinking a lot about the ceremonial form of the group, and I wanted to do that.

[14:45]

If Santa Teresa hadn't been a priest, and he was just, I don't recall, there are some Zen masters who are not priests, if he was not a priest, there probably wasn't one that he could be a priest. After I became ordained over the years, I realized that I had received the Bodhisattva precepts when I started to build them. Thank you. About a week or two ago, I brought up a story about two ancestors in a lineage.

[16:01]

And the teacher asked the student, what is the business? What is the activity? What's going on under this patch robe? And the student had nothing to say, stood silent. And the teacher said, to wear this robe and not yet reach this realm.

[17:06]

with mouse pancreas. And then you mount that forward eight. The placement is under the patch goal. You keep yourself intimacy. And the student understood and showed his understanding by bowing in gratitude. And he said, what can you express your understanding when it's difficult? Ask me again.

[18:16]

If you ask me, I'm going to teach you something. Whether it's the business, I'm going to patch, I'm going to patch, I'm going to introduce you. I'm going to introduce you. I'm going to introduce you. Today I would say, what is the business under the couch role? I think we've already talked about precepts. I'm saying this as a proposal. I think we need to focus on the other side of the picture.

[19:19]

I think we need to focus on the other side of the picture. [...] This piece of paper has a lineage chart on it. It has the names of the 28 Vimgen Buddha ancestors of this new village.

[20:25]

And then has about 30 Chinese ancestors from about 30 Japanese ancestors, and then it has two what you might call American ancestors on this particular chart. This chart is called the Blood Vein of the Bodhisattva Precepts. And this document is given to householders and priests Householders and the mousetraps will receive the Bodhisattva precepts as needed.

[21:31]

And in this document, at the bottom, there's a statement. a statement which seems to be given by the ancestor Vögen, right in the middle of this chart. And he says that the bodhisattva precepts are, in the Zen school, the circumstance of the One Great Matter. What the One Great Matter is is not authentic awakening. The One Great Matter is Buddhic wisdom. The One Great Matter is Buddhas appearing in the world.

[22:36]

So, it says, to start from the precepts, The Zen school are the causal situation for the precepts and the receiving of the precepts, transmitting of the precepts. So, this document which we, in this tradition, precede and transmit at the time of receiving the precepts, Yishan says that receiving these precepts was basically

[23:41]

percent uh might be given you're receiving a present And we say in the tradition that when a sentient being receives these precepts, these precepts that have been submitted to a sentient being, they enter the ranks of all Buddha. The same rank as a great awakening. one who received the precepts was truly a child of Buddha.

[24:46]

So, this way of speaking in this world has been going on for quite a few centuries, and we're still saying this to this day. Reflecting on this, some people would say, well, these precepts are not so much about instilling moral discipline as they are about conferring the embodiment of Buddha. But then after conferring the body of Buddha, it says on this document, take care of these precepts, protect these precepts.

[26:05]

When we continue to practice these precepts, and when we say after even after attaining the Buddha body, when you continue to observe these precepts in ceremony with Aspect Questioning, and we initially say, yes, I do. And usually we might think that sometime in the future, after you attain Buddhahood, when you continue to practice these precepts, And sometimes when I thought about it, how surprising that you continued it back to the precepts after realizing you're good about it. This is saying, yes, you would. And we also have to say, from now on, even after realizing the Buddha body, we continue to practice this precept. And the Englishman said, yes, I will.

[27:05]

But the priest of the ceremony also said, you have just attained Buddhahood. in a sense. Well, of course, you're still a sentient being sitting here, you're still a sentient being, you're still a sentient being, but you have attained great awakening by... Not you have attained, but the great awakening has been attained by receiving precepts. Even though great awakening is attained by receiving these precepts, when you continue to take care of these precepts, The ceremony could be done differently. We could say, after losing precepts which are difficult to process, we want to perhaps see if someone might say, yes, I really liked it. Ceremony seems to be a little bit different since we've seen it.

[28:07]

First of all, we'd like to confer Great Awakening on you, and now I ask you, Now that you have Great Awakening given to me by giving me these precepts, giving me these precepts conferring Great Awakening on you, now that you've had this compromise with Great Awakening, will you continue to take care of this precept?" And if you said, yes, I will. The other way would be, in the precept, you have a conferred Awakening on you, if you'd like to practice it, and you might say, yes, I will, I would like to. So it seems like in this tradition we have this kind of amazing situation, I find, giving people the precepts and the Great Awakening simultaneously, and then asking them if they would like to continue to practice the precepts, continue to practice the Great Awakening, and now basically be able

[29:11]

I am. I've heard this language for quite a long time, and I continually have a kind of fresh surprise about it. I just recently read someone who said, when Shakyamuni Buddha was enlightened under the Bodhi trees, the first thing he said, the first thing he chanted was the Bodhisattva precepts.

[30:27]

And I had never heard that before. A Japanese Zen teacher about 800 years ago, he said this. Did he just have a vision of this? Did that just come to him, that Shakyamuni Buddha recited these precepts at that time? Where did that come from? I don't know. It's not around for me to ask. But he said it. And I didn't have so much of a feeling like it blinded or molded up. I more like wonder how people get their ideas. And I thought of what this meant to me. joseph smith i thought of joseph smith you know so i don't put him up in his room one day he gets uh get some ideas and uh he expresses himself a lot of people are in class so someone could like

[32:10]

and Shakyamuni Buddha was awakened, a little boy tree, he was tied deep where he saw the priesthood. That's a spiritual revelation. Of course, if you couldn't ask for a revelation, it's just the truth. And I also heard the expression, which I thought was interesting. One way to say it that sounds a little bit more problematic is to say, outside of Zen, outside of the Zen school, there are no Bodhisattva priests. and outside the Bodhisattva precepts, there would be no Zen school.

[33:19]

When you say, when I say, outside the Zen school there's no Bodhisattva precepts, it could sound like the Zen school owns the Bodhisattva precepts, and any other school that had Bodhisattva precepts found positive. Only the Zen school had the Bodhisattva precepts. You can hear it that way. The other way around doesn't sound so excessive. It just sounds like you've got the bodhisattva precepts and there's nothing more to the Zen school in addition to that. There's no Zen school without the precepts. So I, myself, I feel uncomfortable, and that's a good one, with any sense of Zen school owning a Bodhisattva precepts, because many other schools that don't call themselves Zen schools have Bodhisattva precepts.

[34:46]

But I also could say, I feel a thing about saying, there's no bodhisattva precepts outside you. There's no bodhisattva precepts floating outside me, and there's no you outside the bodhisattva precepts. I don't think you own the bodhisattva precepts, I just don't think there's the slightest bit of bodhisattva precepts a little bit separate from me. I think, to me, what they are, is they are simply, the Bodhisattva precepts are simply moving you. That's philosophy. You have no light outside the Bodhisattva precepts, and the Bodhisattva precepts do not have any light outside you. outside anybody. Their light is each person, completely being each person, which is the same, of course, as with Gnati.

[36:13]

as in all, you might be outside of you, and there's no you outside of enlightenment. You know, this is one side of precepts, this is intimacy. Would you like to receive these precepts, you ask, and you would be shifted. Now will you receive these precepts? Yes, I will. Now will you receive great awakening? Yes, I will. Now you're assuming being yourself. Now we accept the simple tendency, and now we take care of these precepts of intimacy. Also, will you practice confession and repentance? Yes, I will. Will you practice confession and repentance when you forget to take care of being intimate with yourself?

[37:21]

Yes, I will. will you commit to let all your actions encode your misunderstanding? What I'm understanding is that there's no bodhisattva precepts outside yourself, and we are nothing without the moonlight of the bodhisattva precepts. Will they make your actions correspond? Will they put your actions into conversation and down your state? You said it. I...

[38:24]

I don't remember how much of the ceremony, of the priest ceremony I went through was in Japanese, but it's almost like the whole thing could have been in Japanese. And I didn't understand anything Bo Ubi said that I agreed to. Or it was in English, and I was saying the words, but I wasn't really listening to them, and I didn't know what they meant. All I cared about was doing the ceremony with my teacher and my dog, my brother. It's like this terrible... a situation which I've heard many times is that these children hear about this very heroic possibility of joining armed forces of the United States in order to protect the freedom of the people here.

[39:54]

They join up for that purpose. And then they get sent into some situation that they don't understand how the hell, what that has to do with collecting people. It seems totally stupid to them when they get there. When they get there, all they really care about is taking care of their friends. You know, what they're doing. It's like they want to take care of their friends. Thank you. So again, it comes back to the basic thing is take care of your friends. And in the Bodhisattva tradition, everybody is your friend.

[40:59]

Absolutely, completely, unlimitedly, everybody is your friend. And you're committed to take care of all your friends. And to let them take care of you. Once again, whether you're living in a house with a few people or living by yourself, whether you live in a community with many people and you don't own a house, The Bodhisattva precepts are the people who are connected intimately with our being. And we get that commitment, and we receive them as precepts.

[42:12]

in communal sanity. The path realizes the belief that each path has its difficulties, but each cup can encompass the Lord. And in the way of Buddha, there's, you know, what do you call it? Northern or southern, better or worse. Whether you're not seeing some sense of peace, better or worse, thank the others. The Buddha's attitude of all beings It's a creative thing.

[43:17]

As people approach the initiations, pre-coordination with bodhisattva precepts, whether a lay or a priest, it seems to me a good opportunity to reflect on what it means to be a home, what it means to renounce any limitation on who you're devoted to. the limitation on who to renounce or to vow to learn how to renounce, the limitation on who to renounce. And approaching the ceremony counterfeit, how can I find the appropriate form of intimacy with different people?

[45:10]

For example, I go into the men's bathroom, not the women's. In a men's bathroom, I'm physically close to the men in a way that I'm not physically close to the women, because I don't go in the women's bathroom. But I don't think that makes me less intimate with the women. But it is an opportunity for me to be with the men in that room. It seems appropriate. A year or so ago, someone installed a vertical partition in his bathroom between the rentals. I thought, that's a good form for us to practice entities. Even though before we were practicing it, someone thought, I think this is a good form And in the women's bathroom, I guess, you don't even have those devices.

[46:19]

It's a different form, different practice. And so the women practice thinking the same in a different way, looking for what's the appropriate way for us women to be doing it. And in Zendo, we have a network of nanomimic practices together. What's the approach of a nanomimic practice in the same room? And in Eiga, it's a little different. Asian form is different. Once again, as they approach these initial issues, what does it mean? What forms? the practices, what ceremonies... What ceremonies, in other words, what form do they use to facilitate intimacy?

[47:24]

And then when we go to the ceremony, when the ceremony goes on, and then afterwards, how are they going to We need these forms, these precepts, to facilitate the realization of intimacy, to facilitate the realization of great awakening, facilitate the realization of the meaning of this precept. um so this is a lot many many big questions for us to contemplate together until all beings until all beings realize the reality of internal collecting, of what's going on in the Buddhist world.

[49:02]

I'm going to come to the soul sheet. I'm going to come to the body side. I'm going to come to the body side. It's very, very loud. I wish you a little bit of everything.

[49:47]

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