It's the 5th of August, 2006. We're at San Francisco Friends Center. Well it's very nice to be here, very nice indeed. I've had a couple of days here since I arrived and been splendidly well looked after and enjoying it. So this morning I hope to tell you a little bit about Dharma in some way or other. You might get some inkling of the style or tradition that I practice.

[01:06]

And then afterwards we can have, I gather some time for some questions in another hall, and we might take the conversation a bit. And we've got some young people here too, for a little while anyway. So I thought I might... I thought I might start by mentioning somebody who is, as it were, the founder of, or person who established purulent tradition in Japan, who was a monk called Honen Shonen. And so I thought I'd start by telling you that Honen was born in 1133, that's a long time ago, getting on for 900 years ago, nearly.

[02:14]

And he lived in a family in Japan and they were very difficult times. Some parts of the world today are having very difficult times. You imagine living in Iraq or somewhere at the moment. It's extremely difficult. It was a bit like that in Japan in those days. Honen was his ordained name, his dama name. But when he was a little boy, he was called Caishi Maru. is the name of a bodhisattva. The Sanskrit name is Mahasamabharata. But he was named for a bodhisattva. Perhaps some of you know what your names mean.

[03:15]

Like my name, the name I was given when I was born, David. It means beloved. It's a Jewish name in origin. It means beloved, and particularly like the idea of beloved by God. Maybe that's had some influence on how my life has gone. Saishi Maru, named after a bodhisattva, it's a lot to live up to, isn't it? Anyway, when he was about 10 years old, anyone here 10? I think we're a little bit younger than 10, aren't we? When he was 10, he came home one day and found that his father had been wounded. His father had come home a little earlier and been shot by a man with an arrow.

[04:19]

And so he came in. You can imagine a little boy coming into the home, finding his father lying there. very seriously wounded. Father was dying, in fact. And in those days, they had many feuds. All the troubles were very much feuds. If somebody did something bad to your family, it was your duty to go out and get revenge. And Saishi Maru, went in and saw his father and of course was very distressed. And the father called him over and said to him, I don't want you to go for revenge. I want you to go and learn dharma. Because if you learn about Buddhism, you can bring all this fighting to an end.

[05:24]

But instead of going out and making more fighting, more killing, more strife. You know? You can become somebody who brings some of that fighting to an end. This is what Saishi Maru was told when he was 10. It's a big job. You know? So he was left without a daddy and he went to see his uncle who lived not very far away. And the uncle was the Buddhist priest in a small temple. Probably not as big as this temple, the little temple. And the uncle took him in.

[06:29]

He needed somewhere to live. And little Sai Shimmeru lived in the temple and learned things from his uncle. And after he'd been there about a year, the uncle was thinking, this is a very smart little boy. You know, he learns everything very fast. He's got the right sort of attitude. He's very kind to animals. He's helpful around the place. He's a great kid. And the uncle started to think, maybe this little boy's meant for bigger things. So he made some inquiries and then made arrangements to send Saishimaru up to Mount Iei.

[07:36]

Mount Iei was at that time like the holy mountain in Japan. That's where all the big temples were. I've been there. There's still lots of temples there today. It's just outside Kyoto. Nowadays you'd go up on a bus. But in those days, you'd have walked. So it was quite a journey. And he was taken into one of the big temples there. And the tradition in those days was that you did 12 years training as monk on Mount Yehe. And... Little Sai Shimmeru in due course got bigger and he was ordained and got a Dhamma name. So he started to be called Honen, again called Honen.

[08:39]

And he went to practice in a particular little temple further over on the mountain in one of the more remote spots where they had a particular sort of practice that involved a lot of chanting. And Honan studied this practice, and then various other things happened in his life after that, which I'll perhaps talk about in a few minutes. And I thought it was quite interesting to look at how the influence of childhood events Very big, what we're called, what happens to us, what falls out around us. Many things that we can't necessarily control. As parents nowadays we try and, probably like parents always, we try and keep our children safe.

[09:45]

We try and do all the right things for them. But we can't control everything. Impermanence. comes into our lives. Things change abruptly, unexpectedly. How do we handle those things? The way Conan's father handled his own assassination made a huge difference to his son. But of course it also made a huge difference to the world. I probably wouldn't be practicing the tradition I'm practicing if that little event hadn't happened. Also, it's worth reflecting on the power of just letting something pass by. You know, Conan didn't go out.

[10:48]

Sai Shemaru didn't go out looking for vengeance. He let that go. Many, many, many years later, after a number of other things had transpired, the man who shot the arrow became a disciple of Honen Shonen. He had a great change of heart for what he'd done, what had happened. I've always had the sense that Buddhism's about Really. It's about change of path. I forgot to tell you, you can invite someone. They can go out and play. They can go when they like. Yes, if you little people want to go out and play, that's fine. Whatever is the custom here.

[11:51]

Custom of the house. When in Rome. So it's up to you. If you want to go out and play, that's fine. Anyway. Ponen continued to study on Mount Hiei. He didn't just study one school of Buddhism. In those days, he would study the whole range. Ponen became very learned, scholarly, accomplished. He could do all the different practices.

[12:53]

He knew all the different teachings. On many occasions later in his life, when he gave teachings in other temples from other denominations, often rather to the amazement of the audience. So he was well known for this sort of thing. He was known as a great scholar, saintly man, accomplished in many practices and so on. But in himself, he felt still inwardly troubled. He'd read the scriptures, sutras. He saw the standard they demanded. You read like the ten bodhisattva stages. What is demanded is enormous. And he felt, I don't match up.

[13:55]

Even though everybody thought he was. the great person in the country, really, you know, the exemplary monk. And he reasoned, if I, who do seem to be, I, Honan, who do seem to be strangely gifted, you know, more intelligent than most of the folk around, if I with that gift, and with these blessings, living on Mount Yei, the center for religious study in the whole country, the best libraries, the best teachers, the best practice facilities, everything. If I am not making the grade, what hope is there for the great mass of people?

[14:59]

who live out there in the world doing, well nowadays we talk about nine to five jobs, but in those days they worked rather long. And in Japan it was a caste society. So if you were born to be a fisherman, you were a fisherman. You didn't go out and catch fish, well, you weren't doing your duty and someone would come along and probably take off your head. But the Buddhist Sutras said, people who killed fish have got a rather bad karmic outlook. All this troubled Onan immensely. So, this is worth reflecting on, you know, how a person looks on the outside. and how they feel on the inside, they're not necessarily the same.

[16:03]

A person who looks like a saint doesn't necessarily feel like a saint. Of course, well, it's the other way around too. A person who looks like a villain doesn't necessarily feel that way. But it was a struggle for Honan. When he was in his forties, Hernan came across some particular teachings by a Chinese sage called Chan Dao. And this sort of opened his eyes, you might say. It precipitated a great crisis in him. It was both encouraging and Shattering for him.

[17:16]

There are various Buddhist sutras, like the Kwan Chim, Contemplation Sutra, which contain passages in which there are varying sort of braids of people. I don't need to go into all the details in a talk like this, but basically you've got bad people, middling people, and good people. And at the top, of course, you've got very, very good people. And, of course, this was what Conan had been struggling with. You know, only the very, very, very, very good people, the ones who get enlightened, get into the pure land, get a better rebirth. et cetera, et cetera. Is there any hope for ordinary folk?

[18:20]

Now, generally, interpretations of these sort of sutras took that sort of form, this grading of setting out of like a ladder of accomplishment, was something that you had to sort of strive with. Climb your way up that ladder, when you go to the top, all would be well. And we still think a lot like that, don't we? A lot of Buddhism's like that. Quite often if you ask a Dharma question, you say, well, I've got this problem and it's like this and this is the difficulty. And the sort of answer you might get is, well, when you're a bit more enlightened or when you're a bit less dualistic or when your ego's a bit less strong, when you've practiced more, which is undoubtedly true. All will then be well. But what Honan found in Shandao's commentary on the Quan Ching was that the way that Shandao interpreted it was that the thing that struck Shandao

[19:33]

was in the Quan Ching's categorization, from good people through middling people to bad people to middling bad to very bad, bad, bad people. The Buddhists still love the bad ones just as much as they love the good ones. And if you think about Wouldn't be a Buddha if he didn't. If... A Buddha's a Buddha. Nyorai, we say in Japanese. The Buddha who comes. If Nyorai only comes for the good, good people, well, he must have a very easy life. But we don't come very often, if that's the case.

[20:35]

Because very few of us are in that category. This made a big impression on Hona, changed his life. In 1175 he descended from Mount Yei. started a new religious movement that became very popular. Pure Land became an established form of Buddhism in Japan. It went through some persecutions towards the end of his life. He was banished. Then he was forgiven and came back. But as with many of these sorts of things in history, the banishment proved counterproductive from the point of view of the people who banished him because sending his disciples to places of banishment all over Japan meant that Pure Land Buddhism spread all over Japan and became the largest denomination which it still is today in Japan.

[21:47]

There are more Pure Land Buddhists than anything else. Well, more Pure Land Buddhists than all the other denominations added together. It went like that. But I don't want to just give you a history lesson. I hope you'll learn Buddhist here in a Zen temple. I'm enjoying it very much. How do we meet across our traditions? Buddhism is like a big building with many rooms. Like this big building with many rooms. There's a Zen room on this side. There's a whole corridor of Tibetan rooms down there. There's a big hall over there. There's Theravada.

[22:49]

Many rooms. And here in the West, it's incredibly variegated. sort of on a west coast I don't know how many denominations of Buddhism there are here in San Francisco but there's getting over a hundred in Los Angeles and there are many there's fifty different Buddhist groups in London all different denominations so it's very varied how do we how do we talk to each other how do we reach each other where do we go what's the kind of or common point or interchange where we can all meet? What is it that's core to Buddhism? Some people might say, well, how about meditation? Big emphasis on meditation here in a Zen temple.

[23:53]

But not all Buddhist groups meditate. And certainly not all Buddhists meditate. I read an interesting article about somebody who'd done a survey of Theravadin monks in Thailand and found that over 80% of them didn't meditate. And being a Westerner, he then wrote, this shows what a degenerate state Buddhism's in in Thailand. Of course, Westerners know all about Buddhism and Thais don't, you know. It just has to be their religion. We tend to be like that. We assume that our standard must fit. Meditation is a very important part of Buddhism. But it's probably not like that meeting place. It's not like the hallway. In the building, all the different rooms, they all lead up the hallway. So what's in the hall?

[24:54]

What's in the front office? If we're going to meet each other, we've all got to go through the hall. So what's in the hall? I don't think in the hall you'll find any particular practice as such. No. The school I belong to does a lot of chanting. Well, virtually all Buddhists do chant, actually, in the Zen temple. We all chant. So chanting is a kind of common practice across the board. But I wouldn't say that's like a foundation of Buddhism. It's like, you know, Nearly all Christians pray, but that's not the foundation of Christianity. They pray because they believe in God and so on, and then the foundation will be somewhere there. Why do we meditate? Why do we chant? What's in the hallway? Where do we meet? This morning we had a community meeting here. Where do we meet?

[25:58]

Well, I guess the place we all meet as Buddhists is called refuge. All schools of Buddhism, we take refuge. We find a refuge. We take refuge in Buddha, Dharma, Sangha. Why do we need a refuge? When we take refuge, it's like a refugee. Refugee comes from a troubled place. I mentioned Iraq earlier. Say you're a refugee from Iraq. You want to go somewhere where it's a bit safer. We're looking for safety. From what? From our own karma. A person is not intrinsically good.

[27:08]

A person is not intrinsically bad. A person is a bundle of karma. The karma rolls on kind of inexorably. And if that was all there was to it, wouldn't we be rather like machines? We'd be kind of dead, really. Like would lead to like. Whatever your life had been like, that's how you'd be. I started psychology for a while, and of course, a lot of psychological explanations like that. You look at the person's background, you can say, oh yes, I can see why they're like that. But then, next door, there's somebody who had similar experiences who's different. It's never a sort of one-on-one thing, is it? So something else is going on. Karma alone is not the whole picture, not the whole thing.

[28:12]

So we go for refuge. We want refuge from just being the same old way over and over and over again, making the same old mistakes in new circumstances perhaps, but making the same If we go for refuge, we go looking for something that will be a refuge. Of course, ordinary folk who've never heard of Buddhism or religion or whatever, everybody in one sense or another goes for refuge. They may go for refuge to a better job or life in a new country or the relationship that they think will sort it all out for them or whatever. Everybody seeks refuge of some kind or another. So Buddhism is not kind of unique in saying go for refuge, but it's offering a particular refuge.

[29:23]

It's offering the refuge of Buddha, Dharma and Sangha in a way. derived from Buddha. Dharma is what Buddhas teach, reveal, point out. Sangha is the community that comes about as a result of the practice of that Dharma. So the root refuge really is Buddha. Why would we go to the Buddha? Well, basically because we're not Buddha. I go for refuge to something that's got what we haven't got. If we were Buddha, we wouldn't need it. If we were all sorted out, we wouldn't need help. Refuge is like saying help.

[30:27]

Refuge is like saying, I can't do it myself. I think The kind of realization, I can't do it all by myself. It's probably worth more than almost anything else. You know, it's a real treasure, that one. Quite painful, but very important. Now, of course, You know, a person may go for refuge because they realize that their life is quite a mess. They might be on one of those lower rungs in the Quan Ching. This is quite important.

[31:29]

See, it means that it's possible to be a bad Buddhist. The fact that one's a Buddhist does not mean one's a good Buddhist. In fact, if you're a really good Buddhist, you probably don't need to be a Buddhist. It's an almost contradiction of terms, you see? So, you know, there might be one or two tenth grade Bodhisattvas in this room. I don't know. I don't know you all. I wouldn't have the skill to diagnose anyway probably. But the odds are we're a room full of bad Buddhists. And I suppose one of the things I want to do is put in a word for bad Buddhists. There has to be a place in the scheme of things for bad Buddhists.

[32:37]

The Buddha gave his teaching specifically for bad Buddhists. For people who are Buddhists, people willing to take refuge, it's what makes you a Buddhist, willingness to take refuge. But accomplished? Not necessarily. We're all carrying loads of karma. There was an incident when Shinran, who was another great Pure Land teacher, one of his disciples said, Master, I'm utterly devoted to you. I'll do anything you say. Shinran said, go out and kill me a hundred people. I said, I can't do that. Shinran said, why not? I just couldn't do it. That's your karma, Shinran.

[33:44]

That's your karma. Some people could do it. Some people do do it. Somebody who does do it shows up. Does the Buddha say, go away? You're not good now. I think not. The whole point of Buddhism would be eliminated, wouldn't it? It dissolved away. It wouldn't mean anything anymore. What is frightening to me about Buddhism is that in the mind of your eye there is no condemnation. This is a religion utterly without judgment.

[34:56]

The grace of Buddha is unconditional. It doesn't matter what you have done. It doesn't matter who you are. It matters to take refuge. So when Honen Chonin was thinking about the Buddhism of his day, 800 years ago in Japan, he was quite troubled with that. A lot of it was kind of a status game. If you were aristographic and intellectual, belong to the right family, then you could get on in the Buddhist world. If you had the right ordinations and certificates, you could get on in the Buddhist world.

[36:03]

But what's that got to do with religion, he said. I don't know. What about the fishermen? What about the people downtown? What about the ordinary folk? There has to be something that can reach helped provide a gateway, connection between those people and Nyorai? How can the Buddha who comes, come to them? The answer has to be in that fundamental of Buddhism, refuge. So in Gulen, formally, we said, Our whole practice is Nenbutsu. I say Nenbutsu. Nen means like, Nenbutsu means like, listen to nyora, take refuge.

[37:08]

Formally it takes the form of chancing the name of the Buddha. Like you heard me doing when I was prostrating. We select the act of Calling the Buddha's name. Which is like the sentiment of refuge. Calling out. Buddha, Buddha. I can't do it myself. Help. Help. Please. This is what Nembutsu means. Takes a whole variety of different forms. All Buddhism has form. You know, it's been very nice for me. Sort of being here where there's so much emphasis on form, seeing how the forms... It's like an art, isn't it? An art. The kind of dramatization of the Dhamma. Wonderful. Like a big theater. This whole place is like a big theater.

[38:16]

People have their entrances and their exits. You know? It's very nice. I like it a lot. I spent most of July in France teaching this sort of stuff, teaching form. That's very good. But the important thing is what does it mean? What does it mean? You've got to have a form. It's just like you've got to have a language. Shakespeare wouldn't be much if he hadn't been literate. But on the other hand, you know, I mean, just studying what ink and pens and paper will do won't make you write like Shakespeare. You've got to do something with the form. There's got to be light meaning in the form. The form has got to be alive. So Buddhism is about bringing us to light. Karma just rolls on.

[39:18]

We're machines. We're dead. We are maras. We are Maras. We belong to Mara. We're just rolling along. Something alive, something unpredictable, something heart-changing has to come into our life for it to be meaningful. This is symbolized by refuge. And for us, in the Biolan tradition, we do this by calling the Buddha's name. So we do a lot of chanting. So in terms of like knowing, you know, probably I've noticed, you know, you get so into a form. Like, you know, here you make this gesture. So do we. So go on retreat. We've got a retreat center in France. So you spend all your time in the form, in the ambiance, absorbing.

[40:22]

the feeling of being a Buddhist community. Because being a community, making a community, is like a sort of collective act of refuge. But you do it. You work on that form together. And of course then, you know, you get a free day or something after a considerable retreat. You go into town and you're in a French cafe and the waiter brings you your coffee and you go... And he looks at you very strange. Well, we also, like we use the Nembutsu as our kind of, just like you use this. So whatever happens, Namo Amidabu. So somebody, you're at the table, somebody passes you the salt, Namo Amidabu. You spill your tea, oh, Namo Amidabu. You mop it up again. Life's like that. Everything in life is kind of punctuated with refuge.

[41:29]

Every moment. Whatever you do, take refuge. So like Noura is with you all the time. Whatever you do, Buddha comes. Buddha helps. because I can't do it myself. And we all have an idea of the good, the true, the beautiful, and so on. And we all resolve, most of us resolve, do what we think is good. I'm sure even great villains, they think they're doing what's good by their own light. in their own way, to their own extent, according to their karma. Each person is trying to do good. But we don't succeed. We make a good resolution. How long does it last?

[42:29]

Not very long. We might try and perfect mindfulness so that we are able to implement that resolution to be good or whatever 100% of the time. It does not work. Nobody achieves 100% mindfulness. We have lapses. The goodness is not kind of inherently in us. It's something we relate to. We relate to Buddha, to Nyora. Sometimes we hear him, sometimes we don't. Sometimes even when we do hear him, we do something else. None of it lives up to our own standard.

[43:38]

And our own standard is only our own attempt to interpret that intuition. Of what Nura wants. What the good really is. Buddha's intention. My goodness. My eyesight's not very good. I can't see clocks. How much longer do you want me to talk? Mind up? mind if we're going to meet one another as Buddhists we meet in refuge we meet in the light of your life that is like grace it can fill our life whatever our practice is

[44:45]

Whether our practice is Nembutsu, which is like a verbal form of refuge, or our practice is sitting. You know, it's very nice for me joining the sitting here. I've been pondering, you know, because they say, like, self-power and other power, and they say Zen's self-power and Golan's other power. But is sitting self-power? I didn't experience it so. Sitting with the community here, I felt Bathed in grace. That's all about. That's the Buddha who comes. That's the Buddha who fills our life. Whether we're good, bad or indifferent. Whether we can fold ourselves up like a pretzel. Or we can't. I can't anymore. I used to be very proud of my lotus posture. Then I got a tendon condition in my leg. Can't do it anymore. That's karma.

[45:47]

I'm very nice to be with you this morning. Share a little bit, just my feeling really, about what Buddhism is. I hardly really got on to telling you about this tradition or that tradition or what's in all those various rooms. But what matters is what's in the hallway. Where do we all meet? We meet in refuge. Namav.

[46:20]

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