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 evening. I just want to take a moment to look at you all out there and welcome you to the talk. It's wonderful to see so many of you here this evening. As Kodo mentioned, we are in the eighth week of a city center fall practice period. And the theme of the practice period is fierce compassion, enacting bodhisattva principles in a troubled world. And we've been studying the classic bodhisattva ideals as inspiration for our practice. We have covered six of them so far, and tonight I will introduce the seventh, Vimalakirti.

[01:05]

So I will be talking about Vimalakirti as a bodhisattva ideal archetype. Vimalakirti is the hero of the Vimalakirti Sutra, in which he is depicted as a wealthy lay disciple of Shakyamuni Buddha, whose wisdom and eloquence surpasses that of all the other disciples and bodhisattvas. So a slightly different classic bodhisattva than we've been studying in the past. He was an actual disciple of Shakyamuni Buddha, as portrayed in his sutra. Robert Thurman, whose translation of the Bhima Lakirti Sutra that I'm using, refers to it as a masterly faceted diamond refracting the radiance of all the other Mahayana scriptures. beaming them forth in a concentrated rainbow beam of diamond light. Clearly, Robert Thurman really thought the Vimalakirti Sutra was special, refracting the radiance of all the other Mahayana scriptures.

[02:12]

So hundreds of generations of Mahayana Buddhists in India, China, Japan, and Southeast Asia have studied, revered, and enjoyed this scripture, finding enlightenment, inspiration, and the grace of pleasant humor. What I like best is that Vimalakirti was a layman and considered the wisest of Buddhist disciples. This is encouragement to us who are not monks that we too can practice the way. This text praises the spiritual possibilities of householder life. Vimalakirti was a family man, a rich businessman, a politician, etc. Generally, Vimalakirti, in all his activities, embodies the Mahayana view of being in the world, but not of it. As Vimalakirti fulfills liberative work without being trapped or fettered by worldly desires or attachments.

[03:17]

But a central point of Vimalakirti Sutra is that the Bodhisattva can only be awakened in the context of intimate contact and involvement with the follies, and passions of the world and its beings. That was a quote from Teigen in his book. So just to review the two points of that paragraph, a bodhisattva is in the world and not caught by it. So he fulfills his liberative work, living in the world and not being caught by it, not being attached to it. And we'll be expanding on that in the lecture. And the second point that I think is wonderful is, Awakening can only happen in intimate contact and involvement with the follies and passions of the world and its beings. I really like that. We awaken when we're in intimate contact with the follies and passions of the world and its beings.

[04:21]

So just right where we are. Bhimala Kirti has many modes. He is the iconoclastic critic of all spiritual pretense, showing adept practitioners where they are caught by subtle attachments. He is the wealthy philanthropist acting benevolently and mixing unhesitantly throughout society in the very middle of its ethical ambiguities. He is the invalid as teacher, using his malady to demonstrate and educate about the underlying disease that separates us from our fundamental health and wholeness. And finally, Vimalakirti is the trickster magician, playing with our consciousness with miracles and mind-boggling powers to liberate us from false notions of the world and of liberation itself. So he has these many different modes in which he operates, and we're going to see a little bit of them because I'm going to read some sections of the Vimalakirti Sutra, which is the main text which describes Vimalakirti and his practices.

[05:34]

And as we go through this, you'll see some of what I just listed above. The sutra is structured as a conversation between Vimalakirti and 32,000 bodhisattvas and a number of disciples and some other people. Vimalakirti's room, where he lies sick. The Buddha, sensing that Vimalakirti is ill, asked some of his bodhisattvas to visit him. You know, visiting the sick is a classic bodhisattva activity and certainly something that's wonderful for all of us to do. And there's an entire chapter devoted to all the bodhisattvas expressing their reluctance to visit the Imala Kirti because he always shows them up, exposing the weakness of their practice. Finally, the Buddha asks, you know, Manjushri, the bodhisattva of wisdom, to go and visit Imala Kirti.

[06:41]

And Manjushri replied, Lord, it is difficult to attend upon Vimalakirti. He is gifted with marvelous eloquence concerning the law of the profound. He is extremely skilled in full expressions and in the reconciliation of dichotomies. His eloquence is inexorable, inexorable, and no one can resist his imperturbable intellect. He accomplishes all of the activities of all the bodhisattvas. He's skilled in civilizing all the abodes of the devils. You get a feeling for how the sutra reads. So clearly, Vimalakirti is quite an accomplished bodhisattva. Manjushi goes on and on describing Vimalakirti's wisdom and skillful means, and finally exclaiming with his feeble defenses, he will not be able to withstand Vimalakirti's questions. But since Buddha requested he will go and converse with him, he decides he has to go.

[07:44]

So, of course, this is a wonderful example of how Vimalakirti is such a tough critic. And there's a whole chapter of all the ways he's criticized the past bodhisattvas because they recount these to the Buddha. But we'll pass on those. And of course, we may feel not capable of conversing with someone who is ill. because we're not quite sure how we're going to do that. But as we've learned from our previous bodhisattva studies, maybe just being present and listening will be enough. So we should be encouraged to do this. And it's part of the sort of teaching of this chapter. So anyway, carrying on, such an auspicious opportunity, seeing Manjushri in dialogue with Vimalakirti inspires the 32,000 bodhisattvas. plus many more to come along to see the encounter. And Bhimala Kirti, sensing their arrival, transforms his 10 by 10 room into emptiness so they all can fit in.

[08:51]

And you can see this, he has some magical qualities because it's not so easy to fit 32,000 bodhisattvas in a single 10 by 10 room, but this is no problem if you've converted into emptiness because with emptiness, we can accept everything. Before I go on, I want to revisit the comment Manjurashi said of Vimalakirti. He is extremely skilled in full expressions and in the reconciliations of dichotomies. Reconciliations of dichotomies is actually an alternate name of this sutra. And as Thurman says, is the main technique of Vimalakirti and is in keeping with the traditional method of the middle way masters who had great skill in pitting polar opposites against each other to eliminate the fixedness of each and free the mind of the student to open into the middle ground of reality beyond concepts.

[10:00]

So, of course, this sutra is a favorite of the many Zen teachers because, as you know, from all those marvelous paradoxical koans, dichotomy is the central aspect of many of the koans. How do you reconcile the fundamental issue, for instance, that we either exist or do not exist, or both exist and do not exist? These are the kinds of discussions that are carried on, and Vimalakirti is a master of these dichotomies. So back to our story. Once Manjushri and all the bodhisattvas have arrived, Manjushri asks Vimalakirti, whence came the sickness of yours? How long will it continue? How does it stand? How can it be alleviated? Kind of a central question. And Vimalakirti replied, Manjushri, my sickness comes from ignorance and the thirst for existence.

[11:06]

And it will last as long as do the sickness of all living beings. Were all living beings to be free from sickness, I also would not be sick. Why? Sickness is inherent in the living world. You ask me, Manjurshi, whence comes my sickness? The sickness of the Bodhisattva arises from great compassion. So, of course, this is the kind of fundamental statement Vimalakirti is making. He is sick. because he sees the suffering of the entire world, and as long as the world suffers, so will he suffer. And as long as the world is deluded and sick with this fundamental delusion, he will be sick with that fundamental delusion. And so his sickness comes from his great compassion. So in this chapter, this discussion continues about how to console one who is sick, and it's a marvelous read.

[12:09]

And Vimalakirti gives instruction on how to turn illness into spiritual teaching. Sickness should be used to encourage empathy with all living beings and their beginningless suffering. So that chapter ends. And then Shariputra, who is, you know, considered the wisest of Buddhist disciples, other than, of course, Vimalakirti, had this thought. And this is just sort of one of those fun examples I'm throwing in here. He says to himself in his mind, there is not a single chair in this house. Where are these disciples and bodhisattvas going to sit? And Bhimala Kirti, hearing this thought, said, because Bhimala Kirti can hear thoughts, one of his skills, do you come here for the sake of the dharma or did you come here for the sake of a chair? And... That set Shariputra back. Shariputra is kind of the butt of most of Vimalakirti's comments and jokes in the sutra. And so Vimalakirti continues to discourse a lot on the value of dharma over material things.

[13:13]

And finally, Vimalakirti decides that maybe he should supply these chairs because, you know, Shariputra asked for it. So he asked Manjushri, who travels many worlds, because he's a great world traveler, where the finest chairs in the world are. What vast celestial systems has the finest chairs? And of course, there's these huge chairs that are like, you know, a thousand feet high in crystals. And Bhimala Kirti says, wonderful, I'll take those chairs. And he materializes all 32,000 of them into his room and all the bodhisattvas sit down. And this is an example of Bhimala Kirti as a magician. He's a trickster who upsets all familiar preconceptions. not only with his incisive critiques of the disciples, but also with his spectacular magical displays. Apparently, when I was rereading that section, I realized that the bodhisattvas had no trouble getting up on top of their chairs, but the...

[14:22]

The disciples had a lot of trouble, and Sariputta and Vimalakirti had to kind of help the disciples figure out how to do that. Now, finally, we get to the central issue I want to discuss, which is Chapter 7. This passage addresses a core question for a student of Buddhism. If, as the Buddha taught, the nature of self and of other beings is insubstantial, impermanent, and fundamentally empty of own being, then why and how should we care for each other and love one another? Compassion and wisdom have been the two characteristics of all the bodhisattvas we've been studying, and this chapter presents Vimala Kirti's view of the great love of the bodhisattva.

[15:25]

And the chapter begins with, Thereupon Manjushri, the crown prince, addressed Vimalakirti. Good sir, how should a bodhisattva regard all living beings? And Bhimala Kirti replied, Manjushri, a bodhisattva should regard all living beings as a wise man regards the reflection of the moon in the water, or as a magician's regard men created by magic. He should regard them as being like a face in a mirror, like the water of a mirage, like the sound of an echo. And basically he's saying they are illusory. living beings are not real they're like a mirage like the sound of an echo he goes on some more like a mass of clouds in the sky like the previous moment of a ball of foam like the appearance and disappearance of a bubble of water like the previous moment of a ball of foam like the appearance and disappearance of a bubble of water i don't know if i used to love uh i i

[16:42]

hyped a lot in my youth. And I used to love sitting by streams, you know, with little waterfalls and watching the constant bubbles as they, you know, hit the bottom of the waterfall and bubbled up in the foam of it. And the sort of continuous transitory way, the impermanent changing, the movement of all, nothing is fixed at all. Impermanence is the sort of very essence of that movement. And that's what... Bhimla Kirti is saying here, you know, living beings are impermanent. They're transitory. They're changing. And he goes on, you know, like the core of a plantain tree. Plantain is like in the banana family. There's no core in a banana tree. It has no trunk or core. It's just sort of, it's not a real tree. So, and he goes on like a flash of lightning, like the fifth grade element, like the seventh sense element. Of course, a flash of lightning is so fast. And when he says the fifth great element, there's only four great elements, earth, water, wind, and fire.

[17:48]

There's no fifth. So the fifth great element doesn't exist. So he's saying it's like something that doesn't exist. It's the same as the seventh sense media. You know, there's only six sense medians. Five plus the mind are six. So there's no seventh. So it's like... Things that don't exist is what living beings are like. And this goes on and on with more and more metaphors about the transient, illusory, non-existent nature of living beings. That's us he's talking about, you know. And Bhimala Kirti ends that long sort of description as thus, Manjushri, as a bodhisattva who realizes ultimate selflessness, consider all beings. A quick summary of all that would be kind of that wonderful question that David Chadwick asked Suzuki Roshi once.

[18:48]

He said, Buddhism is so confusing. Tell me just one thing I can understand, Suzuki Roshi, just one thing. And everybody in the room was kind of laughing at David asking such a silly question. And Suzuki Roshi just said, pause and just said, everything changes. Everything changes. Impermanence is the nature of our existence. And it's not just the outside world that seems to be changing, it's also true of us, of our consciousness. When we sit zazen, even a little bit we can see how transitory the activity of the mind and the body is. It's always in motion. So this raises a kind of interesting question, if other people are like bubbles of water, balls of foam, why should we care about them all, you know?

[19:50]

Are Buddhist people who wander through life seeing other people as nothing more than dreams or mirages? What does this mean for us in terms of our daily life and ordinary human relationships? Of course we know this is not the case, because we know through our own life and practice, that compassion is what Buddhism tells us is the essence of our relationship to people, and why would we... So how does this make sense, you know, if we're viewing people as walls of foam, and how do we become compassionate with them? And so Manjushri helps us frame this question, and this is what he says, Manjushri asks, Noble sir, if a bodhisattva considers all living beings in such a way, how does he generate the great love toward them? And Bhimala Kirti replied, Manjushri, when a bodhisattva considers all living beings in this way, he thinks...

[20:58]

Just as I have realized the Dharma, so should I teach it to living beings. Thereby he generates the love that is truly a refuge for all living beings. The love that is peaceful because free of grasping. The love that is not feverish because free of passions. The love that accords with reality because it is equanimous in all three times. The love that is without conflict because free of the violence of the passions. a love that is non-dual because it is involved neither with the external or with the internal. Abhimla Kirti, he's a talker. But let's deconstruct this a little bit because there's a key sentence in here. He said, so what's the turning phrase? He said, just as I have realized the Dharma, so should I... So it goes on, it says, Manjushri, when a bodhisattva considers all living beings in this way, as foams a bubble, he thinks, just as I have realized the Dharma, so should I teach it to living beings.

[22:07]

And there was a footnote by Robert Thurman that was kind of cleared this up for me a lot, and I want to read it to you. Robert Thurman says... Manjushri voices the pressing question about the great love and compassion of the Bodhisattva. Seeing living beings as non-existent, how can he feel love and compassion for them? As Vimalakirti indicates, the Bodhisattva's love is not merely commiseration, but a spontaneous overflow of his great joy and relief in realizing the radiant nature of reality. a spontaneous overflowing of his great joy and relief in realizing the radiant nature of reality. Although he grasps no living beings, he, being empty of himself, is utterly sensitive to the oppressive gravity of the living being feeling of others, and his love is an outpouring of his awareness of their true nature.

[23:15]

So this is... This is even more interesting. Bodhisattva's love is not merely commiseration, but a spontaneous overflow of his great joy and relief in realizing the radiant nature of reality. That is, standing aside from all these thoughts about what's going on, when faced with the moving stream, when faced with the actual reality in front of us, There's a great sense of joy in realizing the radiant existence that he's in. And this is true of us. It's changing all the time. It's impermanent, but it's happening. It's alive. It's radiant. And there's a great joy in that. And then he goes on to say, free from all our understanding of the transient unsubstantiality of life, we realize this radiant nature. And the next part that is truly worth looking into is being empty of himself, being empty of himself.

[24:25]

He is utterly sensitive to the oppressive gravity of the living being feeling of others. What does empty of himself mean? When you become selfless, when you become free of your own self-concern, to bring it down to the basic things, if you can actually... Quit spending all your time thinking about yourself and open yourself up to the person in front of you. We would say be empathetic and actually feel that person in front of you instead of thinking about whether they're changing or transient or something, but feel the living being feeling of them. Then you will love them. Because love is an outpouring of that feeling of connection, of the living beingness of that person. In some sense, we could say the person that we're facing, the living being feeling, is real to themselves. They don't think of themselves as being transient, impermanent, and illusory.

[25:31]

They have a real living being feeling. So as bodhisattvas who want to help them, we immediately inhabit that realm. We go to the realm of the living being feeling of people. We go back into that living being feeling. And in Vimalakirti's words, we generate the love that is truly a refuge for all living beings. So we see a kind of shift from a kind of philosophic understanding that a bodhisattva has to a feeling of a bodhisattva for the actual existence of the world and an actual feeling of the person in front of us. The living being feeling. When we empty ourselves of our own self-concern, we can see the living being feeling of others. And love is the outpouring of that feeling connection.

[26:33]

And just to explore this sort of area a little bit more, I was reading a book by Dale Wright on philosophic meditations on Zen Buddhism, a fascinating book, and he was talking about Wang Bo, who was one of the great Zen teachers in the 9th century China. And Wang Bo was talking about enlightened patriarchs, and this is a quote, Wang Bo pictures enlightened patriarchs in real-life situations, effacing themselves, That means erasing themselves or emptying themselves so that the true contour of the situation comes to disclosure in them. So if they empty themselves, the true contour, the shape of the world as it exists, inhabits them, comes to disclosure in them, becomes them. They become the situation. They encounter the world not through acts of will and mind primarily, but through relinquishment.

[27:35]

So they don't act on the world with will and mind, but they do it by relinquishing their own self-centered ideas. And by relinquishing their self-centeredness, they're opening their minds and will to the larger context of the situation that is manifest in them. And he goes on to say some more about that. Compassion entails a sensitive awareness of a context larger than the self. Being selfless is being attuned to others, open to others. The enlightened person is pictured as moved by others. The enlightened person is pictured as moved by others, responding to their plight as if it were his own. Compassion is not... imagined as a duty for those who have succeeded, nor is it considered, strictly speaking, an act of will.

[28:37]

It is rather the opening of oneself to the possibility of being moved by others, an experienced identity between the self and the social world beyond the self. So, a lot in that, a lot of language in that, but I think you got the feeling of what I'm talking about here. So, of course, getting back to Vimalakirti, Vimalakirti then goes on for several pages with many examples of love. And I'll expand on a couple of them here. One of the quotes is that I read actually before. Love is enlightenment because it is unity of experience. The love that has no presumptions because it has eliminated attachment and aversion. has no presumptions because it has eliminated attachment and aversions. This is turning the conventional notion of insubstantiability of living beings on its head.

[29:42]

What it's basically saying is that an awakening to the insubstantiality of beings and things, which is a kind of unity of experience, actually opens us up emotionally. We might think somehow it detaches us or distances us from living beings, but actually it does the opposite. Or as Vimalakirti says, we feel the love that has no presumptions, no preconceived ideas, because it has eliminated attachment and aversion. Attachment and aversion are opposites, that push-pull that is constantly confusing us. So when these are cleared up, there is all at once no sense of separation between ourselves and other people. And in that state, at last, we can truly love without being confused. I was thinking about non-attachment some as I was putting this talk together, and I was reminded of the summer that just passed for me while this pandemic was going on.

[30:46]

I've been sheltering at my home in Mill Valley, and I have a deck on the front. And at the end of a day of Zooming in my office all day with my friends at Zen Center, I would sit on my deck in the late afternoon, and I have some rose bushes there. And I would watch the blooming roses. And I was struck by how quickly they came and went. And I got to study my attachment to them, you know, the beautiful rose. And then just very quickly, it wasn't quite as beautiful the next day. And then it turned brown and fell off. You know, they fade so quickly. I wanted them to linger instead of falling. You know, this sense we have, we get attached to the particular beauty of it, and we don't want to lose it. We don't want it to change. And of course, we know from a line of Dogen in the Genju Kohn, where he says, yet in attachment blossoms fall, and in aversion weeds spread.

[31:53]

Which is, it's so human. We want flowers to last, and we don't want the weeds to spread, but the flowers don't last, and weeds do spread. So it is a human thing, but there's something in that where we actually miss the actual experience of the flower changing in front of us because of our attachment to the way we want it to be and not change. Can we actually appreciate it just as it is without any of these ideas about how... It shouldn't fall and die or how it shouldn't be this way or that. That ability to appreciate it just as it is, is the love that Vimla Kirti is talking about. It's called the unity of spirit experience with the flower, with all its life changing in front of us without any attachment to it or aversion to its dying. So, and here's another one of those sentences that Avimla Kirti goes on about love.

[32:56]

And I mentioned this one earlier too, the love that is non-dual because it is involved neither with the external nor with the internal. Normally our love is conditional, it has presumptions. We think I'm here and you are there. That's the sense of internal and external. We fall in and out of that kind of love. The love that is non-dual, however, doesn't have a sense of I am here and you are there. The love that is non-dual embraces living things unconditionally. So from our point of view, hearing Vimalakirti describe living beings as balls of foam or clouds in the sky may seem like a put-down, but actually it's the opposite. It's a celebration of living beings as they actually are, each of them wonderful and beautiful like roses on my deck, opening in the early spring sun, expanding into its fullness as a flower and starting to wilt and fall even before I even know it.

[34:06]

Yes, roses and living beings are insubstantial and always changing, but that is precisely what makes them beautiful and why we want to help them. That is why we generate the love that is truly a refuge for them. Manjushri's wisdom is good, but until it is opened up emotionally with the great love that Bhimla Kirti evokes, there's something incomplete about it. It's only when we have this kind of sparkling care for living beings that we can complete and open our relationships with other people. And the Dharma comes alive then. Somehow, as I was thinking about this changing nature of life, I was reminded of one of Suzuki Roshi's quotes, and not always so.

[35:07]

He said that things change is the reason why you suffer in this world and become discouraged. When you change your understanding and your way of living, Then you can completely enjoy your new life in each moment. The evanescence of things is the reason why you enjoy your life. When you practice in this way, your life becomes stable and meaningful. So just to go through this sentence, that things change is the reason why you suffer in this world and become discouraged. Well, that's true. Things change. We didn't want them to change. Things we liked. And so we don't like things that we don't like, stay, you know, people that we, this is the nature of our problems, that things are always changing. And we can't hold on to anything. Nothing is substantial. But what Sri Kurochi is saying, when you change your understanding, and the understanding he's talking about is the understanding that Vimalakirti was bringing forward.

[36:15]

Yes, things are transitory. Yes, things are illusory. Your idea of what's going on is not at all what's going on. But if you change your understanding and change your way of living, then you can completely enjoy this life, this changing life in each moment. And he says the evanescence of things, the evanescence, the quality of the fleetingness of it, the vanishing quickliness of it, the impermanence of things is the reason why you enjoy your life. It's interesting, the fact that things are changing is the reason why you're in life. Well, the fact that things are changing is life. Life is change. It's the livingness that is changed. And if you can understand that, then you can enjoy your life. And when you practice that way, your life becomes stable and meaningful. Wonderful summary that Suzuki Roshi gave of this.

[37:17]

I certainly said a lot here, and even I cannot follow all that I've said, so I thought maybe in a couple of minutes, we could open up and see if there's anybody that would like to ask a question or make a comment, of course, in our class. Next Tuesday, we will go through in a more sort of structured way, you know, the major teachings of Bimla Kirti, but I wanted to give you an overview of this this sutra that made him so popular. Thank you for listening to this podcast offered by the San Francisco Zen Center. Our Dharma talks are offered free of charge, and this is made possible by the donations we receive. Your financial support helps us to continue to offer the Dharma. For more information, please visit sfzc.org and click giving. May we fully enjoy the Dharma.

[38:21]

@Transcribed_UNK
@Text_v005
@Score_97.43