to bestow or to give five people what we call the Bodhisattva precepts, the great Bodhisattva precepts, the 16 great Bodhisattva precepts. And this is a formal ceremony to in entering Buddha's way. formal ceremony for people to become, if you excuse the ancient way of talking about it, children of Buddha, Buddha's offspring, people who are on the path to working for the realization of Buddhahood in this world. In that ceremony, the precepts are, I'll just tell you what they are.

[01:05]

They're called, the first three are called going for refuge in the Buddha, going for refuge in the Dharma, going for refuge in the Sangha. Those are the first three Bodhisattva precepts in the tradition of this temple. The next three are to embrace and sustain the regulations and ceremonies. The next one is to embrace and sustain all wholesome activities. And the next is to embrace and sustain all beings. Those are called the three pure precepts. Then comes the major precepts. The first one is the precept of not taking life.

[02:08]

Next is the precept of not taking what is not given. Then is the precept not misusing sexuality. Fourth one is the precept of not lying. Fifth is the precept of not intoxicating. Literally, it's really to not do anything to intoxicate others. But of course that also includes not intoxicating the self. Since these are bodhisattva precepts, the concern for others comes first. The sixth is the precept of not slandering, which means just not to say anything about anybody that would in any way degrade them or make people respect them less.

[03:19]

In other words, you could criticize someone. If someone didn't know how to drive, you could say, that person doesn't know how to drive, according to my view. But you wouldn't say that to make people respect the person less. Matter of fact, you'd say that so that people would take care of the person and either give them driving instructions or help them do something else. But the intention is never to cause division among beings. by speaking of their faults, by slandering them. Next, praise self at the expense of others. It's okay to say something good about yourself as long as it's also a compliment to other people. The eighth is to not be possessive of anything.

[04:22]

Ninth is to not harbor ill will. And the tenth is to not disparage the Triple Truth, which was the first three precepts of taking refuge in Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. Not to disparage Buddha, Dharma, or Sangha. Not to speak of them in any way that demeaned them. Again, even you could criticize Buddha, but not to demean or make people to respond. So those are the 16 Bodhisattva precepts that will be given this afternoon during a ceremony which will be led by the abbess of Zen Center, Linda Ruth Cutts. And it's a ceremony at 3 o'clock. The ceremony is at 3.30. And everyone, welcome to. You're all welcome to come and observe. Some of you have already received these precepts. Some of you may wish to see the ceremony where people received them.

[05:31]

I come to give a talk. If I have nothing to say, the talk is very long. But today, I have a lot to say, so maybe it'll be short. I doubt it, but... Because I really have a lot to say. And I may have to stop before I finish what I brought to give to you. First of all, I just wanted to briefly mention the history of the practice of precepts in Buddhism for the last 2,500 years. I mean briefly relative to what could be said. So right today we're having a ceremony of bestowing the 16 bodhisattva precepts of a particular lineage this lineage of this temple which comes from, and in particular it was brought here by the founder of Zen Center, Shogaku Shinryu, our great, kind, wonderful founder, brought these precepts and bestowed them upon us, these 16 precepts.

[06:58]

And he received them in a lineage which started, I think, in the 13th century Japan, before that time, which is the time of the founder of Soto Zen in Japan, we don't see these 16 Bodhisattva precepts that I just told you. The other forms of preceptual teaching, and I'd like to, like, again, take you on a historical trip from the Buddha Shakyamuni in India up to the present time. in particular focusing on precepts, which are usually understood as moral precepts, and they are moral precepts. But they're not limited to moral precepts because they're also precepts of meditation and precepts of wisdom, of Buddha mind.

[08:02]

In the beginning of this tradition, it seems that there was a Buddha. And for me, the Buddha was not a Buddha completely until the Buddha was teaching. Just the sage Shakyamuni under the Bodhi tree, for me, is not yet Buddha. After he was awakened and sat in his awakening for 49 days, he emerged and entered into this course with beings, and he started to teach upon their request. And in the beginning of his relationship with his students, with his disciples, with his children, with his successors, in the beginning, in a sense, there was no precept. In the beginning, he did not teach them the moral precepts.

[09:06]

His first teachings were directly about wisdom. He taught wisdom. He taught how to avoid all extreme views. And the people he talked to, he talked to five people, and within a few weeks, all five attained enlightenment. But there's no mention in the early teachings during this initial phase of teaching of him giving them precepts. I would suggest that he didn't need to give them precepts for two reasons. One is that they were already ethically well-developed, well-cultivated, but also I would say that almost everyone, not completely everyone, but almost everyone in the presence of the Buddha doesn't need any precepts because they are completely there. Sitting right in the face of Buddha, you're not going to kill anything.

[10:16]

You're not going to swat a fly, squash an ant. You're not going to hurt anybody. Sitting right in Buddha's face, you wouldn't do that. It would be clear that that was not appropriate, that Buddha wouldn't like to see that. And you would like to please Buddha because Buddha pleases you. You're happy. You don't need to kill anything. you would not, you wouldn't, even if you thought maybe you did need to kill something to protect yourself, you wouldn't. You would not kill in the presence of Buddha. And Buddha does not kill in the presence of Buddha. Does not. This precept of not killing naturally emerges from the enlightened being. It's not like the enlightened being is like or ants. It's natural. When you're enlightened, you will give your life for other beings, not take their life. You will donate your life, not take the life that's not given to you. In front of Buddha, you're not going to try to grab a little piece of fruit for yourself.

[11:19]

It's not given when you're in Buddha's presence. You're not going to misuse sexuality in Buddha's presence. You're not going to lie in Buddha's presence. in the warmth and graciousness of the Buddha's presence. You're not afraid to tell the truth, even if it wasn't flattering about you. Good morning, dear disciple. Did you do your homework? No, sir, I did not. I didn't do my homework. Are you mindful of what's going on right now? I'm somewhat distracted, Lord Buddha. I must confess. Is there anything you'd like to tell me? Yes, sir. There is. I really did an unkind thing. It's easy in the presence of the Buddha.

[12:25]

You know the Buddha wants you to tell the truth, and when you tell the truth, you feel closer to Buddha. and you want to be close to Buddha because that's who you are. So, I can go on. So, when you're in the presence of Buddha, it's no work for you to take refuge in Buddha. When you're with Buddha, when people are with Buddha and they see that they're with Buddha, they have no problem saying, I would like to take refuge with you, Buddha. I would like to take refuge in your teaching. When you hear the Buddha's teaching, this is wonderful. You want to take refuge in the teaching. And when you see the Buddha's group, you want to take refuge in the group. This is like with Buddha. This is like the true Buddha. You can imagine that you would want to receive, take refuge. Now this afternoon or today, you don't have like a fully enlightened Buddha in the room, so maybe you don't want to take refuge in Buddha because you can't see it.

[13:26]

but in the beginning they could see the Buddha. The Buddha was actually there. And crazy people who just happened to bump into Buddha, Buddha would sometimes say, hello, you know, like today, hello, and they would wake up. Or like Buddha would say, get a life, and they would wake up. Or Buddha would say, regain your presence of mind, brother, and crazy people would snap out of it. This is extremely skillful behavior that the enlightened one is . And so people do happily take refuge. Without even thinking of it, they feel that way. And also in the presence of Buddha, you want to go along with the regulations and ceremonies of the Buddha's mind and body and heart. And you want to embrace the Buddha, and you want to embrace and sustain all beings. because you see the Buddha doing that and you want to join that, and so on.

[14:28]

You want to practice these precepts. The Buddha didn't even mention them at the beginning. It wasn't necessary. However, as the community grew, people got bigger and bigger. When you're right in the presence of the Buddha, it's not that difficult to practice the precepts without even thinking about it. You just spontaneously practice them. But as the community got bigger and people got like several yards, or even 50 yards, 150 feet or 100 yards from the Buddha, you can imagine some of the groups got kind of big, maybe. Or maybe not, you know, the group wasn't that big, but Buddha took a little walk someplace, and you were left, you know, on your own tree, and Buddha... And you think, well, maybe I could... Maybe I could blah, blah, blah. But for those first people, I think they were real cozy there for a few weeks, you know, and they weren't drifting off, plus they were already highly disciplined, and the community got bigger.

[15:42]

the Buddha gave precepts to the students, to the disciples, gave them precepts about how to behave because he definitely said that this is founded on a deep commitment, a deep moral commitment. And if you don't get that, if you don't understand that in your marrow of your bones, in the center of your heart, well, here's some precepts for you. So just in case you don't get it, and it looked like some of his students were not getting it. People came and said, did you know that so-and-so was doing such-and-such? Buddha said, what? Let's make a little regulation about that. So gradually, after a pretty long time, the Buddha set out a bunch of regulations so that the people in the community and the people around the community could Buddhist are like totally gung-ho about moral life. They want to make that very clear.

[16:51]

So he gave them these rather elaborate regulations, which are generally said to be about 250 detailed regulations about personal behavior. So first, in a sense, there was no precepts. Then there was precepts. And these precepts were for personal behavior, personal virtue, and personal purification. And so the vehicle of this precept vehicle was called the individual vehicle or the narrow vehicle, the vehicle just for the one practitioner, one practitioner, one practitioner, for each practitioner, for each disciple to work on those precepts. 250 rules, the nuns had 330, and the laymen had 10, and the laywomen had 10, or excuse me, novice monks had 10, the laymen had 5, the laywomen had 5, and when the laymen and laywomen went into retreat, they had 8.

[17:59]

These were the regulations the Buddha gave to practitioners depending on their style of practice. first there was precepts, first there wasn't precepts really being articulated, then there was articulated precepts, and Buddhism thrived under that auspices. But then there came another phase where another set of precepts were given. And these precepts were the precepts for the Bodhisattva, and were a different set of precepts from the precepts that we give here. precepts, they had the same first three that we have, basically the same second three we have, but in the place of the ten, they had 58. So those were the Bodhisattva precepts. So a total, they say 58 usually, and the first ten of the 58, ten major ones of our 16.

[19:01]

So they had a total of Let's see, 64, right? Is that right? 3, 3, and 58, 64. They usually say 58, but that assumes that the previous six were given two. Those are the bodhisattva precepts that arose in India, spread to China, Tibet, Korea, and Japan, and some parts of Southeast Asia. Bodhisattva precepts. Precepts are people who are entering a path not so much of personal purification. These precepts are not so much about personal purification, although they include that. They're more about a type of conduct where we practice together in order to realize peace and harmony. not so much on emphasizing on me becoming purified, but on all our relationships becoming purified and working for the welfare of the whole community rather than just trying to purify myself.

[20:09]

First, in a sense, with Buddha, just being intimate with Buddha, no precepts articulated but implied. Next, articulated precepts of personal conduct. Next, precepts of universal practicing together in peace and harmony. And then comes another phase of development where they're developed among the Zen school, but also you might find it in the Vajrayana tradition. But in the Zen school, they're developed a teaching of one mind or one mind precepts. So again, The teaching now is that all sentient beings and all Buddhas are nothing but the one-minded Buddha. And here again, like at the beginning, where actually all sentient beings and all Buddhas were nothing but the one-minded Buddha.

[21:21]

Now again, in this end tradition, there is emphasis that you and I, all of us together, are one mind, and all of us together with all Buddhas are just one mind. Outside of one mind there is nothing, and there's no precepts aside from the Buddha. Sentient beings, living beings like us who are not yet completely enlightened, and the Buddhas, the completely enlightened ones, are not separate. They are one mind. The duality between sentient beings and Buddha is an illusion. That mind realizes the precepts, but there's no precepts that need to be said in that mind. They naturally, spontaneously are the activity of this one mind. So in that sense, this Zen mind precept

[22:22]

or the precepts which do not exist aside from just this Buddha nature which pervades everything, is a return to the source of the tradition. But again, just like at the beginning, it was necessary to make clear to people that this does not mean that we don't have a deep moral commitment. So then, again, the precepts were articulated. Because you might think, oh, since there's no precepts aside from the Buddha mind, there's no precepts. They're just not aside from. So now we have to say them again just so that people don't get confused. Except that because of the intervening history instead of just the Buddha giving the precepts of individual discipline, of personal purification, now, or the Mahayana, or the group harmony and peace, the two precepts, sets of precepts were given together.

[23:37]

And this becomes the major way, particularly in the Zen school, that the precepts were given in China from the Sun Dynasty, from the 10th, 11th, 12th century on to the present. So if you go to China now, ordained, their ordination is first of all the first three precepts in our tradition, taking refuge, then the three pure precepts, then the ten major precepts, then the 48 minor precepts, excuse me. First the monk would receive, like in our ceremony, the three pure precepts, but then they receive these individual precepts, 250 precepts, or 330 for nuns, or for laypeople, five and five and so on, and for novices, ten. Then after receiving those 250, if it's a monk, receive the 58 Bodhisattva precepts.

[24:45]

So they receive the refuges, the pure precepts, the 250 precepts, and the Bodhisattva precepts, the combined precepts, lots of precepts now. And in addition to that, if they're Zen, they have monastic regulations of their temple. So this is what was going on. in the 10th, 11th, 12th centuries up till the present in China, still happening. And when the ancestor Dogen went to China, he saw this combined practice. One thing led to another, and when he went back to Japan, he seemed to have created or innovated this new form of precepts. And so how is it that we come to be 16 after all this history?

[25:51]

One other important phase that happened in the Zen school besides this phase of emphasizing the one-mind precept was an expression from a Zen teacher named Baijian that in the Zen school we principle of practice, which is not constrained by the precepts of individual purification or individual virtue, and it's not constrained by the precepts of realizing peace and harmony and compassion among all beings. It's not constrained by either the personal or the universal vehicle precepts.

[27:10]

But what Bai Zhang suggested, what the Zen master Bai Zhang suggested is to in such a way that was appropriate to the Buddha way of his school, of the Zen school. And this, I would suggest, is one of the, his teaching then was the basis for the Zen style of practice and I think was a strong influence on the combined precept ordination. So the 16 Bodhisattva precepts, it may be that what they are is something a little different. And Dogen said, after quoting Baijong, who said, in this school, do not

[28:21]

we are not constrained by nor do we disregard the precepts of individual moral discipline. And we do not reject or be constrained by the precepts of harmony of the bodhisattva vehicle. But we synthesize them in such a way that's appropriate for the Buddha way. Then Dogen says, after he quotes this, he says, the great master Baijian talked like this, but this is not the way I am. I suggest a middle way which transcends the distinction between the individual practice And I would suggest that he also gave these bodhisattva precepts, simplified them, and gave them in this form.

[29:37]

So not only can we transcend the difference between practicing together with everyone for compassion and disciplining yourself for virtue, not combining and not synthesizing, but transcending that distinction, and also transcending the distinction between formal precepts and formless precepts. So formal precepts are the formal precepts of individual virtue. and the formal precepts of communal peace and harmony. But there's informal precepts too, or formless precepts, I shouldn't say informal, formless precepts, which you cannot see, they're invisible, aside from the Buddha.

[30:47]

The formless precepts are just the Buddha way. And when you have the Buddha way, you have moral virtue. It doesn't look like anybody's following a rule, it's just there it is. So the precepts are formless in the case of the Buddha. What the Buddha does is what the Buddha does. It isn't that the Buddha is following some The Buddha's not even following the rule of being Buddha. The Buddha's just Buddha, and the Buddha's even free of being Buddha, so that Buddha can constantly go beyond being Buddha, so Buddha doesn't get failed. In the Buddha mind, we have the greatest virtue and also we have freedom from all of our ideas of virtue.

[31:53]

That's the formless precept. Formal precept. And then there's a distinction between the two, which we can transcend. And I'll just mention something that I'll try to say a little bit later, but to say this to remind you, to remind me in case I forget. And that is that part of the ceremony today, before receiving the precept, is before receiving the formal precepts, the formal confession ceremony.

[33:02]

But there's also, which I'd like to mention a little later, is a formless confession. And again, our tradition, I would suggest, is to transcend between formal confession and formless confession, and transcend the distinction between formal precepts and formless precepts. Quite often, in order to transcend the distinction between formal precepts and formless precepts, it's necessary to practice formal precepts. For example, the precept of not taking what's not given to receive that precept

[34:08]

is a formal ceremony and receiving a formal precept of not taking what's not given. But there's a formal ceremony, a formal precept also of not taking what's not given, where you don't hear the words not to take what's not given, but you're just in the one mind of Buddha with all sentient beings, and there just is no taking what's not given, but there's no form to it. not taking what's not given. It looks like they're just eating their lunch or brushing their teeth or saying hello. There's no precept that you can see. And yet they're behaving like a Buddha. But just to behave like a Buddha doesn't test to make sure that you have transcended the distinction between behaving like a Buddha and practicing a precept like don't steal. So you receive the precept of don't steal and then see if you can practice it together with being a person who doesn't really have that precept.

[35:20]

So in order to harmonize and transcend the distinction between the two, we have to practice both. So we do, hopefully, work for that. So the Zen Master Dogen said something like this, I do not follow the teachings of individual virtue, nor do I disregard them. And I would add, I do not follow the teachings of the great vehicle, nor do I disregard them. What is the individual vehicle of personal virtue? It means that the donkey has not yet taken off.

[36:25]

What is the individual vehicle of personal virtue? It means the donkey has not yet taken off. What is the great vehicle of peace and harmony among all beings? It means that the horse has not yet arrived. And I say, Dogen didn't say this, I say, the horse arrives before the donkey has left. This is a gesture, a verbal gesture of transcending. The donkey has not left. The horse has not yet arrived. Or, you know, in my reference, the crippled neurotic, unhappy Seabiscuit has not yet left and needs training.

[37:38]

How many people know about the story of Seabiscuit? How many people don't know the story of Seabiscuit? Too bad. Seabiscuit is this horse that lived in the earlier part of this century. Who was? By the time of adulthood, or by the time he was found. Three? A three-year-old horse was really neurotic, and almost crippled and, you know, what do you call it, post-traumatic stress syndrome, genetic imperfections. However, lineage, like us, all of us have, all of us are in the Buddha lineage, but most of us are somewhat neurotic at least and need training. So the donkey is like Seabiscuit prior to training. Seabiscuit was trained and Seabitz became one of the greatest racehorses of all time, I guess.

[38:48]

The Mahayana is not so much about the, you know, that the neurotic donkey hasn't left. but it's about that the horse hasn't yet arrived. But really what the Mahayana, what the great vehicle and the individual vehicle realize together is that the great horse has arrived before the crippled neurotic horse has left. Your great Buddha nature has arrived before your sentient ignorance has departed. But still, we need training. Dogen says, having nothing to increase means that the greatest vehicle is the same as the least vehicle. Having nothing to decrease means that the least vehicle is the same as the greatest vehicle.

[40:06]

Dogen's approach does not seek to synthesize these two vehicles, but to cast off the distinction between them. Really, Dogen says, my approach is not to synthesize these two, but to cast off the distinction between them. Not to synthesize the donkey and the horse. Not to synthesize your... Not completely... Buddhahood with your completely developed Buddhahood, not to synthesize them, but to cast off the distinction between them. While you go ahead and be a Buddha in training, and while you go ahead being a Buddha beyond, while you go ahead and be someone who needs to practice these precepts diligently, mindfully, lovingly, thoroughly, under supervision.

[41:12]

Transcend the distinction between that and a nature which needs no training, which you can enjoy all day long, while you transcend the distinction between that and your hard work to discipline yourself. And then Dogen says, I've already done this. What more can I say? When healthy, practice Zen. When you're hungry, eat until you're full. transcending the distinction between the two vehicles, transcending the distinction between formal precept practice, formal discipline and virtue, and formless discipline and virtue.

[42:18]

Transcendent distinction. And there is a distinction. and take care of them. Transcend the distinction between yourself and other people and take care of yourself and other people. Transcend the distinction between you and your honestly not completely enlightened state and your completely enlightened state. Transcend that distinction. Take care of yourself and take care of Buddha. Don't esteem yourself. and don't disparage yourself. Don't esteem Buddha and don't disparage Buddha. Care for both, having transcended the distinction between them. This, I think, is what the 16 Bodhisattva precepts are about. And I guess I'm giving my faith to this tradition that these 16 Bodhisattva precepts represent this hundred-year-old tradition

[43:22]

of transcending the distinction, these distinctions. With all this history behind it, so that you see what the emphasis is, all this history which we are totally devoted to and respect, but feel that this new form of presentation would be helpful for the modern world, the last 800 years. And now I just want to say something about today's ceremony, just a little example of today's ceremony. So the people who are in this ceremony are going to make a commitment to these bodhisattva precepts. They're going to vow, they're going to give their life to the real Bodhisattva precepts. I don't know what they're up to, but if I was them, I would vow to live a life

[44:33]

which transcends the distinction between formal and and transcends the distinction between Buddha and sentient beings and transcends the distinction between individual practice and universal practice. And I would vow to live those precepts for that reason, for that purpose, for that goal. before, as I mentioned earlier, before receiving the precepts in the ceremony, in the formal ceremony, and I'm going to postpone that. I want to say something which is kind of difficult, but I just want to say this, and we can talk about it later if you want, and that is that When we speak, I think in the Zen tradition or in the Buddhist tradition, when we speak of somebody violating formal precepts, we usually mean that to apply to someone who has received them and committed to them.

[45:56]

We usually don't say somebody is violating a precept if they never actually said that they wanted to practice that precept. We don't go around saying, those people are breaking those Buddhist precepts, and those people are breaking, or we don't even say, those people are breaking those, this person's breaking that, this person's, we don't, it's more, the violation is really If you have said you wish to practice not stealing and then you steal, you're violating the precept that you've committed to. It's a personal thing. The formal precept there is a personal thing that you've committed to. You're not following through on what you can do. There's a violation of the precepts. So in that sense, it's just for initiates that the violation occurs. And this is the hard part. In the context of enlightenment, I would suggest to you that the commitment to practice the precepts is more important than practicing the precepts.

[47:12]

Many people practice, for example, not killing. Like right now, probably nobody in the room is killing anything, maybe. But if you haven't committed to it, you have not become a disciple of Buddha. If you have a group of living beings and they're not killing, they're not disciples of Buddha unless they say, I want to not kill. I give my life to not killing. Now I'm not killing, but I want to never kill. Now I'm not killing everybody who's being nice to me. Nobody's yelling at me, but I... Now I'm not killing, now I'm not stealing, now I'm not lying. But that's not becoming a disciple of Buddha. It's when you say, I want to live that way. From now until I'm a Buddha, and even beyond Buddha, I want to live a life of kindness and truth.

[48:22]

So even the kind of rough and ready expression is even a bad monk, even to be a bad monk is better than not being a monk. It's far better, it's far better than not being a monk at all. So you have two people. One is telling the truth but has not committed to tell the truth. The other person has committed to tell the truth and is lying. This person who's committed to tell the truth and is violating that precept by lying is far closer to the Buddha's heart than the person who just happens to be telling the truth. But maybe it's two different people, but just look at yourself. I myself, prior to committing to telling the truth, when I was telling the truth, it was good.

[49:30]

It's good to tell the truth. Don't mistake that. It's excellent. Not excellent. It's really great to tell the truth. But it's far greater to commit to telling the truth. So even though I'm not a good monk, even though I'm not a good bodhisattva, I'm far better having committed to it than prior to committing to it, even when I was occasionally pretty good. So in question and answer, I can work on this with you if you want to. But one brief thing I would say to you is that there is a teaching in the Buddhist tradition, or in the tradition of Buddha, that when you tell the truth, as I said before, that's good. Okay?

[50:31]

And that has effects on you. And it restructures your mind to promote your mind to support telling the truth again. So that's part of what's good about it. It's not only good now, but it has good effects. However, when you commit to tell the truth, and you commit with your body, by speaking, by saying, I vow to tell the truth throughout countless lives until reaching Buddhahood, when you say that, and when your body is there in the posture of saying that, and you bow and say you want to do that, the consequences of those physical and vocal actions of committing yourself to these precepts. Your mind and the objects of your mind to promote the realization of Buddhahood. And there's no end to the transformation that happens. So two people, both of who want to practice the precepts,

[51:38]

and even both of who commit to the precept, the one who actually formally does it has more transformation because of that formal physical and vocal acts than the one who does not. So that's why we have these ceremonies to transform beings' minds and hearts. I'd like to point out then the practice of confession that will happen during the ceremony this afternoon. It's a formal practice of confession, so it has a form. It has a formula, and the formula is, all my ancient twisted karma, all my ancient twisted action, from beginning with greed, hate, and delusion, born through body, speech, and thought, I now fully avow. ... karma, born through beginningless, no, from beginningless greed, hate, and delusion.

[52:50]

All the things I've done in my unenlightened history, I avow. That's the formula. But there's also a formless repentance, which may be going on simultaneously with these very people who are doing the formal repentance. The formless repentance is just to be upright and look at reality. Just be upright and see that all sentient beings And all Buddhas are just one mind. That's the formless repentance. That's the formless repentance of everything being unenlightened. Everything you did while you were unenlightened, this is the formless repentance for it. Sitting upright, being upright, and contemplating non-duality of right and wrong, of Buddhas and unenlightened beings,

[53:58]

of Mahayana, a great vehicle, an individual vehicle, and so on. But then in the ceremony, it says, after you do this formal confession, this formal avowal, the leader of the ceremony says that because of this confession, of this formal confession, of the things you've done in your unenlightened history, the hindrances to your path to Buddhahood, the hindrances to your path to entering Buddhahood have now been washed away, and you can now enter into the practice. It's not that you can now be a bad boy or a bad girl, which you actually can do that, you know you can do that. You know you can continue to cause harm. You know you can continue to like to do.

[55:01]

You don't want to do. But what's being told to you now is that because you've confessed, formally confessed, all your actions in an unenlightened state, you can now enter into the path of enlightenment. You can now go to work and receive the precepts. You can take refuge and so on. What we don't say is that when you just sit upright and contemplate the one mind, that also washes away all hindrance to entering the Buddha way. So completely. And they're both necessary and both should be transcended if you have a chance. I'm holding up the possibility of wholeheartedly embracing a tradition of receiving and practicing formal ethical training and receiving a tradition

[57:02]

and practicing a tradition of formless ethical training. And then to transcend the distinction between those two traditions and make that. Including everything, not adhering to anything, using everything appropriately to realize enlightenment in this world. Yeah. When the red, red robin comes bob, bob, bobbing along, along, there'll be no more sobbing when she starts throbbing. Sweet song, wake up, wake up, you sleepy head.

[58:07]

Get up, get up on out of bed. Cheer up, cheer up, the sun is red. Live, love, laugh and be happy. Though I've been blue, walking through fields of flowers. Rain may glisten, but still I listen for hours. And I was, I'm just a kid again, doing what I did again, singing a song. When the dead robin comes bop, bop, bopping along, bop, bop, bop, bopping along. Yeah. Intentionally.

[58:56]

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