This podcast is offered by the San Francisco Zen Center on the web at www.sfcc.org. Our public programs are made possible by donations from people like you. Good morning. Welcome. Everyone I can see... here in this room and everyone I can impute in the on the zoom link and thank you for zoom hosting Burke because our usual zoom host is away in Philadelphia, the city of brotherly love, I think.

[01:01]

So I wonder if we have Shosai Myokichi Jojorani someplace that people could chant. They already have it? Okay, so I would like to ask that everyone online mute yourself if you're not already muted so that we don't have a lot of different things going on at the same time. And I would also like to ask that people who have never chanted this before be the first ones to respond. And the question I'm asking you to respond to is when we chant this, how does it come off to you? What does it mean? Just asking. And don't worry if you don't get every word right. Okay? So shall we? Are we ready? Are we almost ready? What page is it?

[02:04]

Anyone know? Page 10. So you'll see a bunch of syllables. Just follow along. If they're going by too fast for you, just catch the ones that you can. And we'll chant it three times. Okay? And I'll keep time. I'm sorry. Unnun shihura shihura harashihura harashihura chishu sa chishu sa vri chishuri soja soja senchi gyashiriye somoko nomosamanda motonan

[03:22]

RA CHI KOTOSHA SONO NANTO JITO EN GYA GYA GYA KI GYA KI UNNUN SHIHURA HARA SHIHURA HARA SHIHURA CHI SHUHURA [...] CHI SHUHRI CHI SHUHRI SOHJA Thank you. This recitation of the Shosai Myokichi Jodorani is dedicated towards the removal of hindrance of everyone in this room, both physical room and the virtual room, to all our friends, family, family of choice, family of association, family of genetics,

[04:39]

and family of humanity, and to all beings. Okay? So, now, particularly for the people who have never chanted this before, anyone want to speak about what it said to you when we were chanting? And if it's nothing, it's okay. If it's something, it's okay. You don't have to. Okay, now for people who have chanted it before. Anyone? What does it say to you, if anything? Hold on one second. Okay. Oh, Mike. Yeah. Thank you. Sorry. It's so they can hear you. I've never chanted it before. Um... It felt very comforting and grounding.

[05:41]

It felt nice. The rhythm, I don't know what the words mean, but the rhythm and kind of the depth and speed felt very comforting for me. Thank you so much. Maybe someone else, please. You're going to get your aerobic exercise. Yeah. Yeah, I've just changed it a few times before, not many, but it is always, I agree with the grounding component, but there's also a collective component that everyone is doing the same thing and there's the collective component to it where you drop in and out of your own ability to take a breath, but it continues on on its own.

[06:45]

So I think there's certainly a communal component. Thank you. And one more person? Anyone? Yes, an online participant would be great. Yeah, just one more person would be great. Sorry, Terry. We'll catch you later, okay? Um... Kahi says, felt like a comforting reminder to be here now in the present moment. Thanks, Kahi. Okay, so what we just chanted and what we just commented on, and you can add your own mental contributions to the understanding of how it feels. Don't worry, those contributions are not lost. They're in the room, and everyone is here together. Okay? So it is the Shosai Myo Kichijo Dorani.

[07:47]

And I'm going to try to give some background on this Dorani and what a Dorani is. Please excuse me that I didn't pass this out. It's not ready. It's a study guide that I'm in the process of writing. And we'll try to write by May or so. Okay? So... The graphics will have to wait. So every day in our Zen practice, we evoke emotional readiness. And we're going to look at or try to understand what Dharanis are. Dharanis are from the Sanskrit root, same as dharma, which means to hold. And so... A dharani is something that holds a teaching, an utterance that holds a teaching. And as you could tell, it doesn't necessarily need to be in English or in our home language or translated or translatable to communicate this, which is really interesting because this dharani is a transliteration from Sanskrit to Chinese.

[09:07]

to Japanese, to American English. So how does that happen? What is this? So Durrani's, you know, if you look up Durrani, you'll probably find out that it's a magic spell or an incantation, but it's rather more than that. In fact, it's a transmission ritual that evokes in us teachings of within the field of our own bodies and minds. So I was thinking about what I wanted to speak about today, and the tentative title I came up with is The Hidden Architecture or The Secret Architecture of the Shosai Myo Kichijo Durrani. Why do I say architecture? Well... You know, I studied architecture and urban planning, and architecture for me is a very interesting human discipline.

[10:11]

First of all, it started out that architects and engineers and builders were the same people for thousands of years. They only got separated in the industrial era. And the point of architecture was to create a sense of place or a sense of environment. And a Durrani is speech. So we prepare for it in the body by creating certain architecture in the body. And then it creates an architecture of speech through its sounds. And then an architecture of mind. It establishes an external and internal environment for understanding some part of the path. That's why I wanted to think about Dharanis. So this Dharani, in general, or any Dharani, it's used in a variety of ways from very, very ancient times until today.

[11:14]

So in the Vedas, you find Dharanis, pre-Buddhist. So the Buddha already knew about Dharanis before. He was a Buddha. And the records or manuscripts of Dharanis are often drawn in the context of mandalas or palm leaf scriptures, and those scriptures are themselves relics. So they can be rolled into scrolls and put into stupas or tombs, and that's how we found a lot of them, actually. They're the earliest printed records in the world, as far as we know. So the Dharanis include visualizations that go with them, body practices that we can do with them, and mnemonics to remember teachings.

[12:18]

And the Sanskrit sounds... It's part of a whole medicinal lore that uses seed syllables to touch into the energy of different parts of the body, speech, and mind. And it takes an act of kind of purified will to study them and to chant them in that way. But when they do, they really open the gate to understanding what the practice is about. Not everybody needs to use Dharanis, but they are a big tool in our tradition. They were established in Buddhism at about the time of the Third Council, when people were scared that the teaching would get lost. And so they wanted to present it in very concise forms that were chantable and memorable, memorizable. And so they're kind of mnemonics.

[13:20]

They stand for stuff. It's kind of like, you know, if you want to know the amino acids that are part of DNA and RNA, it's a tall girl called, or an ugly girl called. Sorry, I learned this in the 60s. I'm sure it's different today, but I still remember it. I learned it in the 60s, and that was quite a while ago, right? Adenosine, et cetera. Okay. So... And because of the mantras of the Duranis, or the sounds of the Duranis being written so carefully and beautifully, they were kind of delivered as something nice that could be in somebody's house. And actually, Empress Shotoku, who was...

[14:21]

a nun before she was an empress, made and distributed over a million of them, and that in itself helped spread practices of Buddhism in Japan. So Empress Shotoku is a hidden heroine of Buddhism in Japan because she didn't give lectures, she sent Duranish. And another example of how Durrani practice can be used, I don't know if you, the people who have been practicing for a long time will no doubt have heard the story of Dogen Zenji, the founder of Zen in Japan. And we often study his teaching work, the Shobo Genzo, among other works that he wrote or said. So there's really a lot of records from Dogen Zenji. And I find this very moving.

[15:23]

So like the Buddha, at the end of his life, Dogen Zenji needed to practice in simpler and simpler ways. So we have the story that the Buddha... I went on a pilgrimage one time where I kind of tried to research the names of the places that the Buddha taught in the last two months of his life and go there. And what I discovered was that... he walked with dysentery. He had dysentery in the last two months of his life. He walked 200 miles saying the same thing in simpler and simpler ways. And Dogen Senji did something similar to this where he wrote Buddha, Dharma, Sangha, Awakeness, Teaching, and Intimacy. on a pillar, and then he walked around and around the pillar in the last days of his life.

[16:27]

A very simple practice, but within it, it held a lot. And this is another way to use Jorani's. So, what is the Shosai Myokichito Jorani? So it was transmitted to us by a teacher of esoteric Buddhism named Amogha Vajra. His Chinese name was Bukong, and I don't know the tone, I'm sorry. But he lived in the 700s. And it was then... compiled into a group of texts called the Ten Small Mantras. And the Ten Small Mantras started to be recited in basically all Chinese temples as part of morning service.

[17:33]

And they're still recited today. And they each evoke environments conducive to practice and conducive to remembering the teaching. But if you go behind the mantra and try to understand, well, what does it mean? As you found out, it's not translated into English. We don't know whether it means anything. Traditionally, the Dharanis are kind of advertised to not mean anything, but just be kind of magic spells or incantations. But the clue is in the title. The Shosai Myo Kichijo Durrani. Kichijo is a person. I don't know where I wrote who Kichijo is, but she is Lakshmi Mahasri.

[18:41]

why I'm looking it up, because I wanted to get the name right of who she's the wife of in Japan. She's the wife of Bisha Montan, and I'll research this before I do my study group on this. But basically, I want to say something about Lakshmi, who in Buddhism became, after the 700s, became Vasudara. So Lakshmi... it's a really interesting origin story about Lakshmi. And in Hinduism, Lakshmi is the goddess of plenty, of prosperity, and good fortune. And she's often shown smiling with an elephant on each side, like an upright elephant. And the elephants are... showering her with water.

[19:45]

And it's a form of, it's a kind of an understanding of Abhisheka, which is a water purification ritual that we do, that people with Dharma transmission do as part of ordinations and various other major ceremonies. And Why elephants? Elephants are good fortune, of course, but the Sanskrit name for elephant, Naga, also means a snake. And there's a legend about how the teachings were held under the surface of the water by the Naga king's daughter. And so snakes and elephants have always been associated. And this pouring of teaching, particularly in times of stress or difficulty, is part of what the Nagas do.

[20:54]

The Nagas kind of produce the teaching at the appropriate time. And the elephants shower Lakshmi with this water which is the source of life. She is of the... She's of the nature of prithvi, or earth, which also goes with architecture or built form. And she's associated with wealth or riches. And in the yoga tradition that I practice and teach, Lakshmi is associated with prakriti, or created form. built form, created form. The understanding is that our personalities are kind of built form. And we can change both the personalities and also the impulses or motivations that help build our personalities. We can actually change them and purify them when we begin to or if we want to practice.

[22:00]

And so the point of Lakshmi in Shosai Myokichi Jojarani is to point out that everything that is created is material for practice. So there's a quote by Dogen Zenji that was given to me by my teacher and Paul's teacher, Sojin Nell Weitzman. And everything that comes up in the study of the way is the true human body. Think about that. Everything that comes up in the study of the way is the true human body. Everything. Everything. I mean, think of all the junk that's come up in the study of the way, right? Or in life. The idea of Lakshmi is that all of it, without exception, is material, is a gate.

[23:04]

Dharma gates are boundless. I vow to enter them. Buddha's way is unsurpassable. I vow to become it. So those vows that we just chanted at the beginning of the talk hint at this riches. of resourcing that we have. And that's why it's Lakshmi. So the Sanskrit name of the Shosamyo Kichijo Dharani is the Jvala Mahogra Dharani. Okay? Jvala is flames. Flames. Maha is flames. And ugra is strength. But particularly a kind of a, you know, like spiritual or moral strength with which we can meet obstacles to bring them into and explore them in our practice.

[24:20]

And so... The origin story of Lakshmi hints at this, because Lakshmi, let's say, one time the angels and demons were fighting a war. This was also the origin story of the Dahishin Durrani, the Great Compassion Durrani. The angels and demons were fighting a war over the nectar of life, the very essence of life. And the angels got really concerned because they thought that the demons were going to, kind of get it and abuse it. So they went to Brahma and they said, oh, Brahma, please, would you please unmake those awful demons? And Brahma said, no, maid is maid. Forget it. I'm not going to unmake the demons. And then they went, oh, Shiva, could you do us a favor and kill them so we don't have to deal with them having the nectar of life? And Shiva said, no, I will not.

[25:22]

And then they went to Vishnu, and Vishnu said, hey, have I got a deal for you? And he said, why don't you make them an offer they can't refuse? And that is to do a tug-of-war contest, and the winner takes all. And so the angels proposed this idea to the demons, and the demons said, we're strong. We can do this. And so they did. And Adishesha, the snake king, became the rope. And Mount Sumeru, the center of the universe, became the fulcrum. And they started pulling the angels on one side, the demons on the other. The first thing that came forth was a poison so bitter that one drop of it would kill all life. in all the universes. And Shiva, you know, thank goodness for Shiva, opened his mouth wide.

[26:30]

The poison had already entered the great ocean of life. And Shiva went and drank the entire poisonous ocean, poisoned ocean, in one gulp. So he drank the entire ocean of suffering in one gulp. And then the next thing that came forth from the churning was still not the nectar of life. The next thing that came forth was all the beings, particularly the devas and the jealous gods. And one of the ones who came out was Lakshmi. And she decided to stay with the devas because she didn't want... Her main talent is... fortune and beneficence and wholesomeness. So she decided she was going to stay on the side of the gods and the angels, and she did. And that's her origin story. But whereas Shiva drank the poison, Lakshmi saw the beauty.

[27:39]

And that's her origin story. And that's where this mantra comes from. How am I doing for time? 1047. Okay, I'll try to be quiet soon so that we can actually talk about this. I could say a lot about the sounds of the mantras and the parts of the bodies they affect, but I think instead what I'm going to do is talk about this Durrani, which is supposedly untranslatable, and I want to talk about it as a cheer. Okay? Cheers. You know how cheers don't necessarily make the best poetry in English? Like, first of ten, do it again. First of ten, do it again. Like that. You know, it's not exactly great literature, but it is very effective, right? You know, everybody in a wave or cheering.

[28:43]

That really gets the enthusiasm up. And this is the spirit in which we recite these chants. They're energetic chants. And if you try to translate them kind of discursively, they make no sense whatsoever. But if you translate them as cheers, it's a whole different story. So... So you can follow along on this and see if you can make sense of it. So we chanted Nomo Samanda Motonan. It was page 10, remember? Okay. So which in Sanskrit is Namo. Nomo is Namo. Samanda is Samanta. Motonon is Natanon.

[29:44]

So it means homage to the Samanta, the everywhere guru, which is Lakshmi. Nomo Samanda Motonon. Oharachi Kotosha is Apratihatasya. Or the Aprati... One who overcomes misfortunes or calamities. Okay. Homage to the all-pervasive. Lakshmi who overcomes misfortunes. Sananam tadyata. Sananam means victory. And tadyata is like this. Like this. Okay, then en-gya-gya-gya-ki-gya-ki is om, speak it, proclaim it, speak it forth, proclaim it forth.

[30:53]

Un-nun-shifu-ra-shifu-ra-hara-shifu-ra-hara-shifu-ra. Hum, yes. Hum, yes. Shihura, shihura, jvala, jvala. Fire, fire. Blaze, blaze. Harashifura, harashifura. Blaze out, blaze out. Chishisa, chishisa. Tista, tista. Stand firm. Stand solid. Stand with your feet on the ground. spread, scatter like stars, like fireworks. is burst forth. So it's like stand, stand, fireworks, fireworks, bursting in air.

[31:59]

is Shanti is forbearance or patience, the ability to live with insults and use them for the good. Sri means fortune or auspicious radiance. So, Somoko, Amen. Okay? So, I guess it could be loosely translated. Homage. to the guru that's in everything. Resources that transcend disasters. This way is success. Om. Say it. Speak it. Spread the word. Yes, yes. Fire it up. Blaze it out. Stand up.

[33:02]

throw it forth, scatter it like stars, like fireworks, burst, blaze. To the patient and firmly radiant ones, amen. May it be so. So it carries that meaning. Pretty cool, huh? For a nonsense word. But basically it's a cheer. So I'm kind of damning it with faint praise when I translate it, because each of those words has a lot more associated with it. So, for instance, the thing about the light and the flame, there's a holiday called Diwali, which is the festival of lights. And Diwali, there's images of Lakshmi, and you put lights out there. And in Pune, when I first went there to study yoga, at first there was like a parade with these statues, or you would make little flames in oil lamps and so on.

[34:18]

But the last time I went there, this had been the case for many years, there was a contest to have the best altar. for Ganesh and for Lakshmi. And that contest had taken an electronic form. So there were these big like parade floats and you could go up inside them and there would be flames and bright lights and the names of the deities would appear in lights that would kind of be like neon signs. And it had all of that, all of the kind of crazy beauty of New York City at night. You know what I'm saying? It was very, very moving. And all these young people were getting together to make fantastic altars with lights.

[35:19]

And that's in this spata, right? So every word in this has... not just those associations from now, but for thousands of years. And those associations are what carries the meaning. And the Sanskrit syllables carry the meaning in different centers in the body, which is a story for another day. Thank you for listening to this podcast offered by the San Francisco Zen Center. Our Dharma talks are offered at no cost, 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 sfcc.org and click giving. May we fully enjoy the Dharma.

[36:10]

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