Samanta Bhadra Bodhisattva, who is right there, shining bodhisattva, and all of us. And I hope you'll see how we're all interconnected. So Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. lived from 1929 to 1968. He died in at the age of 39, and he would have been 85 years old if he had lived till today. And our former abbot, Myogen Steve Stuckey, died on December 31st at the age of 67, so that was just about two and a half weeks ago. Both Dr. King and abbot Steve brought to their words and actions what we could call bodhisattva energy, and in particular the qualities of a bodhisattva of being awake to the suffering of the world and responding to it with an open heart and appropriate action.

[01:19]

Both were committed to the idea of universal awakening, caring deeply about the wider society as well as the communities in which they lived and worked. So I'm particularly grateful to be giving this talk because Dr. Martin Luther King was an encouraging figure in my own life, as was Abbot Steve. And next week, Rosalie and I will be starting a practice period here with the theme of waking up in the midst of our lives, the bodhisattva way. So bodhisattvas are very much on my mind these days. And I see them as presences that are extremely supportive of the qualities of

[02:29]

that we may want to develop in ourselves, and we can learn quite a bit from their stories and endeavors. So just to tell you a little bit about the way in which my life was encouraged and maybe changed by the work of Dr. Martin Luther King. When I was... I'll back up this summer. was the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington in August. And 50 years ago, that summer, I was a college student just before my last year at UC Berkeley, and I joined a voter registration project in Greensboro, North Carolina, that was sponsored by the American Friends Service Committee. And we spent... two or three weeks in the basement of an African-American church, and we were a group of black and white college students, and we went out every day to register people to vote and had a chance.

[03:44]

For me, it was my first time being in the South and really seeing what segregation was like. That was the time when there were sit-ins at Woolworth at the lunch counter. which was segregated, and seeing bathrooms and water fountains that were segregated. And it was pretty eye-opening for me, having grown up in New York. And then at the end of that time, we all got on a bus at night under police escort because it was dangerous for a group of black and white students to be traveling together. And we went to the March on Washington, And I remember arriving there in the morning and seeing buses from so many different places arriving and people pouring out with excitement. It was a march for jobs and freedom, so there were a lot of people from labor unions as well as young students from freedom schools.

[04:59]

people old and young, and the area around the reflection pool between the Washington and the Lincoln Monuments was so full of people. And I remember the speech that Martin Luther King gave that day, the I Have a Dream speech, which has inspired many of us as well as hearing Joan Baez singing, We Shall Overcome. So after the march, I found some comments that Dr. Martin Luther King said, as television beamed the images of this extraordinary gathering across the border oceans, everyone who believed in man's capacity to better himself and herself. had a moment of inspiration and confidence in the human race. So it was that kind of uplifting event.

[06:03]

And it wasn't that alone, but many activities of the civil rights movement that really did make some deep changes in some of the laws of our country and some of the ways in which African Americans were able to participate more equally. although we still have a long way to go. So back to the idea of bodhisattvas. Bodhisattvas are beings who like Martin Luther King, and I'll say more about Abbot Steve later in some of the ways in which I see him as embodying the qualities of Samanta Bhadra, bodhisattva in particular. They support us. to be fully present in the world, to be awake and responsive. So there's a wonderful book by Tygen Leighton about bodhisattvas.

[07:09]

He originally called it Bodhisattva Archetypes and thinking of bodhisattvas as embodying qualities that are archetypal in the sense that They're core qualities that we can learn from and emulate. And thinking of bodhisattvas not just as figures from the past, he calls, and I'll say, some of those bodhisattvas may be familiar to you. Manjushri, is one bodhisattva of wisdom. Samantabhadra is the bodhisattva of great activity and shining presence. Kuan Yin, or Avalokitesvara, the bodhisattva of compassion. And Jizo, bodhisattva, who is known to be the protector of travelers, children, and parents.

[08:23]

So these bodhisattvas are not just mythical figures. They inform our lives, and not everybody in whom we might see qualities of bodhisattva activity necessarily knows that they're a bodhisattva. They may have no idea, but they may inspire others. act for the benefit of others, just as the classical bodhisattvas did. So Taigen's book then was reissued. It's called Faces of Compassion. And it has really helpful perspectives on each bodhisattva and how bodhisattvas can... inspire us and support us in our efforts to engage with some of the difficult situations in our lives and in the world around us.

[09:38]

So just a few words of Taigan's... A bodhisattva vows not to personally settle into the salvation of final Buddhahood until she or he can assist all beings throughout the vast reaches of time and space to fully realize this liberated experience. And the bodhisattva path is not restrictive or exclusive. It can help us find our personal path toward a meaningful, constructive lifestyle. Bodhisattvas are enlightening, radiant beings who exist in many forms and function in helpful ways right in the middle of the busyness of the world. As soon as we are struck with our own urge or intention to take on such a bodhisattva practice, we also are included in the ranks of bodhisattvas.

[10:44]

And he says we may acknowledge as bodhisattvas persons from all spiritual and cultural traditions. So each of the classical bodhisattvas, Manjushri, Samantabhadra, Kuan Yin, Jizo, are associated with a text and often a particular geographical place, and they're each depicted in statues or paintings or drawings, in a unique way. I'm going to focus on Samanta Bhadra today. Samanta Bhadra is often paired with Manjushri, the bodhisattva of wisdom, and sometimes on altars there's a statue of the Buddha, and on one side

[11:48]

Manjushri, who rides a lion, and Samanta Bhadra, who's mounted on an elephant. And Manjushri embodies the wisdom that comes from understanding that we're all interconnected and that... that that is the basis for our activity in the world. And Samanta Bhadra takes that understanding, that wisdom, into activity and brings a tremendous amount of energy into the activity of engaging with... beings who are suffering in the world.

[12:48]

The name Samantabhadra means universal virtue or worthy. And Samantabhadra is, you can see this, I hope you can see this Samantabhadra, there's a sense of repose, of ease, of stability, riding on this wonderful animal, the elephant, And perhaps many of us have... I don't know what your associations are with elephants, but mine are very positive. I remember when I was young hearing the story, Horton hatches an egg, which maybe you know. Anyone who doesn't know that story? Oh, good. I won't tell the whole story, but just a little bit. Horton was an elephant who... made the acquaintance of a bird named Maisie, who had an egg.

[13:51]

She had just laid an egg, but she wanted to go on vacation. So she asked Horton if he would sit on the egg for her. And he agreed, but he never found out how long her vacation was going to be. So he sat, and he sat, and he sat through... and he sat through snow, and what he said was, I meant what I said, and I said what I meant, and elephants faithful 100%. So I see that as a wonderful quality of elephants, and I have a friend who just... went to Thailand to spend two weeks with elephants and went to a place where elephants are taken care of and trained by... Their caregivers are called mahouts.

[14:56]

And not only are elephants faithful, but these mahouts make a lifetime commitment or a commitment to be with their elephant for the lifetime of the elephant. And that kind of one-to-one relationship is very... it's the entire focus of their lives. And I also learned from her that there are many elephants in Thailand, and I know there are in Africa as well, that are poached, that are wounded, that are killed, leaving their baby elephants behind. And there was an elephant hospital that my friend visited in which... The person who started it seems like another bodhisattva who just has devoted her life to taking care of these injured elephants. So, getting back to Samantabhadra.

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Samantabhadra is...

[16:05]

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