I am swimming in an ocean of experience an ocean of teachings and in one sense whatever I say is in that ocean and there's no particular place to start giving you some little drop and another drop As many of you know, for the last two years, in various venues, one venue is me by myself, where nobody's around, meditating on, reading, memorizing, and listening to a great bodhisattva,

[01:07]

scripture by myself I do that and I also do it in various groups like this one the great extensive Buddha flower adornment scripture a little more than two years ago I committed to study the sutra with people for 10 years and there's various stories you could tell about how that happened but anyway I did make that commitment and yeah and it's been wonderful to be to be involved with this scripture and to contemplate how it applies to the Zen school to Zen meditation, and also how it applies to daily life.

[02:11]

So this scripture, it seems that it appeared in the world... By the power of Buddha's awakening it appeared in the world. Through human beings having visions and singing songs and eventually and then making prose statements about this illumination they received from the Buddha. And then eventually they started to write down these visions and these songs that came out of them when they were meditating with Buddha. Once again, in India, it seems to me that by the Buddha's compassion, people who are meditating were able to come and have direct contact with Great Awakening and then to

[03:34]

sing and dance the vision that came to them. And that singing got written down as a scripture. And, yeah, it had quite a bit of influence in India. And also it spread to Southeast Asia, this teaching. And some of you may have heard about a place called... I think it's called Borbador. I think it's in... Is it in... Huh? Indonesia? In Java. And it's the largest... It's the largest... I think it's the largest religious monument in the world. Or anyway, the largest Buddhist monument in the world. Very, very big monument, which is basically kind of a... a sculptural representation of this scripture.

[04:39]

Have any of you ever been there? To that place? Yeah. You've been there. Wow. Is it big? And did they tell you about the Avatamsaka Sutra when you were there? Did they tell you about the Flower Adornment scripture? Yeah. Yeah. Anyways. This is something about how it spread to that part of the world. And then it spread to Tibet and Central Asia. But when it got to China, in a way, it became most influential. And a school formed around it. And that school was called... the Flower Adornment School. Hua Yan Zung. In Chinese, the name of the scriptures, Hua Yan Jing.

[05:45]

So this very influential school formed and there were five main ancestors in that school and the fifth of them was also a person in the so-called Zen lineage. He was a very important Zen teacher. But he was also one of the ancestors of this school. So what I propose to you is that starting around that time of this Zen teacher named Sung Mi, that this school, this sutra, this scripture, became Zen. Especially the Zen of this particular lineage.

[06:48]

And at noon service today, we will chant a poem, a song, called the precious, it's called the Song of the Precious Mir Samadhi. And this song is one of our ancestors' song about this teaching of the scripture. So I'm just suggesting that it's not so well known in the Zen school in China, Korea, or Japan, that their school is really influenced by the scripture. But the ancient leaders of that school in China did say that this teaching of this sutra is the teaching of the Zen school. So again, many people say it is the most influential scripture on Zen practice.

[07:54]

Just one little point about the scripture is that the scripture suggests that in every particle, in every atom of the universe, every atom of the universe, every atom of the universe includes unlimited number of worlds. Unlimited teachings are in every atom. And the Zen school, using that teaching, respects every particle. We take care of, we aspire anyway to learn to take care of every particle, which would also be every person and every feeling.

[09:02]

and every flower. But not just every flower, but every particle, every atom of every flower. Because every atom includes limitless worlds which are filled with Buddhas and Bodhisattvas who are teaching the Dharma. And there's a famous Zen story, which is in are in the two major collections of Zen stories, the Blue Cliff Record and the Book of Serenity. And the name of the story is Every Atom Samadhi. It's the concentrated undistracted awareness that every atom includes the whole universe.

[10:08]

And that every atom samadhi comes right out of the sutra, but in the Zen story, a monk comes and asks the Zen teacher Yun Min, what is the every atom samadhi? And he could have said anything, but what he said was, rice in the bowl, water in the bucket. So in Zen temples, they have rice. They eat rice. And so then they eat rice in bowls. And eating the rice in the bowl, we understand the whole universe. And the whole Buddha Dharma is in this rice that we're eating and the bowl we're holding and so on. We somehow got attracted to practice meditation and in particular of the so-called Zen style.

[11:30]

which is often called Zazen. But occasionally we also hear some of the people who are teachers in the Zen school, they mention the Bodhisattva Samadhi. The Samadhi of the ancestors. The Samadhi of the Buddhas. So in the Zen school we say Zazen, but Zazen is... sort of an in-house nickname for infinite bodhisattva meditations, infinite bodhisattva concentrations, Zazen. So my understanding is that the ancestors, the people who have taken care of this tradition for more than a thousand years, the Zen tradition, that they are the inheritors and the maintainers of the teaching of the school, and they teach it in ways, teaching of the school of the scripture, but I should say, they are teaching the scripture in new ways that you do not find in the scripture, but the scripture saying, a school will come along and teach the scripture,

[12:55]

in a way that no one's ever seen before. And someday, in a strange world called Sweden, more teachings of the scripture will come forth in ways that have never been said before. And even though they've never been said before, they are including all that has been said before. Everything I say includes all that has been said. And by the way, everything you say includes all that has been said. That's what the sutra says. And also everything other people say includes all that has been said. And as we approach practicing Zen, We had, most of us, I don't know about everybody, I haven't interviewed millions of Zen students, but the ones I've met, they seem to have gone through a phase of having a limited idea of what life is and of what Zen practice is.

[14:19]

So many Zen students, when they first start practicing Zen, they think that practicing Zen is something they do. They think, oh, I practice Zen. And they think, or they think, I used to practice Zen, but I don't anymore. Or they think, I practice Zen not too well. Or they think I practice Zen kind of in an average way. And some think I practice Zen really well. They have various limited ideas of what they're doing and what Zen practice is. Again, they often think... that Zen meditation is something that they can do. But the sutra is saying, basically, you cannot do anything by yourself because you are not anything by yourself.

[15:33]

Even if you think you can do things by yourself, you cannot think that thought that you can do things by yourself, by yourself. Which brings to mind a song that I've been thinking about over the last couple of days. I was thinking about it in the Frankfurt airport. In the middle of what I was going through physically and mentally. Of traveling, you know, through all these worlds. I was singing about this song. And this song, I don't know who wrote it, but the person I heard sing it originally, her name was Etta James. She's an American woman singer.

[16:40]

And she might have written this song. But when I heard it, I thought whoever wrote this song is beautifully ironic. about their understanding of life. Do you wanna hear the song? Well, some of you already heard it, but some of you haven't. So the first part is gonna be kind of like Etta sang it. And then I'm going to change it. So here's how the song goes. I can do what I want. Oh no, it goes like this. Boom, boom. Boom, boom, boom. Boom, boom, boom, boom.

[17:44]

I can do what I want. I'm in complete control. That's what I tell myself. I got a mind of my own. I'll be all right alone. Don't need anybody else. Gave myself a good talking to. No more being a fool for you. Zen shouldn't sing that song about their zazen. You know? I can sit zazen. I can do what I want. I'm in complete control. But, you know, somebody who has lots of experience could sing that song as a joke. Because you know you cannot. You don't have a mind of your own. You don't own anything, including your body and mind, anyway.

[18:47]

But you might sing that song just to be ironic, because ironic... is so delightful. So rather than singing a song, you can't do anything by yourself, you're not in complete control. No, let's do it ironically. I can do what I want. I'm in complete control. That's what I tell myself. I got a mind of my own. I'll be all right alone. Don't need anybody else, including Buddha. I don't need Buddha. Gave myself a good talking to, no more being a fool for you. But then I see you, and I remember how you make me want to surrender to Buddha way. You're taking myself away, Buddha way.

[19:50]

You're making me want to stay. In Buddha way. Boom, boom. Boom, boom, boom. Boom, boom, boom, boom. I cannot do what I want. I'm not in complete control. And yet, I can aspire to hear the true Dharma. and take care of it. And in doing so, not by myself, but together with everybody, the whole world can attain peace and freedom. That did the sutras say. So the chapter 3 and chapter 12

[20:55]

And chapter 15 teaches this bodhisattva samadhi, this Zen samadhi. And I thought I'd tell you a little bit about this samadhi. Are you familiar with the word samadhi? Samadhi means collected, gathered, undisturbed. It's a collected, gathered, undisturbed state of body and mind. Have you heard of jhana practice? Jhana practice is a type of samadhi. And bodhisattva samadhi could be practiced by a jhana practitioner. But anyway... Once again, many Zen students think that they can practice Zazam. So in the third chapter of this huge scripture, we have... The chapter is named The Samadhi of Samantabhadra.

[22:16]

Samantabhadra is one of the big famous... bodhisattvas of the Buddhist tradition. And Samantapadra means universally good or universally worthy bodhisattva. And he's, again, one of the central bodhisattvas of this flower, splendor sutra. And at the beginning of chapter 3, it says, at that time, I think it says at that time. At what time? At that time. What time? Buddha awakening time. At the time of Buddha awakening, Samantabhajra Bodhisattva sat upright in front of Buddha. The bodhisattva sits upright in the presence of Buddha.

[23:31]

Bodhisattva meditation practice is practiced with Buddha, not by herself. She cannot practice her samadhi by herself. She does it with Buddha. Buddha, and not just one Buddha, but one Buddha. And one Buddha includes infinite Buddhas. She sits in the presence of infinite Buddhas. Now she knows, maybe when she first sits, she doesn't know that she can't even sit by herself. That she sits, but she doesn't even know that she cannot do that by herself. but she might notice that she's sitting. And then she might open to, she's sitting in the front of the Buddha. Once again, I'm telling you, the practice of the Zen school is to sit in the presence of Buddha.

[24:42]

Like in the Sutra, Samantabhadra, I read, Samantabhadra sat in the presence of Buddha, sat in front of Buddha. Well, Samantabhadra practiced sitting in front of Buddha, I guess maybe that would be appropriate for me too. Samantabhadra has to sit with the Buddha, but I don't have to. I can sit by myself. No, I don't think that. I'm okay with following the example of the great Bodhisattvas. And the Buddhas, all the Buddhas, they also practiced in the presence of bodhisattvas. I mean, in the presence of Buddhas. Okay, chapter three. The bodhisattva samadhi of Samantabhadra. Samantabhadra sitting in the presence of Buddha. And then, and at that time, aided by...

[25:50]

supported by receiving, inheriting the spiritual power of the Buddha. Samantapadra entered the samadhi. And for now, to make a long story short, Samantapadra entered his samadhi which is basically the samadhi which all Buddhas have or are. He didn't do anything by himself. He might have thought that he sat there by himself, but he didn't. But even if he thought that, because he sat in the presence of the Buddha, the Buddha bestowed this power in him, and he entered samadhi.

[26:54]

And then in samadhi, what samadhi? This bodhisattva samadhi, which, by the way, all the swirling worlds in the universe flow into this samadhi. And this samadhi makes it possible to save all ascension beings. And this samadhi... includes infinite samadhis and so on. It describes the inconceivable virtues of the samadhi which the bodhisattva has entered. How? Not by her own power. How? By being in the presence of Buddha and Buddha loving the bodhisattva and giving the bodhisattva entree into this realm of the bodhisattva samadhi. in which the Bodhisattva now will meet Buddhas. The Bodhisattva will be given all kinds of teachings like the sutra.

[28:02]

The sutra describes a state of awareness which the Bodhisattva enters in relationship. The Buddha doesn't do it all by herself. The Buddha gives her power to the Bodhisattva And then the bodhisattva enters the samadhi. But the Buddha didn't do it all by herself. She did it with the bodhisattva who sat in her presence. And now the bodhisattva is in the presence. The bodhisattva receives all kinds of teachings. For example, this sutra. The sutra was received into the samadhi which Buddhas carried Bodhisattvas into. And in this Samadhi, after that, many innumerable Buddhas praised the Bodhisattva for entering the Samadhi. Not for entering by their own power, but praised them for allowing themselves to be where they are.

[29:13]

And then the Buddhas, Infinite Buddhas rub the head of the Bodhisattva. And the last time I mentioned that, somebody said, I don't want to be, you know, silly, but what about, could it also be patting the head? And I said, actually, the Chinese character that's used there can mean pat or rub. But some people think pat is kind of... Do you know the word condescending? Infinite Buddhas rub the head of the Bodhisattva and Samadhi and then the Bodhisattvas ask now to bring all that's been given to her in the Samadhi to bring it through various means through various media out to help you. So Samantaphadra enters in Samadhi in relationship with Buddha, enters Samadhi in transmission with Buddha, enters in Samadhi in communion with Buddha, and then having entered, all the Buddhas come and give Samantaphadra the Dharma and pat Samantaphadra on the head and praise Samantaphadra.

[30:44]

And then Samantaphadra arises from Samadhi, And then all the bodhisattvas around Samantapadra who were there when Samantapadra entered, they all asked Samantapadra to teach. And then Samantapadra teaches in the next chapter and teaches for the next thousand pages together with many other bodhisattvas. I cannot do Zen practice by myself. I can't do what I want all by myself. I cannot. But I am told that I can enter the realm of life where the Dharma will come and will pervade me and where I will become a vehicle

[31:50]

for this great teaching. I can't do it by myself and Buddha can't do it for me. I do it together with Buddha. I can't do it by myself. You can't do it for me either. You can't do my job for me. I can't do my job by myself. but I can do my job, which is actually in relationship with you. And I am doing that. And when I say this to people, sometimes they say, that's really difficult. And the sutra also, often after it gives teachings, many times the sutra says, this teaching is really difficult to understand and believe. But then it just... does it again, teaches something else that's very difficult to understand or believe. And then it says, no, picking up Mount Sumeru, picking up Mount Everest and tossing it into another galaxy would be difficult.

[33:01]

But not difficult at all compared to believing in this teaching and understanding it. This teaching is difficult. And again, I can't even move my finger by myself. How could I by myself do this infinite, inconceivable practice? Well, I can't. So probably that's Probably that's already a lot, what I said. But just, you know, I just told you a little bit about chapter 3, right?

[34:03]

I'm just going to jump over to chapter 15 for a second. And chapter 15 is called the 10... abodes of bodhisattvas. And the first one, the first abode of bodhisattvas is the initial, the first arousing of the mind of awakening. Literally, the first arousing of the mind. But the mind is the mind which actually wishes or commits, commits, resolves, to attain authentic awakening for the welfare of the world. And so the first abode is this initial arousing of that great wish, that great commitment, that great vow. Which we sometimes say, sentient beings are numberless, I vow to save them. But again...

[35:07]

I say that, but I cannot save all sentient beings by myself. But I can still say, I vow to save all sentient beings. Together with all sentient beings, we will save all sentient beings. That's the first abode of the bodhisattvas. And then it says, and then it describes, various situations in which this mind arises. And then it says there's ten things in this situation where this mind arises. There's ten things which Buddhas have explained are good to encourage and learn. And one that recently came to me last... Yeah, this is a new week, right? One thing that came to me last week... was something was one of those ten things and one of those ten things which a bodhisattva should is encouraged to study and learn is happily joyfully abiding in birth and death if you wish to realize Buddhahood

[36:35]

for the welfare of this world, then one of the things you're encouraged to learn and study is the possibility of happily living and not running away from the suffering of the world. And again, that particular little line from chapter 15 of the sutra, has been coming to me quite a bit. Last week. It came to me, yeah. It came to me kind of yesterday, whenever yesterday was. It came to me when I was waiting to get on the plane. And all these people were swarming around me and making lots of noise. All these people. trying to get on this, packing all these people into this little airplane.

[37:37]

Hundreds of people moving around with all their anxiety. I was wondering, what does it mean that I would be willing to stay here? Would it mean like I'd be willing to stay in this waiting area with these people? How long could I stand to be here? I really was wondering how that would be possible. And this is like, I wasn't being, nobody was being mean to me. They were just, everybody just swarming around trying to get a place on the plane. With these, the employees of the airline talking loudly, giving people all kinds of instruction. It was, it was very stressful. So the sutra comes to me.

[38:43]

The bodhisattva is encouraged to learn how to joyfully stay in samsara, in birth and death. It seemed that a lot of birth and death was going on at the San Francisco airport in that little section of it. And I didn't think, I didn't say. I can do it. I can joyfully. It's not just stay here. Joyfully stay here. Why joyfully? Well, joyfully. Why joyfully? Well, joyfully because that's part of becoming Buddha is to learn how to joyfully live here. That's in the sutra. But also it's just ordinary Zen practice. And it's just ordinary. Last week for me, yesterday, actually it was Friday, but for you it was yesterday.

[39:52]

And then earlier in the week, something else happened. And when it happened, at a certain point, I remembered the sutra came to me, but for a while the sutra didn't come to me. All that came to me was stress at a level that I have rarely felt in this lifetime. And it came to me because I was going to the airport to come here. I just happened to open my passport. But it was an old passport, not my new passport. My old passport expired in 2017. And as you know, you can't get on airplanes without a valid passport.

[40:58]

And actually, I don't really want to get on an airplane anyway. So I don't mind not getting on an airplane. But the problem is that 50 people are waiting for me in Sweden. And if I don't come, it might be very stressful for them. It might be too much. And I felt that would be really terrible. And I thought, it's not that easy to get a replacement passport, I thought. And it wasn't. But I did get a passport. It was super hard for me. And people helped me. I got a new passport. And then also, along with getting a new passport, I was also negotiating a new ticket.

[42:09]

And that was stressful, not just getting a ticket, but when would I be leaving? If I pick the departure date too soon, the passport won't be there. If I choose a later date, I won't be at the retreat. If I chose October, no problem. But it was stressful. It was birth and death. It was suffering. The bodhisattva learns to joyfully remain in this world. And I didn't even remember. The sutra did not come to me right away. All that came to me right away was

[43:12]

I felt like around my eyes here, I felt my head was going to pop. And I almost never had problems sleeping. Yeah, there was the passport. This is not my passport. So then I drove a long distance on the freeway to go back. to where I thought maybe my valid passport was. And then I looked for it. And I didn't find it. Because I had moved. In the process of moving, something got moved around. And I had my passport right where I thought it should be, but it was an invalid one. And then I was supposed to go to sleep. And then the next day, try to get a passport. and etc.

[44:13]

But I actually had trouble sleeping, which I almost never had. I was stressed. And I had the thought, if the people in Sweden know what I'm going through, they would think, I guess you love us. I guess you care about us. Because it would have been, if I didn't care about you, then I could just, like, not get it fast for it, or get it someday. And not change the ticket. And just throw away the price of the ticket. But to disappoint you is, it's priceless. There's no... So taking our place in the presence of Buddha means being willing to live here in the presence of Buddha.

[45:27]

It's like I'm going to sit in the presence of Buddha no matter what's going on. I'm still here. I'm still here, boss. I'm here. I'm getting pushed around, but I'm still here with you. I'm still here to be your disciple, to be your student. It's really hard what's happening to me, but I haven't forgot. My job is to be in the presence of Buddha and to be willing to stay here in samsara. Because if I'm not willing to be present here in samsara, then I'm not in the presence of Buddha. Because Buddha is willing to be in the presence of birth and death. But if you look at this question, are you willing to be present with what's going on in order to be present with Buddha, in order to help all beings?

[46:35]

Because you can't help all beings by yourself. You've got to do it with the Buddhas and with the Bodhisattvas. And you can't do it with them if you're not where they are. And they are in the pit of suffering. And not only that, but the suffering keeps changing. It's always new varieties. I laugh because, you know, I arranged my ticket to be quite early so I had time to adjust. Turns out that was good because I made the ticket quite early so it was time to get a new ticket. and get a new passport and let a lot of people help me. A lot of people help me. I could not have gotten the new ticket and gotten the new passport by myself.

[47:43]

Many people helped me. So again, I got a ticket early so I would have time to adjust and get over jet lag. But I didn't get that time. So I'm here with no adjustment time. So we'll see what happens. I may conk out at any moment. I feel like, when's it gonna hit? When am I gonna drop? I woke up this morning. Okay. Can you walk? And I could. And I came here and I sat with you at this seat. And I didn't fall over, did I? And you didn't either. I was like awake for those two periods. Pretty good. And guess what I was doing? I was thinking about the Bodhisattva Samadhi.

[48:47]

I was thinking about how I am with you right now in this samadhi the samadhi is where we are right now but we can't realize that the samadhi is where we are right now if we're not willing to be with all this stress but we can be willing and if we're not then we confess and repent. Oh, Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, I confess, I forgot, I tried to get away from the stress. I'm sorry. But now I want to try again to be in this retreat. This is a retreat where you retreat

[49:53]

You retreat from trying to get away from suffering. You come here. You come here to learn how to stop trying to get away from your life. You retreat from your life where you can't remember to stop trying to get away from your life. And you come here and you keep trying to get away from your life, but you notice, oh, it's so silly. This is ridiculous that I'm trying to get away from my life. That's why I'm here. in this retreat is just give up trying to get away from this world. Yeah. This is the Bodhisattva Samadhi. Welcome. I'm laughing because I used to have a Fitbit. You know what a Fitbit is? It's a kind of watch. But my Fitbit didn't tell the time, I don't think. No, I did have the time.

[50:55]

Anyway, it stopped working. So now I don't have a watch anymore. Does anybody know what time it is? In Sweden? What time is it in Sweden? 1121. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. That's different. So... We can stop now. Or if somebody wants to offer something, this is the offering area. Right up here. The offering area has kind of an orange. Is that orange? What color is that? Huh? Orange. Orange and you can come here and sit here or you can come here and stand here if you want to offer anything to the Great Assembly.

[51:47]

@Transcribed_UNK
@Text_v005
@Score_96.02