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. Good morning and welcome. Welcome to the Great Assembly. For those of you who are in the January Intensive, you know why I am calling out to the Great Assembly. And for those of you who are just coming into this conversation, I wanted to tell you a little bit about what we've been doing these past two weeks in our studies together. So beginning in the first week of January, Zen Center set aside some time and work for all of us to explore the Lotus Sutra together with senior Dharma teacher, Tenshin Reb Anderson. Students from around the world, some of them who have studied with REB for many years, have been able to join this intensive this year due to our limitations and confinement within the digital meeting spaces like this one.

[01:12]

So in many ways, the limitations of Green Gulch being closed to outside guests has been a rare gift to all of us. And it would seem not at all out of place in the timelessness and the spaciousness. of the Lotus Sutra itself. So we began our study of the Lotus Sutra with Chapter 1, in which a truly great assembly has gathered to hear a teaching from the Buddha, a teaching which since early times, according to scholars throughout East Asia, has been considered to be complete and sufficient for salvation. So Chapter 1 tells us where this gathering is taking place. the city of royal palaces on Mount Gajakuta, and it tells us who's there, including some familiar names. There's Mahakashapa, Ananda, Shariputra, Sibhuti, and Rahula, who is the Buddha's one and only child.

[02:13]

There's also the Bhikshu Yosodara, the Buddha's former wife, and Mahavajapati, his maternal aunt, who helped to raise him after his own mother had died shortly after giving birth, and then who went on to become the first fully ordained Buddhist nun. There's also a great number of well-known bodhisattvas in attendance. Among them, there's Manjushri, Maitreya, Avalokiteshvara, Precious Moon, Medicine King, Everzealous, and a less well-known bodhisattva by the name of precious palm of the hand. So alongside this gathering of monks and nuns, of arhats and bodhisattvas, there are lay men and lay women, heavenly kings, dragon kings, jealous gods, and some plain old human beings, with each category numbering in the hundreds of thousands, if you can imagine that.

[03:16]

So during our first meeting, we On January 11th, Reb added to the list of those in the Great Assembly by going through the names of all of those who were on the screen, the Zoom screen. You know, names like Maya and T and Jiryu and Timo and Anna, Valerian, Linda, Jenny, Kokyo, and so on and so on. Some 230 names in all. So today I can also add to the Great Assembly your names if you like, you know, to the Great Assembly of Beings. who are turning toward the light of the Buddha's wisdom and teaching for as long or short or often as we like. So the Lotus Sutra stands quite high above all the other sutras of the Mahayana. And it's the basis of a number of schools of Buddhism, and one of them being the Tendai tradition in Japan, which is where Dogen Zenji... Our founding teacher trained as a young boy and young man before he began his studies of Zen, which is one reason why in Dogen's own writing, there are so many citations from the Lotus Sutra.

[04:25]

And in particular, there's one fascicle he wrote that's called Dharma Flower Turns Dharma Flower. So I thought I would read to you a portion of that fascicle, which might help better understand what the content of this venerable text is trying to understand. Tell to us. Teach to us. So here's a quote from that teaching by Dogen. A monk called Fada visited the assembly of Zen Master Hui Nong of the Tang Dynasty in China. The monk boasted that he had chanted the Lotus Sutra 3,000 times. Hui Nong said to him, Even if you have chanted the Sutra 10,000 times, if you don't understand the meaning of it, you won't even know your own mistakes. Fada said, because I'm stunned in amazement, I have only been able to follow the words and chant. How can I understand the meaning of it? Huenong said, well, chant it for me. I will explain the meaning of it to you.

[05:27]

And so Fada chanted the sutra. At chapter two, called Skillful Means, Huenong said to Fada, stop. The essential meaning of the sutra is the causes and conditions of the Buddha's appearance in this world. And although the sutra expounds many parables, there is nothing more to it than this. What are the causes and conditions of the Buddha's appearance in this world? Simply, the one great matter. The one great matter is nothing other than the Buddha's awakened insight. That is opening, displaying, realizing and entering the reality of all being. The one great matter is naturally the Buddha's insight, and those endowed with this insight are already Buddhas. So you must now believe that the Buddha's insight is nothing other than your own mind.

[06:31]

You must now believe that the Buddha's insight is nothing other Than your own mind. And then Huynong taught with a verse. The mind in delusion is being turned by the Dharma flower. The mind in realization is turning the Dharma flower. Unless we clarify ourselves, no matter how long we recite the sutra, we will contradict its meaning. Thinking beyond thinking is right thought. Thinking about thinking goes astray. When we consider neither thinking nor beyond thinking, we endlessly ride the white ox cart. So this white ox cart is a metaphor in the Lotus Sutra for the great vehicle that carries us to our destination as fully enlightened Buddhas someday, such as today, such as

[07:38]

The white ox cart is your own mind. So having said that, I want to add that like Fada, a great number of Zen students, including myself, have had difficulty reading, let alone relating to the teaching of the Lotus Sutra. And Reb told us that he too had struggled to enter into a study of the Lotus Sutra. In fact... As I have been told by many, studying the Mahayana Sutras such as this one is a real challenge for just about everyone. Many people, particularly at Zen Center, prefer just to sit or to study the many yoga postures which are designed as preliminary for sitting, a posture itself called Raja Yoga or King Yoga. Others like chanting or walking or lying around. Well, the good news is that the Lotus Sutra has nothing critical to say about any of that. In fact, it has nothing critical to say about much of anything or anyone, except for those who have a problem with the Lotus Sutra.

[08:47]

And then it has a lot to say about what unfortunate outcomes there will be for those people in their many lifetimes to come. And yet, because of its all-inclusive view of our true identity as great spiritual beings, which contrasts to what appears to be a perpetual state of siege in our all-too-human world, I've chosen from the Lotus Sutra, Chapter 20, entitled The Bodhisattva Never Despise. This chapter was appealing to me within my own precious mind, particularly in recent weeks and days, because of the arising of a great deal of ill will toward other people. who seem to have the same amount of ill will toward me and my friends as well. So the subject, me, and the object, them, clearly are disturbing and dividing our all-inclusive mind, leading me, like Fada, to doubt.

[09:48]

As it says in Huyneng's verse, that the Buddha's insight is nothing other than your own mind. You know, how is that possible? So before I turn to chapter 20, I wanted to give those of you new to this sutra a brief summary of all that it contains, which in short is reality itself. And although reality itself cannot be reached by words and letters, we Buddhists and all those Buddhists before us use a lot of words and letters to say just that, you know, or just this. That just this is the all-inclusive reality itself. Now, for example, although the main body of the Lotus Sutra begins with the introduction to the Great Assembly, including all of you, as I mentioned, there's an even earlier teaching, kind of like a prequel, called the Sutra of Innumerable Meanings that sets the stage for the chapters to follow. And there's also a third section at the end, which is a meditation on the fantastical images in the Lotus Sutra, which the Buddha teaches just as he is about to die.

[11:00]

In this final section, the Buddha reminds the Great Assembly that all the evil deeds in this world are produced by faults of our imagination, as in nothing other than your own mind. The first section, the Sutra of Innumerable Meanings, also uses a great many words to say one simple thing. received as a question from one of the monks, a bodhisattva by the name of Great Adornment. So the Buddha, the world-honored one, Great Adornment says to him, along with his retinue. So in unison, Great Adornment and his 80,000 bodhisattvas who accompany him speak to the Buddha in these words. If we want to accomplish perfect enlightenment quickly, what doctrine should we practice? Great question.

[12:02]

If we want to accomplish perfect enlightenment quickly, what doctrine should we practice? I think this is the kind of question some of us might be asking the Buddha if we had the opportunity. What's the quickest way to Buddhahood? You know, I've got a lot of other stuff to do in this lifetime and in lifetimes to come. So the Buddha replies, Good disciples, there is one doctrine which makes bodhisattvas accomplish perfect enlightenment quickly. This doctrine is called the doctrine of innumerable meanings. If a bodhisattva wishes to learn and master the doctrine of innumerable meanings, they should observe that all laws were originally, will be, and are in themselves, empty in nature and form. They are neither great or small, neither appearing nor disappearing, neither fixed nor moving. neither advancing nor retreating. They are non-dualistic, just emptiness.

[13:06]

The Buddha then says, all living beings, however, discriminate falsely. It is this, or it is that, and this is to my advantage, or this is not to my advantage. At which time they entertain evil thoughts, they do evil deeds, they transmigrate through the six realms of existence, suffering all manner of miseries without escape. Therefore, he goes on to say, bodhisattvas should raise great compassion for them and help them to escape from suffering by penetrating deeply into the true nature of all laws. Once having stabilized themselves in the real aspect of all things, that is, non-dual and empty of inherent existence, beings are relieved from suffering, at which time they too preach this law, until all living beings obtain great pleasure.

[14:13]

While having listened attentively to these words of the Buddha, the Bodhisattva Great Adornment, clearly perplexed, inquires further, Dear Lord Buddha, The preaching of the world-honored one is incomprehensible. The nature of living beings is also incomprehensible. And now the doctrine of emancipation is incomprehensible. And though we have no doubt about the laws preached by the Buddha, for fear others might be perplexed, can you please say a little more about the law? The Buddha then goes on to say, yes. He had given a great number of teachings over many years with innumerable meanings. However, those teachings depended on the capacity of his students to understand him. And yet the Buddha says, although the teachings may differ one from the other, the fundamental nature of reality does not change, non-dual and empty of inherent existence. The example the Buddha uses in the Sutra is that of water.

[15:21]

which appears in many forms, such as wells, ponds, streams, rivers, and the great sea, and that like water, the true law washes off the dirt of the delusions of living beings, thereby revealing the incomprehensible and profound world of an awakened one. And therefore, he says, only a Buddha together with a Buddha can fathom it well. So I would imagine some of you might be thinking, as did the lovely Bodhisattva Great Adornment, at a time like that. Huh? What? What did he say? So in answer to that very question, during our January intensive, our own dear teacher has been saying to the Great Assembly that the one Buddha vehicle is the Great Assembly in intimate conversation with the Great Assembly. That would be us and them. That we live and die together with all beings as the undivided Dharma beyond all notions of separation or of integration.

[16:30]

Just this is the shortest way to enlightenment. Just this is it. A monk once asked a Zen master, if just this is it, why do you keep talking so much? To which the teacher replied, if I didn't keep talking, weeds would be growing at the monastery gate. And so on we go. Following this prequel, the main body of the threefold Lotus Sutra begins with chapter one, the introductions, which we've just done. So during the introductions, as the great assembly is introduced to one another, seemingly across great divides of time and place, such as we are now, In this chapter, the Buddha then brings forth a ray of light from between his eyebrows, this white tuft of hair that illuminates a quarter of the entire universe for everyone to see. After that, the Bodhisattva Manjushri explains to everyone that he's signaling, the Buddha's signaling, that he's about to teach the ultimate teaching, the Lotus Sutra.

[17:41]

So then chapter two. called tactfulness or skillful means. The Buddha explains more about how in his earlier teachings they were tactfully given to prepare his disciples for the ultimate teaching, the ultimate truth, the teaching of the one Buddha vehicle that leads bodhisattvas to the full awakening of a Buddha. This concept of the one Buddha vehicle or path to awakening is repeated in chapters 3 through 9 using parables, stories of the Buddha's former lives, and numerous prophecies of enlightenment for all of those who are in attendance at the Great Assembly. Among the better known of the parables are stories of the burning house, of the prodigal son, medicinal herbs, the magical city, each one of which you can read and are actually quite accessible in the Lotus Sutra itself. So beginning with chapter 10 up through chapter 22, the Buddha expounds the role of the Bodhisattva and the concept of the eternal lifespan of an awakened one.

[18:49]

He also presents to the assembly the practices that are going to be needed for teaching this sutra to others. First you accept the teaching. That's step number one. And then by reading and reciting, by copying, explaining and propagating it, Bodhisattvas become the farmers and the gardeners of awakening itself. In chapter 11, the Great Assembly learns of the existence of innumerable Buddhas throughout the cosmos through the emergence of a great jeweled tower that floats in the air, and from which comes a voice praising the Lotus Sutra. The voice is that of another Buddha who has vowed to appear whenever this sutra is being preached. So our Buddha then sits side by side with him, inside the great tower, as yet another visual gift to our human imagination. Chapter 12 tells stories of how everyone can be enlightened, women, animals, and even the most sinful murderers, such as Buddha's wicked cousin Devadatta, who had tried to kill him.

[19:58]

In subsequent chapters, the Buddha gives numerous prophecies of future Buddhahood to the monks and the nuns, to the arhats and the bodhisattvas. He teaches them virtues and proper conduct during their lifetimes as bodhisattvas. For example, they are told not to speak of the faults of other teachers or of their teachings, to cultivate patience and gentleness, tranquility, wisdom and compassion. And then he introduces the great assembly to a large gathering of bodhisattvas that suddenly spring up out of the earth, and who, we are told, were the Buddha's own disciples many, many eons ago. Again, reaffirming the idea that his lifespan of the Buddha is beyond all human comprehension. The Buddha then explains that he only pretended to die. in previous ages in order to entice his disciples to take the medicine of the one true teaching, your mind, your own mind, non-dual and empty, which they had been unwilling to ingest.

[21:05]

And he encourages them to strive on, knowing that the benefits of their practice and realization will bring great relief to suffering beings. Which brings us to chapter 20, The Bodhisattva Never Despise. Although the Lotus Sutra continues on from Chapter 20 to Chapter 21 through 28, and including much-loved Chapter 25, which our senior time teacher Linda Ruth Cutts spoke about last week, called the Universal Gateway of the Bodhisattva, Regarder of the Cries of the World, I'll simply say about those chapters that they're quite eclectic and may even have been added to later versions of the original sutra. of the circumstances of their inclusion, these chapters are devoted to honoring the great bodhisattvas, such as Avalokiteshvara, such as the Medicine King and Wondrous Sound and Wonderful Adornment and Universe of Virtue, you know, all great names, all of whom were sustained and sustained others by means of the Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Law.

[22:15]

In each of these chapters, the examples of these great beings reinforces the virtue of hearing the Sutra of the One Vehicle Doctrine, predicting that all who hear the true Dharma will be Buddha someday, like today, which, like tomorrow, is signless, wishless, non-dual, and empty. So, as I promised at the beginning of this talk, I will now engage in some thoughts about Chapter 20 and the Bodhisattva Never Despise. As with the entire Lotus Sutra itself, this chapter begins with a conversation between the Buddha and his disciples who have all come to ask him what for them are very meaningful questions. In this story, the Buddha is addressing the Bodhisattva, Mahasattva, great power obtained. And the Buddha says to him, you should know that if monks, nuns, lay men and lay women who are keeping the law of the Lotus Sutra,

[23:18]

are cursed, abused, or slandered by anyone. Those persons will receive great karmic punishment, whereas those who attain to the wisdom and practices in accordance with the law will have eyes, ears, noses, tongues, bodies, and thoughts that are clear and pure. So again, here we have these admonitions not to be disrespectful to the teaching of the Lotus Sutra. The Buddha then tells the assembly that in a past period, inconceivably eons ago, there was a Buddha named King of Majestic Voice Tathagata, all-wise, perfectly enlightened, in conduct, understander of the world, a peerless leader, a teacher of gods and humans, whose eon was named free from decline and whose dominion was called all-complete. He then goes on to say how this Buddha, preached in accordance with the capacities of his disciples.

[24:20]

For those seeking to escape from the round of aging, sickness, and death, he taught the four noble truths leading to extinction, nirvana. To those seeking to be solitary Buddhas, leaving no disciples of their own, he taught the twelvefold chain of dependent co-rising. And to those bodhisattvas who sought to become Buddhas, he taught the six paramitas for the perfecting their buddha wisdom so that era many eons ago as the buddha said was filled with golden days extending for 20 000 generations of buddhas all with the same name king of majestic voice preaching the wondrous law so this build up to the story that follows reminded me of the opening scenes of the lord of the rings which i recently watched once again when saran has been defeated and the ring of power lost in the back waterways of middle earth which as a result abides for some time in great peace however then as now nothing lasts forever not great peace great buddhas great kings or great queens and so it comes to pass that the reign of the buddha king of majestic voice comes to an end as does the period of the righteous law

[25:45]

which is followed by a period of counterfeit law, during which, as the sutra says, monks and nuns of utmost arrogance obtain to leadership and power. So much like Frodo and his friends, there appears during that period of decline a bodhisattva by the name of Never Despise, a nickname that he received from the Hathi monastics because of what for them... was his irritating habit of telling them that they were going to be Buddhas someday. He actually saw them like that, whether they saw themselves that way or not, which at that time, mostly, they did not. He would say to them, I deeply revere you. I dare not slight and condemn you. And why? Because you all walk in the Bodhisattva way and you are going to become Buddhas. So these monastics at that time were much too busy doing monkish things to pay any attention to him other than to try and shoo him away.

[26:46]

I would imagine they also considered him to be rather dull-witted and lazy since he didn't spend any time reading or chanting scriptures. Instead, he just followed after them to pay his respects and commend them for their future Buddhahood. So among the monastics who he irritated, there were those who would get very angry and revile him and abuse him, saying, where did this ignorant monk come from who takes it on himself to say to us, I do not slight you, and who predicts us as destined to become Buddhist? We need no such false predictions, no such fake news. And so for many years, the Bodhisattva suffered their revilements, and yet he never got angry or irritated, and in return, always saying to them, you're going to become Buddhas. So after a while, they were so angry, they even beat him with clubs and sticks and pot shards and stones. And so he would escape to some distance from them and yell back across the way, I dare not slight you, you are all going to become Buddhas.

[27:52]

And that's how he got his name, Never Despise. He just would not take the bait. So this story has a happy ending, which I will tell you in a minute. But first I wanted to reflect a little on how well I would do if my fellow humans got upset with me for telling them what I think of them. And further wondering, do I think of them in the same way as never despise, know that they will all be Buddhas someday? As I said in the beginning of this talk, One of the reasons I chose this chapter is because I do see myself thinking of a number of my fellow earthlings as irritating in the extreme. I do want them to go away and to reap the harvest of hatred and violence that has been sown and propagated by them and by a great king of the counterfeit Dharma. It is always a challenge, sometimes greater than others, to meet what appears in my own life with kindness, with patience, with forbearance and compassion, of this masterful bodhisattva never despised.

[28:59]

And still in our own day, I have found great comfort in the teachings and the examples of such seemingly empathetic public figures as Bill W., Mr. Rogers, James Baldwin, Eleanor Roosevelt, and now, as funny as it sounds to me to be saying, the President of the United States. It's Joe Biden. I know we all watch the public media as revilement upon revilement was aimed and fired at this man, and yet he refused to disparage them in return to fire back. He even told his incoming staff that if he heard any of them be rude or disrespectful to others, that they would be fired on the spot. Someone on the newscaster said, there's a new sheriff in town. So, of course, I don't know how it would be to live closely with that man. You know, I don't know him. I've never met him. And I don't know how it would be to live closely with the Bodhisattva, never despise either.

[30:03]

But I do know how it feels to witness such an example. How much I long to find within my own heart the power of empathy and, dare I say, of love. There's a very famous set of verses from the Dhammapada that I have recited again and again over the years for my own benefit and may it be also for yours as well. What you are today comes from your own thoughts of yesterday. Your present thoughts build your life of tomorrow. Your life is a creation of your mind. If a person acts with an impure mind, Suffering follows them as the wheel of the cart follows the beast that draws the cart. If a person speaks or acts with a pure mind, joy follows them as their own shadow. He insulted me. They beat me.

[31:04]

She defeated me. He robbed me. Those who think such thoughts will not be free from hate. He insulted me. They beat me. She defeated me. He robbed me. Those who think not such thoughts will be free from hate. Hate is not conquered by hate. Hate is conquered by not hating. This is an eternal law. Many do not know that we are here in this world to live in harmony with one another. Those who know this do not fight against each other. So these are ancient teachings given by the Buddhas to human beings. in troubling times. And these are troubling times. And therefore we turn again to these teachings in hopes to find our way. And as for the bodhisattva never despised, as I said, the result of his empathy and devotion to his fellow humans turned out very well for him there at the end of his life.

[32:05]

As he was laying down to die, preparing to die, he heard coming from the sky, the entire 20,000 myriad verses of the Lotus Flower Sutra, which the former king of majestic voice had preached. And hearing those teachings never despised gain purity of his sense organs and of his mind, which in turn prolonged his life for a very, very long time. And during that very long time, he too preached the Lotus Sutra. Seeing him transformed in that way with transcendent powers of eloquent speech and excellent meditation, the haughty monastics turned toward the light of the Dharma, believed in the teaching, and followed his way, all the way to their own complete, perfect enlightenment, just as he had told them they would those many lifetimes ago. Buddha then tells the Great Assembly that, in fact, he... was that very bodhisattva those many eons ago, and that they were those haughty monastics who are now sitting here on this day, listening to the true Dharma, which will now send them speedily on their way to complete, perfect enlightenment of a Buddha.

[33:25]

The end. Or the beginning. And everything in between. As Bilbo Baggins titled his memoirs, There and Back Again. So I wanted to share one last joyful expression with you that was inspired by this chapter of the Lotus Sutra, written by the Reverend Greg Fane and Ben Guston, who were both students sitting in a cabin down at Tassajara a few kotis of Kalpos ago, 2001. This rendition that's going to be played is being performed by Alan Sanaki, who, following the recent death, sadly, of our dear Sojan Mel Weitzman, In a few days, on January 31st, will be installed as the second abbot of the Berkeley Zen Center. Jenny, would you please help out with that tape for me? Yes. Thank you. There's a book called the Lotus Sutra that you really ought to know about.

[34:36]

A holy book that has the power to remove all fear and doubt. And his book tells the story of a man who means the world to men. He could just as well have been a woman on International Women's Day, except for male head chair with me. Well, they call him the Bodhisattva, never disparage, Bodhisattva, never despise. And I'm making it my life's ambition to see the world through his pure eyes. Now listen carefully, because this is the chorus which you will sing the next time it's around. I will never disparage you or keep you at arm's length if you know it, sing. For you only know your weaknesses. I only know your strength. I would never despise you or put you down in any way. Because it's clear to me, I can plainly see you'll be a Buddha someday.

[35:37]

I love you. Now the Bodhisattva never disparaging lived countless couples in the past. In the time of the counter to Dharma, and he was something of an outcast. Because the monks and nuns of his time, they were noted for their arrogance and vanity. And these were folks who exercised great power and authority. But my boy, he never concerned himself if they treated him like a freak. He just battled everybody equally. And these are the words in this thing. Here's the chorus. I will never disparage you or keep you at arm's length. That's good. When you only know the weaknesses, I only see your strength. I would never despise you or put you down in any way. Because clear to me, I can plainly see you'll be the fool someday.

[36:41]

I love you. He never read or recited the scriptures much. He only liked to practice respect. But the monks and nuns of his time, they didn't need it like you might expect. Instead, they cursed him. And they reviled him, and they wished that he would go. Because they'd all had self-esteem issues, like everybody else I know. So they'd beat him and pelted him with clubs and stones. They tried to drive him away, but he'd just run off to a safe distance. And then he'd turn around and say, I would never despair at you or keep you at arm's length. Where you'll only see your weaknesses, I will see your strengths. I would never despise you or put you down in any way. Because where to be I can plainly see you'll be good someday.

[37:44]

I love you. And so it went on for years and years. It was a target of scorn and abuse. Till our hero, he shed no tears, nor did he ever wonder, what's the use? Until he came to the end of his natural lifespan, he lay down fixing to die. And he heard the Holy Lotus Sutra being preached up in the sky. And his life was extended for millions of years. He's living to this day. And in the pages of the Lotus Sutra, well, you still can hear it say. I would never disparage you or keep you at arm's length. Where you only see your weaknesses, I only see your strength. I would never despise you or put you down anyway. Because it's clear to see, I can plainly see, you'll be Buddha someday. Yes, it's clear to see, I can plainly see, you'll be Buddha someday.

[38:51]

I love them. I love you. Thank you. Thank you for listening to this podcast offered by the San Francisco Zen Center. Our programs are made possible by the donations we receive. Please help us to continue to realize and actualize the practice of giving by offering your financial support. For more information, visit sfcc.org and click giving. May we fully enjoy the Dharma.

[39:33]

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