If you are sitting upright in the midst of the self-enjoyment samadhi, then you are expressing the Buddha mind seal in your physical action. as you've heard many times, to sit upright in the midst of this self-fulfilling samadhi is the true path of enlightenment. sitting wholeheartedly, body and mind drops away.

[01:45]

And we are sitting in the light of Buddha's wisdom. Sitting in this light, receiving this light, and reflecting this light back is the Zazen practice of this school. The traps and snares of body and mind have been dropped off There is clear awareness which no words can reach. And yet, the samadhi is not without speech. It can say, thank you very much.

[02:54]

It can say, how is your health? It can say, I vow to realize Buddhahood for the welfare of all beings. It can say, I'm so grateful to practice wholeheartedly, dropping out body and mind, entering the Buddha way, practicing the Bodhisattva precepts. practicing all the bodhisattva basic methods of training. It can speak, it can stand and walk, it can think, and all these things are dropped off. In this way

[04:00]

The Buddha Mind Seal is expressed in all actions of body, speech, of posture, speech, and thought. We are planning to perform a Bodhisattva precept ceremony tonight for three members of our Sangha who have, together with the rest of the Sangha, steadfastly persevered through sickness and health. They did not give up and leave this difficult training experience just like everybody else didn't give up and leave.

[05:18]

There's been considerable difficulty one person, actually two people left, one went because her grandmother died, and another went to protect the Bodhisattva precepts in Los Angeles. They didn't leave because they were running away from difficulty. And you have all stayed here and we are grateful to each other for supporting each other to continue up to this moment. As I told you over and over All phenomena, according to the Mahayana teaching of the Sutra, which reveals the deep mystery, the deep intimacy of the Buddhist teaching, all phenomena have three characteristics.

[06:36]

Actually all phenomena have one characteristic. All phenomena are conscious construction only. And they have three characteristics. a dream characteristic, a fantasy characteristic, another dependent characteristic, and a completely purified, completely accomplished characteristic. The precepts have these three characteristics too. Sentient beings easily are aware of the dream characteristic of phenomena, the appearance of phenomena, the conceptual imputations about phenomena are what we're aware of, what we know.

[07:59]

We cling to them as real rather than dreams. When we practice wholeheartedly with these dreams the dreams drop away and we enter the dependent co-arising of our life. when we thoroughly chew up those dreams bite by bite we reach their complete perfection their complete insubstantiality and we become free of what we're chewing up and we enter the dependent core rising of reality.

[09:07]

We enter the light of phenomena. We enter the light of phenomena, which is also we enter the light of Buddha's wisdom. We enter the light of Buddha's wisdom illuminating phenomena. We care for the dream and enter the light of reality. The bodhisattva precepts, like everything else, have these three characteristics. Most of us, almost all of us, have heard of these precepts. Many of us have received them. These precepts have a dream quality. They have a dream characteristic. They have a characteristic which is imputed to them. It's the way we think about them. It's the way we understand them by our mental constructions.

[10:12]

But they have another characteristic which is the complete freedom from ideas and then they have another characteristic is the way they're actually dependently co-arising with all Buddhas and all sentient beings. By practicing wholeheartedly with these precepts, our ideas of these precepts can drop away and we can enter the light of the precepts. These three characteristics, it's very important to remember that the sutra teaches that we cannot disparage or disrespect any of these characteristics. If we disparage the dream, if we disparage the mask that we put on the precepts, if we disparage the mask we put on everything, the self, you know, the word mask,

[11:28]

in Greek is persona. If we disparage the person we put on the precepts then we will also disparage the light of the precepts and the life of the precepts. So we must respect the dream. We must respect unreality of the precepts which we are playing with. We must play with it respectfully. And if we wholeheartedly play respectfully with the dream of the precepts, the light of the precepts will reveal itself to us and we can enter and it can enter. Disparaging any of the three characteristics turns out to disparage the others. We must respect all three. Sometimes Dogen Zenji uses the image of a carved dragon and a real dragon.

[12:30]

There's a carved dragon of our practice and there's a real dragon of our practice. We must not disparage the carved dragon. We must also not like the carved dragon. are attached to it and we must of course not disparage the real dragon but also don't like it don't prefer it become intimate with the carved dragon and intimate with the real dragon but we can't see the real dragon so we first of all become intimate with the carved dragon of our Zazen practice and this way the carved dragon drops away and then we can practice being intimate with the real dragon and show that we're intimate with it by not attaching to it and welcome the carved dragon to reappear and drop away.

[13:32]

The light of the precepts is the light of Buddha's wisdom Tonight we will give and receive the precepts and maybe the light will appear. There's a story about Reb Anderson that probably 30 years ago he asked one of his teachers, Kadagiri Roshi, if there were any Zen teachings, any Zen

[14:44]

literature about the Bodhisattva precepts because Rabbi Henderson hadn't seen any. In English, he hadn't seen any. And Kadagiri Roshi said, yeah, there are some. One of them is called Zenkai Shouk. And he said, but if you read it, it may not look like Bodhisattva precepts. Kadagiri Rishi died 22 years ago. Now almost 23 years ago in a few days. I thank him for telling me and Sometime after he told me, I had the idea that maybe I could get Kazuo Akutani Hashi to work with me to translate it from Japanese into English.

[16:05]

This is Zen Kaisho, which means essence of Zen precepts. And he was interested, so we did work on translating it. And there's one point there that I wanted to share with you. Before I share with you, I wanted to say that this text, this is a copy of the translation, This text, I didn't know when we started translating it, that in the text it says that this text should only be given to people who have entered the room and received Dharma transmission. So I'm telling you about this text, but I

[17:12]

I'm having trouble showing it to you other than like this, the cover I can show you. And the person who compiled this text said that he was not, how did he put it? He said, He is afraid to give it to people who have not yet entered the room because it cannot help but cut their hands and injure their feet. My intention is not to possessively withhold. I think I can tell you that. So if you enter the room, I'll give you a copy of this.

[18:18]

But it'll be a long, difficult path to enter the room. Enter the room means receive Dharma transmission. I'll give you this along with Dharma transmission. Until then, I want to tell you that this book, after translating it, Tanahashi Sensei said, you should give some talks on it in contemporary language. So I did, and those talks got made into the book, Being Upright. This book is structured in the following way. Dogen Zenji gave talks on the precepts and his disciple Koun Eijo Zenji kind of summarized his teachings on the precepts and called them Kyoju Kaimon which is an essay on

[19:43]

Teaching and Conferring the Precepts, the Bodhisattva Precepts, the 16 Bodhisattva Precepts that will be given tonight. Kyojyug Haimon, giving, an essay on giving and instructing in the precepts. And this text is only two pages in English. And if you'd like, you can have a copy of that. That is not, what do you call it, not so dangerous. And it's public. Then another one of Dogen Zenji's disciples named Kyogo worked together with his teacher, Sennei, another disciple of Dogen, and wrote a commentary on what's called the Bomokyo, or the Brahmajala Sutra, which is a sutra about Bodhisattva precepts.

[20:54]

So he wrote this commentary on the 16 Bodhisattva precepts. And then this monk, and then... about 460 years after it was written, the monk named Banjin Danto, he said he was traveling in the deep, dark mountain valleys and he came to a temple. And in that temple, the abbot gave him a copy of this text. This text written by Kyogo. Commentary on the Bodhisattva precepts. Called, I think, Bomokyo Sho. Essence of the Brahmajala Sutra. Which, again, was a commentary on the sutra to help people understand Dogen Zenji's teachings on the same precepts.

[22:05]

And what I'm bringing up here, the point of this is that Banjin said, I received this text and I read it 100 times. And the light appeared somewhat. I thought, oh yeah, if We have to get pretty intimate with something before we reach the point of wholeheartedness, the body and mind drop away, and the light of the phenomena that we're studying appears. The text of the precepts, in some sense, could be shortened to just the 16 precepts. If you study these 16 precepts hundreds of times until you reach a wholehearted presence with them and the light of the precepts is available to you.

[23:25]

So Banjin took Dogen's teaching as compiled by Eijo Zenji, Kyoju Kaimon, combined it with Bonmo Kyo Sho and then wrote this introduction of how he came to receive this text and notes and that whole thing is called Zenkaisho and that's what was translated and that text is in the background or the foundation of being upright. You have received, many of you, these precepts. I see. You have. [...] You will. You have. [...]

[24:38]

You will, maybe. You have. [...] You have, and so on. Many of you have received these precepts. I have received these precepts also. We have them, we have received them, and we have the chance to take care of them, [...] to take care of the precepts, to hold the precepts up, to take care of them, to take care of them, until we wholeheartedly take care of them body-mind drops away and we enter the light of these precepts which is wonderfully far beyond any idea we have of them and is complete unsurpassed perfect enlightenment. We have been doing

[25:45]

Well, I don't know how good a job we've been doing, but I have really enjoyed trying to take care of him during this retreat. I feel like I've really enjoyed giving myself to these precepts for these three weeks. I'm glad I gave as much as I gave. I don't have much regret over... I have zero regret over having given myself, and I don't have much regret about holding back. I really am happy that I was able to devote myself to these precepts with you during this time and I'm very happy that you have done the same. And some of you told me that you have some regrets that you didn't, there were moments During this time, and somebody told me some moments a while ago, years ago, when she didn't wholeheartedly practice being with her mother.

[26:55]

She said, I really regret I was with my mother, but I wasn't wholeheartedly with my mother. And I regret it. And if you regret not being wholeheartedly with your mother, that regret, if it's just right, will poke you into wholeheartedly being with your mother. And then body and mind will drop away. So there is some regret over our lack of wholeheartedness. Somebody said to me, like, I somewhat regret how hard something was. And I said, well, being hard and difficult isn't to be regretted. When difficulty comes, I don't regret difficulty. I regret not being wholehearted with difficulty. Ease is not something to regret. Not being wholehearted with ease is something to regret.

[28:02]

When ease comes and you're wholehearted with it, that means you won't hold on to it. If you're sitting in meditation and bliss arises, That's okay. And if you're wholehearted with that bliss you won't hold on to it. If great pain arises when you're practicing it's an opportunity to wholeheartedly welcome it. And if you do and you're careful of it and patient with it and so on that and everything else will drop away. the total dream will evaporate and you'll enter the light of Buddha's wisdom. It's possible that you understand me really well, but it might be difficult to be wholehearted on a consistent basis. Most people have a hard time being consistently

[29:08]

wholehearted about what is appearing, about the current dream of our life together. That's normal. But it is possible. Actually, someone said to me that. Is it possible that I would be wholehearted? And I said, yes. Somebody's name is Deep Mountains Stream of Wisdom. And I don't know, I remember him saying, what is that stream of wisdom? I said, well, the stream of wisdom is what's running at the base of the deep mountains. And the deep mountains are your life of illusion. If you go to the bottom of those deep mountains, there's a river.

[30:13]

There's a stream flowing down there at the bottom of those mountains. She says, is it possible to go to the bottom of those mountains? I said, yes. Is it possible that I can get that stream of wisdom? I said, no, you can't get it, but you can dive into it. if you wholeheartedly engage those mountains to their full depth the mountains of your dreams to the full depth the mountains of your dreams of the precepts to the full depth of the deep dark depth of your dreams there's a stream of wisdom running there and you can jump in and there's lots of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas in there splashing around but you don't You can't get, you don't get the stream of wisdom. You join it. And it is possible. I say it's possible. Actually, some other person said, are there people on the planet who have actually entered that stream of wisdom?

[31:21]

Who have actually, like, been wholehearted and had body and mind drop away? And I say, I think so. I think there's quite a few people who have been wholehearted for whom body and mind has dropped away and they have manifested their original face. But that's the entry into the stream of wisdom. After you enter then you continue to practice after that joyfully over and over, dream after dream. Dreams will keep arising until the dream factory is completely converted into light, which takes a while. However, once you've entered the water, you're no longer so concerned about how long it will take to completely convert all mountains of dreams into light.

[32:25]

I'll say that again. Once you enter the water, you're not so troubled about how long it takes to convert the mountain ranges of dreams into light. Before you enter, you might pout occasionally. Do you know the word pout? No. It's kind of like, I don't want to do any more. This is too much work. That's pouting, right? It's just too hard. You're asking too much. I'm not asking. I'm just telling you what's required to make a Buddha. So I just wanted to touch upon an aspect of the ceremony that we do here and one of the aspects of the ceremony that we do when we give and receive bodhisattva precepts is that we don't usually say the bodhisattva vows.

[33:34]

We actually talk about the bodhisattva precepts which are the training methods that go with the vows. Usually at the end of our bodhisattva vows, bodhisattva precept ceremony, we don't even say the four vows. We just have the dedication of merit. And for a while I've been wondering, gee, that's kind of... In a way, it's kind of surprising that the people who are receiving the bodhisattva precepts in the ceremony, they don't actually express the bodhisattva vows which we express other times in our practice. But there are ceremonies where people who wish to be bodhisattvas do express bodhisattva vows. But they're not practices where the precepts, the bodhisattva precepts, the bodhisattva precepts are the bodhisattva training methods.

[34:43]

The precepts are the training methods for the people who wish to practice the bodhisattva way. Was that clear? So if you wish to realize Buddhahood for the welfare of all beings, well then we have, for example, the three pure precepts, which is to practice those things which are conducive to enlightenment, or we say to embrace and sustain forms and ceremonies. to embrace and sustain all good, which means to embrace and sustain generosity, ethical discipline, patience, enthusiasm, heroic effort, concentration and wisdom. Those training methods are the ethics of those who aspire to make a Buddha for the welfare of the world.

[35:49]

And then the third precept is to work for the welfare, for the maturity and the development of all living beings. Those three precepts are training methods and within those three is the six bodhisattva training methods. The six basic bodhisattva training methods are included in the three training methods. But there's nothing said there about bodhisattva vow, except indirectly that one of the training methods, one of the ceremonies, is ceremonies of bodhisattva vows. So I just thought I might give you a taste of a ceremony of bodhisattva vows, which we may or may not perform. I just wanted to give you a feel for it. Are you up for it? Are you up for it? Is that all right? Anybody want me not to do it?

[36:54]

I won't if you don't. Is it too much to hear about this? What does that mean? Okay. Well, let me know. I'll check back with you. This is one among many ceremonies of expressing bodhisattva vows. It's called, it's an Indian text called Muni Mata Alamkara. Muni, you know, like Shakyamuni Muni means silent one, but it also means sage. Sage. So Shakyamuni means the sage of the Shakya clan, but also the silent one of the Shakya clan. Mata means mind in this case, and Alamkara means adornment. This is a text which is an adornment of the mind of the sage, Shakyamuni Buddha.

[38:00]

So this is a abbreviation of the text. It says, the place I'm starting says, properly create great clarity towards Buddhas and Bodhisattvas of the ten directions and bow down. Well, that's a big step. That's a big step. Clarity towards Buddhas. What's clarity towards Buddha? I guess a clear sense of... Try to have a clear sense, have to have great clarity in regard to Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. One... Here's a possibility of an example of clarity. I wish... to develop the wisdom and compassion of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas.

[39:12]

I clearly feel that I wish to do that. Another one is, I wish to develop an intimate relationship with Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. Or another one is, I wish to learn about Buddhas and Bodhisattvas before I make any commitments. Anyway, it starts out by saying, properly create great clarity towards Buddhas and Bodhisattvas in the ten directions, and then bow down. Then it says make a mandala and five offerings in front of the teacher. The teacher being the human teacher that you're going to say these bodhisattva vows in front of. Make a mandala and make five offerings to the human teacher

[40:20]

who's going to witness your vow. There's also instructions for if you can't find a human teacher there's instructions for what to do in that case but this is the preferable way is to have an actual human who's going to witness who's going to play the role of the teacher and witness your vow. In this ceremony tonight I hope to be worthy of the responsibility of playing the role of the teacher who witnesses the commitment, the vow to practice these bodhisattva training methods. The rest of the sangha is also present human beings to witness these vows, to practice these precepts. Making a mandala, there's different ways to make mandalas.

[41:30]

One way to make a mandala is to walk around the teacher three times. Another way to make a mandala would be to have this room be the mandala. So tonight we could, this room is the mandala. The space in which the vow will be made and the witnessing will occur. making five offerings. I don't know what the five offerings are, but it could be your arms, your legs, and your head, which you use when you bow. And then it says, and then humble yourself before the teacher sitting and kneeling, sitting or kneeling and joining your palms and then request three times.

[42:41]

And in the ceremony we do do tonight, although this isn't... it's a ceremony of receiving these precepts, the ordinands, they do actually offer incense to the Buddhas and they make three bows and that could be understood as their request to enter the ceremony. And they also... offer incense to the preceptor, and bow three times to request the precepts. They humble themselves in this way. And in this ceremony, this bodhisattva vow ceremony, after that, they make this request. They say, person of good lineage, and good lineage means bodhisattva precept lineage, person of good lineage before me, I wish to receive the bodhisattva vow Therefore, if I am worthy to receive it, because of your great mercy for me, please bestow the vow of the bodhisattva ethics.

[43:59]

And then the teacher says to this, three times, the teacher says, do you aspire to enlightenment? In my presence, will you receive the foundation of training and ethics of bodhisattvas? And then the aspirant says, I will maintain them. And then the teacher says again, do you aspire to enlightenment? In my presence will you receive the foundation of training in ethics of bodhisattva precepts? And the ordinand or the aspirant says, I will maintain them. The teacher says, do you aspire to enlightenment in my presence? Will you receive the foundation of training in ethics of bodhisattvas? And the aspirant says, I will maintain them. So that's the beginning of the ceremony.

[45:05]

Did that give you a feeling for it, John? Yes. I enjoyed it. Any advice? I liked the first part. It was a disclosure. So that's a disclosure. However... I'm hesitating to go on because I saw the kitchen leave and I kind of would like them to... And one of the kitchen people didn't know that the kitchen left. So they are diligently leaving. I would like them to hear this, so I think maybe I'll wait to do the rest of it. That gives you a taste of it. If anybody doesn't want to hear any more about this ceremony, send me a message, and I won't go any further. But this is a kind of, it goes on like this for a while. The student requests, and the teacher says, will you maintain, and so on.

[46:08]

It goes on, not too long, but this is an example of a ceremony that we do not, we have not done here at this center, but it is one of the many ceremonies for bodhisattvas that were practiced in India and similar ones in China and Japan and Korea and Tibet, Mongolia, and now in the Wild West. So I think maybe that's enough for now on that for the reason of to make sure that everybody's up for going deeper into this ceremony. And I really do welcome you to let me know if you don't want me to go any further and no one will know that you're the one who stopped the thing happening. I won't tell anybody. But I can make this text available to you if you want to read it. But it's possible to go through it for you to see it and get a feeling for what it's like. And we could even do it, perhaps tomorrow.

[47:11]

Tonight, we have already, the ceremony has been set. The type of ceremony has already been set. It's going to be a ceremony where people are going to receive these training methods, these 16 bodhisattva training methods, which you've received, right? That's the ceremony we're going to have tonight. This is a different ceremony. This is a bodhisattva vow ceremony, which I was going to tell you about, which I did tell you about. Does that make sense? You got a little taste of it. And I'll tell you more about it tomorrow. So just so you know a little bit about, more about, you know, the bodhisattva tradition in India. And then it's possible that we might want to enact such a ceremony more fully at some point quite soon, maybe. But it's a matter of heart, so it's possible that not everyone would be ready for it. And I'll just tell you about it, and we can talk about someday in the future maybe actually performing the ceremony.

[48:18]

Does that make sense? OK. I have a question about our tradition here, that if one person doesn't want to do something and the 70 do, what's the thinking and then you don't do it? Oh, well, if 70 or two people wanted to do the ceremony, we could do the ceremony someplace where the people who didn't want to be it wouldn't have to leave. Or to read it. Well, I guess I have a lot of stuff I can talk about. And if you want to hear about this thing, I can do it at some other venue. Like I could do it at No Boat or something. Just tell me and I'll do it.

[49:19]

I have other places we can do this. But the people in this room have all been very diligent about this thing. about this intensive. And I don't want to do something which will make one person have to leave the Sangha because I go someplace that they just can't stand. And I know some people get really worked up when we start talking about making Buddhas. And that's what this is about. So I don't want to force you into a state of energy that you can't relax with. But if you're up for it, I could read it to you. And then after that, if you're up for it, we could perform the ceremony. And then if you're up for that, we could actually become Buddhas. Which is really quite a big thing. But I don't want to push you, and I don't want you to push me, into Buddhahood.

[50:24]

Let's be gentle with each other. This is a big responsibility. Saving the world is not a small matter. So we had this wonderful group and And there's lots of things we can talk about that are wonderful, but I sense that this is a particularly, I sense that there's potentially resistance to this. And when I have what I call a captive audience, I don't want to put something out there that I think will force people to leave at the sort of culmination of the process. but it's possible then later to say we're going to look at a text, we're just going to look at bodhisattva vows. Anybody who wants to come and hear about that is welcome to come. I'm telling you that tomorrow I could tell you more about this but if anybody feels not up for it I'll talk about something else probably considerably more interesting. And I just heard somebody laugh

[51:33]

I don't know if I should mention her name, but she's the person who kind of noticed that I said Frank Williams. And so I just wanted to say that now we know that Hank Williams was really singing to himself. when he's talking about the cold, cold heart and the doubtful mind. It's his cold, cold heart and his doubtful mind that he was singing to. And I think it was really good what he was singing to himself. Really good. Our lover is not, does not have a cold, cold heart. Our lover does not have a doubtful mind. we may or may not.

[52:42]

When we free our doubtful mind and melt our cold heart, we will see that our lover has been waiting for us all along. So sing to yourself, melt the cold heart, free the doubtful mind, And you'll find out that the world has been inviting you to dance with it all along. It's just that our doubtful heart, our doubtful mind puts a mask on the world. And the mask looks like, I don't like you very much. I like somebody else better. Okay. Or I don't want to be with anybody because I got hurt. The world will say those things to us. In other words, we will put the mask of those words on the world. So we should sing to ourselves, gently, sweetly encourage ourselves to melt the heart, to free the mind so that we can meet the world which is inviting us all the time.

[53:56]

And Hank Williams knows a good way to talk to himself. Who knows what Frank would say? Maybe he was singing too, Frank. Maybe he was singing too, Frank. And there's this little girl I get to hang out with and her name is Frank or Frankie But there's no illusion of her having a cold, cold heart. But I think she does sometimes have a doubtful mind. Like she sometimes doubts certain things. Actually, she doesn't doubt. She knows she doesn't want certain things. OK? Are you ready?

[54:59]

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