As we observe sentient beings with eyes of compassion and listen to their cries with compassion, as the compassion becomes more and more wholehearted, these cries, these sentient beings, including ourselves, will open will reveal the original self-nature in its purity. So the compassion practice is continuous, and as it becomes wholehearted, the wisdom eye opens, and we will see our true self-nature. the compassion, the wisdom, the liberating wisdom grows in the growing compassion.

[01:12]

Once again, I suggested to you that there's this kind of lineage of teachings. So there's like the Nirvana Sutra, which is one of the last of the Mahayana Sutras to appear, and the Avatamsaka Sutra, the flower adornment scripture, that both of those scriptures teach. The Nirvana Sutra says all living beings without exception are the Buddha nature, or have the Buddha nature. And the Avatamsaka Sutra says, the Buddha says, now I see that all living beings, without exception, fully possess the wisdom and virtues of the Buddhas. However, because of attachment and misconceptions, they don't realize it.

[04:19]

Therefore, I teach it." And those texts are in the background leading up to the Brahman's Net Sutra, which gives the Bodhisattva precepts of Buddha nature, the Bodhisattva precepts of the Buddha nature, Tathagatagarbha. And that sutra, and that sutra with the other sutras, flows into the Platform Sutra, of the sixth ancestor, also teaching the Buddha nature, Bodhisattva precepts. And I put some cards over there, which I think are, did they get covered up by other scriptures?

[05:25]

I put some cards up there which say, 16 great Bodhisattva precepts. So this presentation of Bodhisattva precepts in 16 is the three refuges, the three treasures, and the three basic Bodhisattva precepts, the threefold Bodhisattva precept of embracing and sustaining the forms and ceremonies, embracing and sustaining all wholesome action, and embracing and sustaining all beings. And it's followed by ten grave precepts, which are the ten grave precepts in the Brahma's net scripture. The ten major or grave precepts in R16 come from that sutra. In the Bodhisattva Precept Ceremony in the Sixth Ancestor's Bodhisattva Platform Sutra, in that text, they don't give the ten great precepts or the forty-eight minor.

[06:50]

They more focus on the three treasures. And they talk about the three treasures as formless three treasures. They're three treasures. They're Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha without form. And so at the beginning of the ceremony, the Buddha says, recite with me. And he said, if you recite with me, this recitation will make you see the three bodies of Buddha in your own self. And then he recites, going for refuge in the three bodies, one by one,

[08:02]

in our own physical body. So our own physical body has a form. So we use our physical body as the place for going for refuge in the three bodies of Buddha. We don't go for refuge in our body. we go for refuge in the threefold Buddha body in our body. And in doing this, the ancestor says, you will be able to see the three bodies of Buddha in your own body, or to see your own body as the threefold body of Buddha. and the three bodies are what we call the Dharma body of the Buddha, the other is the complete, fulfilled body of Buddha, and the other is the

[09:25]

the hundred thousand, ten thousand, hundred million, trillions of transformation bodies of Buddha. Those are the three bodies. No, I know. Where do you want me to start? So number one? is called the Dharma body or the real body of Buddha. Dharmakaya Buddha. The next one is called the complete Sambhogakaya Buddha, which is also sometimes called the bliss body of Buddha. So, the fulfilled or bliss body of Buddha. Sambhogakaya Buddha, and the third body is the more or less infinite transformational forms that Buddha can take.

[10:38]

Nirmanakaya Buddha. Yes? Could you talk more about the Sambhogakaya? I think we don't hear about it very much. I can, but next time. So I just wanted to tell you that in this Platform Sutra, which I didn't recommend you read that yet, but guess what? You can get that online, too. You don't have to buy it. You can just Google it, and it's translated by the same organization, which might be called Bukkyo Dentokyo? Anyway, it's BDK, it's the initials, it's the Numata Institute in Berkeley. Anyway, if you Google Platform Sutra, you can get a PDF of it, and you can download it onto your computer, and you can read the Platform Sutra too.

[11:42]

But I'm not recommending you do that yet. First, I suggest you read the precept sutra, the background Mahayana precept sutra, and then, after that, read the Zen precept sutra of the ancestor. But anyway, in that sutra, at the beginning of the ceremony in that sutra, the ancestor, Huineng, says, people say he said, recite with me." And then he says, I, or we, go for refuge in the Dharma body of Buddha within or as our own body. I, or we, go for refuge in the complete body of Buddha the crude, complete, fulfilled body of Buddha in our own physical body.

[12:49]

We go for refuge in the transformation body of Buddha, the billions of transformation bodies of Buddha in our own body." And he says, in doing this, you are able to see the three bodies of Buddha as your own self-nature. Yes. So actually with one body that we have, we are given, with that one body we are capable or there's the potential of transforming. So we don't have to go like in one body at a time. With this one body you're able to go to the whole transformation of all the bodies, correct? born in different bodies. I mean, like... You don't have to, but you will.

[13:52]

And each body you're born in, you can use that body to go for refuge. usually we go for refuge in the Buddha, in the Dharma, in the Sangha. This is a formless refuge, where you're going for refuge in something which has no form, because you're going for refuge in these things in your own body. So, it's formless. These three bodies of Buddha are formless. But you need your body, which is a form. We need to to realize that using this body to realize those bodies shows us what we really are. We will see our true nature, our original true nature in this method. That's the beginning of the precept ceremony. So maybe next time we meet, we could actually do the ceremony, at least that part of it.

[14:56]

And then there's also repentance, which is also formless repentance. And then there's a formless going for refuge in the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. This first going for refuge is going for refuge in the threefold Buddha body in our own body as a way to see our essential, original nature. That's what the ancestors suggest in here. or that's what they say the ancestors are suggesting, and this understanding of the Bodhisattva precepts has been a big part of the Zen tradition for about 1300 years. If you read the other sutra as a background, perhaps next time we meet we could actually perform part of the sutra, platform sutra ceremony. But I don't know if anybody will come, because I can imagine you say, well, I don't know if I want to do that.

[16:04]

But I'm not saying for sure we'll do that. But we could. We could do it. Or I could just tell you about it. and tell you about it and tell you about it until everybody wanted to do it. Part of my job description is to be flexible, which leads me to say that I was talking to someone earlier about we have a lot of English surnames that are actually job descriptions, like Mr. Carpenter, Mr. Miller, Mr. Farmer, Mr. Baker, Mr. Fletcher, Mr. Archer, Mr. Smith, and we also have Mr. or Mrs. listening to the cries of the world. So that's kind of our last name.

[17:07]

In China, all their names were Shakya, Shakya something. They were all in the Shakya clan. And the Shakya is the one who taught us to listen to the cries of the world. Our family name is like our job. see your own original true nature. That's our job. That's been assigned to us by the sutra, which you may or may not wish to accept.

[17:54]

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