to be with you. This is the Wednesday Dharma Talk with San Francisco Zen Center. Our speaker for the evening at the invitation of our head of practice is Reverend Yuki Kobayama. Yuki was born and grew up in Japan and encountered Zen when coming to the United States for university. Yuki has a PhD in botany and has worked on several organic farms, including Green Gulch Farm. where Yuki's lived for some time. She ordained in the Suzuki Roshi lineage in 2010 with Tension Reb Anderson and served as Shuso Tassahara in 2017. Yuki, thank you for joining us tonight. Thank you all for joining us. We will begin with the Sutra opening verse, which you can chant along with from the chat window. Yuki, when you're ready, I can begin. unsurpassed penetrating and perfect dharma is rarely met with even in a hundred thousand million kalpas having it to see and listen to to remember and accept i vow to taste the truth of the tathagata's word

[11:19]

Good evening. Thank you, Kodo, for introducing me. And thank you, everyone, for being here tonight. And thank you, the city center tanto, Nancy, maybe she's in Tazahara right now, for inviting me to present tonight's Dhamma Talk. Since then, I have been thinking about what I would like to talk about. to the people in the city and their sangha. When I received this invitation, I was and still I am grieving from the death of my mother in last December and two of my cats in March. Also, at that time, I just lost a tiny injured mouse. baby mouse whom I found in a yard kitchen at the Green Gooch and I was trying to take care of her.

[12:40]

I sincerely wanted to save her and wished her to get well and grow so that one day I can release her in a wild nature of Green Gooch as a field mouse. And She showed me such affection, even though her eyes were still not open and her body was smaller than my first segment of my thumb, like this. Anyway, the whole experience of the emotional ups and downs reminded me of my childhood and my karmic affinity to animals, and pets, who provided me with sincere affections and companionship through my life. Two years ago, at Green Gorge Wednesday Dharma talk night, I tried to discuss the three collective pure precepts in relation to factory farming and its environmental effect.

[13:59]

This subject is something I really care about through my adult life and have been wondering and practicing how I can talk about this issue without pressuring people or becoming too argumentative or too emotional so that I am able to communicate with people without feeling blamed on each other. So I tried. to speak about this subject as a Dharma talk for the first time two years ago. At that time, I also tried to watch the movie Dominion in a talk. The movie Dominion is a documentary film about factory farming. It is well done, but is intense. Parts of the movie are considered as cruel, And it cannot be watched without tears in our eyes.

[15:03]

So some people felt that the request itself was already too controversial. And our practice committee told me that watching the video has to be optional. And I cannot include the video in my designated Dharma talk time. I was a little disappointed. But I understood their point and intention. So I showed parts of the film, because this is a long film, for 30 minutes before my Dharma talk. And then I started the talk. Also, our practice committee requested that my talk has to be inclusive. In other words, people who did not come for the movie could also understand what I was talking about. The process took a long time until the practice committee finally and actually gave me a goal sign.

[16:14]

It was way more than I expected and along the way I felt like whatever and I told my teacher so. He told me that The point of me giving Dhamma talk is not giving a beautiful Dhamma talk, but the conversations and interactions between me and other people and among people. So what I was doing back and forth to the practice committee was already the point. At that time, I did not quite understand what my teacher wanted to tell me, so I simply replied to him, I think about it. Since then, I have been thinking about the conversation, and now I can hold it warmth and a smile.

[17:16]

That was two years ago. Even though I thought I spent a lot of time in order to prepare the material. And actually, many people came even for the movie part. When I revisit the talk, I feel it was immature. Of course, there is a beauty in immaturity too. So tonight, I'd like to revisit the material of factory farming and its environmental effects through the lens of the three collective pure precepts. And this time, I want to expand more on the parts of the three collective pure precepts, including its brief history, and introduce how some of the early sutras discussed about this issue, and hopefully, raise our consciousness

[18:24]

upon the production of meat, eggs, and daily products, and ask you the question, what is your appropriate response as an individual with different needs and limitations? My intention with this talk is, again, not trying to force people to give up meat, eggs, or daily consumption. or to replace the desire for animal products, but rather make an effort to remember what the consumption of animal products implies, to raise an awareness in our daily vows, and to explore how each individual is able to develop a heartfelt compassion and a genuine sensitivity to the suffering of animals and workers in the factories and slaughterhouses who are providing us on our behalf.

[19:35]

So what do you think about the animals, eggs, and the daily products you eat and drink? Do you honestly think about them? Do you think about where they come from? The animals in a factory farming are often referred to as livestock. That is a faceless unit of production, normally unseen and unheard. Their value is only determined by the uselessness of humankind. Before we kill them, we selectively breed them and genetically modify them, artificially inseminate them, and forcefully impregnate them.

[20:41]

Take their babies so that we can have their milk and mutilate them, confine, and exploit them for food, entertainment, clothing, and research. Their entire lives from birth to death are controlled by the industry who only care for profit. And their suffering and blood are paid by consumers who are told that the treatment was ethical, free range, local, organic, and that their death was humane, that the cruelty of animal does not happen here in this country. And if it does, our government or our authority find it and take care of it.

[21:45]

And we, as consumers, have a few reasons to think otherwise. Because eating and using other animals were so natural, we have done it forever. Because the products for sale in the supermarket shelves are so removed from individuals who once existed. Some only briefly, some for years of suffering. These individuals actually have the capacity to feel love, happiness, grief, and mourning. They share with us our desire to live, to be free, to be seen as not an object.

[22:48]

not our utility to others, not as units of production, not stock, but who we are as individuals. I think it is very unethical to kill someone who wants to live, especially she, he, They do not cause you any harm. It is not a question of treatment. Bigger cages, smaller stock density, or less painful gas chambers. We tell ourselves that they lived good lives, and in the end, they don't know what is coming, and they don't feel things. They do.

[23:51]

In their final hours, minutes, and seconds, there's always fear. And there is always pain. The smell of blood. The screaming of other members of their own species with whom they share their lives. They are never willing to die, but rather desperation to live. A frantic fight to their last breath, the breath we so much care about. They have never been shown mercy or kindness. Instead, mocked, laughed at, kicked, beaten, tossed like a rug, or send it to a mincer because they are born as a lone sex for the egg production.

[25:00]

We take their children. We take their freedom. We take their lives. We send them to slaughterhouses, kill them, and process packaged meats. which are sold in grocery stores. And we try to believe that somehow, along the way, something humane and ethical happened. And in the process, we harm ourselves. As many people know, the length of consumption of animal products leads to heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes. We destroy our environment. The emission of greenhouse gas through animal agriculture is more than any other industry.

[26:06]

50% of ocean acidification comes from animal agriculture. In order to build animal farms and facilities, people tear down forests and kill wild animals who are often native to their lands. 75% of antibiotic resistance resulted from animal agriculture. The environment of the facilities are so bad. And animals are so sick. Only things that keeps them alive is a large dose of antibiotics. The world's cattle alone consume a quantity of food, which is equal to feeding 1.7 billion humans. And yet, one in nine humans, the total of

[27:13]

790 million people suffer from chronic under-nourishment. 1,000 liters of water are used to produce 1 liter of milk, and 15,000 liters of water are used to produce 1 kilogram of beef, while 844 million people in the world are not able to access clean water. And yet, we continue to justify animal agriculture by claiming that it is normal, necessary, cultural, and natural. And some of us believe that Animal kingdom or certain species are innately inferior to ourselves because they lack our specific type of intelligence, because they are weaker and they cannot defend themselves.

[28:30]

Is this true? These informations came from books, Animal Liberation by Peter Singer, Food for Bodhisattva by Shabukar Sogdrok Landro, and To Cherish All Life by Zen teacher Philip Kaprow, and the movies Dominion, Eating Animals, Cow Spiracy, Earthlings, and Sea Spiracy. I did not use the information. However, if you are interested in the physical performance of the vegan diet, the movie Game Changer is highly recommended. So now, have you ever read the three pure precepts which stated in the San Francisco Zen Center's website?

[29:43]

It is said that the three pure precepts are inseparable from the Bodhisattva practice taught at San Francisco Zen Center. They represent the aspiration of every Bodhisattva. Here, I will introduce the first two of the three pure precepts in San Francisco Zen Center. To do no evil. To do no evil means to refrain from causing harm to oneself, to others, to animals, to plants, to the earth, to the water, and to the air. To do good. To do good means to uncover and to act from the loving kindness. compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity of our awakened nature.

[30:51]

In our effort to live ethically, we embrace and rely upon the time-honored Mahayana practice of confession, repentance, atonement, and reconciliation. Although the San Francisco Zen Center website uses the term three pure precepts, our lineage, which is a Japanese Soto school, including our great master, Dojens and Diyosho, have been using the term, the three collective pure precepts. What is the importance of the term collective? Eventually, I will get to it. According to Groner, 1979, in Sai Cho and Bodhisattva precepts, in Hiniamat Buddhism, the threefold learning was usually regarded as a progression of practices, which led to the final goal of liberation.

[32:09]

The precepts, provided the moral basis for meditation. Meditation provides the basis for wisdom, and wisdom led to liberation. Although the precepts served as the basis for the entire structure, they were ranked lower than the other two types of learning. Chronologically and in terms of importance, This is a traditional order of the threefold learning in Buddhism. Shira, Samadhi, Planya. With wisdom, Planya, of no separate self, being the key to liberation from suffering, Nirvana. The principle of threefold purity was set forth in context of the Hinayana teachings.

[33:12]

as a guideline to ensure the integrity of the Prati Moksha vows. Prati Moksha is a list of rules, which are contained within Vinaya, governing the behavior of Buddhist monastics. Prati means towards, and Moksha means liberation from cyclic existence, samsara. Pratimoksha discipline is called the foundation of Buddhism because for ordinary people, physical discipline is thought to be the beginning of spiritual training and the basis of spiritual progress. The aspiration of pure Pratimoksha discipline is the achievement of liberation for oneself.

[34:15]

In Mahayana, however, there is a profound change of emphasis from the wish to free oneself from suffering to an intense awareness of suffering of all beings and the cultivation of the wish to protect and liberate them. Since the ability to free others implies the achievement of freedom for oneself, the Hinayana is by no means rejected. It is the basis of the Mahayana and is incorporated and transpired by it. The need for self-liberation is acknowledged, but the shift of emphasis is toward other liberation, or to be more exact, to a state of wisdom in which the distinction between self and other is seen to be unreal and is transcendent.

[35:32]

The three collection of pure precepts, in Japanese, is a classification of precepts into three groups on the basis of their function. Number one, prevention of evil. Number two, promotion of good. And number three, saving sentient beings . The precepts to prevent evil were originally taken from the traditional pratimoksha precepts. The precepts of promoting good were considered as taken by bodhisattvas, and the good which arises from actions, words, and thoughts.

[36:49]

Promoting good includes, but not limited to, the practice of six perfections, generosity, morality, patience, energy, meditation, and wisdom. The precepts of benefiting sentient beings are considered as emphasis, of the ways to help others, which include the first two precepts of preventing evil and promoting good. The earliest appearance of this classification was in Abhatamsaka Sutra, in a passage analyzing the 10 good precepts. The three collective pure precepts formula was applied to the 10 good precepts in order to illustrate different but complementary aspects of the precepts without providing a definition of the term.

[37:59]

It appears in a long chapter of 10 dedications if you try to read. It is quite beautifully written. and translated by Thomas Creary, who recently passed away. So I would like to simply recite them. This comes from page 604 and 605. Great enlightening beings becoming monarchs of great countries, masters of the law, promulgate command to eliminate work involving killing. In all cities, towns, and villages, all butchery and slaughtering is prohibited. To all creatures, legless, two-legged, four-legged, or many-legged, they give freedom from fear,

[39:12]

and aggression, extensively cultivating the practice of all enlightening beings. Number one, they treat beings with humanity and kindness, not acting in aggressiveness or harmful ways. Number two, they conceive the wonderful precious will to give peace to sentient beings. And number three, establish profound determination for Buddha food, always abiding themselves by the three kind of pure precepts. They also include sentient beings to do the same. This is great enlightening beings' dedication of roots of goodness, when abiding by free bodies or collections of pure precepts, and forever stopping slaughter to cause sentient beings to attain a complete ten-powered knowledge of Buddhas.

[40:26]

In addition, in a later chapter of ten stages in Abhatamisaka Sutra, there are and other beautiful descriptions guiding us on how to live a good life. However, these are not called three pure precepts. It says, having abandoned these 10 bad ways of action, they live by 10 good ways of action and also lead others to them. Even more to the welfare and happiness. with kindness, sympathy, compassion, and desire to care for them and protect them, thinking of them, thinking of all beings as equal to themselves, thinking of them as example and teachers.

[41:30]

This is coming from page 717. go into the details tonight, but if you are interested in as for what these precepts are, they are extensively discussed in Bodhisattva Bhumi section of Yogachara Bhumi Shastrabai, a Sangha, and briefly defined in Bodhisattva Jewel Necklace Original Karma Sutra. Instead, tonight, I would like to touch on the conversations between Shakyamuni Buddha and Bodhisattva Kashyapa in order to address the historical dilemma to talk about this issue. Also, their conversation always makes me smile when I read them because Shakyamuni Buddha was about to die, yet the Bodhisattva Kashyapa just kept asking him questions

[42:48]

regarding the morality of eating meat, one after another, and wouldn't let go of the Buddha. This passage was taken from this section of the Mahaparinabhana Sutra called the answering of questions. Then, Bodhisattva Kashyapa asked the Buddha, but why indeed, O Lord, And Tathagata, do you forbid the consumption of meat? Sound my lineage, the Lord replied. Eating meat destroys the attitude of great compassion. But in the past, O Lord, asked Kashyapa, did you not allow the eating of meat found suitable after it has been examined in three ways? Yes, the Buddha said, in order to help my followers in overcoming their habit.

[43:56]

In short, all such provisions I made for one purpose, that the consumption of meat be brought to an end. But why, asked Kashyapa, has the Tathagata allowed the flesh of fish? as wholesome food. Some of my lineage, the Buddha answered, I have never done so. I have described all sorts of healthy food, sugar, cane, rice, molasses, rye, barley, and so forth, milk, curd, butter, oil, and so on. I have likewise permitted my followers to wear robes of many kinds. But though I have so allowed them, such robes must be of the proper color.

[45:00]

How much less could I allow the eating of fish simply to satisfy the desires of those who wish to eat it? If you had allowed the eating of fish, said Kashyapa, It would not make sense for you to advocate the five tastes for milk, yogurt, buttermilk, butter, ghee, sesame oil, and forth. It would be logical for you to forbid them, just as you have forbidden the keeping of ornaments, leather shoes, and gold and silver vessels. Some of my lineage, my teaching is not like that of the naked aesthetics. I, the Tathagata, established rules of discipline in relation to specific individuals.

[46:06]

Consequently, with a certain purpose in mind, I did give permission to eat meat, regarded as suitable for consumption after it has been subjected to threefold examination. In other contexts, I have prescribed 10 kinds of meat. And yet again, with someone else in mind, I have declared that it is improper to consume meat of any kind. even of animals that have died of natural causes. But I have affirmed, O Kashyapa, that henceforth all those who are close to me should abstrain from meat, for whether they are walking, sitting, standing, lying, or even sleeping,

[47:13]

Meat eaters are source of terror to animals who can smell them, just as everyone is frightened at the smell of a lion. This is just a part of the long conversations. Yet, Buddha was very patient and kind to his disciples' relentless questions and ended conversation. If I were to explain in detail the prohibition of meat and all its rules, there would be no end. But it is now time for me to pass beyond suffering. Therefore, I have explained it to you only in part. In Mahayana Buddhism, the precepts are often considered as guidelines for people to show how to live your life instead of the rules which you must follow.

[48:30]

The imposition of a rigid morality by denying and replacing old habits and needs is falling to the Mahayana Buddhist spirit. But then, How we, the bodhisattvas, are able to find skillful means to encourage ourselves and others to refrain from harm without imposing a rigid morality. This is the loop I fall in sometimes and cannot get out, and leaving me the feelings of powerlessness and helplessness. I found so many questions and so many uncertainties to discuss this material tonight. Yet, somehow, a part of me still feels it is important to bring it up again, knowing that there are no easy solutions or answers on this subject.

[49:45]

Instead, we may only have the messy, endless conversations or awkward silence. Here, I would like to express my appreciations to my Dharma brother and sister Koukyou Henko and Shouhou Kubast for their moral support and warm yet critical conversations on this issue. and to my teacher, Tenshin-Lev Anderson, for providing me with many, many reading materials upon precepts, and for his patience to answer my endless questions. I would like to end tonight's talk with a passage from the movie, Dominion, talking about animals in factory farming.

[50:49]

These individuals actually have the capacity to feel love, happiness, grief, and mourning. They share with us our desire to live, to be free, to be seen as not an object, not our utility to others, not as units of production, not stock, but who we are as individuals. Thank you very much. Today our intention we extend to every being and place with the true merit of Buddha's way. Beings are numberless.

[51:54]

I vow to save them. Delusions are inexhaustible. I vow to end them. Dharma gates are boundless. I vow to enter them. Buddha's way is unsurpassable. I vow to become. Thank you very much, Riven Yuki Kobayama, and thank you to the Assembly. I think we have maybe time for one question, maybe two before our 8.30 time. If anyone would like to ask a question or make a comment, please raise your Zoom hand. Francis. Thank you, Kodo. Thank you so much, Shuki. It's nice to hear a talk.

[52:55]

I was curious while you were speaking in the period of time while you were Tenzo, how this, when you're responsible not just to feed yourself and provide for yourself or your cats, how this dilemma manifested itself or did it manifest itself as you're like buying food and trying to feed the community and there's, yeah. Can you talk about that? Definitely. Definitely. It was a challenge for me. And it's in a good English. It's quite famous. I'm vegan. And I was told by practice committee right away, cannot be just a vegan diet. And in the past, I rejected because of that. No, I cannot do it unless you... you allow me my way. But when I said I will do, I really wanted to integrate this vegan diet to the benefit of community and something tastes good, not only just a vegan, but something tastes good, people enjoy it.

[54:20]

And then can I cut back some of the consumption daily products and eggs? And I did, in a way, number wise, 90, 95% vegan diet and kind of manageable complaints, I guess. But in the end, yeah, always question, I'm making hard boiled egg, and yes, this is for community, but something was not able to really resolve in myself. So actually during that tens of time was always asking question myself, is it, is it, is it? And there's a temporary yes, but I was not sure. There's more maybe later.

[55:24]

Yeah. Thank you, Yuki. I think that brings us to the end of our time. Thank you so much for your talk. Thank you to the assembly. Reverend Yuki, I hope we see you again soon. Please take care. Thank you very much. Good night. Everyone should be able to unmute now if you would like to say goodbye. Good night. Thank you, Yuki. [...] Beautiful, beautiful talk. Thank you. Thanks, Yuki-san. Good night. Good night.

[56:06]

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