Good morning. Welcome to Green Gulch on this glorious, glorious day. Glorious day in autumn. And this is a wonderful day in particular because five people will be receiving This afternoon, in a ceremony, we'll be receiving the bodhisattva precepts. And there's three, four, five of them right there, sitting there. And you're invited to come to the ceremony. And there, family and friends are coming, some people coming from far away, to witness this... remarkable, unusual stepping over a threshold, this initiation, a bodhisattva initiation.

[01:12]

So I'm not going to say how inspired I am by these people, and I'm not going to say how moved I am and thrilled I am by these five people's to receive the precepts. And I will not mention that I felt when one of the initiates is my daughter, Sarah, and I will not tell you that when she asked for the precepts, I felt I could die now, that my work was done. So I will not tell you about these things. But I will say that this ceremony is inconceivable, actually.

[02:15]

There's parts of the ceremony that seem like they're conceivable, but the meaning of it, the significance of it, is inconceivable. How it supports... the entire world, and how the entire world supports these five people as they make their vows. When I first began to practice one of the earliest lectures I heard, Zen Tatsu Baker was giving the lecture, and he said, if you steal pencils from work, you will not be able to practice Zen. You won't be able to practice Zazen if you steal pencils from work. And I remember thinking, well, that's ridiculous. I mean, I can, nobody would know and I could sit.

[03:19]

I didn't make this connection between a life that's informed by wholesome actions, not just, I think this is a misunderstanding about the precepts, they're not rules and ethical, moral rules that have been given that we're supposed to follow. You could say, well, yes they are, but no, they're not. It's more than that. If it was just that, I think we would be kind of discouraged pretty quickly, because they're impossible to observe. They're impossible to follow completely. Each situation anew brings up challenges for us. And this is our entire life. It doesn't get easier the longer we practice.

[04:23]

There's just more challenges. The precepts are not just these rules that we're supposed to be following, but you might say that these precepts are the shape of the enlightened ones or enlightened ones' body-mind. It's the shape, it's what the shape is. So if you're awakened to the reality of this life, how do you act in this world? What are your actions of body, speech, and mind? So the bodhisattva precepts arise from, unfold from, flow from the understanding of

[05:24]

the nature of reality, which is inconceivable. So the five Ordinans will receive, during this ceremony, they'll receive a new name, and they'll receive new clothes, which is the Buddhist robe that they'll wear around their neck, a miniature of a larger robe, but a small one to wear. And they'll receive the lineage paper, the ketchimiyaku, the blood vein of the Buddhas and ancestors. So they join and enter into this family. And in this family, the blood that flows in this family is precept blood, perceptual blood. blood, this perceptual vein.

[06:32]

And what's said about this perceptual vein is that it's the one great causal condition of the Buddha's family or of awakened life, or the one great causal condition of the Zen life, of practicing Zen. one great causal condition of the Zen gate. So for me to have heard that if you steal pencils from work, you can't practice over the years, that has made more and more sense to me how if our actions of body, speech, and mind are not in alignment with our wholesome or awakened life, it doesn't matter how many hours we sit cross-legged or do special retreats or practice austerities of various kinds.

[07:43]

It doesn't make any difference. It's all... It really doesn't matter unless we're living for the benefit of others and the This is what the precepts are about. The precepts come out of the vow to live for the benefit of all sentient beings. So you're all included in this ceremony. These five people will be vowing to live for your benefit and everybody else's benefit. And their knees might be shaking at the thought of taking this kind of step So this wish to benefit all beings arises in a moment, in a mindstream, in a psychophysical mind-body event.

[08:44]

And each moment there's the arising and perishing of life. And in a moment this thought can arise, this... of wanting to live for the benefit of others. And it may take one by surprise. The Buddha, Shakyamuni Buddha, there's a story of his kind of turning, where he began to turn and want to understand for himself the suffering in the world and the afflictions of this world and what the reality of this world is. And many of you know this story of his very careful upbringing and loving home life.

[09:49]

Even with the death of his mother, he had a loving aunt who was his foster mother. His father loved him. He had a household of people who doted on him and cared for him. And it wasn't enough. He didn't feel satisfied. There was something that wasn't at rest. And he wanted to see the world and was restless. So when he went out, those of you who know the story, he went out several times and saw things he had never seen before, things that were kept from his vision. He saw an old person. He saw an ill person. And he saw a person being taken to the charnel grounds. He saw a dead person.

[10:50]

And each time he saw these... these images, he asked, is this just this person that this happens to or does this happen to everybody? And his faithful charioteer said, no sir, this is the fate of everyone. Everybody has to face this old age sickness and death. And this troubled him deeply. He, in going back home, he realized everybody seemed to be distracted from these truths. Everybody seemed to be just, you know, had their mind on other things, various indulgences, various pastimes. No one, he felt, seemed to be looking at these things squarely. And he was, I don't know if he was depressed, but he was very serious, very pensive.

[11:51]

And then the fourth time he went out, he saw Sometimes it's described as a religious person walking, in walking meditation, very calmly, very upright, very relaxed. And another story has him seeing someone sitting, a monk or a religious person sitting. And he turned and thought, this is my path, this is what I want to do. So... There's a traditional set of, they're called five remembrances. And these come from the sutras. And the Buddha said that these five remembrances are suitable for everyone. They're universally suitable for women, men, lay, ordained, monk, nun. These...

[12:53]

Five remembrances are for everyone. And they correspond to what the Buddha had been distracted from and then what he remembered or rediscovered. So the first of these remembrances is, I am of the nature to grow old. I cannot escape from growing old. And the second one is, I am of the nature to be ill, to get ill. I cannot escape from getting ill or sick. And the third is, I am of the nature to die. I cannot escape from death. There is no escape from death. And the fourth one, all that is dear to me, And everyone I love are of the nature to change, and there is no way to escape being separated from them.

[14:03]

I cannot keep anything. I came here empty-handed, and I leave empty-handed. And the fifth remembrance is, My actions are my only belongings. I cannot escape the consequences of my actions. My actions are the ground on which I stand. So these five remembrances are from the old Pali Canon, from the earliest sutras, 2,500 years ago. And they ring searingly, vividly true. And the first three, old age, sickness and death, correspond completely with the Buddha's waking up around old age, sickness and death and really vowing not to be distracted from that, to remember that.

[15:18]

Now, something that's very interesting about this is there is a tendency to feel, sometimes, not all the time, when we see old age and sickness and death, to be repelled by it, to be, the sutra says, disgusted. by this. And there's something called the three-fold pride of youth, health, and life. And when we're young, I remember when I was young and I had these experiences where my old, my grandparents, their brothers and sisters would come for visits for holidays. And I remember thinking, you know, why don't they dress better? Or their hair looks so weird. They smelled funny, and I was disgusted, you know. And I didn't know them very well, so there wasn't a kind of loving feeling for these various relatives.

[16:25]

But I remember thinking, you know, why can't they get it together? This is the pride of youth, you know. And health. And life. Three-fold pride. I have a friend who is... facing a serious, very serious illness. And he was telling me about his son, who's, this person is going through chemo and various things and various changes are happening, right? Along with these processes of dealing with the illness. And his son is kind of disgusted with him. or what he looks like, and he doesn't have any energy, and can't do stuff like he used to. And so the person who's sick can feel like they're failing, or ashamed, or have some shame about the fact that they are ill, or sick, or infirm.

[17:39]

or struggling in this way. Somehow in our culture, our youth culture, and the culture of beauty and the culture of immortality, you know. So my dad said he wasn't going to die, you know. I mean, some kind of, I don't want to think about it and we'll just go along. that to express in your body infirmity, illness, old age, and all that that means, we might feel like we're failing somehow and feel ashamed. This is something to study, I think, how that comes to being. So in the sutra, the Buddha, this is in the sutra, the Buddha is recorded as having observed, the thought occurred to me when an untaught, run-of-the-mill person, I think that's like a regular worldly person, himself or herself subject to aging, not beyond aging, sees another who is aged,

[19:12]

he or she is horrified, humiliated, and disgusted, oblivious to himself or herself, that he or she too is subject to aging, not beyond aging. So when we have these feelings of turning away, averting, and we are averting from our own life, from the own reality of our life, and the changes that are inevitable, We cannot escape. We are of the nature to grow old, to change, to grow ill, to die. And the Buddha also said, as I noticed this, the typical young person's intoxication with youth entirely dropped away. He noticed this as a young person and his intoxication with strength and beauty fell away.

[20:17]

This is medicine, you know, this is good medicine, but it's hard to take, you know. So in bearing in mind these five remembrances, the fourth one, I've always found to be particularly, you know, it hits me very deeply. All that is dear to me, all that I love, and you could say all that I don't love, and all that is not dear to me, all of it will not be, and we can't hold on to it. This is, this is our world. So, Knowing this, knowing these realities, and not averting what are our actions of body, speech, and mind.

[21:21]

Our actions are our only belongings, and I think maybe quotes around belongings. And we can't escape from the consequences of our actions. Our actions are the only ground on which we stand. So out of love, you know, I feel often these precepts, wanting to receive the precepts, turning towards wanting to live in accord with these precepts, in some ways waking up to our own deepest way that we have been living or have been wanting to live or inspired by. And we come to it through love, through caring about others, through not wanting to hurt others, through seeing how we have been hurt, how we have hurt others, how others hurt others, and not wanting to perpetuate that anymore.

[22:25]

So from this deep wellspring of love for one another and also including ourselves, including wanting to care for ourselves the best way we can, in order to be available for people, in order to be ready, in order to be present enough to help those that we love. If we're exposed to these teachings of the 16 Bodhisattva precepts, we may feel a a yes, this is how I want to live. These are the precepts that come from my innermost desire. Now, we call this ceremony an initiation, a bodhisattva initiation, and from the moment the person wants to receive the precepts and goes to ask for them,

[23:35]

my sense is that they enter into, you could say, a ceremonial space or an initiatory container. And from that time until the time of the ceremony, when they complete that ceremony, that initiation, I feel they're in this container, kind of cooking in the... cauldron, alchemical cauldron. And in the middle of this cooking, all sorts of things will come up. And part of the initiation is to sew, each person sews their own robe, their own robe. And that, for some people, is kind of an ordeal, actually, to... having perhaps never done hand sewing before or putting together a garment like this.

[24:40]

So in the making of this garment, it just occurred to me, it reminds me of this fairy story. It's in Grimm's Fairy Tales and also in Hans Christian Andersen in Grimm. It's called The Six Swans. And in Hans Christian Andersen, it's called Wild Swans. Maybe some of you know it. And I just have to tell it right now because it's occurred to me. I won't tell the entire story, but there are six brothers and one sister and probably a wicked stepmother in there. And the six brothers are turned into swans. and fly away, and the sister is by herself, and she goes out looking for them, and she, with help from an old woman, she finds out that if she makes for her brothers these coats out of nettles, and during the time that she's making these coats, she can't speak or tell anybody what she's doing, and she has to do

[26:00]

From the moment she begins until the last coat is made, she has to continue with her work. And she makes a vow, actually, to make these coats. And she gathers the nettles. Now, those of you who work in the farm and do harvesting, or any of you who have gardens, nettles have these little... They burn, you know, and that's what happened. I remember this part of the story as a young girl, that it was an ordeal. Her hands were blistered and burned and she kept at it for love of her brothers and that she was the one to save them. And she worked on these and while she was working on it, the king of the land found her and fell in love with her and took her back to his camp and all of her stuff, all of her nettle work.

[27:02]

And she wouldn't speak. They got married. She wouldn't speak. She's still working, working. And he thought he was influenced to think that she was, you know, some kind of unsavory character and she was going to be destroyed. And that was the day. that she had just about finished the sixth coat, except for one of the sleeves. She was still working on it, still working on it. And she was going to be killed at the stake, burned at the stake. And right at that moment, six swans came swooping down from out of the sky and circled around the stake. And as they got closer to her, she threw the coats onto each one as they came by. And they turned into these young princes, except for the last one, her youngest brother, and he forever had a swan's wing. She hadn't quite finished the last coat. And then the spell was broken, and she could speak, and all was well.

[28:05]

And just in this way, these five remarkable beings had been sowing away, not with nettles, but you know, sewing, and with help. Some have needed more help than others, but over a long time, and instead of not speaking, they've been speaking, or internally speaking, and taking refuge with each stitch, stitch after stitch, taking refuge in Buddha, and created this robe that's alive with taking refuge in the awakened one, Buddha in the triple treasure. And they will be receiving these. They won't be thrown onto them at the ceremony, but they'll be lovingly passed to them, given to them. So where was I? Let's see. Oh, yes. So they're in this cauldron, this alchemical cauldron, doing these practices and studying the self in the light of the precepts.

[29:11]

And in this... And this may be intense at some times, less intense, but all within the ceremonial space. Now, there's one, sometimes what happens when we study the precepts, just in the same way as I was saying about being sick or having some illness or some infirmity or... challenge, physical challenge or mental challenge, we may feel rather than standing in our own Dharma position, this is who I am and I'm working and practicing with this, we may feel like we failed or some shame. And in the same way with the precepts, if we observe them in a certain way and see that we every day have difficulty in observing them and following through and we may feel that we failed or some shame.

[30:16]

And we also may feel we need help but we don't want to ask for help because that will show everybody how much we failed because we have to ask for help. Now this kind of tangle can happen or confusion about working with the precepts. So my sense of this is just in the same way as old age, sickness, and death are our lives, are the reality of our lives, as well as joy and love and music. rejoicing in each other's good qualities. So we have a full life with all sorts of flavors.

[31:21]

So if we get too caught on our inability to observe the precepts, forgetting that we do our best We do our best, and in our practice, over and over, we unfold the teachings. The teachings are not to accomplish and finish this. It's to endlessly practice with them every day. Just for those of you who don't know the precepts, the first three are taking refuge in Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. or the awakened one, the teaching of the awakened one, and the community and the harmony of beings who are practicing these teachings of the way to live upright. And then the three pure precepts are embracing and sustaining right conduct, are also translated as forms and ceremonies, which means

[32:33]

gathering the causes and conditions for one's liberation, which can be creating forms that we follow, that we live through and into, that help us to be free. There are other forms that help us to be bound or bound up. So right conduct, embracing and sustaining all good, and embracing and sustaining all beings. And this third one, all beings, is this living for the benefit of all beings. And then there's ten what are called grave precepts, which include a vow. And these can be put in the negative, and these can be put in a positive. I vow not to kill, or I vow to support life. And some... You can work with them in both ways.

[33:33]

I vow not to take what is not given, or I vow to give and be generous. I vow not to misuse sexuality, not to lie, not to intoxicate mind or body of self or others, not to slander, not to praise self at the expense of others, not to be possessive of anything, or also not to covet. not to harbor ill will, and not to disparage the triple treasure. So those are the 16 bodhisattva precepts. And these precepts are really unique to this particular school of Buddhism. It looks like historically the Zen master Dogen Zanji in the 1300s after his own ordinations and receiving different kinds of precepts, and going to China and coming back to Japan, he created, I feel, through his understanding of what was most suitable for the people he was working with in that culture and what he was trying to do, this group of 16.

[34:51]

And there's other sets of precepts. There's 10 major, 48 minor group, the 58, Brahmajala. There's all the vinya, or the very, very minute rules of monastic living, 250, 300 and some. And he, Dogen, has distilled these down to the 16. And they're given to lay and priest ordinance equally. So we call this ceremony, attaining the way, tokudo, or realizing the way, touching the way, the way of Buddha, the awakened way, by, this is the ceremony of staying at home and attaining the way, and priestordination is called leaving home, home leaving, and attaining the way. Now, I just wanted to say a couple of things about this, staying at home and leaving home, because

[35:55]

My sense of this, my strong and becoming more and more clear is that the attaining the way is the main part. And what form it takes is up to each person's path, what calls to them, what through their own karmic conditions, karmic formations, which path they choose. But the path is tokudo, or realizing the way, attaining the way. Now, there may be, some people may feel, and we might read this somewhere, you might find Dogen talking this way, or other teachers, that leaving home is, you know, gets more, you know, It's more valid or something. But I just wanted to read something from Nagarjuna, who's one of the ancestors of our lineage.

[37:07]

And Nagarjuna says, there was a question to Nagarjuna saying, it's taught that those who receive lay precepts will be born in the heavenly world, attain the bodhisattva way, and experience nirvana. what then is the use of receiving the precepts for home leavers? So these lay precepts, these lay precepts of the bodhisattva, you touch the bodhisattva way, enter the bodhisattva's way, and these wonderful things happen. So why would anyone choose to leave home? And Nagarjuna basically says, Those who receive both types of precepts become awakened. And we can just say, done, enough said. End of story. We don't have to talk about this anymore. Those who receive both types of precepts become awakened.

[38:08]

But one type is difficult and the other is easy. Now you might think, oh, I know which one is easy and I know which one is difficult. And it turns out, Nagarjuna goes on to say that leading, that the The lay life is the difficult life. Leading the bodhisattva way as a lay person in the world, at work, with all of the responsibilities of family life and work life and living in community and being a citizen of this world, this is the difficult path. And the easy path is... You could say mono, monastic, the one, kind of one way, kind of pared down, less being asked of you in terms of these kinds of responsibilities. Although the responsibility to live for the benefit of all beings is the exact same.

[39:11]

So the lay life is the difficult path So those of you who receive the Bodhisattva precepts and stay at home are to be honored. Nine vows. This is 25 vows, infinite vows. These are Bodhisattva vows taken in a path that is difficult. And it's difficult because Nagarjuna goes on to say, if you need to concentrate on your business or your work or your school, let's say, he doesn't say school, he says, your business and family life, then you have less time for your formal practice. If you concentrate on your formal practice life, your business begins to fail or your family says, hey, where are you all the time? Keep going to these retreats. So this is how to balance this in a way that takes care thoroughly your life in the world and to be a balanced life.

[40:17]

not an imbalanced life, which is upright, which is right conduct. Right in this is not right and wrong. It's the right of imbalance and in alignment, stable on your spine, you know, the spine of your practice. And this is middle way. So even if somebody has... left home and received precepts of home leaving, the Eno, Catherine, told me about this passage that she found in a sutra about, oh, it's about a magician. And this magician, did I bring the magician? Yes, the prophecy of the magician Bhadra attaining Buddhahood.

[41:22]

So this was a rather, what shall I say, an adept in various ways, concentration states and so forth. But he also understood emptiness. He understood bodhisattva vow. And he had a kind of encounter with the Buddha and... lost the debate, and so he decided, maybe, I'm not sure if the consequence was that he would be ordained if he lost the debate, but whatever, he decided to be ordained, and the Buddha had him ordained by Maitreya Bodhisattva. And after he became a monk, he said to the Buddha, world-honored one, this renunciation of the household life is only so in appearance. It's not true renunciation of the household life. Only the bodhisattvas who detach themselves from all appearances and remain in the three realms, meaning this very world of to don't sort of transcend and go off somewhere into some heavenly place, remain in the three realms to bring sentient beings to maturity can be said to have truly renounced the bodhisattva life.

[42:43]

So, excuse me, to have truly renounced the householder's life. Thank you, Catherine. So just to say that again, he became a monk, he let go of household life, and he says to the Buddha, wait a minute, this may look like the Bodhisattva's renouncing of household life, but unless there's a true letting go of appearances and... and unwholesome attachments. It's only if you're going to stay in the world and bring sentient beings to maturity can it be called truly renouncing a householder's life. So this is... Let us not be fooled by appearances. What is the inner... of a person's whole life and making these vows, whatever the appearance.

[43:50]

The bodhisattva takes any form and if it's helpful to take the form of an architect, you take the form of an architect. If it's helpful to take the form of a magician or a human rights worker or a yoga teacher or a dancer or a lawyer or a farm worker, or teacher, whatever form it takes, or a monk, or a nun, or a priest, whatever is useful and helpful, take that form, if you're called to it, take that form. But the inner importance is this living for the benefit of others, the vow to bring beings to maturity, to bring beings to understand humanity, understanding however long it takes and if we get tired and discouraged talk to your friend let them encourage you ask for help and that's not a failure that's expressing our interconnectedness the

[45:12]

In this same fascicle of home-leaving, the Buddha talks to home-leavers and basically says this wonderful thing. You home-leavers, or stay-at-home and precept-takers, should not arouse an unwholesome mind. If you do, you're not home-leavers. So this again is pointing to... It doesn't matter what robe you're wearing. It's about how you're practicing. You should, you home leavers, your actions and speech should be in accord with each other. This is, you know, the fifth remembrance. My actions are my only belongings. Having our body, speech and mind in accord, in alignment, our speech and actions in accord, Indeed, this is the time to assemble wholesome awakening.

[46:18]

It is not the time to assemble unwholesome awakening. Wholesome awakening is to have a tender heart towards all sentient beings as if they were babies. Unwholesome awakening is not like this. So the Dogen quoting the Buddha saying, having a tender heart, a compassionate heart for all beings as if they were babies. And I think when you see a baby, when you have any contact with a baby, it flows so easily. You don't have to think, oh, I'm supposed to be nice, you know, I'm supposed to be. It's just that's how we're made. That's how babies are made. We do that together. Together we express this, and this tender heart, compassionate heart, this is the core.

[47:24]

This is the core of the precepts. This is the core of all of our practice. This is the core of sasen. And if we're sitting, forgetting that, and sitting in order to get out of our, somehow get rid of our failures, or to not feel the pain of old age sickness and death and the loss of everything and the changing and the impermanence, we will be just running, running, running. And we'll never sit still. So the precepts, practicing with the precepts is a way to bring the stillness, the stability, the... balance of our zazen and our sitting still into our everyday life, into all of our activities, and over and over study ourselves, our speech and actions in accord with each other.

[48:32]

What is being asked of us? Do we need to make amends? And this unfolds the inconceivable life of beyond our ability to know of our Buddha body or awakened body with all beings. So I feel like I've come to a kind of ending there. I had one other personal story that I wanted to bring up, which I will briefly.

[49:35]

Just recently there was a situation where I was actually kind of under a spell maybe, maybe like the brothers with the swan's wings, the swans, and unable to speak and unable to access the truth of the situation. And even though I was practicing with it and trying to stay very close to what was happening, because of karmic formations, you might say, it was very, very difficult, so much so that I didn't realize how far away I'd gotten from upright. And what broke the spell was, it was just a friend who just asked a question, which is, or noticed something and spoke.

[50:47]

No big fanfare, no taking out a page of the New York Times or something. It was just, what's going on here? Are you okay? And the spell broke, and I really felt like I had been under a spell, and I could then speak again and access what was going on. This kind of thing happens, and I didn't want to waste time feeling shame. after all this expensive Zen practice, to be that caught in a spell at this late date. But this is how it is, folks. Our practice goes to the last breath and beyond. And the power of the consequences of our actions, our actions of mind, our thinking... our speech, these are our only belongings, these are the ground on which we stand, and these karmic, karma meaning action, these formations are strong, and even with neurogenesis, new cells being made, and joyfully, more are made when we're joyful, less when we're stressful.

[52:06]

Even so, we've got these karmic formations that we have to pay attention to and study. So this over and over again, studying the self, studying the self. And this is nothing to be ashamed of. This is our, I speak for myself, this is my joy. When I saw, and when the spell was broken, I was so buoyant, you know, and so happy to see how far I had been, how far I had gone, and how, and just come on back. It's never too late. So I just wanted to let you know about that. Like that poem by Machado, you know, all our failures are like his dream, you know, are like spinning into sweet honeycomb, you know, all of our failures.

[53:10]

This is our practice life. Thank you very much.

[53:20]

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