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. Welcome new students, continuing students, work period people. Thanks for being here. So wonderful. My heart is full of gratitude. My name is Greg Fang. I'm the Tanto or head of practice at Tassajara. These platforms we sit on are called Tan. That's Chinese for platform. That seat over there is the head of the Tan. That's what Tanto means. FYI.

[01:01]

That's my title. I'd like to begin by thanking and acknowledging my teacher, my root teacher, Sojin Mel Weizman, Abbot of Berkeley Zen Center, and say that this talk is just to encourage you in your practice I want to say welcome. Welcome to Bodhisattva Training Academy. That's what I sometimes call Tassahara. Bodhisattva Training Academy. Because, to my mind, that's what we're doing here. We're training to be bodhisattvas. And sometimes I say...

[02:03]

that the assembly of students at Tassajara are all bodhisattvas in training? I think so. So, what is a bodhisattva? Lovely Sanskrit word. Oh, parenthetically, I want to say, just for fun, that a month ago, I gave a talk at the Basilica in Carmel, the old mission, established in 1771. It was really great. And it was part of an interfaith lecture series I did, along with a Catholic person. It was supposed to be Father Cyprian from the Kamalvelies Hermitage on Big Sur coast, but he couldn't come because the Pfeiffer Canyon Bridge broke, and it's still broken. So he couldn't come, and he suggested a friend of his, John Marr Heinecke, who I just had a great time with, And we met in Crossroads Starbucks and talked and talked.

[03:06]

We had like our own interfaith dialogue. And Cyprian had advised me. I said, well, I'll probably talk about the Bodhisattva path and so forth. And he was like, you know, Sanskrit words, I don't know. It's problematic. You might have some difficulty with that. I said, fine, I'm going to rise to the challenge. I'm not going to use a single Sanskrit word, not a single Japanese word. And then John and I gave this talk, which was really fun. And he said, you go first. Great. Okay, I'll go first. It's his turn. He starts using all these Greek words. I couldn't believe it. I mean, it's not like we agreed he wouldn't use Greek words, but I was like, dang. Okay, so tonight I have the home field advantage. I'm going to definitely drop some Sanskrit and some Japanese. So a bodhisattva is sometimes translated as enlightening being.

[04:11]

The Buddha, Shakyamuni Buddha, is awake, right? I think maybe if you were, I think the kids these days say woke. Buddha is woke. That's true. Buddha is woke. He woke up. Bodhi is awakening. So, bodhisattvas are awakening beings. Bodhisattvas traditionally are understood as beings who defer their own final, perfect, complete release from suffering, their own final, perfect Buddhahood, in order to stay... in this world of suffering, and help others. They defer their own enlightenment in order to work to carry others across from suffering to liberation.

[05:12]

So, they wait, work tirelessly for the liberation of others. And... Bodhisattvas are known for their vows. When we finish this talk, we will do a little chanting together. For the new students, we passed out those short verses. It's in there. I believe it is in there. The Bodhisattva vows. Just listen to what we're chanting sometimes, especially... Maybe if you've been around Tassajara for a long time, if you've been around Sensen for a long time, you probably chanted it many times. But yeah, it's interesting to actually stop and listen to what it is we're chanting. They're kind of ridiculous. They're so enormous.

[06:13]

They're enormous, those vows. How could anyone possibly do it? That's what makes them vows. It's living your life according to this intention. It's not a question of whether you got it right or not. You live your life according to this intention. So I say we're all bodhisattvas in training. To wish to be a bodhisattva, to wish to trained as a bodhisattva, actually makes you a bodhisattva, but it's kind of difficult, you know, if you think, oh, there's Manjushri bodhisattva on the altar, the embodiment of perfect wisdom, which, I'm not the embodiment of perfect wisdom, I'm pretty sure, you know.

[07:15]

No, I don't think so. By the way, Manjushri is, this iconography is A 16-year-old boy with a flaming sword. That's wisdom. You know, 16-year-old boy with a flaming sword, that's kind of scary to me. But no matter. It's our intention. So in the preface to this wonderful book, Living by Vow, that Shohaku Okamura wrote, He introduces this Japanese phrase, which he translates as sentient beings are led around by their karma. Bodhisattvas are led around by their vows. That's the difference. That's the difference.

[08:18]

If we live a life of... trying to constantly get what we want and avoid what we don't want. Stay defended, stay protected. Reacting. Reacting to circumstances. According to our conditioning, this is being led around by your karma. The bodhisattva path offers us a different way, and this is a path of salvation. You don't have to. The good news is we are not at the mercy of our habits of mind. We are not at the mercy of our conditioning. We can rise above that.

[09:20]

We can connect with something greater. So, we are stating our vows all the time. Like I said, at the end of this talk, we will chant the traditional four bodhisattva vows. We began this talk by all saying together, I vow to taste the truth of the Tathagata's words. Again, that's a pretty tall order. It's our intention. It's how we align our lives. Leslie James once said, when we sit down to sit a period of zazen, it's like we're taking a tiny vow just for that period of zazen. We're vowing not to move until the bell gets up. It's our deep intention to stay put and stay with whatever arises until the bell rings.

[10:30]

That's a kind of vow too. So we're vowing things all the time. And this trains us. How bodhisattvas manifest their vows, I often say that Zen is a religion of action. Sometimes people say that sitting is our core practice and sitting zazen is an activity you have discovered. but we can also say that work is our core practice. Work period is a beautiful thing. Work period and guest season make me think of the first of the perfections of the bodhisattva. It's what we studied here last practice period, so it's very much on my mind. We studied the six perfections, the paramitas, another Sanskrit word,

[11:31]

that has a dual etymology, on purpose. On purpose, it's a pun. Paramita means perfection, and it also means crossing over. Crossing over from delusion to realization, crossing over from suffering to liberation, crossing over from duality to non-duality. The act, the action of practicing the paramitas, generosity, morality, patience, constancy, energy, zazen, and wisdom. These activities of the bodhisattva are creating connection. And dhana, generosity, comes first. I don't know, I won't go so far as to say it's the most important, but I do feel it's first on the list because you can't practice the other ones without a generous heart.

[12:37]

And this crossing over is about connection. These practices are about connection. They're about manifesting the reality of how we live. The Buddha woke up. He woke up. to the truth of dependent origination. Nothing exists independently. Everything that exists arises dependent on other things. Every cause and condition that gives rise to this thing has other causes and conditions that gave rise to them, etc., etc., etc. This is the reality of how we live. So these practices manifest that. I like to say that Tassajara is like maybe this whole canyon is like a factory floor where we're manufacturing loving kindness and equanimity and exporting them to a suffering world.

[13:53]

And where we manufacture them is right here, right here. Where we practice is right here, behind the breastbone. all of us together. So it's amazing to me when people say goodbye in work circle, especially during work period, and thank us, thank Tazahara for allowing them to be here when they've been working so hard. We talk about the emptiness of the three wheels. when we practice dhanaparamita, when we practice generosity, the emptiness of the three wheels, giver, receiver, and gift. Who's the giver and who's the receiver? Hard to say. Sometimes it'd be hard put to say. And it's the same with guest season. It's amazing. You know, the guests are our benefactors. They support Zen Center.

[14:57]

And we support them. And I often think that there's an amazing attraction of, you know, the stuff they talk about on the website. The food and the mountains and the beautiful scenery and the hot springs, of course. This is all amazing. But I don't think that's the main attraction. I don't think that's the main attraction for the guests, especially the guests who come year after year. I think the thing that keeps bringing them back is the taste of liberation. On the 4th of July, Tassajara will turn 50 years old.

[16:07]

That will be Founder's Day, the 50th anniversary of Tassajara. That makes us the oldest established Bodhisattva Training Academy outside of Asia. Or I should say, the oldest established Soto Zen. Bodhisattva Training Academy outside of Asia. Of course, 50 years is just a drop in the lacquer bucket according to the history of Zen, according to the 2,500-year history of Buddhism. Still, it's not nothing. Our founder, Suzuki Roshi, he said, you know, we can make a really beautiful thing We can make a really beautiful place. We can make various offerings to give to people.

[17:10]

But that's not the most important thing. He was always talking about what's the most important thing. He said to help others by giving the true spirit of how to live in this world and a true understanding of our life. That's the most important thing. That's the best thing we have to give. We give that to each other and we give that to everybody who passes through here. And we take that out with us into a suffering world. So there's many examples of bodhisattvas that we can talk about in the Mahayana scripture.

[18:29]

Mahayana meaning great vehicle. That's the kind of Buddhism we're practicing. You could say northern Buddhism. Nepal, Tibet, China, Korea, Japan, basically. includes Tibetan Buddhism, includes the Zen school, the various Zen schools. Great vehicle is great because all are welcome. All are welcome. No one is excluded. The entrance requirement for being a bodhisattva in training is birth in a human body. So congratulations. Y'all got that. Yeah. Yeah. That's all it takes. Birth in a human body. So yeah, in the scriptures, there are many, many, many different bodhisattvas.

[19:38]

If you read the flower ornament scripture, the Avatamsaka Sutra, I have no idea. Somebody should count them how many different bodhisattvas it names by name. It just goes on and on and on. Before I finish tonight, I thought it would be fun to mention one bodhisattva that doesn't get talked about a whole lot, but should be dear to all of us because it's enshrined on the altar at the bathhouse. And that's Bhadrapala Bodhisattva. There's not a lot said about Bhadrapala, but he shows up in Mahayana scripture called the Sarangama Sutra. And in the Sarangama Sutra, there's a part of the sutra where it talks about various Bodhisattvas

[20:45]

achieving enlightenment, however you want to understand that, through the agency of various senses. And Bhadrapala achieved enlightenment by the sense of touch, by entering the bath. That's why he's at the bathhouse. Along with 15 of his friends, 16 bodhisattvas go and bathe, and they all wake up together. And this is a Zen story because it also shows up in the Hekigan Roku, the Blue Cliff Record. Very famous collection of Zen stories, koans we call them. And not all the koans in this collection are stories about Zen teachers from the Tang Dynasty. Some of them are excerpts from various things. For example, last practice period, we talked about the koan about Vimalakirti's Thundering Silence.

[21:49]

That's from the Vimalakirti Sutra. So this story about Bhadrapala shows up in the Blue Cliff Record in case 78. If you want to look it up later, it's kind of fun. Case 78 is basically an excerpt from that sutra. about what happened with Bajrapala. And the name of the case is, 16 bodhisattvas go in to bathe. Here's the case. In olden times, there were 16 bodhisattvas. When it was time for monks to wash, the bodhisattvas filed in to bathe. Suddenly, they awakened to the basis of water. All of you Zen-worthies, how will you understand their saying? Subtle feeling reveals illumination and we have achieved the station of sons of Buddha. To realize this, you too must be extremely piercing and penetrating.

[22:52]

Okay? That's the case. Sixteen bodhisattvas go into bath and they all wake up together. They understand the basis of water. They awaken to the basis of water. And then this quote Subtle feeling reveals illumination. That's a quote from the Sutra, from the Sarangama Sutra. And... Suzuki Roshi gave a little commentary about this. A talk he gave here 49 years ago in 1968. I say here, but it actually was the... The zendo was down there, right? Our student eating area. That was the zendo. So he gave it down there. But anyway, at Tassajara. And Suzuki Roshi said, I'll just quote a little bit of it from the transcript.

[23:54]

He says, in the Blue Cliff Record, there is a koan about Bajrapala. When this bodhisattva attained enlightenment, he said, myo jyako zen myo. That's what the Cleary brothers translated as subtle feeling reveals illumination. Myo-jako-zen-myo means, Suzuki Roshi says, myo-jako-zen-myo means his mind and body became clear and felt so good. I think we can all have that experience. I think we can all have that experience when we go to the baths. His mind and body became clear and felt so good. And he realized the water. He realized that water, as well as various beings, has no self-nature. The koan is, what does it mean by myo jako zenmyo?

[24:56]

How has this bodhisattva attained enlightenment? This is the koan in the Blue Cliff Record. And then he goes on to say, when Yasutani Roshi came to Tassahara and took his bath, He completely enjoyed the hot spring bath. And he wrote some poem about myojiakozenmyo, about this koan. You know, water penetrates, you know, everything, with hole or without hole. It doesn't matter. Even through the stone. Penetrates into even the hard stone. Still, why water penetrates to everything is it has no self-nature. You know, if you have self-nature, you cannot penetrate into everything. That is, you know, the koan study about this bodhisattva. So, of course, we have self-nature.

[26:09]

I'm clear about that. I'm Greg. That's Colleen. That's Carolyn. That's Hiro. We have self-nature. I'm pretty clear about that. We all are. That's the problem. We're really clear about that one. What we're not so clear about is we also do not. We also do not. We also are like water. that penetrates everywhere. I think when we sit zazen, you can have this feeling. Especially sitting in the Tassahara Zendo. We're so lucky. We're so lucky to sit quietly in the Tassahara Zendo with our friends. breathing together, supporting each other to simply stay present for whatever arises.

[27:23]

And I know, I know that sometimes it feels like the hardest stone. I know that. Sometimes it's going to feel like the hardest stone. Water penetrates everywhere. Here's just a little bit, just a tiny smidgen of Yuan Wu's commentary on this koan. And I could definitely recommend, as I said, Case 78, if you want to look it up sometime. Yuan Wu says, for the ancients too, there was awakening to the path by hearing sounds, illuminating mind by seeing forms.

[28:29]

If a single person awakens, this is the reason. But why did the 16 bodhisattvas awaken at the same time? Because the ancients practiced together and experienced together. awakened together, and understood together. And that really hits home for me because that, in my opinion, is what we're doing here at Bodhisattva Training Academy. We are practicing together and experiencing together awakening together and understanding together, opening our hearts, opening our hearts to this subtle feeling that reveals illumination like water that penetrates everywhere.

[29:35]

I feel so privileged to be doing this with all of you. And I thank you for your attention tonight. 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 SSCC.org and click giving.

[30:19]

@Transcribed_UNK
@Text_v005
@Score_96.25