Thanking my teacher, Sojin Mel Weitzman Roshi, the abbot of Berkeley Zen Center. I'd like to thank him for his teaching, his practice, and his encouragement. And I would like to say that my talk this morning is just to encourage you in your practice. That's all. I'm just here to encourage you in your practice this way. I know I'll try. So, happy 2009. It's not only, it's the first Dharma talk of the new year, and it's the first Saturday of January, so it's the kids program, yay! Kids program! So 2009 is kind of special, you know? Some of you maybe... have no memories whatsoever of the 20th century.

[01:00]

You may be telling your parents. Ah, jeez, Mom, that's so 20th century. Come on. 2009 is a very special year for me. For starters, my teacher, Sojin Roshi, will turn 80 this year. He'll be 80 years old in July. And he will also celebrate 40 years as an ordained Zen Buddhist priest. Additionally, there is in the library at Tazahara a copy of the Lotus Sutra That was, it's the first complete English translation, the H. Kern translation. Mr. Kern translated the Lotus Sutra in 1884. But this particular volume, the book itself, was printed in 1909.

[02:09]

And it's just sitting on the shelf in the library at Tassajara. It's going to be 100 years old. Homage to the Lotus Sutra. And the song I'm going to teach you this morning is 70 years old this year. This song, the kid program, yay, was written in 1939 by Josephine Judson Carringer, and it was a number one hit on the radio. When recorded by the Kay Kaiser Orchestra, and sung by Ishkebiddle. What you can't learn on the internet. So, I'm going to attempt to teach you this song.

[03:16]

It's pretty easy. I'll sing most of it, but I need help with the chorus. The song is in English, but the chorus is mostly in fish. So I have to teach you a little fish. Yeah, so I know you all know what song I'm talking about. It's Three Little Fishies, number one hit in 1939. And you're probably wondering what this has to do with Buddhism. We might sort that out later. We may not. Okay. Two cards, please. Thank you very much. Here we go. This is the chorus. It's in fish. Here, you can hold one. You want to hold one up? He wants to hold one up. It says, hold it up so that people can see it. Right?

[04:18]

Can anyone say that? Please. So even if the kids don't do this, I know all the adults will. That will be vastly amusing for the kids. So the chorus goes something like, And I swam and I swam all over the dam. See, some people know. Three little fishies in the little bitty pool. Yeah. So actually the last, hold it up so the people can see it now. Turn it around. The last line of each chorus is the last line of the preceding verse, right?

[05:19]

You get that, right? You're clever people, I know. Okay. Do we need to try the chorus one more time or are we down? We're down. We're down, okay. Here we go. Down in the meadow in a little bitty pool, swam three little fishies and a mama fishy too. Swim, said the mommy fishy, swim if you can. And they swam and they swam all over the dam. Boo, boo, didda, da, [...] da. And they swam and they swam all over the dam. Stop, said the mama fishy, or you will get lost. The three little fishies didn't want to get lost. The three little fishies went off on a spree. And they swam and they swam right out to the sea. And they swam and they swam right out to the sea.

[06:27]

We yelled, the little fishies, here's a lot of fun. We'll swim in the sea until the day is done. They swam and they swam and it was a lark. Till all of a sudden, they saw a shark. Till all of a sudden, they saw a shark. Help, cried the little fishies. Gee, look at all the whales. And quick as they could, they turned on their tails. And back to the pool in the meadow they swam. And they swam, and they swam, back You may have this as well.

[07:33]

In case they want to enjoy that song a little bit more. So now it's time for the little fishies. Oh, the moral. Sorry. Almost forgot. There is a moral to this song is that little fishies should listen to the mama fishies. That's true. At all times. Okay. Now it's time for the little fishies to swim back to the pool, which is somewhere over in the student lodge, I think. Yeah. Thank you very much. Happy New Year. Happy New Year to you. I was trying to think of all kinds of different slogans for the new year.

[08:44]

Like, let your Dharma lamp shine in 20-odd-9. I like that one. Please do that. Please, let your Dharma lamp shine in 20-odd-9. Or, I was also thinking, keep a long spine in 20-odd-9. You know, this is a body practice. This is, when you sit zazen, this is a body practice. This is yoga. In fact, if it helps, you can think of Zazen as a yoga class where you just do the same position for 40 minutes. True. True that. Let me see. A little while ago, I mentioned the Lotus Sutra, and I may mention it again later on in this talk. So I just want to say that The Lotus Sutra is the most self-referential of all Buddhist sutras.

[09:47]

A lot of the Lotus Sutra is just talking about the Lotus Sutra. And in the Lotus Sutra, it says, every time you mention the Lotus Sutra in public, you acquire a lot of merit. Just saying the name of it. Now, I'm kind of hazy on the whole concept of merit, actually. But I think it means something like good luck or... good opportunities or some well-being, possibly. And what we do in our tradition is we have to turn that merit over. We're always doing all kinds of things that generate a lot of merit. It's too much merit. We turn it over, dedicate the merit to somebody else. So every time I mention the Lotus Sutra in this talk, which has been quite a few times so far, I would like to dedicate, transfer that merit to the 7.2 million men and women who are incarcerated in correctional facilities in the United States.

[10:50]

Our country has the highest incarceration rate in this galaxy. I don't know about other galaxies, but on planet Earth, we're still number one in something. I was here last year in the beginning of 2008, the first Saturday morning in 2008, and it was quite crowded. Not quite as big a turnout as this morning, but pretty good turnout. Pretty good turnout. And I was like jammed somewhere over there sitting next to two people who were sitting quite close to each other. And one of them remarked, gee, it's crowded. I said, yeah. New Year's resolutions. So, I want to talk about New Year's resolutions, actually, and resolutions in general.

[11:55]

And how that relates to Buddhist practice. Start with, you know, the word resolution comes from resolve, which comes from all Zen teachers are into etymology. Notice, if you go to many Dharma talks, you get a little bit of etymology. So, resolve comes from the Latin root solver, S-O-L-V-E-R-E, which means to release, to let go. So that's a pretty distinctly Buddhist concept, actually. Let go of things. Let your resolution be about letting go of something. You know, not tightening up around it, but actually relaxing around it. Letting go. I have a New Year's resolution, actually.

[12:58]

It came to me when I was preparing for this talk. My New Year's resolution is to study Buddhism more. I want to let go of the idea that I'm not much of a scholar. When I study Buddhism, which preparing for a Dharma talk is a wonderful impetus, I'm just like, I get kind of overwhelmed at the amount of Buddhist knowledge, philosophy, practice, sutras, the sheer. And you know, I don't know what percentage of it has been translated into English so far. Not all of it. And there's just so much. Isaac Newton, the great scientist Isaac Newton, he said, and I'm not comparing myself to Isaac, okay, please.

[14:01]

But he said something that when I think about studying Buddhism, I think about this quote. He said towards the end of his life, I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself, I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me. That's the way I feel about studying Buddhism. However, I'll tell you something. just to stick one toe into the great ocean of Buddhism is to be soaking wet. That's a Zen thing.

[15:04]

So I'm not going to go into any further explanation. I also had kind of a New Year's resolution in 1996. And it wasn't like I didn't say, oh, I have a New Year's resolution and this is what it is. But at the beginning of 1996, it was like a little alarm clock went off inside me and said, you have to practice Zen. It was very interesting. Very, very interesting. Beginning of the year. And so I was living in East Oakland, and I looked around to see where I might practice some Zen. And that's how I found out about the Berkeley Zen Center. And that's how I met my teacher, Sojin Roshi. Now, it didn't just happen out of the clear blue sky.

[16:10]

Because actually, I'll tell you a little bit about my story, a little. Actually, I first came here to City Center when I was a teenager in 1975. I was 19 years old. And, you know, I used to sit in this Buddha hall and listen to Dharma talks. Zen Tatsu, Richard Baker, the second abbot of San Francisco Zen Center, was the abiding teacher. person I listen to the most, and being an impressionable teenager, I remember a lot of his talk. I remember a lot of what he said in his talks. And one thing I remember in particular, he said, was even if you stop practicing, you know, just quit.

[17:12]

You know, that was cool. I'm done. Later. Even if you stop practicing, there's still a little monk that lives inside you. That's so cute. And so kind of nonsensical. And so kind of true. And that's what I want to talk about today. I want to talk about pranidhana paramita. Pranidhana means vow. the practice of vow or aspiration. Generally, in Mahayana Buddhism, there are six paramitas. Paramita means perfection, the practice of the perfection. And they are considered the practices that bodhisattvas do. Bodhisattvas are great enlightening beings.

[18:15]

All of you are bodhisattvas, actually. Bodhisattvas in training. Bodhisattvas work tirelessly for the benefit of others. And the paramitas are the practices that bodhisattvas do. Dhanashila, Shanti, Virya, Jnana, Prajna. are the original six, which mean generosity, morality, patience, enthusiasm, zazen, or meditation, and wisdom. But it so happens that in another very important Mahayana Buddhist sutra called the Avatamsaka Sutra, the Flower Ornament Sutra, Very, very big sutra.

[19:17]

So big that some individual chapters are sutras unto themselves. So actually the 26th chapter of the Avatamsaka Sutra is sometimes called the Dasabhumika Sutra. It means the 10 stages, the 10 stages of bodhisattva training. And you see the number 10 in the Avatamsaka Sutra a lot. The reason being, when the Avatamsaka Sutra was being written, base 10 math was sweeping the Indian subcontinent. It was like the coolest thing. I mean, I think they had base 10 math, but there was just like this sort of quantum leap in knowledge, and they started getting into powers of 10 and algebra, and it was quite the phenomenon. It was like the internet, base 10 math, whoa. There's a whole chapter of the avatamsaka sutra that's just like getting into powers of ten, big numbers. So the number ten is very important in the avatamsaka sutra.

[20:20]

So they said, whoever, somebody must have thought, we can't settle on six paramitas. There have to be ten. So they added four more. Upaya, meaning skillful means. Pranidhana, meaning thou. bala, meaning spiritual powers, and nyanya, which means knowledge, study, my New Year's resolution. But I want to talk about pranidhana. Now, paramita, as a word, generally is translated as perfection, but it also comes from, the root meaning is like crossing over. We talk about, in Buddhism, we talk about crossing over to the other shore. Crossing over from the relative to the absolute. Practices that reconcile the relative and the absolute. Practices that promote our understanding, not just intellectual, but in our bodies of our interbeing, of our complete interconnectedness with all creation.

[21:38]

These are the practices that bodhisattvas do that promote that. Paramita means crossing over to the other shore. I was in St. Clinton prison talking to the guys there one time. I was talking about paramitas. And I said, you know, the meaning of this word is like crossing over, crossing over to the other shore. You know, how do you understand the other shore? And two guys, two guys went. pointed at the floor. I said, you mean right here, San Quentin State Prison? That's the other shore? They were like... So there's some fierce Zen practice going on. San Quentin, I just wanted to share that with you. And that's right. That's right. They were absolutely right. The other shore is right here and now for...

[22:41]

Nothing. That's absolutely right. My teacher, Sojan Roshi, he says, kind of, his view of the paramita, of crossing over, is one foot is in the relative and one foot is in the absolute. You're crossing over. But in the process of crossing over, you're actually on both shores at the same time. So, pranidhana. It's a little bit more than just a New Year's resolution. It's kind of the orientation of your whole life. What are your vows? Everybody has vows. Everybody has things that they're committed to, everybody.

[23:42]

I remember Baker Roshi saying, at one point he said, even alcoholics have things that they absolutely have to do every day. We all have commitments. So, you know, what are your commitments? What are your vows? It's a new you. Good time to examine this. Good time to turn it over. In Buddhism, we have a lot of vows. We have a lot of vows. In Mahayana Buddhism, which the Zen school is part of, most notably, we have the Bodhisattva vows. In fact, we repeat these Bodhisattva vows so often that sometimes they just like... forget.

[24:48]

Just rile it off, you know. Beings are numberless. I vow to save them. We're going to say it at the end of this talk. At the end of this talk, we'll be going, beings are numberless. I vow to save them. Delusions are inexhaustible. I vow to end them. Dharma gates are boundless. I vow to enter them. The Buddha's way is unsurpassable. I vow to become it. What the heck? How are you going to do that? Well, it's impossible. It's impossible. That's what Suzuki Roshi said, the founder of this temple. Suzuki Roshi said, these vows are impossible. And because they're impossible, we vow to do them. We vow to do them because they're impossible. That's where we go.

[25:52]

In fact, in Dharma talk he gave in 1967, he said, so as our if desires or people are innumerable and their desires is limitless, we should keep our effort to save them and to take care of them. So as long as this human life goes, our effort should go with it. Buddhism is not some teaching which should be accomplished by someone. That's my emphasis. Buddhism is not some teaching which should be accomplished by someone. Buddhism, it is necessary to study Buddhism forever. There is no complete Buddhism. So Buddhism is some teaching which needs limitless study. That is nature of Buddhism. So, you know, how do you do that? How do you work with that? Well, I will offer a little clue, a cue, an opening that a senior Dharma teacher, Zenke Blanche Hartman, gave us.

[27:07]

When we chant these bodhisattva vows at various times, Zenkei Roshi noticed, and isn't it nice that somebody is listening to how we chant? I just want to say thank you to her. She's not here. I don't see her, but anyway, I'm grateful that somebody's listening to how we chant. She noticed that we tend to go, beings are numberless. I vow to save them. Delusions are inexhaustible. I vow to end them. You get the picture. You're laughing, okay? And she said, please, could we maybe say, I vow, I vow. Less emphasis on the I and more emphasis on the vow. Oh, oh, that's a pretty good teaching. You know, there's a hidden teaching in there, isn't there? Yeah. Less emphasis on the I and more emphasis on the vow.

[28:13]

There is a vow body which has nothing to do with your ideas about who you are, actually. Now, this vow body can be nourished and supported, but it's not about you. And what a relief that is, you know? It doesn't always have to be about me. Thank goodness. You know, when you kind of get that in your body, it's just like, sort of take a deep breath. Wow, what a relief. Because it's the kids program today, because I was talking about vow, I wanted to say something. about Jizo Bosatsu.

[29:17]

This little statue here, this golden body here, this is Jizo Bosatsu. In Sanskrit, his name is Kshitikarva Bodhisattva. Kshitikarva means birth womb or birth store. He represents the earth. And in Japan, He's a really, really popular guy. And so I think I will call him Jizo. Jizo. Jizo Bozatsu. Jizo carries this staff called a shakujo. And the staff has got six rings on it. And when he walks, he hits the staff on the ground, and the rings go jingle, jingle, jingle. And... is to warn little animals to get out of the way so he won't accidentally step on little animals or hurt them.

[30:20]

So he kind of announces his presence by walking and hitting the staff on the ground and letting it jingle. And the shakujo has six rings on it. The rings represent the six realms of Buddha's cosmology, which are heaven, and the chalice gods, and the human realm, and the hungry ghosts, and the animal realm, and the hell realms. So Jizo Bosatsu goes to help beings in all those realms, but especially hell, actually, especially the hell realms, and especially children. Jizo looks after children. Children who've died young or in childbirth or miscarriages or abortions, especially is honored for that reason.

[31:23]

Also, also sort of Buddhist patron saint, if you will, of travelers and people in prison. there is this sutra of the past vows of Earth Store Bodhisattva. I think this is the only English translation of the whole sutra. There's so much of the Buddhist canon that has never been translated into English, but I believe this is the only translation. It was done by a committee of folks working with and for Xuantua, the Chinese Chan master. who were found at the Gold Mountain Monastery and the city of 10,000 Buddhas. In Sanskrit, the title of this sutra is Shittigarva Bodhisattva Paranidana Sutra. It's the sutra of the vows of Jizo, and also past vows, it says.

[32:26]

Jizo, basically, his main vow is to scourge the hells, scourge all the hell realms. to not rest until all the hells have been emptied. And he's noted for saying, if I don't go to hell to help them there, who will? Yeah. It's interesting. I was thinking about this and I recall learning as a teenager in medieval Europe the church used to sell indulgences. You ever heard of that? You could literally buy your way out of hell. Yeah. We don't do that anymore. These days we sell carbon offsets. Jizo, I want to share with you a little something that...

[33:35]

says in the introduction to this sutra he says past vows also mean fundamental vows vows that were made eons ago long ago in the distant past earth store bodhisattva vowed if the hells are not empty i will not become a buddha when living beings have all been saved i will attain to bodhi The hells cannot cease to exist until the karma and the afflictions of living beings have come to an end. And that can never happen because of the nature of living beings. Viewed in the light of modern science and philosophy, isn't Earth Store Bodhisattva's behavior irrational? Doesn't it mean that Earth Store Bodhisattva will never have the opportunity to become a Buddha? No, it does not mean that he cannot become a Buddha. And his vow is by no means irrational. In fact, his behavior is a manifestation of great compassion.

[34:39]

Actually, I think his vow is a little irrational. I think it's irrational as a parent's love for their child or a child's love for his mother and father. It's irrational like that. But this totally resonates with what Suzuki Roshi was getting at when he said, it's not some teaching which could be accomplished by someone. So the Lotus Sutra, preaches that we are all on the path. We all, all of us, everyone who is born in a human body is on a spiritual journey.

[35:45]

But whether they know it or not, whether they acknowledge it or not, we are all on a spiritual path. We are all bound inevitably for Anuttara Samyak Sambodhi, utmost purpose. and complete enlightenment. But that doesn't mean that we can just cruise. It takes great effort. It takes great vow. But it doesn't have to be about you. Practice and enlightenment arise together. Practice, practice, We're always talking about practice in Zen Center. That's the word you hear all the time. That's why. So, are you karmically implicated by being here today?

[36:47]

Should you worry because you went to Zazen instruction? Oh, no. My hair is going to fall out and I'm going to become... Not necessarily... No. Everyone has their practice. Suzuki Roshi said time and again, you're perfect just the way you are. Your practice is where it's at, where it's supposed to be at right now. He said in Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind, which was a series of talks that he gave to a group of ladies in Los Altos, If you sit zazen once a week, that might be just right for you. And I think for me, this, what, three days, I will have been at City Center for three years. And this is what I've come to really, really, really appreciate and love about City Center.

[37:52]

I have so much gratitude for this place, is this place meets people's practice just the way they are we're not asking anyone to commit to a 90-day practice period and you know wear black robes all the time come check it out if you're interested okay if not okay i got into a little trouble once that uh i'm kind of like a second strength teacher here uh which is cool. It's a cool place to be. Kind of a little frog in a big pond or a little fishy in a big pond, I guess, if you will. So I was talking at kind of a small sitting group, which is led by another teacher way out in the burps. And I got this feedback that I had said, well, you know, Zen practice may not be for you.

[38:55]

And someone took great umbrage at that. What? And the teacher came back to me and said, good for you. I'm glad you said that. You know, it may not be for you. You check it out. That was Buddha's advice to us on his death day. So check it out for yourself. You might start practicing because you have a New Year's resolution. You might start practicing because you'd like to get your life a little more in order. Or you might start practicing to improve your golf game. And, you know, Zen practice, meditation practice, very likely will help out in... all those things. It can be a great help.

[39:58]

But that kind of practice actually is not sustainable. If you think it is, check it out. That's my advice. Don't just take my word for it. Check it out. Practice golf, zen, and see how that works out. Ultimately, Our practice is for others. And what a relief that, you know, doesn't have to be about you. So I would like to finish with a little few words from our founding teacher, Dogen Zenji, from his sort of primer guidelines for studying the way. Some of his most accessible stuff. Guadelines for studying the way.

[41:02]

Number four is, you should not practice Buddhist teaching with the idea of gain. This is the last bit. All Buddha's compassion and sympathy for sentient beings are neither for their own sake nor for others. It is the nature of Buddha Dharma. Isn't it apparent that insects and animals nurture their offspring, exhausting themselves with painful labors, yet in the end have no reward when their offspring are grown? In this way, the compassion of small creatures for their offspring naturally resembles the thought of all Buddhas for sentient beings. The inconceivable Dharma of all Buddhas is not compassion alone, but compassion is the basis of the various teachings that appear universally. I love that. Compassion is the basis of the various teachings that appear universally. Sometimes I get tired of the word Buddhism.

[42:04]

Already we are children of the Buddhas. Why not follow their lead? Students, do not practice Buddha Dharma for your own sake. Do not practice Buddha Dharma for name and gain. Do not practice Buddha Dharma to attain blissful reward. Do not practice Buddhadharma to attain miraculous effects. Practice Buddhadharma solely for the sake of Buddhadharma. This is the way. This is the way. So that's about all I got to say this morning. My best advice for you is check it out for yourself. And, you know, maybe if you want help, you can call on Jizo Bosatsu. You can call on Jizo because he's always there to help.

[43:08]

He wants to help. Why does Jizo Bosatsu go to hell? Because he wants to. He wants to because he thought. Where am I needed the most? Where is Jizo Bosatsu right now? I think he's striding along purposefully with his Shakuto right into the Gaza Strip. There goes Jizo Bosatsu. Thank you very much.

[43:49]

@Transcribed_UNK
@Text_v005
@Score_90.55