So there's some new people here today who haven't been here before. And I just want to mention to you that the kind of the verses of the essay you just read, which I read the Japanese name for, in English translation would be Ehei Koso is the high priest of the lofty ancestor of Eheiji, who is Dogen Zenji. So this text that you read is written by our first ancestor in Japan, Dogen. And it's a text for arousing the bodhisattva vow. which means arousing the vow.

[01:03]

And mon is the verses. So it's verses for arousing the bodhisattva vow. So... Again, the founder of our tradition wrote out his vows. And his vows, we can consider whether we want to join his vows. So in this assembly and in other assemblies around the country, actually, in the East Coast and Texas and around the Bay Area, we have various assemblies which have been studying the flower adornment scripture, the Buddha flower adornment scripture.

[02:23]

and relating the scripture as we study it and read it, relating it to our tradition. So we have now come to a place where we have dealt with in this assembly the first eight books. And so now, today we could begin to look at the ninth book. of the Flower Adornment Scripture. And the ninth book has a wonderful title which has been translated in two, I would say, complementary ways. One way of translating the title is Radiant

[03:28]

Awakening. Another way to translate it is awakening by light, or awakening by radiance. two slightly different ways. The sutra is teaching us about an awakening that is radiant. It's teaching us about the radiance of the awakening. The other translation is the sutra showing us how beings are awakened by the radiance. So I really appreciate that the translators did it in two different ways.

[04:30]

And I think basically they're equally good. I could imagine translating it's just three characters which are the title. The first two characters are two characters for Radiance. The third character is character for Awakening. So what I feel like these two translations of the book lead us to see is that they lead us to see. The translations are to help us see. This chapter is about helping us see. And to help us see this awakening. This awakening is giving. The awakening gives radiance. The awakening gives light. And the awakening is received.

[05:33]

This awakening is given and received and given and received. It's not just given and it's not just received. It's given and received. So in the chapter it shows it shows the Buddha of infinite radiance by Roshana Buddha, it shows this Buddha emanating a light. And then it shows this light traveling inconceivably throughout the universe. And it arrives at various locations on the way. And when it arrives, it illuminates the beings where it arrives, and then the beings having been illuminated, then they illuminate.

[06:40]

So once again, the book starts out by saying, then the Buddha, Vairacana Buddha, from beneath the wheel marks, the Dharma wheel marks, on the bottom of her feet, You've got the Buddha sitting there, cross-legged, right? And sitting cross-legged, the soles of your feet are facing up. And on the bottom of the Buddha's feet are these Dharma wheels, little marks of Dharma wheels. And from these Dharma wheels on the two feet, this light comes up. When I was a kid, they... They used these searchlights from the war to tell people when movies were opening and when grocery stores were opening. They sent these searchlights for the bombers. They sent them into the sky so you could find out that something interesting is happening someplace.

[07:50]

It's the same thing in the sutra. The Buddha is sitting there and from the soles of her feet these huge searchlights come up. The Buddha's sitting at the seat of awakening and the Buddha's awakening has been realized and now the Buddha sends out this light from the soles of her feet. In earlier chapters she sent out soles from her teeth and from the white curl in her forehead and also from every pore of her body. So lights coming in various ways throughout this amazing teaching. This chapter is emphasizing coming from the feet, like those searchlights. And then it talks about what it illuminates.

[08:51]

And it illuminates right away, just right gets down to it, it right away, it illuminates a billion world universe. So at the beginning of this book, you have the awakening. The awakening is sending out a light, which is illuminating a billion-fold universe. That's quite an extensive illumination. By the end of the chapter, the illumination has grown quite a bit, far beyond the billion-fold universe. It goes on to billions of quadrillions and trillions of uncountable universes. But it starts out with just a hundred billion universes. A hundred billion world universe is illuminated.

[09:54]

And then it goes into some detail about what in these universes is illuminated. And one of the things, to make it simple for you, one of the types of illumination is that enlightening beings, bodhisattvas, are illuminated. So this light comes off the Buddha's feet, and in that light, all these bodhisattvas who are there with the Buddha are also clearly seen. And they also receive this light. And most important is that the people in this assembly can stay with me as I talk about this. So I'm hesitating to go into more detail about the many other things that have been eliminated in this initial emanation.

[10:56]

There are some more things. I hear you. OK. Well, it illuminates 100 billion Buddhas So it illuminates a hundred billion worlds. A hundred billion world universe. And also it illuminates a hundred billion Buddhas. And it illuminates a hundred billion Buddhas being born. And it illuminates a hundred billion Buddhas leaving home and going to discover the Buddha way. And it illuminates a hundred billion Buddhas realizing the way. And it illuminates a hundred billion Buddhas teaching the Dharma. And it illuminates a hundred billion Buddhas entering nirvana, making that gesture. Yes, Charvat.

[12:07]

What is the world? A world is like... For example, one world would be like the planet Earth. That would be a world. Sometimes we call the planet Earth a world. That's one world. And now we know that this world, this planet, is actually in a solar system which has other planets. So the solar system is another world. And now we know there's a solar system... the solar system is just one little part of, for example, the Milky Way. And the Milky Way, there's many solar systems, to say the least. And on these other solar systems are also many worlds. So the Milky Way might be viewed as maybe the first one that's mentioned here. A hundred billion world universe Milky Way. That's the first one. and then it's going to go far beyond that as we proceed.

[13:09]

So a world is kind of an illusion. It's like a picture of what's going on in the form of a beautiful blue planet. It's like a world. It's a mental construction. You can't grasp it. But the Buddha, who's living in a world... For the sake of beings, the Buddha lives in the world so they can see the Buddha and see the light come. And these worlds can be illuminated and then people can become free of any idea they have about what the world is. And then they can go to work helping people who are stuck in their ideas of worlds. Is that enough for now? Okay. Yes. Is what is here, right here, illuminated? Yeah. And so in this particular situation, like in the sutra, in that particular situation, there were many bodhisattvas.

[14:19]

I told you 100 billion bodhisattvas were there, and they were all clearly seen. But then it lists about, I don't know how many there are, approximately 10 or a little bit more than 10 of those bodhisattvas. Of those 100 billion bodhisattvas, there's 100 billion bodhisattvas here. And we can start mentioning them, you know, like they do in Sutra. The first one mentioned is Manjushri. So behind Charlie there on the lion, there's Manjushri. And back in the Doksan room, there's a couple of Manjushris there too. They're really beautiful. Manjushri. Manjushri is the first mentioned of all the bodhisattvas that are mentioned. But the bodhisattvas are mentioned are less than 20. And they're the leaders of 100 billion bodhisattvas who are here with us right now. And in this world, we have a manjushri.

[15:27]

And this world, that manjushri is going to talk now. is going to, in the presence of the Buddha, the Manjish is going to teach something about this light. But before this Manjishri in this world teaches about the light, it mentions that at the same time that this Manjishri is going to give these teachings, in the hundred billion other worlds, the Manjishri is there. There's also Manjishris there. There's infinite hundred billions bodhisattvas in all those hundred billion worlds. all those bodhisattvas will simultaneously offer the teaching which the manjushri in this world will offer. Okay. We haven't got into the teaching yet, but it's coming soon. But just to give you an overview of the chapter, so this light illuminates these bodhisattvas of wisdom, and it illuminates other ones too, but the Manjushis are the first to speak and they give these teachings.

[16:40]

Then after all these teachings are completed, then the light, guess what it does? It spreads. It goes beyond this world and it passes over ten worlds And then after it passes ten worlds, it settles into a similar situation and illuminates another billion, hundred billion monjushis, and then they give another teaching in the presence of the Buddha. So right now, teachings are being given in the presence of Buddha. Buddha is present here, giving this illumination. And teachings will be uttered here, and simultaneously with here, where Manjirshi will recite these verses, will speak these verses. In these other hundred billion worlds, Manjirshi will also. And then after the teaching is completed, the teaching will go past ten worlds to illuminate a much larger assembly of worlds.

[17:51]

And again, all the Manjirshis will give them further teachings. And then the light will pass beyond that world to even more vast worlds. And then all the manjirishis in those worlds will also give these teachings. And they usually give teachings in four line verses, and usually they give ten. And they do that several times in this chapter. And so we can look a little bit at what they taught. These bodhisattvas who are illuminated by the awakening, And in the presence of the Buddha, they're going to give us this teaching. Yes? I'd like to go back to the chant that we chant. So as you're speaking, what I see with all this illumination, I see no chance for ignorance, because everything is continuously illuminated. So there's really the ignorance, the past karma.

[18:55]

we call it, the past karma has no room in this illumination. Well, I don't know if I would say it has no room. It has room, and in that room that it has, this illumination can reach them. But you're right that the ignorance doesn't have much of a chance when the illumination comes. The illumination kind of like illuminates the ignorance. It's kind of like... it stops the ignoring process and opens the paying attention process so throughout this chapter there's various places where it mentions that living beings are ignorant living beings are suffering because of that and then it says how they're responded to how they're cared for and so in the Buddhist presence ignorance is an endangered species but first of all the Buddha goes and meets and embraces the ignorance, in this case with radiance.

[19:58]

Is there anything to be, when the light comes from different parts of the body, does that change anything? Does it change the light? It's the same, or does it... It's the same, no, I think it's the same light. Throughout the sutra, it's the same light, but I think it's just showing... more and more possibilities, basically infinite possibilities, of where light can be coming. But it's basically just one light. So a big theme in this chapter and the next chapter is there's only one light, there's only one truth, there's only one teaching. So how come there's so many teachings and so many truths? Well, the short answer is because there's so many beings. So there's only one truth, but this truth responds to all the different beings according to what they need. But it's just one light in this whole scripture. There's only one light.

[21:04]

And we're learning about the light of Buddha's wisdom. And we're learning that it can come from pretty much anywhere. It can come from the phantom of a Buddha, but it can also come from the phantom of Catherine Gutta. It's the same light. It's not light. Your light's not as good as Buddha's lights. Okay? So, like, even, like, for example, like, from the feet, you know, I can think of that as, like, the lowest, you know, the lowest part, of course, and then it's almost like the metaphor is, like... Would you speak up, please? Oh. So it gets recorded, I think, better. Does it get recorded better? People speak up? Yeah. Yeah. So please speak up. So I was just saying, if... If it comes from the feet, it's the lowest part of the body, and yet it's the same light. It doesn't matter. Like you said, it comes from your teeth, your third eye. You could say the feet are the lowest part of the body, but for a yogi, the feet are turned up in their lap.

[22:07]

So you could say when you're in yogi posture, the feet are at the center of the body. So there's lower and higher, but put the feet in the center. and we also put the hands in the center. So the head may be higher, but the feet can be put in the center. And the feet and the hands both have these Dharma wheels on them. So we gather the four Dharma wheels, if we're humans, we gather the four Dharma wheels into the center. The center is kind of a parking lot for Dharma wheels. And there's lower, and then there's higher. Like there's, the butt is on the ground, And the head is sticking up. But at the center are the feats and the hands, which, as you know, the feats and the hands have lots of intelligence, incredible brilliance in our hands and feet. They're so smart. And they have little Dharma wheels on them so that Dharma can come out of these hands.

[23:11]

And there's various other places where the palms of the bodhisattvas are teaching. The Buddhas have these Dharma wheels on the palms and the feet, but not all the bodhisattvas have the Dharma wheels. It's kind of like the bodhisattvas don't have all the Buddha equipment yet. So, Manjirshri, not the Buddha, the Buddha is giving light, this infinite light, and the Manjirshris are in presence of all their Buddhas, and all the Manjirshris have something to say about Buddha, have something to say about awakening. And the first thing they say is, any who see the truly awakened as liberated from all taints

[24:15]

and separated from all worldly phenomena. They do not yet have the eye of the way. That's the first teaching that the illumination has stimulated, has been received and given. So Manjushi gives us his teaching. So any who see the Buddha as liberated from taints and even divorced from worldly phenomena, they do not yet have the eye of the way. You could also say any of those who see

[25:20]

that. But isn't the Buddha liberated from taints? The Buddha is liberated from taints. But still, if you see the Buddha as liberated from taints, that's not the eye of the way. The Buddha is not attached to any world. any worldly dharmas. Yes, right? Buddha's not attached. But if you see the Buddha in that way, you don't have the eye of the way. The Buddha is not married to or divorced from worldly phenomena. Next verse.

[26:26]

If any know, the Buddha's substance and form have no existence. And by cultivation, gain a clear understanding of this. Such a people will soon see Buddha. Well, actually, will soon be Buddhas. If any know the Buddha's substance and form have no existence, and by cultivation gain clear understanding of this, such people will soon be Buddhas. Those who can see this world unstirred in mind, You can see this world unstirred in mind, and likewise, the Buddha's body.

[27:32]

If you can see the Buddha's body and have your mind not get agitated, the Buddha's body, what about the Buddha's body? Well, its form and substance have no existence. If you can see the Buddha, whose form and substance have no existence, and cultivate that contemplation of this body of Buddha, and not get agitated, or get agitated, but then cultivate calming down with this, with the world, with all of its temptations for not being kind, temptations for getting upset, if you can just be unstirred. And then seeing the Buddha's radiance also be unstirred. then you will soon become Buddhas. Who can see this world unstirred in mind and likewise see the Buddha's body will attain supreme knowledge.

[28:40]

If regarding the Buddha and the Dharma, one understands that they're equal. In other words, you can understand that the teaching and the Buddha are equal and not two. You're not fooled by the Buddha... giving the teaching, being separate from the teaching given, or the Buddha, the teaching being given, being separate from the giver. You're not caught by that. If one, regarding the Buddha and the Dharma, one understands they're equal, having no thought of their duality, one will walk the inconceivable plane. If one sees Buddha and oneself resting in equality, Without abode, entering nowhere, one will become one with the rare, the Buddha. So this is Manjushri's first five teachings about the Buddha, about the light.

[29:55]

These are teachings about light. There's nothing to grasp here. There's nothing to be attained. And if you can accept that and understand that, you become Buddha. There's no duality between our sentient beingness, our ignorance, our confusion, our fear. There's no separation. There's no duality between us sentient beings and Buddhas. Understanding this is the practice. So there's five more verses, but I'll stop here. And this is the first set of ten verses, and you heard five. So I see Sonia's hand in the periphery of my eye.

[31:04]

which might be the eye of the way, are not. Yes? I just heard you say become Buddha. And I kind of... Well, actually you said become one with. Become one with. That's a little better. Sonja thinks that's a little better. I thought... Maybe I thought if we, if there is already Buddha here, everywhere, it would more like realize it more than become it. I know I'm pivoting on a little niggling word, but... Well, I hear you. I hear you. So we're talking about we're talking about Buddha and oneself are resting in equality.

[32:11]

And that says, without abode, entering nowhere. If you see that, you will become one with Buddha. But we can stop before that last line. Maybe it would be better for you. We'll just say, for Sonia, if one sees Buddha and herself, as resting in equality without abode, no abode, entering nowhere. We'll stop right there for you. And for the rest of you, you're going to become one with Buddha. Even though there's no duality between you. So there's no duality between us, but we can become one with that non-duality if we give up resisting it, if we give up attachments to anything. This light is to encourage us to give up the misconception that there's any duality between us sentient beings and the Buddha or between Manjushri and the Buddha.

[33:19]

But we need to be in Buddha, just like Manjushri, we need to be in Buddha's presence. And the sutra is saying we are in Buddha's presence and being in Buddha's presence we can receive this teaching and cultivate it, contemplate it, remember it. This is a rather short book. There's only about 10 times, there's only 100 verses, and you've heard five. And already there's quite a bit. And of course you're not greedy to hear the next five, but we might be able to at some point. For example, now we could hear the next five. Or not. Yes, Deborah. We're always in Buddha's presence. We're always in Buddha's presence. That's right. But it's good to remember that if you're talking like Manjishri, it's not just Deborah coming up with this stuff.

[34:22]

This is coming from receiving the illumination and then giving the illumination. You're always there, but... are you receiving the illumination that's always coming for you? Not always. See? And if you're attached to that, then that will be an opportunity to not stop being attached to not always. Also, if you say, yes, always, that's good. But if you're attached to yes, always, like Buddhas, we're always in the presence of Buddha, and if you're attached to that, you won't realize it. But you can listen to it without being attached to it. Like listening to the sound of finger wrapping wood. The most wonderful teachings are the ones which we might possibly attach to.

[35:29]

So if you can start giving up attachment to things, you get ready to not being attached to Buddha and truth, Buddha and Dharma are one, you and Buddhas are one. To listen to that, to let that enter your body and not attach to it, to take care of it without being attached to it, and then rest in that equality. After receiving his teaching that... After receiving his teaching that, you are resting in equality with Buddha, then rest in that equality. And resting in that equality, you have no abode and... and you're not entering anywhere.

[36:34]

You're entering this samadhi of the oneness with Buddha. And no attachment to that oneness, of course, would be appropriate to realizing it. To spend our time taking care of something we can't get a hold of is the way to take care of this light. It's great that you can raise your hand still, but I'm not calling her first, okay? Yes? Angela? Did I... Were you possibly just saying that resting is the same as resistance? Did I say resting is the same as resistance? I didn't mean to say that. I'm saying if you're... If you're resting, which means if you're calming down with this equality, if you're calming down with it, that seems to be recommended here as an opportunity to become Buddha.

[37:51]

At the end of our chant, right, we say, the Buddha way is unsurpassable, I vow to become it. If you can vow to become one with the Buddha, well, here's a practice. See Buddha and oneself as resting in equality. And don't attach to that vision you just had. And then, so there you're without an abode and you're not entering anywhere, even though you've entered this samadhi. What samadhi? The equality with Buddha samadhi. You've entered it, but... but you've entered nowhere. And you've entered no abode. And when you enter no abode, the Buddhist presence is there, and you're one with it.

[38:53]

And you settle down by practicing, by hearing the teaching? You could. You could listen to this teaching, might help you settle down. might help you be here. And if you can't be here while you're listening to his teaching, well, let's listen to something else to help you be here. And then we'll come back to the teaching and see if now you can rest in this equality, be tranquil in the equality with Buddha. Because some people get, maybe, this is too much. I mean, being separate from Buddha is already quite difficult. But being one is even more scary or more... Well, let's come... you know, learn how to be calm with the book. The Buddha is always present and you're equal to it. And Buddha is, and we're always present with Buddha and Buddha is equal to it too. So yeah. And we can observe, we can see a consciousness where there's some attachment to something and then we practice compassion with that.

[40:01]

And we have the additional encouragement to be compassionate with it because being compassionate with the attachment frees us to settle down with not being attached. So Homa's hand has been raised and we'll never forget it. Gloria? You're just putting your hands up. Okay, well, that's pretty good. I'm not attached to that . All right. Let's see. Should we go to Homa again? Homa. I am contemplating on... Louder, please. I am contemplating on when you keep saying no abode. So my English, because English is not my first language, So I'm wondering if it's an English problem, because abode, abiding, being, Buddha, is a form of being.

[41:17]

So that is abiding. So when you say, no, abode, it is abiding. Yeah. Well, sometimes they do. Sometimes we always say, Buddha abides. When Buddha abides, Buddha abides without anything being grasped. So another meaning of abode is a place where you're holding on. So there's no abode, and if there's no abode, you're not holding on. But if you can dwell without holding on, you've realized a mind of no abode. And that is being discussed here as the way to be with Buddha. inequality, calmly. And in that way, you become the Buddha way, which you already were, but because of any attachments or misconceptions, you get distracted. And so you're suffering because of your attachments.

[42:21]

Yes? You teach us to be compassionate with those... attached bits of consciousness and everything. Could you hear her? Louder, please, for the people in the other room. I just said to Reb that you teach us to be compassionate with our attachments, our resistances, and so on, which feel like... Yeah, that's clear. I was wondering if these bodhisattvas, when you read them out to us, do they... really give that kind of teaching about compassion with our attachments? They seem to be talking about some kind of absolute non-attachment. I mean, they're really, really out there in the light. Do they suggest that the way you do? Did you hear a question? So, in the later part of this chapter, it talks about these

[43:27]

there's a little bit before the end of the chapter, but later in the chapter, it talks about these beings who are clinging. And it talks about how the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas relate to that clinging. Really? Yeah. Right there. Yeah. So, in a way, it's... It's the... One of the... There's two... For me, there's two climaxes in this chapter. One of them is the one... which talks about sentient beings' troubles and then how this light responds to it. Ah, good. Yeah. It's the second to the last set of verses here where it's focusing on the sentient beings. Do you want to jump to there? Is that a cue of you? Yeah. So we're jumping to the second to the last set of ten verses. So it's talking, manjushis are talking again, and guess who they're in the presence of?

[44:31]

Guess. Yeah. So manjushis, all these manjushis, in the presence of their Buddha, together, say these verses. And there's two ways this next verse has been translated. I'll read this one. It says, having cultivated extensive difficult practices, having diligently worked day and night, having crossed over the hard to cross, with the lion's roar, teaching all beings, this is the practice. That's one translation. The other translation, but this is referring to the Buddha, the Buddha's long practice, right? Having cultivated extensive difficult practices, diligently working day and night, having crossed over the hard to cross over, with a lion's roar, teaching all beings, this is her practice. But it is this practice, but it's also her practice, it's the Buddhist practice that we're talking about here.

[45:43]

And the next one is, sentient beings whirl in a sea of craving and greed, surrounded by a web of ignorance, terribly oppressed. The most beneficent bravely cuts it all away. We vow to also do so. This is the practice. Worldlings have no control, attached to their sense desires, falsely discriminating. They suffer myriad pains. Practicing with Buddha's teaching, Buddha's dharma, always... control the mind, vowing to cross over this, this is the practice. So far, you vow to cross over. Yeah. But you cross over it. Read the next one. Sentient beings attached to self enter birth and death.

[46:45]

Looking for a limit to this, none can be found. Serving all enlightened beings excuse me, serving all the enlightened to obtain the wonders for teaching and explain it to others. This is the practice. So you explain the teaching to these beings who are suffering. That's how you cross over. Who explains? The suffering being or the Manjushri? Manjushri is a suffering being. But Manjishri is a suffering being who is in the presence of Buddha and has been illuminated. And then Manjishri now can teach us these verses, all those Manjishris. So the Manjishris, they can enter into they can enter into birth and death. Yeah.

[47:51]

Sentient beings... bob and sink in the ocean of existence. Their troubles are boundless. They have no place to rest. To make for them an arc of Dharma. So you're in there. You're suffering too. But you're in there making boats for people to get onto to practice compassion. You're engaging them. That's how you cross over. You don't cross over by jumping over it. You cross over it by entering it and teaching other people how to enter it, and then we go forward. Well, I still see some great beings jumping in that ocean where people like us are bobbing and sinking, and these beings have the clarity to teach, to practice. Yes. It's still not quite the same experience as hearing you say we are compassionate with our own suffering and ignorance and mistakes and stuff.

[49:00]

I'm saying it in a way for the people I'm talking to. I think I'm doing the same thing that they're doing. I'm going into the mud, hearing about the mud, and talking about how to engage it. And engaging it is where the boat is. of compassion is moving. They're entering this same space, and they're teaching people how to deal with the mess. Over and over, ten verses, teaching how to enter the place where the sentient beings are bobbing and sinking, to offer to bring a boat to get into with them. And in that boat, we have practiced compassion. towards all the bobbing and weaving. This is the last thing I hope that I'll say. I hear this narrative as focusing on the bodhisattva helpers who will do this and show the practice.

[50:05]

But it doesn't take us inside the hearts and minds of the suffering beings who are suffering in that terrible ocean or in that hell world. So I'd like to say that it does take us in, in the sense that the way that they would deal with it, it's the way we can deal with it. When we deal with it that way, we're doing what they would do. Their teaching is how to do this, and when we do it, it's basically we're doing their practice on ourselves. They're teaching beings how to do the practice that they're doing. So again, all these things say, this is the practice, this is the practice. But also it says, this is his practice, or this is the Buddha's practice. But this is the Buddha's practice. When we do this practice on ourselves, we are doing Buddha's practice with ourselves.

[51:09]

You look like you have a little bit more to say there. I also try to restrain how much I say. I find it helpful to hear the voice of the suffering being rather than just receive a picture of a great being saving them. So these beings hear their voice. They hear their cries. So are you saying that I hear their cries even if their cries are coming from within me or, you know, my friend? Right. I hear the cries of my own suffering. Right. And then I, like one of those billion Manjushris, help myself. Yeah, so take it one step at a time. When there's a cry inside and there's listening to it, hearing is one thing, but there's listening to it,

[52:21]

That's exactly what the bodhisattvas would be doing with that. Then, after hearing it, you might have some teaching for it. Like, hearing is maybe the first step in being kind to this stuff. And then to be generous, after hearing my internal cry, being generous with it is not trying to get rid of it. It's just listening to it. That's what they all do. They're reporting this because they listen to this. Manjur Sri, in the presence of Buddha, is listening to all these cries and telling us about them, and he is listening. She is listening. And then they say, now that I've heard, I have some further things to teach. But first I listen. I don't teach immediately. First I listen. And then the teaching will be, for whatever their situation, how to be compassionate beyond just listening. And part of the blessing of listening is is to come up with further teachings to offer. So first we teach listening.

[53:22]

Then we have other teachings of how to deal with these varieties of suffering. And this is what bodhisattvas do. This is what Buddha did and does. When we do it, they are doing it. We are joining them. So we can join this practice. This is his practice. This is her practice. This is the practice of what? of bodhisattvas. And they do it for all beings, including for all beings of this person. This person is moment by moment a new being, plus every aspect of my being is a being. So it isn't that I'm generally compassionate with myself, I'm also specifically compassionate with every little twisted detail. That's what the bodhisattvas do in the last ten verses. They show what the Buddha does, has done, and will do, is what they're learning to do.

[54:25]

Is it Sean? Yes, Sean. The images of Manjushri always has a, often has a flaming sword in one hand, and one of those in the other. Is that, is that why, is it the image of Manjushri's being first to speak his teaching? And cutting, as you mentioned... Cutting what? Cutting ignorance, delusion. For me, the way I feel about the sword now is it's cutting any kind of duality between ignorance and the Buddha. And cutting that duality is what we just talked about here. we're entering into the oneness of this sentient being in Buddha. So if it's the oneness of this sentient being in Buddha, it's the oneness of that sentient being in Buddha. And the sword is to just keep cutting through that, that illusory separation.

[55:37]

It is true that quite often Manjushri has an image on many Zen. Louder, please. Manjushri is the image of the statue on many Zen temple altars. Yeah. And in some Zen temple altars, they have Manjushri in the form of a monk sitting on a lion. And the monk, I would say, is Manjushri, so that Manjushri is teaching... This is what Manjushri is teaching us, sitting on the lion. It's teaching us how to engage with sentient beings... so they can learn how to deal with themselves and others with no duality. Sentient beings are ignorant and don't see the fundamental. Confused, foolish, and crazed in the midst of danger and difficulty. Buddhas have compassion for them and set up a bridge of the teaching.

[56:43]

So if I have all this going on with me, I want to do the practice of setting up a bridge to deal with this mess. And the bridge is not avoiding it, it's building the bridge with them. So they're equally built. They, the things I'm being compassionate with, in myself, are sharing the work, or making the work more hard, but that's the way they help it sometimes. with right this kind of awareness, let them climb. Let them climb. The bridge. Let's get on the bridge. Let's walk over the bridge together. Let's walk over the bridge together with all these ignorances and confusions and foolishness. And let's take all the foolishness over the bridge. The bridge is the practice.

[57:48]

The bridge is the practice. The bridge is the practice. It's a bridge in the world. The practice is a bridge in the world to take people across but not avoiding anything. Avoiding things is what we're learning to get over. Seeing beings in perilous paths oppressed by the pains of age, illness, and death. Develop unlimited skill and means and pledge to save all of them. This is the practice. Have we pledged to save all of the difficulties of our own life? It says here, oppressed by the pains of age, illness, and death. Have we learned that age is the Buddha's body?

[58:49]

And are we taking care of the age the way we take care of Buddha's body? Taking care of the age and illness and death as the Buddha's body, this is the practice. Yes? Yeah, so with the image of the bridge, I always feel like You know, you leave stuff on one side, and then you are free on the other. You can do that, but you can also use the bridge to carry people over. Yeah. So, it's a bridge over troubled water. But you don't necessarily need to bring anything with you. As a matter of fact, on this bridge, the bridge is the bridge of not bringing anything. If you can get people to not bring anything, that turns into a bridge. And there's one more. Having the Dharma, having the Dharma, believing without doubt, comprehending essential emptiness without shock or fear, teach all the deluded.

[60:06]

This is the practice. Teach all the deluded. Teach all your own delusions. But in order to teach them, we must be thoroughly compassionate with them. That's a little bit from Chapter 9 on Radiant Awakening. Yes, Kim? I'm listening to this, but I'm also thinking that at the beginning of the chapter, there was all this light. So none of this is really hidden either. Say again. None of this is really hidden. None of these... That's right. Exactly. They're in the milieu of this night, of this wonderful night. So we don't need to be ashamed of them. Louder pleaser. Maybe we don't need to be ashamed of them or pretend that they're just ours or our faults and our ignorances.

[61:12]

Well, you said maybe we don't have to be ashamed. However... when we are ashamed, that shame is calling for compassion. And these bodhisattvas use all these methods to deal with the shame. Welcome shame. But you don't have to be ashamed. We have to give us something else to welcome. Body and mind, give me something else to welcome. I see quite a few mysterious expressions on faces of humans in this room. I don't know if this morning has been beneficial, but I wish that this morning has been beneficial and encouraged you to be like these bodhisattvas, with yourself and others.

[62:20]

Yes, now do you have your hands raised? Okay. Louder, please. If we were to get rid of attachment, would that be good enough? Would that be good enough? I think, I wouldn't say it's good enough, I would say, but I think we also have misconceptions, right? But if we're not attached to the misconceptions, I think that we'll be okay. So it's misconceptions and attachments, and misconceptions are very difficult not to attach to sometimes. But I think basically not to be attached to anything is the teaching for these bodhisattvas. This helps them enter all this difficult territory, and this helps them then teach others how to be not attached in this difficult territory. But I wouldn't necessarily say good enough.

[63:28]

And the reason why I wouldn't say good enough is I don't want, what's the word? I don't want us to become complacent. So I would say giving up attachments and wondering if that's good. Yes, Kimberly? The non-dual aspects of this teaching are proving illuminating here because of the dualism in which they exist in my personal life, which is with a daughter who has ostensibly no ability to grasp any of these and no ability to live as we would, even. So when I am in touch with her, there's no mental explanations that we share.

[64:32]

There's no shared sense of reality. So far. So far, right. But so then, so it had been for quite some time that it was about me doing something for her, to her, listening to her alone, all of these things. That wasn't possible, so then this, I thought, how is just practicing my practice, how is that effective? Let's just look at it that way. It's when you say taking their practice into yourself and knowing that all of this in a non-dual way is not separate from her. I'm not separate from her. There's nothing separate. That is perfect. It's the only thing that I've found. That works. That's real. And it's very difficult to be with her. Very, very painful. And in the pain of being with her.

[65:33]

Well then. And the pain of being with her has something to do with feeling some duality with her. Yes. This teaching is for you. To help you be with the pain. And this teaching... which helps you be with the pain, needs to be supported by being compassionate with the pain. And you said, by the way, something about her not having the ability to... You had some idea of her not having the ability. Now, in these examples, the bodhisattvas could have thought, they could have had the thought in their own minds that these beings do not have the ability to receive these teachings. But the thought that these beings do not have the ability to learn this teaching is another sentient being to be kind to. And there's no duality between the thought that I cannot or she cannot do this practice. That thought, there's no duality between that and Buddha.

[66:37]

But we have to deal with that thought. We can't skip over it. We apply the non-duality to every specific being. There is no... If I see her... If I can see her as a projection of this mind, then the duality comes more easily. Or the non-duality. The non-duality. Maybe. Or maybe. It's both. Anyway, the teaching's there, and the teaching requires... that we be completely where we are. And where I am is I'm with my daughter, and I'm suffering with my daughter. That's where I am, and that's where this teaching applies, is to being, Manjushri being a suffering being, being an ordinary being, but an ordinary being who has learned, has been taught to accept being an ordinary being. That part's quite familiar.

[67:39]

then once that's the case, then you can receive these teachings of non-duality and transmit them. But you transmit them along with transmitting your teaching of being where you are to help them be where they are. And both of you being where we are, that's where we apply this teaching to where we are. And where we are is all these troubles, all these problems, all these fears. That's where we are. And this teaching is rest in the non-duality with Buddha in all those cases. Those are the cases where we want to test our understanding of resting in non-duality with Buddha. Thank you and thank you. Yes? So when we have compassion to whatever arises in us,

[68:41]

That is the way of helping, I'm sorry, that is the way of, you know, you're sort of directing it internally, but it's happening, it's having compassion or it's having an effect everywhere. Yes, and also if somebody's with you and looking at you while you're dealing with your pain, they're learning it. Even if you don't say you're in pain, in fact you are, and you're dealing with it with compassion, you're transmitting that to them. somebody right in front of you, but also people who can't even see you, it's getting transmitted to them according to this scripture. What you're doing with your own body is exactly the way you're helping all beings. There's no duality in the way you help yourself and the way you're helping others. And also the way you're hurting yourself, there's no duality with the way that that hurting yourself is hurting others. They're included in that. So take care of yourself. Learn these practices and ask questions about them and see if there's any situation where they don't apply.

[69:46]

Please tell me about where these practices would not apply. This is what's been proposed as what the Buddha has done for a long time. Countless eons of practice complete. You have become truly awake under the Bodhi tree. appearing universally to liberate beings like clouds filling all to the end of time. This is the Buddhist practice and it applies to every problem that you see in others and every problem in yourself. This is a little talk about the radiant enlightenment chapter of the Avatamsaka Sutra. And it grows on any questions or doubts you have.

[70:50]

It grows on them. The light goes to meet them. Could I add one last thing? Yes. One last thing for me. One last thing. We'll see. So I was just trying to continue to ruminate on my own question and thinking about all of those beings that were described in the last set of teachings feel very connected to those beings. And I thought that when we read this vow at the beginning, and it says, I will let no doubt arise and have faith. It actually doesn't say, I will let no doubt arise. It says, I vow that no doubt will arise. And something about faith, right? There's faith comes after that. But the thing is, when you are taking care of this teaching, the doubt won't arise.

[71:53]

You will become confident when you process it. What's the thing about faith? What faith? Huh? Yeah. Anyway, there's a faith thing. Yeah, there is one. I was connecting to the teaching you gave us from the chapter, from the book. And I thought, in the midst of this really... great images that that book gives of the suffering beings. In the midst of that, when those beings feel like they can't do anything, they're just being tossed and so on. The faith, I have said to myself in the last five minutes that the radiance of this chapter, that this light, that the faith for me would be that the light is actually present. And that light is present along with the dark, horrible ocean of suffering. Yes. It is present. It is present. And then I'm doing the visualizing.

[72:56]

Then I see if that light might show itself. That's all. See if the light what? Show itself. Appear to me. Yeah. In me. So it says it appears. the light does appear in the form of the way you take care of that. That's the way the light appears. I see how to take care of by saying, oh, there is some light. There's the light. There's a little bit of light. That's fine. But also, you could take care of it in a way which would be the way the light would take care of it, without thinking of light. you could demonstrate that you have confidence in the presence of the light. And that confidence is the way the light is appearing. Okay, thank you. You're welcome. Well, maybe that's enough for this morning, for this afternoon.

[74:03]

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