I vow to taste the truth of the Tathagata's words. Tathagata is one of the epithets for Buddhas. It means one who comes from the truth, one who goes to the truth. And today we're going to have a ceremony, a celebration of the birth of the historical Buddha, Shakyamuni, 2,500 years ago. And I myself, if it's okay with you, would like to celebrate not just the historical Buddha Shakyamuni, but all Buddhas. in past, present and future. And we also, we say the birth of Buddha, but in a sense the birth that we're talking about is sometimes considered to be when the little boy emerged from his to the world.

[01:21]

And in a sense that little boy was not yet a Buddha. He was a good little boy and he had a background of a very long history of lives leading up to his being born as a human baby boy in India. And then he practiced. He lived and practiced years and finished his Buddha career. Well, anyway, he started his Buddhist career when he was 35 years old, according to history. And then he finished his Buddha career when he was 80. So when he was born, actually, it was the birth — actually, in a sense, we're celebrating the birth of a bodhisattva.

[02:29]

When he was born, he was a bodhisattva. He was a being who is in the process realizing Buddhahood, realizing Buddhahood for the welfare, for the happiness and peace of all beings. And then the culmination of this long development as a bodhisattva, when he was 35, there was the physical... realization of Buddha in a human body at that time. And then that human body and mind taught in India for 45 years. And this tradition then is from these 45 years of teaching. But the teaching emerges from, according to the Buddha, innumerable lifetimes of evolution.

[03:33]

leading up to this teaching. I was invited to give the talk today and I thought, well, maybe I'll talk about where, what, from what, from what are Buddhas born. When Buddhas are born, what are they born from? Well, you may not be surprised to hear that it's often said that they're born from great loving-kindness. That's what they're born from. When they're born, that's what they're born from. They're born from the wish to help all living Buddha's wisdom and thereby realize peace and happiness.

[04:47]

That's what they're born from. But Buddhas are not just born. Buddhas can be born and can die. Or Buddha can be born and die. And we're celebrating. We're honoring today the birth of a Bodhisattva who became a Buddha. And Buddhas can also die. They can be born and then after they do the born thing, they can do the dying thing. So usually on February 14th in the Zen tradition, we kind of celebrate in a kind of sad way the Buddha dying, the Buddha going away.

[05:55]

In the Zen tradition at this point in history, we actually sometimes imagine that Buddha has three bodies. One body of Buddha is called the truth body or the reality body. The next body is called the bliss body. And the third body is called the transformation body or the manifestation body. Or even it could be said to be like the magical appearance body. The transformation body, well, let's go back and start over. The reality body is the reality that pervades and underlies all experience.

[07:33]

That's the true body of Buddha, is the reality which provides all our experience and all appearances. The bliss body is the experience, the joyful experience of Buddha's enlightenment. That's another body, another embodiment of Buddha is to actually experience enlightenment. The third body is the corporeal manifestation of Buddha in a human body. the true body of Buddha does not have a beginning and it doesn't have a beginning.

[08:47]

It isn't born and it doesn't die. The bliss body has a beginning but no end. The bliss of enlightenment has a beginning, but there's no end to it. And the manifestation body has a beginning and an end. So the historical Buddha had a beginning as a Buddha and an end as a Buddha. The the true body of Buddha is the essential body of Buddha. The bliss body and the transformation body is action. There's no beginning or end to reality, but there's a beginning of wisdom, and there's a beginning of the joy of wisdom, but there's no end to it.

[09:55]

But there's a beginning of the Buddha's actions. So these are the three bodies of Buddha. And again, today, in a sense, we're celebrating the birth of the historical Bodhisattva who became the historical Buddha, who, in history, when he was 35 years old, And he demonstrated the activity of Buddha in the world of human and animal life. But in later teachings of the universal vehicle, the Buddha comes forth and says, although I appeared in India at a certain time and left India at another time.

[10:58]

In fact, I was there before and I'm still there after. This is a message from the reality body of Buddha, which is not delivered by the historical Buddha. This reality body Buddha message came after the historical body had passed away. However, the historical Buddha did say, before he went away, he did say, he did mention this reality body. And he did mention that he was the transformation. And there's innumerable possible transformation bodies. He did say that. But then later teachings mentioned that or emphasize that the true body of Buddha is always available to students of the Buddha's teaching to receive and practice with.

[12:11]

The historical Buddha is gone, but the true body of Buddha is still present with us. One of the ancestors of the lineage of this temple is a Chinese monk named Dongshan. Dongshan Liangzhe, one of the ancestors. And when he had become a teacher, himself, a monk came to him and said, among the three bodies of the Buddha, teaches the Dharma.

[13:23]

Does the historical person teach the Dharma? Like when we had a historical Buddha, was that the one that was teaching the Dharma? Was it the reality body teaching the Dharma really through this magical appearance of a human being? Or was it the bliss body that was teaching through? Or does the person just sit there and actually the bliss body come and communicate? Which of those three bodies teaches the Dharma, was the monk's question. Another version of this story is, among the three bodies of Buddha, which one doesn't fall into any category? So which of these three bodies doesn't fall into the category of these three bodies? And I thought, well, those two questions illuminate each other.

[14:35]

Because the body that doesn't fall into any body teaching body. The body that teaches the Dharma is not confined to being the all-pervading reality body, and it's not confined to being the bliss body, and it's not confined to being the manifestation and history of them. So it doesn't fall into them. It uses all the categories. That would be the best body for teaching. So which one of it is? I kind of answered, but Dungsan didn't answer. What Dungsan said was, in response to the question, which of the three bodies does not fall into the category? So which of the three bodies teaches the Dharma? He said, I'm always close to this. I'm always close to this

[15:38]

fall into categories. I'm always close to what teaches the Dharma among the three bodies of Buddha. I calligraphed that. I'm always close to this. And there's copies of that calligraphy over there by the door if you'd like one. You may have one. Deng Xia's response in colloquial Chinese, I'm always close to this. Right now, I'll tell you what I'm not going to do. I'm not going to ask you, are you always close to this? I'm not going to ask you that. But I want to suggest that in order to be close to this, I need to be close to this.

[16:48]

In order to be close to what teaches the Dharma, I need to be close to this person. The historical Buddha is history. However, the effects of the historical Buddha, it's possible that the effects of his life and his teaching could be alive today here. maybe part of the life of the historical Buddha is that we have a ceremony that children can participate in. That may be a living manifestation of the Buddha's teaching.

[17:53]

I propose that in order to be close to the actual function of the historical Buddha, I need to be close to what I am. And I think the Buddha taught that. I think the Buddha taught, if you want to be close to me, if you want to be close to the actual function of my teaching, which is to help people, your job is to be close to yourself. If you and I wish to be close to the self of the Buddhas, we need to be close to the selfishness of living beings, our own selfishness.

[19:11]

Or you can make it simpler, our self. I need to be close to myself in order to be close to the selflessness of the Buddha's teaching, to the Buddha's teaching of selflessness. when Dung Shan was leaving his teacher, he asked his teacher if there was any last instructions. And his teacher, Nguyen Nguyen, said, just this person is it.

[20:19]

Literally, he said, just this is it. but its abbreviation for just this person is it. Last instruction of the Buddha, just this person is it. This is what we need to study, this person, in order to be close to the Buddhas. All three bodies, the actual living function of the three bodies. So later when Dung Shan was a teacher and he said, I'm always close to this, in one sense he means I'm always close to the truth, I'm always close to the teaching, the actual teaching function, I'm always close to myself.

[21:22]

I'm always mindful of myself. I'm always studying my action closely. And celebrating of closeness, someone said, This closeness is heart-rending if you seek outside. And the ultimate intimacy is almost like enmity. If you try to get close to yourself and seek outside while you do it, it's heart-rending.

[22:38]

Or if you try to the Buddhas and seek outside, it's heart-rending. So we have the opportunity of getting close to something without seeking outside to get close to it. And also maybe not even seeking but settle. And it says the ultimate closeness is almost like enmity. I would say that that means that when you're close but not quite there, a little bit of separation from yourself, if you're it's not such a problem. But as you get closer and closer to yourself or to something, When it gets really close, you can feel the stress of the separation. The separation doesn't have much power, but the closeness of the separation, it's very difficult to close the gap, to drop the gap completely.

[23:54]

Dung Shan practiced this for a long time, trying to find a way to be just this person, just this person, to be intimate with himself, which is intimate with being a deluded person, which is intimate with being intimate with Buddha. And one more story from the Zen tradition. It's a story about another noted teacher.

[25:02]

His name was Yunmun. Yunmun, which means cloud gate. He asked a question and then he answered it himself. Where are the Buddhas born? And his answer was, the eastern mountains travel over the waters. Where are all the Buddhas born? The eastern mountains travel over the waters. Where are the eastern mountains traveling over the waters?

[26:07]

Well, in China, the eastern mountains actually are in the east. And in the eastern mountains, there's also an ocean, which we call the Pacific Ocean. The eastern mountains actually meet the oceans, or the oceans meet the mountains. That's the eastern mountains. But this applies to all mountains. And where are the Buddhas born? The Buddhas are born in mountains, travel on the water. And commenting on this instruction, another ancestor of our tradition says that the foot, the foot of the mountains, mountains have feet.

[27:14]

Did you know that? Have you ever heard of the foot of a mountain? The foothills? Well, even before the foothills, there's the foot. And the foot of mountains, which not everybody knows, most people know that mountains have feet. Actually, most people don't know that. Mountains have feet. But people often overlook the fact that mountains have toes also. It's not often pointed out that mountain feet have toes. Some people say, no, they don't. Yes, they do. Or you could say, at least, if you want to say that they have toes, at least you can say that mountain feet, that there's an end of the feet of the mountains, right? There's an end point to the feet of the mountains and toes.

[28:21]

At the foot of the mountain, at the toes of the mountain, the toes of the mountain meet the water. Also, the crown of the head of the water. And where the toes of the mountain meet the crowns of the water, the water splashes up. And the mountains travel over the water. That's where the Buddhas are born. You can just walk down here, right down, just walk down here. And there's mountains and they go right down to the water. And you can see where the tips, the toes of the mountain, you can see where they touch the water and where the water flows. and splashes up vitally. The Buddhas are born right there.

[29:25]

You can find the Buddhas being born right down there at Mir Beach. They're also all over, wherever the mountains are, where the toes of the mountains are leading the water all over the universe, born there. I can say is to understand that the mountains are yourself. The mountains are your life. The mountains are your experience. And if you walk to the bottom of your experience, at the foot of the mountain of your experience, the toes of the mountain of your experience at fully being yourself, at that point your experience, yourself, meets the water of selflessness and becomes alive at the full exercise of the mountain of your experience each moment.

[30:52]

That's where Buddha is born. That's where Buddha is, but also Buddha is born from compassion. So he's born of compassion and the place it's born is at the thorough exercise of the mountain of your experience. We need great compassion in order to fully engage this mountain. to walk all the way to the bottom of it in the moment and out of that compassion do this work of being ourself and experience where this experience meets self. where the experience of a self meets the reality of selflessness, and the selflessness comes alive and splashes into a gorgeous foam and spray of life, liberating the mountains and the mountains in the ocean.

[32:01]

This is where the Buddhas are born. This is where selflessness and self meet and liberate each other. Our experience makes reality alive. Reality makes our experience alive. being close to ourself, being close to our mountain, walking to the bottom of our mountain, walking to the fullness of our mountain, of ourself. There we find closeness to ourself and closeness

[33:09]

to that which doesn't even fall into any categories of Buddha bodies and yet realizes aspects of the reality of the Buddhas. This is the great challenge of the tradition. be just this person, to be always close to this. Not to control this so much, but maybe to control yourself into the work of being close to yourself. I don't hear a request for us to be somebody else in this teaching.

[34:15]

I hear a request for each of us to be so fully that the vitality of the water splashes up in that fullness. because of the ceremonies today, there's not going to be a question and answer session later. And I was requested to stop by 11 o'clock. Do I have some time left? So, since we don't have a question and answer session, if anyone would like to come up and express themselves, we have a few minutes to do so.

[35:18]

Any feedback you wish to offer, any dances you wish to offer, any songs you wish to offer, you are invited to come up and do so. Any feedback you wish to offer, or to the teaching. Here comes somebody. And... Yes, thank you. Thank you very much. Does this work? Of course. Welcome. Thank you. Hi. Hi. I'm just wondering if you would address the difference between selflessness and selfishness.

[36:19]

Or more about just selflessness. Yes, just whatever. Well, selflessness, yeah. Selflessness is the insubstantiality of all things. Its selflessness is that if you look carefully, you won't be able to find anything. Nothing exists independent of other things, so when you look carefully at something, you'll find out that everything is just the sum total of everything it isn't. One can indefinitely. But basically, selflessness is the ultimate character of all phenomena. So if a person is in the pure state of selflessness, and if the toes of the mountain and the splash is occurring,

[37:24]

Yes? Or in other words, if someone was able to be an ordinary person who is selfish, is able to be thoroughly selfish, or if a person was willing to be thoroughly petty, they would reach the toes of the mountain of their pettiness, and there they would realize selflessness of their pettiness. And they would realize Buddha, but only compassionate beings can really open their heart to how petty they are. Most people are not compassionate enough to accept their own pettiness. But for the welfare of all beings, we might be willing to say, okay, I am really petty. I completely accept that. And in that full acceptance, we reach the toes of the mountain of our pettiness. And there we realize the selflessness of the mountain and the selflessness of the mountain of our pettiness.

[38:35]

The selflessness of the mountain of our selfishness and our possessiveness and our confusions. So in a sense, is it compassion for every part of ourselves and every part of every other human being? We need to be compassionate to every part of ourselves in order to completely exhaust the mountain of ourselves. Even a tiny part of ourselves. If we fully... accept it. We realize that the ultimate truth is realized in that full acceptance of a tiny part of ourselves. Or in the way we make ourselves tiny. The way we make ourselves tiny little selfish creatures. That is an opportunity to realize ultimate truth of the Buddhist teaching. And we have to be compassionate in order to fully exhaust

[39:38]

It is. Some people might be good at big mountains, but not good at little ones. So I'm kind of getting the sense that if a person were to have total compassion for whatever quality, either in themself or... that that's the mist of the spray. No. It almost dissolves? No. The total compassion is what takes you to the place. where the wisdom is realized. So Buddhas are born out of compassion, but they are realized by wisdom. You have to have the two. So if you're compassionate, you can be fully this person, and in being fully this person, the spray of the interaction between this person and the emptiness or the selflessness of the person, that's the wisdom which is realized at that point. in order to realize Buddhist wisdom.

[40:43]

The spray is the wisdom. The spray is the wisdom. The spray is when the water and the ocean meet, where compassion and... where self... phenomena reach the emptiness of limited phenomena, where selfishness and self meet. Because selfishness is... Selfishness is not real. And also, selflessness is not real. It's also empty. Everything is substantial. Yeah, I think one more. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to ask a question.

[41:45]

Yes. I see more and more that people are taking psychiatric drugs and giving them to their children. People are giving their children psychiatric drugs. Psychiatric drugs, yeah. In order to alter their reality. Yes. in a way to try and keep them normal, quote unquote. To try to make them normal, yeah. Yeah. That's their intention. That's the intention. As far as I'm aware, at the moment, there aren't any chemical tests you can do to diagnose someone as being abnormal. But they give people chemical drugs to sort the problem out. So I think May I ask you what you think about that situation where people are altering their consciousness with psychiatric drugs in an attempt to stay within some kind of accepted idea of what normal is?

[42:54]

You're asking me what I think of people using medications or drugs to promote normalcy? Accepted, yeah. Yeah, as it's accepted today. Yeah. What do I think about that? The first thing I think is that I'm thinking about that. It ties into what you've been saying about accepting who you really are. So I might think something about it. Like I might think, Now that I'm thinking about it, I think, I wonder if that's really this activity. I wonder if it's helpful. Taking the drugs? Yeah. I wonder if it's helpful. When you asked me that question, now I'm thinking, would it be helpful to give a child or an adult, would it be helpful for me to take some medication?

[43:58]

It's a reality. Right. But I'm just, you know, right, it would ultimately... Would taking... Well, but also eating lunch also is my reality too. So when I eat lunch, I try to be eating the food, you know, to work with my blood sugar level. So currently I'm not, I don't consider myself normal. I mean, I'm kind of ordinary. But I wouldn't say exactly normal. I wouldn't promote my ordinariness to normalcy. But if somebody tells me, you're normal, okay, fine, I'll accept that. Like the doctor says, well, you're normal. Okay, fine, I accept. You say I'm normal. I don't exactly believe that I'm normal. I believe that I'm ordinary.

[45:01]

I just kind of think I am. And if I think I'm extraordinary, well, I think, well, that's kind of ordinary. A lot of ordinary people think they're extraordinary. So right now, I'm eating food and I'm doing various other things which alter my reality. But when I do it, I contemplate whether it's beneficial. Now, I don't know if it is, but I think about it. So if I was going to recommend to someone that they consider eating something, like I might think, I think it would be good for you to have lunch. Like with my grandson, I often try to keep feeding him during the day because he sometimes forgets to eat. His blood sugar level drops and then he calms down. So I said, keep eating, keep eating, and keep your blood sugar level up because you're really a great kid when your blood sugar level's at normal range.

[46:11]

But when it gets too low, you get really upset, you know, and you can't even figure out what you want to eat. So I do encourage him to eat. Food is medicine. Food is medicine. But I so far have never thought that he needs any special medication. He mostly needs food and sleep. Also got to get him to sleep before things get too wild. But I think it's beneficial. Some adults tell me that they take antidepressants. and that this seems to be going okay. I don't recommend that they take it, but if they wish to take it and they think it's beneficial, I contemplate that with them, and some of them say it should be okay. But I also say, sometimes I also say, when I'm thinking about it with them, I think, I don't think it's good to take so much antidepressants that you don't have any anxiety at all. You know, that's going too far, I think.

[47:16]

And to tell you we have zero pain, I kind of think that's a bit much. But if somebody, like people do ask me sometimes when they're in pain, they say, you think it's all right for me to take pain medication? Like some people even ask me when we're sitting here and they have pain when they're sitting, they say, do you think it's okay if I have some ibuprofen? And I often say, yeah, I think it's all right. But don't take so much that you have no pain at all. Because the rest of us have pain too. Be like us. Have some pain, but if it gets to be so strong, you just can barely be present with yourself. And you think that some medication would help you be able to sort of like live somewhere in the neighborhood of this body. And I would say, well, okay. I think that might be helpful. And let's try it as an experiment. And the person takes it and You say, yeah, I feel a little more at ease.

[48:24]

I still have problems, but... So I have an experimental attitude towards these things. I don't have a fixed position about it. But I don't tell other people what to do, and I fortunately never had to force anybody to take medication. But I feel sympathy for those who feel like they have to force people to take medication. That seems like a really painful thing to do. But I think it's possible that sometimes medications could be helpful, and I would have to dialogue with the situation and explore what might be good. I'm just, where I'm coming from is I think that human experience is much vaster than we usually I totally agree with you. And we don't allow ourselves to experience the way things really are most of the time.

[49:27]

Right. And I think part of being intimate with ourselves is to open to the vastness of our experience. But if we're tense... it's hard for us to open to even the limited aspect of our experience. So sometimes if we can work on relaxing and being kind with our experience, then as we become more and more kind to it, we start to open to it. And in opening to it, we start to go to the foot of the mountain, and then the water splashes up and we open to the vastness the oceanic quality of our experience. Thank you.

[50:18]

@Transcribed_v005
@Text_v005
@Score_90.39