Today is a sort of special day. We're going to invite all the bodhisattvas and Buddhas of past, present, and future into this room. Some of them are here all the time anyhow, but we're going to be making a special invitation because we are going to have a bodhisattva initiation ceremony. What is a bodhisattva initiation ceremony? It's an opportunity for a person to step out of their narrow life into a bigger world. A world where there are Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. A world that existed before they were born and after they'll die. Big. A world which includes our own personal troubles and failings.

[01:23]

but includes much more than that too. Whenever there's a bodhisattva initiation, it's more than just the people who are taking the initiation, because it's all the connections that they have with other people. The world becomes bigger. So I thought I'd say a little bit about the ceremony. Now some of you may think that there's some people who are joining the club. But I'm reminded of what Crabtree Marks said. Any club that would have me, I wouldn't want to be part of. So we start off, we process in, and the initiates process in, and there's some bowing, and then an invitation.

[02:48]

We invite all the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas to come to witness, to be part of this big world, which we're which is there all the time, but we're creating it in an especially easy way to see it. After we invite them to come, we thank them and pay homage to them to make the connection stronger. And then we start with maybe the most important part. Repentance. Repentance of things we know that we did wrong. Repentance of things we don't know that we did wrong. Repentance of things we will do wrong in the future. And repentance of things that are long past.

[03:52]

All my ancient twisted karma from beginningless beginningless greed, hate, and delusion I now fully avow or cup to or acknowledge. I'll move it at a quick pace. because you're all going to come, aren't you, at 3 o'clock? After the repentance comes the refuges. The refuges are something that is true to all of the schools of Buddhism. There are many differences among the schools of Buddhism. Sometimes it's hard to see how they're the same, but they all have taken refuge.

[05:00]

Refuge is to flee, to flee again, or to return. Return to Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. It's a little bit like when we do Zazen and you're lost in thought, you return to your breath. When you're lost in the maze of your life, return to Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. return is a little bit also like in Zazen we'd say take the backward step that turns your light inward. Taking refuge is a little bit like that. Returning to what you feel best about, what you're clearest about, or what can help you.

[06:02]

Actually, before that, I think we'd give the names and robes. You'd get something first. And you're given a new name. And there are different ways in which the names are given, but sometimes the first two names are the good qualities you have now, and the second two names are the qualities that you could grow into. you're given a robe, a miniature one of this, the same pattern except it's in a square. Many of you have them already. It's a physical connection to that day, to your teacher, and to the teachings that are specific to you. I think we take the pure precepts.

[07:33]

Pure precepts are avoid evil, do good, and don't get caught up in the morality of good and bad. Or sometimes it says avoid evil, do good, and help people. Helping people isn't a matter of doing good or bad. All of these teachings are ways to help you step out of your narrow life into the bigger stream which you're part of. Acknowledging your faults allows you to move on. If you don't acknowledge your faults, you can't move on from them. You're stuck with them. And saying, oh, I acknowledge that I can move on, that's not it either. And the refugees are something there.

[08:59]

When you're stumped, or confused, you can go back to the refuges, go back to the empty space, which you can trust. Go back to that which you can trust. Buddhism has three baskets. That's a different teaching. There are three, there's the Buddha, or the teacher, or the embodiment of the teachings. There's the Dharma, which is the teachings themselves. And there's the Sangha, the community which practices the teachings with the teacher. the pure precepts the pure precepts are giving you the big sky of practice if you had to say it in just a few words you could say don't do that do that and help people that's often hard to know what to do how to help people and sometimes the people we have to help are ourselves

[10:34]

sometimes we call them prohibitory precepts. Sounds off-putting, prohibitory. But there are guidelines about things that maybe you're going off in these areas. We have ten, but it's pretty arbitrary. If you're like me, there could be hundreds of them. but 10 is a nice number. And all the prohibitory precepts are about getting caught in your own system, not opening up to the wider world, not seeing your connection to the past, present, and future. Buddha actually didn't come up with the prohibitory precepts right away.

[11:49]

In the community, questions would come up and people would say, hey Buddha, we've got to figure this out. So and so did such and such. What should we do? And out of hundreds of little rulings like that, general precepts were gathered together. Then we get lineage papers. Lineage papers are concrete pictures or words that connect us to the past and which will connect us to the future as we pass them on. This connectedness with all beings is wonderful.

[12:57]

The problem of our life is that we're in little isolated boxes and we don't see how we're part of connected to everyone. Connected to everyone that's going to come in the future. brought this here, I may as well look at it. Also part of the ceremony is the people who are taking the precepts say, yes, I will.

[14:24]

They say, yes, I will probably at least 12 times. That's pretty good, isn't it? The most important part of the ceremony is, yes, I will. This ceremony is not some fanciful idea. It's yes, I will. Yes, I will take refuge in Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. Yes, I will take the pure precepts. Yes, I will be guided by the prohibitory precepts. Yes, I will repent and continue to repent. Yes, I will. These precepts are also called vows.

[15:57]

A vow is the active ingredient in you as a person. You as a person may change, but your vow can be a through line, keep you on track. What's the name of that, your car has it, that keeps you on the map of where you're going? GPS. Yes. This is a global positioning system. And you know, sometimes the global, anyhow, sometimes it's wrong. And sometimes our understanding of the teachings are wrong.

[17:05]

But if we go back to them and study them, we'll find out where we went off the track. Or there was a new road built since it was last updated. So, Zen Center is a global positioning system. The ceremony is that. In the fifth century, the Visuddhimaga, the path of purification, Buddhaghosa says, The inner tangle and the outer tangle. This world is in a tangle. Who can untangle the tangle? So these are our tools to untangle the tangle.

[18:16]

The internal tangle and the external tangle. And we have two more people who have taken these vows today. And you can do it too. Probably the first time you go to a ceremony, you get a taste of what it's like. So that then you too will sew your robe and take these vows in public and say, yes, I will. Say, yes, I will. What was that? One more time. Great. There is nothing more to be said.

[19:09]

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