So the question is, the point is, I don't mean human speculation is wrong or bad, okay? Because the human speculation, your memory, your hope, exists where? In the present, in the present. What the memory and hope exist in the present is to say what you cannot escape from the human speculation. So the question is how to use, how to handle your human speculation. This is the point. This is the point. in terms of the transparent aspect of the present as much as possible.

[01:03]

So when you see, when you listen the bell ringing, you get up and wash your face and come to Zen door, do Zazen. That's all. But I don't mean you should be blind. Whatever you do, get up early morning and wash your face and come to Zen door and do that thing. If you do something blindly, You look like the person which is called hippie, you know.

[02:07]

No plans, no rules, completely free, you know. Strictly speaking, in terms of the present, all you have to do is just do it. And also, at the same time, you have to think. You have to think. You have to think something. Because your human speculation exists in the present. In other words, you have to reach, you have to have access, access of what would you call the ultimate or terminating a board.

[03:30]

terminating a board which you will be able to peaceful through human speculation. In other words, you have to think, you have to think what truth is what the present is, what the zazen is, why you have to wash your face, why I have to get up early morning. You have to know. You have to know. You have to think of it. And also, strictly speaking, the human speculation, as mentioned before, exists in the present, which is always emptied by passing the time, the coming the time.

[04:50]

If so, you have to control your human speculation. So as not to create a lot of troubles. You have to get to the trouble to the middle. Inter-community difficulties result when we don't get on a trip. So I think somehow or other, I was trying to point out that it's important that we be aware of that and follow. Just follow. schedule, just do what we should. I don't want to emphasize that aspect of it too much, but the idea of it is important to follow the way. I think that's an essential part of our practice. But the other side of that, I feel, is also very necessary to give life

[05:57]

to what we're doing day after day so that I think just to follow, follow kind of doggedly along is to is to miss the center of our being. Miss the center point or practice. Miss the center of the opportunity. Miss something. It's not wrong, not bad. In one sense, it's also equally within the realm of totality, so it's just there in a sense. I would like to read Dogen's vow.

[07:35]

And those of you who were here last practice period will remember that Katagiri Roshi read it during one of the, mentioned it during one of his lectures during the Sesshin. Dogen's vow. I vow with all sentient beings to listen to the right Dharma from now on, lifetime after lifetime. In listening to it, I vow to accept without doubt of disbelief. I vow to sustain the Buddha Dharma unattached to worldly views. Ultimately, I will attain the Buddha's path with all sentient beings on earth. Which brings back to the point mentioned earlier of the bodhisattva balance or the aspiration for bodhisattva.

[08:44]

In a sense, As Suzuki Roshi once mentioned, everybody, all sentient beings are already bodhisattvas. So that's sort of the other half of, or the other side of the coin of someone, yourself, myself, hearing something and aspiring toward some goal which is described as Bodhisattva's goal, Bodhisattva's path, Buddha's path to Buddhism. I think in reflecting on my own I think it's a fairly rare occurrence to be inspired to that degree.

[10:00]

And there's many times that I hear lectures and I'm deeply moved. But often to the extent of when the lecture's over, an hour later, say, the next day, certainly by the next week or the next month that I've forgotten completely about it, other than there's maybe a glow. That was a glow, and that glow maybe sustains my practice. And in a sense, I believe that's enough. Nothing special. Just to hear it and be inspired by it and continue everyday practice without any further ado about it.

[11:11]

In the realm that I was talking about last time of different ways that we practice. One aspect of our practice is to not practice anything at all. I believe that is very much an important, very deep, very fundamental point. But I think it's just part, maybe it's a half, of what we do. I mean, I think it's not the complete picture to say we should never Dwell into or seriously consider or reflect the practice or the path or stages of bodhisattva. In short, I think it's important to be aware of what that is, the path, the vows, the path, stages and so forth of the bodhisattva and of Buddhahood.

[12:26]

I think it's very important to be aware of that because it does fundamentally, I believe, have somewhere, I feel, though I haven't heard it directly spoken as such, I feel it's deeply fundamental to the basic teaching of our teachers, all of them. Suzuki Roshi, in a way, is so beautiful the way he describes very as baker russia was mentioning a very complex buddha dharma in such mundane simple terms that sometimes had the feeling when listening to him that it's sort of like nothing there at all it's just bright just bright light or it's just um When I read a Buddhist book, sometimes I get weighted down by the preponderousness of how it hurts my head.

[13:32]

But when I'm hearing Suzuki Roshi, it's sort of like, wow, it's beautiful. He didn't say anything at all. But I think I've been... moved by studying this book. and finding aspects in this avatamsaka kegong philosophy that very easily intermingle with Roshi's teaching. But they appear in a very, very different form, format. That part that I just read you, and something I would like to read you, And, for example, like parts of the Lotus Sutra and many of the Mahayana Sutras, they're filled with terminology and scenes and goings-on and dramas and stuff that just seems like weird.

[14:39]

All those banners and perfumes and flowers in the air and ox carts and bullocks and houses, just, you know, it's far out. And on a certain level, Well, again, I guess it's differently perceived by different people. Sometimes I've been kind of turned off by them. Sometimes, different parts. Sometimes moved by them. But one of these aspects that I wanted, one of these three aspects of listening, of aspiring, perceiving, aspiring, and practicing is how it relates to a vow, the bodhisattva vows, is that in one sense, just to hear it, hear something, be inspired by it, and then to go about your business without any further thought about it, is enough, I think.

[15:44]

It's complete. On the other hand, I think to chant the things that we chant and read the things that we do read without internalizing them, without turning them into a kind of practice, may be not fully benefiting from them in the fullest way. It may be like eating food without chewing it at all. Just go right to it. So do you see that? I'm trying to make a point of two sides of one thing. One is just to hear it, see it, accept it, go about your business. And the other is to hear it, be inspired by it, and somehow, how is that truth that I've heard, what can I do about it? It's far out.

[16:52]

It's really beautiful. That is something that I'm definitely interested in. But if I just read it and forget it, then I see it again. It seems like there ought to be some way to relate to it, either daily or at least periodically. This part, this short paragraph I'd like to read you is sort of a continuation of that when the one bodhisattva was asking the other bodhisattva to tell the assembly about what some of these things were about. His name is Diamond Treasury Bodhisattva.

[17:54]

And he says... If a man cultivates a deep root of merit, practices innumerable virtues, and assembles all favorable conditions for the path, if with faith, compassion, and a vast mind he aspires to attain Buddha's wisdom, the thought of enlightenment can then arise in him. He arouses this Bodhi mind so that he may seek the all-embracing wisdom, attain the ten powers of a Tathagata, secure the great fearlessness, and strive for the salvation of all sentient beings. This is why the Bodhi mind is aroused.

[19:00]

O sons of Buddha, this mind is deep, sincere, and straight, great compassion dominating, great wisdom nourishing, and skilfulness protecting. It is as vast as Buddha's power, which enters into the wisdom of non-instruction, accommodates the insight into nature, and embraces all teachings of the Tathāgatas. This mind is by itself the great wisdom with which the Bodhisattva can teach and guide all sentient beings. It is vast as the universe, ultimate as the void, everlasting as the endless future. I don't know if all that is too much reading out of a book for you to follow, or whether you could follow it and learn carefully, but it has some points in there that, to me, were very interesting.

[20:10]

In practicing... with a big mind, an aspiration to realize completely Buddha's Way arises. This aspiration is to seek all-embracing wisdom, fearlessness, and to strive for the salvation of all sentient beings. This mind is deep, sincere, and straight. And the turning point of an interesting

[21:24]

point to me is just that arising of inspiration, a mind that is aroused with inspiration. That mind by itself, that thought by itself, is the great wisdom with which the Bodhisattva can teach and guide all sentient beings. Every day we say, sentient beings are numberless, I vow to save them, and so on.

[22:36]

I found myself saying that without any intention, saying it by rote, Saying it without any feeling. Saying it without any understanding. I remember that in the past it has moved me very much and pondered it very much. Anyway, there's something... This gets back to the idea of follow the way and drive the way. In other words, we follow, in following the tasara way, we say these things day after day to the point where maybe we keep thinking about, oh, that's a lot, or that's strange.

[23:50]

Maybe we have these doubts and these questions about some of these things we say. But I think we it may be, I'll have to speak for myself, it may be that there comes a time when we're not driving. And by drive, to me, that aspect of follow the way, drive the way, drive... isn't anything so special. But to me, what it implies is with wholehearted mindfulness, just doing what has to be done. But there's a difference between, or I can feel sometimes a difference between sometimes when you just follow along sort of passively

[24:56]

And when we enter into it in a way where we're neither passive nor on a trip about it. But we're fully there. And to me, that feeling of to drive, to lead the way, just to do it. If I had any question about it, just to do it. Okay, I would like to talk more next time about bodhisattva vows and stages.

[26:16]

Thank you.

[26:30]

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