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. So continuing our exploration of bodhicitta, the altruistic wish for awakening or the wish to free all beings from suffering by realizing the Buddha way. You know, our four vows that we regularly chant, I think those first two, I mean the first one and the fourth one are kind of the summary. Beings are numberless. I vow to save them.

[01:01]

Buddha's way is unsurpassable. I vow to become it. And the middle two are like the practices that support the other two. Those two are like that bodhicitta package. And it's sometimes said that bodhicitta is the primary cause of awakening. There's many conditions for realizing awakening. But in the Mahayana, this aspiration is the primary condition. So it's a big thing. Because without the aspiration, there's no practice. So Dogen has various things that have already been brought up about Bodhicitta, but here's a little summary quote of Dogen. from the Zui Monkey. Is it on the list?

[02:03]

Yeah, it's on the... You still have some handouts if anybody wants. Dogen says in his earlier teaching years, he says, monks, practitioners today have to arouse sincere aspiration at least once. You have to have some time of really sincere aspiration. Arousing such aspiration means thinking little of your own life, having deep compassion for all living beings, and entrusting your bodily life to the Buddha's teaching. If you already have aroused such aspiration, protect it. Do not lose it even for a moment. It's impossible to realize Buddha Dharma without arousing such aspiration.

[03:05]

There are some strong words. And another piece in Dogen's later teaching is Shobogenza Hotsubodai-shin, Arousing Bodhicitta. where he says, ultimate mind means attaining enlightenment, the Buddha fruit. If you compare unsurpassable, complete, perfect enlightenment with the beginner's aspiration for enlightenment, it's like comparing a blaze that destroys the world with the twinkling of a firefly. So, like, the little light of a firefly is like the beginners setting out on the path. I want to practice the way is like a little kind of spark and then this blazing inferno that is, according to Buddhist cosmology, at the end of the kalpa, there's this huge firestorm that destroys the entire universe.

[04:19]

It's part of the cosmology. And then water and then wind. And then water and then wind. So that, it's a big fire. So the beginner's aspiration is like this little firefly compared to the complete realization of unsurpassed enlightenment, which is like this blazing firestorm that can destroy the universe. And then Dilvin goes on to say, yet if you arouse the intention of awakening others first, this shepherd kind of bodhicitta, then these two... you could say practices of the beginner's aspiration and the result of complete enlightenment are not different at all. So that's a strong image too, right? This tiny firefly and the raging firestorm, if the aspiration to realize awakening is with this completely selfless intention to like, my peace and freedom is not as important as everybody else's.

[05:21]

Everybody else can go first, but I'm, have this intense desire and aspiration that everybody be completely awake and free, then it's kind of the implication is that is unsurpassed perfect enlightenment. So there's a lot more Dogen says about bodhicitta, but there's some different angles on it. How do we awaken this? bodhicitta, that is actually the nature of our mind already, this compassionate, selfless wish to just live in big mind. How do we arouse that, generate that, awaken that? One classic set of practices is called the four mind changings, or the four thoughts or contemplations that turn the mind towards

[06:23]

Buddha. And I think a great set of practices, a great set of contemplations that are simple and I try to bring up at least a little bit almost every day just to stay in touch with this. And if they're great contemplations for if you feel like kind of lost in the practice, you feel like, why am I doing this again? I can't remember. These are good ones to kind of like remember. The first is contemplating the rare opportunity of this precious human life. What a wonderful gift. It's so easy to take for granted. Especially in this model of rebirth where we could be born as one of those fish in the puddle out there or mosquito or something. We have this... this rare opportunity of being born human, not only human, but with our sense faculties basically intact.

[07:29]

And not only that, but we've come across teachings of liberation. We've found a practice. That's really rare, to be humans that have a practice. There are practicing some spiritual path in the world compared to those who aren't in a deep way. So that's a very positive encouragement, just to remember that again and again. And then the second contemplation is remembering impermanence. So it's sort of like a sort of qualifier of the first one. You have this rare precious opportunity to practice, and yet it's quickly passing. It's, we're not going to live that long. Our lives are maybe half over, we don't know. But it's kind of that incentive to like, let's not waste the precious opportunity we have. So Dogen brings this up in a lot of his examples of arousing his aspiration.

[08:35]

He mentions impermanence. So here's one where Dogen says, to arouse this aspiration for awakening, Think deeply in your heart of the impermanence of the world. It's not a matter of meditating using some provisional method of contemplation. It's not a matter of fabricating in our heads that which does not really exist. Impermanence is truly the reality right in front of our eyes. We don't need to read some sutra to understand this. Born in the morning, dead in the evening. A person we saw yesterday is no longer here today. we see and hear this ourselves and applying this to our own bodies and minds thinking of reality of all things that we expect to live for 70 or 80 years we die when we must die so this is he's saying this is how one way that we arouse this this aspiration is our life spans limited how do we want to use it in the remaining years or moments

[09:42]

We have no idea how long. So the third contemplation is looking at how cause and effect works, particularly like karmic cause and effect, how every intentional action we do has a result. And every intentional action is like something's happening like every moment. We're doing something every moment so there's a result every moment and there's you know, towards freedom and happiness and kindness, and there's getting caught up in self-centeredness that moves in the other direction, and therefore the unwholesome karma pulls us away from the path, and the wholesome karma turns us towards, and everything we do makes a difference. We know this already, again, like all of these things, we already know, but to remember again and again, wow, what am I doing? These all kind of go together.

[10:45]

We have this rare precious opportunity in human life. It's quickly passing, and while it's passing, what am I doing right now? And then the fourth contemplation is remembering and recognizing the nature of samsara, which is the cycle of suffering based on habitual patterns. So we're caught up in our habit patterns and they keep bringing us back into the same discontent again and again. One way to look at samsara. And that it's not totally satisfactory. It might be some of the time pretty good, but samsara will never work out completely. And therefore we remember that. that basically the whole way we're constructing the world and everything we're thinking is all part of this habitual pattern in one way or another, but there's this freedom from that.

[11:54]

It's possible to realize the freedom from samsara or the freedom in the midst of samsara. So that's like the possibility of this rare precious, impermanent human life where everything we do makes a difference. So these four, this package of these four contemplations that turn the mind towards the Dharma, I think I find just so valuable. It never exhausts. And it's just really good medicine for when we feel like I've I forgot why I'm doing this. What's the practice again? It all seems kind of meaningless. I knew there was some inspiration when I started, but I can't find it. If you just sincerely bring these four up like in your own life, it goes a long way.

[12:55]

So that's one set of four practices to arouse bodhicitta. And so I was going to bring up some other practices. It's obviously clear that there needs to be a certain conviction for yourself in regards to these thoughts. And what the effect is, is that we are having the strong vision, determination of wanting to reach enlightenment for the benefit of human beings. And... So I gave out some handouts. I don't have enough. I have one more to give away by the end of the class. And I have one more that has everything about Dogen and Five Paths and everything. But somehow there was a misprint and it doesn't have the one page that I want to pay attention to. To give away at the end or whenever you want.

[14:04]

But for now, maybe you can share... There's this one page that's on the back of the page called The Five Paths. And it says, so this in which the Kuwait's merit and the Buddha's tradition. So I'm assuming that after the third day, all of you are kind of interested in reaching enlightenment for the benefit of possibility. No, no, no, no. Anybody have a question about that? Anyhow, I just want to look at this because it's one thing to have a thought and a beautiful thought and I just totally be convinced that we all have had that beautiful thought in whatever words you use for that. A thought of complete openness. But then... The way you can make a thought really manifest in your world is, and your conviction, for example, the conviction that everything is impermanent, death is real, you are going to die soon, and nothing is satisfactory, you know, you probably tried it already out, you know, you don't need to try it out anymore, and you wanted to...

[15:30]

put your attention to an awakening that's being said is achievable. You know, I mean, the different paths they say about that. So this is one path. And this one path that's handed down from Shakyamuni Buddha has these recommended sets of activities that support the wish for awakening. And actually half of it you already do here in... And I just want to point that out. It's kind of something to celebrate. Listening to the Dharma teachings, right? Happening right here. Reciting, chanting, reading, memorizing Dharma texts. You know, you do that every day. Inquiring and pondering the Dharma that's coming along with staying close to Dharma teachings. Cultivating meditation practice. That's like if you have some kind of daily practice of sitting down, that's what you do. And then telling others about your own experience.

[16:31]

You don't have to be a certified teacher. If you have friends, you have people in your community, you share what's valuable to you very naturally. So you're all kind of engaged in this teaching activity. So yeah, of course, that's like generating bodhicitta again and again. It's like by having questions, coming to some kind of answer, raising another question. So receiving and keeping the precepts, you know, around Zen centers, it seems to be a whole process that, like, you know, we want to gauge more, why don't we take on this container of ethical conduct that will help you deepen your commitment to wanting to reach enlightenment. And then practicing the five parameters that's kind of connected with this taking the precepts, It's like, oh, so suddenly I'm engaging and not killing flies anymore or, you know, pocketing or taking stuff away without asking or whatever.

[17:37]

You're like changing various habit patterns or unwholesome activities, reflecting on them, and then the wish for wanting to be generous and, you know. being patient, when they normally get angry, you don't want to get angry anymore. So, like, all these patterns are just, like, coming along. That's kind of all happening to you while being in Tosahara, for example, or any other, you know, path you're on, practice-centric. Then confessing when you slipped in whatever, you know, when you were trying to do... your wholesome conduct and if something didn't feel right, you were, you know, not upright in your actions. Or for charter, it's actually our full moon ceremonies, they are a little under-emphasized, and maybe in Saint-Sé-Neu, I remember City Centre had the practice of having small groups and talking about it.

[18:39]

I don't know, Berkeley, maybe more engaged around it too. I don't know who he was in Chapel Hill, but... We have more groups, but we do the ceremony. Sure, it's one event that can be built up and it has been built up in other Buddhist tradition where you take a whole day and just really reflect on the precepts and do a whole day of practice and a whole day of taking, especially if you're a lay person, you take the precepts for one day and follow them and really look at where you can keep them, where you don't. In fact, there's some traditions that are really strict about, you know, you only take the precepts if you're ready. Some other traditions are like, no, just write on, you know, try it all out. So different ways of holding that. Then reciting mantras and dharanis. So mantras is like, like Shakyamuni Buddha has a mantra. Muni, Muni, Ma, Muni, Eswar.

[19:41]

And what that does is you're tuning into his activity. So we were saying yesterday about the Sambhogakaya and the Dharmakaya and the Nermanakaya. You are making these things between three. So Dharmakaya being the inexpressible reality body, Sambhogakaya being the light body. and nirmanakaya being the manifestation. So if you mostly talk about Shakyamuni Buddha, we talk about Shakyamuni as nirmanakaya. But if you're reciting a mantra, you're actually relating to Shakyamuni Buddha as a vogakaya. And you're evoking his presence because it's right here. And the mantras are also thought to be kind of like a... like this evoking the presence and it's also like helping you. That's what they normally from the Zen perspective have been viewed.

[20:42]

Oh, they're just like a way to keep you concentrated. But I found like that they're more than that. They're not just like keep you concentrated and your mind occupied in a wholesome way, which is very important because our mind is going on with thoughts. So if you put your thoughts to work with some actually powerful words, then it has stronger, it has a different effect. So if you think about what you're going to do tomorrow, if you're reciting a mantra, it has a different quality. And not that, you know, I don't want to go into one better being the other, but you're just talking in the context of, you know, how you want to put your efforts and then you prioritize of how you want to spend your thinking time, for example. May I just add to that? Sure. About the Dahi Shindarani is like a mantra. long mantra. Daishindarana is one of the mantras and invocations of Avalokiteshvara, Bodhisattva. So it's kind of like, you could say, it's kind of connected with the Sambhogakaya, that particular chant that's done maybe every evening here.

[21:50]

And evoking the presence of... Of great compassion. You want to go into the being... I'm going to bring that up maybe at this point. Okay. And then go back to the list? Yeah, yeah. Well, a lot of this list of practices is things relating to Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, these kind of archetypal Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, making offerings and mantras and so on. So we talked about this a little bit yesterday, but it's something that we don't talk about so much, I think. It's in Sinteres. We just sort of do it and make the offerings and like, well, what are we actually doing there? So it's been one of those areas for me really interesting to, when I start questioning it, what's going on there actually? And there are traditional teachings, maybe more from the Tibetan teaching where it's such a big part of their practice, explaining this some in words.

[22:55]

As Shoho mentioned, one way to look at it is these three kayas, these three bodies of a Buddha. Sometimes it's said like these three Buddha bodies or three aspects of Buddha are aspects of also Buddha nature. So we are, our true nature is Buddha nature. Like who we really are is this already completely open, clear, compassionate, big mind. This is the classic Mahayana teaching. That's who we truly are. And it's perfectly complete, but it's obscured by these views and beliefs and dualistic thought and so on. Karmic hindrances. So this Buddha nature that's already who we all are and is identical in all of us. So in a way it's like we each have our own Buddha nature and

[23:57]

But in that realm of Buddha-nature, there's no separation. So it's kind of like we all share one Buddha-nature. It's not one or two. It's beyond these distinctions. And this Buddha-nature has these qualities. The Dharmakaya quality is like the emptiness aspect of our true Buddha-nature is completely empty of any fixed characteristics, any fixed reference points. So in emptiness, there's no reference points like floor and ceiling and right and left and north and south and me and you. These are all different phenomena in relation to me. And in vast emptiness, there's no reference points. It's one way to talk about it. The Dharmakaya. And then the near-monarchaya.

[24:58]

The quality of our own mind is like the very tangible manifestation of thoughts of me and you and dualistic appearances, you could say. We're confused about them or we think that they're really separate from us, but in the pure nature of the appearances, it's kind of like a nirmanakaya quality of me and you in the room and so on. tangible manifestations. So when we talk about Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, like statues and paintings and images, we could say like Nirmanakaya, as well as Shakyamuni Buddha, but like the images we can see are like, Nirmanakaya is like manifestation body. And it's actually, you could say, it's an aspect of Buddha nature. And again, my Buddha nature or universal Buddha nature, it's like these distinctions break down. What even if we kind of take it personally, like this, the Buddha nature that's coming through this body and mind, it's like I look at this image and I actually see a painting of Avalokiteshvara, looks like over there, and I have some relationship to it and I have some feeling from it.

[26:15]

You could see that's that manifestation of so-called my Buddha nature. is that painting. You could kind of see it like that. And then the Sambhogakaya is like the just clarity aspect of Buddha nature. So if Buddha nature has the empty aspect with no reference points and it has this really tangible manifestation of the phenomena world, it also has this just clear, luminous aspect that's maybe harder to talk about. But it's also kind of a manifestation, but it's not so clunky as like matter and a visible world. And yet it's not without reference points either. It's an expression, it's a manifestation, but in this more like refined version.

[27:17]

So in that way... we could say the clarity aspect of Buddha nature is these archetypal Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. So in a way, again, if we're thinking, well, this Buddha nature, if we look at it as kind of like the Buddha nature coming through this body and mind, this Buddha nature, so-called my true nature, has this empty aspect, the nature of this mind, has this empty, referencelessness nature, and it has this clear, luminous nature that manifests various qualities, like infinite compassion, the nature of this mind. So in that way, we could say we all have Avalokiteshvara's Sambhogakaya nature. It's not really separate from us, and yet it's too much to say that it's like,

[28:19]

It's kind of my mind is Avalokiteshvara. So I think of these Sambhogakaya manifestations. They're not inside. They're not outside. And they're not in between either. Because they have no location. No physical location. They're an aspect of Buddha nature that we all share. And yet it's not mine. or yours, and yet it's very intimate with each of us at the same time. It's a little bit hard to talk about, but yes. Can that symbolically exist independent of another? Meaning, can it just reside in me without being in relationship? Did you want to respond? Yeah. Because I want to add something to what you said. I thought about it, I thought you would go for it. But I understood what you were saying earlier. To say that there's some bogakaya that's separate from the nemanakaya, that's separate from me, that's enhancing an old habit of ours.

[29:39]

And yet to say they're all the same is going too far. That would go... What's the point of anything? And yet, for example, we call this matter and we have a conventional agreement on calling this matter. And we don't call this light. But the light makes it possible to see. And that's what we have. We have form to see and we have sounds to hear. And we have a conventional agreement on it. And that's that's how we connect. That's our way of connecting. And does this mean we are all the same? No, we just have an agreement about some points to call this matter, to call this sound, because we have similar gaze. But that doesn't mean this is matter and it's different from light.

[30:41]

Does that make sense? It's just saying... If you want to read that passage, it's really sweet. It's kind of going into the Pramana teachings. The Pramana teachings are kind of a trench of Yogacara that's a mind-only school. And they're saying there's direct perception that's basically direct sense impact. And there's also direct mental cognition. So we have a cognition every moment. And then... There's self-aware. There's a self-aware cognition also going on every moment, which means every moment you know there's a cognition going on. That's like a breakdown of cognition. Every moment is a cognition. Every moment there's some sense impact, a mental, and some self-awareness. Like, this is me. This is happening to me. So this is kind of happening every moment.

[31:44]

And the yogic perception is basically you start visualizing emptiness. That's contradictory because Kokyo just said emptiness doesn't have any reference point. However, you are going conceptually into emptiness teachings over and over again. In fact, various other people do that if they have a loved one who just died. and they visualize their loved one over and over and think of him and remembering, they can see their loved ones. You can physically see that person. The mental power is very strong. So does this mean our liberation is really just a mental creation? Yes and no. In fact, it's our conceptual concentration on the teachings on emptiness that makes the realization of emptiness possible. And that's why it's so beautiful, because if you never have heard of emptiness in the first place, we would not be able to realize it.

[32:52]

But because we heard the teaching of emptiness, we heard the teaching of selflessness, we can over and over study, you know, is there a self in this floor, what I call matter? You know, where is that matter? Is it in the atoms? Now, is it like a one-pointed atom? In fact, some schools of Buddhism say so, then other schools say no, you can't find an atom. Then you go further. And then you like, kind of with various methods of reductionism and analysis, you like, you apply your thinking to the point of like really looking at emptiness. And once you're convinced that yourself cannot be found, the matter, the floor cannot be found and everything, then you like not necessarily like makes this distinction between This is a mnemonicaya, and this is a sambhogakaya, and this is a dharmakaya, because all these levels are starting to merge into each other, into this big mind that we are right now manifesting. I don't know if this is the part that you were thinking of.

[33:54]

Reggie Ray has this article called On the Importance of Relating to Unseen Beings. It's not one of the handouts. relating to unseen beings. That's the kind of interesting issue at hand here. So one piece of what he says is these deities or archetypal buddhas and bodhisattvas and dharma protectors and so on. They're all around Tassajara, right? These little altars. These are said to be aspects of one's own innate mind or reflections of one's awareness, kind of like the moon reflected in the water. Sambhogakaya is kind of like a reflection of the Dharmakaya that has no form. It's just an image for it. You can relate to a moon, but you can't kind of get a hold of it, right?

[34:56]

A moon in the water. For example, the Buddhas, although apparently objectively existing beings, like somewhere out there, are fundamentally nothing other than our own awakened nature. So far, so good. But here's the really critical point. It's not only the beings of the unseen world that have this status of being our own true mind nature, but all phenomena in the whole dualistic world have this nature too. Is this the part you're referring? So ourselves, other people, trees, mountains and clouds, all of the phenomena of the entire so-called internal and external universe are nothing other than these false objectifications and solidifications of non-dual awareness. If you've heard of the mind only view, it's kind of like this, right?

[35:59]

These are all just like projections of mind. And this Sambhogakaya... is not a distorted dualistic illusion of the nature of mind. It's like a pure manifestation of these Buddha qualities that have already opened the non-separation. Yes? So there's sort of like a way to relate what I'm sort of getting with the idea of Sambhogakaya, is that there's a way to relate to existing that doesn't you know that is not not dualistic but it is also still acknowledging the existence of things yeah it kind of exists so you know my pencil you know is an object we call it an material object and look at this but to sort of say this is a pencil then I is the ultimate reality of the pencil but there's still something

[37:03]

within the sphere of the ultimate reality that is going on, where this thing has an existence. And so maybe some Bogakaya is sort of like the perspective of this thing as existing from the perspective of ultimate reality in all its forms and all its manifestations. Something like that? I would say something like that. I would call it more like the nirmanakaya. It's really like the visible manifestation body. And again, different from like how we see things usually, which is they seem to be external to us. But for like a Buddha's non-dual awareness, Buddha still meets and talks with people, right? Yeah. So you could see like he's seeing the appearances as like with this pure perception of things that are appearing like rainbows, like moons in the water. And in that dream-like kind of way, dream-like appearances, but they really... are vivid appearances.

[38:03]

It's sort of like Nirmanakaya. And then the Sambhogakaya doesn't appear visually. So the visual appearances are more like the pen. The way a Buddha might see the pen could be maybe like a Nirmanakaya aspect. And they say Nirmanakaya Buddhas don't necessarily take human form. They could be like a tree or something even. Traditionally they even talk this way. Or a rock. Or a pen. Or a pen. Yeah. Like, if they're, like, they're kind of Buddha nature manifesting some form in order to help people. It's like, if it's not really helping, then it's probably not in your monikaya. We might not perceive how it depends helping us. But if it's, and this is coming, again, now this is the interesting thing, I think that this may be hard to resolve, is that from the past vows of some other bodhisattva who, like, who actually became a Buddha and, um, vowed to benefit all beings endlessly in every possible way, and that Buddha took on the form of a pen to help us?

[39:11]

Or is it actually like an aspect of our own Buddha nature manifesting this pen? Or is there no separation between our Buddha nature and that other past bodhisattvas? So almost like the conversation can start to break down a little. when we started to talk about this Buddha mind. But the beauty of it is, like, once we chanted this morning, you know, this don't make up standards of your own. Like, in a way, we made this run through agreement on the first place. Like, in fact, if I say blue, it will never know what image you're having in your mind. It's just... They can't scientifically prove. You might have a totally different image of what blue is than I have. I just can't find it out.

[40:13]

But however, we have an agreement to point at something and say, this is blue. And in this way, when we say, don't make up with standards of your own, I don't think so much. It's like, okay, there is a standard here. like the standard blue. And nobody's going to have to question it, right? In fact, well, if you say something else, for example, like a lot, we associate standards with group agreements, right? And then, so it sounds like don't make up standards of your own, sounds like a little bit like don't get outside of the group. You know, I'm from Germany and I'd wholly recommend questioning any group standards that they are. I have more reasons for it. And I think when it means don't make sense, it just means don't pick up words that don't make sense to other people. You know, I mean, you can question it.

[41:15]

Like there was this whole, was it Derrida or somebody? About signs. Signs and, you know, questioning things, loosening things up. I think... Semiotics. Semiotics, you know, just kind of... Who is this about just this nonsensical speech? Yeah, anyhow. I think there are movements to like, well, let's question our speech standards. Let's question our aesthetic standards. Let's question our cultural standards. And we have that. And that's why we are now. And that's also one of the topics that relates to today living in America. How does Buddhism get here? But America has... or the rest has gone through a whole cultural change in the last 50 years. The many questions have been raised about our cultural agreement about things. And then where are we settling with it? And so far things are settling in different pockets, you know, people settling in little pockets of things. And so taking standards by own means just, well, it's fine for you to like have a creative insight or have a creative opening

[42:23]

And then that's different from everybody else. But can you find words that still bridge to other people and that you can connect? You know, like, can you still build bridges to your island? So in fact, the Buddha was saying, be an island to yourself. But can you still also talk with other people about your experience? And that's very helpful. to keep these bridges alive. Because that kind of part of me feels like the East and the West are meeting. It's like the whole Socrates tradition of keep talking and ask questions. And then Buddha saying, keep talking and ask questions. And then we can keep meeting and talk and ask questions. And so if anybody has any questions. Well, can I just add one piece to the last piece to this Sambhogakaya story and the... relating to unseen beings. Actually, it's from the same Reggie Ray article. He says, well, how do we relate to the Sambhogakaya?

[43:25]

Because the Dharmakaya, actually, we don't really relate. We're just in Dharmakaya emptiness. We don't really relate to it. Nirmanakaya appearances is easier to see how we relate to them. Like if we met Shakyamuni Buddha on the road, we could ask him how he's doing. But Sambhogakaya... which parenthetically, as was mentioned yesterday, is traditionally like also these Buddhas in pure lands, like Amitabha Buddha, that doesn't appear to us except in your Mauna Kaya paintings or something. How do we relate to the Sambhogakaya? And traditionally it's said through ritual. Ritual is like this way in Buddhism to relate to the Sambhogakaya aspect of Buddha nature. And that's how the conversation happens, or the meeting, or the intimacy. So, maybe I'll leave it at that because I think part of, as your list of practices to arouse bodhicitta continues, a lot of them are kind of ritual relationships, forming relationships with Sambhogakaya, Buddha.

[44:36]

I feel so, Steve, there's some questions. We can talk about this later if it's not a good spot for it, but I've been thinking about what does it mean to accumulate merit? And we talked about it earlier, she talks, you know, the first path where you sort of engage in virtuous practices and you're sort of building up, for lack of a better word, points or something. I don't know if it's a karmic thing, if it's sort of positive karmic energy that's building or... I'm having, I don't know, I'm a little puzzled and confused about what merit is, what it really means to accrue it and then to give it away and dedicate it. What exactly is it? You were going to talk about this anyway. Yeah, that's kind of talking about it. Don't forget Bodhi Dharma. Oh, yeah, yeah, don't forget. Okay. So merit is the effect of a virtuous action.

[45:42]

So I think the bottom line of any virtuous action is generosity. And if you look at that, you can look in your own mind and see if your thought has an opening effect or if your thought has a closing effect. So that one thought is like one activity at the moment. And if your activity at the moment is opening you or closing you, that could be defined as, like, anything that's closing, you know, I don't want to say it's non-virtuous, but it's just, it's a closing activity. And the other one is an opening activity and it's, like, spreading out. And part, I would say, because I don't want to go into good and bad about it, we have our Christian heritage. But I thought a bit, like, we talked about the firefly, So if you have this little firefly of wanting liberation, and imagine it has a dimmer, so you kind of dim it high up, that would be the opening activity to make your inner light shine.

[46:52]

And then if you dim it down, then there can be either too late, because you probably reached a boundary of some thought. And... or to maintain your energy. You know, like there's a certain, like if voltage runs through this wire really strongly, it can burn out. So you don't want to crank up your inner light to first because you're going to burn out. And so we do all these things that are like also help us dim down again, right? That's why I don't want to call it negative because it actually helps our nervous system to like train. It's a kind of training, of um opening up and then you know you're still really open you know and you're buzzing and then you have to dim down again and then sometimes people just get burned and then they close and they don't know how to open anymore because just too much i wouldn't call it bad i would call it it's just it's just the time isn't ready and then we try to help them um but this process of like opening

[48:08]

basically shining the light up and letting the voltage through, which is like the voltage of big mind rushing through little mind, basically, let it through. That I would call, that's what they traditionally call virtuous activity, which then we put into our dualistic thinking between good and bad. I'm sorry about that. That's how we work. And though this virtuous activity goes into, like, traditionally into, like, What's more and more opening to let the light burn through? And most of the time we're a little scared of that because we're dying in that process. There's a death of self in the process of it. And to have that not be a burnout where we just collapse into self-protection again, but have it be a total liberation into everything. There are these practices that help. build up slowly, slowly, slowly. And what's the merit? The merit?

[49:10]

The merit is just that the light shines very strongly and then it's very pleasant around you for everybody and yourself. The result? The result of the light shining. Could the merit also be seen as doing our due diligence? find practice and be able to see the continual pattern of progress, but development. I think if someone has decided for themselves to look and see what they see is that they're opening or what they see is that they're closing, having the courage to look to begin with, I think would be worthy of merit or practice in looking and seeing. I mean, yeah. Because if you're dealing with what is and what isn't, then you're seeing that you're closed. I mean, we are living in community, and like I said, we are living in a shared reality.

[50:19]

So what, for example, I think is pretty open. Somebody else thinks it's pretty closed, right? So then it's, again, the communication. Can you stay open? build the bridges, you know, don't make it stand up by yourself. Don't like, I'm open and everybody's going to deal with it, you know. So it's like, so I'm not sure if I'm meeting your question. Do you have, do you heard more about yours? I just heard you say that when you look and you see that you're open, that's good, but when you look and you see that you're closed, that's bad. Oh, it's interesting that you catch that because I was actually trying to say let's actually not go into these categories of good and bad because they're not applying really according to what I'm trying to say. But we live in that world in good and bad. Isn't it interesting that you heard that? But maybe also part of what you're saying is the looking itself is a meritorious activity.

[51:20]

Yeah, I think so. And we could call that that's a virtuous activity. To look at closeness, a little bit like confession and repentance of our ancient twisted karma is kind of like that. I avow my closeness is a virtuous practice. And then the result of that is merit, which tends to have these qualities of like some sort of stars or brownie points or something, right? And that's the weird image, but it's just purely the result. the positive result of virtuous actions in the direction of openness. And then there's Bodhidharma's statement. It's so crucial because I think it's very important to have these conversations because we run into these patterns that we have from our past. Virtuous, unvirtuous is a huge pattern in living and community. And then there's the Asian standards and the Western standards and what that means.

[52:24]

So in Asia, the thrive for virtuous activity is very strong. And it has certain definitions. And when we go through the list, you can see some more of what has been traditionally done in the Buddhist, if I stay now with the Buddhist context. And there's also a certain pride coming along with it. And so the traditional story of Bodhidharma said he probably all heard that Bodhidharma went to the emperor and the emperor said, I did all these great things, everything on the list. And everything on the list, how much merit did I get? How much brownie points did I get? So he was in a very materialistic way of thinking about the effects of his action because he wanted to keep for himself. So there was basically a self for him happening. And Bodhidharma cut through that by saying there is no merit.

[53:24]

Now, of course, that's a very sudden school approach of like, cut through any construction of anything, you know, just right here, no construction, no anything, just this, you know. So he's cutting through it and we love it, you know, because we love it because it's a, you know, our constructions make us suffer. However, this is a very sudden approach. And kind of ultimate approach. Ultimate approach. And then there's this gradual approach. And that's why I actually was thinking today, maybe it's a reason that this teaching is cool and always is brought up in our tradition during the Shuse ceremony. Because before, you did this whole gradual being benchy, washing the dishes, serving people in the practice booths and in the summer. And you did all these things and all these practices and all these years. And that's your gradual approach. accumulating merit, you're gradual, like getting ready, dimming up your light, you know, testing your wires, are they strong enough for the big, you know, ultimate crash?

[54:29]

And then it shows the ceremony, boom, you know, ultimate, boom, let's see, right, just this right here, can you stand it, you know, push you into this ultimate thing? And it's a very skillful, I mean, everybody who went to the ceremony says, this was great, thank you very much, you know, because like you feel your wires are being a little bit You know, you feel, oh my God, my values are strong. My practice actually has a fruit. This is awesome, you know. And so it's maybe also helping going from the emperor's view, which we also have. I think we are the emperor too. Like, you know, when I lived here, I was like, come on, I'm here for three years. I did all these things. I served so many things. My practice must be good, you know. I mean, there's a certain kind of, you know. What's going on? You should have some more responsibility. And then Shuso is showing me, yes, you can. And I think that's a beautiful training path that's being offered here. And sometimes I think that because it's like the famous story of Bodhidharma is no merit, then maybe in the Zen tradition we say, well, we don't, Zen doesn't even have this thing about merit because look at Bodhidharma.

[55:44]

But again, I would see it as, that's the ultimate point of view, talking to somebody who is really caught up in the conventional point of view in a sort of self-centered way. But there's lots of teachings about merit in Zen also. And merit is a conventional teaching. It's true, ultimately there's no merit. Or anything else for that matter. Um... Any other questions? Yeah. Yeah, no, I had thought about the, about merit, and I was, you know, just in relationship to merit, you know, no merit, and absolute versus judgment of merit, and that, another thought was that, you know, we dedicate merit often at the end, and I was wondering if maybe what Bode Garner was pointing to is you know, this kind of little view of merit being for self versus, you know, maybe all merit is really, you know, for all people, you know, or all beings.

[56:54]

And when we're, you know, dedicating merit to all beings, we're really just realizing that that merit that we're generating is really just, you know, for all beings. And that's what maybe is the absolute view versus the merit to change. Yeah, it sounds like you're saying it's almost like actually the merit is going to all beings. That's like a reality. And then to say we dedicate the merit to is kind of like putting words to that reality. That's a very nice way of looking at it. And also just to note that this teaching of merit or punya in Sanskrit was all throughout the Pali canon, really big teaching for the Buddha, but there was never any discussion of dedication or transference of merit, and that's a particularly Mahayana innovation. And I think it's just based on this great, great compassion of the Mahayanas, taking this earlier teaching of merit and saying, wouldn't it be great if there's this positive energy gathered from virtuous activity, wouldn't it be great if we could like, instead of just enhancing our own practice, which the Buddha talked about, wouldn't it be great if we could give it to someone else?

[58:09]

And maybe I imagine probably people have said, that's kind of crazy. How could you like, it's sort of like passing karma around or something. But in this Mahayana vision where everything's possible, it's like, well, that's okay. Let's do it anyway. Through our intention. It's all about our, you know, I have the, there's this positive energy of, I feel joyful having done virtue. And may this, may I share this, may this joy be shared with all beings everywhere. It's like, My wish for that to happen is kind of like a wish of bodhicitta. It's like an intention. And intention makes the world. So I could say, does that really work? Can you really transfer merit like that? Well, intention creates the world. If that's true of merit, that's my understanding or experience to you, is it not also true of karma? To kind of take away others' karma, for example. That whatever our volitional actions are in the world don't just have impact on us.

[59:14]

Yeah, yeah. Impact and they generate a certain energy or momentum. For sure. That affects and also plays out through other beings. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. In that very clear way that our actions affect other beings. I was thinking more about the thing of like somebody has created a lot of... of unwholesome karma for example and like can't we just can't they just be purified of that like by it to our intention and again logically it's like I don't know people are you know heirs to their own karma the Buddha says but again the Mahayana I think we have we have ceremonies like maybe feeding the hungry ghosts a little bit like this like there's these beings that are that are hungry ghosts and hell beings that are due to do to past karma, and let's free them anyway. Even before their karma runs out, let's do some ritual activity to almost take away their karmic effects.

[60:17]

It's a little bit like dedicating merit. We have the strong intention to do that, and the law of karma, it maybe kind of goes against the Buddha's teaching of the law of karma a little bit, to take away somebody's karmic effect that's coming to them, and yet Let's do it with our Bodhisattva intention. We want to free them anyway. So that kind of thing. I mean, the karmic effects come to us in many ways. I'm starting to think in ranges these days. For example, like, you know, I mean, the teachings are sometimes like pretty blunt, you know, about like, If you kill somebody, somebody else is going to kill you, period. One to one. But then, of course, there is more to an action. When is somebody being killed, you really wanted to kill the person. You got a weapon and the instruments to do that.

[61:20]

The person was right there, and the person really got killed. And you rejoice in your outcome. If any of those elements are not present, the action is not complete. So if you accidentally ran over a flight and didn't even notice it, that's not a killing, because you didn't want it, and you don't rejoice in it, for example. But you still did it, so there's still a certain repercussion. And so there's all these stories, and especially the Vinaya teachings, they are actually like a very subtle way of teaching cause and effect on many levels. And so, for example, like if you then do a whole bunch of, you know, you create this energy field around you through positive actions, so merit, merit-generated field, and you give it away, you don't even cling to it, you know, it's not even your field, it's just like what's happening around you, because there's no you there anymore.

[62:24]

You can still be responsible for everything that happened before, you know, the whole mind stream. There's nothing, no separation anywhere. But it might come in a different way. You know, if you, like, at one point, really rejoice in having killed somebody, you know, it might still come to you in a different way, but it might not be in a complete form of being killed yourself. Hmm. There's an aspect of it. whole discussion that I find kind of unsettling. The way we talk about the relational way that language operates, that we talk about merit, and then I think invariably because of the way human language works, we've constructed demerit in our head. Or we talk about assigning merit or giving away merit, and somehow that creates volition. And thinking about the Bodhidharma and the Emperor, story. And, you know, it goes on from there.

[63:25]

And the emperor says, well, who's the standing performer? And Bodegar says, I don't know. He turns and walks away. I mean, it's always felt to me like a comment, not about good merit, bad merit, merit that you would keep for yourself, you know, the details of monastery construction and so forth and so on, as much as it was him making a comment on a teaching that's so familiar again and again about the, you know, the lack the true self, the fact that all is conditioned, dependent, co-arising, and that the real issue there was that there was no self to enjoy the merit and to make anything to do with the merit. So all of this way of looking at it, as opposed to just really this being a product of dependent, co-arising of things, there is cause and effect. And if there is intention, sure, you're putting more cause. There's action there, surely.

[64:26]

But is there really such a thing as this merit? And is there really such an act as channeling it around? Or is this just another example, again, of causes precipitating effects and causes precipitating effects? And I feel like I would be much happier with a much more parsimonious explanation of all this phenomenon rather than, you know, a more economical way of explaining all of this than saying, you know, there's merit and there's a sign to merit. And there seems to be a lot of mental construction around this conversation that I feel like you could really just take Occam's razor cutaway and punch it, get really down to this thing that there are causes and effects. And if you, if you make an intention to do something that, you know, our agreement is, is, is virtuous, is, you know, toward the good is happening with the intention of saving all beings, that cause will have certain effects. And maybe we'd like those effects, too.

[65:29]

Well, I would say, if I had to say a one-sentence thing about that, in the most economical way, I might say positive actions create this joyful feeling, and we apparently need to build up a lot of joy, and when I feel this joyful feeling, in parentheses, the result of virtuous action equals merit. It's called joyful feeling. I would like to share this joy with everyone. That's the dedication of merit. So that doesn't seem so metaphysically weird or anything. Just like, I feel joyful, and like, oh wow, but there's all these other beings around too, and like, may they all share this joy. but that is a simplified, practical explanation. Sure, and that ultimate question about karma is exactly that one in all my philosophy classes that's being said.

[66:45]

only the Buddha can know it, you know, because we just keep thinking dualistically. So what you were saying is completely right. So we keep thinking, there's a cause, there's a fact. But if you look closely, you can't actually find the cause and the fact because others are separate, then they would never meet. Others are the same, then there is no, what's the relationship, right? I mean, you kind of look at that. So if that's where you're right, language is totally obstructing, and yet that's where you try to keep talking to come to a language that keeps coming the closest possible and that's why we appreciate the philosophical schools in Buddhism that are like building on each other and with each other and because one has one presentation and there's always some area that's grey then another area some other school picks it up has their presentation there's still something that's crooked because language can't completely hit the spot, especially around karma, just too vast and too detailed and too subtle.

[67:54]

And that's what they actually say, like, well, it needs this determination of a bodhisattva to wanting to save all beings, because if you just stay of, like, well, I just want to know big mind, that's it, you know, then you don't have You don't know the subtleties of karma. You don't get into all these details about it. And that's the difference between the Ahrat and the Buddha. The Ahrat doesn't know all about karma. They do know, though, like the stories say, oh, they get killed, right? The various Ahrat stories where Ahrats get killed, they knew about it beforehand. And they were like, something has to ripen. Okay, I'm ready. I'm not afraid of that. Let's do it. So there's some knowledge there, but it's maybe not as subtle as a Buddha who like doesn't have a coming and going anymore. So contemporary practices? Contemporary practices.

[68:55]

So we were like basically halfway through and it was kind of beautiful to see Krayta Sahara is doing a whole bunch of really virtuous towards bodhicitta generating practices that's very supportive for the process. However, there's a whole bunch of other practices, the other half of the list, where they're not emphasized so much. And integrating and following Buddhism and the rest, I think part of what our responsibility as the ones who are interested in Buddhism and awakening is just really learning about the whole range that's happening and not just like... Well, in Japan, they do it like that. Well, if you look in Japan, well, one temple does it like that, the other temple does it like that. One school does it like that. I mean, there's just so many things. For example, circumlating of stupas and temples. You know, once you know it, you might try it out at Susubiroshi Memorial and walk around the stone. It's actually really nice. Or actually the walkway on the sendo.

[69:56]

You know, if you don't want to do service, just walk all around. It has a different feel to it. Um... making offerings to objects of devotion. You do see, you know, the incense, the flower petals or whatever's going on, but you can expand that far to infinity, basically. Anything, we talked yesterday about it, anything that's delightful. Hanging prayer flags, it's just another way of saying I have a good intention and I want the whole world to, like, help me move it, you know. So that's a... Again, you know, it's like you have this visual enlightenment and you use one activity and this is one traditional activity, hanging prayer of decks, turning prayer wheels, this one. So here are like mantras in a prayer wheel that have the mantra of a deity, of Samurakaya deity. And then you relate your knowledge and you establish a relationship.

[71:02]

And of course, you stop your relationship to something that's not physical, but you use a physical reference point to remind you. And that reminder, if it's activated in an activity, it's more dynamic than if it's just a non-active thing. Like you can have many Buddha images in your house, but if you don't make offerings, you just have a nicely decorated room, but it doesn't do anything to your mind. Yeah. using body and speech to enact things as well as mind. Right. So bowing and prayer wheels and getting the body and speech reciting into... Yeah, body, speech and mind actually. Putting gold on Buddha statues, I never had the opportunity but it looked really beautiful. People in fact in Asia are like having little, I don't know where they get that, but they have little gold leaf, put it everywhere.

[72:08]

Anything that's sacred for them, put it right on. Building temples and monastery gardens kind of happening here, but can be expanded, of course. Building stufas, you know, like this Lotus Sutra saying, I need just any stone, you find any material and you can even... play with your rice and just fill your rice in the stupa before you eat it. Has been learned in this text. So in mandala, mandala, I want to say something about it because Buddhist cosmology, if you study it, and it's very detail explained in Abhidharma Kosha, is actually an explanation of a mandala. And the center of the mandala is called Mount Meru, and you find Mount Meru several times in various seven koans. And then it has four continents around it.

[73:09]

So Mount Meru is in the center, four continents. One continent is called the human realm, the Chambutvipa realm. And then it has... The hellworms down below, the heavenworms on top. They're like Mount Meru on the bottom of Mount Meru in the area. The hells and the heavens on top. Just the whole universe. The whole universe. And then it gets destroyed through the fire and the wind at the end of the year. However, it's kind of curious to see, if you read the Book of the Dead, that it's actually the same process, you know. When you die in the death process, there's first the fire, the heat goes off. Then you have this watery imagery, and then there's various winds. So there's some parallels where it's a chance given that Buddhism comes out of India, which is a very yogic tradition. And when you talk with yogis, I'm sorry I'm not wrong, but if you talk with them, there are

[74:13]

There are some curious parallels and some curious explanations. There are ideas of channels in your body, the central channel that's in us. It's very much like the notion of Mount Mary. It's not necessarily a spine, it's a central channel that's... is going from your crown chakra all the way to where you have the ha-ha-ha, it's in. Like this power spot is four fingers under your navel. And there's side channels to it. And they're very yogic practices that help your prana, your breath to work. And so if you look at these experiences of that and the parallels of Buddhist cosmology, this yogic practice, then you might have start questions. And if you keep having questions and look into the tantric practices that are deity practices and that talk about mandalas, you might even have more questions.

[75:21]

For example... Do you want to just briefly demonstrate a mandala offering? No. For example, I just want to briefly explain. I mean, I can't. I'm not sure if that's the point of... I know. Tantra and Buddhism got popular and integrated into monasteries around 600 CE. So that means there was almost a thousand years happening of what we don't believe. Tantra has not been seen in public places, but it was supposed to be taught mostly to lay practitioners. And it's mostly if you look at tantras and tantric texts, yogic texts. And the reason it got incorporated into monasteries was because in India there was a time of feudality. That means there were like small little kingdoms all over the place and fighting each other. And the smaller, the weaker kingdom got overrun by the other kingdom. So people were in need of like this wish for protection.

[76:24]

And it's actually something we can relate to, especially if you hear about global warming, all kinds of other forces that are really strong. So the notion came up of like, where is that mandala? You know, where is that mandala you can take refuge in? A refuge that can liberate you, right? And so that's where Buddhism tapped into, of like integrating and introducing tantra on a larger level. And so this mandala is... basically a deity. Each deity has its mandala and its deity is in the center and it has all its powers all around it. And in the lower tantras you revere that and in the higher tantras you become it. And so I'm just saying all of these things because it's part of Buddhist tradition and it's part of these relationships to these practices because first of all If we are engaging in revering stupas, Buddha statues, and so forth, we are engaging in their mandala, in the mandala of that image, of that representation, and we become part of the mandala.

[77:41]

In fact, we are in a mandala right now, like in the practice period, we close the mandala of this temple and this place, and then the community forms one body. And so in Tantra that has been even more individualized and you need Tantra teacher to explain every details of it. But it's also, I'm saying it also because for me it became more and more important to realize that was a basis. It was totally present in Japan before and during the time when Dogen founded his school. So he was very much aware of all of it. And in fact, most of his students were tantric practitioners before they came. And so that material is also present in some of our ceremonies. I have a question. Yeah. I'm not super familiar with tantric practice. Just a brief... That's...

[78:43]

There's no brief explanation. I think I really tried all I could do. And like I said, I'm not a Tundra practitioner myself, so I actually can't say anything more. It's a huge topic. For me, I'm just really wanting to erase it, and I'm sorry if I took too much time out of here, but because it has this connection, and this connection is a vital connection, and it's happening in our lineage, and it's maybe not flushed out as of yet because it's just in the beginning of 50 years of Buddhism in the West. And just so we don't feel like this has nothing to do with us, you know. So in your opinion, translating dharma texts is something we can do and have been doing around here. Maybe I don't need to keep going through the list. It's just for you to like see, except for the release animals, which I'm inviting you to join me at the end of this class.

[79:43]

hoping to catch some fish up the stream, carry them down the stream. But what I want to say about this is, like, each of these activities are great activities. And it's the same with, like, humanitarian activities of feeding people that are hungry, you know, going out. And that's always this question comes up about, like, well, what about... Or what about, why are we sitting in the Sandoval in the meanwhile, all these people are starving. And so there is no end to virtuous activity. There are virtuous activity. But one way you can make your activity to be part of this endeavor to become really fully enlightened and generate and strengthen your bodhicitta is by, in the beginning of your activity, you arouse the wish to do that, to you arouse the wish that this activity that you're going to do is really helping you become enlightened and help all other beings.

[80:46]

So it's kind of this wish in the beginning of an action that already puts the motivation in there before you even start. then while you do the actions, you might really keep thinking about other beings. And once you complete the action, you're like, this action is for everybody. So it's kind of a sealing the action. Because if you don't seal the action, then... you can appropriate, like, it's going to be appropriated. Like, for example, did you ever go to, like, had, like, a great evening, a great party, everything, and at the very end, somebody has a fit of the party and throws some beer bottles to the window. And then you think, oh, my gosh, the whole party was, like, a total... It was, like, awful. Oh, my gosh, just, you know, just one fit or just one person ruined your evening, right? And so... And that's kind of the same feel to it, of like, you do this whole long thing, and the longer you still feel good, like Kogi was saying, you're in this open-hearted place, you just give it away.

[81:53]

Because if you don't give it away at that moment, there might be another thought just coming along right away, who's just spoiling the whole thing, you know. And... And what are these biases practices also so helpful and maybe especially helpful for us in Buddhism and the rest? Because they're new habit patterns. I think it was really helpful for me to hear from Pema Church when there's three difficult practices on the very bottom, which is basically like what you said, you're going to be aware of your activity. It's already a new activity to be aware of what you're doing. So here you go, you're aware that you... get your really like peanut butter and you do everything to get it or whatever you know and then you be aware of this pattern and then and then you notice how that disrupts your entire social life because you can't listen to other people because you really want that peanut butter and then and then you like just notice it the next time you are having a conversation with somebody peanut butter is right there you not just totally ignore the person but you may be trying to make an effort to do anything different

[83:03]

You know, anything. It doesn't matter what. And if it's just like, you know, did I ever tell you like peanut butter? You know, I mean, it's just like, you know, depending on whatever it works for you to like open a little bit, you know, open a little bit and open more. Maybe at one point maybe that peanut butter is maybe not that important anymore. You know, it's just like a certain loosening up on the grips that we have. And again, I really want to emphasize, it doesn't matter what's different in your pattern, just anything different, like anything. And then the third difficulty is to keep doing that. Like it's nice to have one or two like success experiences, but to like keep changing our pattern is like really difficult. Because the patterns are called samsara. And the patterns are what obscure Buddha nature. So then, without a little time, about, we thought, so there's a bunch of traditional practices we thought about.

[84:08]

What about in modern America? We do a lot of the traditional ones, and, you know, slight variations on them, but things with the same spirit that are already in our culture. And so it would be interesting if anybody else has ideas. But some of the things we thought of when thinking about this are like, like the arts, you know, these things that maybe have nothing to do with Buddhism on the surface, right? But anything that turns beings towards big mind, that would be like actions done to awaken all beings, right? So there may be various kinds of like visual arts or music or poetry or whatever that actually, I can think of lots of examples that actually like, It has nothing to do with Buddha Dharma, but it actually opens people's minds to like a bigger reality. I think of the arts are often, they're not always about this, but I think they're often, artists are trying to do that.

[85:12]

Just one example. I mean, there's the traditional arts, but then there's abstract modern painting might still do that in some way. One example that maybe is actually even influenced by Zen is someone like John Cage. He was a Zen practitioner of some sort, I think. And doing this thing, like three minutes of silence, whatever it was, I think was kind of like a Dharma teaching to open the minds of a lot of beings. And I think it was successful. It did challenge people's fixed patterns. It broke some patterns to offer that piece of music, but nobody knew it had anything to do with Buddhism. So other practices that we could think of, especially outside of Tassajara, daily life, to do this kind of work of generating bodhicitta, the aspiration, and then applying it as the application, bodhicitta, for all beings.

[86:20]

I think the whole idea of only in Zen is to step away from all the trick. Yeah. Totally. And I think that you're raising, like, A big issue where we may be glad to run out of time. Because there is a certain whole inheritance you have that it doesn't include not having a family and it kind of gives rise to a grey area. that where sometimes maybe the question is, what is renunciation? You've got to have a discussion about that. If really all the activities that people are doing as being ordained in home leaving, what's different than being they, right? And that sometimes we like to not being different, you know, in various circumstances.

[87:29]

And sometimes the difference is emphasized and can we stand that, you know? I mean, there's a whole... And there's different things being done among different teachers. I think even still the teachers are trying to find their own way. So home living as ordination and also just leaving home everyone who came to Tazahara regardless of ordination, right? To leave behind your familiar life and come live with these bunch of people that you don't know who they're going to be and what you're going to do is a big challenge. renunciation, leaving the familiar. And then, I think as many people know, then you're living in Tassajara for a while, and then there's a leaving home of the familiar, comfortable mountain retreat, going back into the unknown again. And then maybe you get familiar with that, and you've got to leave. So maybe that's the over and over part.

[88:31]

And they follow the thing with youthful freedom. No, but I think what you're really touching on is, which is the really deepest level that applies to no matter what kind of being you are and which kind of place, is just really don't hook onto anything in your life, you know, not in your senses, not in your, you know, in anything, you know. And that's a deep level that... that it demands a lot of effort because there's just so much coming at us. This is a different kind of offering. That's what I keep noticing. When you were talking about offerings before, and manifesting the qualities of the deities and so forth, becoming them that it's all fits with what you're also talking about here with renunciation with merit that it's all an ongoing offering our renunciation our idea of we're proud of our goodness or that we keep giving it we keep releasing it surrendering it or offering it

[90:00]

the same as the flowers or thoughts that could make us stuck. We don't let them, we offer them. That all seems like an ongoing offering to me, the same as flowers or light or wine. Yeah, one could say that the offering is one side and the renunciation is the other side of the same coin. Pretty much. Yeah, giving away. Also, I thought of Just with intention, though. We can make anything an offering with intention. So like you mentioned, like Zen, you can make a Zen garden, beautiful thing, just to make a beautiful thing, or you can make it with the intention that this awaken all beings. I was just noticing this one, one of the quotes from Dogen, from Tsukuro Joshi, about needing all, it just mentions it also. Yeah. further you leave home by realizing that your house is not a true house. You enter the mountain and practice dharma.

[91:02]

That sounds like being here. But then he goes on to say, thus 80,000 phenomena become the causes and conditions for arousing aspiration for enlightenment. This is the part in life. There are those who arouse the aspiration for enlightenment in a dream and attain the way. There are those who arouse the aspiration for enlightenment while intoxicated in other spices, seeing scattering flowers of falling leaves and the peach blossoms of green bamboo and attain the way. In the days of the realm of the ocean, they all attain the way. So, what's moving on? I mean, that's interesting, what's moving on, because can it be a question? Can we really remain with a question and not try to find an answer, you know? And also, as we're talking also about all these practical applications, traditional and non-traditional. I just think maybe most people here are living in Tassajara and there's all these forms for already doing these types of things.

[92:06]

But for when one leaves and for those coming and going, I think of like a lot of those practices offering, one can express those things at home, like in traditional ways too, like setting up an altar and making offerings. For example, we like to, basically before every meal at home, make a food offering to the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. And then one gets to watch one's mind around this. It looks like it's a symbolic thing, but then sometimes you make not quite enough, or it's just barely enough. my tendency is then I'll try to hold back a little on the offering to Buddha, because it's like, you know, it's a little lower ball than usual. So things like this, and like, wow, I really get to see my mind of like openness and stinginess in this practical activity. It's just, this is really quick, that, yeah, there's all sort of maybe non-Buddhist things like that you can do in your daily life, like you're sort of

[93:15]

meeting and respecting objects, you know, wasting part of a vegetable that you're going to eat, or being very careful in the way you slice it. There's all these little things you can do that sort of honor it in a ritualistic way that's not necessarily spiritual seeing it. Yes, and that also reminds me of, there's the mindfulness practice of all kinds of practices we know about Kumbhinyin, and to particularly infuse it with this bodhicitta for the awakening of all beings. There's, like Shovel mentioned at one point, this chapter in the Avatamsaka Sutra, about all these activities that are just everyday activities, like when walking on the road, may all beings find the true road. Just like these Gathas, these verses, and they're generally about thinking of the awakening of others. When brushing their teeth, may all beings... Bite through delusions, yeah. So it's like everyday mundane activities.

[94:17]

And sometimes we think of those as just mindfulness verses, may I be really present when brushing my teeth, or may I bite through afflictions. But in the sutra, it's always got all sentient beings in there. So it's not just a mindfulness practice, but this wider wish, may all beings bite through their afflictions. So a practice that's, you know, not just reduced, would be just feeling and manifesting love for others. Yes. Totally. Finally. Yeah, yeah. Just simple and noticing how joyful that feels. And then in this kind of stylized way of, we're talking about dedication to merit, I feel my heart's really open to... to these beings in this situation and like, wow, maybe there's other beings too. May they all share in this loving openness too.

[95:20]

It's kind of like the dedication of merit and just widening the circle, I might say. And somehow I see sometimes, I don't know if you have that experience, you're in a really open space and then something that you, a tendency, a tendency of you, so you feel annoyed about something, that pops up and then suddenly you find yourself saying something, you know, negative or you're in pain because you're in pain or something. And it almost feels to me like, you know, here's this open moment and then everything in us that's still constricted kind of pops up and like, I want to join this party. And then you need to find a way to include this thing that actually is kind of painful or restricted of some sort. And then also bring that to others. For example, Annie Prima was actually suggesting to us we were in a snow area and she was saying, well, if you have snow in your shoe, wish that every being would be free of snow in the shoe.

[96:26]

You know, like, anything like that. And that already helps giving it away, you know. I don't have to, like, in real, like, I have to do, like, therapeutic counseling about this karmic thing that's popping up in my mind, makes me feel uncomfortable. It's more like, this is really uncomfortable in the midst of this really beautiful openness, and I wish everybody would be free of this discomfort, you know. It's kind of already an opening right there, you know. Nice. Thanks for your patience. Thank you for listening to this podcast offered by the San Francisco Zen Center. Our Dharma talks are offered free of charge 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 sfzc.org and click Giving.

[97:24]

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