I vow to taste the truth of God through those words. Good evening, everybody. Go on and look at the next chapters. Anybody have any questions or lingering things from last time that you want to bring up or from the reading that you did for this time? Excuse me. I just want to mention, didn't you mention something about having a sign-up sheet? Yeah, I keep forgetting, so I guess maybe it's too late. I'm just not going to do it. Oh, you filled it out and we have a sign-up sheet? Yeah, oh, good, good, great. There's more people on it than there are here. Are you taking attendance? Yes, Stuart, no one mentioned that.

[01:00]

That's what I usually do, is I usually take attendance. But anyway, I think that I forgot this time. We're all here, Stuart. Well, so this time we're doing 7 and 8, right? Yes. Yeah, chapter 7 and 8. We skipped chapter 6, but chapter 6 is just, remember, I guess in chapter 5 it was that who is it that receives the prediction? Kashapa, right? Somebody. Yeah, so in chapter 6, Maha-Kashapa receives this prediction of Buddhahood.

[02:09]

And Sabuddhi receives a prediction of Buddhahood. And in each case, according to the usual formula, they say, you will be a Buddha later on, and this will be your name, and this will be your Buddha field, and this is what it will look like, and so on. Katyayana then receives a prediction as well. Bhodgalyayana also receives a prediction. And all these guys are, these are all, you know, the tradition is that in the Buddha's lifetime, he had 16 great disciples, called the 16 arhats, and they all became enlightened. They were his right-hand men, you know. So these people that are all receiving the prediction in these chapters are the same people, right? These names, Maha-Kashapa, Bhodgalyayana, and so on,

[03:16]

these are all the names of those 16 disciples that are more or less historical. So they thought that they had completed their journey and entered arhatship, but now we see that, in fact, that was just a prelude, and now they're getting these predictions to Buddhahood. And the chapter ends with the Buddha saying in verse, concerning the causes and conditions of past existences, as they pertain to me and you, I will now preach. You must listen carefully. And then starts chapter 7, where we begin tonight. So chapter 7 is a story that the Buddha is telling about the past conditions, the past existences of all these different arhats. And it begins with a tremendous, one of these great Buddhist statements of vastness of time.

[04:20]

And it goes on from there. So, while the practice of the early Buddha and his disciples might have seemed fairly mundane, you know, this happened and that happened and so on, actually, there's dimensions that were unknown, dimensions in time and space, vast, you know, huge, mythic canvas, you know, in which all this is taking place, that was never before known, but now is being revealed here in the Lotus Sutra. So I'll just read you this, kind of give you a sense of what that canvas, the nature of that canvas is, or the scope of that canvas is. Once in the past, an immeasurable, boundless, inconceivable asamkhaya number of kalpas ago.

[05:26]

An asamkhaya, I think, is 10 to the 100th power or something like that. There was at that time a Buddha named Great Universal Wisdom, Excellence, Thus Come One, long time ago. This Buddha was worthy of offerings of right and universal knowledge, perfect clarity in conduct, well gone, understanding the world, unexcelled, worthy, so on and so on. Now monks, since that Buddha passed into extinction, a very great, a very long time has passed. Suppose, for example, how much time would you like to know? Well, suppose, for example, that someone took all the earth particles in the thousand-million-fold world, not just this earth, but in all the thousand-million-fold worlds, they would take up all the particles of earth in all those worlds, and they were to ground them up to make ink powder. And then, as he passed this person who had done that, he has this ink powder, which is a lot of ink powder, you know, from grounding up all these worlds.

[06:34]

If that person, having this fairly large bag full of ink powder, were to go a thousand lands to the east, right, very far in the east, and drop one grain of this ink down, a small piece, like about a speck of dust size of the ink powder, and then would go another thousand lands and drop another speck of ink powder. You got the picture? So he's going a long way, dropping a little speck of ink. Now if he went in this way, until he had dropped all of the ink, then the Buddha says, Now what is your opinion of this? Do you think that, with regard to those lands, that the Masters of Calculation, or the disciples of the Masters of Calculation, would be able to determine the number of lands that had been visited in the process, or would they not? And, I guess whoever this is, the monks, one of the monks says,

[07:42]

that would be impossible, they would not be able to calculate. Now monks, suppose that one should take the earth of all the lands this man had passed through, and when he dropped it, and should pound that up into dust. And suppose that one particle of dust should represent one kalpa. The kalpas that had, which is an age, an era, like the time of, say, our earth, the life of our earth might be one kalpa. Anyway, it's a long time. Suppose that each grain would be one kalpa. The kalpas that had elapsed since that Buddha entered extinction would still exceed the number of dust particles by immeasurable, boundless, hundreds, thousands, ten thousands, millions of asamkheya kalpas. So it's really a long time ago. However, the Buddha says,

[08:43]

Since I'm the Buddha, I can know and see, and when I look at that far off time, it seems just like today. To me. Doesn't seem like a long time ago at all. Even though that's how long ago it was. Yeah, I was going to say, we were talking in this seminar about this. So it just makes you, when you think about something like this, you realize that we have to think again about our notions of duration and time and so on. Because this is clearly stretching those concepts. Then the Buddha, wanting to make his meaning more clear, said the same thing again in verse. So that Buddha, which lived that long ago, he sat in, he had a lifespan of 540, 10,000 million nayutas of kalpas.

[09:52]

I forget how long a nayuta is, but anyway. You get the idea that this Buddha lived a long time. And at first, this is a famous thing. I was trying to look up which koan it is, but I couldn't find it. Because the thing about this Buddha is he sat for many eons, and he didn't achieve enlightenment. He sat in the place of practice and having smashed the armies of the devil, which is to say, all of his delusions and attachments, he was just on the point of attaining complete awakening, but he didn't understand. You know, he was just ready to... Why would you call him a Buddha then? Well, because we know already that he is going to become a Buddha. He's being called a Buddha sort of, you know what I mean? After the fact, because we know how the story ends up. He will be a Buddha. So anyway, he was sitting in this state of just on the point of becoming enlightened

[10:59]

for one small kalpa, and then he continued that way for ten more small kalpas, which is a long time to sit there with your legs crossed, you know? But he did. But still, nothing happened. And then various heavenly beings spread a seed out, flowers rained down, the Brahma kings caused flowers to rain down, covering the ground for hundreds of miles, and every now and then a beautiful fragrant wind would come, blowing the flowers away, the ones that had rotted, and then new ones would come. This went on for ten small kalpas, while the Buddha was sitting there on the point of awakening. Finally, it happened, and he did attain awakening. Somebody should find that koan for me. I don't know where it is.

[12:04]

One of the koans is, Why did this Buddha sit there for ten kalpas and not understand? That's the koan. I remember that the sutra says ten eons. Yeah, ten eons. The koan says ten eons. Well, it's just a translation of Kalpa. Well, that's mentioned in one of the sutras, I forget which one. Oh, it is? Anyway, He finally does. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's not this Buddha. That's somebody else. That's another Buddha. Yeah, another slow... So he did attain enlightenment, and then it says, before he had left the householder's life to become a Buddha, he had sixteen sons, who all,

[13:07]

when they heard that their father had attained complete awakening, they all threw aside their rare objects, because each of these sons had had various kinds of rare objects and toys. But when they heard about this, they threw away all these rare things and went to where the Buddha was, and their mother's weeping followed after them. No daughters, no? No daughters, no. Listen, in that regard, this is a pretty bad chapter, because their idea of the perfect world... Did you see this later on? Their idea of the perfect world is that there's no women. That's sort of one of the marks of this world. No thorns on the roses, and no unevenness in the ground, and no women. So their grandfather, who was a king,

[14:09]

and all of his ministers all went to where the Buddha was, and they recited verses praising the Buddha. And then the sixteen sons said, Please teach us, Buddha. You know, give us some teachings so that we can awaken. We're enthusiastic. Please. When this Buddha attained enlightenment, 510,000 million Buddha worlds in the ten directions shook. They shook in six ways. And all the dark and secluded places in the lands, those corners where no light is ever shown, and where hidden confusions reign, all those places were lit up by this Buddha's awakening.

[15:12]

And all the palaces in the heavens also shook in six ways, and light appeared in all the heavens. They all became illuminated in a strange and unusual way. And the kings in those palaces were surprised by this, and didn't know why this had happened. So they got together and had a meeting, and they said, Our palaces have a brilliance never known in the past. Why is this? And they went out in search of the answer, and they filled their robes with beautiful flowers, and they saw the Buddha. This Buddha, you know, that we're talking about, who lived all this time ago, remember the ink and all that? They went to him and they saw him, and they offered flowers to him. And they said, Please come and occupy our palaces. We offer these palaces to you, all these palaces.

[16:15]

And we hope that since we're making this offering to you, that in return you will expound the law for us. Anyway, this exact thing happens twice more. Same thing, where the Brahma kings come and beg him, and in another place, all the heavens are lit up. And then those Brahma kings don't know why that is, and they come to the Buddha and they make offerings, and then the Buddha shakes his hand. And then in another place, and in another place. This is repeated a number of times. And so this is all to say that, you think, what does this mean? Why are they saying that? Why are they devoting hundreds of, not hundreds of pages, but five or six or seven pages, to repeating this ritual over and over and over again? So, the Buddha is lighting up,

[17:26]

the awakening of the Buddha is lighting up all the dark corners, everywhere. Nowhere is there a place where the light of the Buddha does not penetrate. And the creatures in the dark places are surprised and delighted by their coming to light, and so they repeatedly, in different places, the creatures come to the Buddha and ask for teaching. The Buddha can't teach. The Buddha wouldn't teach unless this happened. See, unless the Buddha is asked to teach, he wouldn't teach. Which means that the teaching of the Buddha is non-existent, it's inert, it's nothingness, unless it's called forth by conditions and beings. So it's the beings themselves who actually activate the Buddha. By virtue of their desire to be liberated

[18:34]

and let go of their confusion. Which is really true, you know? It's really true. I mean, students think that the teacher has the teaching and is giving out the teaching, but it's not really true. Teachers are... I mean, it's not true by itself. No, actually it's the coming forward of the student that produces the teaching. The teaching actually wouldn't even be there. See? Without the coming forward. This echoes back to the beginning of the sutra when he says, only a Buddha and a Buddha. This is an unknown. The depth of this teaching is absolutely unknown. I remember your hand. The depth of this teaching is absolutely unknown. And it cannot be understood by people, by beings, by creatures. But when there's a Buddha and a Buddha together, then there's some realization. So here the same thing. When the student comes forward,

[19:34]

then the teaching is produced by the effort of the student. By this desire. And where does the desire come from? The desire comes from being inspired by the light in the dark corners. In the far away hidden places. Those parts of our life that we never even noticed or looked at or were particularly aware of. When we sense the light there, even though we're not enlightened or we're not awakened, but we sense the light in those places. Somehow we are... Something that was not open to us has opened up to us. Inspired by that. And that light, of course, is the light of consciousness. It's got there from the ancient, measureless past enlightenment of the Buddha. That light inspires us to seek the teaching and that activity of our seeking the teaching produces the teaching. Yeah, Sylvia. I was just thinking when you said the Buddha doesn't teach unless somebody asks for it. Would you make a parallel with that theory,

[20:37]

believe that when you ask something, a question, rooted in the question there is the answer? Yeah, that's a good way to look at it. If you have a question, it's because you already have a potential answer. Yes, yes. But notice here also that the mythology here is, in addition, not just that they ask, but they ask with tremendous devotion and making offerings and gifts and so on. In other words, they are asking in a spirit of receptivity and humility and open-handed, you know. Not trying to get something per se, but just completely out of love in a sense, you know. So, yeah, I mean, in the same way, you could say, yeah, if you ask something in that way, with that spirit, you will receive the answer. So anyway, that's what I would say. That's my interpretation of this mythology here,

[21:41]

why this is repeated. And I think that, I don't know if you appreciated this, but I think that when you read this with an open heart, and of course, from our modern standpoint, we are thinking, why are they telling me this again? Let's get on to the information, you know. But if you just read it and go along with it, you know, you actually feel this, the power of it, you know, in your heart as you read it along, as you are carried along by another repetition. The repetition in itself, you know, is powerful. As must be obvious by this time to you, as you are reading this, the literary style of Buddhist sutras has not much to do with the newspaper or the news magazine and so on, which these kind of styles of writing have pretty much conditioned the way we read nowadays. And even literary, high literary materials are written in that same style actually.

[22:43]

Even novels that are considered quite serious, and even poetry is written in this same kind of style, because that's the way we think and that's the way our minds are conditioned. But this is a whole different sense of what words are and literature is. I have the feeling that I'm losing my place now. Yeah, yeah, right. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know. I have the sense that there really wasn't anywhere to go. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, there's nowhere. Yeah, you can read this, where are we supposed to be? Well, nowhere, you know what I mean. You don't know where you are. And I don't know if you appreciated that on page 130, where yet another band of kings comes and offers their palaces to the Buddha. The Buddha should have probably gone into the real estate business. He would have done really well. Yeah. But it says, Now we present them, the palaces, to the world-honored one, hoping he will have pity and accept them. We beg that the merit gained through these gifts

[23:45]

may be spread far and wide to everyone so that we and other living beings all together may attain the Buddha way. Those words sound familiar? Those words are in our echo, many of our dedications. Because our service is actually an enactment of the Mahayana Sutras, with the offerings and the bowing and the evocation of the Buddhas and offering and so on. And this is the same thing, that we're making offerings. In our daily service, we're making offerings to the Buddhas who are this endless, boundless possibility within ourselves. And we're creating powerful, positive energy by our chanting and our meditation and so on, which we are then turning around and offering to the Buddhas. And that's when we chant the, when the Kokyo chants the dedication, that's what that is, offering the merit of it. Anyway,

[24:48]

so finally, after all this, the Buddha does open his mouth and start teaching. And remember, this is all the Buddha's telling the sixteen arhats, who he's just predicted, full of enlightenment, he's telling them about the past. A little story about the past. So now, lo and behold, what does this Buddha teach? He teaches the Four Noble Truths, and he teaches the Twelve-fold Chain of Causation, teachings that are exactly given in the earliest turning of the wheel, right? In the arhat path. These are the core teachings and the beginning teachings in the arhat path. And that's what this Buddha teaches them. And because these people

[25:50]

were receptive to it, they attained enlightenment, hearing these teachings. And the sixteen princes, who were the sons of this Buddha before he became Buddha, they all left home and became monks. And then they said to the Buddha, all together, I'm on page 132, all together in the middle there, they addressed the Buddha, these sixteen sons, and they said, World Honored One, these innumerable thousands, ten thousands, millions of voice-hearers of great virtue have all already achieved success. Voice-hearers meaning the arhats, you know. World Honored One, now it is fitting for you to become a monk. Since the arhats have heard these early teachings and they have completely practiced them and completely attained arhatship, now it is fitting that you should preach the law of Anyuttara Samyak Sambodhi, full enlightenment, for our sake,

[26:50]

so that once we have heard it, we may all join in practicing and studying it. World Honored One, we are determined to attain the insight, just like you. We are determined to be Buddhists. Deep in our minds we have this thought, as the Buddha himself must know. And then the Buddha thought about this for 20,000 kalpas. And then, what did he do? He preached the Lotus Sutra, this sutra. That's funny, huh? And after he preached it, these 16 arhats became, developed faith in it, however, the other 10,000, no, the other 1,000, 10,000 million types of living beings all gave way to doubt and perplexity. So, you get the picture? The arhats,

[27:53]

who are the ones who presumably don't like the Lotus Sutra, see, because they're practicing. Actually, in a past life they're the only ones who appreciated it and understood it. See? They're the only ones. So these arhats, who would appear to be the opposite of what the teaching of the Lotus Sutra is, they're the only ones who actually heard it and appreciated it. And all the other beings were completely confused by it. Remember, this is one of the hallmarks of the Lotus Sutra and its teaching, is that those who are not ready for it become confused and perplexed. Right? No, but we already covered this. We've determined that we already have wholesome roots from many past lives, have served many, many Buddhists. And so, that's why we are in this class, because we are exactly ready for the Sutra. But these other people were not. And they were full of doubt and perplexity. And this took a long time

[28:58]

for the Buddha to preach the Sutra. He meditated for 8,000 kalpas, never once stopping to rest, drink any tea or anything. And after he had preached the Sutra, he was a little worn out. So he entered a quiet room where he meditated for 84,000 kalpas. This was a workout. Yeah. So isn't that interesting that only the arhats who appear to be the ones who don't, they were the only ones who really appreciated the Sutra in a past life. Then, what happens next? The Buddha then comes out of the room and addresses the assembly and says, these 16 bodhisattvas are really great people and they always want to study the Lotus Sutra. And then he,

[29:58]

he says that these disciples, these 16 disciples, now, and that was a past, that happened a long time ago. Today, these 16 disciples are themselves all preaching the Lotus Sutra in different places. And he names them all. And he says, I'm the 16th. I'm the 16th one. I'm preaching the Lotus Sutra. Now, I was one of those 16 sons. Let's see. Then comes, now comes the parable. There's a parable in this Sutra as well. It's very famous, although it's actually pretty short. So, the Buddha understands, this is a recurring theme, the Buddha understands the beings.

[31:03]

He understands what people need, need and don't need. It's not that the Buddha has, you know, a teaching that he gives to everybody, the same thing, but he understands people's various needs and he teaches accordingly. So sometimes people need the Four Noble Truths and so on, 16, the 12-fold chain, and then he teaches that. Sometimes they need the Lotus Sutra and then he teaches that. He says, it's like this. And this is, this is expedient means, right, the fact that the Buddha teaches people exactly where they are. He doesn't teach an advanced teaching to a beginning student and a beginning teaching to an advanced student. He teaches according to the inclinations of people. He says, it's like this. Let us suppose that there is a stretch of bad road 500 miles long,

[32:04]

steep and difficult, wild and deserted with no inhabitants around, a really fearful place. And suppose there are a number of people who want to pass over this road so they can reach a place where there are rare treasures. They have a leader of comprehensive knowledge and a sense of wisdom and keen understanding who is thoroughly acquainted with this steep road, knows the layout of its passers and defiles and is prepared to guide the group of people and go with them over this difficult terrain. So they go along part way and it's a very steep and difficult road and of course people begin to get discouraged and disheartened. And they say to the leader, we are really pooped out and scared to death. We cannot go any further. Since there is so long a distance to go, we have decided we are going to turn around. So,

[33:06]

this leader, a man of many expedients, thinks to himself, what a pity that they should abandon the many rare treasures they are seeking and want to turn around and go back. Having had this thought, he resorts to the power of expedient means and when they have gone 300 miles along the steep road, he conjures up a phantom city and he says to the group, don't be afraid. You must not turn back for now here is a great city where you can stop, rest and do just as you please. If you enter this city, you will be completely at ease and tranquil. Then later, if you feel like you want to go on to a place where the treasure is, you can leave the city and go on. So, all the members of this group in a state of total exhaustion, they are thrilled with this unprecedented event and they say, now we can escape from this dreadful road and find ease and tranquility and they press forward and they enter the city where they are,

[34:09]

you know, enjoying themselves. At that time, the leader, knowing that the people have become rested and are no longer fearful or weary, he wipes out the phantom city and it vanishes. And he says to the group, you must go now. The place where the treasure is is close by. That great city of a while ago was a mere phantom that I conjured up so that you could rest. And that's the parable. And the Buddha says, well, monks, I am in a similar position to that leader. I am acting as a great leader for you and I know that the bad road of birth and death and earthly desires is steep, difficult, long and far-stretching, but it must be traveled. You cannot avoid traveling this road. If living beings hear of this, they will not want to draw near. They will be immediately

[35:10]

discouraged. And they will think the Buddha road is long and far-stretching and one must labor diligently and undergo difficulties for a long period before he can ever attain success. The Buddha knows that the minds of living beings are timid, weak and lowly. It's true. We're not all that heroic and courageous. If somebody tells us do this really hard thing and it's going to take a really long time, maybe your whole life, we're not going to want to do it. Let's face it. Who wants to do that? We're going to say forget it. It's too hard. Plus, I don't even know what's going to happen at the end. You say there's treasures but tell me what they are. So we're not going to do it. Therefore, he preaches two nirvanas in order to provide a resting place along the road. These two nirvanas you might have been puzzled by that, the two nirvanas

[36:10]

because in the way of the Arhats, there are two kinds of nirvana. Did you know this? There's two kinds of nirvana. There's a nirvana, they call them nirvana with remainder and nirvana without remainder. Is that like a reason? Huh? Is it like nirvana with an upcoming reason? Not exactly. Nirvana with remainder is when you have entered nirvana, no longer are you fooled by appearances. And so you're not creating any more causes for future births. But, you're still alive. And the conditions of your life, your body and so on, come from past conditions. So you have that residue. And as long as the karma that created this body is in effect,

[37:14]

you will go along and live. And if this body has pain, you will feel pain, and so on. But, you have achieved nirvana, but with a remainder, with a residue. When the causes and conditions of that body pass on and the body stops, then you will enter nirvana without residue. It's called parinirvana. Right? That's why in the old sutras and the Dhammapada and so on, it says the Buddha conquers death. Because the Buddha doesn't actually die. He enters parinirvana. He's totally extinguished. And at peace and in unity with all of everything. Death means that the ongoing unresolved energy of life just keeps rolling on with all its painfulness.

[38:15]

Even though there's a transformation of death, there's still ongoing unpeaceful restless activity that manifests itself here and there. But not the case with the Buddha. The Buddha enters a tranquil completion so in that sense, in a very real sense, according to the definition of what death is, in the ancient Buddhist understanding, the Buddha actually does not die. The Buddha is deathless. That's one of the epithets of the Buddha, the deathless one. So in this first one, you're alive and you're in this body which carries with it some past karma. Yeah. But you're not creating new karma? Right. That's possible, huh? Yeah. But notice, that's right, but that's the phantom city. See? That's the phantom city because that, you see, that's easy, right? In other words,

[39:17]

like from our perspective, we're thinking, oh man, nirvana, forget it, that's so hard to do and so on, but that's easy. That's a little resting place, you see, along the way of this immense practice. It's way more, way bigger than that. You see? So the Buddha taught this nirvana in this way just like he conjured up a city here because people would be too discouraged to go the whole journey. So he's telling this to the Arhats. You, you, you Arhats in past lives had heard the Lotus Sutra and understood it, but nevertheless in this life are discouraged and so I have had to teach this nirvana as a kind of phantom city so that you could go that far and now that you've arrived there, you see, I can wipe that city away and now you can hear, you're ready now to hear this further peak that I'm offering you in the Lotus Sutra.

[40:18]

So then all of that is repeated in verse. I'm not going to discuss the verse, but again let me interpret a little bit this part. You see, if you, somebody comes to begin practice, right, and you say to that person, forget about your own troubles and individual needs and spiritual yearnings. It's completely irrelevant. Forget that. What you need to do is practice completely for the benefit of others lifetime after lifetime till the end of time. Now who's going to listen to that? Who's going to, they're going to say, are you crazy? You know, I'm just like, I'm barely making it, you know, I'm barely surviving and I'm going to,

[41:22]

you know, you're telling me that I'm supposed to forget about my troubles and just selflessly exert myself on behalf of other beings forever and ever and ever? Why would I want to do that? Because before you could take up a job like that, you need to have settled to some extent anyway these issues, right? So the Buddha did not say this to them. He said instead, oh, I see that you have suffering, so I will offer you a path to end suffering. Please practice in this way and you'll see that you will end your suffering. And that, they said, ah, yeah, that makes sense, you know, I'll do that. So then they did that. And then when they did that and they ended their suffering, he said that was just a phantom city. Really what we have to do

[42:24]

is this other thing. So this is just the same for us, right? Of course, you see, these metaphors about time and everything make us realize that we can't view this whole thing in such a linear manner. And so the reality is that for us we're always in all these places at the same time. And we never really finish, probably, taking care of the suffering of our own lives and the suffering of those close to us. And yet, at the same time, as that suffering is little by little put to rest, or let's say we have some sense of entering into it to the extent that it doesn't appear to us any longer as a gigantic hurdle. Then, at the same time, we do have this feeling of exerting ourselves for the benefit of others. So I think this is really,

[43:24]

you know, our practice is both arhat practice and Mahayana Bodhisattva practice. It's really both, I think. You know, Zen practice is really both ways. And we need to address ourself, our life, on a very simple, basic level of suffering and happiness. And we also need to address ourselves to the tremendous questions of seeing the vastness of our job and of our planet and of all the people in it and how we really need to in other words, we really can't say let's just practice so that I can be happy. We really need to appreciate that the only way that you can practice that's possible is for the benefit of everyone. Constantly, you know, with that spirit and being willing to just work hard and sacrifice everything for the benefit of others.

[44:26]

That's the only way to freedom, really. Anything short of that is going to be a limited situation that eventually will dry up and we'll find ourselves suffering again unless we're completely selfless. But we can't always do that so then we go to the other side. So this is how the Buddha is skillfully bringing people along. None of us to sort of accept that imperfection. Yeah, can you get a feel for how the Arhat Path which is sort of manageable more or less like we'll go here and we'll get there then you really are bothered by your imperfections because you're trying to get to nirvana which you expect to be able to do. So you can see

[45:27]

that you're not there yet and it's a little maddening and annoying. Right? But when you have this infinite job which exists in a scope of time so vast that one instant might as well be and in fact is endless time it's actually quite stupid to get exasperated with yourself, right? Because I mean your distance or lack of distance from nirvana or enlightenment is a small piece of what you're doing, right? So what's the worry, right? Yeah, I mean it must be already done. That's the only way you could possibly look at it when you think about these concepts of time and space and compassion that are being considered here. It must be that this endless path is already realized in each moment. So when we get exasperated with our own imperfections

[46:28]

and get mad at ourselves and all that we should understand that for what it really is which is it's our conceptual mind turning on itself and eating itself up for no reason, really. No reason actually other than the fact that it's an old habit. So it's conditioned to do that and we understand that. That's what it does but the reality of its complaining is not there. Yes. So that was chapter 7. Now we go on to chapter 8 which is similar to chapter 7. It has another bunch of prophecies and myths and all that and it ends with a little parable as well. Remember I said in the beginning these little parables are very famous in the Lotus Sutra. Most sutras don't have little parables like this in them and the Lotus Sutra is really famous for that. Now

[47:30]

hearing this previous chapter was a person by the name of Purna and he heard whenever more prophecies are given you know the more arhats were going to attain awakening all the other arhats are thrilled and sort of like dance with joy and are kind of waiting for their prediction hoping that they will receive a prediction as well. And I like this sentence on page 144 in the top paragraph there. Only the Buddha the world honored one is capable of knowing the wish that we have had deep in our hearts from the start. And the wish that we have had deep in our hearts from the start is this wish to achieve this endless practice that the Lotus Sutra

[48:33]

is setting forth. Which I think is really true. I really think it's true. In fact it seems to me that you know how humans are so troublesomely endowed with these terrible qualities of ambition and greed and so on. Well actually ambition and greed is a small and pale displacement of this vaster in most wish that human beings have I believe. We can't conceptualize this wish that we have in our hearts for this endlessness of our compassion in our awakening. So we sublimate it and say I want to get rich or something. I want to be president of the corporation.

[49:33]

So when you see all these robber, barren, greedy nasty guys actually they're only articulating their wish for full enlightenment. It's true. And the corporate executives their salaries they want to get salaries worthy of a Buddha. That's why their salaries are so high. It's true. Because their ambition is they just can't figure out a way to satisfy their ambition. Because it's this tremendous ambition and they think it's for money. So they're saying give me 10 million give me 20 million give me 30 million. But it never works because their ambition is way beyond that. And so is ours too. This is every human being's request. Most of us don't encounter it. We don't come into touch with it. But that's what the Buddha is saying. I really believe it.

[50:35]

I believe it's true. Then I spent quite a bit of time which I probably should spare you the research that I did here. I don't know if you get like this but when it says here the six transcendental powers and the three understandings and the eight emancipations I you know think to myself yeah I think I've got to look all that up you know. Some of it you know already but then some of it is a little obscure. So then you look it up. Are you interested in my research? Somebody else had that obsessive problem as well. Well I don't always know but in this case I did look up some of these and I was able to find some of them. I'll tell you. The four unlimited kinds of knowledge The four unlimited kinds of knowledge Did you get that one? That's a little obscure. The four unlimited kinds of knowledge And I think

[51:37]

well there's two possibilities. There's one there's one thing called the four unlimited abodes. Could be that. But it also there's another thing called the four analytical knowledges. So actually I should have looked up what is Hurwitz? Do you have Hurwitz Andy there? I'd like to see how does he translate that that's hard to let me see where is it? It's right at the beginning of chapter eight in the first large page uh where let's see You should not suppose that Purna is capable of protecting upholding of aiding and proclaiming my law only. In the presence of ninety million Buddhas of the past too he protected upheld aided and proclaimed the correct law of the Buddha. Among all those who at that time preached the law he was likewise foremost. In addition concerning the law of emptiness preached by the Buddha he has a clear

[52:39]

and thorough understanding he has gained the four unlimited kinds of knowledge. You see that? Having gained the four kinds of unobstructed knowledge. Unobstructed knowledge huh? Well I think it's this one. yeah so it's the kind of knowledge that you gain uh when you yeah it's hot in here isn't it? yeah yeah it's hot. The four uh kinds of knowledge that you have when you understand emptiness. So the four kinds of knowledge are knowledge of meaning so you really understand the meaning of words and phrases. Oh yeah? Yeah. Unlimited

[53:41]

unhindered so you have you have knowledge of the meaning of things meaning of words when people say things you really know what they mean you actually know what they mean. So you know you don't you don't just listen to the words see you really know what they mean. People are always telling you of course what they really mean except that we don't hear it you know it's amazing I can sometimes see this you know I was at a meeting today you know it was astonishing people uh got in a kind of argument uh because they misunderstood each other right but when you really see emptiness because there's no attachment and projection right you actually hear what people mean by what they say even though they might say the opposite they often do of course you know quite often people will say the opposite of what they mean and mean and think that they mean the opposite of what they mean but actually they don't mean that at all you know like

[54:41]

I hate you means I love you sometimes right even though you think when you say it that you hate them and so forth. So this is the first kind of knowledge and the second one is of dharmas of dharmas meaning of phenomena so one is you understand the meaning of words and the other one is you understand completely the arising of phenomena as it really is the third is you understand languages presumably you can no matter what language anybody speaks you can get their meaning and the last one is of inspired speech the knowledge of inspired speech you can you can speak uh your words are inspired and inspirational all this comes out of your penetration of emptiness so that was one I looked at yeah knowledge of meaning knowledge of dharmas um knowledge of languages and uh

[55:41]

and inspired speech so these all kind of seem to have to do with mostly have to do with understanding emptiness then you understand the way things are and what you can communicate and understand basically you can communicate really effectively and understand really effectively because you know emptiness so then Purna is given a prediction so then uh on page 146 we have more research predicting that all these bodhis uh all these people will have uh six transcendental powers the three understandings and the eight emancipations and the six transcendental powers we all know that right since the six paramitas

[56:42]

which we are very familiar with since we spent all of January studying right giving yeah giving giving giving morality energy patience meditation and wisdom but not as limited powers but as transcendental powers the perfection of each of these powers and they will have the three understandings the three understandings are superpowers first superpower is being able to recall past lives like Buddhists Buddhists can do that second one is having a heavenly eye where you can see the gods and goddesses in the heavens and the third one is having cognition of the extinction of outflows

[57:43]

which means understanding how it is that we put an end to projection and grasping desire and so on that we just are present without leaking out ourself all over everybody making a mess and the eight emancipations these are kind of interesting a little enigmatic the eight emancipations are having form he sees form number one that's what it says having form he sees form I'm going to go over them once then I'll come back to them and try to explain as best I can understand having form he sees form number two is not perceiving inward form he sees outward form that's the second one

[58:47]

the third one is resolved on emptiness there's no doubt yeah in other words really penetrating emptiness and the four, five, six, seven are the four formless meditations which is a long story but basically there's a system of trance attainment which has eight stages to it the fourth the last second the second four stages are cognition of endless space this is a meditation trance cognition of endless space cognition of endless consciousness nothingness and neither perception

[59:51]

nor non-perception so cognition of endless space cognition of endless consciousness nothingness and neither perception nor non-perception those four those those four trances are folded into this list of the eight emancipations they are constitute four of the eight emancipations which happen after resolved to emptiness resolved on emptiness and then the last one is called non-apprehension so these eight emancipations are kind of as I understand them they are kind of approach to appreciating emptiness and then how one operates and lives based on appreciating emptiness so having form is cease form I mean the alternative is not to see form

[60:53]

not to see things but to be utterly confused about things which is the usual case right this is the thing that from an ordinary perspective I mean buddhism is very you know funny in a way buddhism assumes that people have no idea what's going on most people I mean that's the usual thing I mean mostly in other words it's very funny because we think everybody is doing pretty well there's a few nutcases you know or have troubles with one kind or another and they need to see a psychotherapist or take a pill but mostly everybody is fine you know that's the usual idea you know mostly everybody is more or less ok and yeah but the buddha says no the actual basic human condition is utter confusion and chaos people have no idea what the hell is going on they don't know who they are what they are what the world is what life is what death is

[61:54]

or what they had for breakfast they don't have any idea so they don't see anything at all so that's the normal condition so the eight emancipations are number one to notice what's there so you notice yourself and you notice others which is abnormal right away according to the way buddhism looks at things and then the second one is you understand that there's nothing here there's only phenomena arising and passing away that's the second one there's nothing here there's only phenomena arising and passing away and then finally the third one is you realize that even the phenomena arising and passing away are also not real substantial so you see that everything is just an appearance coming and going

[62:54]

and that's to be resolved on emptiness and then when you resolve on emptiness then you enter the trance states and you perfect that emptiness through the trance states and finally you end up like the guy in the eighth I mean in the tenth Oxfordian picture you know you are like Ryokan non apprehension you don't know what's going on in the positive sense of just you're just there so you don't you don't know you don't make any assumptions about anything you're surprised every moment and you're just there dancing with the world as it comes just nothing to hold on to nothing to know or not know or like or not like just now what now what now what wow like that so this is really these aren't stages of an art part no no yeah yeah

[63:56]

this is the he's talking here about this in a context of a prediction of a buddhahood for somebody that's where they come up so then I just wanted to mention down here where he says an interesting passage where he says inwardly so limited in aspiration lazy and indolent though the multitudes are bit by bit they are led to the attainment of buddhahood Inwardly and in secret, the sons act as bodhisattvas, but outwardly they show themselves as voice hearers, in other words, arhats. They seem to be lessening desires out of hatred for birth and death, but in truth they are

[64:58]

purifying buddhalands. Before the multitude they seem possessed by the three poisons or manifest the signs of heretical views. My disciples in this manner use expedient means to save living beings. So the arhats appear to be, you see, practicing the arhat path, but actually they're really bodhisattvas. So this is a good, you know, always, you know, you know how I love to teach the arhat stuff and the old sutras, you know, I love to teach all that stuff. And I always say, but you know, you have to, inside, you see, you have to have a totally different attitude. Just like he's saying here, inside you have this attitude of universal practice and loving kindness for everybody, but outside you are practicing, perhaps, strict practice with yourself. You know, you may be looking at, you're looking at desire and working with desire and working with defiled mental states and all this stuff that I'm always talking about, but you don't really believe. You believe and you understand that from the first it's all okay, so you don't have to get

[66:01]

uptight about it. It's already perfect, but that doesn't mean that you don't work on it all the time, but you work on it with the spirit of it's already perfect. So, you know, you run around and save everybody, but then you know they're already saved, see? They don't need me to save them, they're already saved. So when you're running around doing it, so it's a different attitude. One person is saving everybody and thinking, wow, these people are in terrible shape, I must save them. The person's uptight when they're going around saving everybody. They're saving them, but the people are saying, get out of here, this guy is saving me, but who wants to be saved by such a crappy person? The other guy is saving everybody and thinking, well, they're already saved anyway, so, you know, this is just, I'm having fun, I've just nothing else to do, I might as well save them all. See the difference? So they say, hey, it's pretty good, I don't mind being saved this way because I don't feel condescended to, I don't feel, you know, like I'm doing it wrong, I have to be saved the way she wants me to be saved, it looks like that, and so on.

[67:03]

So in the same way, we're practicing maybe a very narrow-minded, crabby kind of Buddhist practice, but we have this attitude, you see, that, well, you know, we're just getting up at 4.30 for the fun of it, we don't really have to do this, you know, I mean, there's no reason to do zazen, right? Why would we have to do zazen? We're already enlightened. Anyway, with this endless path, the only reason we're doing it is because, you know, it's good for us, it's a little fun, what would we be doing anyway? We'd be laying in bed having dreams, we did that anyway a long time, you know, why do it? Just get up, it's so much fun to get in a zen dojo, all these wonderful people are there, our friends are there, and so on, you know, don't you think so? Sure. I just got a little confused, the differentiation between who's being, was it that the bodhisattva is the one who's saving beings, already knowing that they're saved, and the arhat is the one that's crabby?

[68:05]

Yeah. Yeah. Don't tell anybody that I mentioned that, don't quote me, don't quote me on that, don't quote me, and we'll destroy the tape. Okay, so then comes the parable, and then we're finished, we're going to do our duty, we do the parable, and then, okay, the parable here is, by the way, if you want to see the difference between the arhats and the bodhisattvas, what should you do, is go into the zen dojo, and take a look at the incense bowl, great big huge incense bowl, and the incense bowl has pictures of arhats and pictures of bodhisattvas, the bodhisattvas have nice pompadour hairdo and they're looking rather cheerful and very young and sort of flexible and nice, and the arhats are very enlightened, crabby and shaved heads and looking serious and all that. So that's right there, it's a good depiction of the difference. So here comes the parable, okay, here's the parable.

[69:13]

There was a guy who came to someone's house and he drank too much wine and he got drunk, and he fell down and went to sleep, and the friend had an appointment and he had to leave and he couldn't wake him up, but he thought, well, you know, when he wakes up and maybe he wants to go get a double latte or something, so he says, he's my guest, I want to help him out, so in case he doesn't have any money, I'm going to sew this jewel into his clothing, so that when he gets up he'll be able to buy something, so he did, and out he went. Later on, the guy gets up and he didn't have any money, he went to buy a double latte and they wouldn't sell it to him, and he had to get a job and he had to do all kinds of things to take care of himself, and later on he happened to meet his friend by chance, and the friend said, how ridiculous, why are you going to all this trouble to earn money

[70:18]

and trouble yourself, all you had to do is look inside your garment and you would have found the jewel that I sewed in there a long time ago. It's priceless, and it's probably still there now, and here you went and wore yourself out doing all this stuff, getting up early for zazen and all the things that you had to do, when all along the jewel was in your clothing, you just didn't notice it was there. So what do you know, the Buddha is like this friend. When he was still a Bodhisattva, he taught us this path, but we forgot about it and we've been running around doing all this hard practice to gain nirvana, which was this little pittance that we could earn while we were waiting. However, we have not yet lost the desire for comprehensive wisdom, and it's again like

[71:18]

I was saying earlier, this is the desire that all human beings have, this desire to basically, what does it amount to? It amounts to, I would say, the desire to go far beyond our human boundaries. This is what we have, the desire for all knowledge, full awakening, total joining with everything. This is what the human aspiration is, I think. When you consider some of the, I mean we all know very well about the perversions of this and the horrible things that human beings have done, but when you consider the wonderful things that human beings have done, the art and the architecture and the religious sentiments and feelings and the acts of kindness and so on, these all come from this tremendous

[72:24]

need. Just as much as we need to eat and drink and sleep, we need to surpass ourselves and go beyond the limitations, particularly the conventional limitations, the worldly limitations, the definitions that we're given of what it means to be human, which is so narrow and limited compared to the possibilities. So we arhats, he's saying here, we have had this jewel sewn in our coat all along and we forgot. We haven't lost it, it's been there, but we didn't realize it was there and now we do. So we're really glad to hear this Lotus Sutra and we see now what we've been doing as arhats and we don't regret any of it, but we now put it in this bigger context and we come closer to our real heart and our real birthright as human beings. So, the end. And it's late, so let's go to bed.

[73:29]

Oh, no, but we're going to meet again on Thursday night. This has been kind of nice, actually, in a certain way, to do it twice a week because then you really get into it, right? So it's just next Thursday and then you plan the next day? Yeah, so we only have two more classes, yeah. We're going to meet the next Thursday, I mean the day after tomorrow, and we're going to do chapters 11 and 12. 9 and 10 are quite short, so you might want to just read them, anyway, but we'll mostly talk about 11 and 12. In chapter 11, this astonishing thing happens where the stupa suddenly appears in the sky. Today in the baseball game, there was an earthquake, you know? The pitcher was standing on the mound ready to pitch and all of a sudden the announcer says, the pitcher seems to be... Astonishing, yeah. Not candlestick, three-con part. You don't say candlestick. I know three-con part. You can't say that. Well, what do you think?

[74:31]

It was felt on the mound. Huh? Yeah, it was a four-point something. Really? You felt it here, then? At candlestick? Yeah. I didn't feel it. Do you know what anything it was? No. My teeth cleaned. Let's listen to it. Yeah, did you feel it? No. No. What time was it then? I don't know. Sometime in the evening, though. One in the evening. Oh, yeah? Two or four. Somebody said ten to two. Yeah. Well, that's because, as you read in the sutra, the earth shook six ways, right? Where do you think earthquakes come from? Anyways, in this case, the astonishing thing is that this stupa suddenly appears in the sky and there's this ancient Buddha that opens up, you know, like the kind of Egyptian mummy, you know, and inside is this Buddha sitting there. Really an amazing occurrence. So, we'll read about that, and then we'll also read in Chapter 12 about Devadatta, who was this really nasty, you know, guy who also gets a prediction of Buddhahood. Even Devadatta. Yeah, he did the worst thing that you could possibly do, which is try to kill a Buddha.

[75:34]

It's like Angulimala. Like Angulimala. Yeah, right. So, we'll read Chapters 11 and 12 Thursday, and then on Monday, Tuesday I mean, we'll do 15 and 16, and maybe we'll just go that far this time, and I'll leave the rest to you to read on your own. I think that we've hit the important... We will have hit the important chapters, and I think thoroughly discussed the main issues, you know, that the sutra raises. Is that okay for tonight? May our intention... May our intention...

[76:16]

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