the

at the beginning of the last series of classes here at the yoga room
hum
i think i said something about the way the ah the series of crashes was advertised ah which usually says
a course in zen meditation to say it on this one too
you know
this is a title and and zen meditation
yeah so last last summer the climate the series was on the bodhisattva vow
so said boys have provenance and meditation so rich
yeah and now maybe a nice says
lotus sutra
embodying over sidra and zen meditation

i had to serve
i was inspired to to discuss the vows of body sought as last summer and
i was smooth
i was thinking of discussing their vows but i wasn't necessarily think i'm thinking of them in relationship to to zen meditation
but then right to begin in class i realized oh
this these great valves and bodhisattvas
yes let's let's specifically connect them unite them was in meditation
and i was great
happy and and and inspired by
how you how bringing the bodhisattva vows together with whatever kind of zen meditation you're doing makes the meditation whole hearted
and so like this morning i heard a talk at gringo given by
a young person is in a position called head monk for a practice period and and he was kind of proposing that zen meditation is being aware of your breath
and
so that's what it is for him as where he's practicing zen meditation
and but conception afternoon is evening i thought well if that's the way he thinks of zen meditation that's fine
but then how can his practice be wholehearted because
i kind of feel like it's not so much the zen meditation this is and meditations that i think kind of zen meditation is a whole hearted
when your ten whatever you're meditating on if your whole hearted i think it's hits
it's the zen meditation of a buddha
i think zen meditation can be practiced by everybody
but when it becomes wholehearted then it's like buddhist practices and meditation and the bodhisattva vows if you unite them with your meditation they become wholehearted
so for example if here
sitting and being mindful of your posture
seems like a wholesome thing to me and and mindful of your breathing that's a wholesome from of attention
if you were
i'm steadily
if you're continuously and carefully and closely attending to your posture and breathing can sustain that attention he probably would become com
and if that kind of attention is united with the vows of the buddhas and bodhisattvas
then that attention is not just calming it is the life of buddha
so that that line of
talk which then itself was an object of meditation was what we
kochi a blog about last summer here and i've continued to talk about that
now
biggest for blocked by last eight months and and then now the lotus sutra has come he is coming forth in my life so then it gets announced as a class and you come night in your life the lotus sutra

the lotus sutra
is a sutra is a scripture
and someone asked actually i think laurie asked
laurie
how does the your last name again

yeah
sure you have chat scott she to shoe yeah scott
that laurie
asked what is sutra me last saturday purse was the last saturday yeah and i said what's etymologically related to the word suture
ah image image it's etymology is thread
it's enemies hit the thread that ran that you put through the if you have a stack of lee of papers or leaves the that the first printed the scriptures on was on
palm leaves or something put a hole in him and put as a string through them that string is called the sutra
so it's the string it binds the text and to string that runs through the text descriptions what run through the text
so
the lotus scripture little is sutra
it's a searcher which is very big big on praising the lotus sutra the lotus sutra encouraged us to worship the lotus sutra to be very to feel very happy at the lot of sutures telling us to be happy about the lotus sutra
and that will be similar i guess to one of you telling us to be really happy about you
and you might if i said you should be really happy about rab you might think well that's kind of self serving well actually maybe not it's server you you're the one is going to be happy i'm not just so i can be happy if you're happy about me although i might be
but just think about being happy about me
that's what lotus to trucks and their it says if you're happy about me you will become a buddha
if you've really get very happy and inspired and uplifted about me you will become buddha
so anyway i'm pretty happy by the lotus or tribes he i didn't i didn't like become happy about the lotus sutra because i thought oh if i become happy but the lotus sutra i'll become buddhas rather that are somehow i've just starting to get happy about the lotus sutra like i'm getting happy about the bodhisattva vows
can the boys after vows are about being happy by buddha
if you're happier by buddha and you know it clap your hands
if you're happy about buddha
and you clap your hands and you sing the praises of buddha and you make offerings to buddha and you think about how worthy buddhas are if you think that if you think that way and talk that way and act that way you will become buddha
that's throughout
buddhism
buddhists are those who have been happy about buddhas in the past buddhas are those who before they were booed as were happy about meeting buddhas
i was happy about meeting suzuki roshi
i didn't i was planning on meeting him i went to zen center because i heard there was as and teacher there and i was happy to meet him
not super happy just to kind of happy like i think the first thing i saw was his feet
and his feet were clean and
you're clean and well avocado
well manicured yeah
i looked at to feed that i can learn that from these feet
and then i and then i after it after meditators over how about to him when i left his zendo and i didn't i didn't i didn't think i'm to happy to meet this guy i actually thought hmm what's happening then later i thought that stuff's good i didn't know what happened that i was i felt good about it
but i continued then to meet him of until he died and quite frequently had almost always like meeting him and was happy to meet him
citing is kind of area it's not as so i try to get anything out of it because sometimes people are happy to see good as and buddha's disciples and the teachers are teaching that
those who ser buddha as those who honor booed as those who worship buddha as become buddhas and all buddhas have worship buddha as before they were buddha so as part of the deal it's not the whole deal
i take that back it might be the whole deal but anyway it is part of the deal at least
i'm a lotus sutra
kind of this kind of telling you
the lotus eaters kind of telling you i think it is sort of telling you telling me it's sort of saying
the lotus to saying this text which you're looking at what you're listening to
what you're hearing about which you're copying which you're talking to people about this text is actually the embodiment of buddha
which is similar to i think some some people say about the bible
the bible is the embodiment of god and to some people say that
the
it's embodiment of the word now
so i mean when lotus which is kind of say it's the embodiment of buddha in it's the embodiment is the incarnation of ultimate truth
and also as i mentioned saturday had no abroad and i've mentioned many times over the years
yeah
when i first started when i first met the lotus sutra
it was i met a lot of suited because in nineteen sixty eight the fall of nineteen sixty eight secure as she was giving
talks on the lotus sutra tassajara
and also he was going to get probably continue to give toxins or researcher in the beginning of ninety sixty nine
and i saw ah
i was up as i was in san francisco when he was at tassajara and in the fall sixty eight
but those students of his who were in san francisco and not with him at tassajara we started studying law suit your to
because he was teaching it down there and also some of us thought we would go down to tassajara so i started studying lotus sutra and it's also listen to talks by him on a lotus sutra
but my experience was opening the lotus sutra and reading it i only read about one page or one and a half pages of the lotus sutra and then i closed the lotus sutra because i was not finding an enjoyable to read and i didn't feel like
i should push myself to keep reading
any further
that's the way i and i didn't think the zen was about reading books that you didn't think were worth reading
that's an i didn't i didn't sign up to read any books actually about sin
hi guys gonna come and sit and become a really good guy
so i'm sitting i was up for
i was totally there for the sitting and the breathing and all that stuff
and bodhisattva vow i think i had but i didn't know about it might wow was i wanted to become
really a kind person even with people who are cruel to me i i definitely wanted to learn that
that way that you can be kind of people are cruel to you
and also be kind of people who are really nice to you
you know like people really nice to you and i don't be possessive of them and try to control them you keep your keep him on the kindest track
so that's what i was into and i can i say it was the bodyshop evolve and i didn't know that name for it
but notice that i wasn't expecting but since years ago she was gonna teach it and everybody else thought was a good idea i tried it but then i closed it so
you may or may not want to read the lotus sutra during this class
i don't know surely recommend you are actually i don't necessarily recommend it but i do recommend it so necessary but i can kind of recommending it but with the background that i was recommended to me and then i got a copy opened it and closed it
and i and i and i also got the i kept a copy and openness later and close to it and i kept a copy and opened a pager and closed it and then i got another translation and opened and closed it's so over a period of years i opened it every now and then because it seems to be pretty important
for some reason or others kind of important if if someone was in my life he was like an honor know what
you have a mother and a father and then suddenly your mother is pregnant has another kid say that guy little sister
it's like ah
you know well i guess i got deal with her photos such like kind of in your family
is if you know it's kind of in your family so but you know
take it easy to have a good time with the to force yourself don't think you're a bad person if you don't like it
go ahead and think you've started bad person if you don't like it
so i'm feeling really happy but to having as class which will encourage me to
dive into the ocean of the lotus sutra
and i also looked up the word meditation today
i heard that the word meditation actually is it's root meaning heck it has something to do with a text
now lot of people think of meditation especially like people who are familiar with think of meditation is like gum
being aware of your posture and breathing
and you don't think of posture breathing as a text
or as a discourse but meditation actually do the the root of the word i believe which i have many able to figure out how that soviet did hear it but the first definition of meditation is actually related to a discourse
or a text
a spoken or meditation the first meaning of meditation in the dictionary looking today the first meeting of meditation is a discourse a spoken or written discourse is the first meeting of meditation
i think most of us think of meditation i think i've got a petition as my paying attention to something
my my reflecting on something my contemplating something well that's right
but what you're contemplating actually is the first meaning of meditation meditation is what you're contemplating
and it's not just and the first meeting is not contemplating your posture or breathing is contemplating a spoken or written discourse
is that surprising to you
the first meeting of meditation is the discourse is not the contemplation of the discourse it is the discourse that's the meditation
and it can be spoken like i'm speaking to you now this is a discourse you could say
and meditation is what i'm saying
it's something given to you i'm giving it to you for you to contemplate
in a written discourse treated in a contemplative manner
so if i give you these for this discourse and you don't treat it in a contemplative manner than in some sense that didn't work as it has a meditation
but if you receive it and i receive it and i i do receive it actually i am contemplating what i'm saying and what i'm saying comes from contemplating pretty much what i'm saying
gates the what i'm saying to i contemplate is saying to you before i set it to you and i intend that you would contemplate
what i'm saying about the lotus sutra and about contemplation and about meditation
meditation also means the act of meditating so it means both the text or the discourse year contemplating and it also means the contemplation on the ponder meditation
and now that but a lot of meditations are discourses which include
her instructions about how to contemplate on the meditation
and it also has the element of doing a continuous or can take a deep and close contemplation of some discourse
and it's especially related to religious religious topics but it can be on other things you can you can meditate here can be met a meditation on on many things but it is it is especially related to were
dua religious topics
huh
so if you wish to get a copy llosa to start reading it along with this class that be fine you don't need to
how does she want to check to see if what i'm saying has anything to do it to the text
because i'm gonna tell you something about what the text says

i already did deny
when they tell you about the text
what it tells you to the analysts that's want to think that was who does it tell you love it
so you can look and see if it does and as a number of translations and you know i really don't have a favorite i think i have almost all the english translations i have seven
and i do not have a favorite

hmm did you find one
oh yeah that's not to part of the story is that i opened it and closed that an opening because it and i can then one day opened it and it was time
and then use like
he was like me in the lotus sutra
just like all i want to do was read it but the lotus sutra so sweet a lot of city says close this book now and go help people for a while don't just sit here and you know do this thing with me that you're enjoying so much go help people are go have lunch
it doesn't say keep reading me without stopping that doesn't want to said to me and my fact it said to me at the beginning is as soon as you don't like me anymore close me
i want you to have a loving relationship with me i don't want you to get into some like you're supposed to read me kind of relationship
has been said to me i followed its instruction and i'm still that way with it i just read it as much as long as i want to and i finally did read the whole thing and i have not yet memorized it

ah yes lorie
do i start at the beginning know because sometimes i want to see what it says in chapter sixteen so i go read the chapter sixteen
chapter sixties
ah
actually i'm talking about sector sector sixteen already quite a bit
that's the one that can i have written testimony rocks as i've shown you remember
i often go to chapter sixteen of the last part the vs
and i don't read the whole thing up to chapter sixteen before it reached under sixty
and i are else of the i i go to different parts without going to the earlier parts and an epic and i don't feel like i have to fit read everything after the pardon i read although that would be cool as us
in a way but then i wouldn't be
you know we're coming to berkeley because i'd be reading the time
gates or the lotus sutra it has a name
which is the lotus english in english the lotus of the wonderful law
for the lotus of the subtle law
our the lotus of the marvelous truth
are the lotus of the inconceivably
wondrous truth different possible anyway it's this lotus flower actually not just noticed lotus flower
of the wondrous truth so it's about it's a scripture about the wonderful truth in sanskrit its sa dharma saddam saw means good
or wonderful dharma and it's the
it's the lotus
honda rica
the lotus flower the saddam
so it's a it's a it's a flowering
it's a flower of dharma dharma flower it's also called dharma flower scripture
sony weights it seems like the lotus sutra is about
the wonderful truth or a wonderful truth
that the buddha's teachings that's what it seems like the main point of the sutra
is that but then also made by a suture is
a flower
and
so they're kind of dispute the two things come up here for me one is this wonderful truth and the others this flower and it's like flowers i guess can be dead but also flowers can be alive
so it's not just it
it's not just a truth it's a flowering of the truth
or a blooming of the truth or a living living living living truth
so if the answer is said it's not just the truth sutra
it's not just the flower suture it's the flower truth the truth flower cetera
in other words it's the incarnation of the truth
hey not just the incarnation of the truth but the incarnation of the truth in the form of of flour and flowers has something to do with not just life but reproduction
you could say it's the
it's the wonderful truth it's the wonderful reproductive truth
so it's a wonderful truth of reproduction hurts it's the truth the reproducing truth the wondrous reproducing truth a truth that doesn't just like go the by and help everybody it also is a kind of truth which is wanting to
to have reproduced in in those who hear it so now he didn't just that people hear it and are enlightened by it and helped by it but they also they noted didn't just hear it they also hear it they receive it here it are affected by it and the nate
join the they join the truth they joined taking care of it they become part of the vehicle of it
this is another thing about the lotus sutra which the lotus subject kind of says it kind of says this suitors about getting you people to receive it
and you carried forth in your lives
and that way it will be reproduced he was it will be transformed into a new something new
and is a basic principle which i often mentioned to you is that this is wonderful dharma
or of the buddha's anyway the buddha's wonderful truth is something that no words
no aren't no consciousness can reach the truth but the truth can eliminate consciousness
and so this is a truth which are are human at our human activity cannot reach
but it can reach our human activity and in wanted breaches are human activity the truth which human activity can't reach reaches and transformed human activity
and then the human world is transformed by this truth which human activity can't reach but which human or activity can orient towards in such a way as to open to it receive it and reproduce it that's another principle which i see you in the title
you know it that him you know it didn't know what
fertilizing
do you know the fertilizing you know it happens he said
you can get
if you know it
why does speak about a to say it does speak about
receiving know or hear it does there is that there is as big thing about hearing the dharma so you sometimes we say here and know
but in a way the hearing and and and the beach and being transformed is the knowing
so it isn't like if if your transformed by hearing the truth it isn't that you it isn't that you know that you've been transformed that's the knowing it's to being transformed after knowing
so that's the way you know
just like now if you or i find ourselves being happy when we think if the lotus sutra
and you have any if you haven't been happy when you some of you may never been happy before when you heard in the lotus sutra but now if you hear about the lotus sutra think about the lotus sutra and you feel happy and joyful
i would say you know the lotus sutra
because you've been transformed into someone is happy at the front of a lotus sutra you have just been transformed and that happiness is knowing the lotus sutra
hi
the meditation is a it's also the meditation but the meditation could also i can count that if you're thinking about the lotus sutra but not yet transformed by it i think you're thinking about it in a in a deep and and continuing fashion
i think that would be contemplation but it wouldn't yet been knowing it because you hadn't you if you haven't changed yet
in sort of become the suture become with the suitor says will happen
so i just wanted to say a a lot more tonight
one thing i want to say it's just tell you this little story
about the lotus sutra
about the beginning of the lotus sutra which i when i first read the lotus sutra at the beginning i didn't even see that this was going on but now i know i tell a story about it which i didn't see because i got quality i'll tell you as a go so at the beginning at a lot of such as there's a scene for this vision the gets in the
words and the vision is that the buddha is sitting on this peak in india called vulture peak and there is a vulture peak there and and governs
you know
i've seen pictures evidence is not nearly as neat as most part of the sierras
it's kind of a stubby little hill you know actually but it's vulture peak you know and probably if i went there i would like garbage i went to are good be very happy and suddenly i realize it's really nice place but to see pictures of it it looks kind of not very interesting but it is called vulture peak and that's where buddha was supposedly
gave this sermon
it's actually in india and near the city of roger great ha
so he's sitting on this peak and there i was a great there's a lot of is a big assembly their of great sages
and and great deities and kings
you know tens of thousands of on this hill on this mountain with him
and are gathered together to hear
the buddhist speak
and they are the multitude a huge multitude showers the buddha reverently showers the buddha
with offerings
the flowers
incense just all kinds of nice stuff to showering the buddha reverie this showering the border
they're making offerings to the buddha at the beginning of the suture and in the buddha offer something back to them and it they came to hear boudin and buddha talks to him so a away he gave them a day
we're hoping to receive some words but these are preliminary words
they don't seem to be this inconceivable dharma just kind of some preliminary words
you know like thanks for coming thanks for the offerings it's good that you came
ah
and then see later he got into this profound meditation
and so there are in and they'll appreciate that that this they can feel this is a really great amazing thing that this boot as now they get to see
get to see the buddha in meditation
he
i recently i was crossing my legs in florida
cross my legs and i crossed one leg and then i crossed the other leg and i i realized oh i cross my legs but i didn't make my leg crossing and offering to boot us
i miss the opportunity of what has that was causing my leg saying i'm crossing my legs as an offering to buddha i'm i'm putting myself in a posture that the buddha sit in as an homage as a worship of buddhist
i find that when i do it not just me crossing my legs but me for and with the buddha's it's lot more fun
or even if i say i'm doing with the guys at the other room that
it's more fun for me to do it with you than just call me by myself over here in the corner
but i missed it and but i noticed that i missed it i felt good that i noticed that i missed it i think so good that i missed it if a good i noticed a mister because when i noticed them listed i remembered it
and then i thought
i thought of a zen master who i who i love i never met
who lived in china but i've heard stories of bottoms and i love him from his stories i've heard about him
and here his leg got broken like mine and broken and he couldn't cross his legs for quite a few years he was still a great teacher
he went on to be a great teacher after he broke his leg but he couldn't break his legs and couldn't cross his legs and at the end of his life as he was die he crossed his legs
i didn't care anymore that if he crossed his legs they would be a problem as a result of crossing his legs it's when haven't crossed him in died
and i'd like to sort that the memory came back to me as i was crossing my legs and i just had this strong feeling of i would love to just be in china and see him teach for just a few minutes sometimes even not even if you're speaking chinese and i couldn't understand it i probably could understand i just really want to see him teach i had that feeling that i would
like to and then i thought you know i really would like to be in india two thousand five hundred years ago and see shakyamuni money it just you know one talk one discourse i would like maybe the lotus sutra
i just keen on this that feeling i wouldn't it be nice to see shakyamuni just one talk in person even who was hot
and i thought oh yeah and i would like to see dog into
i started jumping around china back to india now back to japan i'd like to hear don't you ever talked i've really been nice and i've got no actually i would like to hear my own teacher given our talks to be nice to this one maybe one area has before or new
there's this feeling of
people want to go here the buddha talk they get to stick it to see the boot another buddhism meditation i can live in meditation scenarios and meditation
then when it goes into meditation then the heavens start raining down flowers
on the buddha
so it goes with their meditation and the earth stars trembling

and people are scared you know it's kind of it's not of it's not a terrible violent earthquake but it's a real active one and it it's it's a trembling some as they say the earth trembled and six ways forward and backwards right left and up and down
trembling sort of a short version of that say got the boot going into the year the buddha or make your offerings than the buddha goes in meditation and the flowers are falling and or start shaking
the buddhist sitting still k so the earth's start shaking
it's kind of a normal thing that happens when they do
such is the buddhist sitting still but it's a very energetic sitting still
so far there's been no complaints from this vast multitude of sages and deities and kings and everybody's pretty happy so far even though they haven't yet heard the teaching which they came to hear
they're waiting
for the sermon
for the border to teach
they don't know it's going to be the lotus sutra they just came to hear the buddha teach and they were hoping to get not just a few preliminary remarks but
you know
a major sermon place
not to say i'm not saying they were greedy or anything but you know they knew this person could probably a good talk they wanted to hear something like that
yeah so what does it thirty nine years ago higher
thirty nine or forty years ago
i didn't notice this i notice i didn't i was just
i pooped out during that was their listing the names of the people who were in the assembler as they were as they were filling in the assembly you know to describe the shoot assembly i just didn't want to be there for roll call like
stephen fred charlie
later you know i couldn't sit through the roll call now stephen fred charlie's a lot easier than the names of those bodhisattvas sanskrit
with this kind of nineteenth century orthography it was really difficult he wasn't just like steve and regular you know sans-serif type
he was handed a bit hard but why i puked out in the roll call of the assembly i never got to like
even though part where he like sat down the earth start trembling little action hero right
and i didn't feel like i'm just skip over the names and go to the next part i just closed the book
okay so then
these people are waiting
for the sermon but while they're waiting and buddhist sitting in meditation and he's got this little lot it's got hair growing between his eyebrows and is growing in a technical school who was circular tuft of white hair
probably on is pretty dark face you know indians or
especially back then before white invasion a pretty dark people probably see this may say white tuft on his nice brown forehead and from this right tough this he admitted array or an array was admitted from this concentrated spot the earth's trembling this stuff from has been conduct
and it goes
it it illuminates
thousands and thousands of lands of world's throughout the universe in all directions
it's been a comes up from here but it goes in all directions and it goes to those lands and illuminates them and and the people get illuminated in those lands this this their consciousnesses are illuminated
throughout the universe by this light
the people there get to see this
mr waiting for the buddha to get the talk
and then while the buddha's like fish
you know whatever the earth's trembling the beams are going out these worlds the universe is illuminated
this is the flowers gnosis following for falling down on them ah
some of the bodhisattvas in the assembly one of them being my tray or body sorry for the
the being who is in this world was predicted to be the next buddha after this world system collapses in the next year old system maitreya is wondering what he wants to know what's going on
with this because light and this flowers and the shaking the buddha in meditation and on and so i asked my juicery if magician knows what this is about
so these two great bodhisattvas are there
and as lot of other great borisov as but this my tray is asking the bodhisattva of wisdom manjushri
if he knows what this is about the kinda manjushri then goes to a search engine
any google's you know
light illuminating world systems throughout the universe
which is actually in his google memory and he goes oh yeah i saw the light like this before one time
and then he says
have you good man
and i would say i would transform that to you good men and women
once before in the presence
a pass buddha's i saw this portent
this omen
when the buddha
had emitted light
a straight away preached the great wondrous marvelous dharma
thus it should be understood that the present buddha display of light is also have this sort
it is because he wishes all sentient beings to be able to hear and know
the boot is difficult to believe
in all worlds
he displays
this portrait because the buddha's wish beings to hear and know this wondrous great dharma
they give the signal
the eliminate all the lands so people are now ready to receive this wondrous dharma
that's what i think manjushri tells my trail
so i'll say this again this isn't this and cynicism in the sutra bit
this said
this is kind of saying that everything that's happening now at the beginning of the sutra
happened before
long ago with a distant past buddha who preach to a scripture called the innumerable meanings such of innumerable meanings
and entered into
this great concentration
and also the lotus sutra the preliminary remarks were here he is briefly mentioned the sutra of innumerable meanings
but didn't tell the people what it was
he just mentioned it as he went into the concentration
i think the concentration was called the concentration of innumerable meanings
so in the past they also
ah
preach this sutra of innumerable mean without telling people what it was preached it without telling it to
and then entered this concentration
and the universe there to trembled and the flowers fell
and those wondrous signs were followed by the buddha preaching the lotus sutra
and now
the buddha was ready to preach the lotus sutra again
and so the at the end of the first chapter of this lotus sutra that we have
this huge multitude is waiting to now here the dharma

so the text we have now and he this historical time which we've had for
pretty long time for probably almost two thousand years you've had this text in very in many forms
this text
which we can read in touch
begins by mentioning that the lotus sutra was first preaching a distant land
before the lotus such as really before we'd been told anything about his dharma we're being told that this sutra has been preached in a distant land a long time ago
and and as can be presented again
and once again just as in the past in the past when it was priest when when the innumerable meaning scripture was pretend when the lotus sutra was preached the content of the first lotus sutra
rick was not revealed
and so the difference is that now the buddhist saying the game's going to expound and explain the content of the lotus sutra so the this time we're actually going to hear that get the content of the lotus sutra last time we didn't
halftime we got didn't get the content this time we're going to get it explicitly for the first time
so this the light sibling symbolizing are signaling that the lawrence who just going to be taught but the last time that happened
the content this substance of the text were not revealed in this time it will be
gay
that's what they think at the end of the first chapter however when the second chapter starts the buddha gets up from this meditation
and start off by saying
what buddhist seven just before before he went into meditation said i'm gonna like tell you about this lotus sutra giving the impression that this time you can actually get the details
although he didn't refer to the passing manjushri tells us through was passing then it comes out and he says he doesn't really say this but he kind of says you know i'd kind of promise to tell you about it but now that i think of it it it's actually really hard for you to understand the lotus this teaching
to say the least it's really hard for you to understand it
mere fact
connie buddhists can understand
even very advanced bodhisattvas can understand
so since in i i did want to get this i did want know i guess i kind of was thinking teaching us supreme sublime dharma to you but now that i think of it to
it's just i'd probably not a good idea because it's so difficult and you're not all buddhas so sorry
it wouldn't be good for me to teach this to you and have you kind of like
hi get perplexed and nasty about it like
that's a lot of sutra
that wouldn't bigger better not to here at all than to
i've become disgruntled and somewhere
so sorry i i i don't think so it's just too hard k something like that the buddha said in a little bit stiffer language
and shari putra jaya poachers one a buddhist historical disciples
it is is now in this my on a text he's a he's a disciple from the earlier teachings
pre my on attacks he's now as my on suture and he begs the stability to teach
in a burst of none i and just too hard you yeah i wanted to skirt and if you're know when i'm upset you people give you have you get all worked up going out and he begs him again and he begs him again he said okay
but isn't that time five thousand people in in a multitude walk out
they are walk up because in a kind of like i'm you know
anyway they they don't they don't think they need this this new this teaching this new teaching that they haven't heard before the don't think they need it so they leave and have to leave the buddhist says good that they left
and good that you people stayed
cause you're going to all become buddhas
course of course are now i'm living out of course but some of the people very happy to hear that
i could say that the true dharma i don't it's snapping proposes to dharmas is just a little proclamation that all the people who stayed are going to become buddhas
the buddhist thing is this this teaching can only be understood
by buddhists together with buddhas
and nanny and then the people walk out
after this danced about not giving the talk and the people stay are told that they will become buddhas
because by staying with the lotus sutra they will become buddhas they stated they stay with the buddha giving the lotus sutra they will become buddhas if they just keep taking care of the lotus sutra they will become buddhas
that's pretty much the end of chapter two
chapter three
yeah
in chapter three a starts with sherry putra after hearing this he hasn't heard this the dharma yet he's just heard that
ha
he's heard that he's gonna become buddha he's heard how hard it is not that heart has to understand the buddha's teaching but anyways really really happy and shy put yeah he's jumping dancing around enjoy saying i've never hurt die
i've never never before have i heard such a wonderful message and he's just jumping for joy and
so now just like to say to you that
the story of the lotus sutra
goes on now after shy put your happiness to tell some parables
and and it is and it also elaborates the buddha's talking now and the buddha's elaborating on the marvelous merits and virtues of the lotus sutra
and the responsibilities of those who wished to embrace it and sustain it and who wished to be embraced and sustained by it
so the buddhism explaining to the people were stayed
how one the amazing merits of the scripture and also the responsibilities of those in the group who wish to embrace it and sustain it and be embraced and sustained by it he tells him but that
and gradually through this talk
the the lotus sutra is raised to a status in chapter three east is raised to status and also check your tourists that's happening to are being something to worship
and once again i'm this it the there's this than the c-suite this beginning surgery and also continued to the sutra i would say it's a story
i'm a sermon on a great dharma
which is promised to be delivered
but has never delivered
to for in various ways it's implied that is great sermon on the true dharma on the marvelous storm is going to be delivered and it's not delivered

so at the at the beginning of this course i'm concerned suggesting to you that that one of the amazing and unique things about the lotus sutra is that it is empty and open at its core
the core of it is the true dharma the wondrous true dharma
and you're not been told what it is
the supreme dharma is what this is about and
he's not telling us what it is
so almost all such just skin
can be interpreted so you can interpret the lotus sutra but this suit particularly you can interpret what hasn't been said
so the main point of the text is totally open and empty for us to
food is not going to do it for us
it's a big sutra
which is basically
a preface
two a that never happens

and so here we have in one sense or very
kind of surprising and strange way of preventing the supreme truth
which simultaneously allows us total creative access to it because
the boot isn't telling us what it is so we can who's gonna
who's going to work with it well were invited to work with it
by
by studying the suture and by caring for the sutra and worshipping the sutra
which is the embodiment of that which it won't tell us about
it's incarnating the supreme dharma which it does not expound but it does tell us that is going to
just to draw attention to the fact that it isn't doing so
i shouldn't say that i should say that my interpretation

so i'm sorry talk so long tonight
before opening up to hear feedback but there's a little bit time left if you would respond to
anything yes breed
journalists chanted is
yes ah soka gakkai is one of the branches of nietzsche run
and nietzsche rent
it is the the main object the main object of veneration he's not just the lotus sutra but the name of the lotus sutra in japanese it's mill whole ring gay kill me hall
mio is the word is meet my marvelous wondrous truth
inconceivable said dharma as meow ring gay is lotus flower kill with scripture so they say that they say namo in other words i worship high venerate or veneration to homage to the wonderful
dime flower scripture that's their main object of worship and worship and study see the same with the heart sutra worship the heart sutra by memorizing enchanting it
but you can also study it study is teaches have the heart sutra doesn't tell you so clearly to worship it
the project upon me to the perfect wisdom scriptures don't tell you to worship them they'd tell you more to worship perfect wisdom
the lotus it just says yep worship perfect perfect wisdom
and here's the lotus sutra which is in a physical embodiment of perfect wisdom and it's a physical embodiment of the truth which perfect wisdom contemplates so yeah use this text has a way to be devoted to and and realized perfect wisdom
yes
yes
so much as she says that in the past sutra was was
when it was it he didn't say that
he didn't say that part i don't think but you can spit but you can see that it wasn't a mistake
it's it's sort of its it he didn't say literally but you see the buddha
entering into the into the samadi of the innumerable meanings
and he doesn't tell you what the innumerable meetings are and you're told it in the past the same way that that the innumerable meanings were taught the lotus sutra was saw taught the same way so you can see that in both cases the you weren't told what the innumerable meetings work or what the true dharma was in the implication that creates this this time he says he's
ana and this is a characteristic that you'll find in soto zen is it that they'll get a while now finally i'm gonna give you an elaborate as description of this and then they don't
so the thing that you were saying it's very as they said was going to happen is what you were saying it doesn't yeah the buddhist thing i will expound i will expound the true dharma me saying that i'm an expanded true dharma i'm not specifically saying that the boy said when i tell you i'm and expand the true dharma my telling you that
he's not the true dimer is that your dime
if i tell you i'm going to teach you to trade now i tell you if i'm going to teach you the true dharma i'm not saying that that is that a statement that proclamation is a true dharma and i'm also not saying it isn't the true dharma the buddha didn't say it was or wasn't but it didn't seem like it was because what what did he tell you
so that the main the main point of the text is the true dharma
and what is it doesn't really cc is a little hint here and there but the whole sutra supposed to be about that and he says that what it's gonna be about have pretty like that's that's what he wants people to hear he wants people to hear this
true wonderful dharma because that's what
that's what does the trick for suffering biggs that's what that's what makes them able to enter the boat away and practice it with no hindrance that's what he wants them to hear but he doesn't but he presented this way in sutra and other suitors are not quite the same like the pregnant by media such as they present the true dharma
emptiness is the true dharma and i tell you about it and know they they teach it they also don't give you much access to it in terms of you're thinking but police they tell you what it is and they tell you how it works which you can't get out with your conceptual cognitions but yes
is this similar to when suzuki roshi said the most important thing is to keep asking what is the most important thing is a similar to that yeah it is similar
yeah and then he would he would also often he would also often say that such such as the most important thing i why you notice he's calling a lot of different stuff the most important thing
not that he was lying or anything
and then he said in by the way the most important thing is to think that everything's most important thing or to ask you know what is the most important thing that's another important most important thing

yeah right
yeah exactly that's right so that the true dharma to wonders time it is not something you can recognize it's something you can live it's something you can dive into it's actually where you're living right now you can open to it so again the lotus sutra is like open at its core
are you know i say what's the most important thing and then
see you next week
maybe
you know
you can talk about it but the talk doesn't reach it if you can't recognize this thing and so let this new talk about it and then not tell anybody anything
let's let's learn to live with the lotus sutra let's learn to learn live with this wonderful marvelous scripture and venerate something which is open an empty at its core and therefore and then how to transfer what is open and empty whereas totally open an empty open to as
the body in empty of everybody in empty with everyone and it was everybody testing this thing definitely can be transformed into anything
so we can transform listen to anything and
in japanese culture is the culture that most transformed it into a lot of different stuff
as part of what we can discuss is how did that and hopefully
this will be encouragement to us and our successors to transform this open emptiness into our society into our are human and non-human society because because it's empty
it can be transformed into anything
but it can't be recognized
hey what is it
transform transform
this is the ultimate permission and encouragement to
man and can't really talk about on the we now no one can give us an instruction that we can be it
oh yeah right
yes sir
northern iraqi origin of the sutra and whether played do you understand this to be like somebody's visa versa
what he wanted things about the lotus sutra is that being being
in the form we have it now if you'd will go back from this form from here
you might think well maybe the the maybe the creation of it was also quite open
and there was maybe it wasn't as created by the kind of people that created the other scriptures because the other scriptures many would be like only advanced yogis were allowed to have any editorial rights but the lotus let everybody had their hand at it so lotus actually is kind of more of a messy text
and it's you know if it's it's not assist it's it's like an anthology of stories
and as gets it's not very high-quality literature
is in sanskrit
and it looks like it looks like us put together you know by and or rather disorganized social for not phenomena

but live to me would make sense that the lotus sutra would allow itself to be disorganized because it's it's so open
even other suitors which are teaching emptiness and teaching openness stills they kind of the least they tell you what it is
but since then i tell you what it is that nobody would be a not allowed to say what they think it is
now they may not be able to have as much impact of somebody else who has also has a right to say what they think it is but nobody got to say what i wasn't get that get the suitor to say that that's what it was
the sutures survive anybody's interpretation nobody integration got in there to change the basic structure lotus sutra not telling us what it is
but people can get like stories and parables and stuff i did because the parables are also open because people don't say what the principle is
so i think that this and that the lotus sutra the kite again see i'm allowed to do this and scholars are trying to figure out how this goes but so one theory is that i heard a japanese prison say this thing about also about forty years ago he said that the people who made the lotus sutra work
we're stupor guardians and runaway priests
the people who took care of the the the sites of veneration in india
who'd like professional guardians of worship sites and priests who didn't wanna like go at the regular program those people are the people who made a lotus sutra kind of rebels
people looking for another a more open kind of religion
that included the you know them and other weirdos
it wasn't a established it's not an establishment kind of think and the lowest age also rises in the world around the same time as christianity
so
you know it
and also just wanted a tidbit about this is that if you look at all the manuscripts that they found
ah ha in india
the most numerous found manuscript is the lotus sutra
and the second most numerous one is way way behind
and again you could say what makes sense because a lot of as preaching to make copies of the lotus sutra
so it make that would make sense right but he didn't use preach making copies of procedure people didn't make copies of the lotus sutra gotta scriptures also say make copies of this sutra but the lotus six got more people to make copies of load of suggests as a lotus sutra had more of a physical impact on
india than any other scripture in terms of like making scriptures of people wrote by hand and the people wrote them by hand if you look at the lotus sutra would seem like a lot of different people would be allowed to make copies not just professionals educated scribes who would not make mistakes
they let people make copies whose handwriting wasn't too good and could spell very well
i don't know if they went so far to that women make copies but they might have

i think
the lotus sutra looks like it in evolving ah
i wouldn't go so far to say democratic but a very creative evolutionary thing created it and when it went to china things changed a little bit because
there wasn't there is quite a few chinese translations of who knows how many sanskrit originals and they were probably different to but there was one chinese translator who is
very influential named kumar jiva
and when he translated things from sanskrit he was came from central asia he was a very well educated is a litter he's a literary genius in sanskrit and then it became a literary genius and chinese so his translations
unlike the original sanskrit and of the lotus sutra his translations are high-quality chinese literature
easily accessible high-quality literature so is different than when a guy in chinese is that some translations became the translation and there wasn't any messing with them because
they were so good that people didn't know the then it became like keep him given the same so the but
but we can talk more about this the the composition of this and and it's it's life as a text is is i think part and parcel of this texas tech's is very much about the text
it's a text that's very much but itself
it's a text which are teaching you to worship it
and
and this is a kind of unusual for us i think especially refugees from other traditions that title worship tax
so i'm a i'm identify do it but i am intending to you know make you some mug
some
incarnations of the ultimate truth for you'd have if you wish to worship them
like they're doing soka gakkai to give you some of those to deal with you want to and again
dogan zingy the zen master dogs mg recommended that people make a handwritten copy of the lotus sutra not just downloaded on your computer but actually write it by hand he recommended that
did you make actually make a copy he also recommended you make a buddhist statue he recommend that to his students and he vowed to make a buddhist statue and i don't know if he completed it but he did vow to do when when he was about forty eight
but he did died five years later now he said he he said he didn't know if you'd be able to finish it perfectly very good but he did vow to do it
so this kind of thing is
is he's out there for you to think about but if you don't want avowed to make a copy the lotus sutra
and if you'd not want to vowed to make statue of buddha or even if you do want to do both those things i think what might be really good for you to think about is what do you vow to make
what form would you like to is there some form you would like to transform the true dharma into which the buddha has not told you what it is it's a some way you'd like to make this
bring this into your life and manifested in your life this is something which i like you to consider for the next eight weeks
and onwards
that's why as part of i'm so happy to be studied as with year as i just see this is a
i'm very
you know auspicious means auspicious means conducive to success i feel it's an auspicious time for us to be studying the cetera
and again once again you don't have to read it but he might want to i just to see what it says and and see if everything they do with what i'm talking about
most of the translation from the sanskrit from the chinese the vast majority are from chinese the only only one english translation i know of from sanskrit
he said how which one them is it the person's name is kern and i was done in the nineteenth century
and i don't know of an english translation from tibetan
section from tibetan but i know of six of them from chinese because in china by far the most important scripture for the chinese buddhists was the lotus sutra
and in japan i would say it also the most important scripture sutra is lotus sutra but an india wasn't the most important however it's the one
the i said it was ratified
finding manuscripts it's the one that by far are the most
to the lotus sutra than any other techs a lot of other texts that are very very important
lay people would never read
like
no they didn't read the script people did not read the scriptures in india only the monks
except the my on scriptures to lay people could read especially the lotus sutra which is not that hard is not that technical
and it's not high-quality sanskrit and you could even rewrite it yourself in lay person could get in there and mess around with it maybe so it sir
anyway
it's past nine fifteen some maybe we should stop
thank you very much