This podcast is offered by the San Francisco Zen Center on the web at sfzc.org. Our public programs are made possible by donations from people like you. Welcome to Green Dragon Zen Temple. How many here are here for the first time? Welcome. Maybe later you can tell me a story of how you came to come. This Zen temple... The source of this Zen temple is...

[01:03]

the Buddha's precepts, the bodhisattva precepts. Are you familiar with the term bodhisattva? No? So bodhi means, usually translated into English as awakening or enlightenment, and sattva as being. It's the It's the spirit or the being of enlightenment. And it's a term that's used for living beings who are in the process of becoming Buddha. And Buddha means also the awakened one. So there is a path of practice. for the process or in the process of becoming fully awakened.

[02:18]

And there's different teachings about who are the bodhisattvas. One teaching is just a few people are bodhisattvas. Just a few people aspire to become Buddha in order to benefit this world with great enlightenment, great wisdom, and great compassion. Just a few. Another story is, maybe there are just a few, but everybody should really give it a try. It would be good if everybody tried... to enter the process of becoming Buddha. That's another teaching that you find in the history of the tradition. And then the third teaching is everybody, all living beings, actually are bodhisattvas.

[03:28]

That everybody actually is in the process of becoming Buddha, whether you think you are or not. And also, even if you think you are, you are. It's okay to think you are. In some ways, you're more on the path of being a bodhisattva if you think you're not. Even if you don't want to be a Buddha, and quite a few people come to this temple to practice quite intensely, and they come to me and they say, you know, I don't want to be a bodhisattva. I don't want to live a life of... devotion to the peace and freedom of all beings. I just want to do something that helps me. Can I stay in this Zen temple? And so far, I think I've always said, yeah, you can stay. Even if you don't want to be a bodhisattva. Even if you don't want to be in the process of becoming Buddha.

[04:32]

And a lot of people say, enlightenment's too much. You forget about enlightenment. I just want to feel a little better. I wasn't intending to talk about enlightenment today, but I just might mention that for me, enlightenment is not feeling better and it's not feeling worse. It's freedom from better and worse. It's not being afraid of better and not being afraid of worse. It's fearlessness, it's great compassion, it's boundless love and freedom and peace. with everybody enlightenment is peace and freedom with everybody and some people tell me they're not interested in that and I say okay and just go right on and talk about the bodhisattva way the bodhisattva precepts so

[05:49]

it commonly said that Zen centers are places for practicing Zen and also for practicing Zen meditation. And this hall is called a meditation hall. It's a hall for practicing Zen meditation. It's also, another way to say it, it's a hall for practicing the Bodhisattva precepts. Yesterday there was a ceremony here where people were given the Bodhisattva precepts. And I don't see any of those people that were in the ceremony. Anybody in the ceremony here? Congratulations to you for receiving the Bodhisattva precepts. So in the ceremony they received the Bodhisattva precepts and they committed

[06:52]

to living them and practicing them. It's a formal ceremony. Like right now, the Bodhisattva precepts are also being offered to all of us, but this isn't a formal ceremony. Well, maybe it is. But anyway... I'm not going to ask you if you'll receive them and ask you to promise to practice them. I'm going to talk to you about these Bodhisattva precepts, I think. So one definition of the English word precept is rules. for regulating your behavior and thought or in Buddhist terms you could say to regulate your karma of body speech and thought that's one definition of precepts so

[08:21]

precepts could be seen as rules, but they could also be seen as the way, the law, the law of how you act. And these bodhisattva precepts could be said to be the the source of the laws of how we really are. The source of the laws of the universe. These bodhisattva precepts are the source of all the enlightened ones. They're the original source of all the Buddhas. They're the original source of all the bodhisattvas. They're the original source of the seed of Buddha nature.

[09:28]

In the ceremony, which we do here several times a year, people are given these precepts and they receive them with reverence and respect and commit to taking care of these precepts. In this school, this Zen school, the bodhisattva precepts are sometimes called the 16 great bodhisattva precepts. And the 16 are the three refuge precepts, the three instructions or practices of returning

[10:35]

and relying on perfect enlightenment. Returning and relying on Buddha. Returning to and relying on Buddha. And then the second precept is returning to and relying on the truth of the teaching, the teaching of truth, the Dharma. And then the third precept is to return to the community of practitioners. To live in and return to and live in the community of bodhisattvas, which is, or which could be said to be, the community of all beings who are in the process of becoming Buddhas. Those are the first three in this school, first three bodhisattva precepts.

[11:36]

The next three are to embrace and sustain the forms and ceremonies of our practice. That's the first of the three pure precepts for bodhisattvas. The second one is to embrace and sustain all wholesome activities. And the third one is to embrace and sustain all living beings who are in this process of becoming Buddhas. So that's six. Three refuge precepts, three pure precepts. Then... And there's ten, which are sometimes called major bodhisattva precepts. Also, the Chinese character could also be heavy.

[12:41]

And Suzuki Rashi used to say, prohibitory. Ten major bodhisattva precepts, which are not killing, not stealing, not misusing sexuality, not lying, not selling intoxicants or using them in brackets. It actually originally says not selling. And then six is not slandering others. Seven is not praising yourself at the expense of others. Eight is not being possessive of even the most of even the Dharma, of even the teaching. Nine is not harboring ill will and ten is not to disparage the first three precepts of Buddha, Dharma and Sangha.

[13:48]

Those are the sixteen Bodhisattva precepts which are given in formal ceremonies here. The ceremony that happened yesterday for these three people, one of the, the way it's actually called sometimes is, in Japanese, zaikei tokudo. In other words, zaikei means staying at home, so it's giving the precepts, these bodhisattva precepts, to people who are living in a household, not necessarily monastically living. They can visit monasteries, but they're They're not necessarily a committed monastic practitioner. And they receive these 16 precepts. The practice in their home, that's zaike, layperson or householder, literally abiding in the house. It's bodhisattva precept for people who are abiding in the house, in the family.

[14:50]

A small family, who spend time in a small family life. two or three or ten people. And the second part is tokudo, which means attaining or touching liberation. In doing the formal ceremony, the one who receives the precepts and commits to practice them attains liberation. The ceremony, the performance of the ceremony, realizes these precepts. And realizing these precepts is freedom. imagine by the look on some of your faces like how could that be how could you go to a ceremony and then by the during the ceremony you become free how could that happen well I don't know but that's what that's what we that's the name of the ceremony it's attaining liberation while living with your family we also have another ceremony which is called shukke or leaving the home

[16:31]

and attaining liberation. That's for the people who want to get monastic training and become professional monastics, be professionally involved in monastic practice as their main job. And they receive the same precepts and they get the same liberation. Again, these bodhisattva precepts, when we receive them, we're receiving the source of all Buddhas. When we receive the source of all Buddhas with respect and reverence, wholeheartedly receiving and committing to uphold them at that moment, that is liberation.

[17:36]

are receiving the source of all Buddhas, we are receiving the source of all Bodhisattvas. We are receiving the seed of Buddha nature. And Buddha nature is this nature that we are or we have. These Bodhisattva precepts are for all of us, all living beings, and not just humans. They're for non-humans too. They're for all of the living beings whose original nature is pure. So we have, according to this teaching, an original nature, a fundamental nature, which is pure. And these precepts are for us who have this fundamental pure nature.

[19:01]

Receiving these precepts, which are the source of Buddhas, which are the source of freedom, attain liberation because we have this original nature which is pure which is in accord with these precepts we also have another nature which is not so original but very common it's a nature that is called consciousness. In particular, active or karmic consciousness. And all living beings whose original nature is pure have a karmic or diluted nature or a diluted quality.

[20:13]

So living beings have... karmic consciousness, which is deluded, which is confused and giddy, which is full of delusions. And the delusions aren't just sitting there like sitting ducks. They're crazy ducks, jumping all over the place, changing all the time, hard to keep track of, undisciplined squads of confused emotions. karmic consciousness. We have that. We sentient beings have that. Bodhisattvas have that for a while. And we also, our original nature is pure. It's free of consciousness and unconsciousness. So our nature, so we have a Buddha nature.

[21:16]

which is this confused nature, which is our limited consciousness, which is always accompanied by our original pure nature. And that's our Buddha nature. And the precepts, the bodhisattva precepts, are for people like us that have this nature, which is the original nature, pure nature which is the way things really are accompanied by the way things aren't the way things are not so the way we really are which is pure is that we include the whole universe And we're included in the whole universe. We give life to everyone, and everyone gives life to us.

[22:27]

But then we have another way we are is that we think we don't include everybody. We include some people but not others and we're not included in some people. We feel separate. We feel like other people's life is not included in our life. It looks like that. We have a mind which creates the appearance that other people's life is not completely included in our life and we're not included in in theirs for people who have this deluded picture of their life which is all sentient beings have this deluded picture they all have it they've all got it it's not and again it's not just a deluded picture it's a very excited deluded picture so it keeps distracting us it has the potential to keep distracting us from The Bodhisattva precepts, which are for us.

[23:49]

It has the potential to distract us from our original nature. And also to distract us from our Buddha nature, which is that our original nature is always accompanied by our original... Did I say original nature is accompanied? Our karmic nature is accompanied by our original nature. Our karmic consciousness, where we suffer, where we think we're not doing well, or we think we are doing well, where we think other people are not doing well, and we are doing well, and we're doing better than them, and we hate them. Or they're doing well, and we're not doing well, and we hate ourselves. So the basic practice... that's recommended in a situation like this, like what, where we feel hated and where we hate, or where we think we love and we feel hated, or we feel loved and we feel hate.

[25:00]

In this confused situation, where we suffer, the practice is recommended to observe this ocean of... living beings who are suffering with eyes of compassion. Everybody all day long, every being all day long is calling for compassion. Every thought in your mind is calling for compassion. Every feeling, every emotion, every sensation, every story, every theory, Everything that's going on in your karmic consciousness is calling for compassion. All that we are is calling for compassion. All other people are. Everybody is calling for compassion.

[26:04]

Everybody is calling us for compassion. Also, all those calls are being listened to. Every single call, there's never a call without a listener. The calls, the calls for compassion are always accompanied by the observation of these calls the compassionate observation of these calls. The compassion is complete solidarity, insubstantial solidarity, unshakable accompaniment. There's never suffering which is calling for compassion without the compassion being there. The original nature, which is pure, never goes a slightest bit away from this...

[27:09]

karmic evolution process. This is our Buddha nature, is that we have this challenging consciousness where there's all kinds of birth and death going on and what to do and the concern about what should I do about birth and death? What should I do next? That karmic consciousness challenging area is accompanied by kind of a great encouragement, a great encouragement, a great filling with courage to be there with all of these karmic consciousnesses. bodhisattva precepts are the source of a bodhisattva who actually wants to engage with this not just with their original nature which would be fine because you are engaged we are engaged with our original nature but to engage with the engagement of this sentient confusion in

[28:55]

intimate relations with the original nature, want to engage with that and remember that. So the precepts of the bodhisattva are given to living beings to help them remember the source of this situation where there's always compassion with all each and every moment of suffering. And compassion does not eliminate suffering. It accompanies it. If you take away the suffering, there's no compassion. And if you bring on suffering, if suffering is brought on, compassion arises with it. Suffering comes and calls for compassion and compassion is right there.

[29:57]

Always. That's the bodhisattva precept. That's our original nature. Not being deluded isn't our original nature. Our original nature is that each of us is the center of the whole universe and includes the whole universe. and is included in everything else. That's our original nature. There's no purity or impurity. That's the kind of purity it is. Buddha nature is that that original nature is always present no matter what we're into. No matter what pit we're in, great compassion is with us. Also, all the less than great compassions are there too. The bodhisattva precepts, like compassion, are omnipresent.

[31:27]

They're ever-present. Sometimes called adamantine or diamond-like, you can't get rid of these bodhisattva precepts and you can't bring them on. They're just omnipresent, ever-present. And these bodhisattva precepts which are, again, the source of all bodhisattvas, they're not, if I can say parenthetically, they're not the source of confused human life. They're not the source of it. They're the source of the life of living with all confused being. They're the source of being compassionate, with whatever so these bodhisattva precepts are always present and they are the source of the life of living with all beings intimately and everything that's going on in ourselves they're the source of the life of listening to the cries and also realizing that we're crying we're crying and we're listening we're not separate from the crying

[32:51]

We're not separate from the listening. We are the crying and the listening. These precepts, because of the way they're always present, the funny thing is that because of that they have appeared in the world and one of the ways they appear in the world is going for refuge in Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. This is the way they appear. And then they also appear as embrace and sustain all forms and ceremonies, embrace and sustain all wholesome activities, and embrace and sustain all these beings, all of them. That language appears in the world from a source. That's not really language. The source is these same things

[33:53]

before their words. So our original nature is Buddha Dharma Sangha. We have that nature. Our original nature is we embrace and sustain forms and ceremonies. Our original nature is that we embrace and sustain all wholesome activities. That's our original nature. Our original nature is that we embrace and sustain all beings. And based on that original nature comes forth this language which talks about that, which says that. And when you receive the language, when you hear the language and you speak the language, you do a ceremony which realizes the language.

[35:00]

But when you realize the language, you realize the precepts, which is the source of the language. I vow to embrace and sustain all beings. That precept is the source of the person who makes the vow. The bodhisattva who says, I vow to embrace and sustain all beings, The source of that is embracing and sustaining all beings. When we say it, that's a way that that reality of embracing and sustaining and being embraced and sustained, in the ceremony we just say it. We just say one side. We say, I vowed to embrace and sustain all beings. But implied is... All beings embrace and sustain me. And I vow to realize all beings are embracing and sustaining me. I vow to embrace and sustain all wholesome action.

[36:05]

All wholesome action is embracing and sustaining me. I vow to realize that. And I vow to realize it with my... activity in my karmic consciousness by using my words, which uses my body, and I think it. With body, speech, and thought, I receive. The reality is that I embrace and sustain and am embraced and sustained. That reality is not those words, but all the words, English, Russian, Japanese, Chinese, Sanskrit, Pali, Korean, Vietnamese, Russian, French, all these languages that these precepts appear in, the source of them is the reality that these languages are referring to, which is our original nature. So because of that, it says, because of that, there appears in the world...

[37:11]

not killing, the word not killing, the words not killing life, the words not stealing. These words appear because of this omnipresent reality, which is not killing. The origin of Buddhas is not killing. The origin of Buddhas is not stealing. And then the Buddhas who emerged from the reality of not killing, not stealing, not misusing sexuality, and so on. They emerge from these precepts. They realize these precepts, and then they speak in English or Chinese or Hindi or Farsi. They speak to people. They give the words to people to help people. receive the bodhisattva precepts.

[38:14]

So, for some reason, these words have come into the world. And I'm talking about their source. And I guess I think that remembering the source of these words will help us practice these precepts and realize these precepts. Practice these kind of superficial things, these words, to work with these words to receive these words in ceremonies and then practice these words in ceremonies of daily life as a way to keep remembering the bodhisattva precepts which are before and beyond these words and never separate from them because these bodhisattva precepts keep appearing in the world.

[39:31]

These bodhisattvas appear in the world and also they don't appear in any world. They don't live in a world. They're freedom from worlds. And the freedom from worlds, because it's free of worlds, can enter worlds and teach in worlds in ways that worlds can understand, which is language. And so we converse about these precepts and we converse about this language, not killing, not stealing, and so on. We can talk about this. while we're practicing compassion towards the words, towards the words not killing life, not stealing, towards those words which are calling to us. The words not killing are calling for compassion. The word killing, you're killing me, that's calling for compassion. You're not killing me is calling for compassion.

[40:33]

Everything is calling for compassion, including these Bodhisattva precepts. When we understand that, we will... Yeah, we'll understand the Bodhisattva precepts. Well, it's not quarter to three. It's actually about 11 o'clock Pacific Standard Time. And even though I sense some restlessness in the room, I just want to say one more thing, may I? It won't take too long.

[41:34]

And I won't say that over and over. In one of the scriptures about bodhisattva precepts, after the Buddha tells us that these bodhisattva precepts are for all living beings, whose original nature is pure, after the Buddha tells us that these bodhisattva precepts are the origins of the Buddha who's talking to you now, The Buddha says, from now on, every half month, I'm going to recite these ten major bodhisattva precepts. So the Buddha tells us that because of the nature of the precepts, they don't just stay in the pure realm.

[42:37]

They come into the world. They allow, they deign. to come into the limitations of language. The originally pure comes into the defilements of language. And it appears in this way of these, for example, these ten major bodhisattva precepts. Want to get that? The bodhisattva precepts do not stay in the pure realm. They're always engaged with the impure, with the suffering. And because of that, they appear in the realm of suffering as not killing. Is that clear? And then the Buddha says, I have these ten major precepts, which are also called in Sanskrit pratimokshas, ten pratimokshas. Pratimoksha means...

[43:39]

conducive to liberation. I have these ten things which are conducive to liberation. One of them is not killing. Not killing is a thing. It's a precept that is conducive to liberation. They appear in the world with the Buddhas. The Buddhas are giving to us. And then the Buddha says, and from now on, I'm going to recite them every half month. which is also sometimes called twice a month. The Buddha who came from these precepts and appeared in the world, the precepts came with her and she taught us these ten precepts and others. But in our school we focus on these ten major ones. And then the Buddha says...

[44:41]

and I'm the Buddha, and I'm going to recite these twice a month. I'm going to recite. Precept of not killing. To me, it's a little surprising. The Buddha's going to recite the precepts. He's going to recite like, oh, he's kind of like reciting his origin. His origin is these precepts before they're spoken. And now he's going to speak them in the world twice a month. And then comes the hard part. He says, you should too. He says to quite a few people that are there. He says, I'm going to do it. You should do it too. He doesn't say, you should do it with me. But I would say, the Buddhas who come from these precepts, the Buddhas who, the origin of the Buddha is not killing. And the Buddha that comes from not killing and not stealing says, I'm going to recite in... He didn't say what language, because it can be in any language.

[45:51]

I'm going to recite in some language the precept of not killing twice a month. And you're invited to join me, to practice with me, and to recite these. And then he says something in this scripture that I'm studying, which is again kind of scary and kind of contradictory. He says, if you receive these precepts and you don't recite them, well, I'll make it less scary. If you receive these precepts and don't recite them, then you're not following through on the precepts. So part of receiving them... in this world, in language, is to recite them. And the Buddha says, I'm going to sow. And so here in this temple, once a month, sorry, usually in monasteries it's twice a month, following the Buddha's example, we recite the precepts.

[47:00]

But the Buddha didn't say, if you don't recite it, Twice a month, you're not following through. You can do it once a month. But he's saying, I'm reciting them. You need to do it too if you're a bodhisattva. If you want to be a bodhisattva, if you receive these precepts, then it's your responsibility to recite them, to say them in the world, to say, precept of not killing. Once a month. twice a month like the Buddha but you can also do it once a day for example today I said precept of not killing quite a few times so I can take a few days off in the last couple of days I've said that precept quite a few times so I'm like

[48:05]

doing pretty well you want to try it you want to repeat after me precept of not killing yeah like that in the world say that precept what does that precept mean that we should discuss we should converse about but let's bring it out let's say precept of not killing precept of not stealing and so on let's say these precepts in the world to express the source of all Buddhas and when we do that we're doing the same thing that all Buddhas have done all Buddhas have taught not killing not stealing all Buddhas have given that precept and they've recited it and when we recite it We're joining them.

[49:22]

There's some books on Bodhisattva precepts in the bookstore. Thank you for listening to this podcast offered by the San Francisco Zen Center. Our programs are made possible by the donations we receive. Please help us to continue to realize and actualize the practice of giving by offering your financial support. For more information, visit sfzc.org and click Giving. May we fully enjoy the Dharma.

[50:00]

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