to become
how
quickly because the

yeah okay with with us
he said
the
sarah
charlie
hi i walked in one sense i'd like to have the whole evening open for just open for whatever you like to offer
but i also felt it would
the good to in a sense
go back to the beginning
due to
reiterate something very basic
and that is the beginning of the scripture wherein we were told by the sea were told that the buddha was dwelling in the city of roger griha in can vulture peak
with a huge assembly
have a wide range of beings great body sought those
a male and female saints and
all kinds of followers and many kinds of beings that weren't human also celestial beings of many kinds are all there and there
they come to the buddha and make offerings great offerings to the buddha
and then the buddha
gives a discourse called the discourse of innumerable meanings
doesn't say what the discourse was other than just as he gave the discourse and that was a name of it
tal we here in this scripture and then and then he entered into a concentration in contemplation
called the station or yeah the station of
innumerable meetings the anderson probably encourage the contemplation of the discourse of the teacher he just gave
and after he enters his contemplation the sky rains down a wide variety of fabulous flowers
and the earth shook innumerable earth's or lands shook in six ways
it's whole assemblies there
seeing the buddha i'm making offerings to buddha seeing the buddha hearing the buddha seeing the buddha enter into concentration of the teaching that he gave the flowers falling the earthshaking they're all there and then the buddha
ah some nut
tucked away hair between
his highbrows a great light
is emitted and goes off any in all directions and each direction eliminates in innumerable lands and all the buddhas and bodhisattvas and other beings and all those lands and so these people are sitting there seen whole universe illumina
added
spiritually illuminated

and in the assembly is the great bodhisattva
maitreya
the next buddha i'm in the next world
our epoch that will follow this one
and he's wondering what this
he's amazed by this scene and wonders if there's some meaning to it
and
he thinks own manjushri bodhisattvas in this assembly and he has studied with innumerable buddhas in the past maybe he has seen this before so it goes to manjushri and asked magician monday she says
ah considers his past study with buddhism and he said yes i have seen this before
the same
amazing events a buddhism the past and when i saw this in the past following this
they expounded the lotus of the the lotus flower
great vehicle lotus flower of the of the sublime dharma
sutra
so probably that was gonna happen now is that the buddha will expound that sutra
again

and maitreya and other beings hearing about this are very happy that the that they're gonna get a chance to they've just heard this other search which we don't know what it was but they've heard this other sutra
and they've seen as fabulous
event and now they hear they're going to hear the sublime teaching that follows this
so they're very happy at the end of the chapter one and then chapter two starts with the buddha quietly and serenely arising from his concentrated state
and
right away telling people
that this
at this wonderful dime is very difficult to understand if you're not a buddha
and he goes on for a while but how difficult it is to understand
and be nonetheless
people are still happy at the prospect of hearing this teaching even on the buddha says very difficult to understand
and
and then shy put your bags the buddha to teach
get a long speech and and begs him to teach and the british says that enough
it's enough
ah but i'm afraid if our teachers people would become shocked and dismayed and perplexed so better not do it so then shied putra jaya pooches like the leader of the monks he asked again
the bags again and he says enough enough
ha
with to speak to shocking to the people i wouldn't want them they can they might get the really disoriented and get in trouble if i teach this
and so i asked again
and then that the buddha says while since you've asked three times okay i will
i will offer some skillful devices
this this this this teaching is this truth this
wondrous truth this wonderful this wondrous truth is wondrous law is very difficult but i'll offer some not try to find some way some device to help you with this difficult teaching
and around that time five thousand people walk out of the assembly
and
the buddha kind of castigates them in after they leave and says that that's good that they're gone
that they were kind of proud
and arrogant
thinking you know
my up is difficult to understand well let's go someplace on where the guy teaches some stuff that's not so difficult i've had enough about how hard this is let's go someplace else
or you know he's just say he just gonna say the same thing again anyway
he said before which wasn't much anyway so
let's get outta here sunday left in the buddha kindness as good at they're gone
then the buddha says it's good that you stayed
very good that you stayed and you will
all become buddhas
skin for saying so it's good that you stayed
even know he didn't hear about it
when there's truth was he still stayed just like people in the sutra so you will become buddha according to the sutra you didn't hear what the suture was teaching you didn't hear the truth that the sutures named after
but you did stay disliked the people in the sutra and the buddha said you people should know you will become buddhas

did i mention here last week that about the buddha i mean but dogan when he was dying reading a passage
on a pillar right
so
but that i had mentioned to you that that damn that the jodo shinshu
headquarters and or institute over under rant ah has had this big alter that they wanted to find a home for to detail like that so part of what i've been doing coming to berkeley he is kind of coming over at in a truck and carrying huge alter from berkeley back to this place called
know about hermitage
which is being secretly renamed as the lotus sutra a hermitage
so i made several trips to bring this huge the huge old alter over there to put it in this hermitage
partly as a place to honor and revere the lotus sutra
but it's just it's a secret that has been renamed as the lotus sutra hermitage
it was a secret
and so the that the the shrine need to alter it will be assembled and then that would be a place where people can come and pay homage to the
lotus flower of the true dharma even though the buddha doesn't tell you what it is you can come there and become buddha
so

my wife when she saw the or alter hasn't been assembled yep when she saw it she said i don't know what got into you
he says i don't know what you were thinking of when you accepted that thing it's gonna take over the whole building
people are people say we're talking with me as long as we can still get in there
hip and then lion and last monday we started a so call me sometimes called a colon glass and the called us across class on stories a green gulch
and to part of what i'm
husky people to do is when they hear the stories to think about when they hear these old stories to think about how the old stories are their stories are how their story is the old story
so the first story that has happened to bring up were just happened be the first story of the book of serenity story number one
and
in the story is the name of the stories to the world honored one
the thus come one a sends a seat
so then as the the cases one day the world honored one ascended the seat
and then say so but one imagines that he sat in the seat
manjushri
struck the gavel boom and said
everyone clearly observe
the dharma
the king of dharma
the dharma of the king of dharma is thus
and the buddha
got down from the seat
and
it struck me and this week
has the how similar and
how different that cases from the lotus sutra
so the buddha just gets up and the seat and sits there
doesn't say anything
in the lotus sutra the buddha sort of gets up there and sit there and does say something but he doesn't say
it doesn't say what he said he's going to say
he doesn't say what people say is gonna say
but he's there which the people with the students he's there with them
snap someplace else he's totally there with them
but he's not
sang what the truth is
so
very similar to the lotus sutra
i thought
in the been a book of serenity they don't have the lights coming off of and stuff like that but anyway the boot there
in this case though manjushri instead of saying well instead of being ash wards what's all this fancy stuff he's doing means this case magician know me saying you think it's very quiet people just the assembly's there some manjushri with nobody asking him apparently strikes a gavel
a and tells people to look
the clearly observe
the dharma of the king dome
what is there not saying anything in says clearly observe
the truth of the king of truth
and then it takes my more stepsisters the truth of the king of truth is thus
he can tell them
what the buddha wouldn't tell him
and the buddha
it's down
and then i also was also struck by how
ah
in a way yeah a lot is and stories are about this about
the of being shown but not directly and then
people walking off in disgust or
perceiving it or somebody coming and telling them and as there is a variety of possibilities
so yeah
panic
ah
i feel like the style particularly the style of so-called soto zen is very much like the style of the buddhist teaching the lotus sutra and the style of the way to buddha taught in the beginning of the book of serenity before as she says anything
the boot is all was teaching
but sometimes when buddha's teaching it's very hard to understand the actual truth that is teaching is very difficult to understand
so then some people help you by saying
observe it or the then say it's thus but what is thus mean that maybe doesn't help that much
where's the thus
so in a story i've told you quite a few times is one time there was as zen teacher named roy none
and a monk came to see him
name choir on
and the quinones as to why ron
where are you from and he says i'm from
natsume
and
why nung says to the visiting monk what is it that does comes
what is vastness what is thus come
and a monk says to indicate it misses the point
manjushri indicated it
and he missed the point
but he couldn't help it
he couldn't let it just be like the lotus sutra and have everybody walk out i guess we're not everybody but some people so he indicated it
but this monk was being asked by the teacher
what is the buddha or what is the coming of such miss the monks as well i'm not gonna indicated because i would miss it
so the teachers not indicating he's just asking what is it the students not indicating he sang
if i were indicated i would miss it
and the teacher they go on a little bit but basically teacher says when i'm gone they say are
the teacher as well is there no
i'm practice and enlightenment and monks as i don't say there's not
parentheses i don't say there is either i don't say there's not practice and enlightenment just that it can't be defiled
just that i'm not going to defile it by saying what it is
i'm not going to say what the boot is in other words and so i'm not going to say what the buddhist teaching is
i'm not going to say what the song is
but i'm also not going to say there isn't a buddha and there isn't a dorm
and it's and teacher says
this undefiled way is where all buddhas are caring for
and this undefiled way that all booed as a caring for his the lotus sutra
it's this sutra which you can indicated but that the files it
and it was not indicated
but you stay with it you will become buddha
if you walk off
you miss the chance
if you say what it is you missed the chance but if you stay with it you will become buddha
it doesn't blow to city doesn't tell you what the lotus sutra is it just shows you but it doesn't carry you the how it's showing it to you but it does show itself to you
every single word
show your buddha
without of course indicating that

and then another another important person in our tradition is named dumb schon
he started the founder of what cost soto zen in china
and he met many great teachers
but some of those great teachers
we're like my juice three
in
first case they indicated they showed it
they defiled it by showing him
but they were great famous teachers because the ones who show it and more popular
because people they can get
there were great and they were popular but there was one kind of not very popular not very great teacher
that he also visited and he became
he was like recognized by all these other teachers but he also became recognized by this person who not many people would even care about been recognized by
it's kind of and nobody
and so actually after after his after this nobody died somebody asked he was doing a memorial service
he made an altar where we put this teacher which is similar to an altar where you put the lotus sutra because the teacher where the teacher who didn't teach him anything like the of such as a lotus sutra that doesn't directly teach you anything the teacher in law suits are very similar i think but he honored this teach
you're among all that much more famous teachers and they say how come you how comey on our hymns instead of these other famous teachers who recognized you
i didn't say anything against the other teachers is he just said it's not because of the profundity of my masters teaching
that i revere him most
it's because he never directly indicated
he didn't swap aw in chinese he didn't directly indicate we were together but he didn't directly indicate that's why i venerate him most
and so
that was his teacher you'd hear don't shine teachers union and unions teacher is ja schon mal ja schon was good
but he was more famous
partly because he had famous teachers
but he wasn't the same kind of way of practicing and his teachers taught him this way there's there's many ways to teach but the way they taught him was he went to see them and he asked for me you know what is the wondrous dharma what is a supreme dot dharma of the buddha
so went to this great teacher name shirt all and he asked that and shirt i said

being thus won't do
not being thus won't do either
being neither won't do it all
how are you
and
ja schon dinner stan
he said can you say more he said michigan go see another teacher cause muscle
say once same courtesy so is even more famous great master
hand
he went to see muslim and he has the same question and he said sometimes
i make him raise his eyebrows and blink sometimes i don't make him raise his eyebrows and blink sometimes raising eyebrows is right sometimes raise any eyebrows is not right
how about you
he understood
and when back an end and nazis said yeah yeah that's great but sure toes your teacher
say went back
so this is the sort of
the way of teaching them
you can
too difficult to teach it so they had the skillful means by which we can open to the teaching
but still just you had to do that so there's a verse which celebrates the the case
which says the yuneec breeze of reality
can you see it
creation constantly working her lumen shuttle incorporating
the patterns of spring
into the ancient brocade
but nothing can be done about my is leaking
tissues what my do she is leaking
his leaking means his defilement
his
you know
insane this case we're is often mentioned by people that issues like the judas
of zen in that story
he tells people where they can find the buddha
right there that the buddha's there
the the dharmas you see is right there he he tells people
in the files the buddha
but
couldn't help himself he had to show the people where the buddha was so he could be in history
so there's this opportunity to
yeah
to revere and take care of to read and recite and copy and teach and practice according to this wonderful dharma
which doesn't tell you the dharma which doesn't tend this sutra which doesn't tell you what does it really is
it lets you
and me
be with it
and practice it and realize it
even though we can't
or we're not supposed to grasp it
so
i am
i'm have yeah i've really i've really been inspired by you and the buddhas and bodhisattvas and the sutra
inspired i really don't know why but i i am
and
i'm happily building this is big alter over there had a lotus sutra hermitage

and i also feel good you know about cousins not supposed to be depending on any sutra right
so
to be really intimate with the lotus sutra is not to depend on it to really worship it
and embody it is not to depend on it
so i feel like you and i have embodied the lotus sutra here in berkeley california this this spring by coming here
and hearing the lotus sutra
and not getting anything out of it
and coming anyway
i'm not to get something
but to give to give to the lotus sutra to express devotion to the lotus sutra
can make it alive in this world
by listening to it by rehearing it that's what makes the lotus sutra live that which embodies it in your body in our bodies in this world
a vehicle to realize emptiness
a vehicle to realize what can't be grasped

a vehicle that unifies all vehicles
he's a vehicle that cannot be grasped in africa lotus sutra is saying it is although it says that's what it is it also has to make itself ungraspable in order to perform its function to unify all vehicles and to unify all paths
of all beings
and i
and we talked about one of the chapters chapter fourteen which gave instruction
two bodhisattvas who want to teach this sutra we spent quite a while and that chapter and that chapter is called
no pleasant
practices are pleasant ministries
and relatively speaking it is quite pleasant and the previous chapter which is called sometimes exhortation to be from or
exhortation to devotion
and in that chapter
what is implied is a more aggressive
a more aggressive style of teaching
doesn't literally say it but lot of people interpret
that
that that style of teaching is what's being referred to in the previous chapter so we we read chapter fourteen
could you give me some water stephen
the chapter thirteen
the bodyshop and tell the buddha not to worry
if you have to do this this if you have to do this show called disappearing
so he's gonna do that you know he's gonna go away now
and and and disappear thank you
and
and he's in in a in a couple of chapters utilises that doesn't really dispirited does the captain just recited but it's gonna look like he disappeared to a lot of visual
and it's gonna look like does it it's gonna look like things are really bad and that the whole world is you know have risk
meet you know are falling into serious ill health
it's going to look like that
so that buddhist but the buddha's gotta do that
otherwise some people won't practice
so when that difficult time comes in the future
and i'm not sure i disappeared because when i have to even i'm still here
who gonna take care of the teaching and these boys at this conformance a we will
and also they want to know if we do come forth and we are going to teach then how can we teach under such difficult circumstances to chapter fourteen tells you how to teach when things are tough chapter thirteen also tells you how to teach when it a sense they're tougher the same tough situation but now it
chapter thirteen
yeah
nano is a world a tough place but everybody's been brown mean to you
you're teaching the lotus sutra for their welfare but people are are beating you up and refiling you for teaching it
i don't exactly understand why that why the people of ancient times put chapter thirteen before chapter fourteen see better reversing because advanced usually follows
but anyway those two chapters are there
and it's more advanced to teach a lotus sutra such a way that aggravates people
so the chapter thirteen is not an aggressive style kitchens very gentle style teaching but chapter fourteen and also kept her twenty or more aggressive styles of teaching
thirteen twenty and twenty years is is called never disparaging it's about a bodhisattva walks around and everybody that bodhisattva meets the bodhisattva says i don't despair you
you will become buddha he says like everybody he room he reveres everybody
and a lot of people get riled up by him revering them and telling them they're going to become buddha
in his heart he really does we hear them and he really wants to tell them this good news that they will become buddha but some people get really irritated if somebody tells them that they're going to become buddha
and they beat em up but he still keeps revering them and he still keeps saying this
like desmond tutu
have been concerned that the people are beating him up
so part of what going on the sutra is one guy one style of teaching we just did which is kind of difficult to understand but not that it's not aggressive
chapter thirteen to chapter twenty are talking about there's another dimension of teaching or you take him such a way that people have a hard time with you and give you a hard time they don't like the way or the way you are
and these bodhisattva say even when they give us a hard time for teaching we will continue to teach
yeah
it's well it's it's for more advanced people
yeah me
no not just many more intense you know
the more intense more i don't know what not so gentle maybe
what could be demanding he could be just too many can be demanding of yourself
that can irritate people
you know like if you live in a community and you don't eat very much people can feel you know threatened
this in nodejs were like an econ class the other night somebody said
ah that she felt a strong impulse to cut off on of her fingers and make it it as an offering to and to you when not like it to me but as an expression of her devotion and so it created quite a stir in class that she might do that
and so on person came up and said please do not do that and not a pretty came up said i think that's great
not that you'd cut your finger off but that you'd feel that way
so this is like
you know either she might get beat up or i might get beat up for having a class where people might get their fingers off this is like
so the people who beat the people who beat the person up was teaching in this way they're not advanced
but some people when they see that kind of teaching is just the right thing for them it is it really pushes him
over the edge into the truth
but it's very you know it's it's it's a teaching it an advanced teaching
and so i told you this story i think last summer and recently at origin story of lean geez enlightenment
lindsay is this very important spiritual figure in history of the world actually millions of followers come from his teaching so he's a chinese zen master the founder of the so-called rinzai school of zen which
you know was the dominant from observe and in china at its height
and he was in a monastery with the big teacher a huge teacher and the head monk who was also a great became a great teacher said to him how long you've been here and he said two three years you said if he had gone talk to the teacher you said no so we should go ask him questions
what should i ask him
asking but the the but the caught the lotus flower of the wonder start wonders dharma is
was the quintessential truth of the boot away say when asked one one one was hit him
and an aggressive teaching i would say for an advanced for advanced practitioner
and but even he didn't get it didn't understand he just started got hit and and critique there was injustice and see the point
but one boy was i think
this is not what he would do with most people
so it have monk says to him hundred ago and he said what hit me to all
he should go ask him again
so he does and one ball hits him
and he sees the head monk again
and they had monks as well he said he hit me again oh well you should really go see him again and he does and he gets hit
and head monk says well how about this time said hit me again and i'm leaving
when an edge there is almost like those people that left the lotus sutra
almost like perhaps some of you in his class some there were moments maybe when you thought
i don't get it i'm outta here
but i didn't look like you got in that part of that because you're still here
so southern among said okay you can leave but least go say goodbye
they said okay in the new and in head monk went and told one ball he's leaving you know he's really a good monk be careful of him help him and one was said i know
so he goes to say goodbye one bomb on was says what don't go too far because a friend of mine lives over the hill i think you i think he could help you so it goes to a nearby monastery and visits this other person and tells the story
and the other person when it here's a story
says oh my god
how kind one ball was with you gave you he gave himself and completely to you
really put himself out there you know like
very aggressively cause that's what you needed when you this very strong monkey know but he needed this intense interaction apparently
and and one po
one vote print stuff out there for lindzey
in a way that lot of people might think that he should be you know
we've got a what's the word
when you can kit are the bar
that's right
disbarred he should be disbarred he should be you know like my grandson said to me you know if a matte if a buddhist master knew how you are teaching gig he they would fire you

so anyway
sometimes when you're really teaching intensely to help people some people really don't like it
and
when kind of like a kind didn't think it was really teaching but then he saw it was and that was his great thing so
now these other people like that thirty stories they were also teaching in a very difficult where they weren't giving they weren't giving they weren't indicating that's hard to
but there's another story i think that number these stories are being apprentice and industry that's him being upright i think which is about a monk a caribbean monk who went to see the teacher haku in
and he came to see haku end and
and his teacher sent a letter with him which said this guy's got a problem so be careful of him take care of him but he's he's really arrogant he thinks he understands perfectly and like i can't teach him anything anymore
so i sent him to you
and ah cohen was real tough on him and a broke the guy
he went insane
because it's the way haku when yelled at him
he recommended when to say instant stayed that way for years
and later haku and said i made two mistakes in my life
and that was one of them the way i treated him was not appropriate i pushed too hard
so it's a it's a dangerous path sometimes to do the teaching that a person needs so i'd be very careful
at an advanced level you can really hurt people if your but sometimes that advanced levels people need to be pushed kinda hard cause they are quite
they're quite stable on nothing disturbs them so they can stay in their position
and are very common in and you can push him around and they can adapt and bestowed some subtle level they're holding so sometimes seem to be really intense needs to be offered to them in order to get to shift little bit but that's also very difficult to offer such intense teachings solicitor has chapter
thirteen in it and chapter
twenty two exemplify very intense high energy kind of teaching like for you would walk in the street and say that the people
where you'd be considered and a fanatic right if you to set every but everybody i don't despair as you you will become buddha
that's a very advanced person and a very advanced practice
the mix of researchers to show this kind of his variety and we can talk about this more later but i i just want to can tell you that other side of the story
in terms of teaching styles that the sutra offers see and seemed a number of different teaching styles you see the style of the buddha
and you see the staff for bodhisattvas which are somewhat different
some extent you know
yes
she about my usual years
he can
i guess he felt in on their the buddha was sitting there we don't know how long the buddha was sitting there
but the buddha was sitting there may be felt like
they're not he couldn't stand it think they didn't understand when he was doing what he's teaching
you know he felt like he had to draw their attention to something
know who knows maybe they're sitting there saying wow i wonder when he's going to start teaching
or maybe they're asleep i know
but in a way
he shouldn't have done it
has your location she the people have this boring buddha
we just sits up there and quietly and
and they don't think he's giving them anything
even though he did make the effort to get up on that seat

yeah
and i'll just reading another fascicle of teaching by dorgan called buddha nature and it's a chapter was dealing with this issue of buddha-nature which in the lotus sutra buddha-nature the word buddha-nature doesn't appear
but many people think that what the buddha nature in the lotus sutra is is this the emptiness of the lotus sutra is the buddha nature
the emptiness of the way the lotus sutra teachers and the emptiness which the lotus sutra recommends bodhisattvas meditate on some chapter fourteen
part of the body surface
a place or practice place of action in place of intimacy is to meditate on emptiness
to meditate on buddha-nature
so
in this chapter dogan says you know many people teach all living beings have the buddha nature but a higher teaching in a way is all living beings are with output in nature
and you can hear that two ways one is all beings are without buddha-nature are all beings
what they are is without buddha-nature that's what they are
and then he says and he likes it all beings are without buddha nature
what we really are as we are without buddha-nature that's what we are at our nature
but then he says to say that all beings
our buddha-nature hybrid nature slanders put in nature and to say that all beings are without buddha nature slanders britain nature but you must say
that they have pretty nature and there without putting nature we must say that
wow
you not to say that
the
yes

island
i don't
hi i'm not sure but i think his problem was that he was thought he was fine
when he was gonna find
he was a wonderful monk but he thought it didn't need to go talk to the teacher so the head monk certain point you know have you gone to see him not only to see and i'm fine
he thought he was okay
i think he was yeah he was
he couldn't he couldn't tell that that he had some limited idea of what the truth was he was doing quite well but he has unlimited idea so when he went to see
and he was he was fed that question
so we went to see the teacher the teacher gave him something to find out if he was holding any place and he was balanced enough to have his place of holding indicated they didn't see that as kindness he didn't see how the teacher was trying to help him
well he went to teacher slapped him he didn't think was feet he thought you know you're just a slap
he didn't he didn't feel like how kind of you to slap me
you got you know you you got me right where i was holding in that one
but later when he went to see our teacher he could see that the teacher that there was really kindness and then he's in his whole style teaching with that way of teaching
yeah this is that was that he was very successful had lots of great students
and because that's what that's will work for him so he did that with his students and but still i could beginning of his record at the beginning of his teaching record he says if i weren't to accord strictly with the source i wouldn't be able to open my mouth
but
if i doubt many of you won't be able to get a foothold
song
he didn't say anything he just says if anybody wants to interact with me come on so they come up in the interacted with them he still couldn't
he still didn't say what it was but he interacted with people and in the interaction
somehow the skillful interaction they could open to this thing which is very difficult to understand buddhists can understand it but for non buddhist understand he started have to like do it three interaction
through some kind of device of interaction like
go to a class where you don't get anything
that's a device
the go to a class for you get something that's not a device
that's just your use your way
i've kind of get something
somehow the the skillful means it's like to offer enough to have people come and not get anything and then somehow encouraged him to come back and not get more
and when they're done that enough give them something they really don't think is good at all
but it's difficult to give people things they don't think it's that they don't think a good at all it's very difficult like in that class the other night was very difficult when she said
you're thinking of cutting your finger off i really didn't want her to cut her finger off but i also didn't want to tell her not to cut her finger off
i just wanted to know how oh she also said but i'm afraid if i cut my finger off that i've become very arrogant and think i'm better than other people so that was good
so then i said so but i don't think my job is to tell people what to do and some people want me to tell people what to do if they say they're going to cut their finger off to say you should tell not to cut their finger off
but fortunately other people in the class tell them not to cut your finger
how can i can ask him how is the story you're telling me now the story of the ancestors show me that
that's i can test my job is to get people to look at with their story is not to tell me change their story
but spokane want me to tell him they changed their story you know if they say they're if they say they're stupid they want me to tell me they're smart if they say they're smart they want me to tell him their stupider than least they're not smart they want they have stories about what i should be doing to
and my story as i should be helping us look at our stories
and i hope we have a story
are you find it
you like to get behind his back
no i'm not implying that
and i'm not because even in the lotus sutra
the buddha didn't give him the truth but they were very very happy at the prospect
what they're very very happy is saluda can you know
i myself was very happy to see my teacher i didn't get anything from him
but i was just very happy to be with them
when you went away i wasn't exactly happy that went away but i was kind of happy that i went away because i knew that he had to go away from me to grow up
so i just kind of happy but the whole thing even i didn't really get him out of it
but if you think you've got something that's okay
at your story
but according to lotus sutra you're going to become buddha because you came to this glass
and you listen to the lotus sutra not tell you
what the truth was ginger
now i sort sorted told you what a why they told us emptiness but i didn't tell you what emptiness was did i
i mean i mean i told you where was but didn't really tell you what it was
did i
but even if i did
nothing can be done about my leaking
have you force me i will i will indicate something
but you have been pushing me to hard thank you
you've logged in time what did you say you use several times were become of it
yeah and that has
applications
become something that you are they have become we become mature
user where it becomes lifetime
yeah
time yeah
part of a part of the bodhisattva path which as we had to cast by summer class and vows making vows
which also talked about in colon class and here last summer making vows means to solemnly promise into promise you're getting into time because you're saying my thoughts right now
our thinking of committing myself to a course of practice to a way of life
can i i i would i'm willing to live in the world of time and i'm willing to to speak of the future
i'm going to commit
in the future in a present i work i mind to commit to the future
and that and that's another danger which that in that was probably brought up this thing about cutting the finger off because when you promise and when you commit part of what you need to do is you need to be have enough development to be able to deal with time and future he also need to be of the do
what you need to be aware of the that there's a difference between yourself and others and you need to be aware also that whatever commitment you make
there's conflicting intentions but value have this conflicting intentions at least one
and that means that it's not necessarily going to be possible for you to fulfill whatever your vow is without any problems
and the last point about this is that
when you make about when you solemnly promise you need to do it in the presence of someone
who you respect like the buddha or bodhisattva or teacher
or or or in the presence of something abstract like your own honest honor your own authenticity
but then another way which they used to do more is or that there will be some punishment if you don't fulfill
we're commitment
and that led to the person saying well
cut my finger
so that that the that a dimension of of time is part of this becoming buddha thing
cause in the realm where there's no time in a substance we don't have a problem with his boot of thing
but bring our buddha realization into the world of time into the world of birth and death okay like we're talking about last week the way things really are
is it there on bush but with perverted thinking we get them upside down and make the born so in the world where things are born is the were were booed as appear and disappear at the world of time
and in that world i make vows
in the world of emptiness you don't have to make a bow
but not to realize the truth in this world we need to deal with time
yes so i heard you say earlier
teaching so
to suffer through somewhat different would they be characterized by described it happened teachings are found in this time
versus the boot is not been
during therefore
just taking the boy suffer teaches usually teachings about the file in that sense
put it doesn't teach him when you see to fall of ways
yeah i think the bodhisattvas can be more defiled and the buddhas and bodhisattvas but he suffers are sentient beings like the rest of us and they are willing to to be reborn again and again was booted you know
it has to show in a part of the buddha they're not really being reborn don't have to
they don't have to do this kind of upside down perverted thing in order to get born
they appear by pure vow
so the more perfect and more complete
the body surfaces in secret was very soft cheese isn't like
in a shakespeare play every of the downside
three and the lower characters act out the higher themes
accessible
one way or i'll think about that but i think it's more that
that the buddha is eternal
and only appears
in this way to come and go whereas body are like other sentient beings are not eternal
they still going through birth and death
the buddha hasn't really go through birth and death the bridge just the eternal boy just appears to go through birth and death
so there's a difference there we can relate more to
exactly boys soccer as a to manage your sheep
yeah and we got and week and day their path is our path
where's the buddhist path isn't exactly our path are the bodhisattva path is the way we become buddha but the buddha isn't like a person really but the buddha can be a person boys sought as are persons
human persons or some other kind of person whereas buddhist
really are eternal all pervasive you know limitless
being and body sought as are limited they show us how to be limited in a playful relaxed liberating way
the buddhist don't really show us how to be limited except that one special way where they do this thing of being born in john basically that's not the basic function the basic functions are with us all the time according to this sutra
so as a difference
huh
and i i am
i think our lives will change
i think our lives will change in probably a beneficial way if we arrange are living space sometimes called our home in such a way that there's a place in home for venerating the lotus sutra
for venerating the buddha
but in particular it venerating the lotus sutra also as a
make it a place where you can actually read the lotus sutra and
for right the lotus sutra and chant the lotus sutra a place where you can embody it if you make a place to embody it and you embody it that will transform your whole house your whole neighborhood
so will become a holy place
so i'm kind of encouraging you to think of ways that you can make a place for the lotus sutra and watch and see how that affects your whole life how your body in your house in your family are benefited by making a place to honor copy recite
and so on the scripture
having a statue of buddha as fine to and again i can be a place where you also you make buddhas and ceremonies but all these kinds of things are ways to embody
in body
and
be gentle about it don't be nasty an overbearing about this if you can't figure out how to set up a place for the lotus sutra
in your house be gentle about that don't get down on yourself for you know not
having a lotus sutra place in your house you know next tuesday but just consider that that how your life would change if he had a place to read recite make copies you know and placed the lotus sutra and think about it and study and so on how would that change your life
and would be beneficial
they have one place i tell you would that place become a place you took care of really carefully
probably it would maybe not maybe you know some of your real know what the word is but maybe it takes want me to put a lot some of the lucid places gonna be in a garbage pile i think it's okay
that's gonna creative
does it make sense
hmm
no
tracy
look quizzical
thanks
does it make what i mean by make sense does it makes sense that if you made a pleasure to she would change your house
hmm
yeah

and you'd i i
i just i meant i didn't go looking for the shrine was it was offered to me and if somebody else got it that would have been okay with me
but he was calling out for a home like you out
an animal at the animal rescue league or something
i said i'd take it and nobody else said they wanted it
so
it's in my life and in us do now
it's funny how this stuff happens
i hope you don't mind that it's in your life too
can this in my life
yes
oh thank you
you were pretending thank you for letting me know

what thank you for telling us that you pretending that you understood that for awhile and you got over that right
funnye you're now you're in place of i don't understand what you're talking about
i think it it you feel bad about it oh i feel good about it
so i hope our good health continues so we can keep talking about what the devil i'm talking about
i think it's ah yeah i think this is a wonderful thing for us to talk about for the next period of time
into the future and i'm really value not pretending to understand
it's already been beneficial but you would that you would try to pretend to understand and let me know that you're pretending that's already have helped the story the and this is a good story
the story of reb not getting anything out of his relationship with his accuracy

we make any difference if you do that are suitable for example versus
if you do with heart sutra i would think that would also will change your house if you do with the buddha statue if you do with heart sutra watch how it changes your house if you make a place you know what like in my house i actually have a which which i will give to somebody if they want me to give it to my
have a a a beautiful piece of paper unfortunately i bent it recently but it could be ironed he was a kind of cardstock paper canvas of the suture card that we used
at the zen center when it was in japantown
and i knew we had the civic arjun has hard to check in chinese characters and then romanized pronunciation translations with crises and i i have one as old cards can it in my bedroom and it's on top of a big pile of of of other sutures dislike there
and it's heart sutra but you know the way i put it there i keep putting it there carefully and extent that gives moved around a bit and i straighten it and i kicked all area around a clean because it's such a nice lovely little thing and it just sitting up there and if anybody wants it up i'll give it to you
i've been looking something to give it to
maybe i'd give it to michelle if you want to want michelle
okay i'll give it to you and then you can take care of it and keep straining it make sure it's clean and hairy around it and your house your house will change and hope it's okay with linda he brings it in
the whole world starts to move around things like that the way that we value
but different from like if he had a diamond ring you might like build a safe around it or something
in which might not be very nice but to have heartstream if you don't try to protect it from everybody must share with people and one show people that you have it there and they can look at it to and you and you keep it in a place where they can come and read it and recited with you and you have a nice place for them to do that with them
see of you have little temple there were you have the heart sutra so these kinds of things happen
and it's say you know and it's like i say it's kind of aesthetically pleasing as founded packing kind of thing
he just wanted to say i did them
thinking about it
you set up an altar for your to chant the heart sutra a different
i just wanted that space yeah and what happened with i hadn't expected anything it's really wonderful to go home to let my roommate
me i realize it's turn it giving tourism my room
people were like hey can you can do
but it's just a good feeling and i hadn't expected anything yeah yeah yeah that's very good not expect i think some say you'd expect something when you set the altar up i'm just saying set it up and see what happens i don't know how it's going to change your life to bring a lot of said change your house but
it will and i'd be interested to see how does if you make place for it
like this thing i can testing the dog and road where you have the lotus sutra the place you recite learn you to the patient portal or teacher down that becomes the place where the buddha's enlightened that becomes the place where the buddha practices that becomes a place where the buddha enters bar nirvana so put the in your house
and see what happens see if it becomes the place to a buddhist practicing i don't know what'll happen if you put it there but it might transform your world
you can see but don't expect anything that will have to make it hard for you to see what's going on if you expect all of this is gonna really like then you may miss to what really happens something will happen i don't know what it will be
and if you don't do that something will happen to and and or know what that will be that
i really don't know
but i just started bringing us up
and i'd be up to hear
more stories about what happened to the lotus sutra
and donna looks like are running over time
it's time to stop

and if you would like to keep these you made
they don't want to keep them
he's given back

the next sorry didn't get in touch with you today
during my thoughts