This podcast is offered by the San Francisco Zen Center on the web at www.sfzc.org. Our public programs are made possible by donations from people like you. I didn't finish the story yesterday about Pukasati. The bell rang for the kitchen to leave and I thought maybe it'd be nice to stop so they don't miss the end of the story. Also, I'd like to apologize for remembering, well, I don't exactly apologize for remembering, but for telling the story that I remembered incorrectly. I mixed up Pukkasati with another great disciple of Buddha named Bahiya,

[01:00]

And part of the reason I mixed them up is because at the conclusion of both of their meetings with the Buddha and both of their enlightenment with the Buddha, both of them were killed the same day by cows. So I mixed them up. So what I told you about Pukkasati's background, was really the background for Bahia. Pukasati had been the king of Pali-shika. No. Pali-ka-shika. And he had a friendship with King Bimbisara. and they were exchanging gifts, and King Bimbisara sent him a golden plate, and on the plate was inscribed a description of the triple treasure and some other aspects of dharma.

[02:16]

And when the king Pukasati read the inscription, he was filled with joy and renounced the world. And without formal ordination, he shaved his head, put on yellow robes, and left the palace, intending to go and meet Shakyamuni Buddha, who at that time was in... I misremembered where he was. I thought he was in Bhashali or... Paranasi, but actually he was in Savati. Savati is about 300 miles from Raja Griha. And so Pukasati is going to Raja Griha to meet the Buddha, which is one of the main places Buddha taught.

[03:21]

Vulture Peak is near Raja Griha. So the Buddha with his clairvoyant knowledge, saw that Bhukasati was coming to meet him and also saw that Bhukasati had great capacity for the practice and the fruits. So he went to meet him, walking on foot for 300 miles. And the Buddha, concealed his marks and pretended by this concealment to be an ordinary wandering monk. And then Bhukhsati arrived in Graja Griha a little ahead of him.

[04:30]

went to the potter's shed and the Buddha the Buddha went to the potter's shed too or went to the potter and when he met the potter the potter addressed him as venerable sir and the venerable pretending Buddha, asked if he could stay there, and the Buddha said, yes, if it's okay with the wandering monk who's already there. And so the Buddha went to the Buddha and said, may I stay here with you? And the Bhukasati said, yes, friend, you can stay here, there's plenty of room. He addressed him as a little kind of kind of familiar familiar friend rather than venerable sir and then they sat together most of the night and then the Buddha asked him like I told you yesterday who's your teacher and Bhukisati said Gautama Buddha and I'm going to meet him I never met him but I'm going to meet him

[06:03]

So then the Buddha thought that this person was... He still thought this person had great capacities, so he thought maybe he'd like to hear Dharma, so he offered it to him. And Pukasati said, fine. He gave this discourse, and Pukasati... After listening to the discourse, Pukasati thought, indeed, the teacher has come to me. The sublime one has come to me. The fully enlightened one has come to me. Then he rose from his seat, arranged his robe, his upper robe, over one shoulder. We still wear our robes this way, over one shoulder. Before, they didn't necessarily walk around with over one shoulder. They walked around with the robe over both shoulders. But as a sign of respect, if you meet your teacher, you bare one shoulder, you bare your right shoulder and put the robe just over your left shoulder.

[07:17]

So he did that in acknowledgment of finally meeting his teacher. And then he prostrated himself with his head at Gautama's feet. And he said, Venerable Sir, a transgression, overcame me. In that, like a fool, confused and blundering, I presumed to address the Blessed One, the Bhagavan, as friend. Venerable Sir, may the Bhagavan, the Blessed One, forgive me for this. transgression seen as such for the sake of restraint in the future. This seen as such a mistake, a transgression seen as such.

[08:24]

then the Buddha said, surely, monk, transgression overcame you. But since you see your transgression as such and make amends in accord with Dharma, we forgive you. For it is a growth in the noble one's discipline, when one sees one's transgressions as such and makes amends in accordance with dharma for the sake of restraint in the future. This, to see a mistake as a mistake, is a... is a term which Suzuki Rishi translated in English as one continuous mistake, which is, I think, a wonderful idea.

[09:43]

But the other meaning of it is a mistake which you see as a mistake and you make the best of it. You do something good with the mistake. You recognize it as such, you confess it, and you're transformed by that. So here is this nice example of this. And then Pukasati says, I would like to take refuge in you with the Buddha. I would like to become fully admitted to your training group. And the Buddha said, do you have the requisites of bowl and robe? And Bhukasati said, no, I do not. And the Buddha said, I do not admit people to the order unless they have the bull and the robe. So if you go get the bull and robe and come back, I will admit you.

[10:45]

And in the chapter of the Shobo Genzo by Dogen, discussing leaving home and entering, receiving the precepts and entering the priest's training he says the same thing we must have the robe and the bowl and you can't borrow somebody else's for the ceremony so he went to get the robe and bowl that day and that same day he was killed by a stray cow and people came to Buddha and said well what happened to this this person who we saw And Buddha said, don't worry about him. Although he died, he is now living in the pure abode and he will attain liberation and peace without being reborn.

[11:48]

So this is a story which I see as a story of Buddha First of all, Buddha pretending to be a constructed thing, a human being, pretending to have 32 marks of a great person. When the Buddha is in the great assembly, the Buddha appears as the great teacher. This is a false picture of Buddha, but it encourages people to see... somebody with these 32 marks. Some of us might actually be horrified if we saw somebody with a big bulge in the top of his head and a white curl in the middle of his forehead and webbed feet and hands and dharma wheels on his palms and feet. But in India people were, I guess, really inspired by this. So Buddha put on this outfit.

[12:58]

you know, like Iron Man and Batman and Supergirl and, you know, Marilyn Monroe. People put on these outfits and it inspires people. I don't know if Marilyn inspired people to practice virtue, but the Buddha did. And that's, this is the, oh, and also I said yesterday, I'm sorry, I'm not a mistake, I think. I said, the Buddha is not always pretending. But actually, the Sandhya Nirmachana Sutra says that the revelation of the transformation body is constant. The Buddha is constantly pretending to be various manifestations. The Dharmakaya is not pretending. It is constantly not pretending. The true body, the non-fictitious body of the Buddha, is never pretending.

[14:07]

But also it's inconceivable. But it emanates conceivable manifestations. And these manifestations are constantly happening. So the Buddha is constantly offering pretend Buddhas in order to make an impression of bond beings such that they will be able to generate virtue and wisdom. And again, like I said last time, I heard Siddha Krishin gets up and he pretends, he pretends, I'm an ordinary person, I'm not enlightened. Then he pretends the next week to be Buddha. This week I'm Buddha. This week I'm not enlightened. This week I've got the flu. This is all motivated by compassion, of course.

[15:12]

And I remember, too, when I was thinking of this, came back the time I went to Oregon with him and he had this gallbladder attack. And then we came back to San Francisco. And when we got off the plane, his wife, Oxon, and Yvonne Rand were waiting at the gate. You could wait at the gate in those days. And they had a wheelchair. And he said to me, I'm not going to sit in that. And here's the secret punchline. I'm a Zen master. And I kind of, in a way, I felt sorry for him when he said that. Kind of like, oh, you sort of have to be strong because you're a Zen master.

[16:17]

But I thought he was just pretending. Pretending to be a Zen master. Which is fine with me. I like the way he did it. Then we went home to the Zen Center, 300-page street. He went upstairs. He contacted a doctor, and the doctor said, come to the hospital. But that time, we carried him out on a stretcher. He didn't say, I'm not going to get on the stretcher. I'm a Zen master. Then he pretended to be a sick person. Today's 12-10-10. And I almost always remember on 12-10 that on 12-10, 1968, I went to his office in the afternoon after work and I asked him if I could come here for the practice period which he was going to lead.

[17:35]

And he said, okay. I wondered how it would be to open that door. Would you open it and see how it is, director, venerable director? open that one and see what happens. Sorry, Mio Yu.

[18:41]

You can come and sit here. Could you open the other one now, please? You can come and sit here if you can't see me. The ancient teacher, Nanue, said if you're studying seated Buddha Buddha is no fixed mark. Another translation is, in practicing seated Buddha, Buddha has no fixed mark. And then the other one is, when you are learning seated Buddha, Buddha is beyond any set form.

[19:52]

So I thought that was getting a nice difference. One says, Buddha is what Buddha is. Buddha is no fixed mark. Not only does a Buddha who doesn't have marks, that's what a Buddha is. Buddha is no fixed mark. And this is for people studying seated Buddha. Maybe for other people, Buddha is a fixed mark. Maybe if you're studying giving, and precepts and patience and maybe diligence. If you're studying them, maybe then it's good for you to have a Buddha who is a fixed mark, who has a nice story and who has 32 marks.

[20:54]

So when the Buddha suggests to you to practice giving, you say, oh, totally, I'm with the program. But to practice Seated Buddha, you're moving in now to practicing concentration and wisdom in union. Now you're practicing wisdom. This is a teaching of ultimate truth. This is the practice of ultimate truth. Seated Buddha. So if you're practicing Seated Buddha, then the Buddha is no fixed form. So I would say... in order to be able to practice seated Buddha, the Buddha needs to be no fixed form. Otherwise we won't be able to. And then the great ancestor gives more explanation for this.

[21:59]

He says, the reason that Buddha... is one or two Buddhas, is that Buddha adorns himself with no fixed mark. Now, again, there's a difference in translation. The reason that sitting Buddha is neither singular nor plural is that the sitting Buddha is adorned with no fixed form. one. The reason that sitting Buddha appears as one Buddha and then a second Buddha is that it Buddha is adorned with no set form.

[23:01]

Saying here that Buddha is no fixed form Nanyue is describing the form of Buddha saying that Buddha is no fixed mark that's how Nanyue describes the mark of Buddha when you're practicing sitting if you're practicing sitting Buddha you're practicing no fixed mark. You work on your posture, you do the ceremony of sitting upright wholeheartedly with the understanding that the mark of this sitting posture is no fixed mark.

[24:10]

Since... Since Buddha is a Buddha of no fixed mark, the seated Buddha is difficult to avoid. That sounds like good news to me. If the Buddha is a fixed mark, it's easy to avoid that Buddha. Or anyway, easier. Many of us, I think, have been able to avoid Buddhas of fixed marks. The fixed-mark Buddhas, some people have never even seen a fixed-mark Buddha. They're saying, where are the Buddhas? In other words, I don't see any fixed-mark Buddhas. We don't have fixed-mark Buddhas in this practice. We have no fixed-mark Buddhas. And those are hard to avoid. Difficult to avoid, this translation says.

[25:13]

The other ones are a little different. Same meaning, but a little bit different. As Buddha has no fixed form, there is no escape from sitting Buddha. Isn't that nice? You can't escape from the sitting Buddha. Even if you don't want to practice sitting Buddha, you cannot escape it because the no fixed Buddha cannot be escaped. Adorned with Buddha's no fixed form, the practice of zazen is itself the practice of sitting Buddha. Our zazen is just a little, what do you call it, a little form that we work with, with varying degrees of wholeheartedness. But no matter how you work with it, because the Buddha's sitting has no fixed form, your practice is itself sitting Buddha.

[26:28]

However, you will not get that unless you wholeheartedly do this form. Because you won't be at the place where you're doing this form. And the place where you're doing the form and the form you're doing is itself sitting Buddha. Always. But if you've got other business, you'll miss out. If I've got other business, I've got other business. Then what? Then sitting zazen dash sitting Buddha. Because of its being, because it is Buddha beyond any set form, it is utterly impossible to escape from sitting Buddha.

[27:31]

Because Buddha is adorned with no set mark, when you are learning sitting meditation, it is just sitting Buddha. Nanyue also said that in the in the Dharma of no abode, there should be no grasping or rejecting. And no grasping or rejecting goes quite nicely with this practice of the Buddha, which is no fixed mark.

[29:06]

In this Dharma of no abode, who would grasp or reject something as not a Buddha. In the abiding Dharma, which some of us sometimes slip into, we sometimes grasp somebody or something as Buddha. Like, Shakyamuni Buddha was like this. Or that doesn't sound like Shakyamuni Buddha to me. Some people, when they hear about Zen, they say, it doesn't sound like Buddhism to me. Or some Zen people, when they hear about another school of Buddhism, they say, that doesn't sound like Buddhism to me. In other words, I reject that as Buddha.

[30:10]

This is the Dharma. This is the abiding Dharma. This is the Dharma of abiding. That we reject something. as Buddha, or grasp something as Buddha. In the non-angripting, things are different. In the Dharma of no abode, who can discriminate Buddha from not Buddha? In the Dharma of no abode, who could have a preference or an aversion for not being a Buddha? a preference or a rejection for being a Buddha. Some people tell me, you know, say, I don't want to be a Buddha. Some people say, I want to be a Buddha.

[31:15]

But in this practice of the Dharma of non-abiding, how could you prefer being or not being a Buddha? In not preferring being or not being Buddha, you are practicing sitting Buddha, if you're practicing sitting. This is because sitting meditation has dropped off all grasping and rejecting that it is seated Buddha. It is because Zazen has dropped off all grasping and rejecting that it is seated Buddha. Falling away before discriminating sitting Buddha is sitting Buddha.

[32:22]

Because this sitting has dropped off before the moment of a preference or aversion, it is sitting Buddha. There is more instruction given by Nanyue to Matsu, but I kind of feel like, doesn't that kind of like... give you a lot to work with? You have a lot to work with here. No grasping or rejecting. That's a lot of nothing to work with. Just practice sitting, understanding that Buddha has no fixed mark, and that's sitting Buddha.

[33:28]

Just practice sitting with no rejection or grasping. And that's sitting Buddha. Buddha is no fixed form. Sitting Buddha is also no fixed form. Then sitting Buddha is Buddha.

[34:30]

But we must use the form of sitting Buddha. to practice sitting Buddha, which has no fixed form. Thank you for listening to this podcast offered by the San Francisco Zen Center. Our Dharma talks are offered free of charge, and this is made possible by the donations we receive. Your financial support helps us to continue to offer the Dharma. For more information, visit sscc.org and click giving.

[35:20]

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