Having it to see and listen to, to remember and accept, I vow to taste the truth of the Tathagata's words. Yesterday I was talking with a woman who used to live here.

[01:18]

She's over 70 years old and she just returned from a year in Asia and she told me that while she's traveling and also since she got back that she hasn't been sitting as she did in the past. And she felt that it was all right to not be sitting anymore because the practice was so close to her all the time. She was kind of checking in with me about her practice. She lives in Canada. She was down here now in the Bay Area because one of her friends had a stroke and she's spending a week with her friend. And when she told me about her not sitting and how she felt that it was okay

[02:33]

because the practice is so close to her all the time, I felt fine about that. But then towards the end of our conversation she said to me, Do you think it would be wise if I sat? And I thought, Yes, that would be wise. The way she said it I thought was a nice turn of her attitude. In other words, in a sense she doesn't need to sit at this point in her life. In a sense she feels that she's really practicing all the time. Or that practice is always very close to her all the time. So it doesn't seem like she has a need to sit the way she used to.

[03:42]

And also I wasn't trying to give her some feeling like she should. Like if she's a Zen student she should sit and she's not fulfilling her responsibility if she doesn't. There was not that feeling in the conversation. But when she said, Do you think it would be wise? I thought, Yes. And I said, Yes, I think that would be wise. Sometimes we approach sitting like, Let's sit and be concentrated and then wisdom can function. But another way is that

[04:56]

when there's wisdom, we sit. That it's a wise thing to do. And I just said to her that I thought it might be good for her to make a time, make a space in her life where she sat and just gave reality or the universe a chance to reveal itself through her sitting. To sit not to try to do anything, but just a space for revelation. Give revelation a chance by just sitting still at some point in your life. Of course it can happen any time, any place.

[05:58]

And yet to put aside everything else and do nothing is also a wise thing to do. Even though nothing hinders it, still making such an offering of time and space is wise. The truth is everywhere and reaches into everything. Yet at the same time it responds to such an effort. We say the meaning is not in the words,

[07:39]

yet it responds to the inquiring impulse. Literally the meaning is not in the words, but it responds to the arrival of energy or the arrival of an opportunity. Words means verbal expressions. It also means the word called now, the word called here, the word called your body, and your thoughts. These are all words. Sitting. The meaning is not in the sitting, yet offering the sitting is an opportunity which you offer, and something responds to that offering.

[08:42]

Something responds to that devotion. The offering, the meaning is not in the offering of your sitting. The meaning is not in the offering of your bowing. The meaning is not in the offering of your kindness and your study. Your offering is empty, and that which responds to it is empty. Bowing to Buddha is empty, sitting for Buddha is empty, and Buddha is empty. But, still, there is an interaction between this offering and something else. And this offering is beyond our comprehension,

[09:56]

but is the life of freedom and happiness. The Great Chinese Master Jiri said, not rising above the water, nor falling below its orb, a single moon appears everywhere, in all waters at once. Not rising above the water, or sinking below its own orb, a single moon appears everywhere, in all waters at once. Buddhas do not come,

[10:57]

and sentient beings do not go to them, but, thanks to compassion and good work, such things seem to appear. Thus we speak of the miracle of offering and response. Now, you may have heard in Zen of the image of the relationship between teacher and student as like the student as a chick inside of an egg, and the teacher like the mother hen outside. And the student pecks at the shell, and the teacher pecks at the shell. And the teacher pecks back. But the teacher and the student are also playing a role of apparent effort and the response of everything else.

[12:04]

So our little sitting here is like a pecking inside the egg. And when there's a peck, something hears and pecks back, back and forth, peck, [...] until the shell is broken. All this responsiveness, however, is beyond our comprehension. All we know is the pecking that we're doing. That's all we know. However, realization does occur through our pecking and a response. So you can forget about everything I just said, if you wish. And now I wanted to say something,

[13:08]

but this is in the context of revelation. You're sitting here, not doing anything, and now something may be revealed to you. Just make a space now. Make a time. Offer an opportunity. Are you ready? I think today is the new moon. Is that right? So we think today is the new moon. And it seems that last night, the last days or so, a lot of people have a hard time.

[14:12]

A lot of people are close to death, or facing death. Now, as the new moon happens, energy comes up now with the moon, but the extreme of waning has now occurred. Blanche's mother had a hard time yesterday. Just as I was walking out of the house, I heard of a friend's brother who just sat up in bed last night, vomiting, and his wife ran out of the room to call 911. When she got back, he was dead, with no warning. And Myo was up late last night with another one of our members, and so a lot of... It's a hard time yesterday.

[15:14]

And on the new moon, traditionally, in the Buddhist community, we recite the precepts, and also on the full moon. So tonight, at the end of our sitting, we will recite the precepts. So I wanted to talk to you about precepts, a little bit. I want to say that in Zen we say that the precepts are the gate to Zen. Receiving the precepts, not just the precepts, but receiving the precepts, are the gate to Zen. You might think,

[16:22]

well, maybe we should receive them this morning, if we're going to be sitting all day. So you could practice Zen today. But it is also said that receiving the precepts transcends the three times. So you can receive the precepts tonight, and it works to let you into Zen all day. So the fact that we're receiving the precepts tonight, the fact that if you're willing to receive the precepts tonight, it works for you today. In this temple we have, we will receive, we will recite and receive the sixteen great Bodhisattva precepts,

[17:25]

which are the three refuges, the three pure precepts, and the ten grave or heavy precepts, three and three and ten, sixteen. The three refuges are the body or the substance. The three pure precepts are the shape, and the ten grave precepts are the function. The substance, the shape, and the function. All right.

[18:51]

Dogen Zenji says in his instructions on teaching and conferring the precepts that the great precepts of all Buddhas have been protected and maintained by all Buddhas. They have been mutually entrusted from Buddha to Buddha. They have been mutually transmitted from ancestor to ancestor. Receiving precepts goes beyond the three times. Confirming the precepts penetrates throughout past and present. Our great teacher Shakyamuni Buddha

[20:08]

conferred them upon Mahakasyapa. Mahakasyapa conferred them on Ananda. And so in this way the precepts have been legitimately conferred up to the present Buddhas here in this temple. I now offer them to you to repay the Buddhas and ancestors' profound kindness. And thus we make them the eyes of humans and celestials. Thus you are able to inherit Buddha ancestors' life of wisdom.

[21:11]

Dogen Zenji These days, for various reasons in America, people don't like the word should. But somehow in translating Dogen Zenji we have a hard time avoiding imperative expressions like should, must, and so on. So Dogen says, one should take refuge in Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. The triple treasure has three kinds of merits or virtues. Or there are three types of three treasures. There are three types of Buddha, Dharma, Sangha. They are called one body, three treasures,

[22:46]

manifest, three treasures, and abiding and maintaining three treasures. So there are three kinds of three treasures. Do you remember them? What's the first one? What's the second one? Manifest, three treasures. Third one? Okay. So what's the first one again? Second one? Third? Good. Okay. Now, this is a little bit hard to absorb this material, these three different ways of looking at these three treasures,

[23:51]

but I want to try to start absorbing it into the community. Okay? So, anyuttara samyak sambodhi, anyuttara samyak sambodhi, which means unsurpassable, correct, and perfect awakening, is called the Buddha treasure. Unsurpassable, perfect or correct and complete awakening is the Buddha treasure. Its purity and freedom from dust is the Dharma treasure.

[24:52]

And the peace, the virtue or the merit of peace and harmony is the Sangha treasure. Perfect awakening is the Buddha treasure. Purity and freedom from dust, and dust means not just dirt, but more importantly, objects. Purity and freedom from dust is the Dharma treasure. Harmony and peace is the Sangha treasure. This is the one body triple treasure. Understand the triple treasure as one body is these three. First is unsurpassed, perfect, authentic, complete awakening.

[25:59]

Next is purity, freedom of dust. In other words, this awakening is completely pure. Of course, it already said it was, but the purity of it, keeping it free of dust, like for example, can you imagine some kind of dust that could get stuck on this awakening? Some duality could get stuck to it. Can you imagine? For example, this awakening could be there, but not there. Or it could be there, but more there, and less there, and more there, and so on. That's one kind of dust. It could be more in women than in men, or less in children than old people. It could be found more in some true place

[27:11]

and less in some false place. It could be, you could compare it to something else, and so on. Can you imagine? Any way you can imagine of thinking about or predicating this complete, unsurpassable, penetrating awakening, any way that you can work with it, think about it, mess around with it, the Dharma is that which makes it so you can't ever scratch it or defile it. And the harmony and peace that goes with this is called the Sangha. You don't just have perfect awakening, you have perfect awakening which can never be hurt, which can never be used, or not used, or anything,

[28:12]

far beyond all dust. The fact of it being far beyond all dust is the One Body Dharma, and the harmony and peace around it is the Sangha. That's the triple treasure understood as One Body Triple Treasure. The highest truth, it's purity and harmony. That's the first kind of three treasures. The One Body Triple Treasure. The next one, manifesting verification of Bodhi. To manifest, to realize,

[29:15]

and to verify. This unsurpassed enlightenment, that's called the Buddha Treasure. That which is verified is the Dharma Treasure. And those who are learning this Buddha Treasure and this Dharma Treasure are the Sangha members. But actually, literally translating it, I would say, learning the Buddha and the Dharma is the Sangha. Studying the Buddha and the Dharma is the Sangha. Those who is an interpretation. These three triple treasures are called

[30:26]

the manifest or verifying triple treasure. Literally it's manifesting in front, triple treasure. Or manifesting in the face. The Sangha is the study of this very Buddha. I want to stress that the Sangha is the study of this verification and the study of that which is verified.

[31:27]

So we have these people here who are sometimes called the Sangha. But it is actually more important than us as people in a sense. Our peopleness is in some sense the site, which is very important. But just us as people is somewhat pedestrian. The actual life of the Sangha is the study we do of the Buddha and the Dharma. And next, converting celestial beings and converting human beings Appearing in vast openness of being and appearing within the dust is the Buddha treasure.

[32:28]

Being transformed into an ocean storehouse of scriptures and converting animate and inanimate beings is the Dharma treasure. Relieving all suffering and being free from the house of the three worlds is the Sangha treasure. These are the abiding and maintaining triple treasure. So the first one, Buddha treasure, from this point of view, of the abiding and maintaining triple treasure, is first of all converting celestial and human beings. The abiding and maintaining Buddha

[33:42]

emphasizes the aspect of Buddha that Buddha is not something separate from human beings or celestial beings. Buddha is actually the conversion of beings. It's not that Buddha is something over here which converts us over there, but that our conversion is actually what Buddha is from this point of view of abiding and maintaining. And also, appearing in vast openness of being, Buddha appears in vast openness of being and also appears in the dust. And all this gets transformed into a vast ocean storehouse

[34:47]

of scriptures, which again can be used and functioned to convert animate and inanimate beings. That's the Dharma treasure. And the actual relief of suffering and being free in the house of the three worlds is the Sangha treasure. Now, I've studied these three kinds of three treasures a while and I have trouble fully realizing

[35:54]

all the different aspects that are raised here. But the more I go over it, the more intimate it becomes. So I wanted to begin to introduce this to you. Even though I can easily imagine that it was hard, it is hard for you to feel all the subtleties that are raised by these three different ways of looking at these three. I could, at this point,

[36:54]

go over them and over them and over them with you to get you more and more familiar with it, but I think now I'll go forward a little bit and perhaps come back to them later, maybe some other day even. Okay. But before I do, just maybe a little summary. The first one is called what? So that's like looking at the Buddha as one body, trying to emphasize the one body of it and how it has this one body quality of being what's the Buddha in that case? Awakening.

[37:57]

And the Dharma is purity, that this awakening is very pure, free of all dust. And then, what's the third aspect of it, which we call Sangha? It's peaceful and harmonious. In other words, this enlightenment is not a kind of enlightenment which has the dust and the disharmony of being better than somebody else's enlightenment. You notice it says the unsurpassable. Nobody can get ahead of it. There's no better enlightenment, but it doesn't put down anybody else's enlightenment either. It's not the kind of enlightenment that rises up there and causes some disturbance and makes people get hostile and paranoid, like, boy, I'm kind of angry that I don't have that enlightenment. It's a kind of enlightenment that even though you may,

[38:59]

if it appeared to you or you got wind of it, you wouldn't become kind of angry that nobody told you about it before. You wouldn't become jealous and envious of it. Somehow, even though you may not feel that you perfectly realized it, you'd be encouraged and at peace about it. You might want to study it and learn about it and devote yourself to it, but not in a way that you get hysterical about or greedy about. It's a wonderful thing that people don't get... that in the neighborhood of it or in its body, in its one body, there's harmony around it. This is a tough requirement if you think about it. A lot of pretty high levels of enlightenment still have this quality of people in the neighborhood of it being in some conflict about it.

[40:02]

Like, sometimes you hear about teachers whose students are all fighting each other to get attention from the teacher. So the Buddha is a situation where people, where the students probably aren't fighting each other, where they're actually trying to help each other understand the teacher, understand the teaching about this thing. ... Because the teaching about this thing is that it doesn't have any dust, so it's free... ...wonderful. Well, I just thought that it was so wonderful that it was almost like something that wasn't worth anything at all. It's so wonderful that it's almost like something that no one would even try to get. And no one would even think of trying to get

[41:04]

before somebody else got it. I mean, do you have a feeling for how wonderful this thing would be? Can you imagine something so wonderful that nobody would even get greedy about it? Something so precious and yet nobody would say, well, I want that for me. That no one would reach for it before another person. A jewel that's so fantastic, so unsurpassable, that there's no violence around it. Nobody's trying to steal it. And yet everyone's interested in it. And all around it, there's tremendous interest in this jewel.

[42:07]

People are more interested in this than anything else. And yet it's peaceful and harmonious around it. Everybody's kind of like saying, let's go look at the Buddha. Come on, let's go. I'll wait for you. Are you done packing? You're not? Oh, they say the Buddha's going to leave pretty soon. Maybe we should, maybe you should hurry up a little bit. I don't mean to rush you. Or maybe, do you mind if I go ahead? Go ahead? No, no, I don't mind. Go ahead. Because I know you won't get there before me. But if you want to walk, walk. I don't feel jealous. As a matter of fact, just the idea that you're walking over there to see Buddha, I feel really great about it. I'm tremendously happy that you're going to go ahead and get there before me, maybe.

[43:08]

You feel happy that I'm going to get there before you? Gosh, you got there before me. This Buddha is really wonderful. It cures all ills of competition. About this Buddha, competition is not a problem. Actually, we can compete. We can get in a row and line up and race to Buddha without any kind of disharmonious competition. It really is free of all dust. Now, you see, there's another kind of Buddha, which is, although this Buddha is wonderful, still, it needs to be realized. It needs to be verified. It needs to be verified. And that's the other side of it. It needs to be verified.

[44:11]

And so on. And it needs to be studied. Not so much it needs to be, but the fact that it is studied, the study of it and the learning about it is called the Sangha of the manifesting and verifying. There was a great Zen teacher named Wang Bo. He was a teacher of Linji and the disciple of Baizhang Waihai. And they used to say about him, there isn't much to Wang Bo's Zen. The Buddha should be like that too. Not much to it. So...

[45:27]

At the same time, another Zen teacher, kind of a... yeah, an uncle of Wang Bo named Yaoshan or Yakusan Igen, he had some disciples and they... for 40 years they never... they say their sides never touched the mat. They never laid down for 40 years. And then some commentator said, this doesn't happen unless there's enlightenment in the temple. I don't mean to make any of you feel bad that you sometimes lie down when you go to bed at night instead of sitting up. I don't mean to say that. But rather that when there's that kind of study, when there's people who are studying that intensely,

[46:28]

who are that interested in learning that they do it all night. That kind of... that shows that there's Buddha in the neighborhood. Or that there's Buddha there. Not that... again, a free-of-dust Buddha. You don't know exactly where to point the finger. But that kind of study. Now, I... I do sort of wonder, though, how you feel about that. In other words, do you see some learning and studying of the Buddha and Dharma? Do you see it? Do you experience it? Is there a study of Buddha and Dharma? Can you sense it?

[47:32]

Somewhere. Somewhere. When one respectfully receives the refuges of Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha, one attains the great precepts of all the Buddhas. Respectfully honor the Buddha as your teacher, and never take other leaders as teachers. Before receiving the three...

[48:53]

Before receiving or reciting the three precepts, we usually make a confession or repentance. And that's... And so this repentance procedure happens, and then the three refuges and the three pure precepts... And it is said that these... By going through this procedure of repentance and receiving these three refuges and three pure precepts, there's nothing that's not included in that procedure.

[49:54]

So we start with repentance, repentance, and then the three refuges and three pure precepts. But these are not separate from delusion. Emancipation is attained in the midst of delusion. Or you might say that before the deluded aspect departs, the true aspect has arrived. This is the meaning of the Zen expression, Before the donkey goes, the horse arrives. There's an expression,

[51:06]

the whole ocean of karmic hindrance. And usually when we hear that expression or an expression like that, we might think that that means that we should throw these karmic hindrances away. Since they're hindrances, right? You should get rid of hindrances. Otherwise, why call them hindrances? Or if we hear the expression, Sitting upright, contemplating the truth, True marks. We might think that that would imply that we should grasp these true marks,

[52:07]

since it says, true marks. But we should not see such a dualistic intention in these words. Wrongness wrongdoing cannot be actualized. It is not reality for you or for others. It is not to be grasped or thrown away.

[53:08]

Wrongdoing cannot be actualized. Therefore, it is not to be grasped or thrown away. However, even though it cannot be grasped and cannot be actualized by anybody, even though it's not a reality in anybody's life, still, we confess our wrongdoing. We confess something which cannot be actualized. Those who truly understand that wrongdoing cannot be actualized are happy to spend their life confessing wrongdoing. Those who think wrongdoing

[54:35]

is real may or may not be willing to confess wrongdoing. Are you following me? No? Where did you get lost? Did you understand the part about those who realize that wrongdoing cannot be realized are happy to confess it? Does that make sense? No? No? It doesn't make sense? Do you know who those are that realize that wrongdoing cannot be realized? Do you know who they are? Those are the Buddhas. Are you surprised to hear that Buddhas confess? Is that surprising to you?

[55:36]

Enlightened beings are constantly confessing. What are they confessing? Do you know what they confess? They confess wrongdoing. They also confess rightdoing, but that's not called confession. So they don't, actually they don't. And when they confess rightdoing they do it in such a way, hopefully, they try to do it in such a way that they don't put themselves above other people. But of course, they slip sometimes and confess rightdoing in such a way that they put down people who are not doing rightdoing quite as well. Therefore, then they confess the wrongdoing of putting themselves above others by confessing their rightdoing. Could you follow that? But they understand. You couldn't follow it? Huh? It was pretty fast. I was just, you know. Also, I thought wrongdoing creates karma and Buddhists don't create karma. You thought wrongdoing creates karma?

[56:40]

In reality, wrongdoing does not create karma. There's no reality to the karma created by me since beginningless greed, hate and delusion. But the confession is, all the karma ever created by me from beginningless greed, hate and delusion, I now fully confess. Okay? That's the confession, which Buddhists do all the time. They confess their karma. But they understand the people who are confessing, the people who realize that karma has no reality, the people who realize that karma and wrongdoing have no reality, they are constantly confessing wrongdoing and karma. Okay? Why are they doing it? Because they fully embrace duality. They fully embrace the dualistic view

[57:42]

of wrongdoing and rightdoing. Why do they embrace it? Because, in fact, living beings embrace it. But, if they understand that this duality is not a reality, they're very happy to confess this process of duality. Now, some people also are willing to confess, but they think that wrongdoing is a reality. And they are not happy to confess. Do you understand? Does that make sense? They're unhappy to confess. However, they still confess, and it still is good that they confess, even though they think that the confession they're making is about a reality. But they're not happy,

[58:47]

and not only that, but they can't do it all the time because they're not happy to do it. They can only do it once in a while. Like, on the new moon, or full moon, or, you know, in the morning, or when somebody tells them to, or when they feel really bad, and then somebody tells them it'll help them. It does help you, even though you don't feel good because you think your wrong action is a reality. Still confessing it is wholesome. The Buddhas joyously confess, constantly. Now, there's other people who also think wrongdoing is a reality who don't confess. They say, It's a reality. I don't want to even look at it. It's terrible to admit all the bad things I've done. Just forget it. I'll just think about the reality of the good things I've done, and deny the wrongdoing.

[59:50]

This is really a bad situation. Also, in the Buddhadharma, we don't set up beginning and end. So when you practice repentance, which seems to be something you do before taking the refuge, not to mention before realizing completely the triple treasure, as soon as you take repentance, you immediately complete the way. Because it's not like the Buddhas repent, recite the precepts, and receive the precepts, the refuges and the precepts, and then become Buddhas.

[60:51]

It's that after they become Buddhas, they continue to repent and receive the precepts and become Buddhas, and repent and receive precepts and become Buddhas. So when you repent, you complete the Buddha way. When you receive the three treasures, you complete the Buddha way. When you receive the three pure precepts, you complete the Buddha way. Repentance, Although we don't set up beginning or end in the Buddha Dharma, still repentance is the beginning of wholesomeness. Taking refuge is the middle of wholesomeness and practicing the precepts is the end of wholesomeness, which leads then to go round and round again, beginning, middle and end. But we don't set this up. There's no reality to that, but we embrace the duality of it. So, what has just happened is some words,

[62:17]

and revelation that has occurred to you this morning, and tonight we will, as a group, receive the precepts again, confessing again, complete the Buddha way again. The Buddha way, again, is again. You complete it, but then you complete it again. It's constantly completed and never has an end to its completion, and it's completed by beginner's mind. It's completed by being willing to admit

[63:17]

dualistic entanglement, and realizing and watching and listening to the arrival of non-duality before duality leaves. Non-duality is not waiting for duality to leave before it arrives. And so they say.

[63:49]

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