Part of the reason why I said, yes, I would like to record is because I wanted to make a confession. And I want it recorded for posterity. That priest sometimes confessed. Do you want to hear the confession? So when it came time to recite the verse, That verse is called opening the sutra, opening the scripture verse. So when it came to Ajit Chanda, I thought, oh, should we do it once or three times? I usually don't think, should we do it once or three times? But today I did because we don't have much more time together. So I thought of abbreviating it. But then I said, no.

[01:01]

Even though it takes more time, we do the traditional thing three times. So we did it. But I hesitated to save time. And at many Zen centers around the country, they don't do it three times because they're trying to save time. They think people will not tolerate three times of this boring old verse. Anyway, that's my first confession. My next confession is that I wanted to talk to you about the word adornment. So we have been studying this scripture, which is called Flower Adornment Scripture. The full name, by the way, is Buddha. Buddha. Oh, no, excuse me.

[02:05]

It's called Great Extensive Buddha Flower Adornment Scripture. Maha Vaipuya Buddha Avatamsaka Sutra. So this sutra, this scripture, is an adornment of Buddha it's an adornment of the true body of Buddha and the true body of Buddha is ungraspable and pervades the whole universe you can't see it it's invisible and because it's invisible and you can't grasp it nothing can hinder it from pervading us all the time. That's the Buddha body.

[03:08]

So this scripture comes along to adorn space, to adorn the invisible light, the invisible light of great awakening. So we can, in a sense, we can see the Buddha by the adornment of Buddha, this scripture. And there's many other scriptures which are also adorning the Buddha. Then, after the adornment of the scriptures helps us find the Buddha which we can't see by embracing the sutra, then we come along here in the 21st century and we adorn the adornment. We adorn the sutra. So for almost three years, we have been adorning the scripture here. How do we adorn the scripture?

[04:11]

By bringing it up, by discussing it, by being together. We gather together to adorn the adornment. So thank you for joining the adornment of the adornment of the Buddha. And also there is another scripture which has the word adornment in it. Actually, it's not a scripture. It is a treatise. It is a piece of writing written by a great bodhisattva. And the name of it is Mahayana Sutra Alamkara, which can be translated as Great Vehicle Scripture Adornment. It's an adornment, it's a text which adorns the great vehicle, the bodhisattva vehicle scriptures.

[05:12]

And I thought it was interesting that one person translated it as great vehicle scripture literature. So one of the ways you can adorn a scripture is by writing literature about it. So that's what we're doing here. We're writing literature on the sutra. That's what I wanted to say to you. And thank you for supporting this adornment of the adornment of great awakening. Yes? I don't tend to use the word adornment much in everyday life. So what the heck does that mean to you and in this context?

[06:19]

I mean, I see someone putting in the title of a sutra a really long time ago, but I'm not really getting anything from that. I don't know what the heck adornment, the purpose or the scope of that is for this context. Well, first, I could go on. But just for starters, sometimes if you go to Hawaii and you get off the plane or off the boat and you go ashore, sometimes the people come up and put flowers on you. They adorn you. What's going on there? I think they're saying, we love you. Aloha, right? Aloha. What does aloha mean? Aloha. What does it mean? Does anybody know? It's kind of like we love you. Welcome. So in this case, the circular flower arrangement is for them to express welcome, appreciation to support their tourist industry.

[07:22]

But they did that before they had tourists. They do that as a sign of I love you. And sometimes when, I don't know, When parents... I laugh because at Enso Village, the humans sometimes adorn their dogs. But it's an expression of, I love this little doggy. It's an expression of love to adorn. So because we love the Buddha, even though we don't really know what it is, we write scriptures about it. And because we appreciate the scripture, we... write commentaries or discussion. So I think the first thing combined is adornment. It's something you put on something that you love to express that they're important to you for many, many reasons. Like parents sometimes dress their kids up to go to their first communion or dress their kids up to go to school.

[08:26]

They adorn their children with the best clothes that they can give them. and on some occasions like weddings right we really adorn the bride not to make her better but because she's this amazing thing in this event so she gets in a way more adornments than the groom they're more extensive sometimes their adornments go on for several feet but anyway it's an expression of appreciation for the person for the couple and for the event That's the first thing that comes to mind. Another thing that comes to mind is we adorn things to help people see what they can't see. So you heard, I've chuckled before and I told you what I was chuckling about, right? Adorning the dogs. But I also, what came to my mind is, is it Graham Wilson, is that his name?

[09:29]

The cartoonist? Geyard. Geyard. Geyard Wilson was a cartoonist. And I saw one of his cartoons, and it had a picture, I think, of like a big cart. Like, you know, a big cart, like 10 feet long and 10 feet high. And on the side of the... and then there were people standing around the cart beating drums and I think maybe playing the trombone to celebrate this cart and on the side of the cart had the words nothing and the person one of the people observing this cart with the sign nothing on it and all this drum beating the person said is nothing holy? is nothing holy like I didn't know nothing was so great but here are these people celebrating it so yeah and when I started studying Buddhist texts I heard about this branch of the text so there's the scriptures and then there's the commentaries and then there's the

[10:56]

the writings about the discipline, which they called Sutras, Abhidharma, and Vinaya. And then I heard that the Abhidharma has been written down in Pali on gold tablets. I thought, those Buddhists must think this Abhidharma is pretty important. So maybe I would study it. And I did study it. And guess what? I was not. interested or entertained. However, these people really think this is important. I don't see it, but the fact of them adorning it by writing it on gold things, it made me come back and say, maybe there's something to it. And shall I go on? So there's a number of stories. There's one story where a Zen teacher His name was Fayan, Dharma Eyes.

[12:06]

Fayan was his name. And in his monastery, which had lots of monks, the director of the monastery never came to talk to him about the Dharma. So the teacher said, how long have you been here? how long have you been director? And he said, three years, something like that. He said, well, you've been here, why don't you ever come and talk to me about the Dharma? And the director says, oh, didn't you know that I literally gained entry when I was with another teacher? In other words, didn't you know I'm already awakened? And therefore, I don't have to come and talk to you about the Dharma anymore. This is a bad sign. to think that when you're awake, you don't want to go talk to the teacher anymore because you know everything. But that's what he thought. And the teacher said, oh, uh-huh.

[13:09]

I said, well, what happened? So I'll make the story short for now. If you want me to go back and make it more detailed, I'll just say, well, what happened was, well, I have to tell you. What happened was I asked the teacher, what is Buddha? And the teacher said, the fire god comes seeking fire. And I awoke. What is Buddha? The fire god comes seeking fire. And I awoke. And the teacher said, hmm, what did you understand? He said, well, I understood that Buddha, that in seeking Buddha, you're like seeking something you already have. And the teacher said, oh, uh-huh. Yeah, I thought you didn't understand. And the monk did not, you know, he kind of like, what's the word?

[14:12]

He restrained his rage with the teacher. He got really angry that the teacher said that. Even though he's enlightened, he got really angry. So he said, OK, see you later. And he left the monastery. And after he left, the teacher said to his attendant, if he comes back, he can be saved. If not, he cannot be helped. So as this guy's walking away from the monastery, he thinks. Maybe I'm being hasty, because this person is a teacher of 500 monks. Maybe there's something to what he said to me, when he said, uh-huh, I think you didn't really understand. Maybe I should go back. And what I brought that up for is because the monks, being present with the teacher, adorn the teacher.

[15:17]

If you just saw the teacher without the monks, you wouldn't be able to see the teacher. But when you see the teacher and there's 500 monks, maybe something's here. Maybe there's something to this. What are those people seeing that I'm not seeing? Anyway, this temple is also an adornment of the Bodhisattva way. This community is a center, is an adornment. So anyway, because he because he remembered the adornment of the teacher, he went back to see the teacher. And maybe he said, I don't remember exactly, maybe he said, okay, let's try that again. teacher says, okay, now you asked me the question that you asked the other teacher.

[16:24]

And so he said to the teacher, what's Buddha? And the teacher said, fire god comes seeking fire. And this time he understood. So that's... Adornment sometimes helps people to get over their aversion, like it helped me get over my aversion to Buddhist teachings, like the Abhatamsaka Sutra. And I had aversion to it. It's too big, too grandiose. Yes? A lot of times when something has too many flowers on it, too adorned, I don't know. I tend to go the other way. Yeah, me too. I'm a little more into, you know, punk rock or alternative music or... Or zen. Or zen, right? You know?

[17:27]

Yeah. Like, you put a lot of flowers on something and, you know, it's like a whole bunch of people standing in line for brunch. You know, they're just there because it's popular. Yeah. I'm like, I can make eggs at home. Like, I don't need adornment. Yeah. So, I don't know. Like, it seems risky. It seems detrimental at the same time. So, again, another story comes to mind. There is a teacher who's named the Karmapa. In his previous incarnation, he was also called the Karmapa. And somebody gave him, I think, a Rolex or something. So he's wearing this $10,000 watch. And one of his students said, master, teacher. You know, Americans get kind of turned off by very wealthy things on religious people. And the Kamaba said, oh, maybe I should get gold shoes too.

[18:36]

So Suzuki Roshi told about this sutra is so powerful fluorescent. It's got so much flowers on it. She said, it should be more fluorescent until you get the point of the fluorescence. It isn't, you know, until you get over your resistance. But that's a perfectly good resistance. I want to go someplace where, and again, there's a picture in that room back there of this very simple picture of a person sitting. That's what attracted me to Zen. Not the flower adornment scripture. Just a body sitting on the floor. That attracted me. And then once I got attracted, then the sutras came. But they weren't what attracted me. I didn't even see them, so I wasn't turned off by them. But they wouldn't have attracted me. That kind of thing, that simplicity of Zen, that was just right for me. And still is.

[19:42]

And then at some point along the way I realized that actually the simple thing is really inconceivably vast. It's not just a simple thing. It includes the whole universe. That simple sitting includes everybody and everything. It's not just this person sitting for herself, for himself. because he likes to sit. It's saving the whole universe. And also another story that keeps coming up. Katagiri Roshi studied with his own teacher in a small temple, and it was him and his teacher, that's all there was. And at some point his teacher sent him to the big monastery, where they have big, great teachers, And he went there and hung out with these great teachers.

[20:43]

And then he went back. While he was there, he learned how vast this simple practice is, how it includes the whole universe. But his teacher didn't tell him that. So he went back to his teacher and said, why didn't you tell me how great zazen was? And his teacher said, he didn't ask. But even though he didn't ask at the big temple, they told him. They told him, this sitting you're doing is like a hammer striking emptiness. This sitting's like a hammer striking space. The sound that it makes pervades past and future. It's immeasurable. That's what it says in a Zen text, right? The sound... Zazen is like the sound of a hammer striking space.

[21:49]

And it pervades throughout. How could it admit of consideration? Even if all the Buddhas in ten directions tried to measure the merit of one person sitting, they would not be able to fully comprehend it. But if you heard about that when you first started sitting, you'd go, I don't need to hear that. This is enough. And now you hear it. This sitting you're doing is pervading past and future, and all the Buddhists together couldn't measure the merit of you sitting. That's the sitting you're doing. And that statement is made by a Zen teacher named Dogen, who wrote this thing we chatted this morning. That statement is made at the end of his description of Zazen, which sounds just like the Sutra. And each moment of Zazen pervades the whole universe and is pervaded by the whole universe.

[22:56]

Each moment of Zazen is the same practice as the practice of all beings. So these Zen teachers occasionally pull back the curtain and show you how vast this simple practice is. So that's what we're doing. We're looking at how great our simple practice, what you did all day today, you sat. And what you did, what we did together, what you did, you didn't do by yourself. None of us would have probably been sitting here today or where we were. Today we supported each other to do this practice together. One could go on. For three years. Yeah, and one will go on if you keep asking questions. But I won't go... If people stop asking questions, I won't go on. Yes?

[24:00]

I was just thinking of the Indian tradition of where gods are... goddesses are always honored with a garland, with flowers, which means respect and honor. So that's my question. Yeah, yeah. Gods and goddesses are, as a sign of respect, are decorated with floral, circular floral offerings. And the sutra came from that culture. And that spread to... China, where the Chinese didn't have that practice of putting garlands on the ministers and the emperor. They have a different style, which a lot of people like that style, simple black robes of the ministers. There's almost no pictures of these Chinese scholars, the ministers, with garlands around them. It's not the Chinese style.

[25:01]

So when that style meant Zen, it made a new thing, where the Zen teachers were not so much decorated with floral arrangements. They were decorated with great assemblies. They were decorated by their students, judged by their students. And they had wonderful students. So we can conclude that the teacher is not too bad if the teacher has great students. So I'm not too bad. What? So I want to say what you reminded me of is the first day I walked into Zen Center, it was a city center. It was a very rainy Saturday morning. And Thich Nhat Hanh was the teacher. And what got me into this was how he was holding his teacup.

[26:05]

Like, he was adorning his teacup. It was just so incredibly beautiful that you had me in your teacup. Sonia? I mean, Roma? my confession, I truly and generally apologize for keeping my mind occupied, occupied for many, many, many years, simply not to see what these teachings are. Thank you for that confession. which other people have probably a similar story.

[27:08]

Thank you. Was there another? Oh, yes. Would you say that in our culture, decorating Christmas trees is kind of like a billion? Yeah. It could be like, well, just like respecting the tree. It was perfectly fine out in the snow. But now it's in the house, so since we took it out of its home, let's decorate it. Let's express our appreciation for it by putting all this adornment on it to express our love for the Tannenbaum, right? Tannenbaum, oh, Tannenbaum. You're so lovely. So yeah. And you could also say it's celebrating light and using the tree to celebrate light, but also using light to express appreciation of the tree.

[28:16]

It's mutual. And in that thing, it's like a really great teaching. Just one second. Was there somebody else that I missed? Yeah, right. All those taken care of details is an adornment. What are they adorning? They're adorning this magnificent reality which cannot be grasped. But still we adorn it. Because we're foolish. In this tradition, we practice like fools.

[29:17]

Doing foolish things like adorning space. Oh, by the way, I also thought they have like, what do you call it? These things called cloud. They used to, in early days of... modern physics they had these things called cloud chambers so they couldn't actually see these particles but they made this cloud chamber and they couldn't see the particle but they could see the trail of the particle as it goes through so the clouds in the cloud chamber were adornments of these minute pieces of reality that we can't see but we can by means of the clouds, we can say, oh, yeah, there is something there. Tracy and Oscar? Tracy. Yes.

[30:23]

You said it was almost boring. What do you signal? I say that's a confession. Part of my signaling is that my confessions are boring to you. I think you can do better. I hear you. And when you say that, I don't feel so bored by what you say. But you sometimes feel bored by what I'm saying. What do I mean bored? But why do you call it confessed? Because I confessed. that I was doing kind of not a very nice thing. For me, it's kind of disrespectful to squish the tradition down for the sake of time. If necessary, yes, but it wasn't necessary. I was just trying to save some time. And I think that's not very respectful. Is not trying to save time. It's not. And because it doesn't save time, it's somewhat unpopular.

[31:35]

And if you have a Buddhist center and they just chant the opening scripture verse once, it'll be more popular than a place that does it three times. Because people want to move on to something interesting, besides just sing over and over. But I feel kind of ashamed that I tried to water down the tradition to save time. if it would help people, but I don't think it would help people to do it just once for that reason. So I'm not saying that's the worst thing I've ever done. I'm just saying I sincerely feel that I didn't do it. I just had a thought of doing it. That thought, I would think, is unwholesome to try to squish the teaching down to save time. I think it's unwholesome. And I often do not do that, which I'm glad I don't. Yeah, yeah.

[32:43]

I hope that was juicy enough for you. Yes? I don't think it was juicy enough. So I'm really delighted... at the amplification of the word adornment that I heard today. Flower adornment is a very familiar image to me. But today, because of this teaching, I realized that today I handed a pen to someone and the way they accepted it was like a major adornment I hadn't realized it was until you expanded that point. Yeah, thank you. So the way someone receives an object that we give them, or the way, that can be an adornment of awakening.

[33:45]

Kind of like, oh yeah, that's so wonderful the way they receive that. That's what life's about, is to receive things really graciously. And sometimes we don't see that grace unless somebody shows it to us. Yes? Oscar and I were talking earlier today. He was preparing our rock suits. And it strikes me that this is quite an honor. Yeah. Yeah. mentioned to Oscar was that when I received this from UN name, I remember I had a very big smile.

[34:49]

I think Oscar said he had a big smile too. Yeah. Which is maybe another one. Yes. And a whole bunch of people smiling is also an adornment. Still are. Yeah. And some people, when they think about receiving the precepts and receiving a robe, they have aversion to it because they don't want to think of themselves as adorning themselves. Like, okay, I've got this adornment. So it takes them sometimes, people, quite a while to get over that idea of, oh, I've got the rock, I've got this robe, so I'm decorated, I'm better than the undecorated. That's part of it. Human beings can come up with that. And again, I respect that, that concern. So how can we receive the robe of Buddha, receive a Buddhist name, receive the Buddhist precepts?

[35:51]

How can we receive that without trying to get anything? And also without thinking that now that we've received these great precepts, we're better than the people who have not. The bodhisattvas do not think they're better than the people who have not yet received the bodhisattva precepts. They don't think that. But if they do, they confess, I'm sorry, I thought I was better than somebody. I'm sorry. Are you pointing or raising your hand? I just flashed on that Jesus for part of his pastor and the woman that writes. Yeah. And the disciples are less. Yeah.

[36:55]

Yeah. And he has to speak. And what did he say? I remember. Yeah. You know, Christ means anointed, right? Christ means an anointed one. And in this sutra, there's quite a few times where the bodhisattvas enter into their meditation and many Buddhas come and anoint them. So anointment is part of the process, is part of the adornment process. Part of the way to... to express appreciation is to rain down. This rain is an adornment of this temple. It's an adornment of the Sangha. It's an adornment of the Buddha. We're so grateful for this adornment. And I hope you have a safe travels home and drive carefully

[38:02]

And don't try to get anywhere. Well, I'm kind of fortunate I'm going to stay here. I think I might. I might enjoy it. I've enjoyed it so far, I might enjoy it through the rest of the night. Once again, thank you for the great adornment.

[38:31]

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