This is the pure and simple color of true practice, of the true mind of faith, of the true body of faith. Welcome everyone to a great assembly. I wanted to let you know that this Sunday, the Green Gulch Abbess, Fu, will give a talk on the chat. Despising Bodhisattva from the Lotus Sutra. You're welcome to attend and listen to her speak about this wonderful story of never despising Bodhisattva. Also, I want to thank you. A couple hundred people have responded to my query, and I understand better now how people are participating.

[01:10]

Some people are pretty much coming to these morning sessions in person, watching them in real time. Real time? But about... Yeah, about 26.3% are watching them later. No. are going to some and watching the other ones later. And about 6% are watching them entirely through recordings. So I see what everybody's doing. I understand much better. What's your level and vision? Thank you so much. And Brendan made a pie chart so I could see this. Thank you, Brendan. Also, we just chanted the ehe koso hotsugamon, the verses for arousing the ancestor.

[02:21]

Dogen Zenji, his own vow. And again, I hear him meditating on this relationship between those who have not yet fully awakened and those who have, and how those who have you know, are just like those who haven't, and those who haven't are just like those who have. It doesn't say that, but it goes both ways. So here again is Dogen reflecting the Lotus Sutra's meditation on past Buddhas and future Buddhas in us. And he suggests, quietly explore the farthest reaches of these causes and conditions. So one understanding that, quietly explore the causes and conditions, quietly explore the stories of the relationship between those who have completely awakened and those who haven't.

[03:30]

Explore the stories of that relationship between those, our future and our present. These about past, present, and future in the Lotus Sutra. Our meditation is to exercise our imagination so that we can open to things we've never heard or seen or even thought of before. So Dogen is encouraging us to quietly, quietly, in stillness, explore the causes and conditions of our present and future awakening, and our past awakening, and our past life as bodhisattvas, and our future life as bodhisattvas, and our present life as bodhisattvas. Today, I almost feel like I should apologize for an intention I have to go through chapters in one session.

[04:42]

I don't want to skip anything, and I want to respectfully address five chapters So hold on to your meditation seat. So we spent a couple sessions on the wonderful chapter called Faith and Understanding, which describes, in a way, the structure of Soto Zen training. And maybe Rinzai too, but really I find that that chapter is, you know, that story in chapter four is the story that Dung Shan, the founder of Soto Zen, held up as the depiction of the practice he was doing. And he was in conversation with his elder Dharma brother who had a different take on the practice.

[05:52]

So Dungsan's take is, after generations of nobility fallen into poverty, we've always been Buddha's child and we've temporarily, occasionally, or frequently forgotten that. And now we're in the process of remembering and accepting inheritance, which we never really ... we can't lose. So that's chapter four, which some of you probably will discuss in your small groups tomorrow. And I will ... I'm always thinking of this story. So now we're ready to move to chapter five. And chapter five, at the beginning of chapter five, the Buddha says to the four great disciples, Mahakasyapa, Mahamagalyana, Mahakatyayana, he says, well done.

[07:06]

You told the story well. of our practice, of our bodhisattva path. And then he, in the Chinese, which most, almost all of you translations from the Chinese, in the Chinese, he quickly goes into a, not a parable, but more of a simile. A simile of a great cloud great dharma cloud dharma mega which covers the whole world wow what a cloud anyway it covers all the mountains and rivers plants and all the people and animals it it's got the whole world in its hand

[08:07]

the dharma cloud, and it rains down the same rain on all the plants who are in the same earth. Although the cloud and the rain are all the same, all the plants are different. So the way that the rain is received is also different. In the being received differently, the rain's different, but not really. It's the same rain received skillfully in different ways. So here is the simile for the Buddha's teaching of one Buddha vehicle to all beings who are all in the same situation and who receive the teaching differently. So I received the Lotus Sutra differently than other beings.

[09:12]

And I'm sharing with you my different reception of one thing. So that's my quick imagining of the main simile of Chapter 5. The name of this chapter in Chinese, it says Medicinal Herbs Parable. That's the Chinese title of this chapter that Kumar Jeeva gave, or Medicinal Grasses Parable. However, in this chapter, this Chinese chapter, which most of you have English translation, there is not a parable about medicinal herbs. Medicinal herbs are mentioned among all the other herbs, but there is, in Sanskrit, a chapter also called Medicinal Herbs Parable, and in that chapter, there's a parable about medicinal herbs.

[10:23]

So I'd like to tell you that the parable that's in Sanskrit about medicinal herbs. And I think, yeah, you can find an English translation of this parable. One of the places you can find it is in Leon Hurwitz's translation of the Chinese. He also has in his translation the Sanskrit, which is Marjeeva's wonderful Chinese translation. Is the Great Assembly ready to hear this wonderful Sanskrit story, parable? Yeah, great. So once upon a time, there was a blind person, often translated as blind man.

[11:37]

but I think it's blind person, woman. Anyway, there was a blind person. And when this blind person was told by so-called sighted people that there were earth and sun and moon, and beautiful and not so beautiful people. He thought he didn't believe them. He didn't believe, he just, he did not believe them. Can you imagine that? Someone would tell you about something and you wouldn't believe it? Of course. We hear things all the time that we don't believe. Like some people don't believe the Lotus Sutra. Why might that be? Anyway, he didn't believe what people told him.

[12:45]

And then, I don't know, somehow he ran into a healer, a medicine person, a person who could concoct various concoctions made from herbs. A lot of different kinds of concoctions. And this healer applied these concoctions to this blind person. And this blind person was then able to see. And the blind person could see. There is a moon and a sun. There are stars and there are people who look different. Wow. He could see. She could see. So that's the story. But not quite. It goes on. and gets more interesting. After he became able to see, he thought that now he could see everything.

[13:50]

This is like, for example, the great, wonderful Bodhisattva ancestor Hakuin. When his eyes opened and he started to see the stars of the Dharma, he thought he could see everything. And he became very proud of himself for being able to see things he never saw before. And again, he thought, I can see everything. His wisdom eye opened. So he went too far and thought his wisdom eye had actually opened to Buddha's wisdom. And it was just starting. But he thought he could see it all. And before he got really arrogant, he, Hakuen,

[14:59]

And in a way, before this, I shouldn't say before he got really arrogant, I say in his arrogance, before he was so arrogant, he became incorrigible. Before that, when he still had a little bit of humility left, he ran into a teacher. Come out of the demon cave of his self-righteous realization. And he moved on in his practice. And in this story too, in the Lotus Sutra, after this person recited, he became like an ordinary person. And also, he ran into some sages and they gave him further instruction to help him. see everything yet. Sometimes we speak of three types of wisdom, or three types of all knowledge.

[16:25]

The first type in Sanskrit is called sarva-nyana, which means knowing everything. Sarva-marga-nyana, which means knowing all the paths of all beings, which means knowing all the practices. The word marga means path, and it also means practice. So the second kind is sarva-marga-nyana, knowing all the paths of all beings. The third kind is sarva-akara-nyana, which is knowing all aspects of all things. So in this story, the the person who became able to see, realized this first kind of knowledge, this first kind of all knowledge.

[17:35]

And this first kind of all knowledge is the knowledge Buddha's disciples realized. Buddha's Shravaka disciples, Buddha's Arhat disciples, they realized this knowledge. All knowledge. And this all knowledge was the all knowledge of knowing everything you need to know about being personally free from delusion. And their knowledge of how to be free from delusion, personally, was the same as the Buddha's knowledge about how to be personally free. The Buddha, towards the end, use that knowledge to become personally free. The second kind of knowledge is the knowledge of bodhisattvas. They cultivate the knowledge of knowing the practices of other people, how to practice together with others, how to support other people's practice and be supported by other people's margas, sarva-marga.

[18:47]

So the the blind person in this story and the great disciples who told the story in chapter four, who'd had the in step before, these disciples had the first kind of awakening or the first kind of wisdom. They were personally free. And they understood from Buddha that that was not all he was teaching, that the Buddha was teaching also these. And that they would realize them, and they were happy to hear about this. But in the story of the blind person, the person had the first kind and thought that was it. And the third kind of knowledge is the knowledge of all modes. Only Buddha has realized. It's the knowledge of how all things are. So it's not only the knowledge of how to be personally liberated from delusion, it's not only the knowledge of knowing everybody's path, but it's knowing every aspect and every quality and characteristic of everybody's path.

[20:05]

This is the sarva akara jnana. And this is the knowledge, the Buddhist wisdom, which was referred to back in chapter two when the Buddha said, Buddha together with the Buddha knows exhaustively the reality of all things. And then he lists all the different aspects of all things. And that wisdom which are the aspects. And it listed ten in that chapter, and it also listed later in the sutra too. Those ten are all the aspects, all the characteristics of all things. So it's the knowledge of how things of how they're characterized, of how they're made, of

[21:07]

what their function is, what they're doing now, what their causes are, what their conditions are, their effects are, what their consequences are, and also the ways in which they're all, all these different aspects of things are equally ultimate and equally one in the same thing. These are the all of what each thing is. And the Buddha together with Buddha knows this. But in this story, the blind person just saw the first type. It was the whole thing. But he was... He was helped out and it got over his limited understanding of his limited understanding. He realized his limited understanding was limited and let go of it.

[22:18]

And that process was a path with another bodhisattva. And, you know, So in this story, the bodhisattvas learning about their past. Okay, now chapter six. Chapter six. In chapter six, great leaders of the Buddha's community of disciples, these four leaders, now receive prediction of Buddhahood. So, earlier, at the end of chapter three, another leader of the community,

[23:27]

Sariputra received his prediction to be flower-like Tathagata, and now these four leaders, these great students of Buddha, realize that they're bodhisattvas, and they also realize, now they will be told that they are also going to become Buddha. Now they're told that in Chapter 6. And the name of chapter six is, the Chinese characters can be pronounced Juki, which means translated as prediction, or it also has been translated by a number of our translations as assurance.

[24:28]

So prediction of Buddhahood and assurance of Buddhahood is the name of chapter six. And now, after lots of discussion of future, Now the Buddha, at the end of chapter six, says, I've been talking about the future, now I'm going to look at the past. In chapter one, asked by Maitreya, Manjushri talked about the past. about how he saw in the past many examples of the wonders that were being observed in Chapter 1. And he said, given the past that I've seen, I predict that now, minutes or days or whatever, Shakyamuni Buddha is going to do what I saw in the past. He's going to teach the great Dharma Sutra.

[25:32]

And then after that, mostly we're talking about for several chapters. Exercising our imagination. The sutra is trying to help us use our imagination fully, which means to inhabit the Dharma with our whole body and mind, with the aid of our imagination exercises. So the whole Lotus Sutra can be seen as an imagination exercise. It talks like this is the way things are sometimes, but really it's more like try on thinking about what it would be like if things were this way. It's a thought experiment. I think of like, just now I thought of Tibetan, the training of Tibetan monks. They do this elaborate training in studying Indian commentaries and debating them to develop their imagination so that they can open to the Dharma by these intense exercises in imagination, in conversation.

[26:58]

So now at the end of chapter six, the Buddha says, okay, I've been, we're going to turn the diamond flower now from looking towards the future. We're now going to look towards the past. We're going to, we've been exercising in the future. Now we're going to exercise imagining the past. And the past was imagined again in chapter one, but now there's going to be a really elaborate imagination of the past in chapter seven. Now this chapter is called Magical City. And yeah. And there's a wonderful parable at the end of this chapter on the Magical City. And we'll get to it soon. But before the parable at the end of this chapter 7 about the magical city, there is this elaborate meditation and imagination of the past.

[28:17]

This is the past in which there was a Buddha called Excellent Excellence in Penetrating Wisdom, Tathagata. And we have a potential future right now of reading that chapter and exercising our mind by reading that chapter's description of this past. And it's a past in which this Tathagata excellent penetrating wisdom, Tathagata. And within that past is this Tathagata who also lived an, how do you call it, a stretching and imagination exercising length of time.

[29:24]

So he lived a very long time, a very long time ago. And Shakyamuni Buddha is telling us about that. So this Buddha practiced a really long time and at a certain point, this Buddha sat on the place of awakening and sat and sat and sat in the middle of all affliction all negativity, all beings, and sat still and practiced the bodhisattva way with all of that. And then when this Buddha, when this bodhisattva, who was called Buddha, but when this bodhisattva had

[30:32]

made friends with everything, made friends with all monsters and demons, made friends with all criminals. Then this Buddha was on the verge of realizing this unsurpassed, complete awakening. This Buddha, practicing together with all beings, was now on the verge of this seeing the Dharma, seeing the way things are. in reality, from all aspects. This Buddha had realized the first kind of knowledge, this Buddha had the second kind of knowledge.

[31:41]

Now this Buddha was on the verge of realizing the third kind of knowledge, which this Buddha is going to realize together with all beings. And all beings are supporting this Buddha to continue to sit there, awakening. In our poem called, which we translated as Precious Mere Samadhi, written by, again, the ancestor Dongshan Liangjie, the one who loves that story in Chapter Four, the teacher who holds up this chapter four story, parable, wrote that poem. And in that poem, it says, one gazed at a tree for 10 years, like a tiger leaving part of its prey, like a horse with shanks gone gray.

[32:51]

That Buddha sat on the Dharma seat, which is where all of us are, upright, silent, and still. But the Dharma did not appear before her. Meantime, flowers are falling on her. Celestial music and drumming is going on. to encourage her not to be distracted by anything, even these flowers. And heavenly winds blow away the flowers before they compost on her. And she sits that way for 10 eons, facing a tree or under a tree. And after 10 eons,

[33:59]

the true dharma manifest before her. And she becomes the Buddha, excellent penetrating wisdom. And then the story goes on. People see this wonderful thing and then they ask this Buddha to teach and so on. But today I'd just like to tell you that story because for me that story, for me that's the most everyday part of the sutra, which is our everyday practice. That Buddha is exemplifying our everyday practice of sitting in the midst of the world's problems until we sat and really fully embraced them all.

[35:07]

And when we do, we're on the verge of awakening. But we may have to continue to do this practice for 10... By the way, in the story it says he sat for 10 small eons. They weren't medium or long ones. They were just small eons, 10 of them. So we may also need to sit for 10 eons, Buddha work. We are doing this Buddha work. We're doing this bodhisattva work. We're doing it in our daily sitting, in our hourly sitting. We're sitting in the middle of all the stuff that that middle of. We're trying to be upright. quiet and unmoving. Just like that Buddha.

[36:10]

Not thinking of how long we're going to be sitting. Or anyway, if we're thinking about how long we're sitting, that's just one of the things that's worrying us. And we're being still with the concern of how much longer do we have to sit here. Now, Other people might be watching us and they wonder, well, when is this person who's on the verge of awakening going to really become Buddha? But anyway, that's another thing. Sit in the middle of those questions, those concerns. And we sit and we sit just like that. And so that's why I want to bring that up and consider that and remember that and be inspired by that in practice. sitting like this Buddha, not trying to get anything, just practicing the bodhisattva way in silence and stillness in the midst of all the noise.

[37:15]

Then at the end of that chapter, it's a quite a long chapter, at the end is this short story about people on the Bodhisattva path and the images of people on a really, uh, some, some, you know, on a, on a difficult walk, steep mountains and, you know, not on a golf course, walking through a really tough terrain and they have a leader and they are getting tired and, uh, Yeah. I have had it. This is enough bodhisattva practice for me. They don't say bodhisattva practice. This is enough mountain climbing for me. I've had it. I'm tired. This is enough. I'm just going to go back to camp. Anyway, you guys can go on. I'm quitting. Anyway, it's All of them wanted to quit.

[38:22]

And the leader said, oh, just a little bit further, there's a wonderful health spa where you can really get a deep massage and herbs and healing waters and great rest it's really a great place and it's you know situated in beautiful landscape and it's a gorgeous building let's just a little bit further let's go there and so they perk up and say okay And they go as good as they are. It's just like the leader said, and by the way, the leader conjured up the city. It's a magical city, but it worked for them to rest in. They had no complaints and they deeply rested. And when they're all said, okay, guys,

[39:23]

It's enough rest, time to go on with our journey to a far greater place. And they're rested and perky and they're ready to go. And they head off. And I just want to point out that it isn't like, I should say, this resting that they're doing is moving forward on the bodhisattva path. Stop their path when they rested. They rested as part of their path. This story is saying, on this path, bodhisattvas do get tired. And rest is part of continuing the life. as I've sung many times before.

[40:36]

Folks get weary. Zen folks do get weary wearing that same shabby dress. So when they're weary, try a little tenderness. So that's what the teacher did. They were getting weary. she gave him a little tenderness. And it's just what they needed to go on this great trip, to continue the endless path. And if any of you are, how long it's been and how difficult it is, maybe it's time to rest so you can go on. Some of my friends got tired, the path and they didn't rest and they did give up they worked really hard harder than me but they pushed and pushed and pushed and didn't rest and then they gave up they said zen's too hard i confessed that i rested and then i continued i wasn't way as

[42:01]

What's the word? Enthusiastic as they were. But they didn't rest. This little story is saying, rest is part of the path. And once rested, maybe you'll be ready to continue. And again, just to remind you, in that chapter is our dedication in which we chant Chapter eight. Yeah. Chapter eight. Okay, in chapter eight, there's a massive expansion of predictions. Now 500 disciples get predicted to Buddhahood. And there, read about that. There it is. 500 assurances of great students who didn't know they were bodhisattvas and now find out that they were.

[43:14]

And they also find out, oh yeah, they didn't know they were bodhisattvas and they didn't know that they are going to be Buddha. So in this chapter, they find out not only are they going to be Buddhas, but in their past, they'd been bodhisattvas. But they forgot. And now they remember that Shakyamuni Buddha, when she was a bodhisattva, she taught them and inspired them on the bodhisattva path. And from way back then, they'd been bodhisattvas. Now they remember that they're bodhisattvas. they don't remember, they hear that there will be such and such Buddhists. And then here's a parable. It's a parable. It's a parable about a person who represents these wonderful disciples of Buddha, of a person who goes to visit a good friend who is quite well-to-do and has a nice house, provide really good meals.

[44:43]

So he goes to visit his well-to-do friend and his friend does give him a really good meal and also gives him some alcohol. And he eats the meal and drinks the alcohol and passes out in . Then his friend is suddenly called away on important business. And he either doesn't or can't wake his guest up. And he sees his guest is, you know, He knows his guest is having a hard time taking care of himself, going on in life, so he takes the precious jewel, sometimes seen as a pearl, and sews it into his clothes and departs, and does not leave him a note telling him that he's sewn this jewel into his clothes.

[45:52]

And when he finally wakes up, he heads out on his life, and he continues to have a hard time. And sometime later, the man runs into his good friend. And his good friend can see that he still looks like he's really kind of having a hard time. He looks, what does he say, is it down in the mouth? He looks downtrodden and really kind of depressed. And his friend said, what's the matter? He said, well, I'm having a hard time. He said, what did you do with the jewel I gave you? And he said, I didn't know about that. And his friend scolded him. Oh, you idiot.

[46:54]

I saw into your robe. Well, now anyway, you can get it out of there and proceed on your wonderful, wonderful life with lots of support. then say in this parable we are the friend and the Buddha is the host and you gave us that jewel a long time ago and we forgot it And there's a fascicle written by, again, Dogen Zenji.

[48:05]

And the name of the fascicle is One Bright Pearl. And in that fascicle, he refers to the story from the And he says something like, a good friend will sew or always sews a bright pearl in our clothes when we're drunk. Good friends always sew the precious pearl into our robes. And yeah, this is, for me, this is really something to contemplate.

[49:16]

And then Dogen says, being thus is the one bright pearl, which is the whole. Us, in our ignorance, in our drunkenness, are being given a precious, in our ignorance, we are receiving a precious jewel. And being like this is the entire universe. The entire universe is like this. It is related with us in ignorance. And a good friend, the good friend is giving us this jewel, always giving us this jewel.

[50:38]

And we... And one... has come back to me in the last few years, again and again, and I've shared with some senior students, is that after I was ordained as a priest, Suzuki Rishi said to me one day, I'd like to give you some, I'd give you a Dharma talk. about the harmony of difference and unity, Sandokai. But I don't want to do it in the Buddha hall. I want to do it in my room. So he went into his room and I followed him and he sat down in Zazen posture and so did I, face to face, and he gave me this

[51:56]

He gave me this jewel. And I think part of me was thinking, this is so nice of him to do this. Wow. He's giving me this personal tutorial on this of our school. I'm so fortunate. He's so kind. This is great. But as he was giving me this jewel, I was having really a hard time staying awake. And I don't know how to sleep. I didn't fall over. I'm pretty sure. But I was really pretty much asleep. But I was enough awake to think, my God, I'm asleep. And he's giving me this jewel and I'm sitting here sleeping. This is really embarrassing. I was awake enough to feel embarrassed.

[53:00]

Then maybe other times I was so asleep I wasn't even feeling embarrassed. Now I'm kind of embarrassed, but also now I'm kind of joyful. Because maybe I'm like those foolish disciples that sleep. I had to be in a drunken stupor in order for Buddha to put this teaching into me. Maybe I'm like this person in the story. And maybe me being like that with and the whole universe is this one bright pearl. I'm not done meditating on this story and on my story with my story. It's a story.

[54:01]

the the the narration in the sutra is a parable okay there it is chapter eight and now can you believe chapter nine which is also called so uh chapter six is called uh prediction or assurance chapter eight is called assurance of the 500 disciples and chapter nine is also called it's a prediction of those who are in training and those who are not in training those are not in training in other words graduates of the training program so it's for people in training and people who are finished the training in other words a lot of a lot of different are getting prediction in chapter nine. A lot of them.

[55:07]

But the two that I like to draw your attention to are the two at the end, the last of the close disciples. In a way, these are the closest disciples, even though in some sense, they're not the senior disciples. The disciples are Ananda and Rahula. Ananda, I think, was Buddha's cousin and Buddha's attendant for 25 years, maybe. And Rahula was Buddha's only son. And these two people who are closest leave the prediction, the assurance last. Not completely last, because when they get their assurance, some other people see it and they come running up and say, well, we should get it too then.

[56:11]

Which is also kind of shocking to me that Lotus Sutra has people running up to Buddha and say, give us assurance too. But it does. Anyway, and even Rahula and Ananda thought, well, we should get it too probably. We're really close to the Buddha. And the Buddha did give them assurance. But what I'd like to draw attention to here is that sometimes the people that are closest to us are the most difficult for us to meet face to face. Sometimes we're least ready to meet them. most afraid of the people who are closest to us. Just like for me, you know, the person I most wanted to be with in the world, I wanted to get away from.

[57:17]

Other friends, but I was not as keen on being with them. I wanted to be their friend, but the main person I wanted to relate to and be close to and situated my life so that I could be. I was the director of the building during the last couple of years of his life, the director of the city center, and I assigned myself a room next to his so I would be near him. The person I wanted to be closest to and who I was closest to, in a way, I wanted to get away from. On some level, this person who was really being, he could have given me a hard time, but he didn't. I was afraid of him to some extent. Some part of me didn't want him to see all of me. Sometimes the person we're closest to, we don't want them to see us.

[58:21]

So then we're not ready. for the meeting, for the conversation of Buddha and Buddha. And so it is with Ananda and Rahula. But they finally were ready. They did receive this precious jewel in their foolishness. And yes, so I apologize for covering five chapters this morning, but I hope it was okay that we moved forward so quickly through so many eons. And I welcome your feedback on these amazing stories and what does it mean receive the jewel we're always drunk and that things being like that is the precious jewel not just the precious jewel but the precious jewel which is the whole universe the great assembly is welcome to make offerings

[59:45]

We have an offering from John. Hi. Hello, John. Hello, good morning, Rev. Good morning, Great Assembly. The universe is practicing with us. Thank you. I was reading the Atatamsaka Sutra, previous to this intensive beginning, and I was really struck by the way the sutra opened me up to a greater understanding, a clearer understanding of how the sutras themselves may be read and experienced. I mean, it begins with this great, almost hallucinogenic description of flowers and strange worlds with great jewels.

[60:59]

And there are worlds after worlds more numerous than the Ganges and so forth. And as I was reading it and struggling initially to relate to it, I find myself looking up out the window and seeing on the pine tree or yoke tree outside the window sort of glistening droplets of dew. It was early in the morning. They were shining very brightly with sunshine and light refracting through the droplets. And I thought, how remarkable. This is the world being described Amitabha Masaka Sutra. And the more deeply I read into it, I had an experience that is very similar to the experience I'm having now reading and studying the Lotus Sutra with you, which is that the sutra kind of picks sort of a into this world of imagination, concepts, and ideas, and then releases me back into the world with a fresh sort of set of eyes, a fresh way of seeing things.

[62:14]

It's really wonderful the way this works. So I've seen it as being the awakening world, both sutures, beginning in this place that is the awakening world, not the world of the awakened. It's an awakening world and it's all me and everything else are awakening together. It's an opportunity. I'm seeing a note, I'm sorry, that says my internet connection is unstable. I'm stable, the internet is less stable. So I find myself thinking about these sutras being kind of emanations or spoken by the Buddha from the place of awakening. Everything is right, and both are also absent of the historical Buddha. It's a different realm entirely, this sort of Dharmakaya realm, if you will, in these two sutras.

[63:20]

And I find myself missing the historical Buddha. I mean, I really love the historical Buddha. The historical Buddha introduced me to all of this initially, and I was able to relate to his teachings, particularly when the historical Buddha would say things like, if you don't trust Test them out in your own body and mind and experience. And I did. And I found them to be true, right? I was grasping at things that made me suffer and, or I rather gave me pleasure in pushing away the things that caused me to suffer. The historical Buddha. That was the one thing I wanted to share with you, I guess. historical Buddhist absence, though there's so much else here, it's not like there's a lot of room for missing the historical Buddha. These teachings are so rich. Missing the historical Buddha is part of our practice.

[64:27]

It's like I miss Suzuki Roshi. I'm But it's a joyous missing. It's a joyful missing. I joyfully miss Shakyamuni Buddha. I joyfully miss all the Chinese ancestors. I joyfully miss all the Indian ancestors. I joyfully miss all the Japanese ancestors. I miss my father and mother. Now, missing is part of the joy. One thing I forgot, and also, John, you're reminding me, I had things which I was potentially going to talk to the Great Assembly about, and one of them you're reminding me of, which is, We traditionally have what's called the trikaya.

[65:35]

No. Trikaya is three bodies. And while I'm on three bodies, I'll come back to three bodies. There's three bodies, trikaya, and then there's three pitikas. And pitikas are baskets. So the tripitika, and what is it? Jiva was a Tripitaka master. And the Tripitaka is the sutra-pitaka, the basket of the sutras, the abhidharma-pitaka, the basket of the commentaries on the sutras, and then the vinaya-pitaka, which is teaching and commentary on the ethical discipline. And I was going to mention and now I will, thanks to you, that the sutra pidaka is for samadhi.

[66:39]

The abhidharma pidaka is for wisdom, prajna. And the vinaya pidaka is for sila, ethical discipline. So reading sutras is for the purpose of entering samadhi. When we read the sutra, we're somewhat focused on the words of the sutra. Or we could even be totally focused on each word, completely undistracted by each word of the sutra. And as we focus on the sutra, our mind opens So it's a samadhi where we're undistracted and where our mind opens and opens and gets softer and more inclusive. So by reading the sutra, samadhi. And then coming out of the samadhi, we see the world in a new way.

[67:48]

So the Lotus Sutra turns us and refreshes our view of the world. focuses us, and opens us. However, we do sometimes have trouble focusing, and that's part of what the Lotus Sutra offers us, and the All the Times Sutra too. It offers us a chance to be aware of our struggle to be focused on something. But it doesn't hurt anybody really too much if we're a little bit distracted while we're reading. So we train for those situations where being distracted is really necessary, being undistracted is necessary. And there's a cycle in the Sutra between a bodhisattva entering samadhi, or a buddha entering samadhi, and then in samadhi, this light comes out of them, and the world shakes, And then they come out of the samadhi, like in chapter two, the Buddha comes out of samadhi and teaches us.

[68:57]

So in chapter one, the Buddha's in samadhi all of chapter one. The Buddha enters the samadhi of the place of innumerable meanings. And then people are, and then this light's happening into what's going on. So basically in the first chapter, we're discussing what's going on And while we're studying that, we're entering Samadhi. Then in Chapter 2, the Buddha comes out of Samadhi. After all this radiation has been explained, and these wonders have been explained, he's going to teach now. So he comes out of Samadhi and teaches, being silent and speaks. But then, again and again in the sutra, Buddhas enter samadhi, the light comes out, the world shakes, people wonder what's going on, people discuss what's going on, and then the Buddha comes out of samadhi and teaches.

[69:59]

And then another Buddha or bodhisattva enters samadhi, the light comes out, illuminating the worlds. People meditate on that and enjoy that, and then the Buddha comes out of samadhi and teaches. So it's teach, we hear teaching, and with the teaching we enter sutra, we engage the sutra, and we enter samadhi. Then we come out of the sutra, and then the teaching comes. And then the teaching takes us back to the samadhi, and then we come out of the samadhi and the teaching. So this is the samadhi teaching cycle. And also, part of the teaching is the precepts. That's part of entering the samadhi. So thank you for bringing that out. I wanted to say that earlier. Thank you. Thank you. I wanted to add briefly that because I was reading the Sutra and the Lotus Sutra, I had in my mind these various bodhisattvas that appear and rampage both sutras.

[71:09]

And in the Avatamsaka Sutra, there was one Bodhisattva whose name I think is Thor's of Awareness, who's got my attraction, got my attention, because he says, I think quite famously, I'm told, that the mind is like an artist. It paints the worlds. And then as I was reading the Lotus Sutra and entering the samadhi of the I thought of the Forest of Awareness Buddha, or Bodhisattva, and invited him to enter the place of rest with me in my imagination, kind of toured this place of rest with that Bodhisattva. It was quite enjoyable as a thought experiment or act of imagination. So, thank you. And one more thing I want to mention related to the Chapter 9, in discussing how Sometimes it's most difficult to meet those who are closest to us.

[72:15]

What came to mind was the case 98 of the Book of Serenity, which I think is called Dungsan. Here's Dungsan again. Dungsan's always close. So a monk asked him, among the three bodies of Buddha, among the Trikaya, Dharmakaya, Sambhogakaya, Nirmanakaya, among these three bodies, the body of bliss and the transformation body. Transformation body is the historical Buddha. The Sambhogakaya, the bliss body, that's the one of the Avatamsaka Sutra and the Lotus Sutra. It's the bliss body that you enter when you read. And the Dharmakaya is like space.

[73:25]

It's not the sutras. It's not these wonderful states of concentration you enter. It's the way everything is, like space, like light. Okay? Among them, which one of these doesn't fall into any category? And Dung Shan doesn't say which one it is. He just says, I'm always close to this. In other words, he doesn't fall into any of those Buddha bodies. But maybe he's like, but still, without falling into it, you might miss the transformation body. We might miss all the historical Buddhas and ancestors. And also we might miss the bliss body if we weren't in it. And we might even miss or be tempted to fall into the perfect all-comprehending Dharmakaya.

[74:30]

He's close to all of them without falling into any of them. And then there's a This closeness, Dungsan's closeness, is heart-rending if you seek it outside. Why is the ultimate closeness almost . The true face has no shape or color. So those who are closest to us were most afraid maybe to meet their true face. And they, us, we're so close, we're almost like enemies. We're afraid of each other. And to be close in that way, without seeking inside or outside, in the meeting, this is the great challenge.

[75:36]

of our only a Buddha together with a Buddha. It's not easy, this intimacy. But it's our job. So thank you for bringing all this. Happy to be at work. Thank you. You're welcome. By the way, I just wanted to mention, I really appreciate that some people who are facing us and me are falling asleep. That just like when I was a young monk showing my sleepy face to Suzuki Roshi, You are showing your sleepy face to the Great Assembly.

[76:43]

It's so honest of you and wonderful of you. Rather than, you know, hiding your face, your sleepy face. I couldn't, I would have liked to have hidden my sleepy face, but I couldn't. I was right in front of him. No way to hide. To those who, knowingly or unknowingly, are given this gift of total sleepy honesty or honest sleepiness. We have an offering from Klaus. Yesterday, I didn't feel able to raise my hand. And fortunately, you gave the explanation why I didn't feel able to raise my hand because you explained by the little story with your chanting lesson with Shunryo Roshi that this is not only an invitation to come,

[78:09]

but also an invitation to stay. And so yesterday you gave me the precious pearl of the insight that the shovel may be too heavy. I was touched by a member from yesterday who explained, as far as I understood, some sort of incompatibility between Buddhism and theistic religions. And yes, I was touched because I also with this matter.

[79:22]

For example, after I perceived my lay ordination, I was asked, hey, Klaus, are you now Buddhist? And I was with a clear, yes, I am. I grew up Catholic. I was an altar boy. And then since I left this church, this sphere. And nowadays I sometimes have the honor to hand over the incense at the altar. What I would like to offer is a quote from the Bible, from the

[80:35]

Gospel of John and the quote is Jesus says before Abraham was even born I am I met the Lotus Sutra three weeks ago I read perhaps the first 10 chapters plus chapter 25. And I have a vague idea that the Lotus Sutra may possibly be inside this quote. And this very, very short quote may possibly be inside the Lotus Sutra.

[81:44]

In the Lotus Sutra, there is a vast, how do you say, dimensions of space and time go beyond every limit. And the future seems to somehow trade the presence. Now I'm a bit blocked. I'm very fascinated by this. Me, I was somehow open. I was somehow open for the text and I could enjoy it. I was not so much confused or I didn't notice my confusion because I was curious.

[82:59]

Yeah, what happens there? And I would add a thought which I got after I heard the member from yesterday. He talked about grace and God. And today there came the idea that the whole chapter 25, We are chanting since several days. The method how Avalokiteshvara operates on the situations which are described, what is this other than grace?

[84:07]

It's grace, but it's meeting the grace. It's practicing with the grace. It isn't just grace. It's saying, please invoke the grace. Please think of the grace. Think of the passion. Think of the power of grace. So it's not just saying there is grace. It's not just giving the message. It's not just giving the grace. There's grace. It's saying, think of the grace. Contemplate the grace. And the word, it says, mindfully invoke. That character from mindfully also means to contemplate with wisdom. Contemplate the grace. So it's not just saying there's grace, and it's not just grace. It's also grace. receiving the grace and giving back to the grace.

[85:19]

That's what I would say. And may I also say in regard to the comment from yesterday by Jim, I didn't say yesterday, but when he was talking, I thought of something that Suzuki Roshi said at least once, which is that Buddhism is not one of the, like Christianity, Judaism, Islam, he actually said Mohammedism, or Buddhism. Buddhism is not Buddhism. Buddhism is when Buddhism goes beyond Buddhism. Buddhism is when Christianity goes beyond Christianity. The Buddhism is not the Buddhism that contradicts or is incompatible with other religions. Buddhism is compatible with all religions going beyond themselves. And Buddhism is before the world arose, I am.

[86:29]

Buddhism is before my parents were born, my face before my parents were born. And my face after, beyond my face. The incompatibility is with Buddhism in the form that should be gone beyond. But we can't go beyond it without being respectful of it. And we can't or theistic religions without being respectful of them. And fully engaging them, we will go beyond them. And when we go beyond whatever religion, We'll meet Buddhism, which has gone beyond itself. Somebody said, I was at a meeting with, what's his name? Baba Ramdas, right?

[87:31]

Who just died recently, right? And he said, all the religions are heading for the same place, especially Buddhism. Thank you, Klaus. Yes. May I add something? Yes. Yes. Just a funny thing. Yesterday, Jim talked about a book from C.G. Young with the title The Undiscovered Self. Then I was curious, what is it? I translated it into German. but I didn't find the title. Then I searched again with the English title, The Undiscovered Self, and I found that the German title is a little bit... The German title is Gegen und Zukunft.

[88:42]

The German title is Presence and future. Wow. Yes. Yeah. Thank you. We have an offering from, is it Jean or Jean? Jean? Jean? Good morning. Good afternoon. Good evening. And to the Great Assembly, it's wonderful to be practicing with you all. So I thought I'd wing it with you today a little bit and not have pre-thoughts or questions prepared. So I'm going to see what arises, if that's all right.

[89:46]

Cool. One thing that I did want to share with you is that today I'm celebrating 26 years of sobriety. And thank you. I'm really happy to be celebrating that with you. Thank you for sharing that you're an alcoholic too. It's nice to know you're a friend of Bill's. Yeah. I'm in solidarity with Bill and all alcoholics. Yes. My practice is to go to meetings and give back in meetings. And I do a lot of listening. I sponsor a lot of people and I listen a lot. And the other day I was on a meeting and I confessed that sometimes when people have really long comments, their defect of impatience comes up. And I said that I get fidgety, a little fidgety. And a person responded, wow, I can't imagine you fidgety.

[90:54]

You sit so still in meetings. You don't move. And I have this little fidget that I keep in my hand. That's the extent of it. So it's down here where you can't see it. And I thought to myself, you know, I'm practicing. I'm practicing no outflows. I'm practicing being upright. I'm practicing being constant. And I'm practicing compassion. And so it doesn't require movement. And I've learned that from watching you, how still you are when we meet in Dokusan and how little expression you often have on your face. Not that you're not interactive, but that it's just a beautiful, beautiful form of being met. And I really, I thank you for that. I also thank you for your willingness to teach in this new style through Zoom.

[91:58]

Intensive for me had always been an anchor in my year. And so I went for seven years and now it's been probably about three or four years since I participated. But every January, I feel this pining for this longing, intense period of reflection. And it's just really generous of you to Be willing to teach in this way and to meet us in this way that more than 90 people can participate in that. Full fellowship where we can share these wonderful teachings. So I wanted to thank you for that as well. One of the things that I wanted to run by you is to see if I have the right understanding that this notion of the Buddha. facing another Buddha is the turning in the conversation of the Dharma, is that right now as we enact this, I'm Buddha and you're Buddha.

[93:10]

Okay? And that one could then carry that forward and say, I am always Buddha, but I don't have those three understandings that you talked about. I might have the knowledge that I'm Buddha, but I've forgotten and I don't have the realization of being Buddha. Would that be an accurate statement? I wouldn't say it's accurate or inaccurate. I would say it's a statement. Okay. So it's a story I thought to be kind to. Yeah. And it's not so much that I'm Buddha, even though you said, he asked me and I said, yes. But me being me is Buddha. Got it, got it. And also me being my past and my future is Buddha.

[94:12]

Me being what I actually am is what Buddha is. And also what I am is in a meeting with you. I am the meeting between us. Yeah. Yeah. That's what I actually am. That's what actually knows what I am and is the reality of me. Yeah, I see that shift. That turn, right? You're turning, I'm turning, and we're turning each other and being turned by each other. That's what I am. And that's also called Buddha. But that also means Buddha is not by herself. She's meeting someone else. Right. That's what she is. You're not by yourself. You're meeting someone else.

[95:15]

Yeah. One of the things you said that I really loved was we are always in conversation. We're in conversation with all things. So when I... saw this beautiful orchid open this morning and I gave it a kiss. You know, we're in, we're in conversation and the notion of aloneness starts to, um, notion of being alone, but that the conversation is what is most alive. And we're also in conversation with being alone. We're turning being alone. And being alone is turning. However, if we don't practice it, or if our practice is not in accord with it, it's like it's not so. So that's why we have to fan. It's a conversation fanning.

[96:19]

And also, we're afraid of fanning. It's part of the process. I do find that it is in conversation that you feel most alive. And even if you don't feel most alive, in conversation is your life, regardless of how you feel. That is your life. That is your full aliveness, the conversation. And you could also feel that way, which is nice. That's a bonus. It's kind of a nice bonus, yeah. It's a blessing. In my marriage, my husband and I were looking for chairs that fit us just right, you know.

[97:23]

I mean, years, like eight, nine years before we found a chair for each of us that fit just right. And we positioned them facing each other very closely with nothing in between. And we modeled it after the Dokusan. So my husband would call them the Donkey Kong chairs because he didn't get the, he didn't have the word Dokusan readily at hand. So when we wanted to really intimately connect, that's what we did. We sat in these chairs intimately facing one another with nothing in between. And those, those were the conversations that were most alive for us. Yeah. I learned that from being in Dokusan with you. I appreciate that, that, sense of intimacy. You offered me the koan of what is the work that goes on beneath the patchwork robe?

[98:26]

And then the answer to that is intimacy. And it's been a wonderful koan to study. this notion of wanting to get away that you talk about with Suzuki Roshi, it's tamped, it's tamped down for me over the years with you. And, and yet I feel, excitement, anticipation, a little nervousness, you know, in this meeting to be met so, to be met so that it models for me how I wish to comport myself.

[99:29]

Yeah. Great. Yeah. So thank you for that. And then I would just want to say one other thing, which is, this possibility that we may never see each other again. Yeah, I mean, that happens. So I wanted to say something, but I wanted to give you a warning. So, you know, it's a to you, if you would be ready to receive something from me. I'm ready. Okay. Thank you for everything. I love you. Thank you for everything. Love you. I'm sorry. I understand. And when you were talking about doksan, sometimes I use the dictation capacity of my devices, and the dictation comes up with very interesting versions, various interesting words when I say doksan, many of them related to dogs, of course.

[100:52]

We have an offering for Wendy. Hello, Reb, and hello, Great Assembly. I'm very pleased to be here and to be speaking with you today. Reb, we met a long time ago and When that happened, I aspired way back then that someday study with you. And all this time has gone by. A long time ago, you were younger, right? Yeah. That's right. Is Robert your husband? Yes. So, but I... Here we are. We're finally studying together. Yes. Yes. It was resolved. I resolved this 41 years ago.

[102:06]

But I, you know, I didn't get to California. I didn't have opportunities. I didn't, I didn't make it happen. So thanks to the circumstances and Zoom and pandemic and everything, I'm, I've been very happy to be here the last two weeks. And, um, I was happy when it was approaching and I'm happy now. Um, it's my, this is my first intense intensive. I, you know, I know I'm assembly members who have had experiences I haven't had. So I've, I've been grateful to, um, watch and learn everybody and how this is all gone, which, um, I don't know how, I guess it can't be typical of all programs because it's so big and it's so spanning the world. But to be able to be face-to-face with so many people who are speaking has been a real gift.

[103:14]

I'm so grateful for it. For one thing, as I was preparing to make an offer, trying to figure out how it was done. And so much was provided, so much information and readiness was provided by all the people who were speaking. So thank you. Thank you, everybody who was doing that. This past year, I'm on the East Coast, no matter where I am, but it's been a year in which I've experienced so much Negativity, fear, pain, wish to curl up in a ball all the time. And so I would particularly listen. Members of the assembly would speak and you would reply in a way that I knew they were talking about facing adversity. In fact, I guess some of what the Lotus Sutra offers is that too, invoking compassion.

[104:15]

I was hearing people talk about engaging these situations. What other words were used? Embracing and sustaining. I was taking notes. I think you understand what I mean. Accepting. I have a really hard time invoking compassion today. successfully, I would say. But then yesterday, or maybe it was the day before, I heard somebody or you linking the opportunity to repent. That Dogen... said this was part of what we should bring when this feeling, um, because I, when I invoke compassion, it's just like I'm hitting a door, a wall or something.

[105:19]

Um, so I would like to confess and repent right now. Um, being, having this problem and being somewhat, um, lazy, not giving back very much, curling up month after month in quarantine, curling up into a ball. When I had opportunities to engage with people, I'd say, no, I'm tired, I'm depressed, I just gotta not do anything for someone else. And, you know, hearing about the four bodhisattvas who were ecstatic to hear the Buddha's message because they had gained nirvana. And, you know, so what rose in me when I heard that story was, oh, I'll just take the nirvana. You know, that's good enough.

[106:21]

I just want to get out of this. So I'm looking at my notes here because I wanted to group these thoughts together and just bring them here because that's what this experience has been meaning for me. Thank you. You're wonderful. Thank you. And while you were talking, I heard Dogen's words. While you were confessing, I heard Dogen's words. What you were doing is the pure and simple color of true practice. It's the true mind of faith, the true body of faith. You just practiced compassion when you were telling us about your shortcomings in practicing compassion. And on my screen right below you is the image of a man who has a wife.

[107:33]

And that man's wife came to me after I was talking about practicing compassion towards certain people. She came to me and she said, I cannot practice compassion towards that person. She confessed that to me. She practiced the pure and simple practice at that moment. I didn't say that to her, but she did. But what I did say to her was, can you be compassionate towards your unwillingness to be compassionate towards that person? And she said, yes, I can do that. And you just practice towards the limits of your compassion. by your confession. And whether you are aware of it or not, great compassion is always with you.

[108:39]

But you practice it just now. You demonstrate it just now. By saying, I have a hard time practicing compassion and sometimes I feel like I don't That's a compassion enacted. And there might be more opportunities. Thank you, Wendy. Thank you, Fred. And also while you're talking, I saw this young girl I met 41 years ago. You haven't changed at all. No. Another offering. We're done, I guess.

[109:44]

We're cooked. Is that right, Brendan? That's right. One minute. Until we're out of the oven. Are we done? Okay. Again, I'm sorry if that was too much from me today, but now we're ready for the next offering. the next part of the Lotus Sutra. Thank you so much, great assembly. I mentioned that this intensive is a little hard for me, but with your support, I'm able to continue. I'm going to do more of the original Chinese more literally. May the merit and virtue of all this equally extend to every being and place so that we together with all beings may become his way.

[111:01]

Beings are numberless. I vow to save them. Delusions are inexhaustible. I vow to pass through and liberate them all. Gates are boundless. I vow to enter them. Buddha way is unsurpassable. I vow to become it.

[111:31]

@Transcribed_v005
@Text_v005
@Score_89.32