Good evening, bodhisattvas. Bodhisattvas. Enlightening beings. Enlightening beings. I didn't say enlightened beings. I said enlightening beings. Because our practice is a bodhisattva practice. It's a practice of expressing the process of awakening in this world. I would like to continue on the theme of vow. So as many people know, and some people don't know, we're in the midst of a practice period from February 7th to April 3rd, a group of about 35 people is focusing on vow as the living legacy of awakening.

[01:03]

So the Buddha during his life taught many different teachings, but they were all about directly addressing the question of the human condition. When confronted with the human condition, what is the ground from which we respond and how do we respond? And so whether you're in the practice period or whether you're supporting the practice period, this is an important question. The human condition is something that many of us go from birth to death, not understanding. And I have, in visiting with people on their deathbeds, I've often been present when somebody... at the very last moment of his or her life was completely surprised by life and by how different life seemed at that moment from any moment that had come before.

[02:12]

So I think this question of what is our intention, what is our vow as we confront the human condition is a very important one. It's one that we can't miss having if we're in a human body. living a human life. So, for the people in the practice period, and anyone who lists Saturday's talk, I would like to recommend that you listen to the talk that Abbot Paul Haller, sitting over there in the brown raucousel, gave Saturday. So, in that talk, Paul talked about the rule Well, Paul talked about the world of basic experience, basic human experience, and the world of particular response. So I don't feel like I have to say the same thing.

[03:15]

Actually, that was going to be my topic tonight. So I was going to talk about Val as the... response to the human condition, or as Buddha's response, as our response to the human condition, that comes from our fundamental awakening. But I feel like that topic was, it's been fulfilled, and I have, although it hasn't yet appeared on the website, here's a copy of the CD, and it will be on reserve in the library reading room. if you would like to listen to it. I think it's a very important subject for this practice period. What is it? What is the context of vow? And what would be our motivation to make them and keep them in the face of the human condition? So here we are

[04:26]

community for a day, abiding forever. You know, we're sitting in this room in the middle of all beings and in the middle of our life. What do we do I don't know if you hear that there are many helicopters this evening. And that's because starting at about five or six this evening, there was a march from the Castro down to Civic Center in which people, this is the eve of justice. And tomorrow the California Supreme Court is going to hear oral arguments on cases that have arisen since Proposition 8.

[05:30]

So the marchers are marching with candlelight to hold up the right to marry as a basic human right, a civil right, that everybody should have, that should not be set aside by a vote. And I think that... The fact that so many people are willing to march, whether you're on one side or whether you're on the other side, signals the importance of vow and the central place that it has in life. That people have some feeling about vow, about the marriage vow, on both sides of the conflict. So whether you believe as, well... Personally, I'm not speaking for Zen Center. Personally, I do believe that marriage is a human right. And I continue to do marriages.

[06:34]

I continue to perform marriages for any people who want to get married because I feel like that's an important thing for me to do. But not all Buddhist priests may feel the same way. That's just how I feel. And I don't claim to represent San Francisco Zen Center on that particular issue. But if you'll notice, both sides of the argument about marriage talk about the sanctity of the vow. And both sides are having an argument in which each side believes in the fundamental nature of that particular vow to human life. Another place where vows are arising this evening is that we have started a season which people of Catholic faith are celebrating for suffering through Lent.

[07:39]

And Lent is a time, you probably know this already, but I called up Sister Phyllis Donna. who's in the Chan Zen Catholic Dialogue, and I said, what's Lent? Because I wanted to hear from her how she practices with Lent. And she has a Zen flavor to her Catholic practice. So this might be a more Zen version of Lent than Catholics usually say. So she said, in Lent, People want to become physically aware of the fact that Easter is approaching. They want to keep aware by doing a practice. It is traditional to give up something you like for 40 days. You choose something hard so that the experience stands out as something different in your life.

[08:40]

The practice of Lent is based on the premise that we transcend the bonds of desire in order to personally experience renewal. Besides giving something up, you could also do something extra, like mass, meditation, or acts of kindness. The basic vow is to live one's true life instead of a... Instead of taking... what's basically a temporary life is real, that we take our actual life as real and live from there. The main point is that we are already reborn and renewed, but we just have to do something intentional to register or verify that truth. This might be a more Zen interpretation of Catholicism than you've heard in a while, because she actually said zazen.

[09:45]

So vow is something that's really known and really at the background of many different people's lives and not just Buddhist people's lives. I think that's really important to know, not to think that we invented it. But we have a way of working with vow, a way of working with intention. we say, first vow, iron person lives here. That's part of our tradition. First word, our first word, our first utterance is a vow. And that's where the life of intention is lived. And in Zen practice, We have many, many different ceremonies, and some of them happen at the very beginning of your practice, and some of them happen later on in the practice.

[11:01]

And I had the great privilege of attending, of participating in a Jukai ceremony that was done in the traditional way. Jukai is the time when people receive the precepts. And this particular ceremony was, at San Francisco Zen Center, we do a shorter form. But in the temple where I went, they do a longer form that takes seven days. And that ceremony, I was struck at that time. I had just received Dharma transmission a couple of years before that. And I was very struck by the resemblance of the Jukai ceremony, which is the first receiving of the vows. to the Dharma transmission ceremony, which is supposed to be some sort of teacher entrustment. They had the same, the gist of the two ceremonies was exactly the same. And I was struck by this. I thought, oh, that's interesting.

[12:05]

The teacher entrustment ceremony and the first receiving of the precepts is kind of the same thing. Isn't that interesting? that's different from how I might usually think it should be. Where I would think that the first vows would be simple and the teacher entrustment vows would be very advanced in some way. But no, they're the same vows. And we just happen to use the same vows for marriage, for naming babies, for funerals. You know, and basically at the drop of a hat, we will use similar statements of intention. And in the ceremony of priest ordination, the whole ceremony starts in faith that we are Buddha, we enter Buddha's way.

[13:10]

And that's the spirit in which we receive vows. During this practice period, I've been teaching a class on the Noble Eightfold Path. And part of the Noble Eightfold Path, which is the path to ending suffering in our practice, is right action. In the early sutras, right action was expressed as three main precepts, not killing or harming, not taking what is not given, and not misusing sexuality. There were three main vows. We take, in our tradition, we receive 16 precepts. And we recite them every month at the full moon ceremony, at the full moon.

[14:11]

So if you're here the morning or the evening of the full moon, we often do this ceremony as and it's in your body if you've been here for some time. Dogen Zenji wrote about right action, and I think it's important to know that the precepts mean specific kinds of right action. And it's not always what we think. He has three big teachings about right action, about the precepts. And those are that you can receive the precepts as a single-bodied set of actions, as a manifested set of actions, or as a maintained set of actions. And those bring up three different kinds of practice that you can do with a vow. In the first one, the single-bodied action, it's the ultimate truth as a

[15:16]

we hear in the Heart Sutra, no eyes, no ears, no nose, no tongue, no body, no mind. So basically it means that because nothing is exactly the same as we think, that's the one taste of reality, that it's not defined by our thoughts. That wondrousness or miraculous life that we have that's outside of our ability to know, outside of our ability to, quote, know, end quote, that that's a single taste, a single practice that runs through every action, every experience that we have. And we feel that in Zazen. So, you know, when we first begin to Siddhasan, there are many obstacles and difficulties that arise.

[16:23]

But also, as we continue to Siddhasan, there are many obstacles and difficulties that arise. And the difference between maybe someone at the beginning of their practice and somebody who's been going to the Zendo for a while is that the first person might say, oh, it's really painful. And the second person might say, oh, what's this pain? You know, because through sitting with stability and a sense of vital curiosity moment after moment, we develop a kind of emotional flexibility that can accept the livingness of any moment of life. So I'm not using very grand language here.

[17:25]

I'm trying to speak in an ordinary way. Katigiri Roshi wrote a poem called Peaceful Life, and I'm indebted to Blanche for pointing out this poem. She wrote a lecture on Thou, and it's in Shambhala's Sun website if you want to find it. But I also remember the lecture. And it was when we were having an ordination one time. So Blanche spoke about ordination and cited Kategori Roshi's poem, Peaceful Life. Being told that is impossible, one believes in despair. Is that so? Being told that is possible, one believes in excitement.

[18:26]

Oh, that's right. But whichever is chosen, it does not fit one's heart neatly. Being asked, what's unfitting? I don't know what it is. my heart knows somehow. I feel an irresistible desire to know what a mystery human is. As to this mystery, clarifying, knowing how to live, knowing how to walk with people, demonstrating and teaching, this is Buddha. From my human eyes, I feel it's really impossible to become a Buddha. But this eye, regarding what Buddha does, vows to practice, to aspire, to be resolute, and tells myself, yes, I will.

[19:36]

Just practice right here, now, and achieve continuity endlessly, forever. This is living in thou. Herein is one's peaceful life found. This poem was written in, I think, about 1989, 1988 or 1989, but... A few years before that, a group of people was practicing together at Tassajara, and there was a conference of Buddhist teachers, and I was there at Tassajara while it happened. And someone asked, Thich Nhat Hanh came to the conference, and someone asked him, what is vow? And so he stopped what he was doing and taught a workshop for students.

[20:41]

And he sat with us for a few days, I think for a couple of hours a day. And eventually he started talking about gathans. Gattas are verses, like we say before lecture, and unsurpassed, penetrating, imperfect dharma is rarely met with, even a hundred thousand million kalpas, having it to see and listen to, to remember and accept. I vow to taste the truth of the Tathagata's words. So they're verses like that, or I vow to... What do we say at breakfast? Now as I take food and drink. Thank you. Okay, so we say these verses, or another one, you know, Suzuki Roshi used to have a little book of these verses.

[21:44]

This morning as I wake, I bow with all beings to bring all things to awakening, with all things to awakening. without throwing off the world. This evening as I sleep, I vow with all beings to still all things and to clear the mind of confusion. So, you know, this is part of my practice and it's part of our practice to use these little verses. And Jewish people will recognize these as being kind of like brachas. There's an element of the universal and there's an element of the particular. what you're doing in relation to your place in the universe, in relation to all beings, and what you're doing in relation to your own life at the moment are both brought up. An intention for all beings is set. And it's an intention that's inspired by the particular nature of what you're doing.

[22:48]

So Thich Nhat Hanh actually asked us to write Ghatas. And so I spent this afternoon kind of rummaging through my bookshelves looking for this little book. And you can see it's all faded around the edges. And this is a little book that we stapled together of the gathas that the students wrote at Tassahara. So Thich Nhat Hanh put it together and it's in sections. Life is continuous training, cleaning, sensing, eating rice, drinking tea, communicating, modern life, dropping off body and mind, walking, standing, sitting, lying down. So these are the activities of the Bodhisattva. So just opening at random. Well, maybe not opening at random. Because there's some that are really amazing.

[23:50]

just with things that people do at Tassajara. So, trimming a candle. Just like this candle, all beings from the first are profoundly illuminated, but because of their accumulations, they do not show their flames. I trim this candle so that all beings may cut through ideas that separate. Okay, these are just people practicing at Tassajara. Cleaning a toilet. This one was written by the Benji, I think. Cleaning the toilet, preparing the Bodhi seat, shining and bright. Cleaning the toilet. Okay, working with a chainsaw. In the midst of noise and violence, this one was written by Dan. Dan Howe. In the midst of noise and violence, May I remain calm, and may the wood I cut be used to benefit us all.

[24:56]

There's another one working on septic tanks, but I already read the toilet once, so... Okay, putting something away. Putting away this blank. Putting away all hindrances to see original mind. Okay, so that's life as continuous training. Sharpening a knife. All beings the stone. All beings the knife. The edge. Just mindfulness. I love these. Spading. As I turn this soil, may all beings find the space and nutrients to realize their full capacity. when you feel taken advantage of, sitting on the rock, may all beings awaken to the wonder of being sat upon.

[26:02]

And then there's all these from cleaning, sensing, looking at a star, We may choose something like a star to stay our minds on and be stayed. Robert Frost. Looking at your own hand. Oh, this one was incredible. This was Rob, the photographer, redheaded guy. Rob. Huh? No, the skinny guy who did the, was it Rob Gov? He did the picture of stars, the photo of stars. moving. And so Thich Nhat Hanh said, how old is your hand? And everyone in the room, no one in the room answered. And then he called up Rob and said, he asked for a volunteer and Rob raised his hand and he called him to the front of the room and said, how old is your hand?

[27:11]

And Rob said, 32. And then he said, look at your hand. And Rob looked at his hand. How old was your hand? 32. And then, do you see the shape of your father's hand in your hand? Do you see the shape of your grandfather's hand in your hand? Do you see the food and water in your hand? And he just went through about eight questions. And then he said, how old is your hand? And Rob said, I don't know. So later he wrote, This hand of mine is as indestructible as the Dharmakaya. Like my hand, I have never been born and have never died. I vow to use this hand to handle the Buddhadharma for the sake of all beings. So anyway, that's...

[28:17]

People wrote marvelous things. And this practice is based on a chapter of the Avatamsaka Sutra called Purifying Practices. And I just happen to have Michael, the studio model on my left, is holding a paper bag of purifying practices. So you can pass it around and just stick your hand in and take a purifying practice. Because... I was in an accident and my reading skills are not good. I couldn't actually read it very well because I didn't remember the verses. With things I remember, I can read them, but with things I don't remember, I can't yet read. So the way this is going to be read is kind of like different people can get one and then the chapter will be read. So... I just have to let go now of having to read it myself.

[29:20]

Maybe sometime, if I practice, I'll be able to read it myself again. My practice is to stay cheerful and to allow the situation I'm in to be a teaching just as it is and not have to be a different way. So... These vows, these gatas are vows. And oh, I asked Thich Nhat Hanh, do you always have to say the same words when you use a gata? Do you always have to use the same words? Why can't you use different words? Why can't you just say whatever comes up? Because isn't that your experience? Isn't Zen supposed to be spontaneous? And he said that in accord with the Buddha's teachings, it really helps to use the same words over and over because our habits are very deep and profound.

[30:24]

And it is our habits and preconceptions that make up our fixed view of self and the world. And if we use the same words that run counter to our habits, if we memorize those words and let them enter our... hearts and minds and our consciousness and come forth spontaneously and check out the truth of those words and allow those words to become our emotional life that we're entering the life of the Buddha which is it includes our small life but it's not exactly we can't just it's too easy to say that my small life is Buddhist life because there's much more than my small life in Buddha's life, even though Buddha's life can be completely seen in each of our small lives. So I have a Rumi poem that is also one of my favorites.

[31:27]

And it expresses the point, remember sharpening a knife and the edge is just mindfulness? So Rumi wrote about this. The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you. Don't go back to sleep. The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you. Don't go back to sleep. You must ask for what you really want. Don't go back to sleep. People are going back and forth across the door sill where the two worlds touch. The door is round and open. Don't go back to sleep. Do you want to hear it again? It's so simple. The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you.

[32:30]

Don't go back to sleep. You must ask for what you really want. Don't go back to sleep. People are going back and forth across the door sill where the two worlds touch. The door is round and open. Don't go back to sleep. I thought about so much more to share with you, but I think this is a good place to stop. And what time is it? 8.24? Well, speaking of going back to sleep, I don't want to keep you up too late, so I want to stop here and see if you have any comments, questions, observations, if the vow that you picked was, you know, what it might be.

[33:38]

Anything that this brings up for you? I'm interested to hear because everybody in this room is practicing with thou in its first sense. Mm-hmm. Well, there's a chapter in the Avatamsaka Sutra, which almost entirely, there's a little frame around it, like the Bodhisattva did this and that and did this and that. And so these are the wishes of the Bodhisattva. These are the wishes, what, you know, in the poem where it says you must ask for what you really want. These are the wishes of the Bodhisattva. certain bodhisattva in the Avatamsaka Sutra.

[34:40]

And these verses have been used by many, many millions of people, just as they are, to name and connect our experience with the wisdom life of the Buddhas and ancestors. And so that's why I wanted to pull them out. And so this is kind of a raffle where you just randomly pick a vow. And if you want, you can actually practice with the vow that you picked. Or if you don't like it, there may be more, you know, left over at the end. And you could put it back in the bag and maybe someone else will like that one. You know, because it doesn't make any sense to practice with vows that you have no affinity for. We're all shaped differently. You know, but... It's interesting to try on these vows to memorize the words and to try to understand by checking them out in real life whether they're actually sound, sound vows that a practitioner would actually want to say.

[35:54]

Were they just from the social time of the Avatamsaka Sutra or are they still useful today? Do they actually inspire anything in you? Does this vow actually inspire anything in you? I happen to really love this chapter of the Avatamsaka Sutra. And I know that there's other people here who feel the same way. And if you want to ask about the Avatamsaka Sutra, although he probably won't answer your question, if you ask him, I would suggest you ask Jerome, who's been reading the Avatamsaka Sutra continuously for... 16 years. 16 years. So he's been... He starts at the beginning of the Avatamsaka Sutra and reads it through the end. And when he finishes the Avatamsaka Sutra, he goes back and starts over and reads it again. And he's been doing this every Tuesday morning at 8 o'clock.

[36:57]

Anyone can come for 16 years. So... The Avatamsaka Sutra is the most technicolor sutra that I've ever read. It's wild. It's outrageous. And the main idea about it, the main idea of the Avatamsaka Sutra is just that the world as it is is unbelievably rich, beautiful, profound, miraculous, full of awakening beings that we hardly ever notice. but that have their own color, form, sound, voice, vows, lives, teachings, hearts, minds, everything. And so it's one gigantic utterance of form, emptiness or fullness.

[38:06]

and skill. And I can't say more about it because if I did, the lecture would last for a year. It's just people, when they lecture on the Avatamsaka Sutra, they generally take about a year to lecture on it because it's very full, it's very complete. Even just the lists of bodhisattvas are amazing. I hope that answers enough. But what I suggest that you do is take the vow and read the words and try to bring your mind around that vow. Did anybody receive an unusual vow that you want to read? Yeah. OK. That's, it goes with the Buddha's, the Buddha's practice of the three wisdoms.

[39:16]

Shrutamaya Prudhya, Chintamaya Prudhya, Bhavanamaya Prudhya. And you can read about this in the Abhidharma literature. So, maya means the way of, or the kind of through, through the means of. So, Shrutha is listening, hearing. And in the teaching, it means it's a kind of hearing in which you memorize so that you actually, your body, in that kind of hearing that remembers, takes the form of those words provisionally. So it's a deep hearing, deep listening, heart listening word, but not changing it in any way. Not adding anything, just hearing the teaching. And in ancient times, all the teaching was only passed through spoken word. Not written. And there were controversies about whether to write it down.

[40:20]

Because it was thought that maybe it would die. Because it's a living thing. And then the second method... Chinta, maya prudna, is... Chinta is kind of like checking it out. You know, you take the teaching, you weigh it, and you see if it's true. Okay, the teaching says self-nature is mysterious and profound. Is that true? Is it really mysterious? I thought it was obvious. Oh, maybe it is, you know... You check it out. How about in this situation? Is it mysterious? Or is this person really who I think they are? Am I who I really think I am in this situation? So you check it out. You just weigh it against your own experience again and again until you have either verified it or disproved it to yourself. And in my experience, it gets verified rather than disproved, but that might not be everybody's experience.

[41:27]

And there are parts of the teaching that don't get verified for me also. We can talk about that more later outside this room. And then the third part of the third method is bhavana. And bhavana just, it means kind of feeling, but it also means becoming. It's the emotional life. So when you study the teaching thoroughly, it becomes you. It becomes your fingers and toes to help people with. So I'm dying to know what value you got. Oh, I think that that's in a long section that talks about ordination. This one may not be true for you. You may want to put it back in the bag and take another one.

[42:30]

But I think the idea is that when you decide to give up lay life or ordained life, and you have to remember the context of that particular time in which the formal sangha was the ordained sangha, and then there were supporters who were lay people. And there were also lay practitioners, but it was thought that the form of a monk was particularly noble because it was timeless. So when you shed lay clothing, you're shedding a time-bound sort of clothing and you're taking on a timeless appearance. Does that make more sense now? Yeah. So don't worry about it too much because it may or may not be true. And if it isn't true, If it isn't a resonant bow for you, put it back in the bag. Take another one.

[43:34]

Anything without which this evening will not be complete? Okay. Thank you very much.

[43:46]

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