This little temple, may I say, is dedicated to the effort to free all beings so they may dwell in peace. This temple of no abode, this temple of the mind and heart of the bodhisattva is for the purpose of developing an unceasing effort to free each and every being so they may dwell and live in peace. And this assembly and other assemblies in the past have gathered here to take care of this temple and to celebrate the effort to free all beings.

[01:15]

so they may dwell in peace. Also, this temple of no-abode is for celebrating that there's nothing to get, that there's nothing to attain, that we already are together as Buddha. But if we don't celebrate that there's nothing to get, We won't realize it. And if we don't realize it, we're at risk. If we don't realize there's nothing to get, we are at risk of trying to get something. And trying to get something is suffering. It's not peace. We are trying to free all beings from trying to get something so they may dwell in peace and be free of trying to get something. And we're taking care of the practice and the temple to promote this bodhisattva activity.

[02:25]

And one of the ways to celebrate that there's nothing to get, one of the ways to celebrate that we don't have to do anything is to read huge scriptures. This scripture, this huge scripture, is for the sake of celebrating that there's nothing to get. So, we have been lately, for the last almost two years, we've been consistently bringing up this huge teaching, this vast, more or less infinite teaching of the Flower Adornment Scripture. For the sake of celebrating that there's nothing to do and nothing to get.

[03:39]

For the sake of liberating beings. of thinking they have to do something other than what they're doing to be Buddha. We do do things. We do things. But while we're doing things, we don't have to do anything other than what we're doing in order to realize peace. And this is very difficult for us to learn, but we're learning. And as we study these great teachings, various things come up, and for me what has come up, what I've been called to do, what I've been called to speak about since the last time we met, I feel called to speak about prediction. To speak about prediction or also another way of saying this Sanskrit word.

[04:46]

It's a Sanskrit word and a Chinese word. In Chinese, it's juki. In Sanskrit, I forgot what it is. I'll tell you later. But anyway, it's a Sanskrit word that's in many scriptures. The early scriptures and the later great vehicle scriptures. This word prediction or affirmation is present. It's part of the deal of freeing all beings so they can dwell in peace. Another way to speak of freeing all beings so they can dwell in peace is becoming Buddha. So part of becoming Buddha is to predict and be predicted and predicting as part of the deal, as part of the amazing process of becoming a Buddha, which we've heard from the Buddhas.

[06:00]

Shakyamuni Buddha told us that part of him becoming Buddha was at a certain point in his long career he was predicted to be Buddha. And the prediction came true. He was predicted to be Buddha with the name Shakyamuni, and it came true. And the world he was predicted to be the Buddha in was called the Saha world, and that's the world, the name of the world we live in. And part of the reason I feel called to speak of prediction is partly because I have not spoken of prediction and most of you have not heard a lot about prediction. Some of you it's a new thing that Zen practice involves prediction.

[07:05]

Prediction is a necessary facet of the jewel of Zen. All Buddhas have been predicted. And another thing I want to bring up together with the prediction is making offerings or serving Buddhas. Making offerings to Buddhas and serving Buddhas. That goes very intimately with prediction, which I'll try to tell you about. This morning when you were sitting, I said some things to you which have been said before in many languages.

[08:26]

I said in English to you. But that English I gave you was a translation of Chinese, which was a translation from Sanskrit. And the Sanskrit was a translation of what Buddha said into Sanskrit, because Buddha did not give talks in Sanskrit. So Buddha spoke, and then later they wrote down what he said, which in a different language from what he said it, and then later they translated in Sanskrit, and then also in Pali, and then And then they translated it into Chinese, and now it's been translated into English. So what I said to you was something that the Bodhisattva Shakyamuni Buddha said long before she became Shakyamuni Buddha. This is said by a Bodhisattva.

[09:29]

a bodhisattva, kind of an ordinary bodhisattva monk, who did not study scriptures, or recite scriptures, or copy scriptures. All this bodhisattva did was prediction. Or another translation of it is affirmation. All this bodhisattva did, her main job all day long was Affirmation. Of what? Of Buddhahood. All this bodhisattva did, or anyway, what the bodhisattva focused on, actually I'll just say all this bodhisattva did was affirmation, which the bodhisattva sometimes said, but also everything that bodhisattva did, I would say, was also prediction. And this story of this bodhisattva is in the ocean of the great vehicle teachings, and it's in a sutra called the Lotus Sutra.

[10:45]

And it's in a chapter called Never Disparaging Bodhisattva. That's the name of this bodhisattva gospel. Actually, the Bodhisattva got that name from people who did not appreciate his practice. They were annoyed by him predicting their Buddhahood, which he did verbally and non-verbally all day long. So he would go someplace where there's human beings. They didn't mention in the story cows or dogs or cats. or banana slugs. But anyway, he went. But they were there too. Just wanted to mention to you, he wasn't just with the banana slugs. He went where there were people, humans, that understood whatever language he was speaking. And he stood in some kind of like, at a crossroads where a lot of people would be coming by. And what did he do there?

[11:49]

He said, I deeply respect you. That was his practice, to say that. I deeply respect you. I will never disparage you. Why? Because you are walking the bodhisattva path and you will become Buddha. That's what he said to people who walked by. And some people who are described in the Lotus Sutra as being very arrogant, they said to him, we don't need this stupid idiot to be telling us that we're going to become Buddha. They reviled him in that way. And they even started throwing sticks at him and beating him and throwing rocks and roof tiles at him.

[12:56]

So when they did that, he would kind of run away to some distance and then speak to them from a distance. But before he ran away, he said, I'm sorry, it's my fault, I shouldn't, I'm sorry I offended you. And then he'd walk away farther. He didn't switch from I deeply respect you. I will not disparage you when they attacked him." He did not switch. He just got farther away and continued. And he did this, he spoke this That's the core of the story in the chapter called Never Disparaging Bodhisattva. That was the name that his critics gave him. But this bodhisattva could have been also named Always Respecting, or Universally Respecting Bodhisattva, or Deeply Respecting Bodhisattva.

[14:03]

That's another name that could have been given. But they thought he was a real idiot, a fool, and this was their criticism of him. And he just kept doing that his whole life. And then from there his practice went on as he was about to die. many, many Buddhas came to him and gave him more teachings and more, anyway. And then many, many Buddhas came and made it possible for him to live longer, a lot longer. And then after he had, he kind of, he didn't, I don't, they don't say that he retired from saying, I deeply respect you. It just said that then he started with the aid of these Buddhas, then he started to study the scriptures and recite them and copy them and teach them.

[15:07]

And then he did that for a long time. Get the picture? Most of his life, doing this amazing practice, being respectful and devoted to the welfare of all beings and saying, you know, you're predicting their Buddhahood. Then, as he's about to die, his life gets extended so he can study more. And then his life gets extended more so not only can he study the scriptures, the great vehicle scriptures, but he can also then start making offerings to Buddhas. And he does this for a really long time. And it doesn't say in the Lotus Sutra, but it says in the Abhatamsaka Sutra that in that process he received prediction. And the prediction he got was that he would be Shakyamuni Buddha. So this never disparaging bodhisattva is Shakyamuni Buddha before he was Shakyamuni Buddha.

[16:16]

And the people who didn't appreciate them, what he was teaching when he was predicting them, those people, some of those people are in this assembly right now. I would say that, and that's also what it says in the Lotus Sutra. Buddha said that to his students, his wonderful students. Some of those people, not all of them, but some of them are in this assembly. But now you can receive prediction. Now you can receive affirmation. So it was given to you this morning. And I would say it again. I deeply respect you. I will never disparage you. Because you are walking the bodhisattva path and you will become Buddha.

[17:29]

How could I not respect you? In another scripture called the Heroic Stride Samadhi, there was a discussion of prediction also, and I think it was the bodhisattva Dhridhamati, but I'm not sure, he said to Buddha, who knows who's going to become Buddha? And Buddha said, Buddha knows who's going to become Buddha. And then Dhritamati said, well, it might not have been him. I'll check and let you know if I'm wrong. But he said, well, if that's the case, since we don't know who's going to be a Buddha and who's not, this is a different scripture from the Lotus Sutra. We probably should respect everybody, just in case. They might be a bodhisattva and there might be a Buddha, even soon. So we should respect everybody. And the Buddha says, right. Did this bodhisattva called Never Disparaging, did he know who was going to become Buddha?

[18:42]

Did he know that everybody was going to become Buddha? Again, the other scriptures said he didn't really know, he just said it. But he was devoted to saying that. That was his job. And so I wanted to share that with you. So you know that our founder, he spent quite a bit of his time giving predictions even before he was a Buddha. And then after he was a Buddha, he continued to give predictions. So this never disparaging bodhisattva is chapter 20 of the Lotus Sutra. But in chapter 6 and 8 and 9 the Buddha gives predictions to his disciples who didn't know they were bodhisattvas. So in the Lotus Sutra the Buddha has this huge assembly and many people in the assembly have been trying to get out of samsara and enter nirvana and never come back.

[19:48]

Many people in the assembly of Shakyamuni Buddha in the Lotus Sutra did not yet know they had the bodhisattva vow. They did not know that they were walking the path of the bodhisattva. So Buddha told them. He told a lot of them and he mentioned their names and he told them what kind of Buddha name they would have when they were Buddha. In three chapters of the sutra he's talking about this prediction of all these bodhisattvas, of all these people, letting them know, you guys are bodhisattvas. One of the people in one of the chapters where Buddha's predicting people to Buddhahood, one of the chapters where Buddha is affirming people's Buddhahood in the future has a character named Ajnata Kandinya.

[20:55]

And Ajnata Kandinya was in the first teaching that the Buddha gave. And that teaching, that scripture is called Setting the Dharma Wheel Rolling And we have a Dharma wheel on the roof here, a wooden one painted gold, and we have a Dharma room in this room." And the Buddha, a long time ago, set the Dharma wheel turning. And then people remember what he said, and he starts out by saying basically, hey, I found the middle way. He's saying this to five people who he's friends with, who he knew before he became Buddha. He practiced yoga with these five advanced yogis. And after Buddhahood he ran into them and they said, what's new? And he said, well, Buddhahood has been realized. Perhaps you'd like to hear about it.

[22:00]

And they said, okay. So then he said, I found a middle way. And then he told him a little bit about the middle way. It's a short scripture. In English, single-spaced type is two sides, two pages. On one piece of paper, you can get the first teaching of the Buddha. And at the end of giving this teaching, Anjata Kandinya understood the teaching. And the world shook. And a great light came which pervaded the universe at the first teaching. And Buddha basically said, he has understood. He has understood my teaching. He has understood the middle way. And then within weeks the other four also understood and all became what we call arhats.

[23:05]

They all became. But the anyatad gundina was awakened at the end of the first delivery of the teaching. Then all of them became awakened. However, in that scripture the Buddha did not predict them to Buddhahood. And so now in the Lotus Sutra, these people who did not get prediction, but who were affirmed as awakened, now they're being told, not only are you awakened disciples, but you're going to become Buddhas. You're going to become like me. I'm not just awakened, I'm your teacher. You're going to become a teacher of the whole universe in addition to being free. In other words, you're not just going to be awake, you're going to make an unceasing effort to free all beings. And the unceasing effort to free all beings makes Buddhas. And so some of those people from the first scripture, the first teaching, are in these chapters on predictions.

[24:16]

And again, the Buddha's doing the prediction. Now the story later in the sutra is somebody who's kind of like an ordinary person like us in a way, but probably has some really good background, because how many of us would dare to go even down to Mill Valley, not to mention, I don't know what, Oklahoma City or Dallas, Texas, and say this on the street? Because people might not like to hear it, and might be mean to us. But we care so much for them, we want to give them... When I was a kid there was this hallmark card, you know, you cared enough to give the very best card. So he cared enough to give people the best news, which is, you're on the bodhisattva path, you will become Buddha. and then he became Shakyamuni Buddha, and then he said it again to these great disciples.

[25:23]

But they, because they were awake, they did not resist it. They just jumped for joy. We're so happy to hear this. We've never heard this before. What? We've never heard this prediction. And we're so happy. We thought we were done with our work. We thought we were in retirement. And we were getting kind of pooped out and old and weak. Now we feel reinvigorated with this news. They're so happy. after, after, after, after prediction, then they actually start really serving not just this Buddha, but they vow to serve infinite Buddhas and also infinite living beings. So this never disparaging bodhisattva is not predicting great disciples. And he's not a great disciple yet, and he probably never will be one because now he's The Buddhists have now, without him becoming a great disciple, has gone from being an ordinary monk to being a great bodhisattva.

[26:29]

So he continues the work and expands it greatly to serve Buddhas. But we don't have to get this... We don't have to be any greater than we are, just like him. We can start doing this practice. It may be too much for you to say this to people, But I said it this morning. I may get in trouble later for saying it, but I did say it. Fools rush in where wise fear to tread. But I foolishly said that to you this morning, just like that fool never disparaging Bodhisattva. And again, he said that. And if one says that to people, then you are in accord with the Dharma.

[27:36]

I say that. If you think that about people, and don't say it, but just think it, you're in accord with the Dharma. If you look at somebody and think, I deeply respect you. I deeply respect you. If you think like that, you're in accord with the Dharma. But there's a little bit more to bring the accord complete. I deeply respect you. I will never disparage you. So the positive and the negative. And then, you are in the bodhisattva path. you will become Buddha. Thinking like that about people, you're in accord with the Dharma. Saying it, you're in accord with the Dharma. Making gestures like that, like this. This is a gesture of you will become Buddha.

[28:41]

I deeply respect you. I will never disparage you. You are on the Bodhisattva path. My hands, even when silent, express that. And then I also want to bring up something even a little bit more intense from Ehe Koso, Dogen Zenji, He wrote a chapter called Jyuki, called Prediction, called Affirmation. He wrote a chapter about that. And one of the things he said was, if you speak in a way that's not a prediction of Buddhahood, your speaking is not in accord

[29:56]

with the Dharma. So if I read it, I think I must confess and repent. I've said a lot of things where I wasn't aware that what I was saying was a prediction. Now I wish to learn that no matter what I say, I'm saying it as a way of saying you will become Buddha. No matter what I say, like somebody says, what day is it? I might say Saturday. But I want, when I say Saturday, if I understand that Saturday is saying I deeply respect you. If Saturday is saying, I will never disparage you, then saying Saturday is in accord with the Dharma. And if I forget that saying Saturday is a prediction of Buddhahood, I'm off track.

[31:04]

What track? The Buddha track. So Dogen Zen is quite strong on this prediction thing. It's part of Zen practice in this lineage. And I just wanted to let you know. And the scary part is, if you don't practice prediction, you're off. If you think about people, what? What? Yeah. like right now I'm looking at you, but I'm also thinking about you, to say, I can't, I don't seem to be able to look at you without thinking of you. So the complete way of thinking about you includes that I deeply respect you. I can't really wholeheartedly think about you if I don't deeply respect you. And if I don't wholeheartedly think about you, I'm not in accord with the Dharma.

[32:11]

If you're in accord with the Dharma when you think about people, when you look at them, you do so wholeheartedly. If you're in accord with the Dharma when you listen to people, You listen to them wholeheartedly. And if I don't listen to people wholeheartedly, I'm off track. What track? The Dharma track. Dharma track is to listen to people, is to look at people wholeheartedly. And part of wholehearted is you will become Buddha. You are on the Bodhisattva path. It's not the whole thing. It's just an important ingredient in being wholehearted when you meet people. This person. This person. This person. Each person. Yeah. I wholeheartedly look at them. I wholeheartedly listen to them. I wholeheartedly gesture to them.

[33:13]

Then this gesture, it's not so much I'm in accord, but my gesture's in accord. My thinking's in accord. My speaking is in accord. Now I speak. And this speaking is saying, really, or partly, and really, you will become Buddha. My thinking is saying, I deeply respect you. So I'm trying to use this teaching about prediction to attune the body, the speech, and the thought to the Buddha Dharma. And once again, Doga Zenji is saying, if you skip over this aspect of wholeheartedness, you're a little off in your attunement. If we forget to appreciate a living being, and some people are coming to mind that are not being appreciated,

[34:18]

around the world. A lot of people are not appreciating some people. And to not appreciate them, to disparage them, is not Shakyamuni Buddha's way. Shakyamuni Buddha's way is deeply to respect all living beings. And that's something, that's a practice that I want to bring up. And one more aspect of it is a story of somebody in Japan And I can tell you more about this person later if you want, but for now I'll just tell you, make it easy, it's a person who was a man, who was a Nichiren priest. And women can be Nichiren priests, but he was a man, a male, human Nichiren priest. And he was born into a family. His father was a Nichiren priest, so he was a Nichiren novice.

[35:23]

I think he was like 17 or 18. And he came across this story. Guess what story? Yes. Louder, please. Thou wilt say it. Never disparaging Bodhisattva. Yeah, he heard the story about it. He read it in the Lotus Sutra. The Lotus Sutra is kind of like the background text of Nichiren. Because their practice, yeah, their practice is to say the name of the Lotus Sutra. That's their practice. Namu myoho renge kyo. Homage to the Lotus Sutra is their practice, to say it. But also to think it. And also to gesture. This is their practice. Lotus Sutra. And also this is bowing to never disparaging bodhisattva. Anyway, he found this story when he was 18. He grew up in a Nichiren house, but he had maybe, he hadn't read chapter 20 before.

[36:26]

I met some Nichiren people. All they know is Namo Myoho Rinpoche. They don't know what's inside the sutra. They just know the title, which is enough. It's enough. It's enough. Just like people have heard Zazen. That's enough. You don't have to know what's inside Zazen. Just practice Zazen. Namu Zazen. Namu Myoho Rengekyo. Namu, sitting still. Anyway, he found the story. And it had a big impact on him. It kind of like, oh... this teaching is about respecting and cherishing and wishing the best for all living beings. And then not too long after that he wound up being near a village that had a section around the village where lepers lived.

[37:35]

And he practiced, he deeply respected them. He thought, I deeply respect you lepers. I deeply appreciate you. I honor you. I do not disparage you for having this disease. You are on the bodhisattva path. You will become Buddhas. I don't know if he said it to those people, but he was inspired by that teaching when he met them. And so he spent the rest of his life creating a better situation to support them. And I have a picture I can show you of the way they were living when he first found them. in 1906, basically in little huts in the rough.

[38:49]

And then he built better facilities for them where they could be clean and so on. And in Japan, in English the word leprosy has some... the word leprosy isn't an insult. it's not kind of a frightening word for people, but the Japanese word, the Chinese word for leprosy is an insult. So they also, they change, in Japan they don't say that word anymore for leprosy. They say Hansen's disease. Hansen. They say, they have a way of translating it into Japanese, which is probably something like Hansen, because that was a Western doctor who discovered the, I guess, the bacteria that causes it. So he spent the rest of his life promoting the care of Hansen's disease motivated by never despising bodhisattva's practice.

[39:52]

He really respected those people. And I think he was instrumental in, in Japan people do not say that whatever the terrible word was, that insulting, that disparaging word. The Japanese word for lepers was disparaging. Hansen's disease. was a replacement in the spirit of we do not disparage lepers. We do not disparage people who have AIDS. We do not disparage people who have ulcers. We do not disparage people who have psychosis. We do not disparage people who are bipolar. We do not disparage people who have Down syndrome. We do not disparage people who are autistic.

[41:02]

We respect them, right? But maybe not. This teaching has said that Buddha, before Buddha during Buddha and after Buddha, Buddha respects all living beings. No exception. Even if the living beings are in powerful positions in the government. Even if they're in powerful positions in business. Even if they're billionaires. Even billionaires The Buddha says, I deeply respect you. The Bodhisattva says, I deeply respect you, billionaire. I do not disparage you. You are on the Bodhisattva way and I'm here to say that to you. And the billionaire, some of the billionaires might throw rocks at that person or have their security people take them out of the area.

[42:07]

And then after being removed from the billionaire land, from a distance, they can say, but some people have told me they do not respect billionaires. I say, well, can you respect if you don't respect? And they say, yeah, and we'll start there. Respect the one who doesn't respect. Respect the one who hates billionaires, which might be you. You too should be deeply respected. You who hate rich people. And even worse, to respect anybody who hates poor people. Which might turn out to be the same as the rich people, I don't know. Anyway, you get the picture? This is prediction, and it is one of the fine-tuning devices in Zen practice, along with everything else you're working on.

[43:23]

Now, please bring this into play. I deeply respect everybody I meet right now. I respect this person right now. I respect this person right now. And I vowed to never disparage them, and I vowed to remember their On the Bodhisattva Path. I honored their practice in this form, which nobody but me can see, apparently. And I tell them, and I think that they will be Buddha. And I deeply respect you who look at your clock to see what time it is. And I can sympathize with anybody who's looking at the clock. I did a minute ago, and it looked like it was about high noon. Yes? It's question time.

[44:26]

It's question time! It's also... Anything time. It's criticism time. You're welcome. Clarification. I didn't look at my watch to see what time it was. Lower it, please. Clarification. I didn't look at my watch to see what time it was, just to tell you that. This watch gives you a little buzz if something happens, so my mind automatically looked at it, but it had nothing to do with the time. I'd be happy to sit here for a week. Thanks for the clarification. I was actually asking for it. The last two-thirds of what you've been talking about has been rich for me. I really appreciate it. I love it. I got a little swamped earlier. You went to get again. I'm missing the boat and understand it. Are we all on the Bodhisattva path or are we not?

[45:28]

Is everyone going to be a Buddha or not? I get confused. Why? Because that's this big revelation, this prediction. Where are we always going to be at? So that's my question. Then later on you talk exactly like it. It's the thinking about it and speaking about it that that's important muscle. But I'm questioning what goes before that. Anybody like you who's questioning... I deeply respect. That's the practice. I will never disparage a questioner. No, I got the disparaging part. I know you got that, I just wanted to mention it. In the ocean of beings, and many of them are Buddha, so-called disciples of Buddha, some of the disciples of Buddha do not agree and are not signed up for the practice in the Lotus Sutra. They're not signed up for being never discouraging bodhisattva practice.

[46:31]

Not everybody's up for that. Not all the disciples of Buddha. And for example, in the Lotus Sutra, it predicts these people who never even occurred to them that anybody would be predicted to Buddhahood. They thought, we got a Buddha, but none of us are going to become Buddhas. We're just going to become liberated saints. And we are. So the Lotus Sutra recognizes that not everybody thinks that everybody's going to become Buddha. Even though they are. Even in reality, they are, but also, they're not just our Buddhas, but they're also going to do an inconceivably thorough practice of training in already being Buddha. Because without training, which many of us do not know how to do very well, we don't realize the Buddha that we already are. We're already Buddha, but we have also a lot of problems, like we have misconceptions and attachments.

[47:33]

We're still Buddha, we have all the virtues of the Buddha, but we also have a lot of karmic junk that we have to live with. And because of that, we have to do a lot of confession and repentance. And part of confession and repentance is practicing prediction. Which some people have trouble doing because they don't really think everybody's going to be Buddha. But the Lotus Sutra is very influential in this little school called Soto Zen. Because the Lotus Sutra is very influenced on this little guy named Dogen Zenji who had a very strong voice and a very strong pen, a brush. He wrote these teachings where he was saying, prediction of Buddha is part of being in alignment with the Dharma.

[48:34]

He's saying, to predict that people are going to be Buddha, if you don't do that, you're not quite in line with the Dharma. But not all Buddhists say that. I'm just telling you this is a message from a certain section of the Buddhist ocean. A certain area of the immense Buddhadharma is to say that prediction is part of the deal. Again, other schools may understand, almost all schools would agree, because from the early teaching, Buddha was predicted, and in order to be a Buddha, you need prediction. But to take the next step, to predict everybody, that's a big step the Lotus Sutra took. And is the word predict a lot better than understand that? I wouldn't say it's better, I'd just say it's predict, whether you understand it or not, predict it.

[49:35]

whether you understand it or not, affirm the Buddhahood of everybody. In other words, whether you understand it or not that the person's going to be a Buddha, treat them like they were going to be a Buddha. Even if you don't kind of get that, you don't really understand it, you can't really see it, but you practice affirming that they're going to be Buddha. Which has this little side effect that you're going to respect lepers and And you're going to respect... I'm not going to say the names of the other things you're going to respect. Well, I'll just say it. It doesn't mean you're going to respect Democrats. It doesn't mean you're going to respect Republicans. It doesn't mean you're going to respect Americans. It doesn't mean you're going to respect Russians. and not anything else. It means you respect everything. This view makes it possible to take care of everybody, even though you don't understand how it is that they're on the bodhisattva path.

[50:46]

But you might be trying to understand it, and I'm bringing this up to help you try to understand how everybody is on the bodhisattva path, even Charlie Wilson. I just want to thank you for that wonderful response. You're welcome. Yes, Charlie. So, you know when you're listening to music and then this weird element comes in that just makes you want to change the channel or go to the next realization? What on earth is happening when this story says, and we do say, And then this human's life was extended, and then extended, and he got to live for a very long time. What the heck is that in the story? Because I'm really enjoying the story, and then it just gets psychedelic on me. And the guy's living forever, and it loses me. So what's going on? Why did they have to do that with the story?

[51:48]

What's the meaning of that happening? I wouldn't say the meaning, but... it's saying, even though he's predicting these people, everybody he meets, to Buddhahood, and he really means it, and Buddha agrees with him, he doesn't say, you don't have to do a lot of practice. He doesn't say, you're going to be Buddha, and therefore, you don't have to, like, take care of no abode. You don't have to take care of the Dharma talks. You're done. You have no more work to do. He doesn't say that. But he does say it, and because he says it, and he says it wholeheartedly, the Buddha has come to him and shown he has more work to do. So basically, he who predicts, and also he who is predicted, because we predict and are predicted at the same time, he also, one of the things he gets, or she gets from this practice of respecting everybody, is to be told, hey,

[52:55]

That's wonderful that you're respecting everybody. And also, now I would like you to memorize all these sutras. Okay, but that makes it really unrelatable because how the heck am I going to get there? Like, nobody's going to extend my life over and over. Ah, okay. So the person who says nobody's going to extend my life forever, I would say, if you do this practice of respecting everybody, you're going to get a surprise. which I can understand you could very hard to believe. Yeah, I don't believe you. Yeah. But if you do this practice, you don't have to believe me, you're just going to get a big surprise. And the surprise is going to be that untold Buddhas are going to come and help you do more practices than you ever could imagine you would do. But the person they're coming to is somebody who does kind of a simple but difficult practice of respecting everybody he meets.

[53:57]

That person is going to get help. And that person, when the help comes, he might feel like, well, maybe I could do those practices. But right now, that person doesn't, the person who's being respected, and who's respecting. He doesn't quite, he's not quite there yet. He hasn't done the respecting everybody long enough. He did it his whole life. So if you now take this practice on, at the end of your life you may get a surprise. Instead of just dying, you may get a surprise. And you don't have to believe me, I'm just saying maybe. And I think if you can respect everybody, then maybe you can disrespect what I just said. Which was simply, if you do this practice the rest of your life, you might get a surprise. And anything I say about the surprise, then once I say it, you're not surprised anymore. It's going to be something I haven't said yet. But you can get a hint of the surprise from what is said in the Lotus Sutra.

[55:02]

And I must admit that after the story and him doing this his whole life is pretty gutsy and pretty rich. Imagine doing that for now on till the end of this life. That's pretty rich practice. And then the next part is more difficult. I also agree with you. The next part is like, oh, wow. All this teaching you have to do That's part of the deal, too. And you've heard about that, but I'm just telling you, part of doing that is that we need to also do this. Again, the easy thing is respecting everybody. The hard thing is that you don't just respect them, you also, I mean, you really respect them. You state that they're going to be Buddha. I mean, it's the biggest respect possible. Thank you, Charlie. And I see Diane, Sonia, who was out there?

[56:11]

Somebody in there. And Linda, was there some other hand? Oh, and Homa. Homa, Diane, Sonia, Linda, anybody else? Okay, let's go. Linda. Linda. I was not the first one in line. I know. I mean, guess what? I haven't got to mention it that badly. This is the first order. By the way, in Chapter 13 of the Sutra, they list the Buddhas preceding Shakyamuni Buddha Instead of from farthest away in time to present, they listen from closest to present, far away. But I'm doing far away to present. But both far away and bodhisattva gets caught on thirst. I missed the last thing you said. The farthest away bodhisattva gets caught on thirst.

[57:12]

So I was always trying to be close to you. They've always worked. OK. So I would like to make a little offering and then ask a question. The offering is, how many people already know the song that was composed at Tassajara that goes, I will never disparage you? Have you heard it? So do you know the song? No. Yeah. So I'd just like to sing the chorus of that. OK. Could you hear that? This is written by some Tassajara students. Yes. It has several delightful stanzas, which I will not sing at this time. The chorus goes like this. I'd never disparage you or keep you at arm's length. Though you only see your weakness, I only see your strength. I will never despise you or put you down in any way. Because it's plain to me, I can plainly see, you'll be a Buddha someday. I love you.

[58:15]

Thank you. That's probably on YouTube. It's probably on Newton. It is. Alan Snoky especially would sing that with guitar. And everybody would join in on the chorus and the best part was when they'd say... Anyway, credit to Greg Fain who wrote the lyrics and Ben Gustin who did the music. Yeah, thank you. But you can sing it just like Linda. So... What you say about respecting everybody and thinking they're on the Boni Sapa path might sound a little surprising when you think about certain billionaires or whatever. But it's actually the teaching of most every religion ethical system. You know, like when Martin Luther King says you love everybody whether you like them or not.

[59:19]

When the Bible says The stranger could be the angel of God, so treat everybody that way. So what really gets interesting after that is how you express that respect. I think it's even embodied in our institutions, such as due process. We're seeing that right now. Due process for everybody, whatever crime they may or may not have committed. Actually, it's not a question. I just wanted to say that. Thank you. I'm amazed that in our court system, when they have a person accused of an inconceivably horrible crime, they say, Mr. Or they say, the accused, rather than something else. They could say these other things. How can you say, Mr.? or Ms.

[60:22]

to this person who has done this thing. It's just like, but we do. We treat them with, there's some respect in the situation. And sometimes it's kind of sincere, even though there's also the thought of, oh, it's horrible. And then we may also stop them from doing that harm. Respect doesn't prevent us from stopping them. They're trying to prevent harm by this process. So they're being respectful to prevent harm when harm has been done. Let's see, next is Diane. Okay, thank you. I have to confess that I practice Nietzschean Buddhism, and I can't. And what I'm going to say about it is that I went for a lot of years. I came to Buddhism a long time ago, but I couldn't respect. I just didn't know how.

[61:24]

And sitting for me is often torture. you know, okay, I can stay with my breath or, you know, now I'm struggling with my posture and, you know, where am I going next with it? But chanting is a way for me that I am able to kind of, I wouldn't have used the word respect, but what it does is it activates my aspiration for other people's happiness or or enlightenment. It's just like an active process. And I can chant for anyone. All the people that you mentioned, including the criminal in court, I can chant for those people because it's their potential. It's what we all have. And we express it at different degrees or at different times or

[62:31]

But we're moving in that direction. And in the Lotus Sutra, we don't just chant, we recite the second and the 16th chapter also, or portion of it every day. And so it was really interesting to hear you talk about how the never disparaging was actually the Buddha, the Shakyamuni Buddha, because that comes so later, and I think it's the 16th chapter where he's talking about he's lived many lifetimes. But he's saying he's lived many lifetimes, and then you hear the story in chapter 25. how, when you first got enlightened. Anyway, I just want to share that it's an amazing practice and it just affirms that we're all Buddha.

[63:33]

And they talk about it as achieving hozen rifu, which means a time when everyone, when it's world peace, we're all living as Buddha. Thank you for And Sonia? I want to go to respect. Some other times you used to talk about it as looking again. Etymologically. Yeah. Respectus. And I thought to really wholeheartedly, deeply respect, that's how I'm kind of working with it, is to deeply look and see people's conditioning. And if I can kind of see the landscape or the situation that brought them to this, I can kind of see that somehow they may be growing in wisdom and Buddhahood.

[64:35]

And so that's also me remembering, you know, checking this out, but me remembering that we've all come from some kind of ground that's led to looking like this. And that would help, that helps me when I see that, when something looks like, I don't know what the word for that is, but I can say, oh, something brought this to that look. heard that in your talk today. And I thought of the, like, what does serving or practice look like? Because he's a disturbing Buddhist. And as I was listening to Charlie, I thought, well, his service is all this recording he's doing. It's like disseminating the teaching that goes beyond

[65:39]

Charlie's life, or we'll continue Charlie's life beyond. Anyway, that's what I think, Charlie. Think of it as you're doomed or you're predicted. Anyway, that's what I heard as I was listening to you today. Thank you. And Houma? Thank you, Rep. I have this big thought in line with Sonia, and that was when we were talking about Texas and different places to go there, and they may not be respectful, or they act in a way that it's violent. And then I went to an understanding called respect, I truly, down deep in my heart, see that when one is respected, they won't fight.

[66:57]

They won't fight. There's no fight. In true respect, all fights is done. I'm grateful for this teaching because I never saw that as a possibility in my own lifetime to realize, yes, seeing the unseen and not clinging to the seen It's what these teachings are offering. They're not offering to us anything other than who we are. They're just the same.

[68:02]

The teachings are not offering us anything other than what we are. Now I have something to bring up which I think might be painful for you to hear, might be sad for you to hear, which is that one of the members of our little group here named Scott Lowe, Conan Scott Lowe, died in his sleep Wednesday night in Sacramento. He was here last month.

[69:05]

He sat right over there. And at And during the day he gave me this memoir that he wrote about a trip to China that some of us went on. I think in maybe 2002 or 2000, 2000, in the autumn of 2000. We went to China together, and he wrote this memoir which I will make available for you to look at if you want. And there's some pictures, and I also have a big book of pictures that you can also look at that I'll bring out. These pictures do not have any pictures of Scott, but we have other pictures that do have pictures of Scott.

[70:10]

So now I'd like to, if you would, have a memorial ceremony for him. Okay?

[70:18]

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