I vow to taste the truth of the Tathagata's words. Yesterday, as many of you know, Senior Dharma Teacher Linda Ruth took us on a wonderful field trip. leaped from chapter two to chapter 25 and talked with us about the great activities of Avalokiteshvara and the wonderful blessings that come when we remember Avalokiteshvara in the midst of our daily life. Perhaps today, and if not tomorrow, we might be ready to chant the verse section of chapter 25 at noon service.

[01:21]

So... I'm not exactly asking you to vote, but at the same time, I am asking you if you feel ready to observe and perhaps join the chanting of this chapter 25. Do some of you feel ready for it? Okay, so maybe we'll have the technical... arrangements in place for this noon service. So you'll be able to, I think maybe be able to see the Green Gulch residents perform the ceremony. And at the same time, there'll be a

[02:23]

a card on the screen showing you the chant. And so maybe you'll be able to hear us chanting at Green Gulch and you can chant along at your own Dharma seat. So we have been discussing Chapter Two for a couple of our assemblies, and I asked you to look ahead and start reading Chapter Three. I read somebody's comments on Chapter Three and the person said, After chapter two, we're now going to look at chapter three, which is much more easy to understand.

[03:31]

So since chapter two is maybe not so easy to understand, I thought maybe we should spend a little bit more time with it before we go to an easy chapter. So again, one of the things that's said by the Buddha at the beginning of Chapter Two is that the Dharma which the Buddhas offer is unprecedented. So one story of the Buddha's teaching is that the historical Buddha gave a teaching which was unprecedented. Even though he gave it in the context of Indian culture, the way he gave it and what he gave had never been seen before.

[04:42]

And then after hundreds of years of Buddhist tradition, the Lotus Sutra says again, that the Dharma of the Buddhas is unprecedented. So the Dharma of the Lotus Sutra, in a way, is unprecedented in the Buddhist tradition. It's both precedented and unprecedented. It's a new, fresh turning of the Dharma wheel. When you take care of a tree or some other shrubs over the years, the time may come when it would be helpful to the life of the plant to prune it.

[06:06]

And the same applies to the Buddha Dharma, the tree of the Buddha Dharma. Sometimes for the life of the plant, pruning is appropriate. And the best pruners are the beings who love the tree, who are deeply concerned for the health and longevity of the tree. We want this Buddhadharma to go on to serve many generations. but in order for it to do so, it may be appropriate to prune part of it. So this chapter two does some pruning, lovingly pruning.

[07:12]

One of the things it prunes is the nirvana, which the Buddha skillfully offered to the students of his teaching hundreds of years before the Lotus Sutra. That nirvana, which is an escape from birth and death, it's pruned. not thrown away, but just mentioned that that nirvana was a skillful device. The nirvana which is escaped from samsara is not the true nirvana. Also in the early teaching they speak of a raft that you ride over the waters of birth and death.

[08:20]

And then when you get to the other side, of peace and freedom, you leave the raft. And there's a lot to that metaphor, that analogy. But the main thing that the virtue of it is, once you've used the raft, do not be attached to it. However, to leave it, maybe too much. So it's more like after it serves its purpose, and the real way of using it to get it to cross over birth and death is to use it without being attached to it, then the new version of nirvana is basically raft maintenance forever. You're not attached to the raft, but you keep taking care of it so that many other beings can ride in it with you.

[09:27]

You become a ferry person. You ferry people across. You're not quitting after you get across yourself. You go back and forth and back and forth, joyfully taking care of this wonderful raft. This is the new nirvana. which is working joyfully, carrying beings across the waters of suffering. Using the raft, but not being attached to it. Using it because you love rafting, you love ferrying, and also you're doing it for others. This is one of the prunings that happens in chapter one. we're starting to get used to a new idea of nirvana, respectfully pruning the old idea.

[10:31]

Again, at the first couple paragraphs of chapter two, the Buddha says that this is a deep and difficult dharma, that it's hard to understand it, and it's hard to enter it. It's hard to understand Buddha's wisdom and hard to enter it. And why is it hard to understand and enter this deep and difficult dharma, this deep and difficult wisdom? And then the logic of what he says is a little bit difficult to understand. He says, why is it so deep and difficult? He says, because all Buddhas have practiced with all Buddhas.

[11:41]

All Buddhas have practiced with billions of Buddhas, billions and billions of Buddhas they practiced with. And for those who have not practiced intimately, face to face, with billions and billions of Buddhas, this teaching is really hard to enter. So I joyfully, the Buddha says, use skill and means for people who have not practiced intimately with innumerable Buddhas. And then he goes on to finish the first part of his talk with only Buddhas together with Buddhas, only Buddhas face to face with Buddhas, only Buddhas in genuine conversation with other Buddhas can thoroughly know the reality of all things.

[12:51]

No one knows this dharma. No one knows this wisdom. No one. Nobody knows. What does know? Face-to-face transmission knows. The genuine conversation knows. and the rest of the Lotus Sutra is a genuine conversation with others. For us to awaken to the intimate relationship with all Buddhas, with all beings. The title of today's talk is tentatively the depths of skillful means.

[14:00]

The depths of skillful means, I suggest, are Buddha's wisdom. The surface of skillful means are skillful means, which Buddha's wisdom offers to us. like the Four Noble Truths, the Eightfold Path, the various elements of dependent co-arising. These are skillful devices which the Buddha offers. And as we study them more and more deeply, we realize the depth of them. The depth of the skillful means of the Four Noble Truths is Buddhist wisdom. The depths of the Eightfold Path are Buddhist wisdom.

[15:11]

the depths of the skillful means of the words of this sutra, this sutra which offers these skillful means, the depth of it is the Buddha's wisdom, which is hard to understand and hard to enter. So we use these skillful means, we can engage with them more and more intimately, more and more consistently. And in this opening to the skillful means, we will discover the difficult to enter Buddhist wisdom. And the way of going deeper into skillful means is also calling us to be unprecedented in our way of working with it, to be improvisational in our meeting with all beings.

[16:27]

And improvise or improvisation has an interesting double etymology. It means both preparation and Unforeseen. To improvise is based, in a sense, on discipline so that we can open to the unforeseen. And based on our discipline, we can enter the unforeseen, unprecedented depths of whatever discipline we're working on. Another thing I find somewhat difficult about chapter two is the way the Buddha in this chapter goes back and forth between describing people who are not ready for this teaching and saying that everybody

[18:51]

is going to attain Buddhahood. Again, in this sutra at the beginning, Buddha unprecedentedly says, I only teach bodhisattvas. So his disciple, Shariputra, who has previously been seen as a disciple but not a bodhisattva, he tells this disciple, I only teach bodhisattvas. And at the beginning of the next chapter, he will tell Shariputra, Shariputra, you are a bodhisattva. and you will become a Buddha. But at the same time, he talks about people who he's not yet ready to tell that to.

[20:00]

Some people he's not going to say, I only teach bodhisattvas. He's going to say, I teach disciples who want to attain personal liberation. When those people have softened up have opened up, have become more humble and flexible. He will tell them, I only teach bodhisattvas and all will become Buddha. Everybody is on the one Buddha vehicle. But in chapter two, Buddha says, I do not tell everybody that I only teach the one Buddha vehicle. Because if I do, some people will reject this teaching and that would not be good.

[21:01]

So I don't tell them. But I give them other things which they are ready to hear and which they would like to have. And in the process of using these other things, I will help them go deeper into the things that they want to work on and they will discover things. the one Buddha vehicle, and they will discover that there are bodhisattvas, and they will discover that they have always been bodhisattvas, and everybody else has always been, but some people are not yet ready to hear about this, so we don't tell them. Not yet. We tell them something else, some skillful expedient which they find attractive and which they start working on. And then part of the skill is to help them work on it more and more diligently. And I just recently discovered that the word diligently has the word gentle in it.

[22:08]

Take off the dill and you get gentle. So the kind of diligence that the Buddha practices is a gentle diligence, a tender, careful diligence. harmless diligence. It's strong, it's firm, it's upright, and it's tender. And that's the way we work on the skillful means. And this working on the skillful means is at the center of Buddha's inconceivable, ungraspable, but realizable wisdom. In the text called Negotiating the Way by Dogen, there's a section on what we sometimes call, literally, the receiving and employing, self-receiving and employing samadhi.

[23:23]

And we've been chanting that at noon service. And that chant describes this intimate way of working together on skillful means. But it describes it in a way that brings out the depth of working on skillful means. And it says, This, basically, this inconceivable, unthinkable, unnameable, unstoppable Buddhadharma does not appear within perception because it is unconstructedness and stillness. It is immediate realization. So Dogen Zenji doesn't say that he's describing the one Buddha vehicle. in that Buddha Samadhi, in that self-receiving and employing Samadhi.

[24:27]

But I see the one Buddha vehicle as being alluded to in this section on the Samadhi, where he says, in even one moment of Zazen, One moment of zazen, each moment of zazen. In other words, each moment of the one Buddha vehicle. Zazen is the one Buddha vehicle, is one of our in-house nicknames for the one Buddha vehicle of the Lotus Sutra. in each moment of zazen, in each moment, it is equally the same practice and equally the same awakening as the person sitting and all beings.

[25:45]

All bodhisattvas, which is all beings, which is humans, animals, trees, flowers, mountains, rivers, the entire universe is bodhisattvas. The entire universe is in the process of awakening to Buddha's wisdom. By working with the person or animal or plant before us intimately, And our awakening and their awakening, our practice and our practice is the same practice and the same awakening. Our individual expression, our individual display is unique. Our unique contribution

[26:51]

is the same practice as the unique contributions of all other beings. The same practice is not my practice or your practice, it is the practice we do together. We do the same practice together, and each of us has a unique offering, and the whole universe supports our unique offering. This is the one Buddha vehicle introduced unprecedentedly in Chapter Two of the wondrous Dharma Flower. So this one Buddha vehicle does not mix with our perceptions.

[28:05]

We have perceptions, and we who have perceptions are involved in the one Buddha vehicle, but our perceptions do not comprehend it. But we do have perceptions. And the one Buddha vehicle embraces and sustains our perceptions. And our perceptions embrace and sustain the one Buddha vehicle. There's no Buddha vehicle aside from your perceptions right now. But your perceptions will change, will go away, and other ones will come. But the Buddha vehicle does not come or go. It is the constant way that we are practicing together with all beings and being awakened together with all beings. Every moment is the one Buddha vehicle.

[29:10]

the depths of each moment of our personal practice is the one Buddha vehicle. Right now, each of us has our personal practice, which is a wonderful, skillful means It's a wonderful provisional teaching right now. Its depths are exactly the same wisdom as all Buddhas. All Buddhas do not withhold the depth of Buddha's wisdom from our current limited human activity or the current limited activity of the trees. and the birds and the bees.

[30:23]

All Buddhists are the non-withholding of the Dharma in all things. And yet, we need to make an offering, a conceivable offering. And the Buddha does too. She offers each individual moment of the universe as her. The universe in the unique way she is, she offers. And bodhisattvas are trying to learn this practice.

[31:36]

Because sometimes we forget to deeply offer the way we are to the whole universe. And remember that the whole universe is calling to us to make this offering. And the whole universe is there just for us so we can be the way we are. We forget. So in that way, the Buddhas train with us so that we can be as wholehearted as Buddhas. And in that wholeheartedness, realize that we are never different from the Buddhas. Again, in this chapter, the Buddha said, I had a vow that I would work so that all beings are equal to me. And in fact, this vow has been accomplished. The Buddha has done this big job of making us equal to Buddha.

[32:40]

And now we are equal to Buddha. Now that Buddha's done all her work, it's time for us to do ours. And not just once. Every moment to do the work of accepting this great gift of being equal to Buddha. At the same time, Buddha has practiced with billions and billions of Buddhas intimately in order to be fully equal to Buddha. In order to realize this. I will never finish with chapter two But I now invite the assembly to practice together with all Buddhas face to face in this great assembly.

[33:50]

You are welcome to make an offering to the one Buddha vehicle, you are welcome to use some expedient device to make an offering to the Zaza, to the one Buddha vehicle. We have an offering from Eric. Homage to the wondrous Lotus Supra. Homage to the Ratna Buddha, to Shakyamuni Buddha, to the gazillions of Bodhisattvas that are present right this moment. Homage to Tenshin Roshi, the Sojan, Mel Weitzman, the Martin Luther King, and the Great Assembly.

[34:59]

Two questions come to mind. Can you hear me, Reb? Thank you for your homages. You're welcome. Do you have more to offer? Homage to sentient beings and homage to all the plants and trees and rocks and pebbles and tiles. Thank you for your offerings. Anyway, two questions came to mind. One was when you were talking about the Dharma blossoms, turning the Dharma blossoms and the being turned by the Dharma blossoms and then all these Dharma blossoms falling like rain from the heavens everywhere. Do they ever stick to your robes? They do, but then the Dharma wind blows them off. And then the other thing I wanted to bring up was It's in the Hidden Lamp. It involves Hakuen, and it involves the Lotus Sutra, and it involves Kana, Kaning.

[36:03]

These are people I've already mentioned a number of times, so I'm sure you know this one, but Sakajo sits on the Lotus Sutra, and the layman took his daughter Sakajo to visit Hakuen, and he was trying to get her married, and so Hakuen told him to be devoted to Kana, and so... Satya Joe prayed to Kannon all day and night and during all activities and was eventually awakened. And so the layman, after that, the layman went into the room and saw Satya Joe sitting on the Lotus Sutra. And he yelled, get off that sacred test, get off that sacred test. And she said, how is this sutra different from my ask? Can you comment on that colon? I think that she's basically asking, how is the Lotus Sutra different from her ass?

[37:07]

Do you think that there's a difference? And if so, please give me a skillful means to show me how it's different. And in that story, no further skillful means were offered. So now you're offering it. Okay, good. Thank you. You're welcome. Thank you. So this, one of the possible implications of this story is take care of all parts of your body. whenever you are touching any part of your body, this is an opportunity to practice the one Buddha vehicle. We have an offering from Pam.

[38:14]

Good morning, Rev. So I think you were talking about the practice of fully being yourself, of all rocks and trees and all beings fully expressing, I don't know, their Buddha nature. I guess I'm a little bit confused what the practice is that you're talking about because obviously everybody is always who they are, right? You can't help but just be who you are. So how is the practice that you're talking about different from just being I mean, we can unconsciously be who we are without any thought, without any intention. We just go around being who we are. But that doesn't seem like what you're talking about.

[39:24]

So I was just wondering if you could clarify that for me a little bit. Well, being fully who we are includes... Others. Because who we are is ourself, right? And we're that no matter what. But also we're others. And we're that no matter what. But sometimes, perhaps, you know, it's possible, we're not very respectful of ourself. or respectful of others. Not being respectful to ourself, even though we're this person who's not being respectful, we're really that person. However, when we're not respectful, we're not ready for the one Buddha vehicle, which is totally what we are.

[40:30]

And if we're not respectful to others, we're not respectful to who we are. and not being respectful to others, also we kind of are not ready to really accept the one Buddha vehicle. We're not ready to accept the conversation with all beings. We are the conversation with all beings. No matter what. That's what we are all day long. But sometimes we don't want to talk to some beings. And also we don't respect that we don't want to talk to other beings. Or we... Or we're attached to not wanting to be respectful. But being attached to who we are is not being fully who we are. It sounds like part of what you might be saying is that being fully who we are means bringing some awareness to how and who we are and maybe even some particular awareness to

[41:35]

the interdependent nature of self and others. That's included. That's included. But you don't have to bring anything. Well, it seems like we do have to bring something, like our attention. Yeah. I hear that you're doing that, and I want to be respectful of you saying to me that you think you need to bring something. Okay? And I'm talking to you and saying to you, we don't have to bring anything. Right now, if you think you have to bring something, we've already got that thought that you have. And you didn't need to bring that thought. It was given to us, the thought, I have to bring something. And then I had the thought, we don't have to bring something. And that was given to you. You didn't have to bring that. I gave it to you. Not just I gave it to you. I gave it to you because you said that we had to bring something.

[42:36]

So when you say we have to bring something, I say, no, I don't think so. You've already got everything. You already have the whole universe. You don't have to bring another part of a universe or another whole universe. You've already got the whole universe in the form of you, including the thought, I have to bring something. You have an awareness already. You don't have to bring awareness. However, if people aren't ready for that teaching, like if you're not ready for it, then we do another teaching called bring awareness. Bring mindful. So I hope, I pray that you take care of your awareness that you have because you always are, you are an awareness. And your awareness includes me telling you, you don't have to bring it. We have this expression, bring it, right? It's kind of an anti-Buddhist expression. But we embrace all the people who are bringing things to their seat rather than being at their seat and not pushing anything away or pulling anything on to the seat.

[43:50]

So you have to allow that you already have everything. You already have everything, but if you don't allow it, You're fighting reality. The whole universe is already yours without any possessiveness. That's the way you already are. The dharma blossom of the eighth bodhisattva precept is not being possessive of the dharma. Don't be possessive of the whole universe, even though it's yours. The whole universe is yours, the whole universe is mine. And we have the Dharma blossom, which says, do not be possessive of the whole universe, which you are. And you can maybe feel like you need more or less of the universe.

[44:58]

You need more or less of some person. That's part of the universe for you. But feeling like you need more of somebody or less of somebody, does that really accord with allowing that person and respecting that person? And if not, that's another thing to work with. This is part of the conversation of Buddha together with Buddha. Did things get clarified? I'm thoroughly confused. Thank you very much. That's probably the best way to be right now. Do you allow that confusion to be complete? Yes, absolutely thorough. That's the one booty vehicle. Thank you very much. We have an offering from Jay. Hello, Rob.

[46:02]

Thank you for your offerings. Hello, Jay. I'm thinking about only a Buddha together with a Buddha and the conversation that you and another person had last week about personal awakening fading, but teaching and being taught going on forever. And so maybe it's appropriate to let go of personal awakening. I think that I'm attached to personal awakening, and maybe if personal awakening is a raft, I kind of just want to keep paddling down the river in the raft. So I'm wondering how I can let go of my attachment to the raft of personal awakening so I can become more of a farrier for other people. Being kind, if you notice any attachment to personal awakening, either attachment to getting personal awakening or attachment to a personal awakening which you're enjoying.

[47:19]

So you can enjoy personal awakening. It's okay. The Buddha didn't say don't eat personal awakening or don't eat rice. Buddha said don't be addicted to personal awakening. So if you notice any addiction to personal awakening, then practice compassion to the addiction to personal awakening. And then if you can, yeah, with that compassion, then you can have personal awakening without being addicted to it. But if the addiction goes on to personal awakening, then more opportunities for compassion to that addiction But some people, and very sadly, many Zen students have had some personal awakening and have become attached to it and then addicted to further personal awakening. So they become attached to it even though it's faded. And they're addicted to getting another one.

[48:23]

It's a common story in Zen centers, particularly in the West, it seems like. And sometimes the people just get very depressed about it all, being attached to personal awakening. But in practicing compassion with this, again, chapter 25, remembering Avalokiteshvara. So I'm laughing. This is ironic that one of the examples in chapter 25 is not. When surrounded by attachment to personal awakening, When in the pit of attachment to personal awakening, if you remember Avalokiteshvara's practice, then the attachment to the personal awakening will be dispersed. And then you've got personal awakening all over the place with no attachment. And then if personal awakening wants to go on a field trip, let it go. And if it wants to come back, you say, hi, you can be friends with personal attachment.

[49:26]

But being addicted to personal attachment isn't very friendly. Okay, personal attachment. You stay right here and let me back. No. Okay, personal attachment. You can go on a trip if you want. You can come back. I'm practicing the one Buddha which allows personal awakening, personal liberation to come and go. And also those comings and goings are skillful means which some people might be helpful to some people. But if I'm attached to them, I can't offer them properly. because I'm so depressed. Again, practice compassion with any addiction to personal awakening. And so part of the Zen story is the teacher offers the possibility, the student gets the personal awakening, and then the teacher helps the person let go of it. Sometimes with lots of teasing. So

[50:31]

Can it be a skillful means to have desire for personal awakening part of the picture, a healthy desire that's together with a desire to help others? Yeah, that's part of what will come up in Chapter 3, is that some Zen teachers use the desire for personal awakening. They use that desire to help people cut through their desires. Mm-hmm. So finding, and one of the things, if you give the person the desire, then you're more in a better position to say, we're taking that thing away to see if they got attached to it. Here's a really nice thing. Thank you very much. Not going to have it back. I gave it to you. Can I take it back? No, you cannot have it back. What happened? So it's all good. Is that what you're saying? I'm not saying it's all good. I'm saying whether it's good or bad, it's the one Buddha vehicle. We're all in this path of becoming Buddhas with all the good and bad.

[51:39]

It's all good and all bad. They're both here all the time. And everything, all the good and bad is going with us to Buddhahood. Thank you. Thank you. We have an offering from Marcelo. Marcelo. Yes, Marcelo. Hello, Rob. Hello, everybody. So we're pretty Over the years of practicing, I heard of these pairings, you know, of absolute conventional student-teacher practice, realization. And today I heard a new pairing. pairing of depth and surface of skillful means and through these the last five or six days I also heard implicitly of another pairing of conceivable and inconceivable even though we spoke only of inconceivable but built in inconceivable there is conceivable and it got me to wonder you know what the

[53:06]

Because in my mind, and I'm assuming other people's minds as well, tend to think of these pairings as opposites. So not as coming together, but sort of at opposition to each other. So there's this sort of movement in which I practice with these pairings. And then I push them aside. So they come together and they're pushed aside. And when I read, especially when that way of seeing the world adds confusion to that. And I experience this as confusion. And there's the confusion of... Being confused, and there's the confusion of being fused, being sort of in the cauldron of things.

[54:08]

That's sort of breaking things apart. And that's why I feel like I need a teacher, because it helps me sort of navigate this confusion. But from time to time, it gets a bit dark. And the feeling that the bottom is coming out, it's very intense. And I doubt practice during these moments. It feels like it's hard to practice with that sense of breaking apart. the question is how does one practice with that sense of that there is a breaking apart that is part of practice and there is a breaking apart that sort of rubs against it it's painful in its heart how does one practice with that how does one contemplate these parents and let the parents do the work and

[55:25]

And come from doubt, which is what I experienced from time to time in a very profound way, in a very fundamental way. Well, what comes to my mind is go talk to somebody. Have a conversation about this doubt. This doubt is something which you, within your own body and mind, you're experiencing. And so you've got this nice experience. Now, have a conversation about it with somebody else. Let others hear about it and question you. So part of, one kind of doubt is the doubt of, if you go talk to, is that you might wonder about what your doubt is. Wondering about what your doubt is and also talking to someone else and having them wonder about what your doubt is, that's another kind of doubt.

[56:37]

That's called great, great doubt. Or great, great, great doubt. That's doubt which converses with your doubt. But it's possible that if you're... Sometimes there's a kind of doubt which is called corrosive doubt, and that's a doubt which may make you feel like, I don't even want to talk to anybody about this. And if you feel like that, you really should talk to somebody. You really need a conversation where somebody can question, not tell you you shouldn't doubt, but help you look at it. Studying the doubt is light. So this teaching is not so much that these things are opposing each other in a way that they're separate. They are kind of opposites, but they also contain each other. They're mutually inclusive. They pivot on each other. But sometimes the pivot gets stuck.

[57:41]

It gets stuck. We're stressed. We're frightened. Our energy is depleted. Mm-hmm. It's dark when it gets stuck. The turning of these things, that seemed to be opposite. It's light. But when we lose the light, we need to take our practice to a conversation with an other. And show ourselves, offer ourselves, somebody who will help us study ourself. which you just did just now. So it's good to do all the time, but especially when you feel stuck and you feel like you can't figure out a way to question yourself, then tell somebody else about how you're stuck. Somebody who won't try to get you unstuck

[58:45]

but will help you study it and realize that in the middle of stuck is unstuck. So the depth of stuck is unstuck. And the depth of unstuck is stuck. But we can't do this by ourselves. We need to do it together with another Buddha. with somebody else who's trying to study himself or herself with your help, like you're doing right now. Thank you. You're welcome. We have an offering from Tova, Reverend Tova Green. Good morning, Tenshin Roshi and great assembly.

[59:49]

Goddess. I'm really appreciating this opportunity to learn and practice with this great, really, truly great assembly and to hear the offerings of others and the way you're meeting others, Tenjin Roshi. So I have a question about listening. My Dharma name is Jisan Myocho, Mountain of Compassion, Subtle or Wondrous Listening. And it was given to me by my beloved teacher, Linda Ruth, when I was priest ordained. And she told me that the wondrous listening has to do with Abalokiteshvara and hearing the cries of the world.

[60:50]

And I find, you know, listening is something I have been working with or on and trying, yeah. And there are times when I find that I can, I, when I hear someone speaking, um, and sometimes publicly, even in a Dharma talk about something that I think is false or untrue or misleading, I, I, I find a sense of, um, I find it's very hard for me to listen open-mindedly and to know how to respond.

[61:52]

And a couple of times last year, I responded in ways I think were not skillful and created separation between me and the speaker. And wondering, you know, so I'm trying to really work on that. edge or when I feel as I'm listening it's almost a surge of energy and sometimes I find myself trembling as I'm listening and I feel I have to say something this is you know I just have to speak up about this and it doesn't serve I don't think it's helpful and I'm yeah so I just I did make a vow this year to be very mindful when that feeling arises and to try to be spacious with it and not speak up publicly about, you know, this is after a Dharma talk when we have an opportunity to, usually it's framed differently.

[63:08]

It's a question, not an offering. So I'm just wondering if you have any thoughts about when is it appropriate to say something and when is it better to be quiet and sit with the discomfort and maybe find a way later to talk with the person about what I felt was misrepresenting. Well, two things. One is listening and the other is speaking. So we started with listening. I would say, I would start out by saying that when we listen deeply,

[64:10]

from the depth of our listening, appropriate speaking will come. Or appropriate response to what we're listening to will come from deep listening. Now, if I'm listening, I still may also then hear, when I hear one person's cry, so you're hearing somebody's talking, That's their cry to you. They're crying to you. They're saying, listen to me, Tova. And you're listening, and while you're listening, you hear another cry, which might be, what they're saying is wrong. Those are two cries. Meantime, the other person may be continuing to talk, and you're listening to them, but you're also listening to in your own heart, what they're saying is wrong, or I disagree.

[65:16]

Both of those cries are calling for listening. And if somebody's talking and you don't hear any cry from the inside, that may happen, I guess, that you just hear the cry from the outside. and you listen wholeheartedly. And maybe if you do, you feel great listening that way. But sometimes something comes up inside, like that's wrong or I disagree. And if you take care of that, that's wrong, I disagree. If you listen to it wholly, wholeheartedly, it will become clear what the next thing you should do is, which would be more listening, but also you might raise your hand and say, May I ask a question? Well, that's when I get in trouble or have gotten in trouble.

[66:20]

I think if you raise your hand and you say, may I say something, you might get in trouble. It's true. But it might be a really good trouble. Trouble doesn't mean you did something wrong. If you go into rough water, That might be really a good thing to do. But it also might be a lot of trouble. But if you go into the dangerous trouble situation, not having listened to your own heart and not really having listened to the other person, then it won't be just not trouble. It'll just be won't be helpful. But if I hear my own, that's wrong. And I raise my hand to talk about that. It might be trouble. It might be a lot of trouble, but it might be really good. Part of helping people sometimes is to take a lot of trouble for them.

[67:21]

It's going to be a lot of trouble to talk to this person, but I love this person so much, I'm up for the conversation. I really respect this person, and talking to them about this is probably going to be very difficult. But I love them so much, and I feel so good about them, and I respect them so much. I think I have a chance here of having a really good conversation. It may take a long time, this conversation. It's going to be a lot of work, a lot of trouble. But the feeling is I've respected my own sense of something being wrong or whatever. And when I raise my hand, I'm making an offering. I'm not trying to get them to be somebody else who's not wrong. I'm offering myself, hey, guess what? Do you want to hear about me? And they say, yeah. I had this strange thought that you were wrong. Isn't that amazing? And they go, yeah, that's amazing.

[68:26]

Thanks for telling me. If somebody had that thought about me, they say, you want to hear about me? And I say, I had this thought that you were wrong. I want to say thank you for telling, for sharing that. Not so much that now I know I'm wrong, but now I know that you care enough to tell me that you thought that about me. Thank you. And it's easiest for me to have that response in a way to somebody who's giving it as a gift. But even people who aren't giving it as a gift, it's another opportunity for me to listen to them. Well, I appreciate your openness to responding that way. Not everybody responds that way. I'd say there was one situation where I really did come from love and respect for the person who was speaking, someone I had a long relationship with. And it didn't help our relationship. I did follow up.

[69:27]

It took me a while, but I followed up with that person to really see how they were feeling about the interaction that we had. Uh, and it didn't, um, I think that person experienced my words as hurtful. Um, and it may take, it may be a longer conversation as you say that since I care about the relationship to just keep trying to work towards, uh, of reconciliation or mutual, some kind of mutual understanding. But it may take more time. Yeah. Again, the Buddhists have realized this profound wisdom, and it's very difficult to enter. Why? Why? Because it took those Buddhas lots of long conversations to realize this wisdom.

[70:34]

And part of those conversations is that sometimes what we offer, thinking that we're offering it with love, still the situation is such that the other person feels that what we offered lovingly and patiently and respectfully, that it was hurtful. The path to this intimacy usually involves somebody telling us that we did something that was hurtful to them and showing them that we can listen to them, learning how to listen to them and show them that we're listening in a way that they can feel really listened to when they tell us we did something they felt was hurtful. Such a conversation is almost necessary in order to become Buddha together with a Buddha. And to not give up when they say, that was hurtful to me.

[71:42]

And to be able to say, I'm sorry. I'm sorry if you feel that way. And I want to continue to work this out with you. And they may say, I don't want to. That also is part of it. And then to be patient and respectful, I don't want to talk to you anymore. There's moments like that in this ongoing conversation. Some people do not want to talk to us. Really, they do. They just don't understand that yet. And it's For people who don't want to talk to us that tell us that they don't want to, in a way, it's easier for us than the people who don't want to talk to us who don't tell us. They just, you know, we can't figure out what's going on. Really, they think they don't want to talk to us, but they don't tell us. They don't want to have a conversation. You can feel it.

[72:45]

I mean, I can feel it when that happens. You can feel it, and then you can also ask them if you can talk to them about it. And then they can tell you no. And then you've got the conversations going. But really the conversation is going on. Let's just make it more wholehearted. Let's learn to make it more wholehearted. And yeah, you're trying, but it's hard. And that's, again, the Buddha's wisdom is hard to enter, which means these skillful opportunities, these opportunities, these expedient opportunities are difficult to do wholeheartedly. If we can wholeheartedly have these difficult conversations, then we can enter the Buddha's wisdom, which is hard to enter because it's hard to be wholehearted about skillful means. Yes. Thank you so much.

[73:46]

You're welcome. I really appreciate this. Thank you for your gift. We have an offering from Keongi. Hello, Rob. Hello. Hi. Hi. I guess my question sounds like it might sound a bit similar to what Pam was talking about. Is it something like our current limited activity? I'm having trouble hearing you. Okay, hold on. Okay, I will speak up. Is that better? I think you said something like our current limited activity is the depth of the Buddha way and yet we need to make an offering.

[74:56]

Could you say this offering is that we need to realize we're making an offering all the time? Yeah. And one of the skillful ways of realizing that we're making an offering all the time is to make an offering now. And then notice if the offering was wholehearted. And if it isn't, to notice that. And in this way, we will get to a way of offering that's wholehearted that we won't even notice. Because it'll be so wholehearted, we have no way to be outside to look at it. And when we reach wholehearted offering, which is going on all the time, we will wake up to the reality that we are wholeheartedly offering ourselves to the whole universe, to every being all the time. And then we will be free.

[76:05]

and at peace to continue this offering. And also we realize that the wholehearted offering depends on others offering themselves to us all the time, which is reality. But if we don't attend to our current offering, to our current skillful means, we can space out and not be here. where we are, where the whole universe has made us to be, and where we make the whole universe. But really, generosity is reality. Making offering is reality. And also that offerings are being made to us is reality. And yet, ironically, if we don't join that, we can miss reality. And if we try to join it by our practice, Great. And we can notice if our practice is not wholehearted and attend to that.

[77:11]

And also we can ask others how we're doing. And they can say, I don't know if you really gave that. I felt you're kind of half-hearted in that offering. You're kind of holding something back. And then see if we can say, thank you so much. I don't see it yet, but I appreciate you pointing that out to me. Oh, now I see it. And they say, no, you don't. You say, oh, thank you again. It is so odd. Together we will realize how to wholeheartedly make an offering now and realize that the offering is always being made in both directions, between us and others, all day long. It sometimes feels like You know, I look inside myself and it feels half-hearted to me. But then trying to make it wholehearted is more wrong.

[78:14]

Well, before you try to make it wholehearted, don't skip over listening to the half-hearted. Wholehearted doesn't say, go away half-hearted. Wholehearted takes care of the feeling of half-hearted. And wholehearted take care of the feeling of, okay, I'm taking care of half-hearted, but how much longer am I going to have to be half-hearted? How much longer is this half-heartedness going to last? That's another thing to take care of. Wholeheartedness just takes care of what's happening now and wakes up to that taking care of what's happening now takes care of infinite past and future also. But if you try to take care of the infinite past or future, skipping over the limited present feeling of half-heartedness so you can be wholehearted, that's not appropriate to wholeheartedness. Wholeheartedness wholeheartedly respects half-heartedness. Half-heartedness doesn't even wholeheartedly express wholeheartedness.

[79:19]

Half-heartedness wants to get wholeheartedness. Hmm? What? It's always tricky. Tricky. Part of this is tricky. Part of our life is tricky. Our mind is tricky. And part of being wholehearted is, okay, I accept I got a tricky mind and I've got tricky friends. And actually, my friends are more tricky than I am. And they tell me I'm more tricky than they are. Tricky when... The one Buddha vehicle does not exclude trickiness. Trickiness is welcome. And it's already here. Yeah, so maybe for myself to not being tricked so many times, it's more, for me, maybe it's more useful to tell myself,

[80:25]

to just take care of whatever is. And don't worry about wholeheartedness. If I take care of whatever is right now, then wholeheartedness may come. It doesn't come. That is wholeheartedness. It doesn't come. It's already there. But if you're wholehearted, you realize it's always here. It doesn't come. Wholeheartedness doesn't come or go. It's always here. But we have to join it. We have to allow it. And that's a huge job. It's infinite to be wholehearted. And we can allow it. And if we don't, then we take care of not allowing it right now. Right now, I don't want wholeheartedness. I have a headache. But taking care of that headache completely is wholeheartedness. And in fact, if you have a headache, that headache is being taken care of by the whole universe right now. The whole universe is not half-hearted about your headache.

[81:28]

But it's hard to join that immense compassion. But that's the job. And you don't bring it, it's already there. It's more like you allow it. You're not in charge of making compassion. It's already here. And you're not even in charge of not allowing it. And you're not in charge of allowing it. And yet, the practice is to allow it, to remember it. You're not in charge of remembering either. But the job is, the practice is, remember this compassion for what's going on. Remember wholeheartedness without bringing it. Or if you try to bring it, remember, oh, I'm trying to bring it. And I'm wholehearted about my attempt to bring it, even though that guy said not to bring it. That's what I'm trying to do. But I support you to be compassionate to you trying to bring it.

[82:37]

When you said last week that our future Buddhas are practicing with us right now, that sounds like a That sounds like a big relief. Yep. They're watching us more or less allow our Buddhahood. They're seeing, oh, she's not really allowing me into her life. But I'm watching her lovingly because she's my past and she made me possible and she's not separate from me. And I'm watching her think that she is. And I love her completely. And she'll realize that when she's me. And she will be me. Yeah. And right now, she's in conversation with me. And she can wake up to that right now. And when she's awake, she'll keep doing the hundreds of millions of years of joyous practice.

[83:42]

Which she's already doing. And I love to watch her. Thank you. We have an offering from Larry. Hello, Tension Roshi. Hello, Larry in Olympia. In Olympia, Washington. And Hello, great assembly. Much gratitude for your presence and your participation. The energy coming from this expansive transcontinental Sangha is just amazing. Just amazing. My offering or my thought is about faith.

[84:47]

Faith is a very strong motivating factor in my practice. I have faith in the Buddha, faith in the Dharma, faith in the Sangha. And I use that term because I do not understand, I can't analyze, I can't intellectualize this devotion to the Triple Treasure. It seems in reading Chapter 2, especially towards the end of Chapter 2, that it's very belief-oriented. Please. May I put something into the mix? Please. You said you couldn't analyze this devotion? Yes. You can analyze it. It's okay to analyze it, and you can analyze it. You can break up the devotion into various little parts and have comfort.

[85:53]

You can analyze it. It's just that the depth of your devotion cannot be reached by the conscious analysis. The depth of your faith, which is the Buddha's wisdom, that cannot be reached by your analysis. But you can analyze it. And sometimes it may be helpful to analyze it. It just, that's not the same as understanding it and entering the depth of it. Okay? Good distinction. Thank you. Good distinction. You're welcome. Chapter two seems to be belief oriented. We read repeatedly, Shariputra, all of you should believe. And we read, have no doubt, you should have no doubt. So doubt seems to be very much in play, recurring theme.

[86:56]

And yet I read and I hear three components of Zen, faith, doubt, and determination. And so I wonder, broadly speaking, how faith and doubt relate to one another and the theme of faith and doubt in the Lotus Sutra. And I wonder if part of the answer might get back to what you initially said this morning about pruning the Dharma, the cycle of faith and doubt. Thank you. The doubt in Zen is basically that you question what the Buddha is saying. You investigate. You probe. When the Buddha is talking, this is the Buddha's skill and means.

[88:02]

And this skill and means is partly what it's saying, either superficially or deeply. It's saying, question this skill and means. Go deep into this. So when the Buddha says, have no doubt, question that. What is he up to when he tells us not to doubt? And then you could answer it, or you can just keep wondering, what is he up to when he says, believe me? But sometimes he doesn't say just to believe. Sometimes he says, listen carefully. But even that, you can say, what does he mean by listen carefully? What does listen carefully mean? So the Buddha is giving you these gifts, but also one of the gifts the Buddha is giving you is saying, doubt it in the sense of question it. Question everything I say. In other words, Meet me intimately. Offer me gifts of your question.

[89:09]

Show me your devotion by giving me your questions. And giving questions, that's the great doubt of Zen, is to give questions and to ask questions. To question yourself and to question others in conversations. I think for me, it works best to continue to question without seeking too hard for answers. Definitely. The questioning is a gift. You question to give as a gift, not question to get. Answers have the danger of sometimes ending the questioning. So answers do come sometimes, you know, and also we don't try to stop answers, but watch out that if the answer comes that the questioning is still alive.

[90:19]

So I have faith. I have faith in questioning. And the more I question, the deeper my faith in questioning is. So far, I have not had my faith be weakened by questioning. And I don't know if others would feel the same way, that when they question me, their faith in questioning me deepens. I want their faith in questioning me to deepen. And so when they question me, I want to respond in a way that encourages them to continue to question. I want to praise them. and appreciate their questioning so their questioning will flourish. That's the questioning which deepens faith and deepens the dharma. Not deepens the dharma, deepens our entry into it. And I hope what I said didn't stop your questioning.

[91:25]

Oh, absolutely, never, never. So do you have deep faith in questioning? Totally. I can't help myself. Okay. And can I help you have deep faith? Of course you already have. Yeah, great. I want to help you have deep faith in questioning. Thank you. You're welcome. We have an offering from Ko. Hello, Reb. Hello, Cole. Hello, Assembly. Hello. I'm glad that you continued on with Chapter 2. One of the pieces that I find confusing is that Shariputra, when he gets a clear no from the Buddha, keeps asking.

[92:28]

when he asked him to, so if I asked the Buddha to preach and the, and the Buddha said to me, no, if I continued, if I preached, it would cause harm. I'd say, okay, but Shariputra continues asking. And so it's sort of the inverse of, of Reverend Tova's question is like, what, how do, how does one have faith in the skillful means of going past to know when the world says no to you, especially, uh, a realized being. If I would say to someone, may I ask you a question? And they say, no. I might, you know, try to listen to that. I mean, I want to listen to that. So let's say I do. May I ask you a question?

[93:30]

And the person says no. And I listen to it. And after listening to it, a thought may arise to ask another question. And the other question may be, may I ask you later? And then I say, no. And then I might say, Thank you. And then a few days later, they may come to me and say, I'm ready for you to ask me a question. Or they may not. But a few days later, I might say, remember the other day when I was talking to you? That's a question, right? And they say, yes. And I say, you know, how are things now? And they answer that question. So somehow they get over prohibiting me asking questions by my continual loving generosity to them.

[94:35]

But, you know, there's a time to maybe take, you know, get the rhythm of the conversation, right? And another thing is that when Shri Buddha says to the Buddha, But the Buddha also said enough before Shariputra said anything in chapter two. The Buddha just starts talking right away and gives this amazing introductory teaching about only a Buddha and a Buddha. And then when he finishes giving this teaching, he says enough. More needs to be said after he said all that. Okay. Which in a way I would say, yeah, right. That's enough Buddha Dharma for my lifetime. Thank you. See you later. I don't need the rest of the Lotus Sutra. That's enough for me. And it is really. But then he starts talking again after he said enough. So he showed that after saying enough, there's more. After he said no more needs to be said, he goes on and says this wonderful stuff.

[95:41]

It wasn't necessary to say it, but he said it. Then Shariputra starts asking questions. for himself and for the assembly. And after Shariputra asked the question, Buddha says, enough. And then Shariputra who loves his teacher, prunes his teachers, enough. And asks again, beautiful. And then his teacher says enough again. And Shariputra prunes that and makes another offering. And then the Buddha says, okay, you've asked three times, how can I refuse? Also, Shariputra knows, maybe from earlier times, in the Theravada tradition too, in the Pali tradition, people asked the Buddha three times,

[96:45]

Not always three times. Sometimes they ask once in the Buddha talks. Often people ask three times. Usually three times after the Buddha said twice later. So it is possible to respectfully listen to enough. And because you love the Dharma and the teacher so much that you pursue your questioning. But again, you pursue with respect. You pursue the questioning as an act of generosity and devotion to the person who told you enough. Again, like King Lear, right? His most faithful daughter is the one who questioned him, Cordelia. And he didn't like it. He wasn't a Buddha, and that's a big tragedy that he wasn't. But the Buddha rewards those who prune her. but prune out of love, not to get rid of something, but to increase the vitality of the teacher and the teaching and the assembly.

[97:54]

But part of the process of you performing those services of devotion to the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha might be, somebody say, later or enough. And listen to that and wonder, what does that mean? Oh, I see. She's being ironic. I get the joke. And you could even say, you could even say, I get the joke. And they say, great, you got it. Congratulations. So when it occurs to me to continue after receiving a note, Is there a certain faith that one has that that persistence is skillful means and should be followed? No. I wouldn't believe that my offering is skillful means. The Buddha doesn't believe that her offering is skillful means.

[99:00]

The Buddha is Buddha's wisdom, and Buddha's wisdom offers skillful means, but doesn't believe oh, I'm offering skillful means. The Buddha doesn't think, oh, I'm Buddha offering skillful means. The Buddha's wisdom just naturally responds with skillful means. You don't necessarily think, oh, that was skillful. But you do think, I'm making an offering. That's my intention. And then you can tell people, that's what I'm intending to do. I'm intending to offer skillful means, but the skillful means are much more, they're like lightning bolts. They just flash out of the wisdom. And we aspire to that. Thank you. Thank you. I have a request that you mute yourself after your offering.

[100:08]

It helps with the audio. And we have an offering from Salah. Be sure to unmute yourself. You're muted, Salah. Okay, this technology is so over my head. Hello, Rip. Hello. Welcome, Sala. Dear old friends, dear new friends. I loved your answer to Tova, meaning I loved her question. I'm here and a little town on the East Coast, Woods Hole, where I live and love.

[101:13]

But sometimes I feel like I must have a sign on my back that says, come work out all your issues about race with me. And sometimes I forget to hear it as an offering. And sometimes I don't. Sometimes I catch it and I hear what people are, I hear it as an offering and totally admire somebody's courage to say that to anybody, you know, even me, who can sometimes get excited and answer loudly when I don't mean to necessarily. But I loved your answer to Tova to remind myself to keep going.

[102:16]

That it's hard to be the questioner and it's hard to be the one who's being addressed. And that we both will make mistakes. And that just because we're being wholehearted or brave or whatever doesn't mean that it won't hurt sometimes. Sometimes I feel like, oh, if I'm being upright and kind, all those words, then it wouldn't hurt. But that's not true. It's absolutely not true. Sometimes it just hurts. And I can include that in my experience and their experience. So... I think that's all I have to offer today.

[103:21]

And then to say nothing about apologizing to anybody there who I've hurt in the past. I know how much I appreciate them letting me in enough even to hurt them. I'm so sorry. And thank you so much for this teaching. Linda Ruth was so brilliant yesterday. And I love your courageous including of everyone. Um, I, I feel so invited by you. Um, and not just invited, but also encouraged to dare to say something cause it's just part of the big paella. That's what I think of that big, that big walk.

[104:24]

I have a huge paella pan. Uh, so it's all part of it. And, um, I get that part, and thank you so much, dear Rick. One little comment I have is that it's possible that at those great moments of realizing wholehearted meeting, there can be pain. And then there can also be times when we shrink back from being wholeheartedly there and there's pain there too. Yes. And we can learn with the help of the other, we can learn which is which. Right. And sometimes the other can say, that was so perfect what you said and it was so painful. Thank you so much. And they could also say, that was really painful and I felt like you weren't really there for me. And sometimes we can look and say, you know, you're right, I'm sorry.

[105:27]

I'll work on that. Thank you so much. So the pain can come in different environments of practice. And we can learn which is which. And that's part of learning skillful means. Yep. And also part of skillful means is to learn to listen to yourself when people are asking you to have difficult conversations. when you sometimes say, you know, I need a little break. Can we talk later when I'm rested? And a lot of times people will say, okay. And then you come, like I often use the example, when my older grandson was young, he thought I was really interesting and wanted to play with me nonstop whenever he was awake. And I love to play with him, but he got 12 hours of sleep at night, so he could wear me out easily.

[106:35]

Sometimes I would say to him, I'm getting really tired. Could I take a little break, like five minutes or 10 minutes? And he'd say, no, no, no. I'd say, I'll be able to play with you better if you let me rest a little bit. Okay. Okay. You should go rest for a little bit and come back and show him that with a little rest, I'm a better playmate. So sometimes it's good to ask for a little break from these intense, wonderful conversations. That can be part of it too, right? Right. That's another ingredient in the paella. Right. Because we want you to keep going, Sala. Okay. There's a clatter. Is that your mic?

[107:41]

Okay. Okay. We have time for one more brief offering this morning. It's 1055. So Christiane, please make your offering. Hello, Reb. Good morning, Christiane. Good morning. Good morning. And thank you to everyone. Thank you, Reb, for the teaching and all of... the offerings and participation has just been really, really wonderful. I'm very aware of the time, so I'm going to try to maybe summarize a bit. Don't rush. Don't rush? Okay. Don't rush. We're all here to support you, to ask your question wholeheartedly. Okay. Not sure what my question is. I've just been so...

[108:43]

moved by this study of chapter two. And I think it has, the way it has touched me is, I can't say it's the first time I've heard these teachings and yet I see it differently. And what you said on Friday, I wrote down some of the words about the one Buddha vehicle cannot be any other than what we are doing right now, each one of us. And we do not know what it is. And therefore we do not know what we're doing. And that the knowing is in the conversation, the conversation being the knowing. And somehow I just wanted to express it somehow that like, Other things started to fit together, like things I've heard about not cutting out part of myself and not like, you know, hard emotions and wanting to, how do I deal with them and get rid of them?

[110:04]

And then hearing this, I don't know, I'm just feeling this sense of wholeness of not just me, but everything. and it's just touching me so much. I wanted to express that. And, um, and, uh, also just really briefly tell a little story about, um, an encounter that I had with a sandhill crane a couple of weeks ago. And, um, We were birdwatching. I was with my husband. We were birdwatching and we saw lots of birds all day and it was wonderful and beautiful. And then it was dusk and I looked up and there were several sandhill cranes coming home, coming, landing in this field. And, uh, Oh, I don't know what happened. I mean, that's the not knowing things. I don't know what happened, but I felt just this big feeling of, again, it was similar, like this wholeness of the world and

[111:14]

this other being. And I felt like we were in communication in a way that usually when I'm birdwatching, I'm looking at this thing over there and this was together. It was so beautiful. It was really, really beautiful. And I'm just so grateful for that experience. It was wonderful. So I don't, I guess I don't have a question. I, I, I think you've answered some of my questions. Like, you know, that, being didn't know I was really there because we were, you know, we were kind of hiding, but there was still a conversation, right? I mean, I feel like there was. Yeah. Always. Always. That's what we are. That's reality. That's reality. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So thank you so much. I'm just really full, right? Feeling fullness of practice and the teachings. Wholeness of practice, wholeness of awakening. And also to the Great Assembly, your offerings do not have to be questions.

[112:20]

Just offer your whole body and mind whether there's a question or not. That's the conversation. Like you didn't necessarily say, what are you guys doing up there? But they did say to you, quack, quack, quack, quack. Yeah, they did. They were talking. That's right. Thank you, Christiane. Thank you. May our intention equally extend to every being and place with the true merit of Buddha's way. Beings are numberless. I vow to save them. Afflictions are inexhaustible. I vow to end them. Dharma gates are boundless. I vow to enter them. Buddha way is unsurpassable.

[113:25]

I vow to become it.

[113:27]

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