I vow to taste the truth of the Tathagata's words. Warm greetings to the Great Assembly. I just chanted the verse

[01:12]

for opening the sutra, which was written in, I believe, the eighth century or the latter part of the seventh century by the Empress of China, Empress Wu. She wrote that verse and it has become the one that almost all Buddhists in China and other parts of East Asia use. And another way to sometimes start the meeting of the assembly is to chant other verses written by other ancient bodhisattvas, or it could be even a modern bodhisattva. So we sometimes chant a vow which was written a verse vow, which was written by our ancestor Ehe Dogen.

[02:15]

And tomorrow I'll recite that vow for you. And also mention to you now, and maybe then too, that it is, you are welcome, all bodhisattvas are welcome to write their own vows, personal vows. And we may look at some other vows written by some of our Zen ancestors to arouse and nourish their own bodhisattva vow. I suggested last time that you might read chapter three i don't know how many of you read it but that's what i was wanting to discuss with you today chapter three of the wondrous dharma flower sutra

[03:32]

In chapter, as I've said before, in chapter two, more than once, several times, and at the very end, the Buddha said, you will all now, you will all attain, you will all become Buddha. your heart should be full of joy. And then chapter three starts with Shariputra, whose heart is full of joy, understanding now that he would and will become Buddha. But then he says that he spent a long time wondering about his own situation and feeling for a long time that he would not, that he would never be able to actually become like his teacher.

[04:58]

that he would never be a bodhisattva and never be a Buddha. And he struggled with that a long time. And he describes his struggle at the beginning of chapter three. However, having heard this unprecedented teaching from the Buddha, something he had never heard before, he is now free of doubts about this, and full of confidence that he will become Buddha. He's never experienced joy like this before, and he's never experienced the understanding that he will become Buddha. And then the Buddha says to Shariputra that, the Buddha says this to Shariputra, in a great assembly, in the great assembly of chapter three, he tells Shariputra that in the past, in the presence of two billion Buddhas,

[06:45]

For the sake of unsurpassed perfect awakening, I, the Buddha, always taught you Shariputra and transformed you. I led you to aspire and vow to follow the Buddha way. But now you have entirely forgotten. and you supposed that you have attained nirvana. Now, I want to help you remember the way that you originally vowed to follow practicing with me long ago. And I'm giving this teaching for the sake of all the other shravakas, all the other disciples in this assembly. I teach, I will now teach this Mahayana Wondrous Dharma Lotus Flower Sutra.

[07:56]

Shariputra had forgotten that long ago he practiced in the presence of two billion Buddhas together with Shakyamuni Buddha, who led him to aspire and vow to be a bodhisattva, walk the Buddha way, and become Buddha. Now he wants to help Shariputra remember. And now he simply says, in the future, after billions and trillions and uncountable gazillions of eons, you will serve 10 million billion Buddhas

[09:09]

and you will become a Buddha named Flower Light Tathagata. The Buddha now reminds Shariputra of his past and tells him of his future. tells them of his wonderful future of serving closely and joyfully, wholeheartedly, many, many Buddhas, practicing, teaching the Mahayana to many, many sentient beings, bodhisattvas, and becoming the Buddha, flower light Tathagata. And then the Buddha goes on, as usual, to rhapsodize poetically on this wonderful prediction, this wonderful assurance.

[10:22]

And then the children, various celestial children who are in this assembly, they celebrate this wonderful future of Shariputra. I may have got that wrong. Let me see. No, that's right. But they do that later. The celebration goes on. So after people hear about this prediction, the part of the assembly that's on the earth that's standing on the ground, dealing with gravity in the usual way, the people on the ground, all the various disciples of Buddha, they take off their...

[11:32]

Buddha robe, they take it off and they offer it to the Buddha after hearing this prediction. And all the beings who are more elevated, you might say, all over the sky, they also take off their celestial heavenly robes and they offer them to the Buddha. And all these robes start flying around like starlings back and forth all around the Buddha. The robes are flying around celebrating this prediction. And then up in the sky, also the flowers fall, celestial music occurs, and then the children who live in the sky, they also celebrate Shariputra's remembering and receiving prediction.

[12:42]

So everybody's full of joy, the humans and celestial beings and all the other beings who are attending this great assembly are full of joy hearing this assurance of Shariputra to be flower light Tathagata. However, Shariputra also understands that although he now... has this assurance, and now he understands his practice. And everybody's full of joy, but still, even in the midst of their joy, they have some doubts about the situation. They still remember that the Buddha taught them a way of practice. He gave them skillful means by which they could become free from suffering and enter nirvana, a freedom from suffering.

[13:59]

And they actually, like Shariputra, many of them thought they had become free from suffering and that that was what the Buddha had taught them. So now they're hearing something really different. They're hearing that this teaching of being free from suffering and this teaching which led them to enter what they thought was nirvana, that this teaching was really for the sake of becoming Buddha. This was not a teaching for the sake of them becoming personally free from suffering. It was a teaching for them to become Buddha. And Shaiputra said, would you please give some causal explanations?

[15:05]

And causal explanations could also be translated as, would you tell a story about this? I don't know if all stories are causal explanations, but causal explanations are stories. Tell the stories, put some causes and conditions into words and give them to the people, please, so they can understand and not be perplexed by a new understanding of what you've been doing all along, which is teaching the one Buddha vehicle. which means that the nirvanas that they've attained, the freedom from suffering, which they have attained, was not the deep intention of the teaching. And the Buddha says, well, I already told you this, Sariputra, but okay, I'll tell you again.

[16:12]

Here's a parable. so here's this the big parable about the burning house the buddha tells the whole assembly and again i don't know if uh how many of you uh had a chance to read uh chapter three and read the parable. Could some, could some of you who, those of you who did read it, could you raise your hands so I can get a sense of how many you were able to? A lot of you. Okay. So I, uh, I'll just say, um, a tiny bit about it then, because maybe you don't need me to go into detail. And if you do need detail, uh, I will be happy to give it to you.

[17:20]

And you can also find it by reading it. So basically there's a big house and it's got children in it. I guess maybe three children of this, the person, the elder of the house, the great elder of the house has three children. And there's also like hundreds of other people living in this huge house. And suddenly the house bursts into flame. And the elder, the father of these three children, goes to help them and point out to them that they're in the middle of a burning house. But these children are busy and enjoying their personal playthings. which are their kinds of personal practice to realize nirvana.

[18:21]

The early nirvana is a plaything, which the Buddha gave for the purpose of people waking up to the real nirvana. So the elder, the father says to the children, come on, let's go. And they look up at him like, you know, like, who are you? Or, you know, can't you see we're busy? They just don't listen to him. And his attempt, his, yeah, his wish, his speaking to them was somewhat skillful means, but And then he thought, well, you know, they're not paying attention to me. I can actually pick them up and carry them out of here. But he doesn't do that. He thinks of a skillful device. He tells them that there's some playthings outside the house which are much grander and more wonderful.

[19:37]

and the playthings they have in the house. And so for each child, he creates a special plaything. For one child, he says, I have a real goat cart outside. And that child runs out. Tells another one, I have a real deer cart outside for you. And that one runs out. I have a real ox cart and that one runs out. In this way, the children run out of the house. When they get outside, then they see there's not those three kinds of carts. There's only one great white oxen cart outside. And then there's the issue now raised of, did the Buddha lie? Did the elder lie? So one of the things I'd like to bring up is that the elder has powers, has great powers, and the elder can

[20:57]

could actually pick these children up and take them out of the house. But it doesn't do that. He goes to where they are and she offers each child something that they would want. Something about who they are. that they're attracted to so that they, on their own human intention and desire, can break free of this dangerous situation they're in. If you're walking with a companion and the companion falls down, You can pick the companion up, maybe, if you're strong.

[22:01]

But you can also stand by your companion and look at what's going on with them and ask them how they're feeling and ask them if they want to get up and ask them if they know how to get up. And then they realize that you could have gotten them up, but you didn't. you show them a way that they can get up. And they know that if you weren't there, they might assume that if you were there, you would get them up. But you are there. You're with them in their difficulty, and you show them that you're not going to do their work. We cannot take people's addiction to various forms of peace and ease and freedom.

[23:12]

We cannot take those addictions away for them. But we can help them look at their addictions, show them how to look at them, and become free of them. The children are addicted to pleasure. The father cannot talk them out of it. But he can use their pleasure, their interest in pleasure, and their interest in more pleasure, and more pleasure. He can use that. He can offer that to them so that they can become free of their addiction to pleasure. And he does. And they do become free. So the chapter can be seen as

[24:27]

showing ways that people can become free of misconceptions of freedom. So the early Nirvana is, and it says, that's the preposition used in most of the translation, is the Buddha taught a Nirvana which is freedom from suffering. freedom from suffering. But now the teaching is a new kind of freedom, a new kind of nirvana, which is not freedom from birth and death and illness and fear and coercion and oppression. and limitation and agitation.

[25:33]

It's not freedom from these things, it's freedom with them, it's freedom in them, it's freedom of them, it's freedom by them, it's freedom among them. This is the new the new nirvana, which is the nirvana of complete supreme awakening. And the Buddha does not teach this nirvana to people who are addicted to the old nirvana, who are addicted to freedom from suffering. He does not teach to them if they're not ready. But at this point in the sutra, it seems like the Great Assembly can hear this teaching, an unprecedented story of nirvana, and also a story of why and how it had not been taught before.

[26:39]

People were not ready to give up personal freedom from suffering. Perhaps they're ready. So this is using, the elder uses the children's addiction to their pleasure in their burning house. He uses that addiction to free them from addiction. He doesn't intervene and take them out of the house. Although that would save them from the burning house for the time being, it would not save them from their addiction.

[27:42]

It's using a new kind of pleasure to attract them there's a teaching given by the ancestor Dogen in his treasury of true dharma eyes, or his treasury of the true dharma eye. And that fascicle is called in Japanese kato. And it's translated into English as twining vines sometimes. The compound kato is made of two Chinese characters. One means arrowroot vine and the other is wisteria vine. A combination of them is translated as twining vines. So the arrowroot and the wisteria and the wisteria and the wisteria and the arrowroot and arrow are all twining and entangled with each other.

[28:47]

So one translation of that compound is twining vines. or entangled vines. But another translation which is, it doesn't have the poetic imagery, but it's interesting, another translation is the complicated. So, Dogen says that a lot of people try to study the Buddha way by cutting the root of the twining vines. Cutting the root of the complications which we find ourselves entangled in.

[29:54]

And then he said, he doesn't exactly recommend this, but he said, they haven't heard about using the entanglement, using the twining vines, using the entangling complications of our body and mind and life in the world to use these tangled vines to cut through and become free. of twining vines. They haven't heard about that. They don't understand that entanglement is the transmission of Dharma. Now, I look at this Lotus Sutra and I see the Buddha getting entangled with each and every living being.

[31:06]

And through the Buddha's entanglement with everybody's entanglement, through the Buddha's twining, vining with the people's twining vines, in that entanglement, intertwining, the Dharma is transmitted. And it's not a freedom from entanglement, it's the freedom of entanglement with entanglement. It's the freedom of desires interacting with desires. The Buddha said in chapter two, the one great causal situation, the one great story of Buddha's appearing in the world is they want to open beings to the Buddha's wisdom.

[32:14]

They want to demonstrate Buddha's wisdom. so that beings can awaken to Buddha's wisdom and enter it. That's what they're here for. That's why they appear. Now in this story, I see the Buddha's opening beings to desires. Excuse me, I forgot to say the one great causal story of Buddha's appearing is they want, they desire They have desires. They want to open beings. They want to demonstrate and they want to awaken and they want to help enter. They have desire and their desires, which are the totality of their awakening, entangle with the desires of all beings.

[33:20]

and work closely with them. And since these desires are all that the Buddha's awakening is, I should say, since these desires working with all beings, and all beings' desires working with the Buddha, that's all their awakening is, there's no sense of getting over these desires, of getting away from them. It's just the joyful, continual work of engaging, entangling and liberating through engaging and entangling and liberating. A few days ago, Samir brought up a quote from Hakuen, which said something like, first of all, you should have a clear sense of, I think he said kensho, which means you should have a clear sense of seeing nature.

[34:37]

And the nature could be understood as the Buddha nature. We should start by having a clear sense of Buddha nature. The Lotus Sutra, as far as I know, the word Buddha nature does not appear in the Lotus Sutra any place. If anybody finds it, please show it to me. But I don't think you'll find it. But if you do, that'll be wonderful. But the Lotus Sutra is about Buddha nature. Buddha nature is the way the Buddhas work closely with all beings. Buddha nature is how freedom from entanglement entangles with entanglement. It's that intimate association of desire and freedom from desire working together that is our unceasing omnipresent nature.

[35:46]

So, again, Hakuen says, according to Samir, they start with that. And also, Dogen Zenji's great-grandson, yeah, great-grandson, Keizan Jokin, the Zen master, he also said, at the start of your Zen practice, with seeing the Buddha nature. However, this starting seeing Buddha nature means starting seeing that Buddha nature has no beginning, has no start, and definitely has no finish. There's no beginning of these twining vines. And it's good for us to start by understanding that. and also understanding it not as a personal realization, but understanding it as working with others, some of whom may have personal realizations.

[37:00]

So the Buddha, knowing that some people are not ready for the realization of this actual Buddha nature, they construct skill and means. They tell them about a nirvana, which will be freedom from these entanglements, which will be freedom from these desires. They teach them about a personal liberation. And in the process, they go for the personal realization. And if they get it, they're often very happy. And then we can work with them to help them, we can get entangled with their personal realization to help them realize that it's not personal, that real nirvana is not personal. Real nirvana is the ongoing study together of our ordinary entanglements.

[38:09]

And to study them by means of themselves. and we have them, so now we can study them. And again, and there'll be stories coming up later in the sutra about people who are getting tired studying these entanglements, getting pooped out studying these entanglements, their desires and studying other people's desires together. And then again, we'll give them maybe some nirvanic release temporarily so they can rest and start again the great work. So, Personal liberation and freedom from suffering will continue to be offered as skillful means in the Zen tradition.

[39:27]

And this is more complications for us to deal with. More opportunities to see if we are addicted to personal gain, addicted to personal freedom, addicted to being done with all this work, rather than being willing to be addicted forever together with all beings, not trying to get rid of addiction. Again, there's two kinds of freedom. One is freedom which eliminates suffering, and the other one is a freedom with suffering, among suffering, so that there is a joy and a freedom which is not obstructed by suffering, but is nourished by it and uses it as opportunities to work with all beings, to practice the unsurpassed perfect awakening by means of suffering, by means of addictions, desires,

[40:59]

Greed, hate, and delusion. And as you may have noticed in the chant at the end of our sessions, it printed, it says, delusions are inexhaustible. I vow to end them. So I've been saying afflictions. The Chinese characters, it's a compound, bono. That compound is which is translated on the sheet as delusions, it really is not just delusions, it's also desire, greed, hatred, confusion. It's all the afflictions. It's basically all the inappropriate desires, the desires to get rid of, the desires to hold on to. All these desires are I vow to end them.

[42:04]

But end them, it's really not to end them. It's to fully engage with them and be free with them. The character, the Chinese character is to cut through. But again, people usually think cut through these afflictions is to cut their root and get rid of them. The real nirvana does not eliminate suffering. And someone might think, well, I guess I've got real nirvana now because I'm suffering. So I guess I got the real nirvana because I haven't eliminated suffering. And the Buddha says in chapter two, yes, that's right, you are completely equal to the real nirvana. You are nothing but freedom from suffering without eliminating it.

[43:07]

That's what you really are. That's our Buddha nature. We are suffering and we're free of it. We're both. We're entangled and we're free of it. And also with everybody else because our freedom is supported by all beings. And if it's not, it's not real freedom. And our freedom supports all beings. So it's not just that I'm suffering and I'm also equal to Buddha in my suffering, but I'm also free of suffering, just like the Buddhas. Their practice is not different from mine or yours. Their practice is the same as our practice, except

[44:12]

They completely accept that their practice is the same as our practice. But we don't completely accept that our practice is the same as our practice. We want our practice to be different. And they don't want to be different from us who want our practice to be different. They're practicing with us. with no hesitation. We're learning this by serving the Buddhas who are willing to be just like us and who are willing for us to be just like them without getting any improvement to us. This is using The afflictions to cut through the afflictions. Not using afflictions to eliminate afflictions.

[45:18]

I vow to cut through them. I vow to pass through the afflictions together with all beings. I'm in the afflictions with all beings now. That's where I am. You're all here in the afflictions with all beings. That's where we are. And the story is saying sometimes the teachers offer a personal escape so that people can get ready after personally escaped to give up their personal escape. So they do get out of the house. But then when they wind up with is the Buddha nature, they wind up with is the one Buddha vehicle. So that's what we've got now is the one Buddha vehicle.

[46:28]

And as we say, now that you have it, please take care of it. So now it's, and also I hope that everybody accepts responsibility for taking care of this one Buddha vehicle. I wish that we would all take care of it because we have it, because it is us together suffering, joyfully suffering. because we realize that suffering is the way we cut through suffering. There's no other way to cut through the vines than with the vines, not really. But sometimes we temporarily say, oh, here, you can cut through the vines, so that we don't give up studying the vines. But studying the vines is transmitting the dharma. Studying the delusions is transmitting dharma.

[47:37]

And sometimes in the process of studying the delusion, we tell people about a place where there's no delusion, where there's personal release from it. And then tragically, some people are offering these kinds of escapes, not out of compassion, but in order to make money. Like there was a rock group, right, named Nirvana. And the lead singer, you know, got addicted to personal ways of escaping from suffering. His music, That wasn't so bad. But then there was also heroin, morphine, alcohol, and so on. So many other ways to try to escape.

[48:42]

And then again, How are we going to engage with these addictions to these personal liberations that people are trying out? How can we engage with them so that we can wake up together? So that's a little bit of offering from me. about chapter three, where Shariputra receives his assurance of being Buddha, and he gets a name, and the Buddha explains in great detail about what his life would be like then. Just a beautiful description of his Buddhahood, and then the story, and then now our story. So again, the great assembly in which this teaching is given, in which this teaching is studied, we study in the great assembly of entanglement with each other.

[49:58]

You are all invited to make offerings if you wish. We have an offering from Asian Nancy Easton. Blessings to you, Reb, and to the Great Assembly. Can you hear me okay? Okay. love this story and I never heard it the same as I am hearing it right now. I think because I've been thinking about this for a little while. I've been thinking about the ways in which we are transformed by everything and by our own actions and you know like you think about going on a journey and by the time you're even part of the way through the journey your idea of the journey and the destination has already been transformed by what you've gone through in the journey and I realized that maybe what is essential for these children is not, I mean, we want them out of the house, okay?

[51:11]

But what's even more important for getting them out of the house is helping them develop the willingness to leave the house. That seems like that's the first step in this, the ability to let go of needing to be in the house and just to turn their attention towards getting out of the house. And I wonder if maybe that is where transformation takes place is in this initial decision and action to leave the house. And it makes me think about what we do in Zazen, or at least the way that I give Zazen instructions, which is it's not important to get rid of all your thoughts. What's important is to just keep coming back as you notice that you've gotten distracted to return your mind back to the present. And that seems like it's very related to this activity that's taking place in helping these children leave the house.

[52:12]

Is that, am I getting that correctly? That seems like that's the essential action here, that you can pull someone out of the house, but they haven't really left the house. You've left the house when you have taken the vow to leave the house. And the rest is, it seems like maybe you have to also continue to act on that vow to leave the house. Am I understanding that correctly? It may be that in order to get out of the house, you have to act on the vow to get out of the house. However, the one brutal vehicle is not to try to get out of the house.

[53:19]

However, in order to be ready to receive the teaching of the One Vehicle, the Buddha teaches ways of helping people realize that they want to get out of the house. That's part of the process. That's the way the Buddha first taught. And He taught them ways to get out of the house. But in this story, he didn't exactly show them how to get out of the house. He showed them something that they wanted, which wasn't in the house. They didn't even know they were in that burning house. All they knew is they liked their toys. They knew that. It's good. Based on what they knew, the Buddha turned what they knew and said, here's something better. And then they went after that, and that got them out of the house. Now that they're personally out of the house, now they're outside, now they're ready to receive what the Buddha's trying to teach them, which is not to get out of the house, but to help other people get out of the house.

[54:43]

and not to help them get out of the house by getting them out of the house, but helping them get out of the house by paying attention, by noticing what they're desiring, and to pay attention to their desires so that they can realize what they're really desiring is real nirvana. They all want real nirvana, real peace, real freedom, but you have to give them a, in a sense, false nirvana or untrue nirvana, skillful nirvana as a skillful means. So what the Buddha is trying to do is not give them the nirvana of getting out of the house, but give them the skillful means of that nirvana so that they can attain the real nirvana once they get out of, once they have that skillful means nirvana, then they can be weaned of that. Here's the one white ox cart. And that's not trying to get out of anything.

[55:50]

That's engaging all beings who are in burning houses. And all beings, even, but even before they were in a burning house, they were still very narrowly focused on their pleasure. So it's freedom of that too. But if it wasn't, if the house wasn't burning, you might think, well, he can You know, the parent can let the child play a little longer with their, you know, they can play with their addictions longer. But at a certain point, you feel like it's time to get over this addiction. Not just to get out of the burning house, but to get over this addiction by turning the addiction. And then they're ready to get over the addiction, not by getting rid of it. but by fully engaging it, by engaging with others who are addicted. I'm wondering if we really need to wean people off of the three toy vehicles and onto the great Buddha vehicle, or if they already are.

[57:00]

Once they're out of the house, if it doesn't matter anymore, I wonder if they've been transformed by leaving the house. They're transformed by leaving the house, yes. And then you could use, in the future, you could use toy carts to help people, or you can use these other carts to help people. But these other carts, part of the story is, these other carts never really were there. They were just skillful means to get people away from the toy carts. Really, it's all just about freeing people but without eliminating anybody or anything. So helping people find that desire to awaken or find bodhicitta. And then sponsoring it, because even though they found it, they still have all these complications and entanglements and misunderstandings of what to do with them.

[58:08]

But by remembering what we're really up to, it helps us not get discouraged with endless entanglement and endless desire. Afflictions are inexhaustible. They are not going to be exhausted. But we need to remember our vow in order to be able to do this billion-fold world of work, which we joyfully want to do because We're on the Buddha vehicle. We're doing Buddha's work. And Buddha's not saying, I don't want to do all this work. I don't want to deal with all these addictions and confusions and desires. This is the content of my awakening is all this stuff. So all the toys, the children could have brought their toys with them. But even if they can't, they can get on the one Buddha vehicle and go shopping for more toys for kids. Buddhism is toys for us.

[59:13]

I love it. Thank you for the analogy. You're welcome. Thank you. We have an offering from Ran again. I'm pleased to be with you, Rob, and with this honored assembly. And I have a question and an offering. This reminds me very much of Alcoholics Anonymous. And having been a member for 30 years, happily, I remember at first when you were speaking, I thought, well, this doesn't work with AA because with AA, you have to stop. You just have to erase it from your life. And how does that work? But then the more you talked and what Nancy said, I think... I think it does because people go to AA meetings and they engage.

[60:19]

It's almost like Buddha to Buddha. They discuss and they learn that there's a better way to live. And I think it's a good example. I do too. And again, I would say that stopping is a skillful means. The point of AA, you know, Buddha's AA, is not just to stop drinking. It's to become free with drinking. I would agree with that. Also in AA, the people who have stopped, they say they're alcoholics. In other words, I've stopped, but I'm not yet free. So in the Buddha vehicle, I'm not yet free unless everybody's free. And that's the willingness to be with unfreedom is the Buddha nature.

[61:22]

No matter what the unfreedom is, I'm with it. So I'm both, I'm with whatever the suffering is and I'm all the different types of sufferings. But I'm with it not just to be with it. I'm with it to be free with it. I'm with it to show that we can be free with it. But as a skillful device, let's get rid of it for a while. Let's not drink. Let's stop it. And then let's find out what it means to be free of drinking. to be free with drinking, to be free in drinking. And again, that relates to the higher power. The higher power is willing to be with all addicts. And it's with them while they're addicts, not coming after they're free and not trying to get rid of them and eliminate them,

[62:35]

but completely embrace them and help them embrace each other. That's the higher power. But the higher power is not floating someplace else. It's completely engaged with being an alcoholic and all the other forms of addiction. And as you know, many people go from AA to Buddhism. And many people in AA think that Bill Williams, somehow, you know, he was a great Bodhisattva. Somehow he heard, I know, somehow he heard about the Bodhisattva path. He wasn't just teaching stop drinking and be free from drinking. He was teaching also the path of helping others to be free in drinking, with drinking, among drinking, among drinkers.

[63:49]

He was showing he didn't get free and then just forget him. He plunged into the suffering of alcoholism for the sake of all alcoholics. His real joy was working with the alcoholics. Now, would it be all right if there weren't any alcoholics? I don't know. But he wasn't trying to eliminate alcoholics. He was trying to show a relationship with them and among them that was free from alcoholism, that wasn't obstructed by it. And a skillful means, one of the skillful means is stop drinking. But some alcoholics don't stop drinking and they still go to AA meetings, even though they haven't stopped, right? You don't get kicked out of AA if you're still drinking.

[64:54]

So in the AA meetings, everybody's an alcoholic and some of them are drinking and some of them aren't, right? Mm-hmm. But they're all working on the Buddha vehicle. They're all working on helping others be free with it, in it, because if we're with other alcoholics, we're in the realm of alcoholics. We're in it. And we're embracing them and they're embracing us. The real work is teaching them and being taught by them. That's what the Buddha vehicle is about. And I think that's what Bill Williams Alcoholics Anonymous is about. It was about us helping each other be free together, not eliminating the alcoholics, not getting rid of the alcoholics, but helping them work together to realize supreme awakening. Thank you.

[65:59]

Thank you. I'm an alcoholic, by the way, but I'm not an expert or anything. I haven't gone to very many meetings, but I am an alcoholic. I would like to also tell you that I visited Bill Williams' grave. which is near where he was born. And my husband and I went to a meeting there many years ago. Actually, it was at the time of 9-11. It was two days before 9-1-1. But when we visited his grave, you can't imagine how many little notes are on top of his stone and around there and quarters and money. And it's a really sacred spot, right? Celestial flowers. Yes. Thank you. Offerings to the Buddha. Thank you, Randigan.

[67:00]

I'd like to offer that it's Bill Wilson, if people want more information. Is Bill Wilson in this group here? I'm not calling on Bill Wilson to make an offering, but it's not Williams, it's Wilson. Oh, Bill Wilson. Okay. William Wilson. Sorry. It's all good. The founder of AA. So we have an offering from Deirdre F., Hi, I am Deirdre and I am an alcoholic, but this isn't a meeting for AA, but I am so grateful. Wait a minute. This can be an AA meeting. Well, you know what? I'm so amazed that you... How long does it take to have an AA meeting? Just two. Well, we've got at least two here. And our higher power. Yeah. Wow.

[68:05]

It's amazing because normally I am at a meeting every day. And I chose this instead of my meeting where I ring the bell to start our meditation. And I just emailed and I said, I can't ring the bell today. And I'm just amazed again as so many times the synchronicity that this has been brought up. And thank you. Just thank you. I'm almost four years sober. And AA brought me back to my practice. I had been out. I was in the house, the burning house. Literally, my marriage was in trouble. I was falling down the angry way my mother went, who never found AA. And thank God. Thank you and Paul Haller and all of you and my teacher here and my own practice, the practice of Buddha, Buddhism, this has brought me back.

[69:11]

So I had a practice before I left San Francisco. And yet I was drinking. The first time I ever came to the San Francisco Zen Center, I was so hungover, I just wept. that I could sit on a Zafu in pain. And I didn't think I had a problem. And I was in this house. It was burning. Everyone in my family drinks constantly. And I just didn't know it was burning. I didn't know until five years ago, four and a half years ago. And I'm 54. My goodness, I didn't know. I got out, though. I had a moment of love. It was love I was seeking, my husband. And he helped me leave the house, even though I didn't know it was burning. Because it wasn't only burning. There was the Zen Center. There was my work. But now I'm here, and the house, I'm in the house with my sons and my husband and

[70:17]

And I'm sober and we're sober. And I'm so grateful. And yet I still am suffering. And I'm so grateful to know that that is the way. And the way I have trouble with service still in AA, the step 12, but I'm working on it. And I'm just, I feel like this was such a gift. I just appreciate this so much. So thank you very, very much. Sobriety is essential for studying the Lotus Sutra. It's not very interesting if you're high. Other things, other highs. But when you're sober, the Lotus Sutra is the best show in town, or one of the best. When you're sober, it's interesting to study.

[71:19]

our afflictions. So sobriety is part of our path here. It's not the whole story. It just helps us be able to look at our life. It's the fifth precept. I could never take it without feeling so terrible that I knew I was going to break it. And now I can take my vows, you know, take the... What is it? Do that and feel okay. But it's every day. It's a work. You're right. It's... I can be okay with suffering. That's what I need to remember. And I can find help. And this is helpful. It's scary. The Lotus Sutra is a little scary with all the scary beasts in that house. It's scary that I didn't know I was in a house like that. And I still don't know what I don't know. Thank you, Deirdre.

[72:26]

Thank you. We have an offering from Reverend Miu Miu. Good evening, lab and the universal family. I suffer from arrogance and, um, I've only, uh, I wasn't aware, but, um, what it was was I had these standards, um, these ideas of how people should be and, um, But I never shared them.

[73:29]

And so I'd expect people to be living up to my standards. But they didn't know. I hadn't told them. So I always saw them as failing. The other thing was I didn't know. either so I didn't know that I was failing and but somehow I also had this I cared I cared for people I love people. And I was consistently, throughout my life, this has gone on, from before I remember, I had these ideas of how people should be.

[74:42]

And when they weren't like that, I couldn't deal with that. Anger and upset. And then I could see other people who were suffering. And my heart just went out to them. And then they somehow fell off the pedestal I'd put them on without saying anything to them or myself about this pedestal. And, of course, the same thing is the same thing. Anyway, so I'm... I've been, you know, one of the first things you said to me when I came to Green Gulch was to read the Lotus Sutra.

[75:43]

And I, yeah, sure I will. Yeah, right, great. And of course... It was a foreign language to me. It was just... I couldn't understand anything of it. And... And I didn't say... I didn't tell you, my teacher, my problem. And... And... At the moment, I sort of feel like... I've this arrogance. I want to save all beings, but I see them out there. So I want to save everyone in this universal assembly, but I want to say that what I see is out there.

[76:49]

And I'm beginning to realize that that's an impossibility, which is what I've always thought. Well, yeah, I can make that vow, but there's too many people to save them all, you know. But I'll keep making that vow because maybe that will change for me. And where I am is a realization that all these – All these beings that I see out there are here. They're not out there. It's not you. It's not Deirdre. It's not, I can't remember all your names, Samir. It's none of it. It's not you. It's my thought of you. It's my standard of you. It's my wish for you. And you don't know it. So you can't live up to it. So I can't save you.

[77:55]

I can't save myself until such time as I pay attention to how I'm viewing you. And what helped here was... Chapter 12 has... has this really long story at the beginning about Davidita, I think I've said that right, and Shakyamuni and the lives that were led in order to attain awakening. And that seemed to take forever. and again forever, and then just as you thought they were there, again.

[78:56]

And towards the end of that chapter, there's this other piece comes in, and I can't remember all the names of the Bodhisattvas, so I'm not going to use them, but it concerns a question of is it possible if someone is pure enough wholesome enough, upright enough for them to become awakened quickly. And out of that, we're introduced to this eight-year-old princess. I think it was a wheel-turning king. And, of course, princess for me, my cultural background and everything, tends to mean a young white girl who's pure, right? But looking at it more and more, studying it, I came to see that actually this princess was a Naga princess.

[80:10]

And Naga, the Sanskrit... Naga Sanskrit, and it means serpent or dragon. And over the Southeast Asia and the Indian subcontinent, there's a belief within these creatures that they not only live above ground but also below ground, and they're also able to take on human forms. So this story of this princess who appears and she gives Shakyamuni Buddha a rock. And then there's, I think, anyway, there's a couple of Bodhisattvas, Manjushri maybe, and Shariputra, who don't actually believe that she can do this.

[81:11]

And she does it. She becomes a Buddha. She sits. She sits on a lotus. And they can see that she is Buddha. And that just got me thinking that I don't like serpents. I don't like snakes. Yeah, the serpent that's most nagga in India is a king cobra. And there's a lot of cobras and snakes around Buddhist statues and Bodhisattva statues. So I sort of come to realise that... Yeah, my views, my views of who these beings are that I see beyond me prevents me from seeing who they are and learning how to pay attention to what I'm doing right now.

[82:18]

How I'm inattentive to this moment and I don't feels to me right now that if I can be really attentive to this moment that's a really good place to be and I've heard you tell me that many times and so um I'd like to confess and repent that I haven't listened to you properly and uh I'd like to thank you and the whole Universal Assembly for standing by me all this time. Much love. You will become Buddha.

[83:26]

You have an offering from Anne. Unmute. There, unmuted. I have two questions. The first one is, Why would we try to reach delusion with more delusion? Because we might understand that that's our only option. All we've got is delusion. But rather than try to get rid of our delusion, let's choose our delusion Study delusion.

[84:50]

Because that's the path of freedom from delusion. So that leads to the second question. It's kind of like, what are we up to when we say, I vow to save all beings? In other words, what's not okay now? And what are we... That's a delusion, too, to say that they need saving. And if you don't mind, I'll quote Hakuin. He said also, sentient beings are primarily all Buddhas. So if there's someone saying, well, I'm going to go save them, and here's all of these ways in which I can do that, I wonder about that. What's the motivation there and can that be looked into?

[85:56]

Yes, it can be. And you are being called by all beings to look into that motivation. Yes. Because... If I say me or someone says, gee, look at that person over there. They've got problems. I'm going to fix it, right? It's hell all over again. There's war. So there's a delusion to say I vow to save all beings because all beings are okay. just as they are, because if they aren't, then it's again a delusion about separation. Yeah, right. Thank you. You're welcome. We have an offering from Henry.

[87:07]

Good morning, Reb. And greetings. Can you hear me? Yes, I can. Okay. And greetings to the Great Assembly. Two things popped out when I was reading last night and while I was listening to you and listening to other people. The middle way. You have Dogen's, you know, Saint Dogen that points to the middle way often. Mm-hmm. that you can't just cut things off sometimes. You can't be totally immersed in it. You find somewhere in the middle way to find release. And the other thing that popped up for me was the metaphor of the burning house, how dangerous it could be of thinking that you cut it off. And it's delusional because it's still there.

[88:13]

You know, I'm reminded with what's going to happen tomorrow. I hear everybody, I'm from San Francisco. It's a little more liberal here. You know, people are, thank God it's going to be over tomorrow, right? This era. But is it really over tomorrow? Is it delusional that, you know, there are a group of people out there that some needs are not met or something's not met. It's still going to be there. You know, it's dangerous even, you know, it's dangerous before and it can be dangerous afterwards, right? Because it's still the same perspective sometimes that we're not looking at it right in front of us. I just wanted to share those two things. Thank you. I agree with you. Thank you. We have an offering from Dawu.

[89:20]

Morning, Rob. Morning, Dawul. I feel very grateful to you and to the Great Assembly. Yeah, I've noticed just a lot of tenderness in my heart. Just feeling very moved by, yeah, by the way you've been And others have been sharing so deeply and the way you've been helping me turn these ideas. Because when I try to read the Lotus Sutra, I mostly don't connect with it. But when I hear you and others speak about it, I feel blessed. it's very meaningful for my practice, and I am noticing a lot of things on a very physical and emotional level.

[90:42]

Yeah, and I really appreciate from today the way that you were talking about the second of the bodhisattva vows, because I've always... had some trouble with that wording and so i think to to say afflictions and not just delusions and to say what does it mean to cut through actually means just to practice with them and fully be with them uh that that starts to feel like ah like there's a settling like okay that's something that i that makes yeah that i can do like not do but that that's part of my practice that Whereas end them, I just sort of feel at a loss. Because my experience is also just, yeah, not that I can end them. Sometimes they end, at least for a little while, which just feels nice.

[91:48]

Yeah. One of the things that I struggle with in, with the Lotus Sutra is some of the very fancy, like, and this sort of metaphysical language. And, you know, Linda Ruth was saying, You don't have to literally, you don't have to take it literally. Like, you know, if somebody falls into a pit of fire, you know, you might think the fire is not immediately going to turn to water, but we can think of this as a metaphor. And that makes sense to me. And maybe I just have to accept that right now I'm in this place where if somebody makes a claim that sounds more like, well, we know what's, you know, these magical things can really happen, that there's something in me that's just like, I, I noticed the resistance and I'm trying to be compassionate with,

[92:59]

with my resistance to the idea of some of this sounds like, like magic. Um, and Linda Ruth was talking about Suzuki Roshi having as a child, a resistance to his mother chanting the 25th chapter of the Lotus Sutra. Like that sounds superstitious. And I think that's what's coming out for me. Um, but yeah, maybe it could you speak to that a little bit? Cause sometimes even, you know, if somebody says, um, I think with Buddha nature, I can say, yeah, that's something that we can kind of experience. And that doesn't sound like something I have to believe in in a superstitious way. But even if you say you will become Buddha, sometimes I hear that as like, you know, some sort of transformation that has to happen in this lifetime, or if it doesn't, then I have to be reborn. And then I have to believe in this like rebirth. And I don't, I don't know if I believe in that.

[94:01]

So anyway, yeah, if you could help me practice with these kind of doubts that are coming up related to the things that sound superstitious to me. I feel that superstition or superstitiousness is one of the beings that we have the opportunity to meet wholeheartedly. It's not like I have no wish that you would not think that something's superstitious. I don't wish that. What I do wish is that you will be able to wholeheartedly meet any appearances of superstition.

[95:04]

Because you and I are surrounded by appearances of superstition, aren't we? Many people around us appear to be superstitious. They believe something with no evidence, right? This is a big thing right now, right? People believe things that have no evidence. That's one of the definitions of superstition. We live in a world full of that. So for me, it's not so much for me to stop seeing the appearance of superstition, but for me to embrace and sustain it because superstition is a living being in my life. And also, there's people, human beings, seem to be connected to these superstitions. And these human beings who have these superstitions, who seem to, I vow to embrace and sustain them. I vow to practice with them. I vow to respect them. I see, and I also see that lots of sufferings coming up around these superstitions.

[96:13]

I see that too. And that's something else which I vow to embrace and sustain. I'm not into getting rid of superstition. I'm into meeting it and practicing with it. If it's given to me. So when superstition appears, it's calling for my compassion. And also I'm calling for superstition's compassion, which I maybe can't see. But I still want it. And by thoroughly studying, by compassionately studying superstition, I will discover that superstition is compassionately studying me. That it's teaching me how to find my realization of Buddha nature. All the things which I don't see as part of Buddha nature are calling to me to realize that they are, because they are.

[97:17]

Buddha nature embraces all forms of being, all forms of superstition, all forms of self-righteousness, and so on. How to wake up to that is by, we will discover there is a Buddha in the middle of superstition if we treat the superstition like we treat a Buddha. It's not going to hurt anybody if we treat them like treating a Buddha. It's not going to hurt them. And we can question them like we question a Buddha. Would you tell me a little bit more about this view you have? And we can ask questions like, is there any evidence for that? Are you interested in evidence? But we can also ask the Buddha the same question. Dear Buddha, is there any evidence for what you just said? And the Buddha says, thanks for asking. I wondered when you'd ask that. So yeah, I'm not trying to get rid of superstition.

[98:20]

I'm trying to meet it and awaken it and also meet it and be awakened by it. I want everything that comes to me to awaken me. And I want to awaken everything that comes to me. But it's not me doing it or it doing it. It's, again, this conversation. So your thorough, genuine conversation with other, with a superstition that's other, in that conversation, you will discover Buddha. Which is, of course, already here. But without the conversation, we don't realize that Buddha's right here with us. in the midst of all the superstitions. The great assembly of superstitions. We often think things without having evidence for them other than the thought. Like we think someone likes us or doesn't.

[99:22]

It's just the thought comes in our mind. Oh, they like us. In a sense, that's superstitious. We haven't actually checked with them to see if they do. But we can, we can say, did I do something to offend you? Or do you respect me? I guess all of that I hear and that resonates with me. And the question that's coming up now is, You know, when I've taken vows and I've vowed, you know, as that in this life and on throughout countless lives. And sometimes when I say that, I feel a sort of friction because it's like, I don't know what countless lives means. Do I have to believe that something about what countless lives means?

[100:27]

that's the sort of friction that comes up for me sometimes. Because I can say, I can make that vow for this life, and then I'll die. And then I don't know what happens. If I can, I want to maintain this vow, but I don't know how that happens. Yeah. So part of, first of all, I just want to say that If I see you, but I realize I don't know who you are, I might feel some friction. So friction is a normal part of interaction between awareness and objects. There's often some friction there. Whatever you say, if this meeting of awareness and objects of awareness isn't thoroughly studied, there's friction.

[101:31]

And the friction can also take the form of fear, anxiety, confusion, greed, hatred, at that unintegrated meeting with others. This is our work area. What was the other thing you just said? Besides the friction? It's part of human nature, I feel, that we vow to dedicate our life to something and we don't know what the something is. That's part of our nature. It's part of the joke of being a human is that we aspire to something, but we don't really know what it is. Like some women aspire to be a mother who aren't mothers, but they don't know what it is. And a little girl who aspires to be a mother, she knows she's not a mother yet, but she still aspires to it.

[102:39]

But she's not mature enough to understand that she doesn't know what a mother is. She thinks she knows what a mother is. She thinks she knows her mother. And she thinks she knows what... So she's aspiring to something. She thinks she knows what it is. This is fine, but it's not really fully human yet. She's not mature enough to accept that she's aspiring to something that she does not fully understand. She knows a little bit, like her mom's kind and helpful and loving. She knows that. But there's more to mothers than that. Mothers are also daughters. and wives and friends, but she doesn't care about that stuff. So as you become more mature in your vows, you realize that you're vowing to something like to be a bodhisattva, and you don't fully know what that is. And when you are mature enough to, and there's maybe some tension, maybe some friction, that's part of a mature vow.

[103:47]

A mature vow has tension in it and also tension in it. That's a mature. And so you have a more mature vow now that you realize you're not sure what it is, what the vow is, what the goal is. That's more mature. You're opening up to the fullness of your human vow, of your human nature. that you're an ironic creature, really. And so are we all. And there may be some tension in irony. There may be some irritation. But that irritation is the very thing that turns into a great joy when you don't push it away. It's a more full life to not know what you're totally devoted to. Like Tim. You don't know who he is, but you still want help or whatever it is, right?

[104:54]

Yeah. We have an offering from Patty. Hello. Hello. Hello. Thank you, Rev, and greetings to everyone. I'm still really bothered by something about the burning house and the description of the burning house where creatures and black skin and humpbacks are characterized as bad or evil.

[105:57]

And I just, I don't understand what this is. to do this. Can you help? Yeah, so you're saying you don't understand why the Lotus, why the people who wrote the Lotus Sutra wrote what they wrote in that part of the sutra. but it sounds like you would like to understand. It sounds like you think that what is written there could potentially be harmful. Yes. Maybe it could be disrespectful. So now we're starting to study something that appears to be potentially unhelpful, disrespectful,

[107:04]

unkind right so when these things appear how do you want to relate to it and also it seems like there's also a kind of a thought that there shouldn't be the lotus sutra shouldn't be talking there should be no language in the lotus sutra which is disrespectful because it's a sutra so we so there's something like if we have a sutra about great compassion And one of the chapters is about great compassion. But the whole sutra is supposed to be about great compassion, right? Yes. It's about the Buddha way. The Buddha vehicle is about great compassion. So, in the text, maybe we would expect there would be nothing in there that would appear to be disrespectful. That's part of your problem.

[108:07]

If you see people being disrespectful on the street, you feel kind of not good, right? But I personally would like to relate to people I see apparently not being respectful and language which I feel is not respectful. I want to engage that. And you are starting to engage this language in the sutra, which seemed disrespectful of some form of life. Yes. Now we live in a world, right? That's so many examples of people who seem to be disrespectful of trees, of animals, of humans. of certain types of humans. We see so much disrespect, so much lack of care and kindness. We see so much of it. So now when you see it in the Lotus Sutra, you engage it.

[109:13]

You bring it to me. You say, let's look at it. So now I'm saying, how can we look at this in a way to promote kindness? When I see unkindness in the Lotus Sutra, and I feel pain, and I feel discouragement, if I do, how do I relate to my own trouble, my own questioning? This is part of the process that we do in the Lotus Sutra, but then we also do it in the street with human beings who are not don't seem to be inside the Lotus Sutra, but really they are inside the Lotus Sutra. All these beings we see, they're also asking us for compassion. And when someone's speaking disrespectfully or unkindly, that being, that language, those words are calling us for compassion. And our feelings of pain when we see that is calling for compassion.

[110:15]

And when you tell me you have pain looking at these depictions, these words, these patterns of language, I wish to practice compassion towards your pain, but also I want to practice compassion towards any appearance like that. If I see anybody being unkind, my bodhisattva vow is to honor that. question it like I would question the Buddha. And also, if I feel my own discomfort to question it, to study it like I would question the Buddha. And when I question the Buddha, I don't feel like my own feeling is my questioning of the Buddha has no end. Like when Suzuki Roshi was alive, my questions had no end. I sometimes would take breaks from asking him questions, but I had more questions.

[111:25]

I just had, there was a rhythm in it. But the wonderful thing is I had, I had a notebook that I carried with me with questions for him. And he never said to me, he never gave me the feeling like, that's enough questions out of you. Give me a break. He always says, yeah, please question me. So I say to you, please question the Lotus Sutra. Please question me. And, you know, with no end, no end, this process of questioning is the Buddha way. You questioning the Lotus Sutra, wondering about it, having some hard feelings about it, that's the Buddha way. Again, I often tell people, I said, I noticed, I knew that some people occasionally had trouble with their teacher. I read Zen stories about people who had trouble with their teacher, and I knew some people had their trouble with Suzuki Roshi.

[112:29]

I thought, is there something wrong with me? I don't have any problem with him. Yeah. So I went to him and I said, you know, is it okay that I don't have a problem with you? There's no problem with everything seems to be going fine from my perspective. He said, oh, you will have problems with me. But then he left. But he left the Lotus Sutra. And we have problems with the Lotus Sutra. And our problems with the Lotus Sutra are endless. And our questions of the Lotus Sutra, I vow to endlessly question them. Dharma gates are boundless. There's nothing that's not a gate to Dharma. I vow to enter them. I vow to enter the appearance of disrespect to discover the Dharma. But you enter with compassion and respect. You don't enter something by pushing it away or spitting on it. And I don't feel like you're doing that.

[113:31]

I feel like you're compassionately questioning this language. And if you continue that, you will enter the Dharma gate, the boundless Dharma gates. Superstition is a Dharma gate. Cruelty is a Dharma gate. It doesn't mean we deny that it's cruelty. We're careful of it. We're respectful of it. We're patient with it. We're flexible with it. We're honest with it. This looks like cruelty, and I vow to save it. I vow to liberate it. I vow to enter it. Okay? Are you encouraged to study? I am encouraged. It's still painful, but... Are you encouraged to study that pain? Yes. Yeah. Study that pain.

[114:31]

Embrace and sustain that pain. Not to make it continue to live, but to make it fully live. Make it open up to the Dharma, that pain. That pain is a Dharma gate. If it goes away, then the next thing that comes will be the next Dharma gate. Thank you. You're welcome. Thank you. I believe that's all the time we have for offerings today. Okay. Oh, I forgot to say earlier. Too bad. A lot of people have left. Please, if you have time, look at the next chapter, chapter four. If you have time. May our intention equally extend to every being in place with the true merit of Buddha's way.

[115:35]

Beings are numberless. I vow to save them. Afflictions are inexhaustible. I vow to liberate them. Dharma gates are boundless. I vow to enter them. Buddha way is unsurpassable, I vow to become it.

[116:00]

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