Anyway, what I wanted to say where I was going here was I was saying that the Buddha Dharma is not just some various mountains like the Four Noble Truths and the Six Paramitas or Srila Paramita, but it's actually kind of a woven net and interconnected net. And I think that it's helpful for all of us practitioners to remember the different parts of it. For instance, to know that when I talk tonight about Shila Paramita, that this second Paramita, Shila, is also the first step in the threefold way of practice, which is Shila, Samadhi, and Prajna. ethics, concentration, and wisdom. And shila is also the third, fourth, and fifth steps in the Eightfold Path.

[01:05]

This is right speech, right conduct, and right livelihood. And shila, this second paramita, is really the effort of our 16 bodhisattva precepts, which we offer in our ordination ceremony. And this is true, this cross connection of shila is true also of the other precepts, the other paramitas, the other teachings. And part of the practice of, I think, American Buddhists is to learn these things. I'm in an evening paramita group, and at the first class I asked How many of us knew the six paramitas? And less than half of the group actually knew the six paramitas. So we need to repeat them over, I think, and learn them and gain this literacy. But anyway, moving on tonight, my topic is Sheila Paramita, ethics, right conduct.

[02:12]

And here I go. Partly what I'm going to do tonight is I'd like to make it personal. I'd like to talk about Sheila as something that we can try to practice within our life. But also part of what I would like to do tonight is talk about precepts and ethics in some historical context as well. Say some things about, say something on that level as well. So in the beginning of our Zen center story, and when I say in the beginning, I don't mean like a creation myth, I mean at the beginning of our practice history, there was the Buddha, and the Buddha, after years of practice and intense effort, had a great awakening. We say unto the Bodhi tree, he woke up, and after his awakening, he

[03:20]

first wondered whether he could teach this subtle, mysterious, profound experience, and then decided he could, and rose from his seat of awakening and walked to meet some of his Dharma friends, and he turned the wheel of Dharma, giving his first talk, which includes the Four Noble Truths. So in our Buddhist practice, Zen tradition. First there was the Buddha, and then the Buddha had some students. And in the beginning of our practice history, the Buddha lived a wandering life of a mendicant. And he and his students lived the lives of great simplicity and poverty. And their possessions were very modest, and their robes were made of rags, and they did not store up food overnight. And at that time, in that early part of our Buddhist history, you became a monk by simply accepting the Buddha's call.

[04:37]

He would say, come, monk. And then by stepping forward, you were accepted into the monastic sangha. And later in the development of Buddhist history, this became a two-step process. First, you would go forth as a novice. And then secondly, he would receive full ordination as a monk in order to be a novice and also in order to receive the full ordination. Later on, there were some few modest tests. Basically, adulthood. freedom from debt, some modest tests. But importantly, the limits and the barriers to ordination were fairly low because the austerity of the life that the Sangha lived had a limiting effect on the number of candidates. And the life people lived was a shared life.

[05:37]

In time, the ordination process became more complicated. And various requirements of the numbers of witnesses increased and differentiation between rural and urban situations. But one of the things always maintained was a strict recording of the seniority, the date of ordination, because an enormous importance was placed on recognizing that. And According to this traditional story, which I'll say story with quotes around it, who knows if it's really the truth, but according to this traditional story, during the first years of the Buddha's teaching life and the first years of the Buddha Sangha, there were very few formal precepts for the monks. People lived with the Buddha, following his inspiration and with that guidance. But the Sangha grew and spread out, and problems arose.

[06:41]

And these problems that arose, some of them were unique, specific problems with an individual, but many of them actually were the same old problems, the same problems. And over time, rules of conduct, precepts of banastic order were developed and gathered together in a system that was called the Vinaya. And by the time the Buddha passed away, approximately, there were 250 rules of conduct. And originally, this was the shila. These were the ethical rules that guided the Buddhist community. It's recorded in a text that describes the Buddha's last teaching as he neared death. that he said to the assembly that they could abandon some of the minor rules of conduct if they wished after he passed away, that they should stick to the major rules and keep those.

[07:57]

After the Buddha passed away, just a few years after he passed away, there was the first Buddhist council gathered together. The Venerable Ananda spoke the suttas and recited for people's memorization, for the Sangha's memorization, the teachings of the Buddha. And the Venerable Upali spoke the Vinaya. And at that time, they were not able to make a distinction between the minor rules that could be set aside and the major ones. So they continued to keep this tradition of precepts, same as when the Buddha lived. And one thing I want to say, I want to address and speak to briefly, because it's a more complicated story than time allows tonight, but is how we came to what's now at the San Francisco Zen Center a very different tradition where there are 16 bodhisattva precepts that the lay students and priests both commit to and receive in their ordination, respective ordinations.

[09:09]

Actually, it's hardly time to talk about that. Anyway, let me try very briefly. I'm going to truncate history here. As Buddhism moved north into northern India, Kashmir to China and Japan, there was a Mahayana Sutra called the Brahmanet Sutra that described ten major precepts. And these ten major precepts of the Brahmanet Sutra read like this. First precept, the disciple of the Buddha shall not kill. Second, the disciple of the Buddha doesn't steal. Third, about sexual misconduct. Fourth, they are the same ten precepts that we carry forward in our priest and relay ordination.

[10:18]

And then in addition, there were 48 minor precepts. And anyone interested, I have the list, but I'm not going to take the time right now to say. This Brahmanet Sutra was seen as actually a special bodhisattva ordination, which accompanied and did not replace the traditional 250 precepts. I say 250. maybe by different reckonings, the number was slightly different, and was carried forth alongside it. And as Buddhism moved into China, both the Bodhisattva ordination and the traditional classic Vinaya ordination were maintained and transmitted. And again, just moving very quickly through history, at the time when Dogen Zenji went to Japan and excuse me, went to China and then returned to Japan and due to complicated situations which had something to do with politics and something to do with Dharma, truth, set forth a ordination which broke radically from the history of Buddhism and offered a similar preceptual vein to both lay and priests, a 16 precept

[11:38]

the three jewels of Buddha, Dharma, Sangha, and the three pure precepts of avoiding evil, practicing good, and benefiting all others, and then the ten grave precepts of ethical conduct. Now, partly I said all of that because of a feeling, because actually I didn't know it a year or so ago. I didn't actually, and I thought it was interesting. And I think people in our tradition should know this, how this happened, because it's an enormous change. It actually, change, I don't know if I want to say change, but it's an enormous development. And just the fact that both lay and priests take somewhat the same word nation is a dramatic development in Buddhism. So now, forgetting about history. or rather maybe a different sort of history.

[12:39]

So I said that the Buddha woke up and developed his teaching through talks and through living with the community and created a tradition of the Vinaya, of ethical monastic conduct. But there's also another story about the transmission of the teaching. And this story goes like this, which is at the vulture peak, Shakyamuni sat down to give a Dharma discourse, and he sat initially in silence for a long time, looking out at the assembly of 1,200 monks. At some point, he reached down and picked up a flower, held it up. And in that assembly, only the student Mahakashapa smiled and directly looked at Buddha.

[13:45]

And the Buddha then said, I have the eye of the true law, the secret essence of nirvana, the formless form, the ineffable dharma, which is not dependent on spiritual words, a special transmission beyond all other teachings. All this I pass to Mahapashapa. And from this transmission, we venerate Mahapashapa as the first Zen successor to Buddha. As I said at the very beginning, I was talking about the web, the weave of Buddhist teachings, which maybe in some ways might be like a lattice that supports our understanding by crossing and crisscrossing and reinforcing itself. There are many practices in Buddhism. And the reason that I believe all the traditions of Buddhism, different traditions, stress the importance of finding a teacher and having a direct personal relationship with a senior, a spiritual senior.

[15:02]

is to help us find our particular practice within that variegated tradition. But all of these different ways of Buddhist teaching and instruction, from the Theravadan to the Vajrayana to the Mahayana to the Zen tradition, all of these different ways of practice share one paramount thing, one very strong which is that they make a foundation out of the effort to live a life in an upright ethical fashion. That they found their teachings on the ground of keeping the precepts, which might differ from different countries, times, place, contexts, but nonetheless, they found their teaching on that ground. And one of the things that they also say Well, one of the things that the Zen tradition says is it's not just enough to follow the precepts, but it's also a positive karmic virtue to publicly say them aloud, to take them as a vow.

[16:18]

Because saying the precepts aloud is taking them as a vow has more power. than simply keeping them. And because also right speech is not just, right speech doesn't just mean that we avoid saying the awkward thing. Right speech means that we speak loudly the useful word, the word that helps us and helps others. And to commit in public to keeping the precepts is a useful word. So there is a fundamental summary of Buddhism. There's several fundamental summaries of Buddhism. But there is one particular one called the Threefold Way. And I think I mentioned it briefly before. It goes like this. The Threefold Way is shila, or ethics, samadhi, concentration, prajna, wisdom, ethics, concentration, or wisdom.

[17:23]

And while some of these lists in Buddhism... We say, don't make too much of the first one. You can take them up in a circular fashion, whatever. I really believe that the threefold way is intended to be brought forth and developed as it's laid out, as it's spoken. First, we need a foundation of ethics. Because a clear conscience provides us the necessary strength of intention and a clear, supportive mind to develop concentration, to develop meditation. And it's the strength of our meditation which might develop with a clear conscience of knowing we're living in an ethical way that can bring forth wisdom. And there are many ways to talk about Buddhist precepts.

[18:32]

There's the 250 precepts of the Theravadan tradition, the 48 minor Brahman, etc. There's many ways. But I want to say that the precepts and living with our life's awareness on trying to be helpful to ourselves and others is grounded in small moments. It starts as something basically very simple. And sometimes the precepts might seem like rules or restrictions, but The living in harmony with the precepts is just a description of what Buddhist life looks like.

[19:35]

And when we live our life in the spirit and in kind intention of Buddha, it looks a lot like we're keeping the precepts. So basically the way we do this is very simple, perhaps. simple uh we i say this as buddhist so the basic the simple way is that we commit ourselves to the buddhist path we take refuge in buddha we study the dharma we live in harmony with the sangha and in the words of thangpa rimkoche in an essay distributed in the precept packet that people who studied the precepts of Zenzen and received. In the words of Phamper Rinpoche, he says, quote, doing this is not only simple, but extremely economical. Close quote. We accept that there is already a path, a well-strategized, designed, thought-out path laid out 2,500 years ago by the Buddha, and we take a definite vow to enter that discipline.

[20:49]

to enter into a discipline actually that has rules. And this decision saves us a lot of time and money. It can. It saves us a lot of energy. And there is an aspect to taking the precepts and limiting ourselves by living in accordance with these rules laid out from the ancestors in our tradition There's an aspect of it that means we stop looking for better ways. Because, believe me, there's always a better way around the corner. And we stop looking for better ways, we just try to live this way. And we do this because we recognize it's good enough. And in this effort, it's useful to see elders who encourage us through their example. part of the responsibility that all of you have to recognize that you now might think that you're new students, but in time you won't be, and other people who arrived just a day after you, not knowing how fresh you are, are looking at you as an example and model.

[22:12]

And somehow in doing this, in accepting this tradition and accepting the limitation of these rules and stopping the looking for something better, which doesn't mean that you become uncritical. I'm not asking people to be blind to what's in front of them and concerns they might have. But nonetheless, there's something about a wholehearted acceptance of the discipline of practice, which... In some way, physically, like a virus that enters our body and slowly multiplies until we feel somehow that when we say the word sangha, we're not talking about something besides ourself and our relations. It's something almost at the level of chemistry that happens. It enters into our hearts.

[23:26]

And there's some connection between the degree of our opening our arts and how much this chemistry occurs. So acting in accordance with Sheila Paramita with ethics acting in a way that tries to cause, maybe not cause, but it tries to, acting in a way to try to live with, causing no harm to others, impossible goal, but nonetheless, trying to take this on, is not just a certain state of mind that we can learn and then use over and over and over. To cultivate Śrīla Paramita, to develop the practice of right conduct, the perfection of right conduct, we have to also enter into a flexible... I say have to, I forget the word have to, but anyway, it's a good idea to enter into a flexible, kind of responsive, humble place.

[24:41]

And we need to ask ourselves in the moments that occur in our life, not just... What's the right thing to do, but also what's the compassionate thing to do? And what's the helpful thing to do? Sometimes the right thing to do... Well, anyway, I won't say. So I'm going to back up a little bit and start with something... and say something pretty simple, which is that all of us have been born and all of us will die. And I think this is a really simple thing, but a big event. I believe that the concern of a place like the San Francisco Zen Center and Dharma temples, Buddhist temples,

[25:50]

everywhere, is to help people who have been born and who are going to die and help them to understand how to live their lives in a way that's most useful to them and to others. Maybe most useful, I don't know, in a way that's useful to them and to others. In this effort to try to, if we take this effort on, to try to live in a way useful to ourselves and others, it's a good idea to realize that we don't have as much time as we might think. Because first of all, it doesn't get easier later.

[26:55]

making this effort to live and keep the precepts, our habits become habitual, as is their nature. And so when we notice it, when we notice that we're not living in harmony with our intention, with our vow, the time to make the effort to stop and turn around and turn on that point is right then. And one of the lessons of practice is, at least that I think is the lessons of practice, is not that we learn some new knowledge, that we get some kind of brand new suitcase of information, but that we wake up a kind of love and love

[27:57]

Respect that we have inside of ourselves that feels just like who we really are when it's woken up. And it's not something that we have to go to school to learn. It's something that when we sit on the cushion, beginning with confusion, we can find that clarity without moving. And also if we want to wake this love up, wake up this love that has no object, it can be helpful to understand that this thing called Buddhist practice is not just a matter of waking up in the privacy of our own life, but that it is finally made real

[29:00]

and actually demonstrated in our public actions, in our public friendships, and in the life we live that's seen by others. This is because we need to be an encouragement to others. And that's how we find encouragement for ourself. The practice of Zen has survived, has flourished, has continued through a long, unbroken series of friendships that stretch back through history, ultimately to Buddha, Shakyamuni Buddha. And this continuous thread of friendship is a delicate line, but it's a line that joins us with the past and will connect us with the future. And absolutely, the most effective way for Dharma to be correctly transmitted is in face-to-face encounters, meetings with others.

[30:15]

Now... So, you know, talking, one of the things... that I felt about talking tonight about Sheila Paramita ethics, which I think is actually, you know, it's a talk, I mean, tomorrow night we could have another talk, and then it's a deep, deep, deep pool. But one of the things I felt was I wanted to make it clear and be honest and not just present myself as a master of Sheila Paramita, you know, as somebody who's like, kind of figured it out and I'm saying all these wise words because just to be honest my practice is incomplete and I struggle with this too and I sometimes say stupid things and act in ways that I don't believe encourage harmony so I'm still struggling to make it real and you know

[31:31]

About this, I want to say a story that's about a 15-year-old story in my life, 15- or 20-year-old story. And it's kind of touching on this teaching of the threefold way of shila, ethics, samadhi, concentration, and wisdom. And please don't misunderstand this, but I just want to say, about 15 years ago, in Zazen, I had an experience that I thought was wonderful. I had an experience that filled me with love for everybody around me, boundless love. I felt completely present in the moment, and frankly, I just thought it was great. And I thought it was a positive thing. So being in my belief that this would have been a good experience for me, I spoke to a dear friend and shared what had happened.

[32:35]

And this person got really mad and said, I don't want to hear about your goddamn Zazen experiences because you haven't been so nice to me recently. Yeah. You know, you haven't been treating me with any bit of niceness. And, you know, what's it all? I don't give a damn about what you're telling me about. You know, why don't you just be nice to me and treat me with more respect? And I heard it. And I thought, yeah, you know, there is a difference between concentration and ethics. And I think in the history of time, we have seen some examples of people who have developed concentration and had an ability to... through personal charisma effect events. But let me say, the teaching is first shila ethics, living in an upright fashion, you know, taking, keeping, respecting the wholesome rules of conduct.

[33:40]

And then, when that's grounded, when that's settled, your Zazen experience may have more validity. It is a tremendous help to our practice of keeping Sheila Parameda, of maintaining the precepts, to realize that our own self-interest and our own personal well-being is answered as a by-product of working for the well-being of others. Now we can't take it on sort of as a deliberate act of selfishness, but it's a fact that As this great 15th century Tibetan teacher called Shankapa, if I pronounce his name correctly, I'm not sure, said in one of his lectures, quote, the more a practitioner engages in activities and thought that are focused and directed towards the fulfillment of others' well-being, the fulfillment and realization of his or her own aspiration towards awakening will come as a byproduct without making any special effort.

[35:04]

Again, the more a student, a practitioner, engages in activities and thoughts directed towards the fulfillment of others' well-being, the fulfillment and realization of his or her own aspiration towards awakening will come as a byproduct without making any special separate effort. And I think this is true, actually. I think we realize this, actually. when it unfolds in our life. So keeping the spirit of keeping the intention, maintaining and supporting and acting on our intention to live the truth of Shila Paramita is, I think, the foundation block of the very basic intention of practice. And it might sound grand, the very basic intention of our practice, kind of grandiose, but really it's just our lives, our single lives, lived together in harmony with others with the effort to benefit all beings.

[36:30]

With the effort to benefit all beings, constantly remembered.

[36:41]

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