This podcast is offered by the San Francisco Zen Center on the web at www.sfzc.org. Our public programs are made possible by donations from people like you. Morning. I'm sorry to start with some very sad news, but maybe some of you know. The number of missing people right now from this fire is 630. And about 63 are confirmed to have perished. So why don't we just maybe sit for a minute and hope they show up safe and think about their families and what a terrible, terrible loss this is for so many people. So what I'm planning to talk about these four days is the teachers of the Mahayana.

[02:23]

Today I'm going to talk a little bit more about the sutras themselves, the Prajnaparamita, but really the sutras are nothing if no one reads them. We have a whole library back here of books that over time will simply yellow. You know, many have already. So it's the people who find inspiration in these teachings and then, you know, as students become teachers and are able to express in very unique ways how this teaching has inspired them, brought them freedom, relief from suffering, and how they then make some great effort to share that with other people. You know, that motive to end suffering. So... There are many memorable sayings, sermons and koans and catchy phrases like vast emptiness, nothing holy coming out of the emptiness teachings.

[03:29]

So today, as I said, I'll talk about the sutras and then tomorrow about the arrival of Bodhidharma, the red-bearded, blue-eyed barbarian who came to China from India. from the west. And then the next day, I'm going to talk about Huinong, the sixth ancestor who follows from Bodhidharma. And from him, there are these two very vibrant lines. There are many vibrant lines, but the two that we know best are those that pass through Linji, in Japanese Rinzai, and the line that pass through Dongshan, in Japanese Tozan, and his disciple Sozan, so So and To. Call forth as much as you can of love, of respect, and of faith. Remove the obstructing defilements and clear away all your taints.

[04:33]

Listen to the perfect wisdom of the gentle Buddhas, taught for the well-being of the world, for heroic spirits intended. This is the admonition at the beginning of the 8,000-line Perfection of Wisdom Sutra. And as you may recall, at the last lecture of the last Sashin, last day of Sashin, I ended with a joke, which, as I said, I think is relevant to what happened next in Buddhist history. How do I get this man off my feet? So getting the man off of the... Penquin's feet, which in this case is the old wisdom tradition of the Abhidharma, came as a great shock to the Buddhist world of the day, a shock that is still going on, not only among Buddhists of that time, but also among many of us as well, when we encounter these teachings about what is and isn't so, such as our eyes and ears and nose and tongue and mind.

[05:42]

What is real? It does seem that letting go of a belief or a truth that we've been nursing for a long time, like our whole life, will either feel really good, like a great relief, or it will feel like a dreadful loss and maybe even a betrayal. So in the Lotus Sutra, there's a mention of a large number of accomplished practitioners who walk out on the Buddha and as he began to explain this new way of understanding not only his teaching, but reality itself, at which time the earth shook in ten ways. So this story appears in the chapter of the Lotus Sutra called tactfulness or skillful means, and upaya is the word in Sanskrit. So Shariputra is pleading with the teacher to explain this new law, even though the Buddha has just told the assembly that it is very difficult to understand.

[06:48]

Enough, Shariputra. There is no need to say more. Wherefore? Because the law which the Buddha has perfected is the chief unprecedented law. Only a Buddha, together with a Buddha, can fathom the reality of all existence. The very famous line. Only a Buddha, together with a Buddha, can fathom the reality of all existence. In other words, it takes two. You cannot do it by yourself. So this is one of the earliest inklings of face-to-face transmission, which some centuries later, in the Song of the Jewel Mirror Samadhi, is poetically referred to as arrow points meeting in mid-air. And as we can well imagine, having nothing whatsoever to do with the power of skill. How could you make that happen? Certainly not by yourself. So there's also the more celebratory expression from this same poem about the wooden man beginning to sing and the stone woman getting up to dance, you know, form and image beholding each other.

[08:03]

You are not it. In truth, she is you. But where is she? Where is he? What is it that thus comes? This teaching of only a Buddha and a Buddha brings to my mind one of the most intimate and delicate aspects of our practicing here together in this valley, and that is those very exquisite and tender moments when we make contact with one another face to face or side by side or sound into ear. So whether we're on the path or we're in the zendo or whether we're in practice discussion or doksan or simply sitting together on the bridge and chatting, all of us are repeatedly inviting and being invited by one another to make a connection, to awaken together and to meet head on.

[09:07]

I think the most... delicate moment of them all is that exact point in our formal gesture of bowing, as the tanto mentioned the other day, when we literally send our life force out through our fingertips and across that amazing chasm toward that improbable possibility of meeting. two arrows, two pointed arrows in flight. So regardless of our power of skill, that mystical moment is being brought to light throughout each and every day. Will it be a hit or will it be a miss? Can we allow ourselves to pause at that precise spot where the two worlds are literally conjoined, where we are co-creating one another? Do we dare to feel what happens in those moments?

[10:09]

Could it be love? Or hate? Or fear? Or nothing at all? I don't feel anything at all. Whatever it is, it is the totality of our life. Moment after moment. I heard this really great story, which I think now should be legendary if it's not, about Kobanchino Roshi, who was a skilled archer in the Japanese Kyudo tradition. This story took place at Esalen, where he'd been invited to give a demonstration. So this small target had been set up, as is the case with Kyudo. It's not very far away from the archer. They're all dressed in this beautiful clothing with a very long bow. And the real skill in Kyoto, as in all the Japanese arts, is actually the form itself. How. How you hold the ball.

[11:12]

How you stand. It's quite beautiful. So Coleman, anyway, seemed to intentionally let the arrow fly way past the target and out into the ocean. And when someone asked him later why he had done that, he said, can't miss. ocean of enlightenment. Can't miss. So this is also true of face-to-face transmission. You can't miss. As Dogen says, it is immediate realization manifested without ceasing even for a moment. Each moment face-to-face is all there truly is. Just like right now. I see a lot of faces out there. And even so, we can fail to notice the arrows meeting in mid-air. I think maybe because such moments are so common.

[12:14]

We're so used to it. We humans often prefer uncommon things and exotic realizations, you know, like something they might serve up on a silver tray in the Bahamas. Or so I hear. So Sariputra begins again. And then a third time, please, Lord Buddha, the sons born of the Buddha's mouth with folded hands wait expectantly. Be pleased to send forth the mystic sound and now proclaim the truth as it truly is. And still the Buddha replies, enough, enough. It's like a little kid shaking off your leg. There is no need to say any more. If I explained this matter, All the worlds of gods and men to say nothing of women would be startled and perplexed, and the haughty monks who think they have already obtained the perfect law would not believe it respectfully and might fall into a great pit.

[13:20]

But then finally the Buddha relents, saying, Since you have already asked me three times earnestly, how can I refuse to speak? So please listen attentively to ponder and remember it, and I will discriminate and explain it for you. When the Buddha had thus spoken in the assembly, some 5,000 monks, nuns, laymen and laywomen, straightaway rose from their seats and saluting the Buddha withdrew. Wherefore? Because the root of unwholesome thinking in these beings was so deep that and their haughty, arrogant spirit so enlarged that they imagined they had attained what they had not attained, and had proved what they had not proved. In such error as this, they would not stay, and the world-honored one was silent and did not stop them. But there were others of the arhats who did stay to listen to what the Buddha then said about emptiness.

[14:28]

And although the reactions varied, a few of them were so shocked at what they heard, according to the sutra, they had heart attacks and died on the spot. So be careful. This endeavor by the Buddha to liberate human beings from the weight of their own beliefs and opinions has been going on since the very founding of the Sangha. And that is because clinging to views is listed as one of the most pernicious forms of attachment. Clinging to views is listed as one of the most pernicious forms of attachment. And then, of course, nobody likes having their toys taken away. I'm sorry, but your toys are empty of inherent existence. In fact, they're not even toys at all. And so it was when this shocking new Mahayana literature, Prajnaparamita, appeared in India in written form around the first century before the Common Era.

[15:36]

And as I've said in class, these sutras even dared to claim themselves the word of the Buddha, Buddhavakana, by beginning with the stock phrase that opens the sutra, Thus have I heard, meaning that this is Ananda speaking and recounting what he has heard the Buddha say, this kind of verification of its authenticity. thus have I heard. So this claim, as you may recall, was grounded by its proponents in the teaching from the Pali Canon that was given by the Buddha just before his death, when he said, whatever is well-spoken and leads to enlightenment is the teaching of the Buddha, which is one of the good reasons, I think, that this tradition has been able to continue to open itself, you know, albeit maybe too slowly for... many of us, but it has opened to innovation, to creativity, to music, and to art, to women, to white people, to people of color, and even to lovers, of all things.

[16:38]

All to the sound of one hand clapping, vast emptiness, nothing holy, you know, if we can stand it. As much as this new literature was concerned with declaring the supremacy of the Buddha and his enlightened view of things, its primary advocacy was of the bodhisattva path, for all who considered themselves to be true practitioners of the Buddha way, meaning the one and only way is to Buddhahood. Right straight on, as the old tea lady said, right straight on. The promotion of the Bodhisattva path, as opposed to the Arhat path, is based on that well-known story in the Pali canon that I've told you a few times, the one about the ascetic named Sumedha, the one for whom our five-point bow is done each morning in service, our knees, our arms, and our forehead. Sumedha had met the Buddha Deepakara and could have become his disciple, an Arhat,

[17:48]

thereby entering extinction at the death of his physical body. The final extinction called Nirvana, blown out. That would have been the end, not only of his story, but of our story as well. Only a Buddha and a Buddha can fathom the reality of all existence. You know, somebody needs to stick around. And that's what Sumedha did. By practicing the perfection of wisdom, And in doing so, many, many lifetimes and many eons later, he became the Samyaksambuddha Shakyamuni. Sumedha's decision not to enter into final extinction was inspired by compassion and by the ideal of the bodhisattva path, which is to awaken oneself in order to lead others to awakening, you know, lots of others, like a mass migration. One characteristic of the Mahayana, or the Great Vehicle, as this new tradition called itself, was its view that awakening of the Arhats was so far below attainment of Buddhahood as to not even be worthy as a spiritual goal.

[19:01]

They, the Arhats, make up their minds that one single self we shall tame. One single self we shall lead to nirvana. A bodhisattva should certainly not in such a way train herself on the contrary. She should train herself thus. My own self I will place in suchness, the true way of things, non-separation. And in so doing, all the world might be helped. I will place all beings into suchness, and I will lead to nirvana the whole immeasurable world of beings. like a great chorus line out the door altogether, right? Truly leaving no child behind. So these words are from the 8,000 line, Perfection of Wisdom Sutra. And they're certainly familiar to us as accolades of the Bodhisattva vow. The beings are numberless.

[20:04]

I vow to say them. We say this over and over again. And yet, Included in this newly inspired vision was an awareness that most practitioners, if not all, and I will speak for myself, don't start out by wishing freedom for everyone ahead of themselves. It's not quite normal. Me first. Arousing of the thought of enlightenment for the benefit of others may take some time, but that's okay because somewhere along the way we will invariably come to realize that everyone's suffering, is no different than our own. That there is no separate self that can go ahead and leave everyone else behind. It's just against the law. Can't do that. Hoping for the welfare of the world, the Bodhisattva thinks to himself, let me undertake religious practice that I may bring welfare and happiness to all beings.

[21:07]

And he sees the aggregates, the skandhas, as like a magic show. but does not wish to disown the aggregates. He sees the senses, the datus, as like a poisonous serpent, but does not wish to disown the senses. She sees sensory awareness, the ayatanas, as like an empty village, but she does not wish to disown sensory awareness. So once the Buddha had introduced these perfection of wisdom teachings, his disciples began to train themselves through mastery of the Mahayana vision, in order that they too might come to see the world through the enlightened eyes of a Buddha, the Shobo Genzo, treasury of the true Dharma eyes. So here's another version of how a Buddha sees the world. No wisdom can we get hold of, no highest perfection, no bodhisattva, no thought of enlightenment either.

[22:08]

When told of this, If not bewildered and in no way anxious, a bodhisattva courses in the Buddha's wisdom. And yet, if when this is pointed out, a bodhisattva's heart does not become cowed nor stalled, does not despair nor despond, if they do not turn away or become dejected, do not tremble, are not frightened or terrified, it is just this bodhisattva, this great being, who should be instructed in perfect wisdom. In form, in feeling, perception, impulse, and consciousness, nowhere in them do they find a place to rest. Without a home, they wander. Dharmas, small d, never hold them. Nor do they grasp at dharmas. In the Buddha's enlightenment, they are bound to gain. So from this point on, with the transmission of the perfection of wisdom, we are in the realm of the emptiness teachings.

[23:10]

which by their very design are continuously pulling the conceptual rugs out from under us. How the monastic institutions and practices of meditation continued with nothing whatsoever to hold onto is perhaps the greatest of all the Mahayana miracles. Why is anyone here? What did you come for? There is nothing to get. You don't believe it, do you? Not me either. As Professor Robert Scharf from UC Berkeley told us when he visited Gringold, the ultimate truth is that there is simply no such thing as ultimate reality to which the ultimate truth can apply. And the sooner we let go of that kind of thinking, the greater our understanding will be. No ultimate truth. The Mahayana teachings, as we engage with them, are basically a big disillusionment machine. They're dissing illusions.

[24:12]

No illusions. And as our thought bubbles float by in the stream of consciousness, the teaching of emptiness just keeps popping them one after the other. No. [...] The Heart Attack Sutra. Here's another really significant example from the 8,000-line Perfection of Wisdom in which Subhuti, the foremost of the wise, is speaking to the gods. Even nirvana, I say, is like a magical illusion, is like a dream. How much so? Anything else. To which the gods respond in shock. Even nirvana, venerable Sabuti, you say, is like an illusion, is like a dream? Yes, Sabuti replies. Even if perchance there could be anything more distinguished than nirvana, of that too, I say, it is like an illusion, it is like a dream. Just this is... is it. I think maybe it's something about the truth itself that continues to fill the Mahayana temples with earnest seekers.

[25:32]

The truth about our human imagination and its very real power to create either a world of joy and beauty and safety and freedom, or a veritable hell right here on earth. Not only for ourselves, of course, but for one another as well. But either way, we, as the magicians, the real masters of the illusion, are consigned to live inside our own creations, to plight our troth. According to Nagarjuna, the teaching of emptiness itself is not a true doctrine or even a view, but it's just a therapeutic device like the pushpin for popping bubbles, for abandoning all views. And then once, if ever, one arrives at that level of truth, there is nothing to speak of at all.

[26:33]

Thunderous silence. And yet, Out of the depth of silence and stillness, there arose an ascetic named Sumedha, whose deep wish to benefit others became his own and now our own compassionate vow. And so he stayed, and so he talked. Given that the Mahayana sought to return to the source of the tradition, to a faithful enactment of the Buddha himself, there is also, by his example, the imperative for his disciples to teach. As the saying goes, when the student is ready, the teacher appears, right there on the very same spot. If we go back just for a moment to the beginning of the Buddha's own ministry, the sequence of his teaching career goes like this, starting at the moment of his enlightenment.

[27:39]

I have found a nectar like Dharma, profound, peaceful, free from reference points, thank you, Heather, luminous and unconditioned. Whoever I would teach it could not understand it. Thus, I shall just stay silent in the middle of the forest. Well, that didn't happen because the gods, as they say in Japanese, okage-sama-de, okage-sama-de, thanks to the gods, whoever they are, beseeched him to go out from the forest and to teach, which is pretty much all that he did for the next 45 years. He talked. He walked and he talked. And although he had said that his realization was inconceivable, he did not say that it was inaccessible. And therefore, he taught to his disciples a pathway made from words leading to the true nature of their minds, profound, peaceful, free from reference points, luminous,

[28:41]

and unconditioned. From our point of view, here at the far end of the Mahayana revolution, this pathway has three distinct phases, the three turnings that we've been talking about during this practice period. The first phase, as you now know, he talked about our human condition, suffering its cause and cure, as if suffering its cause and cure were real. And then after a time, when his large following of students had settled into themselves and were more or less secure, he walked with them to the top of Vulture Peak, near Rajagraha, where for a second time he turned the wheel of the Dharma. This turning is called the Wheel of No Characteristics, Maha Prajnaparamita, which exposed... his well-seasoned disciples to the experience of the mind's inconceivable and infinite display. Where there is nothing to pinpoint and nothing to hold on to, no reference points, all of the magical bubbles popped at once.

[29:49]

And he taught the monks a new way to view compassion as well, based on the true reality of our existence, namely that our suffering is an error in our thinking. Attempting to correct that error was the reason for him speaking at all. When the Buddha taught the second cycle of the teaching, there was a huge audience in attendance, thousands of monks and thousands of bodhisattvas, as well as innumerable mythical creatures and celestial beings, or so it says in the opening chapter of the Lotus Sutra, the most influential of all the Mahayana texts. Thus have I heard. Once the Buddha was staying at the city of royal palaces on Mount Garakuta, with a great assemblage of great bhikshus, 12,000 in all. All of them arhats, faultless, free from earthly care, self-developed, emancipated from all bonds of existence, and in mind, great arhats, well known to everybody.

[30:57]

In addition, there were 2,000 monks under training, and 2,000 no longer under training. There was the Bhikshuni Mahaprajapati with 6,000 followers. The Bhikshuni Yosodhara, the mother of Rahula, also with her train of 6,000 followers. 80,000 Bodhisattva Mahasattvas, all free from backsliding in regard to perfect enlightenment with names such as Bodhisattva Never Stopping, Great Power Attained, Regarder of the Cries of the World, precious palm of the hand, bold alms giver, precious moon, moonlight, full moon, and infinite power. And so on it goes, list after list. In addition, there were Brahmins, sons of gods, dragon kings, Kanara kings, Gandharava kings, Asura kings, Garuda kings, human kings, and non-human beings, each with some 100,000 followers, who each...

[32:00]

having worshipped at the Buddha's feet, retired and sat to one side, and with joy and folded hands, and with one mind, looked up to the Buddha. It would be great to try to film that one. Well, we can imagine it, right? That's what this is all about. Do you see what you can do? How many hundred thousands need to come up with? It just keeps growing. like Vimalakirti's room. There's an infinite amount of space in there, in the human imagination. Then the Buddha sent forth from the circle of white hair between his eyebrows a ray of light which illuminated 18,000 worlds in the eastern quarter so that there was nowhere it did not reach, downward to the lowest hell and upward to the highest heaven, at which time the Bodhisattva Maitreya wonders out loud, what is the reason for this auspicious sign?

[33:04]

And who should I ask? Because the Buddha himself at that time was in a deep state of concentration, called the station of innumerable meanings, so he wasn't talking. Maitreya asks Manjushri, the Bodhisattva of Wisdom, who after many additional elaborations, says to the assembly, having seen a previous Buddha, Sun moonlight also emits such an auspicious ray, I therefore know that the present Buddha desires to preach the Lotus Sutra to help reveal the truth of reality. Fold your hands and with all your mind, await. So it's probably a spoiler to tell you that even though the Lotus Sutra is full of wonderful teachings and parables and moral lessons, What the Buddha does not actually do is preach the Lotus Sutra. Although many have looked for it, and as far as I know, no Lotus Sutra has ever been found in the Lotus Sutra.

[34:11]

Which, as scholars point out with warm-hearted smiles, is the very heart truth of the second turning teachings. All things are empty of inherent existence, including the Buddha's teaching itself. You'll never find it. So it's by these very methods or skillful means that the Blessed One helps us humans to enter and realize that there never was anything to understand in the first place. Just mind bubbles popping in the stream of our conscious awareness and thereby at last coming to rest, froth and all. however quite unsure that his students were ready to practice faithfully in accordance with this new vision of reality. The Buddha gave the Prajnaparamita teachings to a great Naga king, sometimes depicted as a serpent and sometimes as a dragon, who guarded the texts under the sea until they could be recovered and conferred, as the Buddha himself predicted, upon Nagarjuna, the second century Buddha of our common era.

[35:22]

And with that, the second wheel of the Dharma was set to spin. Thank you all for your kind attention. 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, visit sfcc.org and click Giving.

[35:52]

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