Good morning. Is this working? Can you all hear me? Yeah? Yeah? Okay. Let's see who's here. Great. Thank you all for coming. There's a lot of faces I don't recognize, which is good. Are some of you new, like, have never been here before? Raise your hands. Oh, good. Good. Because mostly I'm talking to you today. The rest of you can fall quietly asleep as long as you don't snore. Okay. I will not be speaking extemporaneously. I'm oddly nervous. Normally there's nothing I like better than getting up in front of a group

[01:45]

and showing off. But for some reason I'm feeling a little nervous this morning, so excuse me if I show off. So good morning. Welcome. Greetings. Hello. Thank you all for coming. When I was invited to speak this morning, I was reminded, although I didn't really need a reminder, that this week we celebrated the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr. on Tuesday, and on Monday we'll be celebrating it as a holiday. And I was asked to address some of my comments to his life. This was very easy because although I'd already started working on my talk today, since I was going to talk, I'm going to talk about the Bodhisattva path. It was easy to include Martin Luther King because shorn of the sort of mythological glamour that we give it, the Bodhisattva path is very well illustrated by Dr. King's life. This was a life guided, I believe, by the twin disciplines of

[02:51]

great suffering and great love. And great suffering and great love are the hallmarks of the Bodhisattva's training, though with long practice they are transformed into wisdom and compassion. And this transformation is, in all aspects of Buddhist training, the most important thing. What Buddhist training is about, what the Bodhisattva path is about, is transformation, not eradication, not suppression, but transformation. And I'll have more to say about this transformation, compassion, and wisdom in a little bit. So the Bodhisattva, I'll talk a little bit more about that, explain that a little bit more, but the Bodhisattva is one whose vow is to liberate all beings from suffering and delusion, and she has as her goal freedom. And like Martin Luther King,

[03:54]

she sees with a clear knowledge that her own freedom can only be achieved by freedom for all. For just as Martin Luther King saw that freedom must include not only his own people, not only the African-American descendants of slaves, but the descendants of those people who believed that they could own these enslaved others. And he saw that while racism binds the victims, politically, economically, socially, spiritually, he saw that it no less enslaves the privileged classes as well, with fear and with delusion. So with that as an introduction and with the Reverend Dr. King as a wonderful exemplar, I'd like to talk a little bit more about the Bodhisattva path as we understand it in Buddhism. The word Bodhisattva itself is constructed of,

[04:55]

it's a compound word, Sanskrit. There's Bodhi, which can mean, it's translated in a number of ways, awakening, awakened, enlightenment, enlightened. And Sattva is being, as in human being or sentient being or something like that. So Bodhisattva in this context for today, I like to think of the Bodhisattva as an awakening being, a being who is in the process of becoming awakened and encouraging others to become awakened. In the older sense, in the older literature which is associated with the Theravadan school of Buddhism, a Bodhisattva is one who is on the way to becoming a Buddha. So in the literature, Shakyamuni, the man, Siddhartha Gautama, the historical Buddha, the fellow up on the altar, is called the Bodhisattva before his enlightenment and the Buddha afterwards. But eventually over time, the sense of the word expanded and became

[06:00]

more nuanced. And we in the Zen school, in the tradition of the Mahayana, the so-called great vehicle, understand the Bodhisattva as one who has taken the vow to work tirelessly for the awakening and the salvation of all beings, not only his or her own, from suffering. So here is one formulation of the Bodhisattva vow. This comes from the Diamond Sutra. The Lord said, the Lord of course being the Buddha, here is Subhuti, Subhuti being one of the disciples, someone who is set out in the vehicle of a Bodhisattva should produce a thought in this manner. As many beings as there are in the universe of beings, comprehended under the term beings, egg-born, born from a womb, moisture-born or miraculously born, with or without form, with perception, without perception, and with neither perception or non-perception, as far as any conceivable form of beings is

[07:03]

conceived, all these I must lead to nirvana, into that realm of nirvana which leaves nothing behind. So this is a rather grandiose, perhaps, formulation of the Bodhisattva idea, and it continues in the same verse. And yet, although innumerable beings have thus been led to nirvana, no being at all has been led to nirvana. And why? If in a Bodhisattva the notion of a being should take place, he could not be called a Bodhi being. And why? He is not to be called a Bodhi being, a Bodhisattva, in whom the notion of a self or of a being should take place, or the notion of a living soul or a person. So I'd like to return to this in a few minutes, but bear it in mind. So in the Buddhist tradition, the scope of the Bodhisattva's work is said to

[08:08]

encompass unimaginable lengths of time, whole cycles of the universe, from the Big Bang to the Collapse, if collapse is going to be. Kalpas is the word that we use in Buddhist literature, whole kalpas of time. The Bodhisattva perfects the virtue and wisdom which make her better to become a refuge for others, which lead eventually to Buddhahood. So the vow of the Bodhisattva, then, is to refrain from his or her own final salvation, entry into nirvana, as long as there's one being who remains to be saved. Avalokiteshvara is the Bodhisattva of compassion, and his name means the one who hears the cries of the world. And the story is that Avalokiteshvara, when first looking down upon the suffering of the world, was so distressed by that suffering that his head exploded. And Amida Buddha, who's the standing Buddha behind me, put back those fragments of

[09:16]

head into eleven heads, so that the Avalokiteshvara was able to see in all directions at once the suffering of beings. And Avalokiteshvara has a thousand arms to reach out, and in each of those hands there's an eye. So Avalokiteshvara sees and hears and reaches out to each one of us as the Bodhisattva of compassion, and delays her own entry into nirvana. So this is the, oh, and Avalokiteshvara is also, in Japan and China, where he has become female, taken on female form, is known as Quan Yin, or Kanon, Kanze On, the Goddess of Mercy. Usually in the West, perhaps, she manifests as Mother Mary, who's also a great Bodhisattva. So this is the cosmic, or the mythological, or the dreamtime

[10:17]

version and vision of the Bodhisattva and the Bodhisattva's task. But, you know, that seems very far removed from you and me, so what about us? Does it really mean, this Bodhisattva vow, that in taking this vow I will be reincarnated innumerable times to be of use to suffering beings? Does it really matter that I have to come back, does it really mean that I have to come back over and over and over again into this realm of suffering to do whatever I can? It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter if this is a literally true vow or not. It doesn't matter if we're going to come back again and again and again. It may be metaphorical, maybe karma and continuity are much more complicated than we can understand or easily formulate. But what the Bodhisattva is about, the Bodhisattva vow is about, is that true or not, we are willing that it should be. If indeed,

[11:22]

it means, by taking the Bodhisattva vow, that we are committing ourselves to coming back forever, this is what the Bodhisattva vow is. We may get lucky and find out that we don't have to, but we have to be ready for it. So it means that we're willing to show up in this world full of suffering again and again, over and over, be it for one lifetime or for a million million lifetimes. But of course, on the other hand, we only have to show up and show up completely one moment at a time, one empty moment at a time. I often say this, so if you've heard it before, excuse me. One of the epithets, that's not the right word, one of the titles of the Buddha is Tathagata, and it's what he often calls himself in the literature. And Tathagata can be translated

[12:25]

in many ways. Often we translate it as the one who has thus come. I like to translate it as the guy who shows up. So, you know, the Tathagata, you know, here's the world, here's the Tathagata. She shows up for her life, each moment, each empty moment. And the fact that each moment is empty is what makes it conceivable. And usually the language we use about the vow, or any vow, is that we take a vow. But I'd like to suggest today that in the Bodhisattva vow, we think in terms of giving ourselves to the vow. Without reservation, without holding back, we pray to give ourselves completely to the Bodhisattva vow. And in doing this, to the best of our ability, however imperfect that is, when we give ourself to the Bodhisattva vow, we become willing to be changed by the vow. Changed from who we think we are, changed from that person into whomever,

[13:33]

or whatever, the vow requires us to become, to be of service. So we're willing to be changed, not knowing what the outcome will be, but to be changed for the sake of all beings. Let me read you a poem that reminds me about this. This is a poem by Allen Ginsberg. You may have heard of him. It's called Shakyamuni Coming Out of the Mountain. Shakyamuni, as you recall, is the historical Buddha. And this poem is based upon a painting, an old Chinese painting. It's wonderful, and I wish I had it to show you, but I don't. So I'll just read the poem. Shakyamuni Coming Out of the Mountain. He drags his bare feet out of a cave under a tree, eyebrows grown long with weeping and hook-nosed woe. In ragged soft robes, wearing a fine beard, unhappy hands clasped to his naked breast. Humility is beatness. Humility is beatness. Faltering into the bushes by a stream, all things inanimate but

[14:42]

his intelligence. Stands upright there, though trembling. Arhat, who sought heaven under a mountain of stone, sat thinking till he realized the land of blessedness exists in the imagination. The flash come, empty mirror. How painful to be born again wearing a fine beard. Re-entering the world, a bitter wreck of a sage. Earth before him, his only path. We can see his soul. He knows nothing like a god. Shaken, meek, wretch. Humility is beatness before the absolute world. I love that poem. So, as this poem implies, what happens when we take the Bodhisattva vow, when we are willing to be changed by it, doesn't mean that it's going to end up like what we'd hoped for, or what we

[15:43]

thought, or what we'd looked for in the beginning. We may end up being of service in the world in quite a different way than we had planned for or wanted. It may not look as glittery as we thought, or even the way we thought. So this happens when we give ourselves to the vow, when we practice devotion to the vow. And I like this word, devotion, because the word vow and the word devotion, of course, have the same root. So we practice devotion to the vow. You know, the obvious question at this point, of course, is how can we possibly follow such a course? And more to the point, why would we want to? At first glance, you know, it sounds about as attractive as a root canal. But, so let's look at why first, okay? So I really believe, really, truly and deeply, I believe that each one of us in the room today is here because we've already had a glimpse of Bodhicitta, the thought of enlightenment, that flash that things could be different, our lives could be

[16:48]

different, and we could understand. And so no matter what reason you think you're here, you know, maybe your boyfriend or your girlfriend dragged you here, or it's New Year's resolution to learn how to do meditation or, you know, whatever. I'm convinced that some flash of possibility of awakening is the real cause. And, you know, we build on that sense of awakening, that sense of the possibility of the potential for awakening. And at first, you know, that sense of possibility that leads us to seek out practice is about, is likely to be about, at least, relieving our own suffering, you know, gaining some peace of mind, stilling the cravings to keep us from, keep us still in the world of suffering. I mean, very, very few people, if you ask them and they answer honestly, will tell you they came to Zen Center to practice Azen because they were having a good day. You know, I mean, it's not true, you know, it's about suffering, kids. However, after we have practiced for a while,

[17:56]

spent some time doing meditation and investigating our minds and the way things work, and perhaps being exposed to some of more of the explicit teachings about this, it begins to dawn on us that we are not who or what we thought we were. The boundary of the perceived self shifts. We begin to see that we are contingent upon all that has gone before us to create us, parents and ancestors, culture and climate and history, the physical world, all the way back to the Big Bang and beyond. And at first, this is of intellectual interest only. It's kind of a fun game to play about thinking about, you know, what made me. So it's a sort of a game. Excuse me. But as we really internalize this way of understanding by studying the teachings, by practicing, by watching exactly how body and mind have come to be and make it part of our response to our lives, it takes on an emotional and spiritual

[19:06]

reality. The sense of who we are expands to include the entire world. Self covers all. And we realize that our isolation is an illusion and one of the most painful. And that on the very deepest level of our interconnectedness, our interconnectedness with each other is absolute, that we're all points along the same continuum. And given the reality of this, even when we only get a glimpse of it every now and then, the question of why we should want to pursue the Bodhisattva path becomes a non-question. We literally cannot abandon beings to their suffering and seek out our own separate peace, because as long as there are beings who suffer, we suffer too. The hand cannot forget the foot. And so we are driven, perhaps against our will at first, to accept more suffering into

[20:07]

our lives. As we open ourselves, that's what we do. As we end the isolation that keeps the boundary of the self small and tight and constricted, as we open that, we actually do receive into our lives more suffering, at least at first, and the suffering of the hitherto other. So it doesn't sound like a very good deal. So, because of this, because we are initially inviting and accepting more suffering, rather than ending suffering, which is what we thought we were going to do when we started Siddhantazin and all that stuff, this requires a great deal of faith and a great deal of courage and tremendous generosity. And so it's not for nothing that Dhanaparamita, the perfection of giving, the perfection of generosity, heads the list of the six perfections that we talk about in terms of the Bodhisattva path. And so the sense of who we are, what we are, the sense of the self changes, and the

[21:14]

self becomes no longer a product, a commodity, or a project, but rather a vehicle for communication, communion and service. And by the way, the practice of the Bodhisattva path is a radical political statement as well, because it's about as far as being, you can't get much farther removed from consumer culture than that, from the culture in which each person indeed is a product and a commodity, and in which we gain value only by our ability to produce and consume. This is the self as commodity. But Siddhantazin, like poetry, makes nothing happen. So it's a radical political statement. So having come to this point, or approached it, or become willing to approach it, or having been dragged to it against our will and better sense, how do we proceed? How can we stand to be in the world for the sake of others, and how can we practice?

[22:19]

You know, once we have come to accept the necessity or the inevitability and begun to accept the suffering of others into our lives, then what? How do we go? How can we practice? How can we do it? For today at least, I'd like to suggest that there are three components of the path to the path. My own terms for them are cultivation, surrender, and the understanding of emptiness. This can also be considered in terms of the three traditional divisions of practice, which in the basic literature, which are shila, which is morality or ethical conduct, samadhi, which is meditation, and pranayama, which is wisdom. So the path of cultivation is where we undertake those practices which allow our lives and our minds to settle into some semblance of calmness. This is what we were looking for at the beginning, remember, when we first came to practice. So the good news is that there's actually a way to get there. You can get there from here. And this path of cultivation is what develops our characters

[23:24]

as men and women of the way. That's with a big W. So some of these cultivation practices are right speech, right livelihood, right conduct, practices of loving kindness, gratitude, and generosity. Some of these are actually meditation practices. Some are practices that we do throughout the day. So in some degree, these practices can be seen as antidotal in that they are behaviors of body and speech and mind which we deliberately take on to counteract our native inclination to speak and act from selfishness, anger, and confusion. So these are antidotes. This is cultivating. We're making changes through decision, through will, through New Year's resolutions, whatever it takes to get you there. And we do this because in order to be able to practice meditation or insight with any efficacy, our minds must have a certain degree of calmness which will only be possible if our lives are in some objective order. So it's very

[24:30]

difficult to practice calm abiding if your hand's on the till or if you're cheating on your spouse or if you're getting drunk every night. So hence the attempt to the best of our ability to live according to the precepts which are usually articulated as the following ten. I vow not to kill. I vow not to take what is not given. I vow not to misuse sexuality. I vow to refrain from false speech. I vow to refrain from intoxicants. I vow not to slander. I vow not to praise self at the expense of others. I vow not to be avaricious. I vow not to harbor ill will and I vow not to abuse the three treasures. The three treasures are Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. So cultivating this sort of life, these sort of mental attitudes, is the strong foundation for our practice and specifically for our zazen, our meditation. And fortunately Buddhism gives many clear and precise

[25:31]

suggestions about how we might go about this. So this is a brief take on the path of cultivation. So let's look at the path of surrender. So this can be understood in a couple of ways. In meditation, for example, there's a form of surrender. You know, we turn ourselves over to the reality of the moment, breathing in, breathing out, and noticing without attempting to control our breath, our thoughts, our emotions, sensory input. Neither holding on to them nor suppressing them, neither judging them nor making up stories about them. So zazen, oh for those of you who are new, zazen just means sitting meditation, okay? Zen, Z-E-N, you know, that just means meditation. Za means sitting. Zazen, sitting meditation. So you know, zazen,

[26:35]

right? Okay. So zazen is sort of a form of radical allowance. We allow ourselves to be just as we are while giving minute and loving attention to the kaleidoscope of our bodies and our minds. So that's one sort of surrender, the kind of surrender that we actually practice when we're sitting on our cushion or sitting on our chair or doing whatever we do when we practice meditation. But what I'm most interested in talking about today is a different kind or slightly different kind of surrender. And this is the surrender to the bodhisattva vow as such. So as I said earlier, this is about a willingness to be changed. And it's beyond cultivation. Cultivation is an exercise of the will. It's sort of a positive form of willfulness. But this is something else. This surrender is willingness. It's to allow that which we think

[27:35]

of as our solid self to see that that's actually fluid and to make a conscious decision to subordinate that self and that sense of self to a larger form of organization on different principles and with a different agenda than the desires of the self for gratification. Okay. So we're allowing ourselves to be radically reorganized as beings through the agency of the bodhisattva vow. So it's a loving surrender in that we trust ourselves to it, to an outcome that is unknown and unknowable to us, as we would entrust ourselves to a lover or to a god. In giving ourselves over to the bodhisattva vow, we don't even know exactly what we're entrusting ourselves to. It cannot be rationalized or dissected. But this vow is what carries us in our practice from moment to moment.

[28:38]

It's a form of grace. And the more deeply satisfying, the more we give ourselves over to it. So, you know, it has a positive feedback. And so, of course, also the surrender that I'm speaking of is ideally one without resentment or bitterness. And that's really a tall order. I remember many years ago, a friend of mine saying to me, I could die tomorrow and not feel cheated. You know, and I thought at the time, and I still think, what a wonderful thing that would be to feel that way. I could die tomorrow and not feel cheated. I hope she still feels that way. But this is what I'm talking about, this kind of surrender to our life and to the vow and where it will take us. And that is a really tall order, for me at least. And I think it will take our whole lives to practice this. And that's the good news, okay?

[29:43]

Because it means that we never come to the end of the Dharma resource. You know, it's an inexhaustible treasure. And also, I think it's worthwhile to remember that when we're looking at the Bodhisattva vow and our practice of it and by it, we're looking at progress rather than perfection. And we want to give ourselves to it with the gift of patience and generosity that we try as best we can to give to others. So this patience and this generosity we should give to ourselves in our practice, in our inevitable failure, in our practice, in our inevitable failure again and again. And when I think of this kind of surrender, I'm reminded of that really wonderful song of the Shakers, The Gift to be Simple, the last part of which goes, I will spare you my singing voice, but it goes on. Let's see. When true simplicity is gained, to bow and to bend we shall not be ashamed. To turn and to

[30:44]

turn will be our delight, till by turning and turning we come down right, or come round right. So this is the kind of surrender that I'm talking about, joyful and willing. So finally, I'd like to talk a little bit about the understanding of emptiness, which is prajna, which is wisdom. So I remember reading about it. I started reading about Buddhism when I was quite young, just a child, and I really liked it. And sometimes when I was a teenager, I came upon my first mention of emptiness. I guess I'd been reading somewhat more sophisticated literature by then. And I remember feeling this intense sense of joy reading about emptiness, and maybe even a sense of relief

[31:45]

and release. And I still cannot read or hear or speak about emptiness without a lifting of the heart. So emptiness, as we understand it in Buddhism, is not some sort of nihilism. It's not nothingness or a product of blank despair, but it's freedom. So each day here at Zen Center, we chant the Heart Sutra, which begins like this, Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva, when practicing deeply the Prajna Paramita, perceived that all five skandhas in their own being are empty, and thus relieved all suffering. So as you recall, Avalokiteshvara is the Bodhisattva of compassion. And so what this means, you know, to translate a little bit, is that as Avalokiteshvara was practicing the perfection of wisdom, the Prajna Paramita, she realized that all skandhas, all constituent parts of reality, are impermanent

[32:49]

and without abiding self, in other words, empty. And this in itself was the relief of her suffering. So, you know, an understanding of emptiness is the definition of wisdom and Prajna, freedom. So, you know, our passionate experience, you know, all of our concerns and our clingings, you know, break again and again on the shore of this emptiness. And it's not that our hurt, or that the hurt of others is magicked away, but rather we see by close attention to the present, with calmness of mind, that all things arise and fall according to causes and conditions, and that because there is no abiding self, liberation is possible. And because all things and all beings are without substance or essence, because of that we can remain in the world,

[33:53]

accepting each moment as it arises and passes away. So suffering is real, but it is not absolute reality. And we live in this world of suffering and desire. We've created this world of suffering and desire, but because of emptiness we don't need to stay here. So, you know, the time that we have remaining, unless I want to go over the time that I said I would, which I don't, is fairly short. And, you know, the subject, the concept of emptiness is so radically simple that it would take a very, very long time to explain, you know, several lectures at least the length of this one. So rather than continue with my understanding or lack of understanding, I'd just like to read a couple of quotes, okay, and then we'll end. So the first one is from Suzuki Roshi. Suzuki Roshi, for those of you who are quite new, was the Japanese Zen teacher who founded

[34:58]

Zen Center, okay? This is his book, available in the bookstore. There's a new one coming out too. In the Pranayama Paramita Sutra, that is the Heart Sutra, the most important point, of course, is the idea of emptiness. Before we understand the idea of emptiness, everything seems to exist substantially. But after we realize the emptiness of things, everything becomes real, not substantial. When we realize that everything we see is a part of emptiness, we can have no attachment to any existence. We realize that everything is just a tentative form and color. Thus, we realize the true meaning of each tentative existence. When we first hear that everything is a tentative existence, most of us are disappointed. But this disappointment comes from a wrong view of man and nature. It is because our way of observing things is deeply rooted in our self-centered ideas that we are disappointed

[35:59]

when we find everything has only a tentative existence. But when we actually realize this truth, we will have no suffering. The Sutra says, Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara observes everything as emptiness, thus he forsakes all suffering. It was not after he realized this truth that he overcame suffering. To realize this truth is itself to be relieved from suffering. So realization of the truth is salvation itself. We say to realize, but the realization of the truth is always near at hand. It is not after we practice asana that we realize the truth. Even before we practice asana, realization is there. It is not after we understand the truth that we attain enlightenment. To realize the truth is to live, to exist here and now. So that was Suzuki Roshi, and I'll finish with a short quotation from the Diamond Sutra, which is what I read from at the beginning. These are the last lines of the Diamond Sutra.

[37:06]

As stars, a fault of vision as a lamp, a mock show, dew drops or a bubble, a dream, a lightning flash or cloud, so should one view what is conditioned. Thus spoke the Lord. In raptured, the elders subhuti, the monks and nuns, the pious laymen and laywomen, and the bodhisattvas and the whole world, with its gods, men, asuras and gandharvas rejoiced in the Lord's teaching. So that's about all I have to say today, which is good because we're just about out of time. So thank you all for coming and letting me talk to you. I've really enjoyed being here. It does me a lot of good to have to think about these things and write them down on paper and say them out loud to remind myself of all the wonderful practices that I usually forget to do. So if I have said anything that is useful to you today, please accept it as a gift.

[38:14]

And if I've said anything that has disturbed or confused or irritated you, please forget it as quickly as possible and forgive me. Thank you.

[38:23]

@Text_v004
@Score_JJ