This podcast is offered by San Francisco Zen Center on the web at sfcc.org. Our public programs are made possible by donations from people like you. Good evening, beloved friends and the Dharma. Please let me know if you can't hear me very well. It's a joy and an honor to be with all of you again. And as Koto had mentioned, the Beginner's Mind Temple, here we are in the middle of a 10-week practice period, which the theme is Fierce Compassion, Enacting Bodhisattva Principles in a Troubled World. And each week we are focusing on one of seven classic Bodhisattva archetypes. So exploring their development, their iconography associated with them, the particular qualities and principles they represent. as well as how it is we might enact their way of being as ourselves, as ourselves being bodhisattvas and Buddhas in training for the benefit of the world.

[01:08]

So this week we're taking up the study of Manjushri Bodhisattva, on whom I will focus my talk tonight. First, I'd like to begin by sharing with you an invocation of Manjushri Bodhisattva, which is from a teaching by Thich Nhat Hanh. We invoke your name, Manjushri. We aspire to learn your way, which is to be still and to look deeply into the heart of things and into the hearts of people. We will look with all our attention and open-heartedness. We will look with unprejudiced eyes. We will look without judging or reacting. We will look deeply so that we will be able to see and understand the roots of suffering, the impermanent and selfless nature of all that is.

[02:15]

We will practice your way of using the sword of understanding to cut through the bonds of suffering, thus freeing ourselves and other species. I find this an inspiring and clear expression of the spiritual energy of Manjushri, the Bodhisattva who represents great understanding. When you pay respect to the qualities of great understanding and great wisdom, you're paying respect to Manjushri And at the same time, you're paying homage to these qualities in yourself. Manjushri Bodhisattva is one amongst many legendary figures that are symbols for different aspects of, we could say, awakened activity, of how someone who has woken up from the illusion of being a separate self lives.

[03:18]

For those who are not familiar with the term, bodhisattva is a Sanskrit word commonly translated as awakening being. And it's traditionally used to refer to one who has chosen to forgo their own final liberation in order to first assist all beings to first fully realize their own liberation. So others before ourselves. We can also think of a bodhisattva as a wisdom being. With wisdom, meaning realization of shunyata, or the emptiness of all phenomena. Being a bodhisattva is actually not just about being a certain kind of person. Being a bodhisattva is an activity. In fact, we might think of Bodhisattva, not so much as a noun, but as a verb, as a description of a particular kind of activity.

[04:26]

Awakening is a process, just as being is a process. So awakening being is a verb compound that describes the activity of living out the process of awakening, to the truth of emptiness, non-self, and the profound interconnectedness of our lives through our actions of body, speech, and mind. And this activity has the sense of one taking a journey on the path. And there are different, you could say, stages in the deepening or extent of this awakening. Manjushri Bodhisattva is a traditional and a fictional character, a device, a symbol representing aspects of what is true about who and what we are.

[05:34]

Essentially, Manjushri is a set of instructions. I think this is true of all of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas that appear in the Mahayana Zen tradition, and how it is that we can make use of these mythological figures. Even those Bodhisattvas who are based on historical humans, such as Shakyamuni and apparently Vimalakirti, have been elevated through the mytholization to offer us instructions for how to live life. as awakening beings. For the benefit of those who weren't in our weekly class last night, in which we explored some of the attributes and iconography associated with Manjushri, Manjushri is reputed to be the oldest and one of the most significant bodhisattvas in Mahayama literature.

[06:37]

And he first appears in the early Mahayama Sutra. He doesn't appear in the Pali canon. the early Buddhist titics. Because he is associated with the prajna paramita sutras, prajna paramita, the great perfect wisdom sutras, he symbolizes the embodiment of prajna or transcendent wisdom. Manjushri is the bodhisattva of wisdom. He questions directly into the nature of reality. Manjushri's name in Sanskrit means noble and gentle one or gentle glory, a name which, while highlighting his calm friendliness, also relies his penetrating fierceness. And he's usually depicted as a young prince, maybe around 16 years old. And this is said because he's in contact with his inherent nobility and wealth of insight.

[07:42]

He is sometimes depicted holding a sword. It's a two-edged sword of insight, which is shown at times alight with flames. And in his other hand, usually his left hand, he holds a lotus blossom. And on top of which lies the Prajna Paramita teachings, usually as a scroll or a book. And he's sometimes shown riding a lion. which again signifies nobility, courage, fearlessness, or power. And sometimes he's sitting on a lotus petal, which represents purity, pure mind, pure conduct. And while Manjushri is often depicted as a he, in time, particularly as Manjushri was integrated into Chinese culture, they become androgynous. And there's often many depictions with more feminine attributes.

[08:44]

So Manjushri is associated with Prajnaparamita, the wisdom aspect of our nature. And the Heart Sutra, which is one of the key Prajnaparamita suttas, begins by noting that an awakening being in this case, Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva, when deeply practicing Prajna and Paramita, clearly saw that all five aggregates are empty and thus leave all suffering. So Prajna is clear seeing, clear seeing into the nature of reality. Prajna and Paramita is the perfection of wisdom, the perfection of a profound seeing that is liberative, Wisdom is considered the mother of Buddhas. It is wisdom that gives birth to enlightenment. And it is wisdom that nourishes and sustains the Bodhisattva's compassionate involvement in the world on behalf of all beings.

[09:58]

Prajna is a Sanskrit word. It's most often translated as wisdom. but it's closer in meaning to insight or discriminating knowledge or intuitive apprehension. And jhana, prajna, prajna, can be translated as consciousness, knowledge, or understanding. And the pra, before, is an intensifier. which can be translated as before or higher or greater, supreme or premium, or being born or springing up. So in this case, referring to the spontaneous type of knowing. So prasad literally means the wisdom before we know. The wisdom before we know. Or sometimes it's best knowledge or best knowing. one which is intuitive and spontaneous, is the wisdom that comes before any conceptual knowing.

[11:14]

For example, before we know it's raining, before we grok that an event we previously recognize as raining is happening, and before we affix a label to it, before we rename it rain, There's just awareness of experience prior to naming it. Just experience experiencing itself. The practice is to be in touch with and keep this before-knowing quality in our mind. You could call it the freshness and the aliveness of a beginner's mind. And this is what's kind of being referred to in terms of the youthful aspect of manjushri. I also think that the Chinese term for prajna, and I may not pronounce this correctly, so please forgive me, zhri, it's Z-H-I, and then H-U-I, zhri, also illustrates two dimensions of manjushri's wisdom that are also important to keep in mind.

[12:34]

So Kri means having sharp roots with a very clear mind. The roots of Prajna lie so deep that they are beyond birth and death, even beyond no birth and no death. And they're sharp like Manjushri's sword, cutting away any perception of duality before it can grow and obscure or cloud the mind. And Zhe points to using this clear mind to handle situations appropriately. So we can say that Hwi is the essence of prajna and Zhe is the function of prajna. The Bodhisattva relies on these aspects as they endeavor to liberate all beings from the entanglement of self-delusion. And given this, it becomes obvious that we're not talking about wisdom as simply having lots of knowledge or being able to regurgitate a lot of scholarly information or technical facts that we've digested.

[13:51]

It's not about reading as many books or sutras as possible and think that you'll gain true wisdom by doing so. That kind of knowledge, that... knowing that comes from absorbing information is a kind of static aspect. Well, prajna, insight and wisdom, is really dynamic. And I have to sometimes remind myself, because I have all these Dharma books on my shelves, right? And I think, oh, if I could just read one more book, I'm going to absorb it and I'll get it. And then I'll have some deeper wisdom, right? And most of the times I don't get caught anymore with that, but occasionally I still do. I see one more great new book that comes out, and then I'll be like, ah, if I could just absorb that book, then I would have a deeper understanding. So don't be fooled. Prajna as discriminating knowledge or insight leads to an awareness that doesn't appropriate.

[14:59]

It doesn't fixate on our experiences. How the mind illumined by prajna allows experiences to arise and pass through. As they are, not grasping onto them, right? So as experiences, phenomena arise, pass through an open sky, and then fade away. And we don't try to hang on to them. Essentially, this not fixating means that we don't relate to phenomena or experiences as separate, inherently existing objects. We don't fall into creating subject-object distinctions in which there is a subject, me, which interacts in some way with a separate object, you, the table, the computer, sound.

[16:03]

sensation, and so on. Prajna Paramita represents transcendent knowledge because it's a form of knowing or understanding in which there is no subject or object, no subject-object duality. There's no self-other dualism either. You could say it's even beyond non-duality. So Manjushri inquires directly and fearlessly into the nature of reality. And thus has penetrating insight to the essence of all phenomena, said. Seeing the fundamental emptiness of all things. Now, obviously, the concept of emptiness can be kind of intimidating to us. And we can get all caught up in trying to figure out what it means. Emptiness is... is the usual translation for the Buddhist term shunyata, and it refers to the fact that no thing, including humans, has ultimate substantiality, which in turn means that no thing or phenomenon is permanent, and no thing is totally independent of everything else.

[17:25]

In other words, emptiness in general defines how things exist, which is impermanently and relationally. Serentiveness is best considered as an adjective rather than a noun. Another of the ways of expressing this how, this how things exist, is as having no self. Nothing possesses its own being, and yet Things exist just as they are. And they exist in dependence on everything else, on all the causes and conditions throughout time and space that are now coming to blossom as just this. Emptiness refers to the fact that ultimately our day-to-day experience and perception of reality is wrong.

[18:28]

And reality is actually empty of the many qualities and attributes that we normally assign to it. So a statue of Manjushri typically sits on the altar in the Zendo of most Zen monasteries. And the image of Manjushri wielding a sword, his hand raised, And ready depicts a powerful moment. It's a potent moment in which he's about to cut through our discursive thinking and tenacious delusions. Now, as you know, swords are dangerous. And the fact that a sword stands in for wisdom points to the truth. That a little bit of knowledge is dangerous. And a lot of knowledge is even more dangerous. And not only dangerous, but perhaps even scary.

[19:34]

Why be afraid of wisdom? How is it that manjushri and wisdom are simultaneously intimidating and yet evocative of a certain fearlessness and directness that we all deeply admire and wish to embody? Wisdom can be terrifying because it brings us face-to-face with the fundamental inherent emptiness of our life. Experiencing Prajna Paramita, experiencing wisdom in some real way undermines our habitual idea of who we are and how things work. The wisdom of Manjushri cuts through the distortion created by imaginary concepts about I. or mind, of self and other. So there's an aspect of wisdom that has the capacity to puncture us, puncture our cherished sense of self, pop our bubble of self-delusion and self-containment.

[20:50]

And in doing so, supporting us to let go of all the hot air of our inflated egos. At least that's how it feels for me. There's a lot of hot air here. So imagine you're sitting sasa, and you find yourself with a bit of a sinking mind, perhaps indulging in a pity party of some sorts for yourself because of some recent disappointment or irritation or because you don't know how long this pandemic is going to go on, impinging on your life. and all the plans you had. Now, whereas the Bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara embodies compassion and would empathize with whatever upset, discomfort, and disease you might be experiencing at the moment, Manjushri, on the other hand, would simply look at you and say, cut it out.

[21:56]

What's wrong with you? What is it that you believe about yourself and the world and reality that this state of confusion, of suffering, makes any sense at all? This state of distress is a symptom of your illness, an illness of which the Buddha spoke of, that of dukkha, arising because of some form of grasping, aversion, and ignorance. And when face-to-face with the claustrophobia of your own self-clinging, of course you want to get away from it. It feels so narrow and closed. You want to seek comfort. But you yourself and your narrow view in mind are the cause of your own disease. Look into this, says Manjushri. Inquire deeply.

[22:58]

Cut off any grasping. Prajna, paramita. Right? That is Manjushri's way of encouraging us. Right? I sometimes call him he who cuts through the bullshit. The qualities that Manjushri represents of radical questioning... or inquiry, opening into wisdom, compassion, or practice every time you really sit up straight and actually do zaza and release habitual states and storylines in your mind. There may be times when you're experiencing a lot of sinking mind or wandering mind or discursiveness, but you can cut through these by coming back to the touchstone of the breath, at the diaphragm and the hara, by opening attention to the whole bodily sensation of being, to seeing and hearing, to the felt sense of being in this moment.

[24:11]

When you use the forms of zazen in practice, for example, attention to breath, attention to posture, attention to your direct experience. To cut through sinking mind, you are using the sword of Manjushri. When you choose to release thoughts by simply not completing the sentence in your head, by not following the story or adding to the narrative that you have about the present moment, or any past moment or future moment. You do that. You're choosing wisdom over entertainment, over being entertained by our personal stories and narratives of self and other. Each time you're able to recognize something about how your attention is either scattered or where exactly it's placed,

[25:21]

Where is your mind? And you notice, and you choose to open it if your mind is closed. Or to open it further if it seems like, you know, it's already open enough to you, right? To extend your mind beyond the limits of what you know and are familiar with. Every time we do that, we are practicing the wisdom of Manjushri. practicing the boundless mind. The true task in wisdom, the true task in practice, excuse me, is to allow wisdom to undo you. to allow wisdom to come from the depths of your being and unfold you.

[26:23]

Kaigen Leighton, in his book, Faces of Compassion, which is our main text for studying the Bodhisattva archetypes, this practice period, he writes that insight involves going within, seeing the fundamental. The energy amplified by Manjushri is about pulling wisdom out of the depths of yourself. about being an open channel for the awakening of Buddhahood to express itself. Manjushri's wisdom arises not from external knowledge or accomplishment, but out of concentrated inner wisdom. This wisdom is not based on analysis or calculation, although it may be helpful to investigate it in terms of intellectual analysis as an afterthought, and Manjushri often does so for the sake of beings. However, Manjushu's wisdom is not acquired, but it's an unalienable endowment always available to us, awaiting our settling into and uncovering of this deeper awareness.

[27:31]

Yesterday in class, one of the participants mentioned how he feels nervous and challenged by the idea of the endurance. It takes to be a bodhisattva. The endurance of it is required to engage in many hours of meditation, of sitting, and paying attention, and making an endless effort to be present and upright. It's not easy to stay constantly diligent, to keep coming back again and again to the breath whenever the mind wanders, to know when we're caught, and need to let go, to release. And he said that the magnitude of the task at hand to stay continuously present was scary and overwhelming. It seems impossible to do on a day-to-day basis, much less lifetime after lifetime. In response, I suggested that the only moment one needs to endure

[28:46]

and attend to is this very moment. Right here, right now. Insight and liberation only happen in this moment. In the moment you become aware of the breath, for example. This is the only moment there is. What you truly are is already, always right here. Our task as Bodhisattva is just to fully open to and presence this moment, just as it is. This opening and releasing into what is, it's itself wisdom manifesting. Any concept we try to use to capture, encapsulate this moment, to make it last somehow, is not it.

[29:49]

Concepts won't liberate us. So from the very beginning of practice, I suggested, give yourself a break. You're not going to get it. There's no it to get. There's no thingness, nothingness. And yet, You are already it. So when you rest in this moment, when you rest in open awareness, rest in being, just being, you are already it. All the knowledge and the words in the world would never be enough to reassure the separate self. And this is why we keep coming back to silence.

[30:52]

Silence is the true expression of wisdom. Silence is the sound of resting in open, boundless, quiescent knowing. All there is that needs to be truly known is in the act of pure presencing. Here again is Thich Nhat Hanh's invocation to Manjushri, offered as a form of practice instruction. We invoke your name, Manjashri. We aspire to learn your way, which is to be still and to look deeply into the heart of things and into the hearts of people. We will look with all our attention in open-heartedness.

[31:59]

We will look with unprejudiced eyes. We will look without judging or reacting. We will look deeply so that we will be able to see and understand the roots of suffering, the impermanent and selfless nature of all that is. We will practice your way of using the sword of understanding to cut through the bonds of suffering, thus freeing ourselves and other species. practice by calling forth our intention, our deep desire to wake up and be free of suffering, as well as perhaps to also work towards the liberation of others. However, first we need to stop, to come to stillness, not just physically in our daily activity, but also mentally in our minds.

[33:08]

we can still the mind through shamatha practices, through calm abiding, allowing ourselves to concentrate the mind on the direct experience of the present moment, the direct experience of the breath, for example. And then, when there's enough subtleness, then we can look. We can look deeply into the heart of things, in our own hearts, with as much loving attention and compassion as we can muster. Thich Nhat Hanh says that as Avalokiteshvara, we learn to listen without prejudice. As Manjushvi, we learn to look without judging, without applying pre-conceived ideas of worth or value. We look deeply and inquire. What is this?

[34:11]

Who am I? What's true? What is the truest thing I can know? And we look with discernment, with unprejudiced eyes, eyes that don't have a preconceived notion or lens over them. To understand the suffering of another, we have to learn to look in a new way. To understand our own suffering. To understand the suffering of a, given that we're at election time, a so-called political conservative, for example, those who consider themselves so-called liberal have to learn to look in the way a conservative looks. To understand those we consider liberals, conservatives must learn to understand liberals, their fear and suffering.

[35:23]

After looking deeply in that way, we see that all people suffer, that each person has anxiety, fear, anger. If we continue to judge and hurt each other based on our views on each other, our preconceived notions and ideas, we're not going to go very far. It's better to take the other person's hand and work together towards a solution that is beneficial for both sides, for all beings. When we look deeply, we see and understand the roots of suffering. So when we are afraid, or angry. We say that the other person is at fault. But by looking deeply, we come to understand her suffering, her difficulties, and her fears.

[36:33]

We understand why she behaved in that way. We see that we are only the victim of her suffering. and our sorrow vanishes as a result. To cut the bonds of ignorance, we must use the sword of understanding. We must use one jushri's sword every day. If we suffer unnecessarily, it's because we are not using the sword of wisdom, the sword of deep understanding, the sword of insight. to see what is true here. Being a bodhisattva or one who is unfolding wisdom, it's not about being clever or knowledgeable. Prajna of wisdom is not a matter of accumulating understandings.

[37:40]

Prajna is living as that which is true. The bodhisattva practices by paying attention openly, continuing to unfold the mind, to widen the mind, to widen our view, to be as inclusive as possible in our understanding. And whenever we come to the edge of our understanding, to stand on the edge and be willing to cross over into the realm of don't know. There's nowhere to stand. Nowhere to grasp onto. So as we continue to open and unfold, You know, this requires us to look into and recognize just what it means about ourselves and the world without trying to hold or fix on to anything.

[38:56]

Just to be pure presencing. Manjushri is an embodied representation. of the instructions of our fundamental practice. Taking his place in the center on the altar, there he is represented simply as a monk practicing zazen. In practicing the forms, in doing zazen, in caring for the detail, for detail with open attention, in meeting each person with open-heartedness, we each can open. as Manjushri. You could say we can open to openness. We can open to boundlessness. Manjushri is a touchstone for opening to the details and the richness of this ever-expanding intelligence, illumination, knowing.

[40:08]

So before any period of meditation, you might wish to evoke Manjushri's name. Remember that Manjushri is there to remind you of a wisdom that is direct, a mind that is vast, an insight that is boundless. a way of being that is pure presence and liberation. 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, please visit sfcc.org and click Giving. May we all fully enjoy the Dharma.

[41:09]

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