Now we have chanted the Bodhisattva vows of a person who referred to himself as a student of the Dharma. Zenji could be translated as Zen Master. So this is a Zen Master named Tore and he was one of the main disciples of Hakuin. Hakuin stories about Hakuin Zenji were one of the conditions that led me to want to be a Zen student. One story was about him exemplifying treating insult, even false accusations, the

[01:22]

same way as treating great praise. His ability to meet both of those kinds of situations with equanimity and compassion really made me want to learn how to do that. So this vow we just chanted is written by his wonderful disciple. At the end of, if you remind me, at the end of this little talk, we'll chant the four universal vows, the four great Bodhisattva vows which we often chant. The first one is, sentient beings are numberless, I vow to save them. So I have a comment on that, which would be, sentient beings are numberless, I vow to embrace them and love them and thereby save them. So yes, we vow to save them but

[02:37]

before we save them we have to love them. We have three, what they're called collective pure precepts in this tradition and in most Mahayana traditions they have these three. First one is to embrace and sustain the forms and ceremonies of practice. Next is to embrace and sustain all wholesome action. Next is to embrace and sustain all beings. So the third of the three collective pure precepts is like the first. Actually all three are like the first Bodhisattva vow. I vow to embrace and sustain all beings and through that intimate embrace and sustaining liberate them. Next one is, delusions are inexhaustible, I vow

[03:45]

to end them is the way we say it, but another way to say it is, I vow to embrace them intimately and thereby understand them and realize liberation with them. Or like realize liberation through them. The Chinese character in that vow actually is a character which means cut or cut through. So we say end them, which is okay, but it's more like embrace them so thoroughly we come to the end of them, we exhaust them. Delusions are inexhaustible, I vow to understand them. And the next one is the Dharma, the gates to the truth are boundless, I vow to enter

[04:49]

them or I vow to learn them. So that applies again to the previous one and the previous one. Since gates to the truth are boundless, everybody we meet is a gate to the truth. Everything we meet is a gate to the truth. And especially most important among the many things we meet, rocks are important, but suffering beings are particularly important to meet, to embrace and sustain, to love and liberate. In this way, every being we meet is the revelation of the Buddhist teaching, every being we meet is an opportunity to realize the Bodhisattva vow. Which leads to the last vow, the Buddha way is unsurpassable, I vow to become it. This is how you become it. By embracing all living beings, by saving all

[06:00]

living beings, by embracing all delusions, understanding all delusions, liberating all delusions, using every situation for Dharma, this is how we become the Buddha way. So in studying ignorance and delusion, we may notice that we wish to get rid of ignorance and delusion, but wishing to get rid of ignorance and delusion again is another being to embrace. The wish to not have delusion is another delusion. Even the pretty wholesome wish to be free of delusion and wish to save all beings is a kind of delusion. But no problem, we just embrace the delusion of saving all beings, we understand that and we're free of that.

[07:02]

The fourth, the third collective pure precept is embrace and sustain all beings. Embrace and sustain all Republicans, all Democrats, all bankers who are extremely rich and who have made lots of money during this financial catastrophe and have gotten a lot of bonuses while people have had all this difficulty. Embrace and sustain them. Now most of you would say, I have no problem embracing and sustaining the poor people. Good. Embrace and sustain all the poor people who wish that they were rich bankers. And embrace and sustain all the poor people who think they're better than the rich bankers. And embrace and sustain

[08:22]

all the poor people who are Buddhas. Embrace and sustain all delusion. And this goes with embrace and sustain all forms and ceremonies. So today we practiced forms and ceremonies. We did traditional chants. When we do these chants, our active consciousness engages this language of these vows, of Dogen Zenji's vows, of Torrey Zenji's vows, our mind engages these vows, and as we engage these vows, our mind is transformed. Every time we do these vows, our mind is transformed. Again and again, our mind is transformed, is shaped towards

[09:22]

these vows. And shaping these vows, verbally shaping these vows, doing the karma of making these vows has consequence, and the consequence is the container consciousness. The container consciousness is transformed as we say these vows. And then that transformed consciousness supports us to have another mind of vow arising. Over and over again, making the vows, transforming the mind, making the vows, transforming the mind. Until we more and more thoroughly embrace and sustain our active consciousness, and by thoroughly embracing our active consciousness, our active defiled consciousness, we embrace the results of our active defiled consciousness,

[10:25]

which is the world. And we transform the world by the way we relate to our active consciousness, because that's how we transform the mind, which is the world, which is our world, which is our karmically created world. So we, so you support me to think about these vows all the time. Thank you. So I'm at Tassajara Wednesday night, I'm in Berkeley Thursday night, I'm here Saturday, tomorrow I'll be at Green Gulch. Every day you support me to say these vows with you, and remember these vows. You support the activities which transform this consciousness to support further transformation

[11:30]

of this consciousness. And I support you to remember these vows, say these vows, think of these vows, embody these vows, and this way transform the mind which contains us until we become, until we've completely transformed the mind and then it doesn't contain us anymore. It doesn't enclose us in a world anymore. It is the Buddha body when it's completely transformed. In the meantime it can support more and more practice if we practice more. So you support me to support you to support me to support you. You support each other to support you. And others support you so you can support them. And we have to think

[12:36]

of this though, because if you don't think of this you're going to think something else. And if you think something else that will transform your mind. If you don't think these vows you're going to think some other vows. If you don't think these intentions you're going to think some other intentions. And those intentions will have consequence. They are karmic consciousness and they will transform your storehouse consciousness. Whatever we think transforms the world. So if we think I wish that these thoughts would transform this mind which is the world in a positive way, that might transform it in a positive way. If you wish to transform it in a negative way, then I think you're more likely to be successful. Almost for sure, I think. If you wish to make your mind worse, you'll be successful. And you'll make the world worse too. If you wish to discourage yourself, actually that

[13:41]

sounds so silly that might not work. I wish to make myself unhappy. That might not work. I might not fall for that one. How about I wish to make others unhappy. That's more like it. I wish to make those people unhappy. They deserve to be unhappy. That would work really well. That's one of the best ways to make yourself unhappy. Wish other people to be unhappy. But if you wish others to be happy and wish others to be happy and wish others to be at ease and at peace, that transforms your mind. And that mind again, you don't just think it, you also embrace it. And are compassionate to the mind which wishes people well. Embrace that mind too. In other words, wholeheartedly think, I wish the world was

[14:46]

a better place. I wish the world was a better place. And if you kind of wish a little bit less than welfare for somebody, or a lot, if you wish ill for somebody, then I would say don't wish ill for you who are thinking ill of others. I say embrace. Lovingly embrace the mind which wishes ill. The mind which wishes ill still has effect, but you can develop simultaneously with the mind that wishes ill. If ever a mind of ill arises, I wish to embrace it with great compassion and relax with it and play with it and understand it. Relax with it, play with it, be creative with it, understand it and liberate it. If no minds of ill arise, I wish to embrace whatever mind does arise. I wish to be compassionate

[15:51]

to whatever mind arises and be playful with it and relax with it and play with it and be creative [...] with it. Be creative with the mind that I feel compassion for. This mind which seems to be really close and seems to be a mind which I know about and you might not know about unless I tell you. I don't want to call it my mind, but it's a mind that I'm aware of right now. And I wish to be kind to this mind and to be playful with this mind and relax with this mind and be playful with this mind. Even though this mind is sometimes silly and does silly things, does things which even maybe seem to be stupid,

[16:56]

and I might call them stupid, just quickly stupid, but then I say okay, let's be kind to this stupid thing I just did. Let's be stupid to the thought that I did it. And let's start relaxing with this. And although that did seem stupid and I'm kind of embarrassed about it, I feel a lot better now that I'm being kind to it. Yeah, I do. And I feel now I'm ready to relax with it. And it's still really embarrassing that I had such a stupid thought, but I feel better now that I'm relaxing with it. And I feel compassion for it and I'm ready to play with it. Hey, things are getting good. I'm feeling back on the path again. Ready for the next stupid thing. And I hope I deal as well with the next stupid thing

[18:02]

that arises here as I did with the last stupid thing I noticed. One other thing I'd like to do is apologize to you for, I would like to change the schedule of the timing of the next one day sitting at Noah's abode. It is now scheduled, I think, for September 7th and I think it would be very playful and creative if we didn't do it on September 17th. And I hope you can be playful and creative and relaxed with changing the date. Please. Two. It's on the 17th, right? I want to change it to the 11th. Can I change it to the 11th? Will you come on the 11th? Maybe. Will you come on the 17th? Definitely on the 17th and

[19:07]

maybe on the 11th. I hope you come on the 11th. What do I need to do to get you to come on the 11th? I have to move out on Sanaki's recording session. Please try. Maybe the 17th. You've got a free day now. Huh? It's a Saturday, right? If it's 11th Saturday, the next Saturday would be 7th, right? What? I thought you were talking at criminal time. What? I thought you were talking at criminal time. Oh, so September 10th. I'd like to change it to the September 10th. Is Ellen Sanaki on the 11th? It's on the 10th. I'd like to change

[20:12]

it to Saturday the 10th. The first Saturday is like what? Huh? I'd like to change it to the 10th. And I'd like to also add a one day sitting on the 1st of October. Is October 1st a Saturday? I'd like to have two one day sittings in October. One on the 1st and one on the 29th? I think the Green Gulch one day sitting is the 24th. Oh no, Green Gulch is the 29th of October. You're right, Green Gulch is the 29th of October. So here would

[21:20]

be like the 22nd. So I'd like to have it on the 1st and the 22nd. It's scheduled on the 15th. But if you have it on the 1st, isn't it better to have it on the 22nd? Farther apart? Are you doing a one day at Green Gulch on Monday the 29th? Is that what you said? It's on the 29th. Is that a Monday? Or we could leave October on the 15th. Is it on the 15th? We could leave it on the 15th and then have another one on the 1st. No. What session? The fall session? The fall session is in December. There's a practice period

[22:33]

in October. And I think the sitting is on the 29th of October at Green Gulch. So here it's scheduled on the 15th. So I'd like to do September 10th here and then do October 1st and October 15th if that's better. So we're having two in October? Yeah, the 1st and the 15th. So October 15th is already scheduled. Add October 1st. Okay, Eileen? Add October 1st and move September from the 17th to the 10th. And I'm sorry for inconvenience

[23:37]

but, without putting the responsibility anywhere else, just let me tell you, I think I'd better do it this way. And I'm sorry for inconvenience but, without putting the responsibility anywhere else, just let me tell you, I think I'd better do it this way. Well, I don't mean it to be human-centric. I think I'm talking about, it's human-centric

[25:06]

in the sense that we humans have similar karma, so we have similar karmic effects, so we have similar prisons. We live in similar prisons, humans do. Other animals have different karma, so they live in different prisons. Fish live in fish prisons and dogs live in dog prisons, because you live in a world according to your karma. But we contribute to the animals' world and they contribute to ours, but the way theirs is for them, even though it's in the same physical world in a sense, the way it is for them is different from us. So we're all living beings, human and non-human, are creating the physical world, but this same karma is this teaching is human-centric in the sense that it's delivered linguistically. Exactly, but also at the same time, not just in text, actually on one of the pages that

[26:12]

I opened, it was from insight, we know that kind of the whole cosmos is this, is the product of, in itself, is the awakened mind, and you read one more physical book. I didn't quite hear, the cosmos is what? The cosmos itself, it has some element, it's probably both, I think. It's the awakened mind and it's a product of the awakened mind, because there's a physicality to it and there's something that's quite substantial, but it's not exactly physical. Yeah, right, but the cosmos that's the result of the enlightened mind is not a world, it's not an enclosure, whereas the worlds that result from karma are enclosures.

[27:17]

Really? Yeah, karma makes enclosed worlds. Well, how do you view it as not enclosed? If you understand the enclosed world, you realize the enclosed world is an illusion. So you're liberated from the enclosed world through compassionately studying the enclosed world, you're no longer in an enclosed world. So, for example, it isn't, when I say that the world, the physical world we live in, I mean the physical world that we experience. The actual physical world isn't a physical world. The actual physical world is a physical situation that's not an enclosure. The actual physicality is beyond enclosure, and when we become free of the world that encloses us, this storehouse consciousness, we open to

[28:23]

the world of physicality before physicality is made into a world. Or another way to put it is, as physics shows now, when you look at certain things that really are probability distributions, the looking at them precipitates them into a particle. Whereas something can be in various places, when you look at it, then it can only be in one, or it's a limited number. But before you look at it, the basketball could be all over the place. It may be more likely to be here, but it doesn't mean because it's more likely to be here that it's here. It's more likely to be here than there, but it's still somewhat likely to be there, even if it's zero. It's still there in a zero probability. So the way the world is, is actually beyond our ideas, and that's called emptiness, or that's also called the true body of Buddha.

[29:29]

And the true body of Buddha is this confining world, or this confining consciousness, when it's completely transformed. It's no longer confining. So at the beginning of the text, Embracing the Great Vehicle, a Sangha says that to the extent that we're involved in self-cleaning, we live in this confinement, this container consciousness. And to the extent we live in this container consciousness, we see the container consciousness as a solid, substantial world. So the world looks solid to us because we live in a world that's the result of thinking that things are solid. And so the world looks like a solid self to us, which is a result of our past imagination of solidity. But if we didn't have any self-cleaning,

[30:31]

we wouldn't be in this world, and if we weren't in this world, the world wouldn't look solid. It would look not solid. It would look real not solid. It wouldn't be that it was nothing, it just wouldn't be a solid nothing, and it wouldn't be a solid anything. It wouldn't really be nothing, and it really wouldn't be something. It would be kind of in between the two, which we call the middle way. The world would be the middle way because the way the world is, is that it is in a middle way. And the middle way isn't confining. It's unconfined, unconstricted, and that's what we realize, that unconstricted reality, when we work with this constricting consciousness, compassionately for a long time, we transform it into an unconstricted reality, which can be constricted by imagining. So Buddhists can imagine a constricted world

[31:43]

and they can go in there and help the people who are living in a constricted world and speak English and stuff. Besides speaking English, they can also speak Romanian and Czech and Slovak and Polish and Russian to the people who live in those worlds, those worlds. Well, it's just about the perfect time to stop. Please forgive me for my responsibility and the schedule changing. Please share the responsibility with me. Don't blame it all on me. I won't blame it all on you. And I hope you can adjust your schedule so you can

[32:45]

come on September 10th. In the meantime, 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. Delusions are inexhaustible. I vow to end them. Dharma gates are boundless. I vow to enter them. Buddha's way is unsurpassable. I vow to become it. So when I chant that second

[33:52]

vow, I kind of think to myself, delusions are inexhaustible. I vow to understand them. Delusions are inexhaustible. I vow to embrace them and play with them and understand them and thereby be at peace with them. May you be at peace with every delusion you encounter. Bye-bye.

[34:26]

@Text_v004
@Score_JJ