This podcast is offered by San Francisco Zen Center on the web at sfcc.org. Our public programs are made possible by donations from people like you. Can you hear me? Yes, you can get me. I just want to take a look around, see who's here. Well, welcome everybody. Is anybody here for the first time? Okay. Okay. A few of you. Great. Welcome. So, I hope that for those of you who are new, you'll hear something in my talk that will be useful or interesting or even faintly amusing. If you don't, please remember that what I'm saying is just sort of my take on things. Hi, Keith. And... you should come back and hear somebody else talk, because they might say something else that you'll respond to more.

[01:05]

So as we were waiting upstairs for the bells, Cynthia said, you're not nervous, are you? I said, hell yes. And looking out, I'm even more nervous now, but it will go away eventually. So anyhow, I see a lot of faces that I don't know, so I thought I should just introduce myself. My name is Jeffrey Schneider. And Rosalie, who is the head of practice, is sitting over there and is one of the co-leaders of the practice period, invited me to speak today, specifically on the bodhisattva vow and its sort of ramifications and how we express it in our lives together. So I'm going to do my best, and we'll see where that takes us. Thank you. So for those of you who are new, when I say bodhisattva, you may not have any idea of what I'm talking about or only the very faintest idea. So I'll give just a tad bit of background. So the word bodhisattva is a compound word, as Humpty Dumpty would have it, a portmanteau word.

[02:18]

And it's comprised of two other words, bodhi, which is cognate with Buddha, and it means something like awakening or enlightenment, and sattva, which means being, like human being. So awakening or awakening being, something like that. And, you know, so the bodhisattva is one who has taken the vow to become awakened for the sake of all beings. And sometimes I think there's a misunderstanding of what the word means. I've heard people say, well, it means that I'm going to put off my enlightenment until everybody else is enlightened. Well, that wouldn't really do anybody any very much good, would it? The bodhisattva actually is one who vows to become enlightened as quickly as possible, but for the benefit not only of him or herself, but for all beings. So there's a difference there. And the idea... So the bodhisattva is not one who...

[03:23]

forsakes enlightenment, but the one who forsakes final nirvana for him or herself and remains in the world of suffering for the sake of all beings. There's a little bit of a difference. So the idea of the bodhisattva, although it is mentioned by the Buddha, when he speaks of himself, when I was merely an unenlightened bodhisattva, and you can find that in the Pali, the idea came to the fore as a Buddhistic vocation with the rise of the so-called Mahayana, the great vehicle, which they named themselves. And the idea of the Bodhisattva, this whole Mahayana strain in Buddhism, arose perhaps about a hundred years or so before the common era thereabouts. And you know, It wasn't as definite as something like the Protestant Reformation, where it can be traced to an historical moment and to an historical person, and it went on from there.

[04:32]

But rather, the idea sort of blossomed in various places. And scholarly opinion, at least this week, holds that it was essentially a monastic reformation, where people, some monks in various places, felt that the... that Buddhist monasticism had become too dry, too inward, and too scholastic. So the idea then was that, you know, why settle for the lesser path when I can dedicate myself to full Buddhahood? And, you know, that's actually quite a challenge because, you know, as far as we know, The Buddha, at least in the early scriptures, which are the earliest ones we have that are in the Pali, never mentions the idea of Buddhahood as a goal for his followers. He doesn't bring this up. He doesn't say you should all become Buddhas. He gives them the way to become arhats, to become awakened beings who have dropped greed, hatred, and delusion entirely.

[05:40]

he doesn't suggest that they become omniscient Buddhas. So this is actually rather a later historical event, this whole idea of the Bodhisattva. One could argue, and I believe, that it's sort of inherent in the idea of Buddhahood and Buddhism itself. But the original idea was released from the cycle of ongoing birth and death. And some people, particularly people in... following various Mahayana paths, I've heard say, well, this is a very selfish idea. Here I am, I'm a bodhisattva, damn it, and I'm going to stay in samsara for a gazillion kalpas, cycles of the universe, and these guys over there, they just want their own salvation. Well, maybe not. I mean, first of all, you can say you're going to stay in the realm of samsara for a gazillion kalpas, but what does that mean today? And What does that mean today? Historically, the lesser vehicle, the Mahayana, or more politely, Theravada, monastic communities have been very deeply involved in their local communities.

[06:51]

Schools, orphanages, hostels. The idea that one is a selfish idea and one is an unselfish idea doesn't really bear water when you get to the bottom line. What's really important, I think, is how we live our lives today. So, yeah. So, you know, those of us who practice Zen and in other forms of modern Buddhist Mahayana practice often talk about the Bodhisattva ideal, but I'd like to go back a little bit to some of the source materials and talk about what it really looked like or what it looked like at some point in history. So in one of the early writings, on Buddhahood, the path to Buddhahood, excuse me, there are ten stages for the Bodhisattva. So this is a description of the first stage Bodhisattva. After arising from meditation, he can, in just one instant, see a hundred Buddhas, receive the blessings of a hundred Buddhas, go to a hundred Buddha lands, illuminate a hundred lands, vibrate a hundred worldly realms, live for a hundred aeons.

[08:06]

See with true wisdom the past and future for a hundred aeons. Enter into and arise from a hundred meditative stabilizations. Open a hundred different doors of doctrine, ripen a hundred sentient beings. Emanate a hundred of his own body and cause each of the hundred bodies to be surrounded by a hundred bodhisattvas. That's stage one. And in the classical definition of the path of the Bodhisattva, it takes three kalpas to become a Buddha. So a kalpa is from the beginning to the end of a universal cycle. So think from the big bang to the big crunch, if there is such a thing. Three of those. That's a lot of lives. So it was a rather different idea of what... those of us who are mostly somewhat secular Westerners have in mind when we talk about the Bodhisattva ideal. I have another one to read for you.

[09:08]

This is from the book called The Way of the Bodhisattva, which is the book that is being used in the practice period. It's by a fellow named Shantideva, who lived around the 8th century of the Common Era. And for those of you who haven't read this book, I highly recommend it. If nothing else, it's Just incredibly beautiful. But this is what he has to say about the Bodhisattva Path, or one of the things. He says a lot. It's a big book. He says, this is his vow. For all those ailing in the world, until their every sickness has been healed, may I myself become for them the doctor, nurse, the medicine itself. Raining down a flood of food and drink, may I dispel the ills of thirst and famine. and in the ages marked by scarcity and want, may I myself appear as drink and sustenance. For sentient beings, poor and destitute, may I become a treasure ever plentiful, and lie before them closely in their reach, a varied source of all they might need.

[10:16]

My body thus, and all my goods besides, and all my merits gained and to be gained, I give them all away, withholding nothing, to bring about the benefit of beings. Nirvana is attained by giving all. Nirvana is the objective of my striving. Everything before must be abandoned, and it is best to give it all to others. This body I have given up to serve the pleasure of all living beings. Let them kill and beat and slander it, and do to it whatever they desire. And though they treat it like a toy and make it the butt of every mockery, my body has been given up to them. There's no use now to make so much of it. and let beings do to me whatever does not bring them injury. Whenever they catch sight of me, let this not fail to bring the benefit. So I think that if somebody told you that this was their goal, at least you would think they were codependent and probably urged them into therapy as quickly as possible, right?

[11:19]

So the understanding of the radical... renunciation of the Bodhisattva was quite different at one point. So I think it's a misunderstanding, perhaps a grave one, to think that to see Buddhism, as I think we tend in the West to do, is some sort of self-improvement schema or therapy, because it's not. It's the deconstruction of the self and the ideas that we have about ourself and the world. Radical and The Buddha said, my way goes against the way of the world. And so maybe the purpose of Buddhism then is to make us radically unsuccessful. It's not going to help you succeed in business. It's not going to improve your tennis game. And it probably won't do a great deal to cure your neuroses.

[12:23]

Sorry. My favorite formulation of the Bodhisattva vow goes like this. I vow to live and be lived for the benefit of all beings. That's a big deal, right? I vow to live and be lived for the benefit of all beings. Wow. So, why on earth would anybody want to do that? No reason. No really good reason. Actually, I need a volunteer from the audience. Can I see a hand, please? You, sir. You're up front where everybody can see you. Will you stand up, please? What's your name? Cody. Cody? Cody. Hi, Cody. Could you turn all the way around? Keep going. Keep going. Keep going. Thank you. You can sit down now. Is that okay? No. Is it clip? Oh, okay. It may be too late. Okay. So...

[13:26]

How about this? Does that work? Okay. That was not planned as comic relief. It just happened. So anyhow, what Cody has just done is, if he was paying attention, prove to himself that he is the exact center of the universe. And I invite any of you to try that. Not now, but when we come out of this room. Because that's how we're born, right? We're born seeing ourselves as the center of the universe because we just proved it. There's this great line in St. Augustine where he says something like, it is the weakness of its limbs rather than the strength of the will that renders the infant innocent. And he talks about seeing one infant go into rage of jealousy when another one was put to the breast. So I think we're not actually, most of us at least, I've known a few people who seem to be, but most of us are not necessarily born with a great deal of natural altruism.

[14:43]

So once again, given that this is apparently the fact, why on earth would anybody undertake such a vow? So I'd like to go back to the Buddha and the historical Buddha. So he was, we think of him, I think of him as a great religious genius. And I think one of the great Hallmarks of his genius was his imagination and his empathic ability to imagine himself in states that he was not directly experiencing. It's said that he left home as a young man, relatively young man, but he saw that his youth was going to be fleeting, that he would get old. He saw that he would ultimately die. He saw that his health, vigorous as a young man, would ultimately decline. And he was able to project himself into those states by looking at the people around him, by seeing the people who already were aging or ill or are dead.

[15:53]

And I think that's amazing. And that's why he began with his teaching with the first noble truth. The first noble truth, for those of you who are not familiar with it, is that all of our experience is involved in suffering. So that doesn't mean that everything's like a poke in the eye with a sharp stick. But it means that all of our experience, good, bad, or indifferent, is impermanent. So the good stuff that we want to hold on to, that we hope will give us everlasting satisfaction, ain't going to work. It's going to go away. And even if it did hang around, it would eventually get old. So all of our, perhaps suffering is not the right word, disappointment, perhaps? Nothing lasts. Nothing lasts. And so once you get a glimpse of this, I think you can't really go back. Once you have a firm understanding of the nature of suffering and the nature of suffering in your own life, it's impossible to forget about it.

[16:56]

It's impossible to pretend that you haven't seen that. You can try to blot it out, but it will always come back to you. So you can surround yourself with pleasure or things to blot out the memory. but suffering always returns. So we begin, we always begin with ourself. We always begin with our own suffering. And once we begin to see our own suffering, if we pay attention, we begin to see that our suffering is not unlike, is in fact identical to the suffering that other people have in their lives. It may look a little bit different and may have different clothes on, but it's still pretty much the same. And that is the beginning, I believe, of the Bodhisattva path. Our suffering is the same. as others, and we are the same as others. So let me tell you a little story that happened to me recently. So as some of you who came a little bit earlier may know this, we have a book sale going on. And the book sale is to support our outreach programs.

[17:58]

And I'm the outreach coordinator, so I have a certain vested interest in this, right? So every day I come and I take the money... that has been donated and put it away. And when I came in on Tuesday morning, the donation boxes were gone and the money was gone. And at first I was confused. I thought that must be somewhere. And then I was kind of shocked. And then I was sad. And then I was kind of angry. You know, I was angry at the person who had stolen the money. And I was also angry at myself because I didn't arrange for a more secure way of keeping the money, right? But it happened. that that morning I couldn't stay around because I was doing a meditation group at a local drug and alcohol rehab. And one of the things I like to do when I go out and do these things is to do a loving-kindness meditation. And so when I do loving-kindness meditation with these groups, we do it for four different people. We do it for ourselves, first of all, and then we do it for someone we already love, and then we do it for somebody who's having a difficult time in their lives,

[19:03]

And then we do it for somebody that we're having a hard time with, somebody we may dislike or who has done something hurtful to us. So that morning I told the people this story. I said, you know, so I'm going to do my loving kindness meditation for the person who filched the cash. And as I was doing this, I realized, you know, to steal money from a temple, what a painful place you must be in to do that. And having done that, what a painful reminder you must bear with you constantly, and how that person must be suffering who took the money. And, you know, I mean, it's not as though I have never taken anything that didn't belong to me, you know. So I know that, you know, my suffering is not unlike that. I can say I didn't go and steal the cash box, but, you know, our suffering is not that different. His or hers may be more exaggerated, more extreme at the moment, but our suffering is the same. And the suffering, I think, is very important.

[20:05]

We speak of the word compassion a lot, and the word compassion literally means with suffering. So compassion is when we access the suffering of another person. And my favorite story, one of my many favorite stories, is about the Buddha touching the earth. So I think you've all seen the pictures of you know, when the Buddha's touching the earth, right? And so the story that goes about that is he was sitting under the Bodhi tree where he finally attained his awakening. And Mara, who's kind of like the, you know, the bad guy, sort of the devil, if you will, in Buddhism, comes up and tries to tempt him away from his awakening. And, you know, first he sends, you know, the beautiful maidens and the hoochie-coochie girls. And the Buddha says, eh, no, thanks. And then there's rains of fire and lightning and Buddha's not afraid because, you know, he's got it all together. And finally, finally, he says, Mara says, who do you think you are to deserve to sit in the seat of awakening?

[21:07]

Who do you think you are? Do you think you deserve this? And the Buddha touches the earth. And from the earth up rises the earth goddess. And she says he deserves to sit here because in innumerable past births he has practiced compassion and loving kindness for all beings. Not because he's smart, not because he's good looking, not because he has, you know, really good meditation, but because he has practiced compassion for all beings. And this is why he gets to sit here. So I think that's really wonderful. And, you know, so we try out of our compassion to relieve the suffering of others and thereby relieving some of our own suffering. And of course we can only do the smallest bit, right? We can devote our whole lives to it and only release small amounts of other people suffering. So here at Zen Center, I'm very, very fortunate. My job is, as I said earlier, to be the outreach coordinator.

[22:13]

So what that means is that I get to, as I said, bring meditation and stress reduction programs into places like drug and alcohol rehabs, oversee the prison programs, do homeless food outreach, do memorial services for people in Tenderloin hotels, things like that. And I think about the things we give, you know? And somewhere in the vast corpus of Buddhist literature, it says that there are three gifts that we can give to others. We can give material things, food, clothing, shelter, medicine, things like that. We can give fearlessness, fearlessness. And fearlessness, I think, comes with helping others and ourselves to see the nature of impermanence. And we can give the Dharma. And the Dharma is the way we understand and enact Buddha's way. So we never really know what we give, right? You know, sometimes I've done very large groups.

[23:18]

Sometimes I've done very small groups. I've often done groups of people... And I know I'll never see them again, or I imagine I'll never see them again, or I never see them again, or whatever. And over the years, I've given meditation instruction and talked to thousands and thousands of people. I've been here a very long time. And we never know what the outcome might be, what seed we might plant. It might fall on dry earth, or it might sprout. And sometimes, it's kind of funny, somebody will come up to me and say... I really want to thank you for what you said at that lecture you gave. When you said X, Y, and Z, it really helped me. I'm like, I didn't say that. But we get whatever we need, hopefully. If you want to make up something that I say that helps you, please do. I think this is what we mean when we talk about it in one of our rituals, the emptiness of the three wheels, giver, receiver, and gift. We give without knowing. The gift, it may or may not be taken up.

[24:20]

It may be helpful, it may not. And we receive without really knowing where it came from. Sometimes we even make it all up, and that's good enough. Let's see what's on the last page. Oh yeah, I wanted to read something that Suzuki Roshi, the founder of Zen Center, said about the Bodhisattva Path. And this is from the books on My Beginner's Men, I'm presuming some of you, if not most of you, are familiar with it. He says, the Bodhisattva's way is called the single-minded way, or one railway track thousands of miles long. The railway track is always the same. If it were to become wider or narrower, it would be disastrous. Wherever you go, the railway track is always the same. This is the Bodhisattva's way. So even if the sun were to rise from the west, The Bodhisattva has only one way. His way is, in each moment, to express his nature and his sincerity. We say railroad track, but actually there is no such thing.

[25:23]

Sincerity itself is the railway track. The sights we see from the track will change, but we are always running on the same track. And there is no beginning or end to the track. Beginningless and endless track. There is no starting point nor goal. Nothing to attain. Just to run on the track is our way. This is the nature of Zen practice. So I think that the touchstone of our bodhisattva practice, of our bodhisattva vow, is not whether I'm theoretically willing to stay in the world for a gazillion years. We don't know anything about that. We really don't. I can say that, and it sounds nice. We take those vows, And I was sincere when I take them, when I take them, again and again. But how about this? If you knew at this moment for certainty, with absolute certainty, that there was no such thing as Buddhahood, that awakening Buddhahood, all the trappings of everything we do, were simply a pious fable, and that if indeed what we have here is simply a box full of animals making noise,

[26:38]

full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. What then? Would you still maintain the vow? Would I still maintain the vow? For me, the answer is yes, and I don't know why. I really don't know why. Except that there's no other way for me. And you know, every morning, I offer incense in my altar at home, and I recite the bodhisattva vows and precepts. And every morning, I feel deeply ashamed of myself when I recite them. So to end, I'm going to recite them. And I'm going to invite anybody who would like to recite them with me, to recite them after me. Beings are numberless, I vow to save them. Beings are numberless, I vow to save them. Delusions are inexhaustible. I vow to end them.

[27:41]

Dharma gates are boundless. I vow to enter them. Buddha's way is unsurpassable. I vow to become it. I take refuge in Buddha. I take refuge in Dharma. I take refuge in Sangha. I vow not to kill. I vow not to steal. I vow not to misuse sexuality. I vow not to lie. I vow not to use intoxicants. I vow not to slander. I vow not to praise self at the expense of others. I vow not to be greedy. I vow not to harbor ill will.

[28:45]

I vow not to abuse the three treasures. Gotcha. You're all trapped in the bodhisattva vow for innumerable lifetimes. So that's really all I have to say today. I really think that the most important part of any talk I give is the discussion afterwards. So if anybody has the time and inclination, I'll be in the back of the dining room in a little bit. And that's all. Thank you. 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 sfcc.org and click Giving. May we all fully enjoy the Dharma.

[29:45]

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