Happy New Year and a peaceful New Year. Now that we're beginning a year, and also today we're beginning a, what we call an intensive period of practice at this temple. I thought I might consider our motivations. For some time on the Sunday talks, I've been discussing a topic of the Great Vehicle about how to

[01:01]

embrace the great vehicle. And what is the great vehicle is something I thought I would talk about today again. The great vehicle is a term that's used sometimes to describe the path of the bodhisattva. Is there some problem with the sound? Bodhisattvas can be described as beings who vow to realize Buddhahood for the welfare and liberation of all living beings.

[02:16]

At the end of our Sunday talks we chant one rendition of Bodhisattva vows four vows. And the last of the four vows is the Buddha way is unsurpassable. I vow to become it. And many of us have chanted that last line many, many times. But today I'm starting by considering whether actually we do have that vow to become the Buddha way, to become the Buddha way, to become Buddha in order to benefit

[03:26]

and liberate all beings, to become Buddha so that all beings will become Buddha. All beings will become enlightened and free. Do we have that vow? I'm asking that at the beginning of the new year. I'm asking that at the beginning of this intensive. This question can be modified, nuanced, put in many ways, but it basically seems like that is what bodhisattvas vow. And the Mahayana is their way of life.

[04:31]

We also... Mahayana, great vehicle. The Bodhisattva vehicle and the great vehicle are virtually synonymous. They are paths to realizing Buddhahood for the welfare of all beings. This term and this... And many texts, many, many texts... were written in India around the beginning of the Common Era, a little bit before, a little bit after, texts arose which proposed this ideal of a being who aspired to and vowed to realize Buddhahood for the welfare of all other living beings. Historians say that the great vehicle was not very successful, doesn't seem to have been very successful in India.

[05:50]

But in China, Tibet, Korea, Japan, and now in the West, it seems to be very successful. Millions and millions of probably maybe even billions of people practiced, made this vow and at least identified themselves as great vehicle disciples of the Buddha. People who actually wish to follow the path that the Buddha followed. Someone suggested that maybe part of the reason that this great vehicle teaching was not so popular or not so successful in India is that in India, particularly the Buddhists, but other schools too, were sternly encouraged to flee from the process of rebirth and the suffering that's entailed in it.

[07:10]

So when they heard about a path to Buddhahood that meant staying in the process of rebirth almost endlessly in order to benefit beings, it seemed counterintuitive or even silly. Another comment around this great vehicle said, it is probably the most grandiose idea that human beings have ever thought of. And over the years, many people have said to me, I do really want to help others. I do want to help this world. But I can't say that I wish to be a Buddha. In a sense, I...

[08:12]

I have a little bit of a quandary, maybe I could say, is that I wish to offer the teachings of the great vehicle, the teachings for those who wish to become Buddhas. At the same time, I don't want to offend or impose on anybody, including myself, by offering teachings which are intended for those who wish to realize Buddhahood for the welfare of all beings and the freedom of all beings. And yet here I ask you, may I offer you some words about the great vehicle?

[09:28]

May I? Here's some words. The great vehicle is... a selflessness. It's an emptiness. It's an insubstantiality. That is also, it's an insubstantiality, a selflessness, an ungraspability of all things. That is a vehicle, a great wide vehicle which carries nothing at all. It is a spiritual truth, a reality of the selflessness of all things.

[10:42]

And this selflessness of all things carries nothing at all. And it is this vehicle, that the bodhisattvas, those who are on the path to Buddhahood, it is this vehicle that they ride, and they ride it while this vehicle does not carry anything at all. They also are the emptiness which the emptiness of the great vehicle doesn't carry. To enter the Bodhisattva way, to enter the path to Buddhahood, means to enter a path of selflessness. And not just selflessness of our personhood, but the selflessness of the practices,

[11:53]

that we perform and the beings that we are devoted to. In order to enter this selflessness, we must care for selves. In order to enter into emptiness, the ultimate truth, which is this great vehicle, in order to enter into the ultimate truth, we must be thoroughly engaged with the conventional truth. And one example of conventional truth is, for example, language. And one example of language is, the Buddha way is unsurpassable I vow to become it.

[12:56]

That is a conventional event which has just happened. I spoke those words. You may have heard them. I heard them. I spoke them. In the moment, caring for those words, Now in this moment, caring for these words. If I say that, do I mean it? Looking to see if I mean it is another conventional thing to take care of. One of our ancestors is named, a Chinese ancestor, his name was Seigen Gyoshi.

[13:59]

Gyoshi means walking and thinking, or thinking while walking. Or walking It could be thinking and practicing or practicing while walking. Practicing while thinking. Proceeding and thinking. Thinking about what? Well, one possibility is that that ancestor was walking and thinking. I vow to realize Buddhahood for the welfare of all beings. I wish to become a Buddha. How can we take care of daily life

[15:17]

How can our speech, which is daily life, be cared for in such a way that it is the vow to become Buddha? We must care for our daily life in order to enter the emptiness which penetrates and is the penetration of the ultimate truth. Now we have this sound which we are hearing.

[16:33]

It sounds like a big raindrop on the roof. non-being, non-being, non-being, emptiness, [...] for the welfare of all beings. I want to take care of the great vehicle.

[17:51]

I want to take care of You would like me to trade this for this? Okay. Here's a new device. The great teardrop may stop. Excuse me. Yes, there seems to be a difference. That sound could be seen as a... What do you call it?

[19:08]

It could have been irritating. It could have been seen as an annoyance. Or it could be seen as a reminder. A reminder of whatever you want to be reminded of. Do you want to be reminded of all the suffering beings in the world? Do you want something to remind you of that on a moment by moment? On moment by moment? Suffering beings are crying for help. Do you want to learn to hear that every moment? Bodhisattva's vow to listen each moment to the cries of the world.

[20:19]

and they vow to listen in such a way as to become Buddha in order to help all those cries also become Buddha. They want to listen so thoroughly and so carefully to each moment that each moment becomes momentous. They want to train to be able to open to the momentousness of each moment. Where they open to the momentousness of caring for all beings. They wish that. They wish to learn that. We also say that to learn the way of Buddha, to learn the Buddha way, is to learn the self.

[21:34]

To take care of the Buddha way is to take care of the self. And to take care of the self is to forget the self. To take care of the self is to realize the emptiness of the self, is to realize the insubstantiality of the self. We have to take care of the self until we realize it's insubstantial. And the way to realize it's insubstantial is to take care of it thoroughly. In order to realize the truth of the self. We have to study it all the way to the end. That is the way to Buddhahood. Do I wish to listen to every sound

[22:48]

all the way to the end of the sound. And I don't have much time. I only have a moment to listen to the sound completely. to study this sound completely in order to realize the emptiness of this sound. I remember on some occasions when I was in Japan, particularly it happened when I was like in a cab being driven by a Japanese person, they would notice my shaved head and usually

[24:31]

dark black clothing, and they would get around to asking me if I was in Japan to study Buddhism. And I would be talking to this person usually in Japanese. My Japanese was good enough usually to talk to a cab driver. about where to go and so on, and about familiar terms like Zen shu, which means Zen school. They would ask me, you know, which school I was studying, and I would say, Zen shu, Zen school. And they would often say, oh, that's very hard. Zen's very hard. I didn't say that I was practicing the bodhisattva school.

[25:45]

Because in Japan, you don't hear the term bodhisattva school. I never heard of it. Bosatsu shu, I never heard it. Because almost all the schools in Japan, the Zen school, the Tendai school, the Shingon school, the Pure Land school, all the different schools are bodhisattva schools. It's not mentioned usually. that all the different schools are varieties of ways of taking care of daily life thoroughly to the point of entering a vast emptiness that embraces all beings without carrying anything.

[26:51]

It's not mentioned. Each school provides a particular conventional gate, conventional forms of daily life that we can try to embrace so completely that we enter the way of Buddha. And what again is the way of the Buddha? It is the great vehicle. What's the great vehicle? It is an understanding. By caring for what appears before us thoroughly, we enter into an understanding of what appears before us. And in that understanding, in the complete understanding, in the deep understanding of what appears before us, we enter the Buddha way. And in the next moment, updated life.

[27:59]

Do I vow to live in the moment, in that momentous way, in the way of complete engagement in the moment, in order to enter selflessness of a moment, which includes the selflessness of me, of this body, of this mind, and of you and the whole world. To enter from the conventional world where we have a stand and we have a being, into the ultimate truth where there's no stand and the standpoint is non-being. This is the path to Buddhahood. Do we care enough for the welfare of the world to aspire to Buddhahood?

[29:06]

There was a Zen monk. His name was... In Japanese, the way of saying his name, although he was Chinese, is Zuigan. And when he got up in the morning, he said to himself, Master. And he answered himself by saying, Yes, Master. And then he said, are you awake? And he answered himself by saying, yes. And then he asked himself, or encouraged himself, all day long, don't be fooled by anything. And he said, yes, yes. I checked this morning When I got up, I checked.

[31:01]

And I checked to see when I got up if there was a vow to become Buddha for the welfare of all beings. I didn't find the vow when I checked. But I did check. I checked early in the morning. Before I came to this hall to sit, I checked. I didn't find the vow, but I did find the question. Do you vow to become Buddha? And when I checked, I saw kind of like just kind of, it was kind of just a big space. I didn't get a yes, I didn't get a no, but I did check. And then I came to this hall and I sat there, right there.

[32:08]

And when I sat there, I didn't ask myself, do you wish to live for the welfare of all beings? Do you wish to realize Buddhahood so that all beings can realize Buddhahood? I didn't ask myself that when I sat there. I said it to myself. I sat there and I said to myself, I wish to realize Buddhahood so that all beings will realize Buddhahood and be free and enlightened. I said that while I sat there. And if I'm saying that, the great vehicle is not just saying that, it's just that the bodhisattvas on the great vehicle do say that. And when they say that, they are vowing to say that so wholeheartedly that they enter into the selflessness of what they just said.

[33:29]

They not just say it, they say, I wish to realize. Buddhahood means I wish to realize the insubstantiality of everything, including my wish to realize Buddhahood. That also is selfless. The wish to realize selflessness is selfless. The wish to realize wealth is selfless. The wish to realize health and fame, every wish is selfless. including the wish to realize emptiness. Someone

[34:35]

contemplated this intensive that we just started, contemplated many people coming here to practice lots of sitting from early in the morning till into the middle of the night, well, the middle of the pre-12 o'clock night, up until about 9 o'clock. So we practiced from 5 in the morning till 9 at night most days here. Someone looked at that schedule and said, it's really amazing that people set aside the time to come and to do that for three weeks here. It's hard. It seems hard. And then not only coming and trying to practice that program, but do these people actually wish to realize Buddhahood for the welfare of all beings?

[35:41]

Do they wish in each moment of this intensive to be completely in the moment, totally becoming themselves so that they can forget themselves to help all beings? That seems really, really, really, really. It's the hardest thing there is. This practice is a practice which ordinary people aspire to do sometimes. Ordinary people aspire to live their daily life, in other words, their moment-by-moment life, completely for the welfare of all beings. Is it hard? None of the ancestors said it wasn't.

[36:43]

As a matter of fact, I never heard them saying it wasn't. I heard them say it's difficult. It's difficult. And we see difficulty, and when we see difficulty like the sound of a big raindrop, we can be irritated by it. How do we completely experience that moment of a big raindrop, a big teardrop? No one knows how. People know how to partially experience it, but in the fullness of it, nobody knows because in the fullness of it, It's an emptiness. And this emptiness is the door to the Buddha way. This emptiness liberates beings from the enclosure of their apparent world and lets them enter the way of liberating all beings.

[37:52]

The path to Buddhahood is a selflessness. And I say a selflessness because it's a selflessness of this moment. It's not a general selflessness. It's a selflessness of our life right now. The path to Buddhahood is the selflessness of this moment. And now that selflessness is gone and now we have a new selflessness, each of us, for a new moment. This is the door to the path to Buddhahood. This is the door of freedom. And we will not we cannot open to this selflessness unless we open to this self. Unless we open to this appearance, to the sound of that huge tear, unless we completely, thoroughly listen to it, our lack of thoroughness for this moment

[39:18]

will hinder us entering the vast vehicle which no one can grasp and carries everyone without carrying anything. Do we wish to realize Buddhahood so that all beings can realize Buddhahood? do we wish to fully embrace daily life so completely that we enter its liberating selflessness? Ordinary beings can aspire to something heroic. This is heroic. Yes, but ordinary beings can aspire to it.

[40:24]

If there's many non-ordinary beings, which I've heard there are, they also can aspire to it. Matter of fact, they may have already sort of got the hang of it. And if I ask myself and I don't hear an answer, or I do hear an answer, and if the answer is yes or no, I don't think I'm going to stop asking. The answer is there or not, but the question remains. goes on and so I'm asking you again and again and I will continue to ask because if you say yes then maybe you could say so. And saying so you can see if you said so completely. And if you say no and you say no completely

[41:34]

in the completion of your know, you will also enter the great vehicle. So if someone says, no, I do not wish to practice the great vehicle, but I do wish to completely not wish to practice it. they too could enter if they followed that vow to completely say no. So far, I haven't met anybody who aspired to completely, thoroughly say no. But maybe I'll meet such a person and they will show me whether that was correct or not. This is, as I said, beginning the new year, beginning the intensive, but again, every morning.

[42:47]

And this person who said master, you might think, well, do I dare call myself a master? If you don't feel comfortable calling yourself master, you could say student. I don't know if he was a master when he said, hey, master. I don't know what point in his practice he was talking to himself like that. I don't know if he waited until he was like a famous Zen master before he said, hey, master. I don't know. But anyway, see tomorrow morning if you can call to yourself and ask yourself, What are you up to in this life? What are you up to in this life? That's a nice question.

[43:49]

I'm happy to ask myself that. Hey, what are you up to in this day? Hey, what's your purpose of this life? Hey, do you wish to realize Buddhahood for the welfare of all beings? Once again, many people, if we ask them, do you wish to live for the welfare of the world? Many people in this room, I think, would say, well, yes. A smaller number would say yes to the question, do you wish to live for the welfare of all beings? Yes. But then there's a third question. Do you wish to realize the Buddha way? Do you wish to realize Buddhahood for the welfare and liberation of the world?

[44:56]

Thank you for letting me ask this question over and over and over. I apologize if I asked it too many times. And I ask for your support for me to continue to ask myself that question and to ask others, maybe even you, that question. I vow to ask myself Do you wish to realize Buddhahood so that all beings may realize Buddhahood? I vow to keep asking myself that. I don't vow to say it in each moment, but I vow to live each moment as though that was the point of this moment.

[46:02]

I vow to live each moment to realize Buddhahood for the welfare of all beings. I wish to live each moment so completely that I realize the selflessness of each moment for the welfare of all beings. That's my vow. And I vow to keep and take care of that vow How about you?

[46:39]

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