Well, nice to see everybody this morning. In deciding what I was going to talk about this morning, I suggested to Greg and Linda that maybe... either talk about a koan or about, give a talk on the meal chant. And they say, oh, talk on the meal chant. So that's what I'm going to do. Zen Center of Meal Chant. has many wonderful teachings in it.

[01:03]

And there have been a variety of translations since we started chanting it almost 50 years ago. At first, we chanted it in Japanese. And then we chanted the transliteration And then there were a few more modifications as time went on. And this final version, which is chanted here at Zen Center, is more or less a literal translation from the Chinese. The translation we used to have was more, a freer translation of the Chinese from the Japanese. I like the Japanese language. The Japanese, our transliteration from the Japanese is a little better. It's a little less formal, and it speaks something about the languages.

[02:12]

Anyway, this is what we have, and it works. So the chant begins with talking about the various places where Shakyamuni Buddha was born, grew up, was born, enlightened, taught, and died. It says Buddha was born at Kapilabhasku, and he was enlightened at Magadha when he saw the morning star.

[03:17]

He taught at Baranasi, among other places, and entered Nibbana and Kushinagara. When Shakyamuni would have died, his passions were divided into eight stupas. And the eight stupas were commemorative places where he actualized his teaching. and his life. So the first part of this sutra, this real chant, acknowledges that this comes from Buddha's practice. And then, of course, we set out, after we chant this, we set out Buddha's bowls. So now we set out Buddha's bowls, and may we, with all living Vila, Beings realize the emptiness of the three wheels, giver, receiver, and gift.

[04:25]

The three wheels is kind of an interesting expression. Sometimes we talk about the two wheels of the Dharma. Two wheels of the Dharma are the spiritual wheel and the material wheel. When the spiritual wheel is turning, The material wheel is a support. So we have a kind of vortex to practice. In the history of Buddhism, the monks always lived making their food and their sustenance from the lay people. Yes? Is that this? Is that any different?

[05:31]

Is that better? Okay. Okay. So, since the monks lived after the generosity of the lay people, and their practice generated the contributions from the lay people. So, if a person, I remember Suzuki Roshi talking about this from time to time. If the monk is not practicing, he doesn't get fed. So, just later on, down a little bit, the Siksha mentions, does our practice, virtue and practice deserve this food?

[06:41]

Which is related to this paragraph. There's the giver, these are the three wheels, the giver, the receiver, and the gift. And it says, setting out Buddha's bowls, may we with all living beings, in the midst of all living beings actually, it's a nice way to say that. In the midst of all beings, everyone is surrounding this, the whole world is, this particular meal is surrounded by the whole world. we're sitting in the midst of this, the whole world watching us, so to speak. So, in the midst of Buddha, sitting on Buddha's bowls in the midst of all living beings, we should realize the emptiness of the three wheels, the giver, the receiver, and the gift. The emptiness means, although there is a giver, a receiver, and a gift, there is no receiver,

[07:49]

There's no giver and there's no gift, which means something is just given and forgotten. Just in the realm of generosity, we just give and forget. So there's pure generosity and tainted generosity. Pure generosity is just giving and forgetting. Tainted generosity is what do I get? from this when I give? What is my reward when I give? What's in it for me? So this is not real, this is generosity with a string or an attachment. So the emptiness of giver, receiver, and gift is pure generosity with no strings. And you don't even know why, necessarily.

[08:52]

Sometimes, walking down the street, there are a lot of people who are asking for money. And then sometimes you think, well, they're just going to use it for wine. But there's a request, and then there's a gift. And without thinking about what's this person going to use it for, It's simply a gift. So gift is giver, gift, receiver, and gift is just one circle with no taint. I don't know what this person's going to use it for. Maybe it's okay that they drink wine. Maybe it's okay that they smoke pot. Or whatever they do with it. People are rather miserable. And they find various ways to deal with their misery. And we may say, righteously, well, it wouldn't be better if we rehabilitated them.

[09:59]

Hope, go ahead. That's great. But in the meantime... So... give a receiver and give empty of any taint, pure generosity. And then the sutra goes on to say, in the midst of the three treasures, this is the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha. which verify our understanding, entrusting ourselves to the Sangha, we recite the names of Buddha. So, entrusting ourselves to the Sangha, you know, there's the Buddha, the Dharma, Buddha is the one who is the teacher.

[11:11]

The Dharma is that which is taught, practiced. And the Sangha, of course, is the community. But each one of us is Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. We embody our own community, our personal community, which we share with each other. Some people simply want to have a teacher, but they're not so interested in studying the Dharma or practicing and they're not particularly interested in the Sangha or the community. Some people are interested in the Dharma, which is practice or study, but they're not so much interested in the teacher, or they're not so much interested in the community. And some people are simply interested in the community, but they're interested in the Dharma or the teacher, and they just like to socialize.

[12:18]

And then we have various combinations. But a total practice is having a teacher practicing the Dharma and supporting the Sangha, and being supported by the Sangha. That's total practice. Those are the three legs of our kettle. If one leg is missing, then the kettle tends to fall over. So in the midst of the three treasures which verify our understanding, verifying our understanding is the sangha and the three treasures. Without that, we don't really know how to verify our understanding. So we go to the teacher for verification, we go to the dharma for verification, and the sangha also verifies us so that we don't get lost.

[13:23]

It's very easy. A lot of people think, to be a Buddhist, you should be a hermit. But hermit practice is very difficult because unless you're a very advanced person and the mountains and the trees verify you, that's very good. But you have to be selfless. totally selfless in order to have that kind of verification. So in the midst of the three treasures which verify our understanding, entrusting ourselves to the Sangha, we recite the names of Buddha. Vairocana Buddha, pure Dharmakaya. Locana Buddha, complete Sambhogakaya. Maitreya Buddha, Shakyamuni Buddha, Myriad Nirmana. So, actually, there are ten names of Buddha. These are the first three of the ten names of Buddha.

[14:25]

This is called the three bodies of Buddha. Dharmakaya, Sambhogakaya, and Vamanakaya. And each one is personified by a Buddha, a certain Buddha. The dharmakaya, the personification of the dharmakaya is vajrajana. Vajrajana Buddha is the Buddha which, a radiant light that sits in the middle of the universe, the center of the universe, and emits light or energy or energy. vitality to the universe. And this is what the meaning of the Dharmakaya. The Dharmakaya is what we call emptiness or Buddha nature or many other names, but it's indescribable.

[15:31]

This is the great potential which is the motivating factor of all life. Personified by this Buddha who sits in Zazen, and if we look at mandalas, the Tibetan mandalas, in the center of the universe, there's always Vairacana, and all these other Buddhas and Bodhisattvas are anjanths. So, Vairacana is radiant energy, radiant light, as total dynamic activity in stillness. And then activity emanates from the Dharma Gaya.

[16:36]

So this is fundamental. This is our basic nature. The three bodies of Buddha There's really only one. But Buddha is divided into three. This is kind of like the Buddhist trinity. It was described in one commentary as three people lie down in one bed. So the three bodies of Buddha, actually our own body, as well as the body of the universe. I'm going to talk about The nirmanakaya, which is the third one, before I talk about the samdhogakaya, which is the second one. The nirmanakaya is like the personification of a Buddha. The body and the mind that is born into the world and mocks and talks and does all these things.

[17:39]

And we say, this is me. And since each one of us has the potential of actualizing our Buddha nature, we are also near Mauna Kaya when we have realization. So the absolute and the relative, this is called the transformation body. Our body language is continually transforming in the world of transformations. So the dharmakaya is very still and imminent. And the dharmakaya is always moving and changing. But they're two aspects of the same thing, of the same body. Sambhogakaya is called the wisdom body. It's called various things, called the enjoyment body sometimes.

[18:41]

But Sambhogakaya Buddha has two faces. One face faces the dharmakaya, and the other face faces the demonakaya. So the sambhogakaya is actually, when we say we are Buddha, we have Buddha nature, we're actually talking about sambhogakaya. It's called our wisdom. Just this very kind of complex teaching. a long time ago, but the sixth ancestor of Zen in China characterized the three bodies as Dharmakaya is your basic nature, Sambhogakaya is your wisdom body, Mnemonakaya is your personal body, your transformation body. So we have these three characteristics of our Buddha nature.

[19:44]

Sambhogakaya is receives from the dharmakaya and transmits to mnemonikaya. It's kind of in between. And it personifies Buddha's wisdom. So when we practice and express our understanding through our practice, Sambhogakaya Buddha. We should be careful not to think of these celestial Buddhas as outside of ourself. But within us, this nomenclature is actually talking about ourself. So how can I, where is my Dharmakaya? Where is my Sambhogakaya? Where is my Mnemonakaya? So those are the three bodies.

[20:51]

And actually, each one of us, when we practice, each one of us is Shakyamuni Buddha. In the original Japanese transliteration, instead of saying, Shakyamuni Buddha, Mary of Nimanakaya, Mary of Nimanakaya is right, but it said... the innumerable Shakyamuni Buddhas all over the world. Which means all of us who are practicing. And then Maitreya Buddha is the next Buddha. Maitreya, of course, is the future Buddha. Maitreya means loving kindness. This is the Buddha which will bring peace and love into the world 10 million years from now. Or who knows when. Actually, we're... Maitreya Buddha. And at the right time, we will be reborn as ourself.

[21:58]

And we will usher in our own redemption, or our own saving of ourself in the world. Each one of us is Maitreya, has that potential. And so Maitreya Buddha, you know, People have been very fooled by messiahs all over the world in time. But we, in Zen, in Buddhism, and especially in Zen, we find our own salvation. So in that sense, my friend of Buddha is sitting up here in two sheets of heaven, someplace, waiting to descend. So please call to me. near Maitreya Buddha. And then we pay homage to all Buddhas throughout time and space. Shakyamuni, of course, was the Buddha of this particular aeon.

[23:01]

But in the history of Buddhism, there's a mythology of innumerable Buddha before Buddha. And there's a future that enumerates a number of them, maybe a thousand. They all have really wonderful names. And if you read the Lotus, there are a lot of Buddhas that come forth with some wonderful names. So this is kind of Buddhist mythology. But the mythology has some relationship to our own life. So the next one, the Lotus of the Wonder Wondrous Dharma Mahayana Sutra. That's the Lotus Sutra. The Lotus Sutra is a Mahayana Sutra which describes or elucidates the meaning of a Buddha's appearance in the world. Why does a Buddha appear in the world? Well, this describes the Mahayana ideal of saving all beings.

[24:10]

And then there's the Manjushri Bodhisattva. Then there are three Bodhisattvas who are honored in the meal chant. Manjushri, the Bodhisattva of great wisdom, Samantabhadra, the Bodhisattva of great activity, and Avalokiteshvara, the Bodhisattva of great compassion. Manjushri is called teacher of all the Buddhists. In other words... It's our own, Manjushri is our own personification of wisdom. When wisdom arises in us, this is Manjushri. When prajna arises, this is Manjushri. And when our practice, when we engage in practice, this is our Samadabhadra activity. And when we express our great compassion, this is our Avalokiteshvara, a great activity. And so then we have all honored ones, bodhisattvas, mahasattvas.

[25:22]

Mahasattvas are great beings. These are like the celestial bodhisattvas. And when we think about all the ten Buddhas, we think of them usually as mahasattvas, the great beings, which is true. But we shouldn't leave it there. These are not... Bodhisattva, Buddhism Bodhisattvas, outside of ourself. So in order to relate to this in a correct way, it's not something apart from ourself. I can't reiterate that more. Then it says, this morning meal of ten benefits nourishes us in our practice. Its rewards are boundless, filling us with ease and joy. So what are the ten benefits? Ten benefits are physical power.

[26:24]

From the meal, we gain physical power. And substantiality is kind of an interesting word. Substantiality. I think it makes us feel substantial. That's all I can think of. And then it promotes long life. pleasure, and it helps us to maintain pure practice, cleansing the body. If we eat the right kind of food, the food actually, as well as nourishing us, cleanses our body and settles the mind and the body and satisfies hunger and improves our health. So those are the 10 benefits of this meal. And then, of course, there's eating what is offered.

[27:25]

And then it says, the three virtues and six tastes of this meal are offered to Buddha and Sangha. May all beings in the universe be equally nourished. So the feeling of sharing a meal with everybody. So the six tastes... called Three Virtues. The three virtues are subtle, pure, and true order. Subtle means doing something slowly over a long period of time. Someone described subtle as if you boil water real fast, it cools off real fast. If you boil it very, very slowly, bringing the heat up very slowly, the heat lasts longer.

[28:32]

So if you're making tea and you boil the water real fast, the tea cools off more quickly. But if you boil the water very slowly, the quality of the water and its it creates a condition where the water goes off more slowly. So this is an example of a subtle virtue. Working slowly and deliberately rather than trying to rush things. I know they have an effect. So over a long period of time. And pure actually in Buddhism means non-dual. When we say pure practice or pure this or pure that, it's not, purity is not the opposite of impurity in this case.

[29:41]

Purity includes impurity. This is our understanding. Pure practice means practice of non-discrimination and non-duality. So to practice with everything without creating a judgment, although we do create judgments, we practice duality and non-duality. But pure practice means basically non-dual practice. In true order, we have a, in the old meal chant, we used to say the natural order of mind. Natural order of mind is the mind of wisdom. The mind of non-duality. And the mind of subtle activity. And then, three virtues and six tastes.

[30:50]

Six tastes are bitter, sour, sweet, hot, salty, and neutral. I'm trying to figure out what a neutral taste is. Well, I have two examples. One is tofu, which actually tastes good, but it's neutral, and it takes on the taste of whatever it's conditioned by. And then the other one is poi. If you've ever been in Hawaii, Poi is a favorite of the Hawaiians. There's a saying, the food of the gods tastes like nothing at all to ordinary humans. This point, it's anti-taste, according to me. I couldn't understand what it tasted like, but I think it's maybe neutral, like tofu.

[31:51]

So then it says we reflect on the effort that brought us this food and consider how it comes to it. We used to say rice soup comes to us through 72 labors. That's the Japanese. Then we modified that to immemorable labors brought us this food. And now we say We reflect on the effort that brought us this food and consider how it comes to us. So when we think about all the effort that goes into bringing us one carrot or one peach or all the effort that goes into raising animals and the chain of nourishment, that's wasted and so forth.

[32:56]

So what's really interesting and an enormous study is because it's an endless chain. It's actually quite endless. You may think, well, it starts with the ground, but it starts far beyond the ground. Everything in the universe is contributing to making this one carrot. And then we reflect on our virtue and practice and whether we're worthy of this offering. This relates to what I was talking about before. So this is a monk's question because the monk is totally dependent on an offering and whether or not the offering is dependent on their virtue. People will give the monk something to eat maybe. even if he's not virtuous. Basically, that's the symbiotic relationship between monks and lay people.

[34:05]

The lay people support the monks so that the monks can create an atmosphere of wisdom for the benefit of the people. So then we regard greed as an obstacle to freedom of mind. That's an interesting statement because our mind gets caught by our greed. Greed is maybe the most considered the biggest obstacle to freedom because what it is that we get... Greed means being caught by something. We feel that greed means I need something. But yes, when we need something, we get caught by what it is that we need. So greed is clamping on, but what we clamp on has us.

[35:10]

You may think, well, this is my hand, and I can just clamp it and let it go. But I can't. When you have an addiction, even though we think, well, I just let it go. We can't. Because our greed is an attachment. So, attachments are the cause of our suffering. And in Buddha's Dharma, greed is the most fernicious. So, we regard this meal as medicine. Monks eat two meals a day, actually one, but if they worked, they ate two. And if they're American, they ate three. Japanese, three meals a day, too. But in India, they only ate one. China, they only ate one. The second meal, or the third meal, is called medicine meal. I had a teacher who was in India, and he practiced in India a little bit.

[36:22]

The meal, they might only eat one meal a day, but the rest of the time, they talk about food all day long. But the third meal is called medicine meal. But anyway, it's like we don't eat it just for enjoyment, or just, you know, although we do. But basically, it... in order to practice. So for the sake of enlightenment, we now receive this food. We eat this food in order to practice. So it has a purpose in that way. Then it says, the leader says at lunch, oh spirits, we now give you an offering.

[37:25]

This food is for all of you in the ten directions. I'll talk about the spirits in a moment. And then, it began to say, first, this offering is for the three treasures. Next is for all the four benefactors. What happens is, during the meal, there's a collection of food for the little bit of rice you put on the end of your stick. And the silver comes around and collects it, of course, you all know this. And it's an offering for the hungry ghosts, for the spirits. So first, this is for the three treasures, Buddha, Dharma, Sangha. Next, for the four benefactors. The four benefactors are... Our teachers, our parents, our nation, and all beings. In case you didn't know that.

[38:29]

And it could be wrong, but I think it's right. And finally, for the beings in the sixth realm, they all be nourished. So, we don't have a lot of time, but I want to talk about the six realms, which you probably know about. If you look at the Tibetan mandala, You see that there's a wheel. The hub of the wheel. There is a little, there's three characters, a chicken, a snake, and a pig. And the chicken, the snake, and the pig represent greed, ill will, and delusion. And this is what the whole wheel turns on. Greed, ill will, and delusion. And then there are the six The wheel itself is six spokes. The heavenly realm, the fighting demon realm, the animal realm, the hell realm, the hungry ghost realm, the human realm.

[39:35]

So these are the characteristics of our karmic life. And then on the outside of the wheel is the tire. The tire is the 12-fold links of causation, which lead to suffering or emancipation, depending on how you look at it. So... Shakyamuni Buddha was born into the heavenly realm. His father... wouldn't let him see any earthly problems and just kept him in this kind of buoyant, wonderful, delusional land of happiness. And when one is in that land of happiness where everything is, their whole life is pampered and catered to, they don't think about necessarily about that.

[40:48]

the rest of the world, the reality of the world, of their life. So when Shakyamuni left, went outside finally, and he saw a sick person, an old person, a dead person, and a monk, he had to leave home and find out what that was all about. So the sixth world, he went and descended into the sixth world from his happy home in the clouds. And So the fighting demon world is people who are always creating conflicts, wars and conflicts are happy doing that. And then the animal realm is when we are simply eating and having sex and satisfying our bodily needs without consideration, we become a kind of animal. in that sense.

[41:48]

And then the hell realm, of course, is where you suffer without recompense. And then there's the ngaki realm. The hungry ghosts, whose throats are so narrow and their appetites are so big that when they eat, they can't follow what they eat. So they're always needing more and more. This is the realm of desire. We're always needing more and more, but we can't really digest it. And then there's the human realm. So the human realm is the realm that we're actually trying to find how to be a real human being. What is the meaning of being a real human being? In each realm, there's a bodhisattva. The bodhisattva is our bodhisattva nature, which is obscured by these various realms, which we transmigrate through every day.

[43:03]

And the bodhisattva is waiting there to be awakened. And when we finally get to a certain place, the bodhisattva in each realm comes forth. and leads us to the human realm. So the heavenly realm is not a place to stay. The hell realm is not a place to stay. None of these realms are a place to stay. They're realms that we transmigrate through daily. Not necessarily every day, but it's our life in this world. Sometimes we're fighting demons. When somebody makes us angry, revenge. dominates us, anger, rage, and so forth, we become a fighting demon. Or we become an animal, like animal characteristics. And we get caught by greed or delusion in the singular world of these. And then we say that hell is just another place for Bodhisattva to practice.

[44:10]

And we're practicing there a lot. We don't avoid that world. So when this transformation takes place of the bodhisattvas in these realms leading it to our true humanity, then the greed, hate, and delusion is transformed as if the hub of the wheel transforms into loving kindness, compassion, and generosity. And then the whole world turns on that axis. So that's our effort, is to have the wheel turn on the axis of

[45:12]

loving, kindness, compassion, and generosity. If the world turns on that, which, I don't know. So then, we say at the end, the water with which we wash our bowls tastes like ambrosia. Ambrosia, may we offer it to the many spirits. We used to say, so they can be satisfied. And then we say, abiding in this ephemeral world like a lotus in muddy water, the mind is pure and goes beyond. That's what the Buddha used to say. Maybe we exist in muddy water, purely like a lotus. I kind of missed that one. But we got very used to saying that. And it's like, yeah, we live in this muddy water. A lotus has to live in the mud. it rises above the mud and flowers.

[46:17]

And also it exists like a, when there's a fire around a lotus blossom, it glows rather than burns up. And so we say, lotus in the sea of fire. Thich Nhat Hanh's first book was called Lotus in the Sea of Fire. So this is like, how we practice. We practice like a lotus in muddy water. You need the muddy water in order to flourish. We don't try to escape from it. But this says, abiding in this ephemeral world like a lotus in muddy water, which is the same thing, the mind is pure and goes beyond. Pure meaning not separate.

[47:19]

And at the same time, it goes beyond. The roots are in the mud, and the flowers go beyond. I usually like to have dialogue with people when I give a talk, but I will do it if you want to come in the community room. I mean, in the dining room. You know, I hope it is a game soon.

[48:10]

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