Warning. I realized I have much less of a relationship on this side of the room because mostly I see this side of the room. So I'm going to spend more time looking at all of you. Yesterday I talked about the three pure precepts, avoid evil, do good, and save all beings. But how do we do that? You know, as with most things, it's easier said than done. And it's not enough for us to think and say that we want to be good. You know, we have to do something. Do something good. So today I'm going to talk about the how of our practice, and we call the how the ten prohibitory or grave precepts.

[01:07]

Regrettable name, but there it is. So even though the precepts, particularly the prohibitory precepts, sound like some kind of external prescription, something that is couched in negative terms, like don't do this and don't do that, Really don't do any of those things either. Still, when they're properly embodied precepts, it's just an organic, natural way that you are in life. It's not something you're doing or not doing, it's just who you are, what you've become. As in the example of the Buddhas and ancestors, they're kind of like that. So precepts are really not so useful if they're viewed as accomplishments. You know, like, I haven't broken any precepts today, so I'm good. Actually, they're really steps in a training process to awakening.

[02:11]

That's the good part, when you wake up to who you really are. And how do you know when you're awake? Well, because you're that kind of person. good person, doing good things, and you're not really trying at all. You just, that's how you are. Kind of guy, kind of girl you are. As Dogan says in a fascicle called Shoku Makusa, when practice matures, evil is not done. Like a mother with her baby, it's the only way to act. But he also says, don't hate fire for burning when it's the nature of fire to burn. Yeah, but that's why we have these fire extinguishers all over the place too, to keep us safe. Not hate fire, but respond to it appropriately. The Buddha's own name for the religion that he founded was the Dharma Vinaya.

[03:16]

He called it the Dharma Vinaya. Dharma being the truth that he had discovered that frees all beings from suffering, and Vinaya being the formulation of rules that were given... in accordance with the needs of the various disciples. So he did this one by one as they came to study with him. Each case was different, and so the responses from the Buddha were different of what they should do or not do. And he did not decline to lay out a whole set of rules. No, he did. He did decline to lay out a whole set of rules. He didn't... or a precept package or anything like that. All of this was done in kind of chronological order. Whichever came first, that was the first precept, and so on throughout his titian life. He said, I will only give, in response to Shariputra, who was requesting some guidelines for practice, he said, I will only give guidance in response to specific difficulties that arise for a particular monk or within the community as a whole, case-by-case basis.

[04:25]

So one of the first guidelines had to do with sexuality when one of his monks in training went home to sleep with his wife. So this is the origin of the rule against sexual intercourse. So during his lifetime, the Buddha had written or given out about 250 guidelines in response to either unmonkish behavior or... behavior that was not conducive to harmonious life and community. And there was a formula that's been written down about how he went about it. If a villager gossiped about a monk, the Buddha would ask the monk to come see him, and then he would say, is it true, as is said, that you, for example, were seen eating after midday? And if the offender collaborated the report, they would say, yes, it is true, Lord, that I ate after midday.

[05:29]

And the Lord would respond, this does not arouse faith in the faithless and harms some of the faithful. So breaking the rule itself wasn't what he was emphasizing. It was the effect it had on others. I remember hearing a story about a Another Zen Center, in which the teacher was having a secret relationship with one of his students, and the man was married, had children, and this went on for a while, and finally the young woman was feeling really separated from the community, and she told her friend about it, and her friend did not keep it a secret. She went to the board of the community, and so the board of directors asked the teacher to come, and they asked him, you know, is it true that you are sleeping with your student? And he said, who told you?

[06:31]

So many years later, the rules were written down and they had been memorized by a monk by the name of Upali, who was also the barber for the community. And following the Buddha's death, they were set out in categories depending on the severity of the offense. So the most severe were listed first and so on. So the most serious category contained offenses that required immediate expulsion from the saga. And among those were sexual intercourse, murder, theft, and exaggerating your spiritual attainments. So once that expulsion was made, the person could not re-enter the Sangha for the rest of their life. It was permanent. Lesser offenses that required penalties of a lesser sort included some temporary expulsion, forfeitures of privileges, confiscation of inappropriate items, confession before the assembly, which is what we did last night together,

[07:51]

all our ancient toistic karma. Full moon is the oldest of the ceremonies. The monks living out in the forest, mostly separately in the early days, would see the full moon, so they would gather some clearing and recite their transgressions to one another. And so we do this in a kind of ritualized way. And then they also might make a confession just to one person, maybe their preceptor. I think the important point here is that the monastic community was formed in accordance with conditions of the time and place. There were always historical conditions that were different. By the time the dharma moved into China, monks began wearing more clothing because it was cold rather than just a single robe. So each layer that I have is a cultural addition. The kimono is Japanese and the corona is Chinese. And this is Indian. There's some American things going on too.

[08:54]

So we keep adding. Our culture adds. And I'm pretty sure what's happening with us now is we have a number of regulations which would be unheard of in the time of the Buddha. I don't think there's any prohibition against mid-practice period skit night or... wearing a watch in a vase or, you know, internet use and that kind of thing, because, of course, this is modern circumstances. So there will be regulations, and we have them, about these things. And this will always be so, a living tradition. So I think in considering rules and regulations, it's important to reflect on the Buddha's primary insight, which is that the world is the creation of our mind. But it's not just, you know, one person's mind, like my mind or the Buddha's mind.

[09:55]

You know, it's all of our minds together, co-creating the world. And not only our minds here and the living ones today, but all the minds from the past, all the sincere practitioners through all time are creating the guidelines for practice. Also from the Dhammapada. Those who know that we are here in this world to live in harmony with one another do not fight against each other. Another precept, the main precept perhaps. And at the same time, we do know that we need to talk about a lot of things, be clear, be careful, in order to create harmonious conditions for our life together. Truth is always relative, meaning that it's about relationships. It's relational. Until we see with the eyes of the Buddha. And then we see that truth is relational, and we know it.

[10:59]

It's the only kind of truth there is. So the primary relationship is the one that I said to you yesterday, the one between me and each of you. That me being... Also, each of you has a me. So me and each of you is the primary relationship, and that's where the precepts come to life. That's what they're for. That space that we imagine in between ourselves separates us from each other. So this relationship between me and you is the ten prohibitory precepts. They work there. That's where their work is done, right there. No, these are the vows that we take for the sake of one another. And just to repeat, I have promised that I will not kill you and I will not steal your things. I won't sexualize you or lie to you.

[12:01]

I'm not going to withhold my love or my stuff from you. And I won't hold grudges against you. or disparage the profound and ultimate truth about each of you, and that truth is that you and I, together, are Buddha. That's where awakening, where these precepts live, is where awakening lives, in our relationship. No one person is awake. It's always about relationship. And the second truth is that that's for real. This is true. And the third comes from the Lotus Sutra, Chapter 2, Skillful Means. Only a Buddha, together with another Buddha, can fathom the reality of all existence. That is to say, all existence has such a form, such a nature, such an embodiment, such a potency, such a function, such a primary cause, such a secondary cause, such an effect, such a recompense, and such a complete

[13:08]

fundamental whole and the complete fundamental whole is the Sangha with no exceptions all beings are the Sangha with no exceptions so this is true whether we know it or not and it's very likely that most of us don't know it most of us in the world don't know it that we are one Sangha One truth. And so we try to be very careful and well-organized and very clear about what we expect from one another. And, you know, this is our various detailed requests of each other, like to enter the door with your right foot nears the hinge, to take your compost down to the buckets and not put it in the trash. Every day we remind each other of what we like from each other in order to have harmony in the Sangha.

[14:14]

So precept practices are not so mysterious. They're really very simple. And the words are simple. But as you may recall, Bird Ness Roshi yelled down from his tree, Yes, a child of three can understand these precepts, but even a person of 80 years will find it difficult to follow them. So since most of us are not close to 80, well, getting close, but not quite there yet, and well past the age of three, I think we have a chance to reflect and learn how to follow the guidelines for an awakened life. And once again, that's the ten grave precepts. To be taken to grave as in take them seriously, take them to heart, consider them. as a guiding system for your life. So here are the thoughts that I've been having about one of them.

[15:20]

Some of these thoughts I've had before, and so some of you have heard a few of these thoughts. So I want to share with you what I think is the most important of the precepts, which is number four, the disciple of Buddha does not lie. I really do believe that all of the other precepts revolve around Not lying. Not lying to yourself. Not lying to anyone else. So, at the same time, I think it's really important not to take any of this stuff too seriously. And why? Because we might begin to create disharmony among us. by our rigid efforts at compliance. We can get very mean in trying to do good. So we have to have a kind of light touch with all of this, you know?

[16:23]

Not turning away, not turning toward. It's a massive fire. How do we stay warm and not get burned in our practice of the way? So one of the ways is... Humor. I think humor is, a good kind of humor is liberating. There's other kinds which aren't so funny. In fact, they're cruel, whipped and sarcasm and so on. But good humor frees us, at least while we're laughing. So I'm going to start talking about not lying with a quote by George Burns, one of the greatest comedians of the modern era. Now, I'm pretty sure some of you don't know who he is. But I do know that Roger does, and Rob does, and Annette does, and Mary does. Is there anyone else who does? Really?

[17:24]

Really? You guys are good. You really are. You're well-educated people. Or else you'd watch a lot of old reruns on TV. Anyway, George Burns was an amazing... And I watched a lot of TV. As a matter of fact, I was mostly raised by TV as a child. And we had our first TV, which was a black and white TV, a very small screen. We'd all sit very close to it. So George Burns said, to be a truly great actor, you have got to be honest. And if you could fake that, you've got to be honest. So what I really want to talk about this morning, to be honest, is George Burns. And I would like to actually be able to show you some episodes from his TV show. He and his wife, Gracie Allen, were very funny people and kind. But instead, I'm going to force myself to stick to the theme of the bodhisattva precepts and to simply talk about honesty and about not lying.

[18:34]

It's compliment telling the truth rather than to demonstrate it for you. Telling the truth isn't so easy. And yet it's the pivotal element in our effort to practice, as I said. In fact, the whole structure of practice depends on our capacity to be honest. So even though I really did plan to talk about the precept of not lying, I'm actually going to say some more about George Burns. Because that is honestly what I want to do. So when I was a kid in the 50s, they were a TV couple. And as I said, we watched them. In fact, we knew what day of the week it was by what was on TV. For my dad, it was the Westerns.

[19:34]

There was Bonanza and Wagon Train and Have Gun, Will Travel and Gunsmoke. Those were like Monday, Tuesday. And then for my mom, it was these kind of, what do they call them? Variety shows. Jack Benny, Bob Hope, Red Skelton, Lucille Ball, Milton Berle. And then there was the news. And all of this was very much forming our young minds. I really do think I'm a result of television more than anything else. It wasn't my education. It was really rotten. But TV was really, really informative. So on the news shows, we had Walter Cronkite, David Brinkley, and Edward R. Murrow, people who I and most Americans believed told the truth. We really did. We thought they were telling the truth. And, you know, now I have my doubts, but I kind of hope that maybe they thought so.

[20:38]

Or maybe they did their best. I hope. I hope. So these people, their style of dress, the way they behaved in front of the camera, and the way they used English became the generic form of English, of American English, how they spoke. particularly the newscasters. And so throughout the 1950s, as a child, I came to believe that the way TV people were was the moral and ethical landscape of American society, reflecting who we were. That was what we thought, right? So what appeared on TV wasn't different than what was going on in my own home. We were all white, our neighbors were white, and everybody on TV was white, right? Of course, that's the world. It's the only world I knew in my neighborhood.

[21:40]

Miles and miles of people just like that. I didn't know I grew up in the ghetto until I was much older. And what they were talking about was not very serious, and neither were we. except for the news, which was usually about people and places far, far away. Thank goodness. So in my home, we didn't talk about my sister being blind, and we didn't talk about my brother having learning difficulties. We didn't talk about the fact that my father's birth certificate was stamped in large red letters with the word illegitimate. I wasn't supposed to see that. We didn't talk about it. And we never talked about the fact that I was terrified of the dark and would wake up screaming. But we kind of looked together, tried to get along, and, you know, one of the ways we got along was by watching TV makeup.

[22:48]

And so I thought of those years as being pretty happy. Although we watched TV through a haze of smoke because my parents were chain smokers. Paul Malls and Chesterfields, I have filtered. We give them ashtrays as birthday presents. Yeah, I know, it's really funny. And the unfunny part is my father died of emphysema. He had an oxygen tank at the end of his life, and he was scared to death, and he couldn't breathe, and we didn't talk about that either. And neither did the cigarette companies except to tell lies. Really, really big lies. So I was kind of disappointed as a child when I began to find out that people lie, like big people lie. Wives lied to their husbands, husband to their wives, parents to the children.

[23:55]

Teachers lied. President lied. Priests lied. Zen teachers lied. And not only do they lie, but they slander and sexualize. They steal and they kill. And in fact, all of us have been doing these things for a very, very long time. But who knew? You know, because adults lie. They lie and they rewrite history. And that's what we're taught as children. We're taught that we live in the best country in the world and we're good. We only do good things for good reasons, to bad people. So by the time I was 11, some of these stories that I believed began to peel off. Like the wallpaper. And I think it started when I was molested by my junior high school teacher.

[25:04]

I was kind of scary. I'd like to study. Then I didn't want to go to school. And I didn't want to go to church either because something like that happened there too. Oh my God, where am I going to go? I'll watch TV. Safe. In 1959... Rod Serling came along with the Twilight song. Thank God. Finally. It's something I can relate to. And I think that Rod Serling was actually the harbinger that the era of the 50s was coming to an end. And that my own childhood was dissolving into adolescence at the very same time. Serling was a very moral man. Really recommend you read about him. And he used science fiction and the format of The Twilight Zone to expound his views on race and gender inequality, and also his strong anti-war sentiments, having done a lot of killing during the Second World War.

[26:14]

And the advertising agencies and the TV censors couldn't figure out how he was doing it, because he used the format of these weird stories. So he snuck it in, all of his moral lessons. And I really recommend you look at some Twilight Zone episodes. They all had deeply moral messages. So I was really impressed to see how his well-crafted efforts to bring these considerations into our living rooms worked. He got into the minds and eyes and hearts of children like me. I am so grateful. And then on November 22nd of 1963, I was a sophomore in high school when my worldview changed up forever. I watched and participated in my culture's war with his own failed conscience, a war that hasn't ended yet and will not in my lifetime.

[27:23]

I came home and in my living room, my mother was standing there at the Iron Board crying, which she rarely did, watching TV. As we heard all the news about our young president who had just been murdered in Dallas, Texas. And then it seemed like very rapid succession. Martin Luther King Jr., Bobby Kennedy, assassinated one after the other. And right then is when the napalm fires started to light up bodies in Vietnam. We saw that on TV. Horrifying. So with that, the assumed innocence of my childhood was over for good. And I think that the outcome of this emotional assault on my young childhood had to do with lies. In fact, I'm sure that there were layers of lies.

[28:33]

And I've been taught many, many lies through decades of school. You know, all of the textbooks, they leave out most of the interesting things that are left out. And finally, lying didn't surprise me anymore. In fact, I assumed that's what everybody was doing, was just lying. And then that assumption kind of solidified into cynicism. Sarcasm, political rage, and eventually indifference. But that was a lie too. I wasn't indifferent, I was just smashed. So I moved to Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and lived in a little log cabin. Didn't read the papers, except for the Jackson Hole News. And I tried to learn how to ski. I've always wondered if I'd still be there if I'd been any good at it. But I think fortunately for me, George Burns and that era had done something for my heart.

[29:45]

There was some goodness in my heart. It makes me kind of cry just to feel it. We are good-hearted people. So I didn't forget the promise that his generation made to mine. You know, the promise of, even if it was an act of a better way to live, a kind-hearted way. I might have to cry for me. Excuse me. they modeled a way for us to live with a kind-hearted humor, with generosity and with honesty. And if we want to do that for real, we have to work at it. It just doesn't come to us that naturally.

[30:49]

We have to work at it. And I think it's going to take a while for us to truly be honest and kind, you know. And then maybe while we're waiting... Just have to fake it. To be a great actor, you have to be honest. If you could fake that, you got it made. It's a little bit like the bodhisattvas. Just act like a bodhisattva. And eventually, you know, we'll get there. You'll forget that we're acting. But how do we know if we're faking it, you know? I think because we're invited to study ourselves carefully, and that's why I keep saying honesty is the pivot. If we study ourselves carefully, we will see whether what we're doing is authentic or not, truthful or not, really what we mean, what we intend to do.

[31:50]

So there's no time off for good behavior. This is a continuous practice, whether you're with others or whether you're by yourself. It doesn't matter. You can't escape from your own conscience. You know that what you've done is good or not good, whether your thoughts are kind or unkind. So Buddhist study is really never about anyone else's behavior, it's always about our own. And yet we all find it most easy to speak of the faults of others. So that's the precept too. Not to do that. Do not speak of the faults of others. Please just keep coming back to yourself. What is this to do with me? In fact, there aren't too many things human beings might imagine doing to one another that were not prescribed by the Buddha 2,000 years ago.

[32:54]

Don't do that. Don't kill people. Don't steal. Don't lie. Don't sexualize. It's the same species. Same, you know, prayer. Please don't do that. Let no one deceive another, nor despise any being in any state, that none by anger or hatred wish harm to another. Even as a mother at the risk of her life watches over and protects her only child, so with a boundless mind should one cherish all living things. suffusing love over the entire world, above, below, and all around, without limit. So these are very lovely things that we say. We say them over and over again. And we can imagine how we might even do them. I think we can. I think we get close. Oftentimes, every day, I feel we're very close to being just like we say.

[33:57]

This world really is our only child, you know, the whole world, and our only parent. She's our mother. Where are we going to go without her? This is our home, and we have to take better care of it. The sea levels are higher than ever. I don't know how many thousands of years it's happening. We're right up to our eyeballs in a circle of water. One other thing that George Burns said was, the secret to a good sermon was to have a good beginning, a good ending, and the two together as close as possible. So thank you.

[34:50]

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