Heart of great perfection of wisdom. Thus I have heard it. At one time the Lord was sitting on Vulture's Peak near the city of Rajagriha. he was accompanied by a large community of monks as well as a large community of bodhisattvas. On that occasion, the Lord was absorbed in a particular concentration called Profound Splendor. Meanwhile, the bodhisattva The great being, the noble Avalokitesvara, was contemplating the profound discipline of the perfection of wisdom.

[01:09]

He came to see the five aggregates were empty of any inherent nature on their own. Through the power of the Buddha, the Venerable Sariputra approached the noble Avalokiteshvara and asked him, how should a son or daughter of noble lineage proceed when he or she wants to train in the profound discipline of the perfection of wisdom? The noble Avalokitesvara replied to the Venerable Sariputra, Whatever son or daughter of noble lineage wants to train in the profound discipline of the perfection of wisdom should consider things in the following way.

[02:20]

First, he or she should clearly and thoroughly comprehend that the five aggregates are empty of any inherent nature of their own. Form is empty, but emptiness is form. Emptiness is not other than form and forms are not other than emptiness. Similarly, feelings, discernment, formative elements, and consciousness are also void. Likewise, Shariputra, all phenomena are empty. They have no defining characteristics. They are unproduced. They do not cease. They are undefiled.

[03:27]

Yet they are not separate from defilement. They do not decrease, yet they do not increase. This being the case, Shariputra, in terms of emptiness, there exists no forms, no feelings, no discernments, no formative elements, no consciousness, no eyes, no ears, no nose, no tongue, no bodies, no minds, no visual forms, no sounds, no smells, no tastes, no tactile sensations, no material objects. There exists no visual elements. no mental elements and no elements of mental consciousness. There exists no ignorance and no exhaustion of ignorance, no old age and death and no exhaustion of old age and death.

[04:33]

In the same way, there exists no suffering, no origin of suffering, no cessation, no path, no wisdom, no attainment and no lack of attainment. Therefore, Sariputra, since bodhisattvas have no attainment, they depend on and dwell in the perfection of wisdom. Their minds are unobstructed and unafraid. They transcend all error and finally reach the endpoint, nirvana. All Buddhas of the past, present and future have depended do and will depend on the perfection of wisdom. Therefore they become, are becoming and will become unsurpassably, perfectly and completely awakened Buddhas.

[05:36]

Therefore the mantra of the perfection of wisdom is a mantra of great knowledge. It is an unsurpassed mantra. It is a mantra that is incomparable. It is a mantra that totally pacifies all suffering. It will not deceive you, therefore know it to be true. Proclaim the mantra of the perfection of wisdom. gate gate para gate parasam gate bodhisvaha Shariputra, in this way the great bodhisattvas train themselves in the profound perfection of wisdom. At that moment the Lord rose from his concentration and said to the noble Avalokitesvara, Well said, well said.

[06:45]

That is just how it is, my son, just how it is. The profound perfection of wisdom should be practiced exactly as you have explained it. Then the tathagatas will be truly delighted. When the Lord had spoken these words, the venerable Sariputra and the bodhisattvas, the bodhisattva, the great being, Avalokitesvara, and the entire gathering of gods and humans, Ashuras, Gandharvas, were all overjoyed and they praised the Lord for what he had said. at the beginning I would like to encourage you to look inward and consider a question which I've asked over and over before but want to ask again and the question is what is

[08:16]

the ultimate concern of your life? What's the ultimate point, the ultimate goal? Sometimes people say, what are you ultimately seeking in the end? I don't like the word seeking too much, so I like concern. Suzuki Rishi used the expression, inmost request. What is your inmost request? What is most deeply called for in your life? What is your deepest vow that you can find? And on your way, on your looking around for this or on your way to find this, you might find some vows or some requests, some goals, but I was talking about the ultimate one.

[09:36]

There's one that's ultimate. There's not two. I mean, maybe you think there's two, but I'm asking for one. The one that everything else lines up behind or underneath. So that's something to think about off and on for the rest of our life. It might be a fairly stable thing. It might find different words to express itself. I guess I'm asking, you know, what is your true nature asking you to do? Listen to it, see what it says. In particular, what does it have to do with coming to this class? And... That's another aspect. How does this class fit in with the ultimate concern of your life? I don't want to box you into, you know, the answer to this question.

[10:48]

but I would suggest to you that the scripture that we're offering for study here is a very profound teaching, and in a way, I kind of think, I'm not telling you what you should think or what's true for you, but I kind of think that we can't understand this sutra if our motivation for life or for studying this sutra is to gain something temporary or to gain something just for ourself to really understand this teaching I think our motivation has to be not just for something for ourself but actually I think our motivation has to be directed towards the welfare of all beings.

[11:56]

That's the kind of motivation which will make studying the scripture successful in the sense of you'll be able to understand it. Maybe if you do contemplate this question deeply, you may come to the conclusion that what you really wish to give your life to is the attainment, the realization of freedom from all misery and negative aspects of life and the realization of all positive wholesome aspects of life not just freedom from misery and negative qualities

[13:19]

but the realization of all positive ones too. Not just freedom, but the ability to most skillfully help the other people who may or may not have attained freedom. Maybe if you consider that, you might think, well, yes, I guess so. But even if you don't want to, and a lot of people tell me, well, I'll tell you later what they tell me, but anyway, even if you really don't feel that you would like to be completely free of all suffering and all negativity that you've ever been involved in or that you might be involved in in the future, even if you don't really think that you'd like to be completely free of being cruel to people, maybe you'd like to do a little bit more cruelty before you're done, there's certain people deserve it, right? After you take care of them, then maybe you'll be ready to give up being cruel to anybody or anything. But even if you're not ready to give up being cruel to those people who are being cruel, who deserve it, still you might think it would be good to not only be willing to give up being cruel and unskillful with people, not just be willing, but actually give it up and be free of it.

[14:40]

And not just give it up, but actually not have it sneak up on you and make you do it unconsciously. Maybe you could see that you would like that, but if you can't, maybe you could think that people who are like that, that would be good. If other people were that way, even if I don't want to be. Again, I'm not trying to talk you into this. And maybe you don't want to be like... super skillful and super, like, helpful and be able to, like, meet somebody who's suffering and, like, be able to help them in the best possible way. Maybe you don't want to do that, okay? But anyway, if you did want to be like that, being like that is what we call being a Buddha. Even Buddhas can't enlighten everybody right now today. Shakyamuni Buddha couldn't enlighten everybody he met However, he did enlighten some people that he met. I mean, like he met some people and enlightened them on the spot like that.

[15:41]

And some of the people he met were like, what do you call it? Tough cases. He met a mass murderer who was in the process of trying to kill the Buddha. And he turned him around. And the guy woke up. And he didn't turn him around with his hands. He just turned him around by the way he was walking. And he turned him around by the way he answered the guy's question. The guy snapped out of his insanity and had an awakening and became a wonderful disciple. Sometimes Buddha, when the person was right, when the person was ready, the Buddha could on the spot. Other times the Buddha would like get the people ready. Sometimes the best thing you can do for somebody is get them ready. That's the best thing you can do, and it's a great thing to do. It's like helping the person take the appropriate step towards being free.

[16:43]

If you have that motivation to learn how to be most helpful and to learn how to be free of unhelpfulness, out of you being unhelpful and also be free of other people being unhelpful and respond to their unhelpfulness with helpfulness. If you'd like to be that, that's like wanting to be a Buddha. But I don't know if you want to be a Buddha. And the part I postponed telling you about is that quite a few people have come to me and told me, you know, I don't really want to be enlightened. I just want to like, you know, blah-de-blah. Something else good, but, you know, like, I just want to be, like, not such a troublemaker around here. Or I just want to be more calm. Or I just want to, like, not have such a hard time every day. But I can't really say I want to be enlightened and want to be a Buddha. But you see, what they want is part of what a Buddha is. They want to be not have such a hard time every day. Which means if they have a hard time, they want to be able to respond kind of well to it.

[17:47]

And I say, you don't have to want to be a Buddha. And I say that to you, too, and I say it to me, although I do want to be a Buddha. But I can say, you don't have to want to be a Buddha, but maybe if you think about it, you'll see that it's kind of reasonable that you would want to be a Buddha because it's like, what could be better? But you might say, well, I think it's better to be a little bit still into a few bad habits. It's more colorful. I mean, you know, we wouldn't have... What stories would we have that all stories would be about just, you know, what, Buddha helping people? Too boring. So anyway, it's up to you to think about what you want. Now, if you did want to be a Buddha, then it just turns out that this scripture is just for you. This scripture is to help people become Buddha. That's what it's about. It's that type of a teaching. You won't necessarily get better at the piano or even want to play the piano. However, if you are a piano player, you will probably get better at it, but you won't necessarily start playing the piano, but you might if it would be helpful to people.

[18:55]

But you can become a Buddha by studying this teaching. This teaching is for the purposes of becoming a Buddha. There's two main dimensions of what, you know, give rise to this state of Buddhahood, two dimensions of practice, two kind of aspects of the path to Buddhahood. Anybody care to guess what those two aspects are? Wisdom and compassion. Good guess. What are we going to guess, Fran? Same thing, yeah. Wisdom and compassion, sometimes called wisdom and skill and means. Because it's compassion not just like really wanting everyone to be free of suffering and wanting everyone to develop their full potential, but it's also willing to work for it, and it's also the things you do, the skillful things you do with people, like giving, practicing precepts with them, being patient with them, being diligent with them, practicing tranquility with them,

[20:14]

like this evening you sat together quietly, that's a kind of like skillful means practice. So the skillful means practices and the wisdom practices, those are the two main aspects of the path to Buddhahood. And so among the skill and means practices, there's like infinite varieties of how to practice. I just gave you five basic categories, but there's infinite varieties of how to do that, infinite ways to give, of course, infinite ways to practice precepts and so on, infinite ways to practice patience, infinite ways to practice diligence, and infinite ways to practice tranquility. Wisdom also, there's many kinds of wisdom. But the supreme type of wisdom is what we call the perfection of wisdom, wisdom which has gone beyond. And that type of wisdom is the wisdom which understands the ultimate nature of tea and teacups.

[21:32]

Thank you. The object of the supreme wisdom is ultimate truth, ultimate meaning. And the ultimate meaning means the ultimate meaning or the ultimate truth about the way things are, about the way tea is, about the way you are, about the way Buddha is. And that ultimate truth is called emptiness. Sometimes. So this sutra is about emptiness. However, this sutra also is teaching about skill and means. So it's not just teaching about emptiness, it's teaching about both aspects of what are involved in becoming a Buddha. But the explicit teaching of this scripture, of this heart of perfect wisdom, the explicit teaching is the teaching of

[22:41]

supreme wisdom. The implicit teaching is a teaching of skill and means. So I would guess that you understand how it is that the explicit teaching of this scripture is of the wisdom variety. I guess you understand that since it's taught in a lot about ultimate reality, which is the object of wisdom. Does it make sense that it's explicitly teaching you about wisdom? But you might not be able to guess or see how it's implicitly teaching you about giving, ethical discipline, patience, diligence, and tranquility or concentration. You might not be able to see that. But maybe you do. Do you see how it's implicitly teaching you that? How? The form coming out of emptiness?

[23:47]

That, yes, right. The form coming out of emptiness, right? That's kind of... Anything else? That you can see sort of implied here? Any practices implied here? Without being actually named? They say wisdom quite a few times, right? Wisdom here, wisdom there, this wisdom, that wisdom. And then talking about what wisdom's about, emptiness this, emptiness that. But they don't specifically mention the skill and means practices, but they're implied. How? Anybody care to say so? Before I do? I'm going to if you don't. Yes? There's something about no hindrance. wisdom in a sense removes hindrance to helpfulness which is mostly our job just removing yeah yeah yes absence of dualities or getting to the absence of seeing through dualities that's more the same thing I just talked about

[25:05]

That's the wisdom. One can argue... Go ahead. Go ahead, argue. Well, on meeting a particular situation, you can actually... If you can see the non-dualities in that situation, then it gets rid of the... it allows things to be as they are. And so, you're not really interfering or messing with them, trying to change them or doing that, then there's a kind of a compassion. That's sort of a compassionate act or no act. Yeah, that's kind of like what Diego was saying, that when you see things as they are, When you see, for example, the non-duality of phenomena, you're kind of in accord with where they are. And when you're in accord with where they are, kind of you're in a hindrance or disharmony with the way things are drops away.

[26:10]

So then your action becomes like unimpededly compassionate. So that's a kind of implied, actually that's actually explicitly mentioned is that this practice will remove hindrance For example, it'll remove fear. A lot of times, we might think of doing something generous, but we're kind of afraid of what will happen. Or some other things. We might think of telling the truth sometime, but be afraid of what would happen. But any hindrance to the appropriate action would be removed by this wisdom. So that's a kind of implication of the explicit teaching is some of the effects of the wisdom would be to clear up and release the compassion and let the compassion flow more smoothly. So that's implied here. Anything else? Yes? I think that that's the simple story of the sharing of the wisdom They weren't willing to withhold it and keep the fact that they were trying to share it and spread it and give it in a friendly, enthusiastic manner.

[27:17]

Right, right. Yeah. Something for you, for everyone, and... Right. It's not exactly... It's explicit that Avalokiteshvara is answering Shariputra's question. That's explicit. But that he does is actually, he didn't say so, but he's actually, it's implicit that he's practicing giving. You know, and he's also, it's implicit he's practicing the precepts because he's not being possessive, like Shai Putra comes up and says, well, how do Bodhisattvas practice? Well, you're not a Bodhisattva, I'm not going to tell you. You're just a monk, you know, as a matter of fact, you're part of the old school, so, you know. No, he's not possessive of the teaching. That's one of the precepts. He's practicing not being possessive. He's generous. He gives, so he's practicing giving, and he's practicing not being possessive, and so on. If you look, you may find that it's implied, although not mentioned explicitly in the text, are all these compassion practices, plus...

[28:26]

It's implied that these compassion practices, which are implicitly going on right under our noses but not being pointed to, when conjoined with perfect wisdom, they're completely unhindered. Also, it's implied, it's actually explicitly mentioned that Buddha is in samadhi. He's practicing tranquility, so that's implied that that's part of what's going on here. And that probably if we were going to study this material, we also would practice tranquility. And so on. It's also implied, I think, a lot of stuff's implied there. Like courage is implied. Courage is implied. Shariputra is usually seen as a monk representing the early tradition of Buddhism, the wisdom tradition. And this is the wisdom beyond wisdom. So he's representing the old wisdom school. But actually in this text, he's actually more of a bodhisattva. He's not just willing to be a wise person, but he wants to be a Buddha here.

[29:31]

He has the courage to ask Avalokiteshvara a question about bodhisattvas and so on. So we can talk about this more later as we go on, but I just wanted to point out that we... In studying this teaching, we also should be practicing compassion at the same time, even though there's kind of an emphasis on wisdom in this text, and there's kind of an emphasis on wisdom in these classes and practice periods that I've been involved in this year. So it's an emphasis on wisdom, but I keep telling you, don't forget to practice compassion alongside of it, even though I'm not explicitly reminding you about it, I mean, or saying what to do in that regard. Oh, one other aspect is that the object, that's why when you said non-duality, I said that's more like a wisdom thing.

[30:41]

The object of wisdom is non-duality and emptiness. The object of supreme, perfect wisdom. But the object of compassion the object of skill and means is dualistic phenomena is conventional phenomena so we have to practice with the conventional phenomena we have to practice in the midst of dualistic things that's where we do the skill and means and that generates that's part of what you can't just have perfect wisdom and be a buddha you have to work in the dualistic world where it seems like you and me are separate and practice compassion in that world of conventional existence, which is not true. It's not true that we're really separate, but we have to practice these skill and means in that world. So we have to practice in both worlds to become Buddha. But again, the text here is directing our attention not to the conventional world so much,

[31:46]

But the explicit focus is on ultimate meaning, emptiness. Okay? Any questions thus far? While you were sitting, I read the Heart Sutra to you. And I guess that some of you who are familiar with the Heart Sutra maybe hadn't heard the version that I read before. Is that right? Have you ever heard that before, Diego? Have you heard the Heart Sutra before, Diego? Have you heard the Heart Sutra before? I've heard the Heart Sutra. Have you chanted it before? Yes. You did? But what you heard tonight was different, right? Right. How about you? Same, Gary? Gwen, same? Same. Lucetta?

[32:49]

Leslie? How many people have heard this version before? Some of you have heard it before. How many of you have never heard the Heart Sutra before? Period. Well, you heard it tonight. Now, this version that I read you tonight is called the version in 25 shlokas. I don't know if I'm pronouncing shloka right. Maybe it should be sloka. Either, but maybe sloka. Shloka sounds good though, doesn't it? 25 slokas. Sloka is a Sanskrit verse line, I think, of 32 syllables. So this 25 sloka version is longer than the one which we usually chant at Zen Center. And it pretty much, this longer one, contains the one we have at Zen Center inside of it.

[33:57]

It's got sort of a context around it. The inside's almost the same as what we usually chant. And if you'd like a copy of this longer version, I implicitly practice giving it to you. It's right here. You can pick it up whenever you'd like, up until about 9.15 p.m. And then I'm going to take it some way. So, did you... So the name of this, by the way, the name of this scripture, the full name of it is Bhagavati Prajnaparamita Hridaya Sutra. And Bhagavati is the female form of Bhagavat. And Bhagavat is one of the epithets of the Buddha. And it's translated sometimes as blessed one or sacred one, Bhagavat.

[35:04]

Or actually sometimes it's translated as super mundane victor. Anyway, it's a you know, or the one who has all the positive qualities that I mentioned earlier, that's another translation of it, as an epithet for the male Buddha. But Bhagavati is female, and so sometimes they translate it as, it's a female version of Bhagavati. So sometimes they translate it as sacred mother, heart of wisdom gone beyond wisdom scripture so it's it uh... it can be seen as mother in the sense that this text is the mother of the buddhas in a sense that this text is the place that the buddhas arise from i mean not this text but this wisdom the heart of this wisdom is where the Buddhas arise from, they arise from this, from the womb of this wisdom.

[36:17]

So in that sense, it's a sacred mother. But in another sense, it's just feminine blessed one, feminine blessedness. In the sense that wisdom is usually associated with the feminine. And skill and means are associated with the masculine you might even go a little further and say in a sense that wisdom is more receptive or even passive and skill and means is more active in a sense wisdom is like getting really good at accepting reality And don't mess with it, just accept it and take care of it. Accept it and take care of it. And the skill and means is like doing these practices in the conventional world. Okay, any questions?

[37:26]

And the next thing I'd like to mention is that I also had made you copies of the version of the Heart Sutra that we chant at Zen Center. But I didn't really forget them exactly, but I sort of forgot them. I gave them to somebody to put someplace, and they put them in that place, and then I forgot that they put them there. So I can't give those to you tonight, but I'll give them to you next week. So what I would suggest to you is that if you'd like, you can take a copy of this and that between now and next week, you might just every day read this text. Or if you'd like to, if you have another version of the Heart Sutra that you prefer to read instead of this one, please chant the version of Heart Sutra you'd like to chant. But try to, as part of this class, try to do it every day, at least once.

[38:36]

You could even do it in a foreign language if you want to. I have it in Sanskrit and Tibetan and Chinese and Japanese, if you'd like. Yes? It doesn't have to be just the one paper, no. You can also read the newspaper during this class. But I think some of you will read the newspaper, but I want to make sure everybody also hears that there is a request coming that you also read this this sutra and you can read many versions of it every day if you want to but at least please try to read read one of the versions once a day that's not too much maybe reading more than that might be impractical even though pretty good idea this part of the practice this is kind of the implied part of the practice right do you know what I mean

[39:52]

What I just said? Can you guess what I was implying there? That what I just suggested is an implication of the practice? Does that make sense? What am I implying? Huh? Well, discipline? And diligence, yeah. That you would recite the text is an act of giving. It's an act of diligence. It's an act of devotion. It's an act in the conventional world. It's not just a wisdom practice. You're actually going to pick up the piece of paper, which is different from the newspaper. Not really. Just in the conventional world, it's not the newspaper. It's separate from the newspaper. And you're going to read it. as an act of devotion. Part of what we need to do, as I said earlier, part of what we need to do in order to understand this sutra is we have to practice compassion. And one form of compassion is to give the gift of reading the sutra.

[40:57]

It's a gift. And it's also a discipline. And it's also an act of diligence. And it's also an act of patience. Like, if you're reading it, halfway through you might say, I've got better things to do. But you just keep reading. You might even have some pain when you're going through it. I don't know what kind you might have, but you might have various types of pain. But you practice patience and finish the sutra practicing patience and so on. You could even practice tranquility as part of it. So somebody said to me, I was just in Pittsburgh. In Pittsburgh, they chant the Heart Sutra still in Japanese. They also do it in English, I think, but... I think the person was asking me, wasn't sure if I should continue to chant the Heart Sutra in Japanese. And I said, well, he said he can't understand it in Japanese, doesn't understand Japanese. And I said, well, you know, to chant the Heart Sutra in Japanese, first of all, it's kind of beautiful, but forget that for the time being.

[42:00]

But to chant the Heart Sutra without worrying about getting anything out of it, like understanding it, but chant it without worrying about you getting anything out of it, That's really a good way to chant it. Also, take this class without trying to get anything out of the class. It's really a good way to take the class. Trying to get anything out of it for yourself, it is. It's fine not to try to get wisdom for yourself in this class. That's fine. But come anyway, without trying to get wisdom for you. Come to get wisdom for other people. And if you recite the text... that might help them even though you don't understand it. So reciting the text, even in a foreign language, it's not so much that some people think, well, just to make those sounds and accumulate all that merit. That may be true. But I think more meritorious than making these nice Buddhist sounds in the world, which makes the Buddhas happy, that's very good. They like to hear this music. But more important than that is your non-attachment to you getting anything out of the chanting.

[43:05]

So that's another aspect of the practice, a kind of devotional aspect that I would encourage you to pick up. Okay, any questions about that? Fran? I think it's generally better to do it out loud even when other people are around unless they're, you know, anti-Buddhists. They might attack you. So I guess I take it back. Generally, it's better to do it out loud. But anyway, it's really good to do it out loud. It's also good to write it with your hands. It's also good to type it. It's also good to write it with your feet. It's good to better. However, there's sometimes when it's not appropriate, right? Like, it's not good to write it on buses unless you ask permission. No tagging with the Heart Sutra without permission.

[44:14]

So generally, the more you get it, the more... To read it, you usually have... Well, to read it is good, and to read it and speak it is good. To memorize it is good. good to memorize it for many many good things about that so okay and writing and making a copy some people have the practice of every day doing nicely writing calligraphy a copy of the of the heart Sutra it's okay to write it fast I suppose but to write it nice carefully in English or Chinese or Sanskrit to write it carefully And then you can give it as a gift to somebody who would like it. And so on. So all those ways are good. They're acts of giving. They're acts of devotion. They're part of the practice. There are some really smart people who have practiced Buddhism over the last 2,500 years. I mean like really smart, a lot smarter than probably any of us really smart.

[45:19]

And there are some people now who are practicing or studying Buddhism who are really smart. And there are some people who are practicing Buddhism who have practiced Buddhism who aren't so smart. Probably not as smart as any of you. But if the smart people practice devotion, I mean, if the smart people practice devotion, they become Buddhas. If the smart people don't practice devotion, their practice doesn't mature. And if the not-so-smart people practice devotion, their practice matures, and they become Buddhas. So... just reciting the text or memorizing and so on doesn't isn't the whole story but it is part of the story even for very smart people who'd like just like immediately memorize it by looking at it once and kind of have a big understanding right away that's great that's great but they don't keep reciting the text or do some kind of active devotion like that their practice will not mature and if you don't understand it especially if you're reading a foreign language that's not necessarily great what's great is that you keep reciting it not worrying about that and you keep reciting it you keep reading it you keep studying it you keep meditating on it you will become a Buddha that's what this is about it says here whatever son or daughter of Buddha whatever that practices this way will become Buddha

[46:50]

you will understand but you have to like completely you know you can't kind of learn how to not hold back now maybe you hold back you know for example now maybe you won't even chant the heart seizure once a day not to mention all day long every day which would not exactly be holding back doesn't mean you have to do it all day all the time every day you can you can study the sutra without reciting it but anyway If you give yourself to it completely, you will understand it, you will become Buddha. Whatever son or daughter of noble lineage. Noble lineage means son or daughter of Buddha. If you want to be a Buddha, you are a son or daughter of Buddha. That's what sons and daughters of Buddha are. They are the ones who want to be Buddha. Bodhisattvas are sons and daughters of Buddhas.

[47:55]

That's what Bodhisattvas are called. Children, Buddha's child. Buddha's children are the people who consider Buddha to be their mommy and daddy, who want to be like the Buddhas. So if you want to be and you practice this way, you will be If you want to be, you're a Buddhist child, and if you practice, you will be a Buddha. It takes a while, but, you know, because you've got to... I mean, your insight might develop really fast, but you've got to do a lot of this skill and means stuff, too. And that, of course, helps your wisdom. Any questions? Is practice to recite the entire text that you read or the single line that sort of culminates with teaching?

[49:01]

I would suggest that you do the whole thing. And by the way, the single line, you were thinking the mantra? Yeah. Actually, I was suggesting the whole thing. However... When it comes to the mantra at the end, gate gate pade gate pade san gate bodhis paha, that you can do all day long. Actually, you can actually get it so that you can do it while you're talking, like right now I'm doing it. I'm not saying I always do it, but just for the sake of demonstration. But I'm also suggesting that you chant the whole thing. or some other version. If you have another version you'd like to do, do the other one. How do you feel about that? I actually have some ambivalence about it because chanting something, a language that I don't understand, or even a language that I do understand, but for me at which I don't understand,

[50:10]

um, strikes me like, uh, other forms of, uh, vintage practice and ritual practice that, uh, really can not... Well, um, I don't want, I don't want to, uh, what do you call it, oppress you with this request, but I am requesting you to do it, but also I, I don't want you to feel, um, like you have to if you don't think it's appropriate for you. But I am requesting you because I think it would be good for you to do this thing given your feelings. You know, not your feelings that it's not appropriate, but that your feelings that... I forgot what you said, something about it didn't do any good, did you say, or what did you say? To chant something you don't understand, it sounds like other religious practices, which something... Yeah. So this sutra is not about basically doing something for you, although it will do something for you.

[51:16]

It's about you becoming a person who's primarily concerned about doing things for other people. And you reciting scripture is doing something for me. So I am not... I am giving you... I'm not doing this... I mean, I'm not doing this for me. For me, I'm probably better not to ask you to do anything because you probably like me better. I'm not asking you to do this for me. I'm asking you to do this for you, and I'm telling you that I think it would be good for you to do it for me. I think it would be good for you to do this for me and for you to do this for everybody in this class and for you to do this for all beings. That's what I think would be good for you and for us. Now, this doesn't mean that this practice isn't good for you. It just means that if you have the orientation of yourself first, that's not what this is about. Because the orientation of self first is exactly what this sutra is trying to help us get over.

[52:21]

Namely, that there's a self. So, these practices to do things where you don't really quite see what it's doing... If you have some other problem besides what you said, or that problem too, please express them and don't feel pressured. I should say don't feel pressured. Feel pressured if you want to feel pressured. That's fine. But I guess I'm not going to not ask you to do something. I am going to ask you to do something. But I kind of also apologize for asking you to do something, too. But actually, I'd like to ask you to do even more later, some of which you may be up for and some of which you may not be. But I also would like to ask you, I would actually like, generally speaking, to ask you to do great things, but I would like to ask you to do it in a skillful way.

[53:24]

Not so much in a way that gets you to do them, but yes, in a way that gets you to do them. I would like to ask you to become a great person, all of you. I'd like to ask me to become a great person, and I would like you to become a great person, but not... I mean, the cause of you becoming a great person isn't that I asked you. It's really that perhaps when I ask you, you'll remember that that's actually what you wanted to do a long time ago. that she always wanted to be a great person, that she always wanted to be a really... somebody who was a good thing that happened here. And I'm just reminding you of that by asking you, please be a great bodhisattva and recite this scripture once a day, every day. And if you can't do it, I don't want you to feel bad for not doing it, but you probably will. unless you don't decide to do it.

[54:28]

If you don't take on the discipline of doing it, then you probably won't feel bad if you don't do it. I don't feel bad not being a nurse myself, like in a regular hospital. I don't feel bad because I didn't sign up to be a nurse. But if I said, if somebody said, would you please be a nurse at least for the next eight hours in this hospital? And I said, yes, then if I didn't do it, I'd probably feel bad. So when you take on a discipline, take on a practice, and you commit yourself to it, if you don't do it, you don't feel good. And if you do do it, you do feel good. So I guess I would also just say to you, think about whether, be practical now, and think about whether you would like to do such a practice. And then the question is, is it practical? And then when you're ready, consider committing to it. And if you commit to it, then if you don't do it, it'll impact you.

[55:31]

You'll have some problem. Just like when people formally receive the precepts, after they receive them, they feel worse if they don't practice them than before they received them. That's why a lot of people hesitate because they say, well, I might not practice them. Oh, yes, right, you might not. And receiving them doesn't mean that you're saying, I'll practice these precepts all the time. I mean, in the past, I didn't practice them all the time. So I think that if I receive these precepts, like the precept of not killing, that I probably, I might still kill something, like something small maybe, like a spider or ant. I might still do that. So maybe I shouldn't receive this precept. And I usually say to people, well... The question is, do you want to learn how to not kill beings? Do you want to find a way of life where you don't kill anything? Where you, like, give it up? Do you want to find a way of life where you don't steal anymore?

[56:33]

Do you want to find a way of life where you don't misuse sexuality? Do you want to find a way of life where you don't lie? Would you like to learn how? I'm not saying that when you receive these precepts that you're not going to lie anymore, but would you like to learn how? If so, then maybe it would be good to receive the precept. Then after you receive the precept, then part of that is if you notice that you're not following it, then on a daily basis also you confess that you're a human being and you still have some lack of enlightenment. So you sometimes slip up on these precepts. That's part of the practice. But you would like to learn how to do them. And I kind of feel like when you see something that you want to do, when you see something that you think would be good, and you don't do it, it's not me who's saying, I hope you're uncomfortable about that. I'm not saying I want you to be uncomfortable.

[57:37]

But I think you will be, and it's okay with me that you are, because I think it's okay if you're not comfortable, for example. I think it's okay if I'm not comfortable being cruel to you. I think if I'm cruel to you, I'll be uncomfortable, especially if I notice that I'm being cruel, especially if you remind me that I'm being cruel, especially if you cry and show me that I'm being cruel. it will hurt me a little bit. I think it's good that it hurts a little bit because that's not the way I want to be. So, it's part of spiritual growth is that it's not entirely comfortable not to grow. If you're comfortable not growing, then why not just not grow? Well, the reason is because it doesn't work not to grow. Even though growing in some sense is also called your teeth falling out That's not exactly growing. Growing is coping with your teeth falling out in a kind of growthful way.

[58:42]

Like, instead of trying to hold your teeth in all the time and being scared that they're going to fall out, or even wearing a mask that has nice teeth in it, rather than that way of dealing with teeth falling out, you feel gratitude in the midst of teeth falling. Not exactly gratitude because your teeth are falling, but you just feel grateful to be here and to not be like pouting because your teeth are falling out or lying or blaming your dentist or blaming somebody who gave you something with sugar in it. In other words, that you can be kind of like positive and wholesome and skillful in the situation where your teeth are falling out, which is the case of most people, except for little kids, they come in. Ours are not coming in anymore, right? Ours are going away. And if our teeth go away, how do you want to deal with that?

[59:47]

How do you want to be with the teeth going away? What's the most skillful way you can imagine would you like to be that way? And if you would like to be that way and you're not, then you feel kind of bad. So that's part of what this class can be about for you is to think about Are you going to give something here? And what's it going to be? So, if you don't feel comfortable giving X, then maybe you feel comfortable giving Y. If you don't feel comfortable giving anything, then do you want to learn how to give? And if yes, well then, we can have a consideration of how you could learn to give. I don't think if someone asks you to do something and you do it and you don't really enjoy doing it, if someone asks you to give something and you don't really enjoy giving it, it's not giving.

[60:48]

It doesn't count spiritually. It maybe counts legally. You may be able to deduct it from your taxes, but it doesn't count spiritually unless you enjoy it. it may count in terms of people like thinking that that you're a nice guy like you know if it's time to make a donation and you make it and people say okay all right you made the donation you're okay you avoid their censure for being stingy but that's not really spiritual to do it so that people will you know think well of you spiritual giving means you Enjoy it. You're happy about it and not happy because of the effect it has on you in terms of people liking you. You're happy at just the idea of giving, period. So if I ask you, I didn't actually, at the beginning, I wasn't really going to ask you. I was going to suggest that you recite the scripture, but now I think I'm going to ask you to.

[61:51]

I'm going to ask you to recite it. But when somebody asks you for something, It's not giving to give it to them if you don't want to. So I'm asking you to give me, you reciting the scripture every day. I'm asking that of you. However, I do not want you to give it to me if you don't want to. I do not want you to. I do not. I want you to give it to me if it's a joy to give it to me. And it's also okay with me if it's a joy just to do it. And you can also, even though I asked you for it, you can also give it to everybody in this class. You can give things to people that they don't ask you for. I can give, for example, I can give all of you right now all the flowers in the hills at Green Gulch. And I can feel joy at that, even though they didn't ask for it. And I don't have to move them to give them to you either. They're there for you. Please come and enjoy them.

[62:52]

If I feel good about it, it's giving. So first I suggested it, and I still suggest it. It's a suggestion from the teacher. But the teacher's also saying, please give me personally that gift. I mean, give it means hand it over when you feel joyful at that thought of doing it for me, because I asked you to, of giving me that gift. Not so much doing it for me, but giving me that gift. But again, sometimes somebody might ask you for a dollar and you just say, well, you know, I just don't feel that good about giving a dollar. But you know, I do feel good about giving a nickel. So here's a nickel. And I feel great about that. Actually, I feel actually completely fine about giving a nickel, but not a dollar, etc., That can happen, that you actually feel good about giving somebody a nickel and you don't about a dollar.

[64:00]

You know what I mean? Is that nice? Do you ever have that experience? Like you feel good about this but not ten of these or twenty of these? So, you... What's your name? Barry. Barry. Barry might feel good about giving me the mantra but not the whole sutra. So, I ask for the whole sutra which includes the mantra but if you don't... If you don't want to give me the whole sutra, then I'll happily accept the mantra. And if you don't want to give me mantra, then I would say, well, please give me something. But still, I mean, please give me something you would like to give me. And if you can't find anything that you would like me to give me, but you look, I still feel pretty happy that you listened to me and looked and couldn't find one single thing to give me, I still think the practice of giving is registering.

[65:03]

And that's part of the sutra, is you have to practice giving in order to have wisdom fully realized. Any other questions at this time? Yes? I'm feeling like giving you the sutra now. But I have a serious question. Which is, why do you want me to give you the sutra? One reason is that I think if you actually do give me the sutra, I think it would be good for you to practice the giving. And part of the consequences, not only will you enjoy it, but part of the consequences of it is that you will develop this skill and means side in yourself which will help you become this person you can become, the most fully developed Barry that there can be.

[66:14]

And it will also help you develop wisdom. Plus, also, when I recite something, and I think it's the case with most people, that you don't understand, sometimes as you recite it and you don't understand it, sometimes you understand it. So for me, I'm not the kind of person, I almost never can pick up a poem and read it and understand it. Sometimes I think, the first time I read a poem, sometimes I can feel like, whew, that was beautiful. But actually, I almost never can. But sometimes when people read me a poem, I can immediately feel the beauty. Like, Leslie can read poems like that. Sometimes when she reads poems, I can immediately hear how beautiful it is. But a lot of poems, especially so-called great poems, when I read them, I think, well, what's so great about that? Like, Ode to a Grecian Urn, I heard it was good. You know, and I read it. And I thought, okay. But then I memorized it.

[67:15]

It took me a while, but in the process of memorizing it, understanding occurred. I mean, in the process of memorizing it, I was walking in the hillsides of Greece on a hot summer day and seeing the sun shine on the planks of a heifer going to slaughter. going to sacrifice. I mean, I felt the radiance of Greece through Keats because I'm in the process of memorizing it. And now when I recite that from memory, I just enter this realm of poetry that this short little guy initiates us into when we read his poems enough so that you memorize them. Now, especially if you don't memorize very well, you're going to really get into it in order to memorize it. Some people memorize like that, and they still might not get the meaning of poetry.

[68:18]

But for those of us who don't memorize so fast, to go over the text, I don't know how many times, a hundred times, some light starts coming out. This is a spiritual teaching, you know. I remember one time I was translating this text, and this guy who sort of wrote a preface to it, he said, I found this text and I read it, And after reading it about a hundred times, some light started coming out. And so, reading something over and over is an act of devotion which has positive qualities, but also sometimes when we read it over and over, meaning starts shining out. Without any kind of intellectual change, somehow we just start seeing the light. That's another reason why I'd like you and everybody to do it on a daily basis. Also at Zen Center, we do it on a daily basis. And almost all Zen Centers for the last 1,500, 1,800 years, they've been doing it on a daily basis.

[69:24]

So it's part of the actual spiritual program is to recite this text. And most people who recite it at most Zen monasteries think they don't understand it. But then sometimes understanding happens even though they don't think they understand it. I could go on indefinitely about the merits of the actual practice, which is also good, aside from the merit of you giving me that gift. Okay? Any other questions? Do you want me to ask you a question? Do you have to go, Sonia? Sonia? You're okay? Okay. So one other thing I wanted to mention tonight is that part of the context here of this scripture is that the Buddha is sitting in meditation.

[70:34]

So the situation is we have this scene and we have this you know, he's a guy kind of, right? He's sitting there in meditation. He's sitting in a deep state of concentration. This is a very important scripture, but the Buddha is not talking. The person, the two people that are talking are Shariputra, the great disciple of Buddha, who in this situation is a bodhisattva also, and the great bodhisattva of infinite compassion. These are the talkers in this thing. Except at the very end, the Buddha comes out of his meditation state and says, very good, very good. It's just like you said, Avalokiteshvara. That's exactly how you practice the perfection of wisdom. But the beginning of Buddha's being quiet, I just want to briefly mention that This is a scripture. Some people say, did the Buddha actually say those scriptures? And actually, in a sense, the Buddha didn't say all the Buddha's scriptures.

[71:38]

But all the Buddha's scriptures come from the Buddha. So like if the Buddha was here and sitting quietly and Bernard stood up and started talking, it would be... If the reason why he was talking was not just because Bernard had something to say, but that the Buddha... you know, the Buddha's presence was a condition for Bernard to come up and his speech was motivated or empowered by the Buddha, then it would be a Buddhist scripture. So in this case, the conditions for the Avalokiteshvara and having this talk with Shariputra is the Buddha is in samadhi, in meditation. And the power, the blessing of the Buddha's meditation is that Shariputra comes up and asks the great Bodhisattva of compassion, how do you practice this? And the Bodhisattva speaks. Therefore, it's a Buddhist scripture. It's the Buddha's teaching coming through the Bodhisattva.

[72:45]

And other scriptures, too, you have the Bodhisattva's talking through the Buddha, through the Great Enlightenment, these teachings come out, so then it's a Buddhist scripture. So whenever we feel like what's coming is actually empowered by perfect wisdom and perfect compassion, then it's a Buddhist scripture. And there's different varieties of how that happened. In this particular case, it's by the blessing, the power, the function of Buddhist samadhi that Avalokiteshvara and Shaiputra have this talk. Any other questions tonight? So I'm just trying to help you kind of like, I don't know what, get safely in your seat and get your seatbelt on and everything, because it's going to get really profound.

[73:59]

So you've got to take care of yourself because this is really a deep sutra. This is the heart. We're looking at the heart essence of the great wisdom of the Buddhas. So it's a little bit difficult. Just like I had this talk with Barry and he had some questions and some, I don't know what, some challenges around the practice of diligence and giving in the form of reciting this text. Reciting the text, strictly speaking, isn't really the wisdom work. It's more the compassion work. That make sense? Compassion work, this kind of skillful means, is relatively easy. compared to wisdom work. Wisdom works harder. And perfection of wisdom work is much, much harder. So another reason for asking you to do this is to warm you up. Because the actual work of studying the sutra, actually penetrating with your mind, is much harder than giving me your left arm.

[75:08]

I'm not asking for your left arm, but... Because wisdom means you have to, like, change your whole conception of reality, which is very difficult. So... Okay. Yes, Andy? Hi. Hi, Andy. Do you pray some of the rituals the same way, like, for the Zen rituals in general, like the... Yes. Do I... Yes, uh-huh. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, so I would like to be so skillful that I would suggest to you to do those unpalatable things.

[76:20]

And you would think, hey, that sounds good. For the first time, I think I could do some of that stuff. You know? That we could actually talk to people in such a way that after we talked to them, they'd want to do wholesome things that they kind of didn't want to do so much of before. They had some I don't know what the word is, resistance to. And they would do them, and then they would say, God, this is great. I'm so sorry I didn't do it when I was younger. I wasted all this time. Oh, it's okay. It's all right. Okay. Minnie? Minnie? Yes. Yes. Yes, we can do it in class. I have... I made 52 copies of this, but like I said, they didn't arrive with me.

[77:28]

But I do have... I do have another translation here, and I have quite a few copies. So if you share, we could chant these copies tonight. Okay? Here you go. So you have to share these now, because there's not very many. Maybe three to a copy... Put your little heads together. Could you turn the lights up, please? And if anybody can't see a copy, you can listen. I must say this, I'm having fun.

[78:41]

This is like kind of, I feel like we're kind of like at camp or something. Sitting around the campfire singing camp songs. Okay, now some people here have experience with how we chant. I'd like to suggest we chant it the way we usually do at Zen Center. So some of you have experience, so you can sort of lead it. The other people can listen and join. Okay, so I'll start it out. I'll introduce it. Wisdom beyond wisdom, hard sutra. Arvalokiteshvara, bodhisattva, when practicing The Prajnaparamita perceived that all five skandhas in there being empty and was safe from all suffering.

[79:45]

O Triputra, form does not differ from emptiness empty. does not differ from form. That which is form is emptiness. That which is emptiness form is true of feelings, perceptions, formations, consciousness. O Shariputra, all dharmas are marked with emptiness. They do not appear nor disappear, are not tainted nor pure, do not increase nor decrease, therefore in emptiness. No form, no feelings, no perceptions, no formations, no consciousness, no eyes, no ears, no nose, no tongue, no body, no mind, no soundness, No smell, no taste, no touch, no object of mind, no realm of eyes until... No realm of mind consciousness.

[80:55]

No ignorance and also no distinction of it until no old age and death and also no distinction of it, no suffering, no origination... No path, no cognition, also no attainment, with nothing to attain a bodhisattva depends. Vajjna paramita and the mind, no hindrance without any hindrance. Far apart from every perverted view, one dwells in nirvana. In the three worlds all Buddhas depend. paramita, and attain unsurpassed complete perfect enlightenment. Therefore know the prajnaparamita is the great transcendent mantra, is the great bright mantra, is the utmost mantra, is the supreme mantra.

[82:11]

which is able to relieve all suffering and is true, not false, so proclaimed. Vajñāpāra-mīta-mantra-dhambraṇā-mantra That says, gatē, gatē, pāra-gatē, pārsaṁ gatē. Svaha, may our intention equally penetrate every being and place with the true merit of Buddha's way. All Buddhas, ten directions, three times. All beings, bodhisattvas, mahasattvas, wisdom beyond wisdom. Maha Prajnaparamita

[83:08]

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