Here's a story. Spiritual beings deign sometimes to appear in time and space. So they participate in the creation of a space like this space here to practice with body, mind and spirit. So this is a practice place for the spirit to make it whole, to make it healed and whole is called No Abode.

[01:01]

There's many stories about how it came to be called No Abode. And that name could be used as a kind of slogan or emblem of the spiritual practice in this space. This could be, one could say, this is a place for bodhisattvas to practice. And there's a teaching for bodhisattvas What are bodhisattvas? Well, one definition of a bodhisattva is a being who is on the path of the bodhisattvas.

[02:08]

And the path of the bodhisattvas is sometimes talked about as the path to Buddhahood. The bodhisattva path is for Buddha candidates. People are candidates for Buddhahood. So one could say this temple has a name which is the name for the kind of mind that is taught to bodhisattvas, that is taught to beings who are candidates for Buddhahood. In the story of, oh, that's the space thing, this is the space, right? There's also the time that this space has been provided for bodhisattva practice for quite a while.

[03:14]

And now we're coming to the end of a time period called a year. So another year of this space being provided is coming to an end. And when it comes to an end, then there might be the start of another year, which gives the opportunity to consider what will the practice be in the new year? Or even what will the practice be in the next 15 days of this year. I actually today would suggest, or anyway I'm definitely open to this practice place not just be available for bodhisattvas,

[04:17]

not just be available for people who are on the path to Buddhahood. I would also like this to be open to people who are on the path to what we call enlightenment of the non-Buddha type. In the early history of the tradition, there was a Buddha and the Buddha indicated that this Buddhahood was the fruit of the Bodhisattva path. And the Buddha had a number of wonderful disciples or students who listened to the Buddha and looked at the Buddha and these beings became enlightened They became enlightened by listening to the Buddha's teaching.

[05:22]

And when they were listening to the Buddha's teaching, they heard the Dharma. And when they heard the Dharma, they became enlightened. But they were not Buddhas. In Sanskrit, they're called shravakas, which means auditors. They are listeners. Sometimes shravaka is translated as disciple. but literally means the listeners, the beings who listened to the Buddha and heard the Dharma and became awakened. The Buddha welcomed people who wanted to be enlightened disciples, not just bodhisattvas. So it seems like we should here also welcome people who wish to be enlightened even if they do not wish to walk the path of the bodhisattva.

[06:25]

Today I'm open to the possibility that some of you might be here just to become enlightened but not necessarily wish to walk the path of the bodhisattva. Because it is possible you could become enlightened in this lifetime. But technically speaking, nobody in this room right now is going to become a Buddha in this lifetime. Because our dear, compassionate founder in India, Shakyamuni Buddha, had monopolized Buddhahood in this time period. And he gave this teaching. Once the Buddha's teaching is in the world, which it is, fortunately, there can't be another Buddha until these teachings are forgotten and lost.

[07:27]

And the next Buddha has already been specified, so it's not going to be you. Or me, as far as I know. But it's not like we're going to be reborn as Maitreya Buddha. The next Buddha actually is present and waiting for her turn. The next Buddha is alive right now in the world, in the universe. And as soon as the marvelous teachings of the Buddha disappears in this world of patience, the next Buddha, Maitreya, will come and give the Dharma again. Fortunately, we have Salsita. So there, in some sense, we talk about three vehicles, the vehicle of the three vehicles, three goals, three types of enlightenment.

[08:46]

The enlightenment of what are called the listeners, the Shavakas, the enlightenment of the Pratyekabuddhas, and the enlightenment of the Buddhas. The Buddhas usually don't have practical Buddhas in their assembly. They have shravakas in their assembly. The Buddhas have shravakas in their assembly. They don't have Buddhas in their assembly, except for the Buddha. But they also can have bodhisattvas in their assembly. The early tradition was a tradition of the Buddha with these enlightened disciples or disciples who were on the path to the enlightenment of the shravakas. That's the early tradition. And a later tradition is the Buddha has shravakas and bodhisattvas in the assembly. Or the Buddha has bodhisattvas, shravakas,

[09:48]

and people who want to be shravakas and people who want to be bodhisattvas in their assembly. Again, in the realm of time, as the year is coming to a close, I'm kind of warming up to ask you, where do you stand? What path do you wish to walk? I haven't yet asked you, I'm just telling you I might. I propose to you that there is a profound continuity between the early history of this tradition in India and the Bodhisattva the Bodhisattva movement of this tradition.

[10:56]

There's a profound continuity between those who aspired to be enlightened under the leadership and teaching of the Buddha, but did not aspire to become Buddhas, only aspired to become enlightened with this body, this human body. That's the early phase of Buddhist history. The later phase is there were beings in the Buddhist assembly who aspired to be Buddhas. But aspiring to be a Buddha is not the same as aspiring to be enlightened in this life. You can be enlightened in this life, but we will not be Buddhas in this life. it's a much longer path than can be accomplished in one lifetime.

[11:58]

We had a ceremony recently over the hill at Green Gulch and it was a ceremony where one of our sort of long-term practitioners of our community, served as head student, and then there were questions to this person, and some of the people in the audience spoke of this person as being a Buddha. Sometimes people use the term Buddha kind of informally, non-technically, and sort of affectionately. You're a Buddha. In other words, I really respect you, I think you're wonderful. I don't know. I'm okay with that. I'm not going to... I'm going to accept people talking like that. If I hear any of you calling each other Buddhists, I'm going to accept that you're talking like that. And I'm going to probably feel like... I feel they're really being kind. They're saying, I appreciate you.

[13:04]

And then later people said, I heard Homa call Sese a Buddha. Is Sese really a Buddha? And I said, well... Let's go ask him. I'm proposing again, there's a deep continuity between the early phases of Buddhist history and the phase where the Bodhisattva ideal arose. And the continuity is the continuity of renunciation and non-attachment. In the early tradition, there is the practice of renouncing attachment and realizing the mind of no abode. In the Bodhisattva Shravakas, the Buddha taught that.

[14:07]

In the later tradition, where the Bodhisattva ideal arose, there was again this practice, this overarching practice of non-attachment, of selflessness. That's the continuity. The difference is one... One group is wishing for enlightenment in this life, even today. And the other is wishing for supreme perfect enlightenment of a Buddha. So the difference between the earlier and later tradition is not so much that the later tradition discarded the early tradition, but that it added new practices to the old ones. New vows, in particular the vow to become a Buddha,

[15:12]

Maybe I'll mention this first. No, not that one. I'll mention the second. First I'll mention that I would suggest the question, how could someone actually wish to be a bodhisattva? To take on this immensely long and challenging path to Buddhahood. How could someone say, yeah, I want to do that? And I would say that in this phase of history, most Modern, most scholars would say, most scholars of Buddhism would say that the cause of wishing to become a Buddha is compassion for others.

[16:25]

is concerned for the suffering of others. That that's the cause. It's acute sense, an acute sense of the suffering of others and the wishing to work for their liberation. That that thing which is also called karuna, or compassion, that's the cause of the motivation of taking on the vow to become a Buddha. The Bodhisattva vows are like the vows of the Buddha. Shakyamuni Buddha's vows are very similar or identical to Bodhisattva vows. Why would anyone... Why would someone take on these vows? Many, most, almost all Western scholars say because of compassion for others and for all others.

[17:41]

But there's another motivation which is not so often talked about these days but is in the tradition. And that motivation is that the person who wants to be a Buddha wants to be a Buddha in order to be a Buddha. That they actually want to attain the Buddha body. Now of course that can only be attained by an virtually inconceivable amount of practicing compassion towards other beings. So I've talked to a lot of people about their motivation over the years and some people have

[18:49]

told me that they do want to become enlightened. Well, some people say, I don't want to be enlightened. That's too much. I just want to feel a little better. I don't want complete liberation. That's too much for me to think about. I would like a little. I would like some for me. And they don't necessarily say it that emphatically. but they say it often sort of kind of they're kind of wondering if that's okay if they could be in the Zen practice arena wishing to feel a little more liberated, a little bit more free, a little bit more relaxed, able to sleep better at night, and so on. Well, of course, I would support that. However, that's not one of the traditional goals The traditional goals are basically enlightenment and freedom and Buddhahood.

[19:57]

They're not the same. Buddha has the previous one. Buddha has enlightenment and freedom, but Buddha has other qualities. Buddha has the qualities that if you put Buddha someplace where there was no teaching, the Buddha would discover it and give it to that world. So anyway, people say that to me. Then some people say, actually, I do want to attain enlightenment, but I'm not here primarily to help the other people at Zen Center attain enlightenment. But I do want to. I would like to be enlightened. I would like to be completely free of suffering. I would actually want that. But I'm not aspiring to be a Buddha. So again, some people, to say that they're aspiring to enlightenment is too much for them. Some people say, okay, I can aspire to enlightenment, but not to Buddhahood.

[21:00]

Some people say, I'm here to help myself in a very profound and wide way, but I'm not here primarily to help others. Some other people say, I'm here to help others. That's why I'm here. I don't care about myself. I don't care if I get enlightened. I just want to help other people. Some people say that too. That one is, I think, that's really quite popular, that one. I imagine that people feel that it's okay to say, I'm here totally for the welfare of everybody else in the community, and I don't care about myself, or I don't mind myself, I'm willing for me to come along with all that good, but primarily I'm here to help others. I think people feel comfortable with that because it doesn't sound selfish. It doesn't sound selfish to me either. So I want to help others, but enlightenment is too much. Just let me devote my life to help others. That attitude actually is not in the tradition too much.

[22:11]

I don't actually hear that too much. I hear being devoted to the welfare of others, yes, But are you devoted to the welfare of others for others or for Buddhahood? The path of bodhisattva is devoted to the welfare of others, but what's the motivation to be devoted to the welfare of others, all others? Not just the others that you would like to be devoted to, but the ones that you don't want to be devoted to. I would like to learn to be devoted to the people that I don't feel devoted to. Oh, how come? I think that would be cool. That would be great. Or I actually think it's necessary to be Buddha, to make a Buddha, and I want to make a Buddha. I myself have suggested that bodhisattvas

[23:13]

wish to live in the world with all living beings. I've suggested that. That kind of perspective in bodhisattva is kind of saying, well, that would go with the reason I'm doing this is because I care for the welfare of beings. So, of course, it would make sense that I would want to be intimate with them and live with them so I could practice the compassion with them. But the other side is that actually making a Buddha might actually involve that you don't spend time with living beings in order to develop the Buddha body. And that line of making a Buddha, which sometimes involves not engaging with other living beings, that way kind of relates to the earlier way of becoming enlightened, where one gives up involvement, gives up certain involvements.

[24:44]

in order to realize non-attachment. And when I say that, people start to feel something about the challenge of becoming enlightened and something about the challenge of being a Buddha. The Zen tradition kind of combines the two traditions. What two traditions? Well, actually, I should say it kind of involves the two traditions, but it also involves even more so the two motivations. The Zen tradition is about the concern for the welfare of others, but it's also about making Buddhas. A Zen monastery is called a Buddha-making house, a house for making Buddhas.

[25:50]

But it's a house where other beings are there practicing closely together. But in some of the teachings for the bodhisattvas, for the people who wish to be Buddhas, The Bodhisattva is encouraged to practice solitude, to go off in the wilderness by herself in order to make a Buddha. And the Buddha, the historical Buddha, went off into the forest to make a Buddha. In the Zen tradition we say we call the monastery a forest and we stay close together. We don't go off into the wilderness. So we try to have solitude with other people around.

[26:57]

So it kind of combines the bodhisattva path is to engage with living beings because we're concerned for their welfare and also solitude to make a Buddha. Buddhas need In order to make a Buddha, you have to practice compassion with living beings and you need solitude. You need both to make a Buddha. But someone might think, but to make a... But maybe, no, some people say, no, you can just make a Buddha by practicing compassion. The reason why I'm on this bodhisattva path, the reason why I want to be a Buddha is because I'm concerned for the welfare of beings. Okay, but part of becoming a Buddha is to practice concentration and wisdom. And in order to practice concentration and wisdom, you need solitude. So, Two nights ago I mentioned in Berkeley and on December 2nd I mentioned at Green Gulch an image from the book Moby Dick.

[28:35]

And it's an image that appears in a chapter which is called The Pulpit. And the pulpit is a raised platform for giving sermons, but it's also a raised platform on a whaling boat. So when the author of Moby Dick named the chapter Pulpit, he was playing with the pulpit of the church for this scene that took place in a church. of a preacher getting up into the pulpit, but he also, I think, knew that the platform at the end of a whaling boat is also a pulpit. That's the origin of the word. The word comes from the platform on the boat and gets transferred to the church. And so on a stormy night, this minister, this preacher, comes into the church and goes up to the pulpit.

[29:53]

And this pulpit, in order to save space, doesn't have steps. It has a rope ladder. And the minister climbs up the ladder to get into the pulpit. And when he gets into the pulpit, he pulls the ladder up into the pulpit. cutting himself off from where he came from. That's part of the practice. You climb into your place where you're going to sit And then you pull the way you got there up into your seat. You cut off how you got to your sitting place. You cut off your past. And also you cut off your future. You cut off how you're going to get out of your sitting place. You go to your sitting place and you give up past and future. Because we are looking for this place to find the mind of no abode.

[30:54]

And Melville talks about this place that he created, a self-contained stronghold for replenishing, for replenishing the meat and wine of the Word. The continuity between the early tradition of those who wish to become enlightened in this life and those who wish to become Buddhas, the continuity is the pulpit, is solitude, is a place to go and sit and pull up the rope from the past, which is also the rope to the future. Pull the ropes from the past and future up, put them down in front of you and sit there and realize enlightenment or Buddhahood.

[32:01]

The continuity between realizing enlightenment in this life and realizing Buddhahood someday the continuity is the practice place. The difference is the vow. I'd like to tell you that there's another topic which I wish to raise, and I'm going to raise it now, but I'm not going to go into it. I'll go into it later today. I want to tell you about it, though. And it's the topic of whether the bodhisattva practice, or I'll talk about, first of all, is the shravaka practice imitative of the Buddha,

[33:08]

Or is the shravaka practice a practice of relating to the Buddha? And is the bodhisattva imitating the Buddha, or is it a practice of relationship with the Buddha? That's a topic I'd like to raise later. For now, I want to discuss with you, now that I've said this to you, how this is for you. And also I'm asking you to consider Do you aspire to an enlightenment in this lifetime? Do you aspire to give in this lifetime to the path of becoming a Buddha, knowing that the path that you're not going to become a Buddha in this lifetime? And do you have some questions about this? And this question is offered to you as we come to the close of the year for you to consider the rest of your life, or even a lot longer than the rest of your life.

[34:19]

Okay? I'll think about this with you. Yes? Yes? Anything? So, given that we're out of luck to become a Buddha, In this lifetime. In this lifetime. Not just this lifetime, but this entire lifetime. It's not that I can't become a Buddha in my lifetime. It's that it's been done and can't happen again until the conditions are met. Right. Yes. So given that, is it possible to become a Bodhisattva in my life or in this lifetime? Did you hear his question? Is it possible to become a Bodhisattva in this lifetime? In my lifetime or in this lifetime? in my lifetime or in this lifetime? The answer, I would say, is yes.

[35:21]

And how do you become a bodhisattva? Any questions about that? What questions do you have about that? Any questions about how to become a bodhisattva? Yes? What sets a person on that path, studying the Dharma, just a daily practice? What sets someone on the path of bodhisattva? A motivation. And I propose to you that the two motivations are two motivations. And I said the most common one in this phase of history, the most common one that people will tell you that looked at Buddhism, they'll say that the concern for the suffering of others, that's the start, that's the motivation for wishing to enter this path. Not so popular to say this day, but if you look at the Buddhist teachings,

[36:30]

If you look at the records of the Bodhisattva vehicle texts, there's another motivation, which doesn't exclude the former one, you can still have compassion, but it's not just, it's the primary one. It's the wish to be a Buddha. It's the wish to realize the Buddha body. If you had either of those two motivations, or both, then you could actually wish to Here's the thing. Just wishing to help others is not a bodhisattva vow. The bodhisattva vow is wishing to help others, but also wishing to have wisdom, Buddha's wisdom. It isn't just I wish to help others. I wish to help others with an enlightened mind. Right now I wish to help others with the mind of God. I think that's great.

[37:31]

Don't you think that's good? Some people, as you know, some people, what they think helping others is, given their mind, a lot of other people think that's not helpful. Have you noticed that? We have quite a bit going on now where people are doing what they think is helpful and other people think it's really, really not helpful. What you're doing is not helpful. Please stop it. But I'm trying to help you. This is not helpful. But still, there is this thing in us that we want to be helpful. If you want to be helpful and you want to also have some wisdom so that you're helpful not just according to your idea but according to reality, in other words, you actually wish to become really enlightened in order to help other beings. you'd like to become most supremely and perfectly enlightened in order to help other beings. That wish is the bodhisattva wish.

[38:32]

It's not just wishing to help others. It's wishing to realize the Buddha body in order to help others. The thing I'm showing you today is, is the wishing to realize the Buddha body in order to help others, is it the wishing to realize the Buddha body that's primary, that's central, or is it wishing to help others that's central? And I'm saying, at this time in history, wishing to help others as central is, most people say that's the motivation. Wishing to be a Buddha in order to help others, that's the Buddha part secondary. But the Bodhisattva vow is both of them. I wish to become Buddha in order to help others. But you can also just take away the helping others. I wish to be Buddha is helping others. And in order to be a Buddha, I know I have to help others quite a bit. I have to help others, you know.

[39:33]

Any way they ask, pretty much I will help them that way. That will be part of the path of making a Buddha, is to give myself to others. If you have those kinds of motivations, And which kind do you have? Do you have one, the other, or both combined? If you have that motivation, the next step would be that you actually wish to practice that way, that wish, that vow. And then you make a vow. You say, I wish and I commit to this wish. And then the next thing is, if you take care of that wish for a while, you become a bodhisattva. Just the wish doesn't make a bodhisattva. However, bodhisattvas have that wish. If you take care of that wish, you become a bodhisattva. And it can happen in this life. It could even happen in a few minutes. Some people, they took care of that thought really a lot in a few minutes.

[40:39]

They would become a bodhisattva in this life. Yes, yes, yes, yes. Are there enlightened bodhisattvas? We have to be very careful, see. Bodhisattvas can be enlightened, but they have to be careful not to get the kind of enlightenment that will preclude their path to Buddhahood. there's this little technical twist, is that these early students of Buddha became enlightened, but the way they became enlightened did not allow them to become Buddhas. The way they became enlightened is they got no more opportunities at the end of their life to develop the Buddha qualities.

[41:41]

So bodhisattvas need the ability to be enlightened. They need to get enlightened without getting enlightened in such a way that they can't keep working on this Buddha path. So it's kind of a tricky thing. A student of Theravada Buddhism said that bodhisattvas must not be able to be the first stage of asravaka, which has three stages, four stages. Stream entry, where they first wake up, and then once returner, never returner, and fully trained, what we call arhat. Those are the four stages. And even the first stage, even at the first stage, you have at most seven more lifetimes. That's not enough to become a Buddha. So bodhisattvas have to understand as well as the stream-enterer and so on, they have to understand the Dharma as well as them and yet not get involved with that in such a way that they only have seven more lifetimes.

[42:52]

So what is that? What makes it different? Well, the vow. The vow is what protects them. The vow is what keeps them very careful not to abide in that situation of awakening. In order to go from the early middle and final stages of the enlightenment of the disciples, the Buddhas have to not abide in those stages. Otherwise they'll just become enlightened disciples. Because if you ask me what I would want, I would want both. Which is the both? Enlightenment. I would want to be an enlightened bodhisattva. Again, let me say, there is a deep continuity between the path of the enlightened student of the Buddha. There's a deep continuity between that enlightenment and the enlightenment of a bodhisattva.

[44:03]

And the continuity is non-attachment. Renunciation. That would include renouncing enlightenment. That's a continuity. All The Buddhist disciples should not have enlightenment. They shouldn't be possessive of it. That promotes it. So the disciples should be like that too. And they are. The disciples don't have enlightenment. They enter it and live there. That's their life. Because they're enlightened, they don't think about, I have enlightenment. These are like really wise people. They're disciples of the Buddha. They're like successful Buddha projects. Buddhas make these wonderful disciples by interacting with them and teaching them. And these disciples, when they really understand, they don't have enlightenment.

[45:06]

They don't have anything. They don't have concentration either. They don't have compassion. They don't have generosity and patience and humility. They don't have anything. And nothing has them. These are like sages, Buddhist sages, authentic disciples of the Buddha who do not wish to become Buddhas. They're happy to be enlightened and free and, you know, and be compassionate and patient and ethical and careful and tender and free. They're happy to be that way without attaching to any of it. Doesn't that sound good? Even today in this world, in this Buddhist world, People are very careful.

[46:13]

People do not claim to be sages of that quality. If you ask some of the sages, some of the possible sages in the Buddhist world, Are you one of the sages? Are you a disciple of Buddha? Are you an enlightened disciple? The people who wish to be enlightened disciples, if you ask them, they won't say so. They won't say yes. Part of the culture is you don't say yes to that. And then sort of like other people say it for you, that person really is, you know. So it's not clear that there are any of these stream-enterers or arhats in the world today. But some people think there are. But the ones who are won't say that they are. They won't say, yes, I am an arhat. I am a completely enlightened disciple of Buddha. They don't talk like that. The Buddhas, however, get to talk like that. And in Zen monasteries we do services on a regular basis, some temples on a daily basis.

[47:23]

We pay homage to these sages, these stream-enterers, these arhats. We pay homage to all the people who are on the noble path. In other words, all the enlightened disciples and the great ones who have gone all the way. We honor them. These are amazing disciples of Buddha. And their enlightenment is a real enlightenment. It's just that it doesn't have the wish to become Buddha. So they get to have it. Not have it, but they get to enter it and live there and not... participate in rebirth anymore. And during the time that they're on that path, they bring great benefit to the world. We honor that. And the more people enter that path, they bring great benefit to the world. And between the time they enter and when they don't enter anything anymore, they get great benefit to the world.

[48:24]

But they do actually, in a fairly short period of time, they're not around anymore as spiritual beings. It's a very amazingly high level of spiritual awakening, a very deep wisdom. But they did not wish to become Buddhas. When the Buddha met her first disciples, those five guys, apparently none of them wished to be a Buddha that we know of. But they somehow were willing to listen to Buddha, and when they listened, they became enlightened sages. And the story is they weren't reborn, those guys. That was the end for them. And from the time they were awakened until they went into perfect, complete nirvana, in other words, they actually entered into the Dharma and all that was left was the Dharma.

[49:30]

They entered the truth and there was nothing but truth. Between the time that they entered and that point, they helped many other people enter the path. And many, many, many who entered and attained awakening. They're great disciples of Buddha. It's a wonderful thing. But there's this other path which sort of we're dealing with now, the path of bodhisattva, which wishes to be Buddha. Any questions? Yes? Charlie had a question. And Helen had a question. And you have a question? Yes? You said that Buddhists have to help people however they ask. No, bodhisattvas. It's not that you help them the way they ask you to. Like they ask you, you know, I don't know what's an example. Oh yeah, they say, can I have your clothes?

[50:33]

And you say, yes, and also you can have the full moon too. They say, I didn't ask for the full one. I say, okay, well, I'm giving it to you anyway. So you don't necessarily give them what they ask for. This guy has some drugs. You say, what kind do you want? They say, I want this kind. I say, no, I don't have that kind, but I'll give you this kind. They say, can I have your body? I say, which one do you want? So you basically, you don't necessarily give them what they ask for, but you give them whatever you have to give. And if what they want is what you have to give, you give it to them. Bodhisattvas learn to do that. And as you can imagine, it's quite a difficult thing to learn. But they learn basically to give themselves. Not because anybody needs them, what they have to give, but they need to learn to give. Bodhisattvas need to learn that in order to be a Buddha. And so there's many stories in this history now of the Buddha when he was a bodhisattva, giving himself.

[51:36]

And sometimes you give things that people don't ask for, like the Buddha. Like the pagas didn't exactly ask the Buddha to give them his body. He just saw they were hungry, and he thought, oh. And they accepted the gift. So bodhisattva's practice giving, the first practice of becoming a Buddha, once you get on the Buddha path, the first practice is generosity. And it becomes pervasive. Any questions? Helen? I had a question, and I thought an understanding, but now I just have a lot of confusion. So I thought, to translate that, maybe you were saying a Bodhisattva path. You said haps won't do that. Well, maybe that's like a monk's life, and the other, if that's a enlightenment, could be a lay person. But then you said that you could be on the path in a few minutes to a Bodhisattva path. Let me make clear. The path to enlightenment in this life, there's two approaches to that path, a lay and a priest.

[52:49]

But they would say in order to actually fulfill the path in this life, the lay person would, before they die, have to become, I shouldn't say priest, but have to become a monk or a nun. Okay? The path of a self. No. Even being a monk. The enlightenment in this life has two types of disciples of that path, lay and monastic. But in order to have the enlightenment, take it back. You can actually become a stream-enterer as a lay person. I don't know if you can finish the whole course as a lay person. The bodhisattva has two vehicles. lay and monastic. A lay person can be a bodhisattva. A lay person can be a bodhisattva for many lifetimes. A monastic can be a bodhisattva for many lifetimes.

[53:52]

The monastic bodhisattvas who live in this world now will not become Buddha in this lifetime they're in. The lay Bodhisattvas will not become Buddhas in this lifetime. That's a teaching. I haven't heard any contradiction to that, except people saying, hey, so-and-so is a Buddha, which I'm happy to hear. However, there's also a teaching that at the time of becoming a Buddha, you have to switch over to being a monastic. But it's possible, kind of unlikely, that you'd be a lay bodhisattva for a few billion lifetimes and then your last one you'd become a monk. It's also possible to be a monk for many lifetimes, be a lay bodhisattva for many lifetimes, a monk for many lifetimes, a lay bodhisattva for many lifetimes, switch back and forth. You can practice the Bodhisattva way and you can also practice the other way as a monk or a lay person.

[55:00]

It's just that in that tradition there was more of a feeling like the lay people are not really doing it. I don't know if that's true, but again, lay people in the early tradition, there are examples of them becoming Do you know any laypeople who became arhats? Any examples? I think that's what they say is you can realize it, but the moment you realize it, you immediately go seek ordination. But a streamenter? As an arhat. Arhat, yeah. And I think it's because you're not attached to anything anymore. Yeah. And there are examples in the scriptures of lay people coming to the Buddha, interacting with the Buddha, waking up, and then saying, I want to become a monk. And of course, there's also examples of monks coming to the Buddha, waking up, and saying, now I want to continue.

[56:03]

I don't know of any examples of a monk coming to Buddha, waking up in the encounter, and saying, now I want to be a lay person. In that early tradition, the bodhisattva tradition, the monk comes to the Buddha, wakes up and says, now I want to be a lay bodhisattva. A monk bodhisattva comes to the Buddha. Got this? A monk bodhisattva comes to the Buddha, has a deep awakening, and says, I think now I should become a lay person. I think that would facilitate the path to Buddhahood. It seems to me quite likely that in the path to Buddhahood, if a being was a monastic bodhisattva for many lifetimes, it probably would be the case that it might be helpful for them to be a lay bodhisattva for a while. Okay?

[57:08]

Isn't that interesting what I'm saying? Yeah. So I see you, Meg. And there was Linda next, I think. I was thinking with this last thing you were saying, I was thinking about the 10 bowls and the picture of going back to the marketplace at the very end, which is kind of like what you're saying. But a question that's coming up for me is, given no time. So she's referring to the 10 oxherting pictures. The last one is going back to the marketplace after the practitioner goes through this evolution. It looks like there's some enlightenment going on there. And that process could have been followed as a monastic or as a non-monastic, as a layperson. You could have gone through that process. That's one vision of it. And when you get to the last one, it's possible that if you'd gone through that process of evolution as a monastic, the last one you might go into the marketplace as a layperson.

[58:17]

And then go around again as a layperson. And then for you as a layperson going through this process of enlightenment, going back to the marketplace might be going to the monastery. Do you follow that? This is about the mind of no abode, right? Both traditions are about not abiding anywhere. That's what people need to realize. Yes? So given know about no time, no future, no past... It's not exactly no future, no past, it's that you pull up the rope of future and put it in your seat, pull up the rope of past and put it in your seat. It isn't that there isn't any, it's just that you let go of them. Okay, given the possibility that there are not many lifetimes, there's only now, then how... So I'm thinking about, well, what is the meaning of this story about there is no other Buddha in this lifetime, or we cannot... So, you know, it's like...

[59:35]

Well, let's listen to the last part first. What does it mean that there's no other Buddhas? What do you mean no other Buddhas? No new Buddhas in this world? You said there has been one Buddha. Yes. In this world. For a period of time in this world. Yes, so, okay, so that cannot happen, you're saying, in this story. In other words, nobody else can, in this historical situation, nobody else can come and tell us for the first time about the Dharma. That's not possible. Okay, okay. It's not going to happen because it's already happened. Telling, telling, but not being. Well, the Buddhas are the ones who actually... without abiding anywhere, they come up with a teaching for beings in a particular world where they haven't had it before. So that's not going to happen again until materialism completely triumphs and people are totally uninterested in the Buddha Dharma anymore.

[60:47]

They're suffering, but they don't think the Buddhadharma is going to help them. And then people stop taking care of the teachings. People stop taking care, they stop learning, they stop, you know, and then pretty soon it's lost. Then Maitreya will come and everything will be very lovely. The world will be full of love. Love Dharma. Meg? Yes? I would say that the ten Oxfordian pictures, I would say, could apply to the shravakas. I don't see in the ten Oxfordian pictures the bodhisattva vow, except at the end, Maybe the last one is the bodhisattva vow.

[61:54]

If somebody had gone through that process and attained complete personal enlightenment, but not Buddhahood, if they were a bodhisattva, they might give up whatever form they were practicing and just enter the marketplace. And you just keep going around. I've seen the 10 Oxidating Pictures for the Bodhisattva. You just keep going round and [...] round. Always with the same motivation to help people by going around this until every time you go around, you develop more qualities of Buddhas, more enlightened qualities. Just go round and round and round. And as I remember saying at the first class of the last time I gave a class on those ten art study pictures, I said the first one, the first stage, is the last stage.

[62:55]

Actually, before you start the first stage is the last stage. The last stage is before you even start this process. That's the marketplace. Except that Except the last stage, you understand that the first stage is the last stage. But you don't hold on to that. Let's see. What's your name again? Bobby. Bobby. My question was, is there a choice between the enlightened being and the voice actor, or is it more It seems, it looks like, when you look in the mind of the person, it looks like the mind has made a decision.

[63:59]

But the living being that has this mind which says, I want to become, I want to realize Buddhahood, or I want to realize enlightenment. I understand, my mind understands that in order to be a Buddha, I'm not going to be able to go from here to Buddhahood in the next 76 years, or the next 100 years. I understand that. And I don't want that. I want to have an enlightenment in this lifetime. Even perhaps an enlightenment that could come in ten years or something. In the history of Buddhism, the Buddha's first five disciples were already highly trained yogis, and they went from his first talk to complete enlightenment in this lifetime in about a month or two. having this intensive training with the Buddha. In a month, they were all completely finished the course.

[65:03]

So, in the mind of a living being, they might say, I would like to do that. I would like to have complete enlightenment in this lifetime. So when that happens, it looks like their mind decided on that. So it's kind of like a decision. And then they said, and I wish to live according to that decision. They had that vow. But also some other beings say, it just happens to them, I would like to give my whole life to the welfare of all beings. Again, that's what most scholars think is the motivation for the bodhisattva path. The bodhisattva path is so hard, so huge, how could anybody dare to take it? Well, because I care so much, there's so much suffering, I care so much, I want to help. The other one is, I think this Buddha thing is so great. I think it's the best thing. And even though it's really hard to attain, I see the wish. And I see the decision to live that way. That's the way I want to live. And I myself, you know, have told stories about my background

[66:07]

I didn't see the Buddha. What I saw was, I think, maybe bodhisattvas. And when I saw bodhisattvas, I thought, oh, I want to, the mind, the decision wrote in my mind, I'd like to be like them. I'd like to be like these enlightened people who are not trying to complete their enlightenment course in this lifetime. I might have seen examples of people who did complete their enlightenment program in this lifetime, but I didn't know that they were. In other words, I might have seen some who were enlightened this lifetime and didn't wish to be Buddhist, but I thought they were totally cool. And I saw some others who were enlightened, but they wished to be Buddhist, so they're not going to finish their course. I could have been turned on by both of those types. So in both the minds, in the human minds, decisions do arise. So at the beginning, there's kind of like a human mind thinking kind of like decision arises in the mind.

[67:14]

And it often arises when the living being sees another living being or another practitioner or they hear another practitioner and they think, oh, I want to do that. I want to do what they're doing, or I want to do this thing which they remind me, they somehow, they juggle me to make me think I want to do this. I want enlightenment in this lifetime, or I want Buddhahood someday. That decision can come. So I'm asking you to look to see what's going on with you. Where are you at? Yes? I can see the bodhisattva, but the Buddha, I can see it because to me, when anything is the production of my imaginations or my thoughts or my ideas, is not it. And then to make Buddha as my imagination or a thought that this is, he is Buddha or she is Buddha or I am Buddha, it just doesn't exist.

[68:23]

Yeah, that's what I say. So here's another example of what she's saying, where she's saying, she's like, I hear that. And when I first, when I first started to orient towards Zen, I did not see examples of Buddhas I didn't really hear about Shakyamuni Buddha. I saw examples of bodhisattvas. I wanted to be a bodhisattva. But wanting to be a bodhisattva, I'm suggesting to you, ladies and gentlemen, some people would say, some scriptures would say, wanting to be a bodhisattva is not what bodhisattvas want to be. Wanting to be a bodhisattva is wanting to be somebody who wants to be a Buddha. But if you don't notice the part of wanting to be the Buddha, which some people don't, they see the bodhisattva, and bodhisattvas, they say, oh, wow, I want to be like that person. And then they find out what the person's like. They say, I don't want to be like you. You mean you want to be a Buddha? Yeah. Oh, well, I don't want to be like you anymore.

[69:26]

You were so beautiful the way you made lunch. It was so beautiful. I wanted to be like you. The way you took care of that person, the way you responded, I wanted to be like you. Now I find out that you want to be a Buddha? I want to be like you when you did that, but I don't share your goal of Buddhahood. Still, the motivation for becoming Buddha could be compassion rather than actually just wanting to be Buddha, knowing that that includes... So it's kind of like they're both there. And so where are you at? I'm asking you, as we come to the end of the year, where are you at? Where do you want to go? What path do you wish to walk? What practice do you wish to practice? And those who wish to have a better night's sleep are welcome here. Those who want to be better looking are welcome here.

[70:29]

Those who want to be uglier are welcome here. Those who want to be young again are welcome here. Those who wish for enlightenment in this lifetime are welcome here. And those who wish to realize Buddhahood for the welfare of all beings are welcome here, too. I'd just like you to check to see where you're at. What's your thing? And I tell you, when I first started practicing Zen, I did not think I wanted to become Buddha. I did not think that. I actually had no sense of how amazingly weird, I shouldn't say weird, how amazingly, inconceivably magnificent are the possibilities of life that a Buddha is. However, I did see how magnificent some bodhisattvas were, and I wanted to be like them. I wanted to be able to, like, you know, not be possessive of my junk, which I was. Bodhisattvas can do amazing acts of generosity, which anybody would be astounded and inspired by. But the people who are astounded and inspired still might say, well, I want to be Buddha.

[71:37]

They might say, I want to be like that. I want to do that. That I'm okay with. Part of the Bodhisattva thing I'm okay with. But this thing about becoming Buddha is a bit much. Yeah, right. But the person you want to be like is opened up to this thing. So you partly want to be like them and partly don't. So let's be, what do you call it, let's be real. Let's look at our minds and see where we stand. Let's grope into our hearts and minds and see, oh, do I really want to be a Buddha or not? Do I want to be a Bodhisattva? Well, they want to be Buddhas. Do I want to be a really good person? Yes. I want to be a really good person. Okay, fine. That's great. And then we look at that We look at that. And also, somebody asked me on Thursday night, is everybody going to be a Buddha? Dash, is everybody going to be a Bodhisattva? And I said, the Lotus Sutra says, the Lotus Sutra, which is very important for the particular lineage that I'm living in,

[72:46]

there's people in this lineage who really felt the Lotus Sutra was where it's at. And the Lotus Sutra says everybody is going to be Buddha and everybody, whether they know it or not, is a Bodhisattva. Even the people who wanted personal enlightenment in this lifetime and got it really didn't. They're actually on the Bodhisattva path. They're going to become Buddhists. That's what the Lotus Sutra says. But other sutras say that not everybody has to be a bodhisattva. There's two versions of this, what might be called bodhisattva universalism. One is, everybody is a bodhisattva, whether they know it or not. The other one is, everybody should be. The weak version of bodhisattva universalism is everybody should be.

[73:55]

The strong version of everybody is. Everybody is on the path. And Soto Zen, to some extent, some versions of Soto Zen or Zen is the strong version, which is faith of this tradition is that you are already on the bodhisattva path. But there's another version which is not bodhisattva universalism, but bodhisattva, I don't know what the word is, that some people are bodhisattvas and some people aren't. Some people want personal liberation and others want Buddhahood. And not everybody is wanting Buddhahood. And the other people, in the Lotus Sutra, the people who want personal liberation and I'm stuck there, I look down upon somewhat. But in the early tradition, that tradition of personal enlightenment in this lifetime, or a lifetime, whatever you are, that was considered an authentic version of the Buddha's practice.

[75:07]

And when someone becomes a Buddha, they're going to have a bunch of disciples who want enlightenment in this lifetime. The Buddha is devoted to the people who are not bodhisattvas and bodhisattvas. Devoted to give them teaching. But there's a phase of the development of the Buddhist tradition where the people who are interested in enlightenment this time are not interested in Buddhahood. They're kind of, they're not considered authentic disciples by some points of view. I myself, I can't get there. I want to honor the people who don't want to be bodhisattvas. At the same time, I honor the lotus which says everybody is a bodhisattva. So I'm kind of in a... What do you call it? I'm kind of in a... I'm on a boat. And this boat is in rough waters. And even if the boat...

[76:11]

was in smooth waters, when the harpoon sticks into the whale, the boat's not going to be in smooth waters anymore. I'm more or less racing through the waters and the rope which is connected to the harpoon is whipping by me all over the place and, you know, And you are there too. I'm sharing with this, I'm inviting you onto the podium in the church, on the podium on the front of the whaling boat. And, you know, no animals were harmed in this show. The harpoon was inserted into the whale, you know, in a way that didn't hurt the whale. But once it got onto the whale, it's pulled this boat really fast and this rope is going by really fast. And we have to be very careful.

[77:13]

Once again, I'm saying to you, this is a great opportunity. I'm not saying, you know, this is your last chance. I'm saying this is a great opportunity to consider these matters. Do you want enlightenment in this lifetime? Do you want to be helpful in this lifetime? Do you want to be helpful and have enlightenment and work on the path of becoming Buddhahood? Where do you stand on these issues? What questions do you have? Yes? Yes? I've also heard teacher suggest that compassion is actually a major and a culmination of the art path. And therefore, my question is, is compassion part of this common pulpit, just like nauseation? Compassion is definitely part of the path to enlightenment in this lifetime.

[78:24]

Definitely. But compassion is not the same as saying, I wish to be a Buddha. So in order to have enlightenment in this lifetime, the students of the Buddhas, of the historical Buddha, they had to practice compassion in order to be concentrated. You can't really be concentrated in the Buddhist sense without compassion. So the arhats, the stream-enterers, had to practice compassion in order to be a stream-enterer. You cannot be a stream-enterer unless you practice compassion towards self and others. Okay? You look like that. Do you have some question about that? What's the question? Anyway, do you understand what I'm saying? I'm saying that the path, the Theravada path, in order to actually become, enter the, what do you call it, the noble path, you can't enter it without compassion.

[79:30]

That's what I'm saying. Does that make sense to you? I'm agreeing with the people who say compassion is part of that path. But compassion is not the same as saying I wish to be Buddha. Although you have to have compassion to do that too. Both paths require compassion. The Buddha is compassionate and wise and those who wish to receive Buddha's wisdom have to practice compassion. But I'm saying that not everybody that became wise wished to be a Buddha. But some people who wish to be Buddhas become wise. However, their wisdom does not take them to stop before Buddhahood. Their wisdom takes them along the path and along the path and along the path until they reach their goal, Buddhahood. The other one that takes them along the path and they reach this thing called Supreme Mentor and finally Arhatship.

[80:32]

In both cases there's compassion. In both cases there's detachment. In both cases there's renunciation of possessive things. In both cases there's generosity. Both of them start with generosity. Okay? But different goals. And everybody says, Zen has no goal, right? Zen does have a goal. The goal of Zen is making Buddhas. And in the process of making Buddhas, Zen is completely respectful of the people who wish personal liberation in this lifetime. The path of making Buddhas is to be compassionate to all beings who do not wish to be Buddhas, consciously or unconsciously. But the path of Zen is to make Buddhas. The Bodhisattva path is to make Buddhas. The question is, what's your motivation?

[81:35]

And do you feel motivated to make a Buddha? And if you don't, what do you feel motivated to make, to realize? Enlightenment? Being a little bit more helpful than you were yesterday? What? Please think about it. Yes? I have a question about enlightenment. So, when you talk about it, it sounds like, okay, so then they became enlightened. But it also sounds like really you only recognize it through their behaviors. The way other people would recognize it would be through their behavior. So, what's the question? What is it? Is it a true understanding? No, it's true understanding. I'm wondering what it is. You're wondering what enlightenment is? Yeah. We're all wondering what it is. Wondering what enlightenment is is a normal part of the path of enlightenment, is to wonder about it.

[82:43]

Fixing on what it is and attaching to what it is isn't compatible with it. But, in fact, the way other people judge it is by our behavior. What attracts us to enlightenment is the behavior of enlightened people. If we found out that enlightened people were nasty and selfish and so on, we probably wouldn't be attracted to the enlightenment business. Most of us. I was attracted by examples of astounding, shocking, surprising generosity and flexibility and equanimity. I already knew, I had already seen people being kind of not very, well, sometimes shockingly selfish and shockingly impatient and shockingly rigid and shockingly not funny. I'd already seen that. So then I saw people be shockingly generous, shockingly flexible, shockingly relaxed, shockingly patient, shockingly humble, shockingly helpful.

[83:53]

And I thought, oh, those people are working on enlightenment. Oh, maybe I want enlightenment. Then after you get attracted to enlightenment, then you see people who are supposed to be enlightened acting in weird ways that don't look generous and so on and so forth. And then you have those problems. But you've already been kind of like, what's the word, kindled to how cool enlightenment is by seeing the behavior of wise people. And people get to be wise because they're compassionate, but they're not just compassionate. They're compassionate and they receive teachings, and then they understand the teachings, they understand the Dharma, and then they act like the Dharma. Some people are compassionate, but they feel compassion, they care for other beings, but then they think sometimes other beings are... somehow they care for other beings, but then they have a thought, this being is a jerk. They say, I want to be compassionate, but then they see everybody in this room is a rat.

[84:57]

They think, well, maybe I shouldn't be compassionate after all. We need wisdom, too. And wisdom is wondering, what is enlightenment? Wisdom is also wondering, what is delusion? What is suffering? What is freedom? What is a living being? What's a bodhisattva? What's an arhat? What's a Buddha? Wisdom wonders about this. And wisdom wonders, what is your goal in life? What do you want to devote this life to? Do you wish to devote your life to realizing Buddhahood or enlightenment but not Buddhahood? Or both? You can choose both and you can choose neither. I don't choose enlightenment and I don't choose Buddhahood. I just choose being a little bit better person every day.

[85:59]

Okay, we got your goal. and that will help each person with their goal. We, who wish to attain Buddhahood, will help everybody with their goals. Or not. Have you been wanting to hit that bell? Did you start to strike already? You don't have it ready? May our intention equally extend to every being and place with the true merit of this way. Beings are numberless.

[87:03]

I vow to save them. Delusions are exhaustible. I vow to end them. Our gates are boundless. I vow to enter them. Buddha's way is unsurpassable. I vow to become As an appendix to the talk this morning, I also want to mention that for the last few years here, we've had a ceremony around New Year's where people would calligraph a greeting, a traditional greeting, and bring it here and offer it. This year we had trouble finding a day to do that because of sort of where New Year's fell and so on.

[88:09]

So we aren't going to do that. So the next meeting at Noah Boat will be February 4th. But I brought with me this collection of these astounding documents. which Pico wrote by hand, mostly. One person typed it. And if you wish to write out a document like this and send it to me or anybody else, you're welcome to do so, even though we won't have a day here to do that in the new year. And I read these things and I'm touched that people would write statements like this. It's almost like, you know, it's sort of in the ballpark with, I wish to be Buddha.

[89:13]

That people can write stuff like this is just amazing. I respectfully offer you happiness in the new year. I humbly ask for your guidance in this year. Teacher, oh Buddha, not really, but teacher, oh Buddha, I practice with you, excuse me, I practice with your protection. I pray for your health in body and mind, unlimited prosperity and long life. peace and tranquility in your temple and all good fortune. I pray for this with my whole heart. That's a traditional greeting to offer to the teacher. You're welcome to do that. If you like, you can just send it or bring it next time you come. I'm just, you know, I, what's the word?

[90:28]

I wonder if I would ever be worthy to receive such kindness. I wonder. I am receiving it, but I wonder, I wonder, I wonder if I'm worthy. I actually do wish to be worthy of it. Do I wish to be Buddha? Can I say I wish to be Buddha? I'm looking to see if I wish to be Buddha. I'm asking you, do you wish to be worthy of such kindness, such good wishes? If such kindness comes to you, which it might, And do you wonder if you're worthy of such kindness? I wonder if I am. I don't say, oh, I'm worthy of this. I don't assume, I don't expect such kindness. But it comes.

[91:30]

And I wonder, am I worthy of it? I want to be worthy of it. I do. I aspire to that. But I don't know if I will be worthy of it in this lifetime. but I aspire to be worthy of it someday. Do you? That's my question. Thank you very much.

[91:58]

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