Just now as we recited the verse for opening the scripture, we did it once and then the thought came to my mind. Is something happening up there? You're just looking in that direction for some reason? What's... Oh, something is happening. You were looking at that nice man. Okay, so... We did it once, and I thought, well, usually we do it three times, and I thought, we don't have much time. Therefore, we should do it three times. If we have a lot of time, we don't have to do anything, but we don't. Anyway, we did it three times, which is, by the way, not something that I made up. It's a tradition that I made up. I was thinking before certain events happened this week, like protests and bombing Iran, and before the latest wave of chaos descended upon us, I was thinking about talking about the abodes of bodhisattvas, which you know the abode of a bodhisattva is to have a mind that doesn't have an abode.

[01:26]

Okay? Got that? And then what's the first abode of the ten bodhisattva abodes that they don't abide in? It's the abode of the first arising or arousal of the mind of awakening. The first arising of the wish, the determination, the resolve to realize awakening. That's the first of the ten abodes. So the sutra says, what is the Bodhisattva's abode of first arousing the mind of determination for bodhi? What is it? That's what the sutra says. And then it says, Bodhisattva's seeing the magnificence of Buddha's Bodhisattva's seeing the Buddha's spiritual powers.

[02:31]

Bodhisattva's hearing predictions of awakening. Bodhisattva's listening to the Buddha's dharma and instructions. I'll say that one again. Bodhisattva listening to the Buddha's dharma and instructions. Bodhisattva's seeing sentient beings suffering pain. Bodhisattva's hearing of the far-reaching flower adornment dharma of awakening of the Buddhas. Seeing and hearing all this the aspiration, the ambition, the wish to realize Bodhi arises. It arises in that context. So that's what is explained at the first abode is the situation in which this amazing mind or this amazing wish arises in ordinary human consciousness.

[03:43]

Ordinary deluded people can have this amazing thought arise. But usually there's some conditions, like see somebody do something really cool, like somebody who gives blessing to people who insult them and gives blessing to people who praise them. When people insult them, they kind of wonder, what's going on? When people praise them, they go, what's going on? when bodhisattvas see somebody behave like that, they go, I aspire to that. I aspire to what these Buddhists can do. What these bodhisattvas can do, I aspire to it. So that's the arising. Then the next part is that the bodhisattvas arouse this great thought of awakening together with ten things that are difficult to achieve. which are ten kinds of knowledge.

[04:48]

I'm not going to go through all those knowledges. But when the bodhisattvas, after this mind arises, This arisen bodhi mind, this wish, this aspiration, this ambition to realize Buddha for this world, it's accompanied by or facilitated by and are the basis for the development of this mind. All these amazing knowledges, which again, You can read it in the sutra. And maybe next time we meet, I'll go through those ten knowledges. But today, may I skip over them and just tell you these knowledges help the Bodhisattva do this thing of developing this great wish. The next part in this description of the bodhisattva's first abode is that in this situation of having this aspiration, the bodhisattvas encourage and study and train in ten dharmas, ten dharmas.

[05:58]

And again, I'm not going to list all of them. Okay? I'll just say a few of the ten. First, they make offerings to Buddhas. So when we are inspired by seeing people behave like Buddhas, and when we are inspired by seeing suffering, painful lives all around us, when we're inspired that way and the mind arises, then there are certain things which we encourage and study. First is we make offerings to Buddhas. We serve Buddhas. Serving Buddhas is part of how we bring this aspiration to maturity. Next, we happily dwell in the world of birth and death.

[07:04]

We gladly remain in this world of suffering. gladly remaining here in this world of suffering, this world of affliction, this world of adversity. This is part of how we mature this wonderful aspiration. And I know that some of you are experiencing some adversity, some affliction, some pain, and gladly remaining in that situation. is part of how you would mature this thought. If you don't have this thought, then I wouldn't necessarily encourage you to remain here. But if you have this thought, it's not so much I encourage you to remain here, I wouldn't necessarily encourage you to be happy about remaining here. But with this thought and being happy about this situation, this complicated, twisted situation, that brings this thought to maturity.

[08:10]

Blah, blah, blah, blah, down to number ten. The tenth thing that we should encourage and study is being a refuge for all living beings. These ten practices are encouraged in this bodhisattva abode of first arising of this mind and they are studied. We study what is it to serve Buddhas? What is it to gladly be here Or another way to put it is, what it is to remember why we came to this difficult world. Why did I come here again to this mess? Oh yeah, right. I came here to play with all sentient beings and realize freedom with them. That's why I came here. Oh yeah. Anyway, then the last thing that it says at the end of all this is, which is kind of difficult to understand, and I'd like to bring it up.

[09:20]

Something difficult to understand at the end of the day. But hopefully there'll be another day, and we can work on this some more if you don't get it this afternoon. It says, and why do they do all these practices? Why do they encourage and study all these practices of being a refuge to beings and serving Buddhas? Why do they do that? Well, they do it because they wish to enable bodhisattvas, they wish to enable other bodhisattvas to broaden their bodhi mind to broaden their resolve and determination to attain the Buddhadharma, to realize the Buddhadharma. They do these practices to help other bodhisattvas to broaden their bodhi mind. That part's not too difficult, right?

[10:22]

Makes sense? Who wouldn't want to broaden a bodhisattva's mind to the determination to achieve Buddhahood? Bodhisattvas want to do that for bodhisattvas. The next part's the hard part. And they also want to enable, the bodhisattvas want to enable the bodhisattvas to immediately understand whatever teaching they hear. That doesn't sound too difficult. It sounds like a wonderful thing to wish for people, right? To be able to immediately hear whatever teaching is given to them. To immediately understand whatever instruction is given to them. That's okay, right? Here's the hard part. Without relying on the instruction from others, without depending on another's instructions,

[11:25]

So that's the tricky point. The bodhisattvas want to enable themselves and others to immediately understand whatever teaching they hear without relying on another. Another way to put it is they want to help people understand the instructions that have been given to them without depending on somebody else to explain the instruction that's been given to them. We serve Buddhas. We listen to Buddha's teachings. We receive instructions. Thank you so much for the instruction. And then maybe we understand, but we understand without trying to get somebody to explain the instruction to us. Now, some people get instruction and try to get further instruction about the instruction. That's reasonable, right? But this is to try to help people just receive the instruction and understand before getting any further instruction. They're getting instruction, and they're receiving it and understanding it, but they're not trying to get more instruction or understand deeper.

[12:34]

These practices have been done to help people understand that way. And here's a story which I promised to tell which relates to this. We need help from Buddha to not rely on Buddha to help us understand what Buddha's teaching is. But if we understand with Buddha's help what the teaching is, that's it. You don't need further instruction from Buddha. Understanding is the point. So how can we get to the place where we hear the teaching, we understand, and we're not trying to get anything more in this life with all beings? So a story comes to mind, which is a rather complicated story, but I'm going to try. Ready? Once upon a time, there was a wonderful teacher, and his name was Dharma Ai, in Chinese, Fa Yin, in Japanese, Ho Yin.

[13:48]

Dharma Eye. And he had a monastery, and many monks were there. And one of the monks was actually kind of a senior person. Maybe he was the, actually, he was the director of the monastery. And I think his name was Tzu, Director Tzu. Speaking of Chinese, Xiaoying, are you Chinese? Taiwanese. Speaking of Taiwanese, I want to talk to you afterwards about something in Chinese. I'll just tell you right now. There is a Chinese translation, do you know about it, of Being Upright on the website? Did you know about that? Would you take a peek at it and see if, is it a good translation? It's on the website. Did you ever read it in English? Yeah, you read it in English, so you know what it's like in English.

[14:54]

So would you read the Chinese translation and tell me how you feel about it? Not the whole thing, just a little bit. So anyway, back to China in the Tang Dynasty. The great teacher, Fa Yan, has a director that never comes to talk to him about the Dharma. never comes to ask for any dharma instruction. So I think it went on for quite a while, and Fa Yan said, how long have you been here with me? I think maybe he says three years. He said, you never come to listen to the dharma, ask me about the dharma. And the director says, oh, didn't you know? I already understand it. I understood it with, he mentioned another teacher, I already understood it when I was studying with so-and-so. So then Fa Yan says, hmm, really? Brackets. You understood it in such a way that you don't want to ask me any more questions?

[16:00]

You understood it in a way that you have no more work to do? Hmm, let's look into that. So the director says, Didn't you know? And the teacher said, oh, he thinks he did. He does think he got it. So I wonder if I could test this a little bit. Are you following that? My voice is going down. Thank you. Please keep lifting it up. So the father says, tell me about it. He said, well, one time I asked him, I asked the teacher, and there's two versions of the story. One time I asked the teacher, what is the Buddha? And the teacher said, the fire god comes, or actually fire boy, fire boy god, comes seeking fire. And I understood.

[17:01]

And the teacher says, Well, what did you understand? He said, well, the fire God already has fire, so he's seeking something he doesn't really need to seek. And the teacher said, hmm, yeah, I thought maybe he didn't understand. And the monk got really angry and left the monastery. Right. And after he left, the teacher said, if he comes back, he can be saved. If he doesn't, he's sunk for the time being. As the monk's walking away from the monastery, he thinks, wait a minute. This person's a teacher of a lot of people. Maybe I should give him another chance. Maybe I should go over this again with him.

[18:05]

So he goes back. And he goes back and, yeah, goes back and says, okay, can we talk some more? Can we talk some more? And Fa Yan says, mm-hmm. And Fa Yan says, ask me the question again. So the monk says, what is Buddha? And Fa Yen says, fire god comes seeking fire god. And this time he understood. And he realized that he didn't understand before. That may sound like him getting further instructions on the teaching, but he didn't get further instruction.

[19:19]

He got the same teaching, which he did not understand at first, but he thought he did. So he didn't. He thought he did, and he thought what he thought was true. And what he thought, I think a lot of us could think that too, because we're smart. But he thought he got it. Yeah. So that's the example of an understanding at first that is not correct. And so it does need help. And he got the help. But the second time he understood and he needed no further explanation. And the story that he understood was the same story. It wasn't further explanation. It was like, understand it this time in a way that I don't have to ask you to tell me that story again.

[20:26]

So it's a subtle thing of understanding without reaching out to get something to understand. Because usually, I mean often I should say, we have an understanding and we're looking for, people say, when people have an understanding they say, how do I know if it's true? How can I be sure? And it's not like, well the reason you, this is another subtle point, it's not like you have an understanding and you're trying to get some confirmation, you're trying to get some explanation of your understanding. It's not just that way. It's also that you have an understanding and you don't think you need any help with the understanding. But we do need help with the understanding.

[21:30]

But in the understanding, when it's immediate, we have no dependence on somebody else to explain it. We just need somebody to encourage us to study it without trying to get anything. How do I know? How can I be sure? Well, you don't get more instruction so that you can be sure. You get more instruction so you can understand. When you understand, you no longer need to be sure. As long as you need to be sure, you're still trying to rely on the instruction of someone else. People say, how do I know? How can I be sure? In other words, please give me instructions so I can be sure. Are you getting the feeling for that? When you understand you're no longer seeking to be sure. And you're not grasping being sure. That's what understanding is like.

[22:31]

You don't have anything, including you're not sure. And you're not seeking more instruction to be sure. However, if you do seek instruction to be sure, then somebody needs to help you get over that and to be able to give up trying to be sure. Do you want to understand the Dharma or do you want to be sure that you understand the Dharma? And some people might say, well, both. I want both. I want to understand and be sure. If you had to choose between understanding and be sure, which would you choose? Some people would choose being sure over understanding. Isn't that something? Do you want to love or do you want to be sure you're loving? Some people are saying, well, I think I want to be sure. What about not loving? How about giving up loving for the sake of being sure? It is a problem, I know, but still I'd rather be sure.

[23:34]

Do you want to be a really helpful person or do you want to be sure you're a helpful person? If you had to choose, which would you choose? So I think bodhisattvas are wanting to be a helpful person and they prefer being a helpful person more. They value that more than being sure that they're a helpful person. And this sutra, this big sutra, is about bodhisattvas who want to be helpful and they're not sure about what helpful is or whether they're helpful. But they really want to be. And they don't get too much into being sure that they are. And also they don't even know what it is to be a bodhisattva and they're devoted to that. So that's the hard thing at the end of the day for you. And that thing about the next, all the next nine things, they have all these practices and they say, what are these, all these practices which they encourage and study.

[24:43]

And after they say them, say, what's the reason? And then various good things are the reason. And then the punchline is, and so that they can understand immediately, spontaneously, without relying or reaching to another for explanation about this understanding. Immediate means nobody's going to help you with it. I should say, everybody's helping with it, everybody's helping you with it, but you're not relying on anybody. So maybe we'll talk about this for a few years, okay? So usually we end around this time, but I'm willing to see how you're feeling about all this. Thank you. It's been a great day. You're welcome.

[25:44]

Thank you for meeting us all. Yes? I'm wondering if it would be all right to invite Linda to share how the world You wondering how it would be? I think it would be a lovely invitation. Yes. I went to San Rafael. which wasn't as big as, like, San Francisco, but it turned out to be big. And then even on the road, even going past Tanjoshan, even going, you know, by the parking, there were people on the street waving flags and signs and yelling at the passing cars. So it was very lively. Overpass on the freeway, people were there. And San Rafael Network, I would say some, you know, thousands in the plural. I think there were a lot of people, there was a lot of likes, a lot of likes, people, you know, just, they wanted to be there.

[26:55]

And there were so many signs, very serious thing in the background, but then there was also so much humor and friendliness. It was a friendliness fest, lots of friendliness. Called a protest, but friendly. Yeah, well, but I thought I'd tell you some of the signs that people had, because I thought you would like them. And so I just happened to have my phone in my pocket. There were so many, so many. And people, you know, thought that's what I could do. Showing up, I was saying to somebody that, I think as Jerry Liu recently said, 90% of Zen is just showing up. Anyway, people were just showing up, right? We weren't stopping the war by being in San Rafael today, but we were showing up. People were glad to be showing up, and they were each putting some part of themselves into it, examples.

[28:01]

Well, some obvious ones like the American Revolution was against the tyranny of a king. There were many, many American flags claiming that this is ours. There was one sign, even though almost all the people were white, there were a few people who you could tell were Latino people from probably that part of Marin County. And one sign said, . I love all my neighbors. A lot of thing about immigrants. And... Respect our existence or expect our resistance. This one has got kind of subtle wordplay, so I don't know if everybody gets it. I drink warm or chopped up because fuck guys. And here's a message for Zen people.

[29:15]

Democracy dies in silence. I know this may be controversial, but... Well, you could say everything dies in silence. And Buddha's living where everything dies. And where everything dies is where everything is saved. But it's a good start. It's a good start. It's a good thing to respond to. I don't disagree. I compliment. I don't disagree. I compliment. Yeah. The appropriate response is a compliment. Thank you so much. I have a compliment. And I just want to ask Danan San, did I address your question?

[30:22]

You did. Thank you. you're welcome I promised you did and I started to fulfill the promise at the very end and I'm not done thank you for not being done thank you for not being done please continue please continue yes Linda Coda I asked him, he asked a question about this, understanding immediately without relying on any instruction from another. That was kind of difficult to understand, right? Because we do ask our teachers to teach us, okay? And then they do. That's what they're here for. And sometimes we understand, and sometimes we understand in such a way that we seek no We're not trying to get anything more. We understand. So the teacher gives it to us, we understand it, and then we don't try to get more instruction, for example, to be sure.

[31:30]

We're relieved of trying to get something like assurance or surety. However, we do get assurance. We do get assurance, and assurance comes for those who are no longer seeking it, for those who would like it but aren't trying to get it. I would love to have assurance, and I'm not trying to get it, but I would love it. How nice. Yes? So, Fred, is this a similar story to when Buddha pulls out the flower and meets Ananda's gaze? Well, that story we don't have. We have it meets Mahakashipa's gaze. Ananda was there, but Ananda didn't smile. He was kind of going like, what's going on between those guys? Yeah, it's very much like that. Buddha holds up a flower and Mahakasyapa is not trying to get further instruction.

[32:36]

He understands. Now, he wasn't trying to get further instruction, but then he gets further instruction because he wasn't trying to get it, the Buddha said. I have the treasury of true Dharma. I now, in that subtle mind of Nirvana, I now give that to Mahakashipa. He gave assurance to Mahakashipa. Mahakashipa was not trying to get it. There might have been some people in the audience who were trying to get it. And so they didn't. They were distracted by trying to get it. Mahakashipa was not trying to get anything, and then he got everything. Yeah, very similar. That's a Zen story. By the way, that Zen story of Buddha holding up the flower, actually it says Buddha holds up a flower and then there's a Chinese character which can mean wink or blink.

[33:42]

So one version is held up the flower and blinked. The other version is held up the flower and winked. I kind of feel like winked. But it could have been blinked. The character means blink and wink. He winked and Malacostia, like you guys, smiled. Smiled, like you. You're not smiling. Ted, there you go. You weren't smiling. You weren't smiling. Okay. All right. You sure are. I actually am a flower. I'm holding up a flower. Anyway, that's a Zen story. And by for your information, there's no evidence of that story before the beginning of the 11th century. So that might be one of our Zen fantasies.

[34:46]

But it's a good one. And we're upholding it. We're holding the flower up and winking. Yes, Harrison? How do we stop trying to get? Pardon? How do we stop trying to get? Well, usually in order to stop trying to get, most people need to locate some or be aware of some trying to get. most animals are trying to get something. And humans are usually trying to get something. That's kind of like our karmic consciousness habit is to get. So by being compassionate to our attempts to get, we might come to a place where we feel like, wow, I'm not trying to get anything anymore. I feel like, yeah. Yeah. I was trying to get, and that was really like the pits to try to get.

[35:52]

I was suffering. I was trying to get something for a long time. It made practices really painful because I was always trying to get something rather than practice. And then, yeah. And then I noticed that, and I was kind to that. And now there's no trying to get anything anymore. Well, as in, now I understand how to not get anything. So then we go to the teacher and said, I finally come to the place where I'm not trying to get anything. And the teacher said, oh, congratulations. And then the student realized, I was still trying to get something. And then work some more. And then again feel like, seems like I'm not trying to get anything. I think I'll go check it out. I think I'll go see what the teacher has to say about that.

[36:52]

When I was 55 years ago, yeah, 55 years ago, maybe 55, no, 55 years ago, I was at Tassajara and this strange thing happened to me is I was not having a hard time anymore. I think I was not trying to get anything. And I thought maybe I was becoming psychotic. Like I was in denial that I was trying to get something. I was very happy and life practice was not difficult. It had been difficult the whole time that I'd been at Zen Center and before I came to Zen Center. As I told somebody, I tried to practice before I came to Zen Center and it was difficult. And I was irregular. And then the thought came, maybe if I went to practice with people who are practicing, I could be regular. And so I came, and I was able to be regular.

[37:52]

And it was just as hard when I was at Zen Center than it was before I came to Zen Center. But with everybody's help, I did it regularly. Like I said before, every morning I got up, affliction, sit, affliction. So I had two or three years of affliction in practice and then there wasn't any. And I told Siddhartha Ganesha and he said, Oh, maybe for you sometimes practice is not difficult. But I was not trying to get the difficulty to go away. I was just trying to be with the difficulty, and then it wasn't. So if you're trying to get something, that's a difficulty, big difficulty. If you just sit with it, You just walk into that water of trying to get something and learn how to relax with the painful water of trying to get something. You'll relax and just start walking into water without trying to get anything, and then you'll feel like you've got something.

[39:00]

And then check that out. And maybe you actually have become free of trying to get something. But trying to get something is normal. Actually, it's not normal. It's common. what's really normal is that we're not trying to get anything. We're just alive. We're just life. But in our minds we're trying to get something. So don't try to not be a person who's trying to get something. Be kind to the person who's trying to get something. Help that person relax with trying to get something. And then they can realize that there's nothing to get. And when we realize there's nothing to get, then we can give up trying to get something because we know there's nothing to get. And the Buddha went through that same process. The Buddha, Shakyamuni Buddha, tried to get something for a long time and noticed how that wasn't working over and over. And finally he just offered himself to the Buddhas without trying to get anything.

[40:09]

And then he realized there's nothing to get. And he didn't get anything, actually. He just realized there's nothing to get. So then he stopped trying to get something. And then he was given prediction. Then the Buddha said, you will be Shakyamuni Buddha now that you've stopped trying to get anything. Okay? When everything you do is a gift, that kind of like not trying to get, That's right. Well, everything you do is a gift. For example, everything you do is a gift. Everything you do is a gift. Everything you do is a gift. Everything we do is a gift. Understanding that requires a lot of attention. You have to look at what you're doing and check it out. Is this a gift? Yeah. How wonderful. Is this a gift?

[41:12]

No, I'm trying to get something. In reality, everything we do is a gift and also it's a gift that we're giving and it's a gift we're receiving. Everything I do, I receive. Everything I do, I give. Everything I do is a gift. Realizing that, we're free of trying to get anything. Giving, giving, giving, but also being kind to getting, getting, getting. being kind to getting, getting, getting, we wake up to giving, giving, giving. Simple, but challenging to stay on the giving beam at the same time that the getting thing is still... I guess it's like giving without expectation. Giving, yeah. You could say giving without expectation, but giving with expectation is not giving. It's trying to get. So, but Shakyamuni Buddha in the Mahayana Sutra says, I tried to get things from, I served many Buddhas.

[42:22]

That's what's a serve Buddhas. Serve Buddhas, serve Buddhas, and serve them until you learn how to serve them without trying to get anything. But that means you're probably going to notice quite a few times you did try to get something. And they may or may not be gentle with us when we're trying to get something from them. Sometimes you go to a Buddha and try to get something and they slap your hand. Sometimes you try to get something and the Buddha says, are you trying to get something, darling? Are you coming to the teacher to get something? You're supposed to give to the teacher, not to try to get. But there are stories about that, where the student actually comes and tries to get something from the teacher. I remember when sometime somebody brought a Buddha to Suzuki Roshi and tried to sell it to him. And he was kind of, what's the word, pretty strict with that person.

[43:28]

I think he said something like, you should not be trying to sell Buddhas to your teacher. And we still have that Buddha. It's at the city center. It's a beautiful Thai Buddha. About this big. It's lovely. And the student then gave it to Sukharshi. Gave it to Zen Center. It's still at Zen Center. Well, anyway, thank you so much for another whopper.

[44:00]

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