Once again, the name of the course is Precepts of Compassion, Stillness and Wisdom. And I wanted to again honor stillness and say again that in stillness, The Buddha precepts are living. Also, living in stillness is the Buddha's precepts. In stillness, mind and objects merge in realization and go beyond enlightenment.

[01:05]

Or another translation would be mind and the objects of mind enter realization together and leave realization together. This is the stillness of things being what they actually are. And so these precepts are there, and from this stillness, where the precepts are living, Buddhas are living too, and the Buddhas the Buddha function, the Buddha at practice, is coming up out of this stillness, the precepts of stillness. And then these Buddhas who arise from these precepts, who emerge from these precepts, these Buddhas respond to living beings, and their response can be translated into various languages.

[02:23]

Their response when it comes into consciousness, human consciousness, as it enters human consciousness, it appears there as words. So the Buddhas arise from realization of these precepts, and then Buddhas teach these precepts. They say them, they recite them, and they encourage other people to listen to them and recite them. And last week I put precepts and Buddhas at the center of a circle. which is the circle of stillness.

[03:26]

And then I drew another circle around that circle. And in that circle, I said, that's the teachings of the Buddhas coming out of that circle, the teachings of the great vehicle. And the other teachings, too, also come out of the Buddhas. And in particular, I mentioned some great vehicle scriptures like the Nirvana Sutra, the Flower Adornments scripture, and the Brahman Net scripture. Brahman Net scripture. In terms of history, the two big citras, the Nirvana citra and the Flower of Dominance scripture, occurred prior to the Brahmanet citra.

[04:32]

But the teachings of those scriptures, again, is in the background of the Brahmanet citra. And the Brahmanet citra is sort of emerging from these great sutras and emphasizing the bodhisattva precepts. And this Brahmanet Sutra has become the most influential sutra in East Asian understanding, East Asian practice of bodhisattva precepts. very influential in Korea and Japan. Also in China, but it seems like even more influential in Korea and Japan. So this morning, I came in here, and I wrote some stuff on the board here.

[06:07]

Before I wrote the stuff, I found these things. I thought they were kind of interesting. These are the notes. from a conference we had here of people from Twitter. This is something that they were interested in, which is not totally unrelated. It's lots of feedback. That's very closely related to the Bodhisattva priesthood. And so I'm... Even if I wasn't recommending that you read all these great Mahayana sutras, even if I wasn't recommending that, I do think it would be good for you to know that these things, even that you haven't read, are very influential in our tradition.

[07:45]

And if you look in the body of what is uniquely considered to be the Zen literature, And if you listen to the teachings of a lot of Zen teachers, you might not hear them talking about the flower adornment scriptures. Even though people who look at the Zen school, they say, oh, these people are strongly influenced by this scripture because it's in their teaching. Even if they don't mention that it's in their teaching, it is. Zen teachers, when they're talking to their students, they don't necessarily read a scripture and then go through the scripture one by one. They sometimes do. Most of the Zen stories are not about teachers reading these scriptures to their students.

[08:52]

They're about face-to-face conversation. They're mostly records of conversations, and they're some records of a discourse given by a Zen teacher. Most of the famous Zen material is records of conversations in colloquial Chinese or Japanese or Korean. And many Zen teachers did give long talks, just talk, [...] talk. And it doesn't look like a conversation. And if they did, I don't know how many of them there might have been, but very few of them have come down to us, if there were such things.

[10:01]

And also, such talks in the old days would be very hard to record. Does that make sense? If teachers sat and talked for half an hour, not to mention an hour, not to mention two hours, three hours, four hours. There are times like that when Buddhist teachers talk a long time. And we had that going on in the West. But it's pretty easy, not pretty easy, it's much easier anyway, to record a conversation of 10, of 1, or 3, or 15, or 25, or even 100 words. And people can remember them and then talk to each other about it, and then they can say, well, did you hear what she said? Did you hear what he said? And some say, no, he didn't say that. Anyway, so there are different versions of these conversations, but they're easily shared and transmitted, and they have made it.

[11:03]

They made it for a few hundred years, and then they got written down. Still, These sutras are basically the source of these conversations. And these sutras come from stones. These sutras are about the Bodhisattva precepts. And I think I also told you I never heard Csikszentmihalyi talk about the Brahmanat Sutra. And I can't think of an example of him saying Avatamsaka Sutra or Flower Adornment Scripture. I can't think of an example where I heard him say it. But I can think of many examples where he talked about

[12:09]

this Zen teacher, and that Zen teacher, and that Zen teacher, and that Zen teacher, and told us the conversations that they had, or other activities of them. I remember one time Katagiri Roshi said, the Avatamsaka Sutra, the Flower Adornment Scripture, is so complete that nobody reads it. It's a huge scripture. It's like five or more times as long as the Lotus Sutra. And in fact, in Asia, his experience, almost nobody reads it, especially in the Zen school. But at Gringotts we read it on New Year's Eve. Because we heard how great it was. I guess. And once again, I never heard him say, He did talk about the Lotus Sutra, however, a little bit.

[13:19]

And in the fall of 1968, he actually gave talks on the Lotus Sutra at Tassajara. And he went through the scripture line by line. I heard he even read the copyright information. Anyway, he didn't get very far into the scripture before a considerable percentage of the monks at Tassajara were sound asleep. I don't know how... Maybe some of you can research to see how many talks in Lotus Sutra he actually gave in the fall of 1968 at Tassajara. And I believe around that time, one of the students said to him, I think he might have said a question something like this, Roshi, in the city center, your talks are so interesting, but at Tassajara, you know, your talks, everybody's sleeping.

[14:29]

And Roshi said something like, at the city hall, I make them laugh. At Tathahara, I talk about the way things really are, and everybody goes to sleep. So I'm not intending to bring up much about the Avatamsaka Sutra, the Hwayan Sutra. here, just telling you that it's very much it's the teachings have pervaded the people who are supposedly Zen ancestors, even though they may never mention it. The bamboo forests and gardens that surround many Zen temples in China and Japan.

[15:35]

They also influenced the Zen practice, and they're more likely to be mentioned by the teachers. The rocks and mountains and rivers around the temple also are teaching our tradition, and they're mentioned a lot. But the scriptures, the written scriptures, are not mentioned as much as... maybe not mentioned enough for us to understand that they're very much in our teaching. And our teaching is I don't know what, being requested to be in accord with these great scriptures which are coming out of the Buddhas and coming out of the Bodhisattva precepts. And as I mentioned to you, that when The book being out there, it came after I worked with Kaz Tanahashi to make a translation of... Do you remember the name of the picture?

[16:47]

Do you remember the thing we translated? What it's called? Zenkaisho? Yeah. It was called Zenkaisho. And Zenkaisho arose from all these big sutras, but more specifically, it arose from the teachings of the Japanese ancestor, Ehe Dogen. And he wrote a little essay, which you just chanted. An essay is called, again, in Chinese, Sino-Japanese, it's called Kyo, Jyu, Kai, Mon.

[17:55]

That's what you just chanted. Kyo means teaching, Jyu means conferring, Kai means precepts, and Mon means verses. So that's in the background of Zen Kaisho. Another thing that's in the background of Zen Kaisho is... I'm going to write the Sino-Japanese words. Bo, mo, kyo, which is the Sino-Japanese way of saying Brahma, jala, or brahmanet, maybe, brahmanet, scripture. But actually, a more direct link, maybe I should have wrote, I should have wrote this the other way, that it's bomokyo ryaku shok.

[19:07]

Ryaku is like abbreviated, show is, or condensed, and show is essence. So, Dogen himself wrote Kyojo Kaimon, and all of the Buddha Dharma comes into him, I would say, and leads Dogen to give us this Kyojo Kaimon. Then he had... And part of what comes into Dogen is the Brahmanet scripture. So this is the Brahmanet scripture and then Brahmanet scripture essence. So, Dogen grew up with this sutra, the Brahmanet Sutra.

[20:12]

He grew up with the Bodhisattva Precepts. He grew up with the teaching of the Bodhisattva Precepts from this Brahmanet Sutra. And he wrote this Kyogyu Kaimo, which expressed his understanding of the practice of the Bodhisattva Precepts. Now, of course, many of you have heard about Dogen already, and you may have heard that he He taught a practice called zazen, which I think you've all heard about, right? Did you know that Dogen taught zazen? Anybody who didn't, now you do, right? Dogen taught zazen. But part of the reason for me doing this work on the precepts is because for Dogen, the Bodhisattva precepts are zazen. He taught bodhisattva precepts. And as I mentioned before, the subtitle of that book being up there is Bodhisattva Precepts and Zen Meditation.

[21:15]

It should be Bodhisattva Precepts are Zen Meditation is Bodhisattva Precepts. Dogen Zenji is the Zazen person and he wrote Kyojo Kaimo. And influencing him is this sutra. and Zazen, this sutra and Zazen make Dogen. And then Dogen writes Kyoju Kaimo. And Dogen has a few students. Two of his closest students, one whose name is Senne, S-E-N-N-E, S-I, no, S-E-N-N-E, Senne. and a younger student named Kyogo. So Kyogo, Kyogo, wrote Brahmanet Scripture Essence. So the things that come together to make the Zenkai show are Doga's Kyogyu Kaimon and his student Kyogo's

[22:27]

Essence of the Brahma-Nasutra. And so the person who wrote this text called Zenkaisho, he was a Tokugawa period Soto Zen monk. His name is Banjin Doton. Banjindottan one day found this Brahmanet scripture essence. Somebody gave him the text of Kilgore's commentary on the Brahmanet scripture. And he read it a hundred times. And some light of the precepts came to him.

[23:32]

And he was .. He was greatly uplifted by receiving the light of these Bodhisattva precepts through Kyogo's commentary on the Brahman Sutra. And last time I told you about Brahman Sutra, and I've heard that some of you haven't read part of it. Is that right? Who read it? You read a little bit. Anyway, it's waiting for you. I don't necessarily recommend it, But if you want to see something that has big influence on us, there it is. And I'll probably be talking about it off and on for a while, if I live a while. So again, the Zenkai show, which has become so important to me, the way it's basically built is, Banjadottan took the Kyogyu Kaimon and put it together with the Brahmanet Scripture Essence by Kyogo.

[24:45]

I don't think he put the whole Brahmanet Scripture Essence into this text, but a lot of it. And then he made notes, and that became Sankashiva. since the time of the inspiration given to me to work on it, and then doing the translation work, since that time I found out that many of the teachers that have been very influential in the San Francisco Zen Center, by being related to Suzuki Roshi and Suzuki Roshi's former friends, many of them wrote commentaries on Zen Kaisho. And I'm trying now to translate the commentaries of some of our ancestors in the last hundred years or so who commented on this text.

[25:58]

because this text is really appreciated. Of course, Kyojo Kaimon is really appreciated. And this text here is not so well known. And again, the Brahmajelous, Brahmanes scripture, I have never heard any Japanese, no Japanese or Chinese priests or monks or lay people have ever told me anything about it. Again, I think it's a part of our background. As in many areas of our life, we have history that we don't know about. For me, this is a happy history that we have not been told about. In what you just read, the beginning says something about how great these bodhisattva precepts are, how the ancestors have made a big effort to transmit them.

[27:51]

That's the beginning part. And then it says something about repentance, doesn't it? What does it say about repentance? Could you read it out loud to me, please? What it says about repentance. It says... Yeah, go ahead. We take refuge in the Triple Treasure and repent in these words. Yeah. It says, Respectfully, by virtue of kept among a Buddhist and Ancestor, We take refuge in the Triple Treasure and repent in these words," which we often say. And then it says, after that it says, as already verified by Buddhism ancestors, the karma of body, speech, and mind has been purified, and we obtain great immaculacy.

[28:59]

This is due to the power of repentance. And that expression, repentance, as I mentioned last week, can be broken into two parts, confession and repentance. So, this ancestor dog is telling us that the Buddhists have testified to this practice. and they do this practice of repentance, they use these words. You can use other words too. But anyway, they use these words to practice repentance. And then he says that we have been purified. So let me just say that one way to understand this is that we are being told that when you practice repentance, your body and mind, the karma of body, speech, and mind have been purified, and you have achieved a state of immaculacy.

[30:04]

And that statement is in this text, and that statement is basically in our precept ceremony. So when we receive the precepts, do the confession according to this ritual expression, and then afterwards the preceptor says, you have now been purified. And I myself had said that to a group of people, sometimes rather large groups of people, and I almost always think, this is really an amazing thing to say. How did we suddenly become immaculate? In the Pramana Sutra, before receiving the precepts, before reciting the precepts, there's the practice of confession and repentance, which basically says a very similar thing.

[31:17]

So that you do this repentance practice, you are purified. And it's not like... Anyway... And again, I also mentioned that these precepts are for all sentient beings whose original nature is pure. However, our original nature is in close association with sort of unlimited delusion. Our original pure nature is in association with the delusions of all living beings. by practicing repentance, we realize our original nature. So before even getting into the precepts, I feel like something amazing is here to be dealt with, which is the practice and efficacy of repentance, the practice of repentance.

[32:24]

And we're being told that this practice has a power to help us realize our original Buddha nature. on the path to realizing it, which is Buddhahood. Again, even before getting into the precepts, we have a practice by which we can realize Buddhahood. Or I could say it's a practice that is essential in realizing Buddhahood. Because receiving the precepts and reciting the precepts and transmitting the precepts is also part of it. But even before we get to the precepts, we're already in the process of purifying this world so that the original nature of living beings can be realized. And again, I think I've also told you that before Kadagiri Roshi, shortly after he told me

[33:30]

not too long after he told me about the Zenkai show, he said to me, I'm becoming more and more impressed how important repentance was for Dogen Zenji. And when he said that, I thought, number one, oh, here's a Soto Zen priest who's been practicing quite a while, and it sounds like he just recently becoming impressed by how important repentance was for the founder of the tradition in Japan. And again, my impression up to the time he said that was kind of like, yeah, people at Zen Center don't really think that repentance is a big part of it. Dogen Zenji, right? What's a big part of Dogen Zenji? Yeah, they all know that. Just sit it. It wasn't well known at Zazen at the time, he may have said that repentance was very important for Dogen Zenji.

[34:34]

And again, from that time onward, I just keep getting continually kind of surprised how important repentance is for Zazen. How important repentance is, particularly. How powerful and important it is. Even though our original nature is pure, we have most of this ongoing practice of repentance. It's kind of funny. We're originally basically fundamentally pure. And a typical example of the Ancestors, they also had that saying, basic nature, which was pure, and they spent a lot of their time confessing and repenting. This is the way it is in real practice. You're pure, and a lot of confessing is part of it.

[35:42]

Confession and repentance is a big part of practicing the precepts of compassion. Confession and repentance is a big part, well not a big part, it's a part of working for Twitter. Lots of feedback. Lots of feedback, good and bad. Feedback is something that comes out of a process that becomes... it's part of the output of a process that becomes an input to the process. So if you practice Zen, part of the output of the process is something to confess and repent, and confession and repentance then is an input to the process. Without that input, we're missing a key ingredient. an unsung hero in the process, confession and repentance.

[36:54]

Okay, so I'm not going to try to cover confession and repentance today or tomorrow. It's an unending practice. It's unending. When we do it in the precept ceremony, we say, after we do it, we say, from now on, and even after realizing the Buddha body, will you continue this truthful practice, this truth-telling practice of confessing and repenting? And the orderly says, yes, I will. Three times. Will you continue this truthful practice, even after realizing the Buddha body? Buddhas confessing and repenting? Yeah, looks like they do. Because in the scriptures, there's the Buddhas confessing and repenting. They're saying confession and repentance. It's a big part of their practice is to confess and repent and encourage confession and repentance, even though they've realized complete purity.

[38:08]

Even though I realized great immaculacy I practice confession and repentance. Or, because I have realized great immaculacy, I practice confession and repentance. It's our purity that confesses and repents, not our impurity. It's our Buddhahood that confesses and repents. So I'm going to stop, in a way, but just for a little while. And I'm going to come back again, probably, to promote this practice. Yes? Yes, Sonia? I'm back at purification.

[39:11]

Yeah, what about it? And I wondered what I thought, what would that be? And I thought, is it life? refreshing the mind, or a moment of being able to start over. But impurity is like, when we do the... Perfection of wisdom, understanding that we can sustain it, so that purification is a moment of a fresh mind, or starting over. I could say, okay, purification is a moment of fresh mind. So when you say, all my ancient twisted karma, that could be a moment of fresh mind right there. Refreshing. Refreshing would be fine, too. So you're refreshing your mind by saying, all my ancient twisted karma.

[40:13]

The mind is purified by making that statement. And purity is inseparable from making that statement. And also the purity is inseparable from not making that statement and resisting making such statements, or even thinking that you have nothing to confess and repent. Such thoughts are also inseparable from your purity. Those are something you would confess. Impurities are something you confess. Yeah, thinking. Yeah, impurities and also thinking that you have nothing to confess. I confess I... I confess I just don't happen to have any problems. I confess that I'm right. What can I say?

[41:15]

I am. I confess that I have no faults to admit. I confess that. that confession is the practice. Even confessing that you have nothing to confess. Which then a few months later you might say, now I realize that thinking that I had nothing to confess I'm in deeper trouble than those people who have all that junk to confess. I'm in a worse mental state than they are. I'm totally enchanted by my self-righteousness. I'm in big trouble. However, admitting that I'm in big trouble is the Buddha way. and also admitting that I think I don't have any problems, is the Buddha way. I think I heard you say before that confession and repentance are two elements, but don't they arise together?

[42:26]

Can you have one without the other? It seems like it. Like some people can say, Well, you know, I drove kind of unskillfully today and it endangered all the children in the car. That's a confession, I would say. And you might say to the person, how do you feel about that? And they say, well, you know, I feel okay about it. And then an hour later or a week later, they'd say, you know, I actually feel terrible about it. Or I feel great sorrow that I missed the chance of driving skillfully and attentively and carefully. And also, I really felt bad that I endangered the safety of the children. Actually, I really regret that I drove like that. I really regret that I was speeding for no... for no beneficial motivation. I'm really sorry about that.

[43:27]

But I think we sometimes hear from people who admit that they made a mistake, but they don't feel any sorrow, no regret, no remorse. And then later they might. But for the fullness of the practice, it has these two elements. One is stating the facts of your unskillfulness, or stating the fact of having the unskillful thought that you're always skillful, and stuff like that. And maybe sometimes say, and I'm really sorry. I don't want to live like this. I don't want to be like this. This doesn't accord with my respect of others. I'm sorry. So they don't always seem to come up together. But they need to be together to fulfill the precepts of compassion. Yes?

[44:32]

So is this something that you're doing as you walk around, not just formally to a teacher, but, you know, I'm sitting here thinking that I'm separate from you. Am I internally confessing and repenting that? It could be kind of brutal, you know, to continuously do that. If you're brutal about it, then you might notice that that was unskillful to be brutal. you might notice that being brutal in this practice makes you kind of like take long breaks to sort of recover from the brutality or from your anger that this practice is so brutal. So you can do it in a kind way? Yeah. As a matter of fact, the people who do it consistently do it in a kind way. It is kindness. That practice is a compassionate practice. Confession and repentance is supposed to be done in a compassionate way, in a gentle way, in a tender way, because it has to do with fragile, tender beings.

[45:39]

And if you do it that way, you'd be more likely to be able to be continuous in it. If you're brutal about it, like other things, things you're brutal about, you can't keep doing them. The things that you're really tender about, gentle about, you can keep doing them Even when you're really weak, you can be tender when you're weak. Because cats can get worn out. And that same applies to, like I often mention, people I started practicing Zen with, a lot of them were kind of brutal in the way they sat. They sat really hard, harder than me. And they almost all quit because they said Zen is too brutal, too hard. But it wasn't that Zen was too brutal. They were too brutal with their practice. They were pushing themselves too hard. And if you practice confession and repentance in a brutal way, you'll give it up. Not necessarily forever, but maybe for the rest of your life. You know, if I'm done with confession and repentance, it's a brutal practice.

[46:44]

Well, that's... That's because you didn't do it. When you do it right, you feel good. You feel inspired to be more skillful. Can you just give me an example of how you would do that in a moment? Well, I might think that I was better than you. And I'd say, oh, you thought you were better than Betsy? You mean, silly boy. Ben, I'm sorry. Ben, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. No. I'm sorry to think about that. It's kind of... It's like how bad things are in your age. I often get the example of my grandson who came to me, spent time with me at the Tops of Horror when he was like three and a half. And he had never been away from his mother before, like overnight. But he was close to me, so he dared to do it, and I dared to do it.

[47:46]

He was going to be there, like, for four days with me. And after two days, he said, I want my mum. [...] He said, really sorry, I got it today. And I said, okay, you can go home sooner. You can go home tomorrow. That was when he calmed down. And then the next day, he said, remember yesterday when I was saying, I said, wasn't that silly? Did you say yes? I don't think I did. Maybe chuckled. I chuckled at his insight about what he was doing, but he didn't. So this leads to awakening. It doesn't lead to... What's the word? It's a compassion practice.

[48:50]

And you said, can you do it even without being in the presence of a teacher and so on? Yes, but being in the presence of a teacher or a Buddhist, gives you more material to work with. Sometimes if you're actually confessing to the presence of wisdom and compassion, you see something you didn't notice when you were just thinking about it. So it is recommended. If you see it, don't wait until you see a teacher to notice that you saw it. And you can also say you're sorry before anybody's around. You can say, in the forest, you can notice something like that. You can say you're sorry. Like you can step mindlessly on some animal and hurt it and feel sorry. And you can say, I'm sorry. Say it to the forest, to the animal. But you keep that later when it keeps you. And you say it to the teacher, you can learn something more about it. The teacher may reflect back to you that you missed something, or that you're trying to justify yourself.

[50:00]

I often use the example, people come to see me sometimes, and they're sometimes late, and they say to me, sorry I'm late. Sorry I'm a little late. Sorry I'm slightly late. So sometimes when you speak to a person, they point out to you that you're backpedaling, that you're justifying yourself. When you thought you were trying to confess something, you're actually trying to justify yourself. Also with my wife, You know that example, which I can tell you because I've said it so many times. I'm driving and I see a traffic jam up ahead and I turn left to avoid it. And I say, that's the stupidest thing I've ever did. And she said, even when you confess, you give yourself a compliment.

[51:02]

So, you know, I thought I was confessing my shortcomings, my stupidity. But I said it was the stupidest, which really wasn't true. I've done more stupid things than that. So if that was the stupidest thing I did, that's quite a compliment. I didn't notice that I was complimenting myself. I thought I was being humble. So you don't have to wait. You can do it all the time when you're walking around, but it's good to sometimes do it face-to-face. And it's actually good to do it face-to-face all the time. But sometimes an actual face shows you something that you can't see when there's not a literal face in front of you. So some people, if I confess to them, they're very kind to me, and they make me want to confess more.

[52:27]

Other people I confess to, maybe, and they're mean to me, and then I think, I don't want to confess anymore. And if I'm the person who's being mean to me, then I don't want to confess anymore. So listening to your own and other people's confession with real compassion promotes the confession process. And sometimes the person can respond harshly And they do, but we know that this is love, that these are flames of love, that it's really compassion, that they have a fiery response to our... our behavior. But usually that kind of response is when we haven't yet, or that kind of response is called for when we haven't yet confessed.

[53:35]

After we confess, usually you don't need so much fire, but more like just a subtle comment is probably the right thing. So I actually wish I could consistently, step by step, be confessing and repenting my shortcomings. I wish for that, that I would be able to do that. Yes. So I thought that was really funny with the paper saying Twitter Universe or something like that, which took me to Trump.

[54:41]

And I never read anything on Twitter from Trump that confesses or repents. He's always blaming. And What happens to a person that's always blaming? What happens to them? In terms of, carnically speaking, what is being generated in that process of lack of accountability and always blaming the other folks for making mistakes? Well, I would say, in a case like that, what happens is the whole universe in the form of that person blaming people.

[55:44]

That's what happens at that moment. That's the way the universe is in that case. the whole universe is including that more or less innumerable beings are observing this person with eyes of compassion. At the very moment that the universe is manifesting itself as a person who is blaming other people for the problems At that moment, if that person is like that, innumerable compassionate beings are observing that person with eyes of compassion. And that observation of that person is creating blessings at that very moment. And those blessings will eventually help that person

[56:53]

notice that there's something for him to confess as unskillful and say, I'm really sorry. And that's not the end of the story. That process then could happen again and again until that person becomes who that person's heading to become. But in reality, he's criticized by the media, and they look for stuff like that. Yeah, but that response is part of the universe that makes this person, that woman. So that person is speaking in a way that they're calling for compassion. This person is calling for compassion. And beings are responding to his call in many ways, depending on their level of development.

[58:03]

That's what he's calling for. And some beings are coming back with great skillfulness. And skillfulness could look, in many ways, it could look like criticism. that person is just going to keep calling for compassion. They're not going to stop. Unskillful people are calling for compassion, and skillful people are calling for compassion too. But if you do something skillful, what's happening there is the whole universe is manifesting itself, working itself as you, if you're being skillful. It's supporting you to be who you are in stillness. And then, do you want to join the people who are aware? Do you want to join the people who are calling for compassion? Do you want to call for compassion? And do you want to listen to the call for compassion?

[59:07]

You are being called for compassion by everybody, including this person you mentioned. He's calling for my compassion and yours. And I'm calling for his and yours. Do you want to join? This is the Bodhisattva precept, is to join that activity of calling for compassion and being called for compassion and starting to respond to the call for compassion. These precepts are about that. And everybody wants us to listen to them with compassion. I'm saying, So this is what I'm saying. I'm suggesting this to you with some energy, but I'm also offering you a meditation. It's a meditation which is everybody that we meet is calling to us for compassion.

[60:10]

And I can remember that sometimes. And when I can remember, I can also remember that they are being responded to with compassion. And I can wish to join the process, this process. And not just... Even people who look like they're calling for compassion are calling for compassion. Everybody is. Everything is. Everything is calling and everything is listening. But do we realize that? This is our original pure nature. Do we realize it? Well, not fully. Not always.

[61:11]

Sometimes maybe. Are we in the process of realizing it? I would say yes. You defined criticism as compassion. Pardon? I thought I heard you define criticism as compassion. No, I didn't mean to say that. I just said that if somebody is criticizing me, if any of you, for example, would criticize me, I aspire to understand that you're calling for compassion when you criticize me. and that I called for your compassion, and what I got from you, I might think, oh, that looks like criticism. But I called for compassion. One of our Zen stories was, the call was for a dragon, but what showed up was a lame turtle.

[62:12]

You know, a young monk asked the teacher, you know, question and the teacher had this kind of lame response, the monk thought, and he said, you know, what I was asking for was a great compassionate master, and what I got was kind of like this lame turtle response. That's how it sometimes looks, I guess, to the inquirer, to the requester. But in this story that I'm telling you about, the monk knew he was calling for something. He knew he was calling for compassion. And what he got, he didn't think was up to, well, you know, was below average. Way below. He was calling for something really great, and he got something kind of, you know, mediocre or below. And if I say this, some people say, but I can't... Even if he is calling for compassion, I can't give it to him.

[63:23]

And then I usually say, well, can you be compassionate to your inability to give it? And they often say, yeah, I can be compassionate to my unwillingness to give compassion to that person. Well, that's... That's the practice. You can't do it there, but can you be generous towards that you can't do it there? And if yes, then now you're on the boat of compassion. And the boat of compassion, as we often say, is not rowed over pure waters. It's rowed through pollution, polluted waters. rough polluted waters. That's where the boat is being rowed. What you said sounds like repentance and compassion. What you just said about compassion, that sounded like repentance. I'm happy that it sometimes that way.

[64:29]

I'd be happy if great compassion sounded like confession and repentance, because great compassion takes that form. It takes other forms too, but that's one of the main forms it takes. Because it doesn't go someplace where there's no pollution and then practice there. Oh, we got good compassion. You're great, you know. Everybody's happy. Well, that's great. No problem. Could you come over here, please, to the polluted section of the universe? No, thank you. So Kyogo, kind of a polluted handwriting there. Kyogo, the disciple of Dogen, in commenting on confession and repentance, brought up the Zen saying, before the donkey departs, the horse arrives.

[65:51]

So great purity arrives before the impurity departs. And part of the way great purity arrives before impurity departs is great pure compassion comes and that's confession and repentance of donkeys all over the place. Yes? Does that allow it to go? Does it allow the donkey to go? The arising of compassion... It allows you to let... It allows the release of the impurity. The impurity always was allowed to be released. It was always allowed to be released. In fact, impurity is really released. But if we try to get rid of it, it can't get away.

[66:58]

So by not confessing and repenting in a compassionate way to the impurity, the impurity seems to get stuck. But by really letting the impurity be, it's allowed to go, but even before it leaves, it's already released. It's already released. It always is calling. We're not actually trapped in impurity, actually. But if we don't accept the impurity, then we somehow seem to be adhering to us. And one of the ways to not accept it is to say, I accept it, but I'm not going to get into saying what it is. I'm feeling sorry about it. Confession of repentance is to really Let it be. To bring it up and acknowledge it respectfully and carefully.

[68:05]

Not too much, not too little. Don't say too much about how you were unskillful or too little. Tell the whole story. And say it in somebody else's presence so they can help you see if you did actually say it like it is. And then how do you feel about it? That's like letting it be, and letting it be is released. It's released, and the confessor's released. The Buddha way is realized. We have great immaculacy without getting rid of the pollution. Without getting rid of delusion, we have great immaculacy. But again, it's hard for us to get that. We come into the ceremony, we've got all this pollution, we confess our repentance, and we're immaculate. because we have just let it be. It's released and we're released. We're released from all our ancient twisted karma because we let it be. Trying to get rid of it, we get trapped in it.

[69:09]

Yes? I guess I feel like I need to confess. And I don't know if this makes sense to anyone, but I guess I felt earlier when you were talking that there was an opportunity around confession that was missed in some way. I thought I heard you say that you would like to or you aspire to confess ongoing. Maybe I missed that. Did you say stop? I wish for that. I wish it would be non-stop. In other words, I wished to be a Buddha. And what came up in me at that moment was to engage with you around that, to ask you, how would that be? How would that sound? And to give the opportunity to demonstrate your Buddhahood. And it was sort of going back, why this was bothering me, I think, was because of one of the 48 minor

[70:18]

precepts is to not miss an opportunity to assist the one in confession. Cool. So, whether or not anything in particular is confessed, this way of being in relationship of Buddha and Buddha, confessing and repenting and assisting one another and confessing and repenting continually. It's something I wanted to express. Thank you. See, this is the thing about me, which if you noticed before, is I start laughing before you know what I'm laughing about. So I'm laughing about two things, which I think are kind of funny and you might not think are funny. First thing I thought was funny is like, somebody comes to confess to you and they start confessing, but you kind of feel like, well, that's enough.

[71:22]

I'd like to go, you know, to have lunch now. That's kind of funny. Could I confess to you? Sure. The person starts confessing. And they say, could I do another one? You say, okay. Can I do another one? All right. And you start to feel like, is this going to be the rest of my life? That this person's just going to keep going now? And I was basically going to spend the rest of my life listening to their confession, which started to be something. I didn't, you know. And also now I noticed that I didn't have the limits of my ability to listen to confessions, so I took, yeah, like that. And I also thought, another thing I thought was funny was I heard a rumor that Martin Luther wore out many confessors. One confessor wasn't enough for him. He would confess and then people said, can I go to bed now? It's really late, Martin.

[72:23]

Please, brother Martin, let me go to sleep. It's been going on for three hours, you know. So he was a really good confessor. And I've heard some things about him which really make me cringe. some really evil thoughts he had, like anti-Semitic thoughts. He had some terrible pollution in him. Terrible. But I think maybe he confessed it. And maybe he never finished. And then he still confessed it. So yeah. So if we were doing this practice, we might be quite humble. Okay, I'm humble, I guess.

[73:25]

But even though I'm humble, I can still say, you know, I'm not trying to stop your confessions, but I must confess to you that I'm getting really hungry. So could you excuse me for a little while so I can go have some lunch? And I'll come back and listen to more confessions later. So you can still tell the person who... You can confess when you're listening to confessions and the aiding person to confess. You can also confess your own side and negotiate what needs to be negotiated in order to continue the practice. I appreciate that. Thank you so much. And thank you for so much for listening to this talk about the Bodhisattva practice of confession and repentance.

[74:12]

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