He didn't know every day is a good day. Today is an excellent one. It is a very wonderful day. Did you notice? Another meaning of every day is a good day is that every day you can suffer. There's no day when you can't suffer. Always an opportunity. So today, in the midst of our suffering, in this temple, 10 people will take a big step in their life. They will formally in front of the whole community. make a commitment to practice Buddhism even after they become .

[01:09]

The ceremony is already going on right now. And it will culminate this afternoon around 4.50. The formal ritual will begin at 3.30. And again, the context of this commitment that will be made is the context of human suffering. Not just human suffering, but the suffering of all living beings. That's the context. And I was thinking yesterday that

[02:38]

The main problem for me is that we're not very kind to each other. Even if we're kind to each other, still we get sick. Our bodies still get diseased and we still have pain, even if people are kind to us. The most difficult for me, the most difficult suffering for me is suffering which comes in conjunction with people not being kind to each other. So it seems to me that the main concern in this context is how I personally can learn how to be kind and compassionate and how I can encourage others to give it a try. Zen practice makes possible that a living being could actually

[04:10]

be totally engaged with their life situation. Be totally present with it. And this total presence is simultaneously released from suffering. To learn how to peacefully rest with the myriad swirling causes and effects of our life. It is possible to do through the practice of Zen meditation. Once a person has been able to settle such, this person then is able to walk forward from this peace, this peace in the midst of intense turmoil and confusion about peace, in the midst of that kind of intense conflicting activity, to walk forward and join hands with other beings who are similarly afflicted and spread this confidence.

[05:38]

and peace and compassion. This is the possibility that Zen practice offers. As I hear myself say that, I get goosebumps. It seems to me a really wonderful thing that we are in the midst of, moment by moment, birth and death. Not just that we're dying every moment, because we may even get used to that, but then we're also being born constantly shocked by birth and death, by horrible systems. be at peace with that.

[06:42]

This is really wonderful. Now, the gate or the entrance into this peace, in order to actually be able to settle in the midst of all this knowing that we must receive Buddha's precepts. It is not possible for us portable creatures to actually sit still in the midst of such a violent light by our own personal power.

[07:51]

As a matter of fact, our own personal power is part of what afflicts us and pushes us around. We are powerful. We have powerful thoughts, powerful opinions, powerful emotions, powerful feelings, powerful views. This energy of our own life is part of us swirling around and through us and causing it to have trouble being stable. Our own personal power is not sufficient to settle. This is still the end. We must receive Buddhist precepts in order to be successful at developing a concentrated insight and therefore compassionate body. These precepts are like a little bit like I got the experience of like guide, what, say guide, guide, guide, they're like guide on this great food body.

[09:09]

in the midst of tremendous winds. To set up a blue body in the middle of the fierce winds of change, we need to guide what it is, our precepts. Our precepts are like roots growing into the earth, so we can get support from the earth to hold us stable in the midst of change. Without the support of precepts, in other words, without the support of Buddhist teaching about ethical behavior and virtue, you don't have enough merit, enough positive energy to hold yourself at peace in this outrageous fortune. And not only that, But in order to receive the precepts, we must first take refuge in Buddha, in perfect enlightenment, and in the teaching of perfect enlightenment and the community of enlightenment workers.

[10:26]

To try to sit still without the precepts is not possible. To try to receive the precepts even without the . But if you can receive, you can take in Buddha, and you can receive the precepts, then you can enter the ocean of Zen. And I also want to say that receiving the precepts does not mean you can practice them perfectly. It means you receive. It means someone says, will you receive? And you say yes, and then you receive. Once you receive them, you're done for. You have received. From then on, the rest of your life is how to live with what you've received.

[11:31]

And in order to receive them and be successful at the reception, at the full reception, and at the living room, and using them appropriately, we also need to take refuge in Buddha, Darwin, and . So today, this afternoon, the ceremony is in order to make possible, in order to help Zen students and Zen students. Actually, many of them have been practicing Zazen sitting meditation for years. But this ceremony is to aid them, is to help them now even more deeply begin new at the practice of sitting. by the act of receiving precepts .. Any questions about this?

[12:56]

Or you just can't believe what I just said. If you think you can create a city still without preceding the process, we could talk about that in the afternoon. I must say, I thought I could say still without preceding the process 20 or so years ago. Little by little, I realized I needed help. Anyway, this afternoon, people will go through this process. And I might mention a little bit more about this process because there's some other details that are important. One detail is that people who are doing this before the ceremony are sitting. They'll be sitting to become more ready to take refuge and receive the precepts so that they can sit.

[13:57]

Also, before the ceremony, they take a bath and wash themselves, not because they're dirty, but because they're clean. clean people wash themselves. At the beginning of the ceremony, we invoke the presence of all the goods in ten directions of the universe. And that means all that way, [...] and also this way, into your bodies, into the cells of your body, evoking Buddhists, invoking, calling them up, and also calling up all the enlightened beings and people. Also, not just the ones that live now, but all the ones from the past and all the ones from the future.

[15:03]

All of them come to aid us. We make the confession and repentance of all action from beginning to end. And then there is anointing of the delicious with water. And then we receive when they take refuge. And then they receive the three pure precepts. And then they receive the 10 great precepts. So altogether, three refuges, three pure precepts, and 10 great precepts make 60 precepts. And these 60 precepts are 60 aspects of one thing. They're really all just one thing.

[16:06]

which we call the mind of enlightenment, the mind of compassion, 60 aspects of the mind of total compassion. Taking refuge is first. Receiving the three pure precepts is second, and receiving the 10 great precepts is third. Precepts are the substance of the Buddhist body. The refuges are the substance of the Buddhist body. The three pure precepts are the shape of Buddhist body and Buddhism. And the ten great precepts are function,

[17:09]

substance shape and function. Receiving the precepts, receiving the records, or taking records, is making a commitment to freedom. If you don't make a commitment to freedom before you receive the 10 great precepts, you might try to practice the 10 great precepts according to your own . It's a fixed idea of what it means to not kill, to not steal, to not lie, and so on. Before you receive these precepts, you must first of all return to enlightenment, return to Buddha's mind so that you don't develop an obsessive-compulsive attitude towards the precepts.

[18:27]

These precepts are your true nature. They're not some kind of like chains that you put on yourself and put other people into. Precepts are the way you appreciate other people, not the way you catch other people making mistakes. But if you just receive the precepts, if you just receive don't kill, don't steal, don't walk, and so on, without first returning to you as you really are as Buddha, then you may receive these precepts and see other people not doing them, and therefore criticize them, be angry at them, be looking down on them. That's not the point of receiving these precepts. You receive these precepts to see these precepts, to live these precepts, and to help others live these precepts.

[19:44]

Everybody already knows how to see other people aren't practicing precepts. You all know how to do this already. You learned that long time ago, right? What you need to learn now is that other people are practicing precepts. You need to be able to see people doing good We're supposed to bring out the good, not bring out the bad. The bad you've already brought out. Nobody had to show it. It doesn't mean you blind yourself to what people are doing. It means in the context of all the suffering, the confusion, and negativity you see, you bring out precepts. You help all beings bring forth non-kill, non-steal, telling the truth. But if you try to do that without, first of all, returning to complete, perfect enlightenment, you may have some fixed idea about the law.

[20:58]

So first of all, taking refuge is to make a commitment to freedom, to be completely open and ready for what's happening, rather than your own prejudice before things happen about what they are. This is an awesome commitment. We don't want to make this. We're afraid. But today, 10 people will make this commitment. One of my teachers in this slide is Gregory Bakes. And Lowes Bakes is going to receive precepts today. And he said he noticed, he was, he grew up in England, he noticed one, he noticed about American, his American students taught college in America.

[22:09]

He noticed that one thing about them is they had a very, it was very difficult for them to, how do you put it, to, well, he said to, how do you put the expression, the American expression, sort of like to, Put your foot in the line, let's say. It's something about put yourself on the spot. You don't like to be put in a position where they can be held responsible. Toe the line. You know, you're racing, you know, put your toe in the line or something. Actually, put your toe right in the line. American students, more than European students, don't like to do that. And I don't know if it's true or not, I think the issue now is to put your toe on the line, to put your feet on the line.

[23:15]

So the basic problem that I'm addressing now, the first problem is that we are looking for a lot of different approaches to how to live. As said, we're constantly shopping. So now is the time to stop shopping and just buy something. For good, and that's it. Once you buy it, you're going to have a problem of being committed, not the problem of shopping. Shopping, you'd never get anywhere. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, but you're proud to make more. That's what the precepts are about.

[24:20]

A commitment to return home. To your woman nature. The funny thing is that some Zen students are willing to say, well, I'm committed to sitting still. I'm committed to practicing meditation. But they're not necessarily committed to food. Anyway, there's some resistance. So today, 10 people will make that commitment, and you could join. I could join. And if I think about joining this total commitment, this total engagement in my life, in one sense, I'm thrilled.

[25:51]

In another sense, I'm happy. There's some extra thing I might have to drop. So it's like a total commitment, which also means totally respecting each thing that's here in your life. Each and every thing that happens in your life, to give each thing complete respect, needs to have a shift from a life like this. a life where you grasp the good and push away the bad, or grasp whether you're pushing away pain, to switch from this kind of life to this kind of life. And when you stop pushing away, when you give up pushing away, and grasp whether you give up attachment and pain, at that time, strangely enough, was a threesome, a silence.

[27:04]

that may arise. By losing this wonderful old chum that used to be clean and good, a sweet kid who instantly, but not so instantly, attached to good, and that nice person who used to push away stuff. But what happened to him or her that once cried, that sweet girl who used to push away pain? Well, let me go. It's not sad. I'm not good. It is not sad. I actually feel sadness for myself, for that guy or that girl who so nicely held on to good stuff for me. My good old pal. And my good old pal kept away negative pleasure, negative fear. I'm sorry. But that sadness is my friend, too.

[28:08]

That sadness is like a lubrication of grease that helps me slip into, slide down into total negation in this world. And then it makes possible for me to receive the pure precepts. To say, I vow. I vow to embrace and sustain right now. In other words, I vow to embrace and sustain in the 10 precepts that are coming up. And to say, I vow to embrace and sustain all good, in other words, all kinds of productive, all kinds of positive works for others. And I vow to live for the benefit of all beings, to embrace and sustain all suffering creatures.

[29:15]

These three pure precepts are the past, present, and future of Buddha. These three precepts are the three bodies of Buddha. somebody said to me recently, that the point of therapy is not to make people feel good, but is to help people experience the full of what's happening.

[31:04]

And that's the same is what I'm talking about. By taking refuge in the Buddha, Dada, Sangha, and these other precepts, we may, rather than feel good, we may be able to experience fully what our experience is, be able to actually experience and not shrink away from it. I'm really not trying to be interesting, but just to give you a little example.

[32:44]

He prepared for the ceremony. Part of what I have to do is suffer a lot. I'm not trying to be stupid. I'm written. With or without. I wouldn't mind, actually, but with the religious community, it doesn't really matter. I have to suffer a lot. The main thing I have to suffer over, the most painful thing, is I have to somehow be part of a process whereby needs are created with people that are dead or alive. And this process of creation is, for me, I'm not able to have children in this life to my own body.

[34:06]

So in some way, this is my mode of going through the process of labor. process of trying to let these names come, I really have a hard time. And I really have a hard time settling with the hard time. I know I have to go sit down and consult kind of crystal ball, my name. And I've noticed how hard it is for me to go there and do it. There's so many things inside that. And not only do I have to think of the names, and thinking of the names is difficult because I can't just think of a name.

[35:20]

I have to sort of think of a name. Because I have to also, the name, I require the process, the tradition requires that name be, although I say it to the people, although I want it to make sense in English, it has to also work in Chinese. So . This requirement that works in Chinese, that there is actually a Chinese character corresponding to the English idea, or that if I find a Chinese character, I write that it comes out in English that makes sense to the person and is encouraging the person. This dynamic puts me in a very difficult position. It's like labor also in the sense that it's hard work, and it's also like labor in the sense that sometimes I hear when a woman has a child, she said, never again.

[36:27]

But after the baby's born, they sometimes think, what? But the main thing I'm trying to convey to you is how difficult it is for me to settle into that process. the creative process. And part of the reason why it's so difficult is that it is just that I sit there and suffer. I can't just do that. I have to also open up fiction. And I also have to be organized, because I have several people. And then also, part of the creative process, part of the thing that makes the creative process possible is the mind jumping around all over the place. In one sense, I need to be one-pointed.

[37:34]

But at the same time, if I'm too one-pointed, nothing will happen. I'll just think of one thing, and that'll be it. And everybody will have just, oh, the same name. So it can't hold still. So I think of one name. Sometimes I think, well, maybe somebody else should get that name. Or sometimes the way they name your book, you can switch things around. Or suppose I need to come up with that, or worse. Or I think, well, this person, how does the name work for this person? And then I talk to other people, too. Ask them what they think of the name. They give me various names. And then I can immediately decide the right name. So I get pretty confused and pretty upset. So it's not just a bland sort of dull pain. It's a jumping around, confused, rat in a cage kind of stuff. And also, what in the midst of all of that is sitting still?

[38:42]

And in the midst of all that, he's resisting being there. He would rather be doing something else, like reading a book, taking a walk, or talking to somebody in public, or having lunch. There's many other things I could do, but many other things I would be doing would be out on the edge. of that process, a cooler. But there's a place that I mostly don't want to be in the midst of all that, where the ink comes. Do you know this place? There is a saying that Buddhas always turn the wheel of the teaching in the midst of these kinds of fierce flames.

[40:05]

And to take refuge in Buddha means I want to go home. to the thing that's sitting peacefully, calmly, fiercely, joyously, compassionately, wisely in the midst of this chaos. I want to let myself say that I want to do it. I want to have the courage to say that I want to do that. I want to have the courage to also feel that there's parts, there's something else going on that wants to run away from me. And if I can't admit that something wants to run away from that,

[41:19]

I'm not really there. If you run away, up there someplace, you don't feel like running away. You feel like, whew, I'm glad I got out of there. What a relief. And when this ceremony is over this afternoon, I feel like, whew, that's okay. I can't avoid that. It will definitely happen. I'm not sure it will happen. But in some sense, at the end of the ceremony, what I'm saying I do is I pop up. And like when a mother delivers a baby, sometimes for a few seconds there or a few minutes or a few hours,

[42:23]

It's kind of like, phew, ladies out, the baby's born. That's the point. But wait a minute, where's my home? Where's that infected? Where's that place that I want to run away from? So today, at around 5 o'clock, When the pressure's on, I'm going to try to remember to say to myself, don't run away now. The pressure's on. See, you can stay in that same place you were when you did it now. It appears to be the right name to the wrong name of what made the video. When you were foolish, confused, hurt, worried, hassled, pressured, having difficulty doing your job, try to remember to stay with that, even though now the ceremony's over and everybody's saying, oh, that was wonderful, sir.

[43:43]

That was great. That was wonderful. It's always such a beautiful place. It is. But can you continue to practice when people are talking like that? Very difficult. So when they're not talking like that, before the ceremony, when they're telling you, please give me a good name. Before the ceremony, an act of the ceremony. With the same world of suffering. And I think you get the point. And basically what I'm trying to do is a little bit more willing to live in the real world of who we really are. You see it negatively.

[44:45]

be able to actually experience what life and death is. You could actually just sit there and turn the window down just by sitting. So difficult. So necessary. So what? I don't really mean there's no more shock. Because I just mean that the shocking shit went away at some certain point. Thank you.

[45:55]

Thank you. It was like a spin on the news.

[47:16]

@Transcribed_UNK
@Text_v005
@Score_80.71