This podcast is offered by the San Francisco Zen Center on the web at www.sfcc.org. Our public programs are made possible by donations from people like you. Good morning. First of all, welcome everybody who's here for the first time. I'd just like to take a moment... for us to think about people we know who either have recently passed away or are sick or dying or in need of our help. And I particularly want to dedicate this lecture to the peaceful transition of Suvarna Prabhakulan. And if you want, you can read her blog. She was a friend who practiced at Buddhist Peace Center for a long time, at Buddhist... San Francisco Buddhist Center, I'm sorry, for a long time. But everybody's story is extraordinary.

[01:05]

And so if we could just have a moment of recognition for the people in our lives who need some help, that would be good. And I could actually end the lecture right there. Somebody just went, I don't think so. Because it's not the whole story. But knowing the immediacy and impermanence of our lives very naturally... a desire to focus on what's important and to drop what's unimportant or unconstructive might come up in us.

[02:13]

And I certainly feel that way since my friend's death a few days ago and also hearing about the diagnosis of another close friend and Dharma brother, elder Dharma brother. it certainly is how I feel. So when we're faced with this surround of impermanence, of change, of not getting what we want and yes, getting what we don't want, what is the human response? And fortunately, there is a peaceful, a joyful, a realistic and practical method for dealing with sickness, old age, and death, with the pangs that we feel when confronted with impermanence, and with the sense of priorities that we have in our own lives.

[03:21]

And I believe that method is to wake up for everyone's benefit. Now, whether... I'm on video, and... So it might be that I'm not supposed to say this, but whether you practice Buddhism or not, whether you're interested in Zen or not, I believe that at our very deepest level, this is what we want of our lives, to be the person who wakes up for everybody's benefit. the person who is actually here for life, and who can be a refuge and a resource. And I think that we have all been in that position in relation to our friends, in relation to our brothers and sisters, and what equips us to do that. Here at San Francisco Zen Center, we follow the lineage of Shogaku, Shunryu, Suzuki, Roshi.

[04:29]

old teacher who came and founded this place in 1959. And he's part of a generation by generation transmission from Buddha until the present day. And today, several people are going to receive a deeper initiation into the Soto Zen practice in particular, of receiving the refuges and the precepts, of acknowledging whatever gets in our way in waking up, whatever we've done that's ever gotten in our way between our intention and our true awakeness and aliveness. And of stating our intention, to be awake, to live in the truth, to live in a sense of interconnection with all beings, to stop doing what is unconstructive, to do what is wholesome, and to live and be lived for the benefit of all beings.

[05:44]

So there are several people who will receive this, these vows, and specific vows to help do that in a ceremony at 3 o'clock to which everyone is invited. It might be a little bit like a fraternity or sorority phone booth in which we have to keep fitting people in, but we'll manage somehow. So some years ago, I was at a similar ceremony that was done in the traditional long form that's given in Japan. And what I was struck by In that ceremony, we have the ceremony of entering the way, and we have a ceremony which some people see as a graduation ceremony of receiving the entrustment to teach the way. And what most struck me was the similarity of those two ceremonies.

[06:46]

Of all the ceremonies I've ever been in, in my whole life, and particularly in the last 43 years of Zen practice, Those are the two most similar ceremonies that I've almost ever seen. And so I was struck by what is the similarity between the first moment of saying in front of friends and family, in front of ourselves and our deepest nature, that we want to wake up and that we want to live in this way, and being a teacher of the way. And what I would like to say is if there's any difference between those intentions and those vows, that the person isn't probably a true practitioner of the way. So at root, at heart, the desire to wake up is the same desire, whether it's a first statement or whether it's a realized statement.

[07:50]

And this is a really important point. there is a very long sutra, I think it's 1,300 pages in English, called the Avatamsaka Sutra, the Flower Ornament Sutra. And it's a compilation that was written over many hundreds of years and is a major sutra in the practice of Buddhism and in the practice of Zen. And the last... chapter of this sutra is called the Gandavyuha Sutra. It tells the story of a time when Manjushri, the bodhisattva or awakening being who is in charge of wisdom, who embodies wisdom, was teaching about the qualities of awakeness. And there was a large group of people listening to Manjushri bodhisattva expound the teachings. Among these were

[08:52]

men, women, boys, and girls. And one of the boys was named Sudana, Sudana, kind of abundant wealth, abundant wealth. The reason he was called abundant wealth wasn't because he was a privileged scion of a millionaire family, but because he was very rich. This boy was very rich in the qualities necessary to wake up and be a good person. And he had been endowed through some fortunate combination of circumstances so that he could actually hear the teaching. and appreciated as a very young boy.

[09:54]

And he was struck by Manjushri's discourse on the qualities of awakening and asked Manjushri Bodhisattva to further teach him what those qualities were and how he could realize them. And Manjushri did not answer him directly. Instead, Manjushri said, why don't you go see so-and-so? And this occurred 52 times. So Sudhana was sent on a Shaggy Dog Sutra story and visited 52 teachers and finally ended up in front of Manjushri once again. From beginning to the middle to the end, it was the story of one intention, being realized through 52 different questions to 52 different teachers who had 52 different qualities.

[11:00]

And the teachers were of all sorts. They were men, they were women, they were ordained, they were lay, they were city people, they were mountain people, they were realized people, they were people who no one would have known were realized, except that when Sudhana asked them the question, then he could hear the awakening quality of their answers. And where he ended up was right in front of Manjushri once again, who then elucidated the qualities of practice. So Sudhana's story at the end only was different from his story at the beginning in that he had been in touch with 52 different ways to realize the truth. And I think this is really the story of our lives, that at the beginning we might have an intention, at the beginning of our lives, and at the end of our lives we might be able to speak about that intention, but it's the same intention, only it's developed through 52 different ways of experience, through 57 flavors, 57 varieties, whatever it is.

[12:20]

And when we are living in the midst of our vow, when we realize the impermanence of our lives and acknowledge the issues that stand between us and the truth and between us in a sense of connection, and we approach our experience with that pure heart and that pure mind, everything that we do becomes a teaching. This is what these people are doing today. So for a ceremony like this, at the end of this lecture, everyone will have the opportunity to move chairs or move cushions or help with setup in some way. And we don't realize it, but what we're doing, we might not realize it, it might just feel like we're carrying a chair. But what we're doing is, at a deeper level, is bringing our supportive mind and heart, bringing that purity of attention to placing a chair, to placing a cushion, to supporting these people's intention.

[13:32]

What we're doing with our intention and with our bodies and with our voices and minds at such a time, even though it just looks like lifting up a chair, is to make a gift of our own pure, intention to help and support people and a gift that will help them realize their vow. We don't know the impact of what we do. The impact of people carrying a chair might be that the place feels like a safe refuge or that we feel a sense of community. We just don't know. I mentioned carrying a chair because it seems like such an ordinary act. And because when the work leader asks people to carry chairs, who knows, you might think, oh no, not that again. Or you might think, yay, yes, I'd love to. We have all these thoughts, but actually the whole activity is the activity of support and creating a sacred space.

[14:38]

We don't realize it, but maybe, but... let's say there are 150 witnesses in the room, 100 or 150 witnesses in the room. If you think about where each of those witnesses has journeyed from and what has happened to them and think that all of that, all of that history and all of those qualities are being brought into this room and dedicated to support and witness someone's vow. And that When we leave the ceremony, we go everywhere, 150 different places, to 150 different groups of people, to 150 different issues and problems, and who knows, maybe even to 150 different cities and towns. We don't know. Bringing all of that experience and support everywhere we go. This is important. It's a sort of transmission that we don't talk much about.

[15:45]

We tend to focus on the historical transmission from historical Buddha to historical ancestors in this lineage. But there's also a horizontal transmission from heart to heart, from friend to friend, from awake person to awake person, from inner life to inner life. So... It's quite the gift. Now, once the stage has been set, we'll all be chanting the names of Buddhas, which are the names of various qualities that we bring to awakening or that awakening brings to us. It's a way of creating support for what's about to occur. Then comes a very small verse, but a very important verse.

[16:46]

It goes, All my ancient twisted karma from beginningless greed, hate, and delusion, born through body, speech, and mind, I now fully avow. All my ancient twisted karma from beginningless greed, hate, and delusion. born through body, speech, and mind, I now fully avow. And it means we're willing to face and own up to every quality that obscures that basic, that essential, that inner support. And this confession, this avowal, is a direct offering of all the causes and conditions in our lives over to our intention.

[17:56]

It's profound, and its importance can't be overemphasized. Then comes a part in which people receive a robe that they've sewed sometimes for quite a long time. The robe, you can see it, Killian's wearing one. Okay? It's called a rakasu, small okesa. Camille is wearing one. And the front is just blue. And you can see, if you see someone wearing one, you'll see it's made out of many patches. Okay? And it's actually the way that the Buddha taught to make a robe. This is a small one. And it's like a scale model of the big robe that senior Dharma teacher Paul is wearing over here that I'm wearing.

[18:58]

So you can see on the rakasu, which just means little okesa or small robe, It's made out of five panels and each panel is made from one long and one short piece. And this design for a robe was thought of by Ananda and Buddha together. Ananda was one of Buddha's disciples and they were walking one time through a rice field at the request of one of the Buddha's disciples, who was a king who had mistakenly bowed to a non-Buddhist priest and become quite angry, the Buddha became interested in developing a design for a robe that would identify his disciples. And then, lo and behold, it turned out that sewing the robe and wearing the robe

[20:06]

introduces us to something that's far beyond the form of the robe. It introduces us to a whole field of practice that includes whatever occurs beneath the robe. Who knew? You know, so they'll be receiving robes and names. Probably no one will receive the name of Little Grasshopper after all. You don't have to be worried. The person who's receiving the precepts with me was very careful to ask all of his friends not to even use the word grasshopper in front of me. But I promise that won't happen. It won't happen. And then the person receives a document. They received the vows.

[21:09]

So the vows are 16. There are 16 bodhisattva precepts, and bodhisattva just means bodhi is awakening, sattva is being. And these 16 precepts were developed specifically. There were many precepts in previous lineages and forms of this ceremony. And at a certain point in Buddhist history, people thought, can we make this simpler? Can we just bring it down to the essentials of what it means to be an awakened being? And many of the lineages have precepts that cover... every aspect of daily life and come down specifically from the time of the Buddha. And particularly Theravadan lineages carry these forms and carry the styles and deportment of the community that was specifically handed from generation to generation.

[22:20]

Ours is about, it's many generations old, but it's not that, very articulated set of precepts but a more general set of precepts that aims at the basics of awakening so as I said it's the three refuges Buddha, Dharma and Sangha or awakening the truth and the community it's the three pure precepts of awakening Forms, conduct, rules and regulations, or stopping, refraining from doing what's unwholesome is the first one. And doing what's good or doing what's wholesome or leads towards awakening is the second one. And then living and being lived for the benefit of all beings or making one's practice wide and inclusive is the third one.

[23:29]

And then the specific ten precepts that come at the end are the clear mind precepts or the grave prohibitory precepts of not killing, not taking what's not given, not misusing sexuality, not lying, not intoxicating mind or body of self or others, not putting other people down. not praising oneself at the expense of others, not being stingy with anything and particularly not with Dharma resources or teaching, not harboring ill will, and not disparaging awakeness, the truth, or teaching, or the community. And those are used as tools for the specific realization of the path moment after moment. And they're so important in our teaching, in our particular community, that we recite them once a month to refresh our intention.

[24:39]

And then, after the person receives those precepts as their own, they receive a lineage. And in that lineage, there's a red line that goes from the Buddha, through all the generations of Buddhas and ancestors for over 90 generations. So we're either 92nd or 93rd generation teachers giving these precepts today. That means 92nd or 93rd from the time of the Buddha. But then that line goes... through the name of the teacher and underlies the name of the student, the person who's receiving the precepts. And then that line goes all the way back up to the primordial Buddha and becomes a teacher of the Buddha.

[25:46]

So this is an important teaching too. You know, when we bow, I bowed... at the beginning of the lecture, and we put the head down and raised the hands up. ...of the teacher of the generation before. And so the statement made by the red line... is that we receive our teacher's feet and then the seven Buddhas before Buddha receive our feet. So this is important. They stand on our ground just like we stand on their ground. It's mutually given from Buddha to us and from us back to Buddha.

[26:48]

And this is an important part of our practice. So I've been asked to keep this lecture concise and to focus on question and answer so that we can do all the things we need to do today. And I will answer questions. We can go into this more deeply in the dining room in a little while. But I just want to offer a book written by Shantideva in his poem, A Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of Life. And this is the Neil Elliott translation, which is modern language. There are several translations. They all have virtues. And this particular one, I think, speaks in a very fresh way.

[27:50]

very fresh and modern way. So in this part of the teaching, the bodhisattva has reflected on the immediacy of life, on the transiency of life. And so the person's heart is affected. The person comes to a sense of what's important, and this is what he or she says in this poem. How can I definitely be freed from non-virtue, the source of all suffering? Throughout the day and the night, I should think about only this. Okay? How can I definitely be freed from the source of all suffering? Throughout the day and night, This is my subject of concentration, whatever occurs.

[28:54]

So I just want to close by saying that I believe that the precepts, although they're specific, are a daily reflection of our formless vow to live and be lived for the benefit of all beings, to wake up, in a way that actually helps other people and ourselves, that realizes who we are most fundamentally and what we want most in the world. I believe that the precepts are a training program that will allow us to... that allows us to... come to what's important in everyday life. And I also believe that for our friends who are sick or who are on their deathbeds or who have passed away, that it's important for us, maybe even if we don't specifically practice the precepts, to practice something that brings us in touch with

[30:17]

and realizes the most important part of our lives, the part that can never be sick or die, the part that never suffers, the part that is completely free wherever we go. So may you be well. May you be happy. May you be peaceful. and free from suffering, the sources of suffering. Wherever you go, whatever you do, whoever you're with, may you realize the truth for everybody's life. Thank you very much. Thank you for listening to this podcast offered by the San Francisco Zen Center. Our Dharma talks are offered at no cost, and this is made possible by the donations we receive. Your financial support helps us to continue to offer the Dharma.

[31:21]

For more information, visit sfcc.org and click giving. May we fully enjoy the Dharma.

[31:30]

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