As you just read, as already verified by Buddhas and ancestors, the karma of body, speech and thought has been purified and you have attained great immaculacy. This is due to the power of repentance. So for a few weeks now, we have been talking about this power or function of repentance, of remorse, of atonement. And we talked about it in various ways, but a way I might put it tonight is that the first step is to realize that we are human beings

[01:46]

And then, not to be discouraged and give up, but even though we are human beings, to continue to practice. And by human beings, one way to put it is that human beings are driven by what they think. We think that we should do this, or we should do that. We think this is good or bad, and we're driven by these thoughts. And there's not much way for us as human beings to do anything other than that. To realize that and yet not get discouraged and continue to practice is the first step. or as Vimalakirti says, to realize the affairs of an ordinary person without abandoning the way of truth.

[03:00]

This complete admission of our human nature and not getting discouraged but simply walk straight ahead from there is the first step. This is what Vimalakirti calls sitting upright. Sitting upright is the same as receiving Buddhist precepts. And when we receive Buddhist precepts, it is said that we are on a par with, we enter

[04:26]

the realm of and are equal to a greatly enlightened one. When we receive Buddhist precepts we are of the same rank as a greatly enlightened one. These precepts are not descriptive, they are normative. Receiving them means that you take that norm into your life stream. And to take that norm into your life stream means that you admit you're a human being. At the same time, even though you're a human being, you can practice these precepts. To receive these precepts

[05:28]

even though we are driven by empty thoughts, is the same as dropping your body and mind. All my ancient twisted karma from beginningless greed, hate and delusion, born through body, speech and mind, I now fully evolve.

[08:28]

After saying this, it is already verified by Buddhas and ancestors. The body, speech and mind has been purified and great immaculacy has been attained. This is due to the power of repentance. Are you willing to accept that you have been, that you are thoroughly I propose for you to consider, for us to consider that if you don't feel that way, it may be because you have not yet been able to admit completely

[09:45]

that you're a human being. To the extent that I'm unwilling to admit that I'm a human being, I block my acceptance of Buddha's compassion. To the extent that I do not allow myself to be a human being, I do not feel allowed to be a human being. What do you mean by human being? One who is driven by empty thoughts. one who is driven by beliefs of right and wrong, good and bad, existence and non-existence.

[10:55]

To the extent that I am like that, that I am driven by such things, that is the extent of being a human being. And to the extent that I can admit that I am like that, I can let myself be like that and realize that Buddha lets me be like that too. And that is Buddha's compassion. And then, if I can actually not only feel that way, but make my life with all beings the dramatization of that, then I'm ready to receive to go for refuge in the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. And I'm also saying that to the extent that being a human being and still not being discouraged, yes, remorse, perhaps,

[12:13]

at being a human being. Not regret, remorse. Sorry, in a way, that I'm driven by empty thoughts. Fully experiencing that I'm driven by empty thoughts. Fully admitting, fully being at one, fully atoning for my human vanity. Then do I forgive myself and do I experience that I am forgiven. And then, although I am this way, I am not discouraged in the practice of the Buddha way. I'm not discouraged about being a human being. I am ashamed, but not discouraged.

[13:18]

I am ashamed of my foolishness and vanity, but that does not discourage me in being committed to the practice of the way. How to have both of those things at once? Admission of humanness, admission of vanity, admission of vanity, complete admission of vanity and at the same moment dedicated to the middle way and saying now that I admit who I am I'm actually by admission I am purified I am now purified and I can now embrace I can now go home to awakening I actually can right away get a big reward for my honesty.

[14:28]

I can go back to perfect awakening. I can go back to the Triple Treasure. I can return home to the Triple Treasure. which I moved away from because when I was driven by vanity, when I was driven by empty thoughts, for a moment I forgot that I was driven by empty thoughts. So I moved away from my home by my forgetfulness. And the farther I got away from being human, the harder it was for me to admit it. And the harder it was for me to admit it, the more I felt unforgiven and the farther I felt from the Buddha. Now I admit I'm a human being.

[15:34]

I'm purified of this distance. And I can now return home to the triple treasure. So Dogen talks about three kinds of triple treasure. I talk with them, I speak about them now with you, but of course the most important point is, do you feel ready to receive them? In your heart. I'm not going to... Maybe I will. Maybe I will. Excuse me. You don't have to answer. You can be quiet, but I will ask you, are you ready to receive the three refuges? So, the three refuges, the three treasures which you take refuge in are the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha.

[16:38]

And Dogen here talks about three types, or three virtues, of triple treasured. The first is the single body, the one body, the indivisible body, three treasures. Or you could say the complete three treasures or the absolute three treasures. Next is what is literally called... literally says manifested in front. Manifested in front. Which you could also call historical triple treasure. The third is called, literally, to abide and maintain triple treasure. So, the absolute, the historical, and the maintained.

[17:42]

The absolute triple treasure is... complete, correct, unsurpassed awakening. That's the Buddha treasure. The Dharma treasure is the purity and freedom from dust of the Buddha treasure. Purity and freedom from dust means that the Buddha is not... there's nothing about the Buddha. The Buddha treasure is not affected by anything about itself. You can say anything you want about it,

[18:47]

But nothing you say about it is about it. It is completely free of anything we say about it, of anything we do about it or don't do about it. And the Dharma treasure is peace and harmony. And I would emphasize that it's peace and harmony among all beings, but it's also the peace and harmony of the Dharma and the Buddha. Next is called the historical Buddha, and that means the person who realized Bodhi in manifestation is called the Buddha, the historical Buddha.

[20:04]

And that which the historical Buddha realized is the Dharma treasure. And the people who came and studied with the historical Buddha is the Sangha treasure. As Suzuki Roshi said, the Buddha became himself and realized that other people were Buddha. And then people came to find out about this. That's the historical triple treasure. And then the maintained triple treasure is the edifying of celestial beings and humans

[21:16]

appearing in vast openness of being and appearing within the dust. That's the Buddha treasure in maintaining. It's not some person outside of us. It is when we are edified, when we learn And when we learn from vast openness of being, or when we learn from things that appear as objects in the world, when we learn, when we are edified, that is the Buddha treasure that maintains the Buddha way. The truth which expresses itself in the form of Buddhist teachings and is recorded in scriptures in order to teach animate and inanimate beings is the Dharma treasure.

[22:42]

The truth which can be changed into scriptures the truth which can express itself in the form of Buddhist teachings and can be recorded in scriptures in order to teach animate and inanimate beings. That is the Dharma treasure of the maintained triple treasure. So you see the three different dharmas? One dharma is the fact that Buddha is free of any dust, of any characteristics, of any predication, of anything we say or don't say. Completely free. That's the dharma. The perfect, complete, absolute dharma. The other dharma is that which Buddha woke up to.

[23:44]

Namely, all living beings are themselves the Buddha. And the maintained triple treasure is the truth which can be transformed into scriptures, into teachings which teach people. Three kinds of dharma. Treasure. And the sangha treasure is... the relieving of all suffering and being free in the house of the three worlds. So you see the three Sanghas? One Sangha is the harmony, peace and harmony. The next Sangha are the people who come to learn from the historical Buddha. The next Sangha is the relieving of suffering and being free in this house. And the Buddha is this thing beyond any predication, beyond any marks, this historical person, and the fact that beings are educated, that beings learn.

[25:19]

Those are the three Buddhas, three Buddha treasures. Now, I asked you before, if you're ready to receive these three treasures, are you willing to accept these three kinds of three treasures? Now that you've received these three treasures, even after acquiring complete perfect Buddhahood, will you continually receive? Well, great. That's great. So I'm done.

[26:21]

That's the case. Any questions? Yes? I have a hard time thinking of... This historical perspective seems to involve acknowledging people, acknowledging the humanness. Acknowledging their humanness? Yeah, humanness. And it's just each one seems to be... I don't quite understand what that means, historic, or why it's named historical. Well, it means, it's actually referring to, as I said, it's called, one translation would be manifested, but it literally means to manifest in front. And it, what does it say?

[27:22]

It says, realization of bodhi in his manifestation. It means Shakyamuni Buddha. And what he did was he completely realized and accepted his humanness. He saw exactly what it was to be a human being and he completely settled into that and became exactly that. He forgave himself and he felt completely forgiven and allowed by all Buddhas to be a human being. And he saw very clearly what that was. And he experienced a great liberation by that. That happened. And his expression of his liberation, his first expression was to see that all beings were like this. Exactly like that. And by that very fact of being themselves, by being precisely what they are, they were liberated.

[28:26]

That's a historical event that happened. And historically also, people came then to ask him to teach. Somehow they found him and came and asked him to teach because of this realization that happened to him about human beings. But still, we're doing it now. We're seeing this as an example of it's like happening now yes exactly so to the extent that it happens to you as a person about yourself and when that process of completely repenting and accepting and feeling allowed to be you is complete you realize the historical you take refuge in the historical aspect the historical buddha treasure And also, as I said before, when you do practice repentance and you already have allowed yourself to be yourself, you've received Buddha's compassion which you feel allows you to make your life alive.

[29:36]

That repentance also gets you ready to accept the historical Buddha which now is you. And if you accept it completely, you then look around and see all sentient beings are Buddha. And you also understand that they do not necessarily themselves believe that. That if they have not also accepted themselves, they are in a state of relative misery. And you see that even though you see that they are Buddha exactly as you are. That's a historical event. It happens day after day. to the extent that you accept yourself and are liberated from yourself by that complete acceptance, which is the same as you accepting Buddha's compassion, which completely allows you to be exactly like this, to the extent that you do that, beings come to you to receive teaching. When you accept yourself completely, not overdoing it or underdoing it,

[30:45]

That shows you've completed repentance and you've accepted that triple treasure. Then also you see other beings are precisely the same and you see their relative levels of acceptance of that fact in themselves and therefore you can help them in accordance with the level of their acceptance. If they've accepted very little, the way you talk to them is one way. If they've accepted quite a bit, you talk to them another way. If they've accepted completely, you have a party. That's a historical thing that happened and now happens historically. But the next triple treasure, the next Buddha treasure, is not you or me accepting ourselves. It is the wonderful function of you and me learning, of us being edified somehow. That is sort of like the present-day func… that is the function in the present-day life.

[31:52]

It's not really historical. What is it? To learn, to wake up. So this is the dynamic. Yeah, it's dynamic, right. And then the Dharma in that case, the Dharma of the third type of triple treasure, is that the truth can be transformed into teachings for which people will learn. And then the Sangha in that case is not people who come to teach, who come to learn from Buddha, or the harmony of the absolute Buddha and Dharma. It's not that. It is actually being relieved of suffering. That's the Sangha in the third case. It's the relieving of the suffering. It's not people. It's people being relieved of. It's that, it's the relief, it's the freedom. So we play, actually when we receive the triple treasure, we play all three of these types of three treasures.

[32:56]

We receive them all. And receiving them all is not something which we can do with our body and mind, but rather When we use our body and mind in what is called zazen, we receive the triple treasure. Or the body and mind which we drop off is receiving these three treasures in their three aspects and the other precepts. But it is important to interactively play it out, to say it, to think it, and to do it with your body. It needs to be ritualized, which we did tonight. And for those who receive Buddhist precepts, we need to, again and again,

[34:00]

dramatize, ritualize, play out this commitment to the Triple Treasure, this commitment to Buddha, Dharma and Sangha, commitment to a full range of the meaning of these things. We need to do it over and over to remind ourselves to reenact it. Because when we receive permission to be ourselves, we also receive the responsibility to make that come alive. And you make it come alive by making it interactive, by bringing it into your daily life. And with this kind of practice, you also naturally drop any idea of what pure practice would be, or what purity would be. or what perfection would be. You naturally drop those things and use your moment-by-moment humanness as the place you will realize this way. Yes?

[35:04]

Would you speak more about the word that opens, which is a shame? I think I could say that if we don't have compassion, that part of having compassion for ourselves is that we have remorse, that we might repent and not be ashamed, which feel very much boxed in, boxed in thoughts, rather than compassionate dynamics, the compassionate dynamics. Yeah, I understand. So what is that about? By the way, remorse has the etymology of to bite again, to remorse. Remorse has to do with bite. You come back to your human behavior again. So shame, what is a shame? I think that there's something about human beings...

[36:10]

that they feel somewhat uncomfortable with their vanity. So there is acceptance of my vanity and there is acceptance of the vanity about vanity. Namely, I wish I wasn't vain and I wish I wasn't doing vain things. I'm ashamed too. So I have some shame. full range of human behavior is that there's shame too. There's some problem about this human situation which seems to be at some distance from something else which is important to us human beings. This is part of the story. It's not so much like you should be ashamed as that you are Because human beings imagine that this limited being is separated from its true nature, whereas actually its true nature is not separated from what it is.

[37:17]

The way it actually is, is its true nature. And the way it actually is, is that it is free completely from itself. Everything is completely free of itself. But human beings, by the way they're built, feel some shame about whenever there's a slightest bit of separation, which we naturally are prone to, we feel ashamed. And we are prone to that so much that basically that's a quite common thing for us. Just add it to the list. Just add shame to the list. If there's anything more you need to admit as a human being, well, just say, bring it on. I'll sign that too. With the confidence that the more I admit to, the sooner I'll be released.

[38:23]

And actually, with the fairly realistic opinion... that I probably haven't yet quite admitted at all. And that's limiting me. I mean, that's blocking my liberation from my limitation, that I haven't been able to admit it completely. But I'd do my best now and try again. What do you think about that? I think it's a hard one for me to admit because there's been so much in my life not shaming, or leaving shame, leaving blame. So for me, that word is a loaded word. Yeah, it's loaded. Harder to add to my list than more scary. It's a hard word for me to add. Well, add that hardness to the list, too.

[39:33]

Add that Whatever that is, that's another part of who you are. That's another one of your thoughts that drives you one way or another, which you're... That's part of what's happening for you, and for most of us. Yes? I was thinking about this, accepting yourself as Something like studying the Self? Accepting the Self as something like the Self, please? Dogen says to study the Self is the first step of the practice, in a sense. What I hear is that very close on the heels of that there's an acceptance of who we are, of our humanness. And then I also hear you saying that acceptance of our humanness is simultaneously repentance.

[40:41]

Is repentance... Repentance has for me something more than just accepting who I am. What more? Acceptance seems like I'm going to get off easy. but repentance has something, maybe it's like Christian background or whatever, but there's a way in which, how do I repent with my body? How do I... I can see the four vows that we say in the morning. They're talking about self-acceptance, but repentance has something... Well, repentance means, I think, repent, and it has a punitive etymology. Repunish, repain. Feel the repain, have the pain again.

[41:43]

But not punish yourself, but feel it again. What again? The pain of everything you've done. Feel it again. Just to make sure you haven't left anything else. Not to punish yourself, but to feel the pain of your actions. How do you feel the pain of your action? By admitting who you are. You don't punish yourself, you just admit who you are. So, Dogen says, to study the Buddha way is to study the self. To study the Buddha way is to repent. To study the Buddha way is to admit who you are. To study the self, you could say to study the Buddha way, but the word study in that case could also be called learn Buddha way. The Japanese word is narao. And narao could be translated as learn or study.

[42:46]

It could also be translated as model or imitate. Because the word narao is used for learning physical arts like tea ceremony or calligraphy. And it also has the radicals, the wings. So it's also what little baby birds do when they're watching their mother or their father fly. It's imitative type of learning. It's not book learning or mental learning. So you could say to learn or you could say to model or you could say to imitate the Buddha way is to imitate or model yourself on yourself. Modeling yourself on yourself is repentance. And then it says to study the self or to model the self on the self is to forget the self. When you model yourself on yourself, when you completely admit who you are, which has a repentance aspect in the sense of remorse, of biting yourself again, or feeling the pain of being limited again, when you do that completely, you forget you are liberated from yourself.

[44:07]

To model yourself on yourself means that you will forget the self and it means to drop body and mind. To drop body and mind means to completely model yourself on yourself moment by moment. Human beings, our human nature is not to do that. Our human nature is to do something more vain than that. We have the vanity to think that we can do something other than be ourselves moment by moment. That is our vanity. We have thoughts like that often, that we can be something other than this. And therefore we're always a slight bit different from this and therefore to that extent we're ashamed. we're ashamed that we're different from our true nature and we're ashamed of being who we are. But if we would admit our shame, we might be able to let ourselves be who we are.

[45:18]

If we admit our shame, maybe our shame will stop blocking us from being limited And if we could stop blocking ourselves from being limited, we could model ourselves on our limited being, and we would forget our limited being. We would drop body and mind. To receive Buddha's precepts is to model yourself on yourself. It's to drop body and mind. That's why you are immediately the same rank as a Buddha at that time. Buddhas would never be anything other than what each one of us are right now. I got some tadpoles from a little pond down by Tassajara and I brought them back because I wanted to watch them grow up to be frogs. I've been watching them now for a while and they are becoming frogs. The legs, the little legs came out.

[46:23]

First they were these little tiny legs, you know, and this morning they started to look like frog's legs. And I saw little tiny spots on the legs. And Kosho asked me, he said, are you going to keep them or are you just going to let them jump out and run away? And I said, I'm just going to let them jump out and run away. I'm just watching the metamorphosis. I said, it's the same with you. I mean, I try to be that way anyway. Somehow we can change into these frogs, you know. Even though I picked the tadpole because I knew it was going to become a frog if all went well. It's a natural process, you know. It's in the genes for it to do that. I got rocks in there.

[47:28]

I didn't know that, but thank you. I also put it in a nice glass bowl, but my wife dropped the bowl. My grandson's watching tadpoles. Right this minute? Yeah. Well, I hope you people are watching tadpoles, too. It's a great show. Any other questions tonight? So I've mentioned this before, I'll mention again, that Suzuki Roshi says that these three kinds of three precepts, these three kinds of three treasures, these three kinds of three refuges, are simply who you are, just as you are. That's what these are. And that we receive these refuges, we receive them to help us

[48:35]

be willing to be ordinary. So there's a cycle of practicing repentance, being willing to be a human being, being purified by that willingness, then receiving the refuges, and then after receiving the refuges, being willing again to be an ordinary person. it is difficult for us to be ordinary and common. That's why this teaching of the three treasures is actually such an ordinary, common teaching. It's not a big, fancy teaching. All the Buddhists have it. The great Zen school, with all its fancy tricks, still teaches these basic triple treasures, just like they teach children in Buddhist Sunday school. So if you receive the precepts tonight, now maybe you can be an ordinary human being.

[49:42]

Do you feel ready to be an ordinary human being? Oh, yeah. I'm dead ordinary. Well, great. What happened? I'm an ordinary cramp in my life. I want to sing a song, but I don't want to annoy Norman.

[50:54]

Because he gets nervous when I sing off-tune. Do you know this song? When somebody loves you, it's no good unless they love you all the way. Do you know this song? When somebody... Where is somebody? What's the right tune? Will somebody else start? What tone should we start with? Here, here, here. [...] Through the day and years And all the year between years Come what may Deeper than the deep blue ocean That's how it has been

[52:14]

Cause when somebody loves you, it's no good unless they love you all the way. Let our attention

[52:45]

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