Good morning. I'm going to begin this morning by playing a piece of music in honor of the Bodhisattva vow of repentance and confession, the three refuges, and the three pure precepts, which is what I'm going to talk about this morning. This piece of music was written and performed by Zen master John Cage. And he began composing what he called aleatoric music, meaning chance controlled, in 1951. Aleagoric is a Latin word referring to dependent on the toss of the dice. So I think aleagoras were dice players. So Mr. Cage describes his music as a purposeless play which affirms life, not in an attempt to bring order out of chaos, nor to suggest some improvement in creation, but simply as a way of waking up to the life that we are living now.

[01:19]

So this piece is in three movements, and it's called 4 Minutes and 33 Seconds. How many of you know about this piece? Oh, my God. How many have heard it? Are you willing to hear it again? No? All right. She's not. The rest of you are okay? Are you okay if they're okay? Don't give it away. There's a couple people in here who don't know what's going to happen. Okay. The first time I performed this piece was at Greengold Farm a couple years ago, and nobody had heard of it. So you're a very sophisticated crowd. So here it goes. In the Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, they describe 433 as Cage's most famous and controversial creation.

[02:22]

And I thought as an interesting footnote, John Cage graduated from high school in 1928 as a valedictorian. And he gave a speech at the Hollywood Bowl, for which he won a prize that same year. And he proposed a national day of quiet for all Americans. He said, by being hushed and silent, we should have the opportunity to hear what other people think. So, please relax, if you're not already. And perhaps you can imagine yourselves as seated Buddhas. who are surrounded by the people of the village who have come to welcome you back from your long years of austerities and solitude. 4 minutes and 33 seconds.

[03:31]

The one great matter is nothing other than the Buddha's darshana. That is, opening, displaying, realizing, and entering the reality of all beings. You must now believe that the Buddha's insight is nothing other than your own mind. So, some years ago I took some of the students who I was studying precepts with to the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco. And there's a wonderful room when you first enter upstairs of the oldest of the pieces they have there. Most of them are stone from India, Southeast Asia, and the carvings of the Buddha's life story under the Bodhi tree and so on. So I was walking around the room looking at all the little figures and reading the signs.

[09:15]

And after a while I noticed that nobody was going anywhere. They were just staying in the room. So I thought, oh, they must really like this stuff. So I just kept waiting and waiting. Finally I asked one of the people, I said, aren't you interested in any of the rest of the museum? And they said, Phu, we're waiting for you. And I thought, oh. very easy for us to forget our own horse so when we did finally move along we came to the room where the Chinese figures are and there were these three wonderful pieces for those of you who have been there you might remember there's three standing figures the center one is Shakyamuni Buddha and then on the left I think it's on the left is Ananda and then on the other side is Mahagashapa And Ananda is called the guardian of the Dharma, and Makashapa is the foremost in ascetic practices.

[10:18]

So in our morning chanting, you know, these are the first three of the Zen ancestors. Shatamuni, Butu Dayosho, Makakasho Dayosho, Ananda Dayosho. These three figures. So later on I thought, well, this is really a good... representation of the three pure precepts. Avoid evil is Makashapa, do all good, Ananda, and purify the mind, the Buddha. And all of them together save all beings. So the first thing I want to talk about is asceticism, avoiding evil, which basically refers to a wise and sometimes a severe restraint. of your body, your speech, and your mind. I think you probably all know the story of Angulimala, famous and often told at Zen Center.

[11:23]

Angulimala means a thousand fingers. And he began life as a gentle yogi, but had an unfortunate prediction at his birth. And also he made some very bad choices and became a serial killer. And then one day he went after the Buddha. The Buddha was going to be his thousandth fainter. So he thought, once I finish making my necklace, then I will become enlightened, which is what his yoga teacher had told him in a fit of jealousy, thinking that Uncle Imala was flirting with his wife. So... Angulimala chases after the Buddha as fast as he can, but he doesn't seem to get any closer. The Buddha is just strolling along through the forest, and Angulimala is running and running and running, and finally he falls to the ground, exhausted, and yells out, Stop! Stop! The Buddha turns to him and says, You stop!

[12:26]

And with that, Angulimala began his ascetic practice. You stop! So subsequently, he ordained as a monk, he traveled with the Sangha, and then when he came to the village, the people stoned him to death, which was the karmic retribution for his former actions. And he just accepted it very peacefully because he understood why, what had brought this on, causes and conditions. So asceticism basically supports practitioners not to get carried away with their thoughts or their feelings or their perceptions. What the Dalai Lama calls pathological emotions. And there are basically three kinds of pathologies. There's the pathology of attachment, greed, you know, I've got to have that, of revulsion, hatred, I want that to go away, and of delusions.

[13:38]

I really don't know what I want. And the delusion is grounded in a misperception of reality, as are all three of these pathologies. So the basic delusion that we commonly believe is, as I've been saying, is our separation from others, that there is a self here and that there are things and persons out there And the things and persons out there are the cause of my problems. And seeing is believing. This is what we see and therefore what we believe, that we're separate. And as a result, it's been well documented that human behavior, based on this belief, has been filled with a lot of cruelty and violence. All you have to do is read the newspapers every day And it doesn't ever stop.

[14:39]

You stop. Please, please stop. So this self and other belief is also called the double barrier. And in order to become awakened, you have to break through the double barrier. You have to break through the belief in the self, and you have to break through the belief in the other. This word asceticism comes from a Greek word that referred to the athletes who were training for the Olympics. Basically, it's a strenuous form of exercise. And there are a number of other words similar to this that you're familiar with, English words. All of them referring to the kind of effort that we have to take in order to learn something, to really master a craft or an art. Ritual, the Duanzu training, the ritual of the Zen tradition.

[15:45]

Takes a while, you know, the drama, the bell. Same simple, but not so easy. John Cage was a well-trained musician and studied composition for many, many years with some of the best teachers. And so he knew what he was doing when he wrote this piece. You know, it says on the sheet music, It says part one, part two, part three. It says can be played by any instrument or combinations of instruments. So some of the other words that you know, like religion and yoga, both refer to to bind oneself or to commit oneself to whatever it is that you value, that you wish to train in. Discipline. means to learn or to train. And the word study originally meant to apply oneself with painstaking zeal.

[16:47]

So there's some effort here. Some work to do. And there are also extreme forms of asceticism that we're familiar with through the story of Shakyamuni Buddha, the things that he did to himself. starvation and living outdoors, not bathing, not cutting his nails or his hair, long periods of meditative trance, and so on, holding his breath, as I told you, until he got very bad headaches. As Sudhana, he had said, I am determined, I am determined. So he told Deepangara Buddha, I am determined to become a Buddha. So his asceticism was based on this determination to break through the double barrier, which was creating such a terrible estrangement for him from the world around him. An estrangement I think all of us are well and deeply familiar with until it's over, until that ordinary day when it ends.

[17:58]

And yet, because of these severe ascetic practices that Siddhartha undertook, he came to realize the middle way. Had he not gone to the extreme, he would not have understood that going that far is not the way. He had to prove it inside of his own body and mind. And that he realized that the pathway is between sensory deprivation, you know, asceticism, and indulgence. decadence on the other side. And it's because of this insight, his darsana, the middle way, is what he taught in the first sermon, as I've said in class. Avoid the extremes is the most beneficial path for the development of a truly mature adult human being. A being who in our tradition is someone who is waking up in each and every moment. So Kumara said, Yes, you drop.

[19:05]

You drop it. Drop it. Now do that a billion times. Here it comes. Drop. Here it comes. Drop. Over and over and over again. That's the way. No once and for all. This is work. It's our job. So when we awaken in each and every moment, then we awaken to a world that's full of mystery and marvels and wonder and a life of service to others who are no longer others, just finding ways to help. Self-receiving and self-employing samadhi, the true reality of all beings and of all things. And yet, asceticism remains a very important part of our Zen training program, as we all know. It's a lot of what we've been doing this week, ascetic practice, restraint, restraining the body, restraining the mind, restraining the voice, not speaking, not looking at one another.

[20:18]

But, you know, To what degree do we go and to what end? This is a really important question. Not just in Zen, but all religious traditions. How far do you have to go? And to where? Where are you going? I think if you don't know, it's maybe a real question. What are you doing? Ditsan asked Fayang, where are you going? Fayang said, around on pilgrimage. Ditsan said, what's the purpose of pilgrimage? Fayang said, I don't know. Ditsan said, not knowing is nearest. So for those who go too far, then there's Ananda on the other side.

[21:20]

Thank goodness. Ananda was Buddha's cousin and lifelong attendant. His name means joy or bliss. And he was characterized in the earliest teachings as very kind and very unselfish. He was quite popular. He was thoughtful toward others. He enjoyed playing with children and talking with women. And he's portrayed as a large-bodied, unlike Mahakashapa, who is thin as a rail. Ananda, for the most part, was a very happy man, which is also a perfect model for spiritually developed human being. The second pure precept, doing all good, doing all good. And yet Ananda also was famous for beseeching the Buddha to ordain women, his aunts and his sisters and his mother and his friends. which the Buddha finally agreed to do, although he imposed on women some restrictions that subjected them always to be subservient to males.

[22:33]

To this day, this is a huge controversy in the Buddhist tradition. And Ananda was severely criticized for bringing women into the Sangha by Mahakashapa, who became his teacher after the Buddha died. He also was criticized for a number of other things having to do with playfulness. So it's kind of interesting to me that the Zen tradition, which kind of indented itself in China during the Song Dynasty, chose Mahakashapa rather than Ananda as the first ancestor. Seems a little backwards. But actually, I think it's important that the sequence is that way. You know, that we do begin with avoiding evil, restraint. Because we have a lot of bad habits.

[23:37]

And the first pure precept is basically a way of, you know, ridding ourselves of these bad habits, of discovering selflessness. It's kind of like getting out, purging. All of that stuff, as many of you are noticing as you sit, all these bad old memories are coming back. I thought I was a good person, but oh my God, I've done some terrible things starting in, you know, third grade. And all of it just comes flooding as memories. So this is the first pure precept. Kind of cleaning house, cleaning out. Purifying. Purification. I said to people, I knew when I came to Tassajara for these three months it was going to be for purification. Yeah, I think that's true. That's how it's going for me. House cleaning. So, Ananda was criticized, as I said, and mostly because people said he didn't go far enough in renouncing pleasure.

[25:01]

And I've heard that said about Zen Center. You know, you guys just don't go far enough. You're kind of the upper middle way, right? And I thought, well, I won't deny that. We like our beans well cooked and so on. But I also think that, you know, and I say to people, Zen Center is not a person. So what are you thinking? Who are you talking about? And isn't it a precept not to praise oneself at the expense of others? Forgetting one's own horse. So, uh, I don't think Suzuki Roshi, I don't remember him ever criticizing students, one against the other, or their practice, or whether or not they'd gone far enough.

[26:02]

He mostly just supported everyone, a lot of affection, encouragement. So for me, these two, Mahakashapa representing asceticism and Ananda representing pleasure, are more like guardrails on the path, you know? And each one of them is kind of one of the extremes personified. And the path basically is bumping it up against these guardrails. We slide over to that side, then we slide back to this side, all the way down, you know? 10,000 mile iron road. And it's a process, it's not a thing. Practice isn't a thing. It's an action that we're doing and correcting and constantly learning from. In the Zen tradition, Mahakashapa's Dharma transmission from the Buddha is said to have occurred when the Buddha held up a white flower and twirled it and Mahakashapa smiled.

[27:06]

The rest of the students just sort of sat there, staring, not knowing how to react. Maka shot by this apparently very faint smile. It wasn't a big grin. It was just a faint smile. Being that kind of guy. And that was the beginning of Zen. The Dharma transmission. Dharma flower turns Dharma flower, which is the name of a fascicle. Dogen fascicle. Beautiful fascicle. Pema Chodron says, renunciation means to renounce that which doesn't work. So first pure precept is get out the old habit body. And second pure precept is to feel the joy that comes from selflessness, the realization of selflessness. It's empowering. You feel inspired to practice and to do your generous work. And the third precept, purifying the mind, allows you to transform your mind and your body into whatever is needed by others, like Kuan Yin.

[28:12]

I always thought Kuan Yin was like a time-lapse photograph of all the different actions we do in a day. You know, there's a broom and there's a spoon and there's a rake, a knife, phone call. All of these skills that we learn so that we can be of use in the world, inspired by our practice of the first and second, pure precepts. Avoid evil, do good, and purify the mind. It's regrettable, but it is our habit as human beings to try and capture joy. I mean, that's why we have to start with restraint. I mean, we really try to get it. It's the basic marketing ploy of our society, of the world. Buy it. Buy it now. Get it. It's yours. You can have it. It'll make you happy. So we try to grab it. We try to possess it and to own it and squeeze it.

[29:17]

And in that way, we lose touch with the transiency of life, of objects. We lose touch with seasons and hours and minutes, moments, moments of awakening while we're trying to gift wrap, take things home in our SUVs, load it to the gills. There's this great ad for Toyota years ago, just as fabulous as there's an SUV And then it's open in the back and there's a guy sitting, it's awesome, on the tailgate. And all around him are, you know, scuba gear and skis, tennis rackets, you name it, it's all around. And it says something like, you know, his name, Jeff. Jeff knows, sorry, Jeff. Jeff knows that in order to be one with everything, he has to have one of everything. Toyota. Also, look, Sam.

[30:34]

I can't get him on record. That's never... The cause of human suffering is this futile effort of the illusory self to capture illusory things. The pursuit of the transient by the transient. The kitten chasing its tail. It's kind of funny, except it's so painful. You know, it's just, it's so painful. Because we can't get it. I don't think it's funny to the kitten. We're laughing. Or kids, when they fall, we think it's so funny. They're so cute. It's not so funny to them. They're trying really hard, and then they fall. And we laugh. Have a bad start in life, you know. So basically, this... effort we make to get things that we cannot get is you know it's just kind of madness it's our insanity and i think we come to practice together in order to reveal to ourselves and to each other we expose ourselves so that we can see just how crazy we are how deeply it runs and how often it's it's so obvious especially in other people

[31:45]

So Suzuki Maharishi said if you practice together it's like putting these rough rocks in a tumbler and then they all knock each other's edges off. I think that feels about right. And I think it's a very courageous service that we offer to each other, you know, to do this. It really is. It's very kind of us to be patient with each other as we're trying to learn how to make our way safely, around each other, and with each other, help each other, work as a team. Such a beautiful thing when everyone puts the dining room back in order, quietly. One of the great things about Tassahara is that, putting the dining room back together. So, because none of us here at the Zen Center is lacking the capacity to fall into these psychological pathologies, you know, to be angry and lustful and hateful and deluded in any moment.

[32:56]

We're all like that. So we practice together in this way, close. My therapist used to say to me when I'd be in the throes of some kind of interpersonal conflict over the many years of communal life He'd say, human first. Human first. But I'm a priest. I'm a bodhisattva. Human first. I couldn't understand why I wasn't rid of all that stuff. Human first. And for that reason, I think we really do need to come and face our ancient conditioning. We're born into a body and a mind which are prone to anger and greed and fear and so on. And I think we've come here to see how we can, you know, learn our way out of these habit responses of self-defense and self-protection and the worst one of all, self-loathing.

[34:08]

To hate ourselves. It's just the worst. That's the one that kills our soul. Before we recognize There isn't one. For a while we have to suffer, suffer our self, our pain of being a self. So I don't think it would be surprising for all of you to know that the vast number of times that I've been in practice community meetings, there are really very few subjects that we talk about. There are things like Zendo attendance, and food allergies and new love affairs. Those are the kind of the big three. And then conflict, number four. That's kind of it, you know. Conflicts that arise within the Sangha and how to help people. Which is why it's so fortunate that we have these guidelines that are at the core of the Buddha's teaching called the precepts, 16 Buddha precepts.

[35:16]

Without those, I don't know what we'd make up. But we'd have to have something. So we're very lucky. We have these wonderfully distilled and articulated ways of understanding how to treat one another. Because really it's just one precept. Precept of self and other. I vow not to kill you. Not to steal from you. Not to lie to you. Not to sexualize you. It's my promise to... You. So just one precept. Me to you. You to me. Saving all beings. One at a time. I think the precepts are a way of learning the truth about our self and about our relationship to the world and to each other. Which is ultimately that there is no self and there is no other. Third pure precept.

[36:17]

Total freedom from ignorance. Ignorance of non-separation. So what the Buddha saw on the morning of his awakening was that he wasn't separate. He saw his own face in the star and in the leaves of the Bodhi tree. And then the young woman who was walking with a jug of water balanced perfectly on her head That was him. He smiled. Gentle. His face was gentle by his awareness of who he really was. I'm all that. I'm all this. And he said, I and all beings are awakened at the same time. I and all beings are awakened at the same time. Non-separation. All together.

[37:19]

He also said, the entire universe in the ten directions is the true human body. And he was very, very happy. And he knew that. And he was so happy, he almost didn't get up from under the tree. But, you know, it's to our good fortune that he changed his mind. Which is something we can do as well. change our minds. So tomorrow I'm going to talk about the ten grave precepts, beginning with the most important one of them all, the disciple of the Buddha does not lie. And thank you all again for your kind attention.

[38:08]

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