we are on the eve
oh
a ceremony
of commitment

of commitment to
don
triple treasure
and then also commitment to
further traditional bodhisattva precepts
the three pure precepts
and ten major bodhisattva precepts

the structure of our ceremony is that first
the or demands or nan's
ah receive
the refuges the refuges go for refuge and they received three pure precepts and they received the ten major bodhisattva precepts

sometimes if people look at the ten major bodhisattva precepts and the forty eight minor bodhisattva precepts
they might not realize that before receiving these
ten or fifty eight precepts
it is traditional to first
go for refuge in the dropper treasure
so it seems like the
mahayana in tibet china japan korea and now in the west
probably in mongolia to or other places where it's practiced
when they speak of the bodhisattva precepts they mean the ten major precepts that we use plus for the minor ones or some other variation but that these precept vows i received after
ah the treble treasure
so we will follow that
tomorrow
and again seven people in this room will be going through this process of initiation
tonight we will have a rehearsal
he's there any
think anyone would like to offer at this time
yes
seven
what i say what they are yes
marie
your own
jane
angela
scott
carolyn
that's seven
when johnny had to leave and johnny you know johnny he was sitting right over there it's one
and johnny
he asked that have your name again
yes michelle
the ten major bodhisattva precepts
i'm
i'm not not killing
not taking what's not given
on the traditional ways foot is not killing not taking was not given
not misusing sexuality not why
not selling and toxicants
he said
major bodhisattva precepts
and then
ha
and then not slandering
now praising at the expense of others
not being possessive
especially of the dharma
not
harbor you will
and not disparaging the triple treasure
and then now i think one one of the first minor precepts and forty eight think the first second or third i remember is not to take intoxicants
from the boys off a point of view
it's more important that you don't contribute other people's intoxication
and it's also important that you don't do yourself but i in history of the san francisco zen center
ah said center
the the westerners started coming years you know strongly in the sixties
so let it make clear that it wasn't just there wasn't just selling drugs he was not using them to extremes so i don't sell any drugs on monday
but actually it so we actually in the way we put it at johnson as we we incorporate one minor one we tag on to the
does the third major one visited a fifth major one
he also an literally it says it says he has character for wine no rice wine
back in the old days he didn't have such a wide variety of intoxicants and another
now we have to do we don't just say
when rice wine with known no intoxicants my generally understood yes in the ceremonies i heard this line from now on all beings are your teacher
before the other ways
huh
what's not been fooled by other ways means
i'm on some sense it could mean that you understand that there is that there's really not another way that it seems to be another way
you may be you may be committed you may be hundred the influence of been fooled
if you think there's another way
all beings being your teacher home
have a lot of people who become presents center and on that day to everybody's or teacher hand down
panda
yeah
they learned from everybody
some some sense they already understand that it seems but they but they are those people are often bring her up in the context of not feeling like they want to teach her
they don't want to teach her because everybody's or teacher and they'd like to stay with everybody being your teacher they don't want they want to limit their teacher to one person so
i don't want i don't think we should limit our teacher to one person
but although everybody's your teacher not most people don't know that better that to your teacher you haven't you haven't formally committed to them and told them that their your teacher
so everybody's your teacher and yet also it may be necessary to commit to
one particular teacher and that one particular teacher is
you start off with one particular teacher is the buddha that's the first teacher
and you connected that teacher and now that you committed that teacher now everybody's your teacher
and and now that you've committed to that teacher and everybody's your teacher now you can make other commitments
but
it's not like you're committing to somebody else and as different from buddha it's in the context of your basic commitment
that you're committing not too humid maybe one or two or six other teachers and you're clear about what the commandment is and what the precepts sided with the teachers
so he also you you could have innumerable
to just took a student teacher relationships but does not do not really another way between it they're just one teacher
and also the buddha doesn't mean this one buddha that innumerable borders
that's the way boot is is that buddha is innumerable
so
open to learn from anybody
committed to basically one buddha
i'm committed to basically all buddhas
and there's no other way
and also be clear about what your commitment is to the buddha's can also be keep clear about what your commitment is to human teachers who are appearing
in a historical or arena with you
yes michelle
yeah a you commit to one buddha on tv
yes
to say
changed
yes
palm
well some people think it's like two different kinds of beings like bodhisattvas sometimes the transit bodhisattvas and maha surface
but i think most of the mars adverse our body ciphers summer house adviser big you know or like the big
the boy said the big boys are
had the great the great bodhisattvas
he invited them but you'd also say well i'm writing a little bodhisattvas to and the maha surface sama surface is actually an advanced stage a bodhisattva
so you can either astana june by all the bodhisattvas hand can be very advanced bodhisattvas
do pay attention to you now why you received this role of the buddha shakyamuni tradition
in historical
historical
context on a stage of history
the the buddhist the buddhist rob
i was not present at the time that buddha was not awakened with all beings under the bodhi tree he did not have the boat the robe we now make and where
he was wearing clothes though
and before that he didn't wear clothes
you know he's walking around problem while as nude and i'm a very emaciated state
and with tremendous yogic ability but
that's a one but then he decided that i was a bit mushy started worse and close but he didn't have that this fist he didn't have the style of the road where dahlia just war with some have been a close now
but then later in the history of the tradition he it was request from a a royal patron
a king
that he actually
oh create a particular style of rome that he and his students would wear
the king thought it would be clearer and easier for him to support the saga with the sauna were similar clothing
so then the buddha
together with a nanda
design the of style of robbed everywhere now
so again in historical time this row we were bro the buddha
was developed by the buddha and a way of making it
i sat in the border war that kind of road
and pretty much as followed fairly well throughout all the buddhist
we're excited
there that but that's not really a buddhist room that's less like a tibetan monks rob
when he does a big ceremony he was the petrol
yeah so ah
yeah for big initiation union you'll see that the tibetan teachers and
the teachers who don't necessarily where that pressure of up all the time they were to predict the desert and take my hand also if you see to see me he seems to be wearing just a simple kind of like up a browns are chinese style rogue
when it does precept ceremonies then he was this patch rob
i nominate panels his to want the war was but he the petrol
for big ceremonies
yes

not to praise yourself at the expense of others
and not to put yourself up at the expense of others i've heard one way of talking about there's not not translation of this transcription of this precept but
just basically when you praise yourself he kind of inevitably put other people down because she leaves somebody out
so
if you ever if we ever do anything good and you want to mention it's probably good to first of all mentioned that because everyone so by the support of everyone
on this good thing happened you know through my body speech and mind
you can save some some high bible that century don't put on a people down
but tom petty know he probably should mention everybody in the list is very long so maybe praising herself as guilty
what take so long to thank everybody promises forget it
amazon
move on dot org
yes

ah
well
in an early part of the tradition in the the way the buddha taught somebody asked the buddha said the teach her he said the teaching of all buddhas is
refrain from evil
wholeheartedly practice good
and purify your mind
that's i taught in the dhamma pada for example this is the teaching of all buddhists
and partly i understand it as saying avoiding evil and practicing good that purifies your mind
that's natalia appear for your mind
but then it got changed in them in mahayana to
refrain from evil practice all good and benefit all beings
so he got changed from
doing this to purify your mind and got to do this to purify other people
not course it does purify your mind but the emphasis to do this for the welfare of others
what does it is that's the way that's that's a reworking of the dama potter but also in the mahayana this three three pure precepts are phrased somewhat differently
instead of saying refrain from evil
it's phrase as embrace
and sustain the forms
the ceremonies and the regulations
that's the first one embrace standing but evil it says practice these things these forms in these ceremonies which are conducive to liberation
and then it says practice all wholesome activities and then it says developer purify all beings
so in soto zen the way we actually say that first pure precept is more than that way of saying that we
not so much the way it isn't adama pot of of what evil but put it more important the form of practice forms and ceremonies and regulations which when you practice them are conducive to transformation and liberation that the sanding by evil however
that's how you that does avoid evil
and also there is a understanding that the strip your precepts
our respectively
the true body of buddha the bliss body and buddha and the transformation body of buddha
the true body of buddha is practicing these forms and ceremonies
when you practice these forms when you when your body speech and mind accord with these forms that's the true body of buddha it's been realized there
when you practice doing good
that's the that's the enjoyment or the bliss body of buddha
and
when when beings are being transformed that's the transformation body a buddha that buddha in the world transforming bags so the three bodies a buddha are put in correspondence with these three your precepts of the my on

it's not separate
i'm and it is understood
that the for var the for vows i understood
and receiving these precepts
but it's true in the new ceremony we do not say the for bows
usually we could you know likely and lectures with the for vows
we could say the for varsity and but we used that's not the traditional way hymns
but in the in the temples
where people say the for vows
they do this kind of precepts one
he will say that for vows more often than we do these priests up someone's precepts employees are like an initiation the for vows or like daily mail like daily kind of
how's
but i have i wasn't time that that that the the body said the for great vows the universal vows are not mentioned in our precepts mm
no
ha you can practice a precept without vowing to practices
you could like gun somebody could say
let's go but still some cookies from the kitchen and you might say none of think so i think we should request the had cooked before we want to cook is describes his cook
can see it didn't see if a crook will give us the cookies
at present no i want to steal in the i wanted i'm
i can do it they refrain from stealing
but you did not get at the same as promising that you won't
yeah but the promising different than the precept
dislike the precepts are not the same as a ceremony of doing
the precepts are candlelight well weird their kind like reality
what are you committed to reality
the boot you know the boot is your true home are you committed to that though
so here's the three jewels of the of a tradition buddha dharma sangha does that they're in a file
yet to you have to promise you have to pledge you have to commit to them
then you go for refuge in them
the the precepts
the refuge precepts but the precept to go to refuge but when you got a rapid than you vow then you come it then you say this is my this is the way i'm and ago
so some people are
taxi very good they practice the precepts quite well but they have not promised to do
smothered people have promised to do so but
don't do so well with the precepts but they have promised
they have committed
they have said i will practices they don't say i will practice and perfectly that will they say i vowed to eventually practice these perfectly i vowed to become a buddha
new the boot away is unsurpassable i vow to become it
and at part of that is i voted practice these precepts and i vowed to confess and repent when i don't practice them
so some people it's against some people are really good at confessing and repenting their shortcomings they're really good at it but they haven't promised
the ceremony is you promised to do it you commit to do it
hmm yes karen

do

yeah yes
and so and then
before the before the buddha transmitted bodhisattva precepts there was the individual of his vehicle precepts that were transmitted and they did the bi-monthly
recitation of the precepts and there was a bi-monthly confession of shortcomings in the practice
but also i can you beat the beginning of the buddha's teaching the buddha did not give the precepts
the early students did not receive precepts
ah
i guess the bush not feel as necessary their the subject for students work on would have caught they were ethical enough so he could immediately teach them wisdom practices and they can practice them because they are already quite ethical and concentrated
and then after some time the buddha mentioned to the to the sanga that of the buddhist that lived before him and the six buddha's before him three had long lasting teaching and threes and three has shortlist
teaching beyond that beyond their life three three six historical buddha's before him he said three last their teaching last a long time three they didn't and one buddha's disciples and hampshire put said well what's the difference between
the teaching of those six people he said well the sixth that had long lasting
teaching transmitted precepts
and the six fifty three they had long lasting transmitted the precepts along with the with their teaching
and the three that had short lived did not transmit the process
there's like it you take three poles and you can balance them against each other you know like a teepee
but they if the wind blows or something that easily fall down but if you tie them together
at the intersection they hold up much better if preceptor like time that teaches together
and the precepts are committing to them
or you could even say that that the three maybe like the buddha the dharma and sangha
if your time together with precept your last longer they will last forever nothing does that you put together
and then shy purchases well then the lord will now will you know the lord we should give us the precepts of and buddha said the lord will decide when to give the precepts
and the none and then so sharp which is so when i when when when will i be he said i think it will be when this when community gets very big
i'll probably need to give them
because when the community was not so big people right there with the buddha
yeah there wasn't much need for any rules because people behave quite well when i read and a buddhist knows
but as a brute got bigger
and started to develop facilities like monasteries and stuff then they started to new regulations and ceremonies
so now we have the precepts
georgia
the first impression
you have not
for confession would mean that you would confess the shortcomings in your practice
and repentance is that you feel something that the meaning of the word repentance the usual meaning an english is a kind of sorrow
about something you've done
that reforms you
so it has three parts of the sorrow
a relative to your own action is not sorrow but other people's perception
sarah about your own action but a kind of sorrow that repents you that makes you want to act differently
so if you wish to act in accordance with these bodhisattva precepts
and then you don't then you confess i didn't these precepts of compassion i promised to practice and i didn't
i wasn't kind enough in this case not to steal i was in kind enough in his case to not kill
and i'm sorry i feel sorrow and i want to recommit to not kill and to not steal
l l i feel more i'm sorry that i did it but i feel more determined to do better in the future
and you say that you feel that and you are a different person as result of the sorrow of changes you and your more sincere and committed to compassion as result
yes

great we didn't
now we do

ah when i was habits we started when i was abit and reason we started was because i was informed
dick i was informed i he wasn't exactly a revelation was more simple than that i saw that of others and temples they practice that on a regular basis in the morning at the beginning of service
or you know that it was you know it's in the regular sutra book
do that
and
and i noticed a wheelie did it like kind of like a precept ceremonies
while we we still didn't start doing the i think we started to a formal ceremonies before we started to do it in the morning on regular basis yeah
so that was a practice that to i brought up to the community and community said okay and it's continued
so at least if you live in zen center at least once a day you practice what you said you would practice when you receive the precepts
did you said i will continue this practice so once a day anyway you say
all my ancient trusted karma from beginning was greed hate and delusion
and want a day you admit that you have a history of greed hate and delusion
you have a you're not a word you're you're a bodhisattva ordinary person bodhisattva
and you fully of alvis
and then just the now you're ready to
return home to your true nature
triple treasure
after this admission
that you have this long history of action born boredom
create an illusion
well
usually rendered five thirty has passed to so
i thank you again for your whole hearted presence here

maybe practice the boot away
for the welfare of this world
may our in tangier weekly extend throughout the enterprise
a dream
the baby
around the irritation
festival
the to run down the
ah right them
way the signs or basketball
out to be comment